NOVEL WEB Chapter 101: Checkpoint
Lukas and the other team members shook their heads and rejected his offer of cigarettes.
They weren't smokers and the cigarettes might be laced with sedatives or poison.
Keane kept the packet of cigarettes in his coverall pocket and took a puff.
He saw the team's apprehension towards him, gave out a sigh and snapped his fingers.
"I have someone that can help you with the disguise. Hope that would clear things up."
A woman came into his office.
She was pretty, giving out a huge smile, her teeth that were pristine white caught everyone's attention.
"This is granny Sue." Keane said.
Sue wasn't too pleased and protested, "Hey, don't break my cover."
"Granny?" Rex asked, perturbed by what it meant.
Sue looked younger than he was.
"My ability allows me to change someone's appearance, including myself.
"And I can help you with your looks, it would be effective for three hours, more than enough for you to get out of the city."
She said and she swiped her hand across her face.
At the next moment, her face changed into an old granny's.
"What the hell..." Rex exclaimed.
Lucky that he didn't ask for Sue's number just now, he thought.
Lukas glanced over at Riley and the other team members.
Other than fighting with the soldiers and all the awakened in the city, they knew that they didn't have much option right now, so they nodded.
Sue got to work immediately.
First, she held her hand onto Emma's face.
A pink glow appeared from her hands and muscles on Emma's face twitched vigorously.
Emma's features started to morph and transform.
Her eyes turned into different shapes and sizes before settling onto an almond shaped brown eye. Which was vastly different from her original big round green eyes.
Her lips thinned and her cheeks turned higher.
"There you go. Who's next." Sue nodded and looked at her work admiringly.
"Make me look better and with more style." Rex stepped up and said.
Emma rolled her eyes at him, a trait unchanged from her face transformation.
Sue then got to work.
In the end, Rex looked like a feminine looking pop star.
He frowned when he saw his face using his phone's front camera.
"It's the style in rage right now. And that's what you wanted" Sue said and shrugged her shoulders.
Rex knew she was right and grumbled to himself.
Lukas was changed into a middle-aged man with blonde hair and blue eyes. His features looked more accentuated.
Soon, Sue had transformed everyone's face into something unrecognizable from what they'd looked like earlier.
"Here are IDs for you." Keane handed them IDs with different names and different ability levels.
They were authentic IDs that were sold to Keane by desperate awakened. So, there wouldn't be any issues getting out of the city with these.
Lukas looked at the ID and immediately memorized the information on the ID that he had.
The other team members also did the same.
"And if you are ready, time to make our way to the checkpoint before it gets dark."
Keane said and he led them to the car park.
They got onto two armored vans and drove off in the direction of the checkpoint.
...
At the checkpoint, soldiers yawned and tried to keep themselves awake.
It was lull time, and their arms were strewn around all over the place.
There was still an hour or so before the awakened teams who went out got back after a day of clearing the demonic beasts.
Some of them were surprised when they saw two armored vans approaching.
But they let down their guard again when they saw it was Keane.
"Well, what are you up to again? The usual?" One of the soldiers approached the front armored van and asked Keane.
Keane gave him a packet of cigarettes and said, "Yes, the usual. Apparently, some bastards have some fetish for demonic beast meat."
"These rich crazy dudes are wild. Wish I could be one of them." The soldier said jokingly and took a glance at those in the armored van.
He raised his phone and tried to match those in the armored van with the picture of those wanted by the Governor.
None of them looked remotely the same.
"All right, go register with your ID." He said and gestured Keane to drive on.
The armored van with Harianto driving drove forward.
The soldier glanced at those inside and checked with his phone.
When he confirmed none of them looked anything familiar, he waved them off.
They got down from the armored van and passed their IDs given by Keane over to the soldiers manning the checkpoint counters.
There weren't any alerts given and they were allowed to proceed.
Lukas thought that it was ironic that the soldiers' slack attitude would turn out to be helping him get out of the West Battle Administration Area.
Back then, when he first saw their attitude, he wasn't too impressed.
After the armored vans got out of the wall, and travelled for ten miles, they alighted from the armored van.
Keane would drive back with one of the armored vans, leaving Lukas and the others to travel in the other armored van.
"Thank you so much, Keane." Dr. Uwe was grateful and thanked Keane before he drove off.
"It was always a pleasure to do business with you." Keane replied and waved goodbye with his cigarette in his fingers.
Harianto then drove the armored van deeper into the woods covered in snow.
Inside the van, Riley made a call to Rodney.
"Rodney, we are out of the city now. Where can you pick us up?" Riley asked when Rodney picked up the call.
Riley heard Rodney's chair creak as he sat up straight.
"I've surveyed the map and the only clearing big enough for the plane to land is at the clearing next to the Jewel Lake.
"The plane should arrive in four hours' time.
"Be there in time or it will have to leave after half an hour.
"I'll send you the coordinates after the call."
Rodney said and Riley ended the call.
Ding.
Immediately he received the map and the coordinates of where the clearing was.
Lukas came over and had a look.
He frowned as Jewel Lake was located in an area marked red.
During the show, the host had presented them the map and marked it as the area where High Tiered demonic beasts roamed.