Chapter 44 Chapter Forty-Three

A tank shell exploded, sending dirt and wood splinters across Kanya's head and face.They have already abandoned the office building of the Ministry of Environment.Kanya called it a retreat and was literally beaten off.She ran with all her strength, dodging the tanks and giant elephants that were chasing her. The reason they survived seems to be that the army was more interested in occupying the Ministry of Environment compound.Still, Kanya and her men encountered three assault teams on the south wall of the compound, and her men were cut off in the middle.Then, just as they were about to escape through the alternate exit, another tank came.The tank smashed through the gate, blocking their escape route.

She ordered her subordinates to disperse to hide in the woods around Phra Sewubu Monastery.Temples have been reduced to ruins, and well-tended gardens have been trampled by war mammoths.A firebomb struck the dry teak grove nearby, and the flames, screaming and roaring like angry devils, consumed the main structures of the temples, reducing their shelters to ash, stumps and smoke. Another tank shell landed on the hillside where they were hiding.More commandos bypassed the tanks, splitting into small groups and rampaging across the compound.It looked like they were going to the biology lab.Kanya wondered if Rattana was still working there, maybe she didn't even know about the big fight on the ground.Another tank shell exploded, and a tree beside her fell.

"They can't see us at all, but they seem to know where we are," Appie said.As if to echo his words, a swarm of Frisbees flew screechingly over their heads, embedded in the charred trunks, glinting silver on the black wood.Kanya signaled his men to continue to retreat.The white shirts—whose uniforms had been carefully daubed with black ash—jumped off toward the depths of the flickering woods. Another shell fell behind them.Fragments of burning teak flew through the air at high speed. "It's too dangerous." She got up and continued to run, and A Pai followed her closely.Hiroko passed them both from behind, hiding behind a fallen black log ahead, and waited for them to follow.

"Can you imagine fighting that thing?" Pai gasped. Kanya shook her head.The clockwork man has saved them twice.The first time, the movement of the shadows spotted the Stormtroopers groping towards them, and the second time Kanya was pinned to the ground, and a split second later, a large number of Frisbees flew past where her head had been.Clockwork Man's vision is very sharp, far better than Kanya's, and his speed is astonishingly fast.But Hiroko was not designed for this kind of tropical war environment after all. Her face has become very red, and her skin is dry and hot.They kept pouring water on her to try to cool her down, but she was dying.

When Kanya approached, Hiroko looked up and looked at her with hot eyes, "I need to drink something quickly, ice water." "We don't have ice water." "We must go to the river, then. Everything is all right. I must go back to Mr. Gibbon." "There's fighting everywhere along the river." Kanya heard from others that General Prachar was leading the battle near the embankment, fighting with his old friend, Admiral Ren of the Navy, trying to repel the landing operations. . Hiroko stretched out her hot hand, "I can't hold it anymore."

Kanya searched around, trying to find a way.There are corpses everywhere, more terrible than the plague.It was like a Shura field in hell.The bodies of men and women were torn apart by high-energy explosives, arms and legs torn from torsos, one leg dangling from a branch of a tree, swinging back and forth.Mountains of corpses were burning.The hiss of incendiary bombs, the clang of tank tracks came from every direction, and the burning coals gave off a great deal of exhaust. "I need to find the radio," she said. "The last person to hold it was Pichai." But Pichai was dead, and they couldn't be sure where the radio had gone.

We are not trained to deal with such things.Our job is to fight off rust and flu, not tanks and giant elephants. After a while, she finally found the radio in the hands of a dead man.She cranked the handle, trying the Ministry of the Environment code for discussing plague matters—not war.No response.In the end, she could only try to communicate with unencrypted voice: "This is Captain Kanya. Can anyone pick up my signal? Over." There was silence save for crackling and static.After waiting for a while, she repeated it again.repeat.Still no reply. Suddenly, "Captain? This is Lieutenant Abhichart."

She recognized the lieutenant's voice, "Hello? Where's General Pracha?" There was silence again, "We don't know." "You weren't with him?" Another pause. "We think he's dead." He coughed a few times. "They used poison gas." "Who is our most senior official now?" There was a long silence. "I think it's you, sir." She was so shocked that she could hardly speak, "Impossible. There are so many officials above me, where are they?" "We haven't heard from it." "Where is General Song?"

"He was assassinated at home. Generals Kamasa and Palin as well." "This is impossible!" "That's what the rumors say. Anyway, they never showed up, and when General Pracha heard the news, he believed it right away." "Are the other captains gone?" "Birom Burkadi is at the airship pad, but you can't see anything from that direction but the fire." "Where are you?" "In an expansion-era building off Praslin Road." "How many people are there on your side?" "About thirty." She looked at her men in dismay.Everyone carries wounds.Hiroko leaned against a dead, leafless banana tree, her face flushed like a Chinese lantern, her eyes tightly shut.Maybe the clockwork man is dead.At that moment, Kanya didn't know if she cared about the thing's life or death, or... her subordinates were all around her, watching her.Kanya saw their meager ammo and their wounds.There are only so few people left.

There was a rustling sound on the radio. "What should we do, Captain?" Lieutenant Abhichart asked, "pistols are useless against tanks, there is nothing we can do..." The voice broke, and there was only rustling static on the channel. There was a dull explosion on the other side of the river. Private Saravo climbed down from a tree, "They stopped shelling the docks." "We're the only ones left," Apai murmured.