Chapter 04

3 hours later...

Military Base

Maneuver Base of Excellence

To crown it all, it comes as no wonder that their military base was massive. I was flabbergasted at how modern everything was. My eyes were greatly filled with stupefaction as I kept company with them inside.

O-okay? Their military headquarters are hubs of activity, with facilities for housing, operations, cooking and dining, hygiene, equipment maintenance and storage, and even medical care and treatment. These expansive military camps can surely support populations of people.

Too bad, half of humanity was undead, I supposed. I grimaced at that thought.

"Do you have enough food for these people?" I jolted a bit when his eyes squinted and darted at me.

Damn it.

My tongue protrudes and unconsciously lick my lower lip, and then blink. Not once but twice. My palms glistened with sweats too.

Tense, I must say. Whatever the reason is, only one thing I know, this man can make me anxious through his flickering stare.

I tried to relax my rigid muscles. Also hide my hands in my buttocks, clamping them into fists.

"Yes, but not adequate. It will only last for four to six weeks."

Precisely. With hundreds of families around here, I can tell that it's tough to preserve the fares and disseminate them to each one of these folks.

Why did I even inquire if I already inferred the answers inside my head? Foolish, Xiomara!

"Then, where will you get food if there's nothing left behind?"

"We'll go reap outside. As simple as that."

Easy my ass.

"What about the walkers?"

His expression stiffened. Moreover, his eyes became dull while teeth-gnashing and hurled me a veiled glance.

"We'll kill those. That's the only thing to survive. Kill or be killed."

My lips quakes. My face writhed and anguish took over my face. My arms dangled at my sides, lowered down my head and my chest rose and fell with rapid breaths.

"I can't believe you said that!"

He jabbed his hands into his satchel and lifted his shoulders in a half shrug. Tilting his head a bit, his orifices clutched me.

"Believe me or not, that's how the world toils now. Survive or die, it's up to you. Xiomara, having a trivial awareness about you, I knew for a fact that you're gonna do anything just to make it through. Just like abandoning others behind just for your selfish deed. And don't be too naive. You already annihilated a walker, remember?" I bestowed him a frosty gaze.

Pressing my lips together, I sneered as my palm balled into a fist.

"Lieutenant," A soldier cropped up. I'm thankful that he amassed my ass by impeding our conversation.

His scrutiny tuggers to that soldier. Hence, he's a lieutenant, huh? I see.

The soldier saluted him and grabbed a peek at me, conceding my presence, I speculated.

"What is it?"

"The walkers surpassed the West border." His face ripened into crucial after hearing the report, but still, his expression sobered like water untouched.

"Tell it to the Captain. We'll discuss the plan later." The soldier bobbed his head and fled after that.

A vein popped out in his neck. His countenance blazed and a muscle on his jaw twitched. Now, I can confide that he's furious.

I gnawed my bottom lip as I eyed him.

He looks baffled. Well, if I'm in his shoes, I will feel that kind of stressing shit upon knowing the tremendous duties over your shoulder.

"I think I need to excuse myself," I declared and plastered a sham smile on my lips.

I watched how he kneaded his temples and threaded a hand through his hair.

"Take the East route and get an available cabin in there."

Rude, but I didn't mumble a word to thank him.

I buckled my knees and swung around one foot to the other for a quick walk.

Confining myself in a small niche yet procured physical relaxation with a warm quilt made of padding enclosed between layers of fabric was too much.

Yes. Too much. Because when I snatched a quick peek in the hallway earlier, I saw soldiers barely suiting themselves inside the tent fixed outside.

They certainly value others before themselves, huh? Quiet pleasant but selfless. In my perspective, that's a bad thing.

My eyes were awake thoroughly. Merely reckoning about the probabilities of uproar to seize a stint or when will it arise next. I spurred to stride in no specific path by capsizing over, not until I ceased and trampled myself like a raze to the ground but, in this bed, I'm paving at.

I oozed a sharp sigh and preferred to get up. In a specified state of strutting, I abided for a couple of minutes, then lifted my feet and loosened the doorknob before heading out.

I can't surmise this is happening. It would be a pleasure to wake up and never grasp a nap if it's just a trance. But yeah, when it comes to actuality, it's the worst fact I ever underwent in my whole life.

A nightmare, dressed like a daydream. Bullshit. Everything was scarce.

"Can't sleep?" I grazed the tip of my nose before hemming my arms below my chest and grabbed a brisk glimpse at his hasty arrival.

I'm here outdoor and I didn't know that this man would be here. But do I have a preference? Tsk. If only I could jostle him away to have a placid night while looking at those lucid stars in the sky that flickers in this twilight.

"You smoke?" Tucking a cinch of my hair behind my ear, I peered at him.

"Yeah. Is it a bad thing?" I whirled my head but the gripe on my expression was apparent. Yet I assumed, he just chose to disregard it.

He hardly stroked the back of his neck using his unrestricted hand and puffed out the fume through his mouth, and beak.

Unbelievable.

Indiscreet cough bailout from my mouth when I sniffed the air, tarnished by the cigarettes' whiff.

"You don't like the smell?" He consults and I whispered yes without reluctance.

The credit goes to this man when he flings the cigarette on the ground and kills the minor fire on its verge wielding his combat shoes.

Geez! I despise the smell of the cigarette.

"I didn't get the shot to ask your name, Lieutenant."

He blew out his cheeks and swiveled his face away before augmenting his hand side by side and looking above.

"William Lewis Tennessee." My eyes slipped a bizarre glance at him.

"Too long," I murmured. "Lieutenant isn't bad."

"Suit yourself, Xiomara?" He eyed me with those questioning orbs that perforated into my soul.

"Yeah. Just Xiomara."

He hummed. "I see. You don't like giving some slabs of input about you?"

My eyebrows elevated.

"As if someone is interested to know about me," I mumbled.

"Then what if there's one?"

I jutted my tongue out and a line itched between my brows suited explicitly. Snorting, I retorted, "In this plague? Knowing each other and puffed! Whirling romance? I don't think so and I don't wish for that."

I saw how the nook of his mouth hoisted. Amusement was romping in his eyes like a playful hymn with feral rows.

"Interesting..." I rolled my eyes.

"Bullshit you mean."

He cracks up inwardly. "You have a bad mouth."

"And a selfish heart, to be added," I claimed and he nodded, didn't even argue with that. Well, what's the point? That's how he recognizes me and I, myself, know its point of certainty.

"I always channel my emotions into my actions, myself, and my life. In that way, I don't hurt anyone but myself. You see Lieutenant, I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to wield and conquer them for my gain."

"That's why you chose to be selfish? But what about the others in case who yearned your help?"

I gaped at him and I nearly lost my balance when his eyes stood to prevail me with rigorous vigor.

"Your emotions are the slave to your thoughts and you are the slave to your emotions. I stan with what is right rather than what is acceptable. I have the right to be selfish for my own good rather than be selfless merely for anyone."

He hoisted his head narrowly in a brief. "I see..." His expression draped up and went dampened.

"You're selfish." He stated in a matter-of-fact, not a qualm I can refute.

"Well... I think convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies." I spoke, a bit louder. My lips tugged back in a snarl. "To set foot at a measure of a renowned man's character, one must judge it by the standards of his time, not mine. It's not about what you look at the matters, Lieutenant. It's what I see and what I believe to stand for."

"Such an egotistical woman," He responded, heeded by a humorless chuckle after then. "Don't you know that our prime purpose in this life is to help others? And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them."

Why is he implicating such things I didn't even do?

"You aren't blind, Lieutenant. I did not hurt anyone!" I reacted with a scowl on my face.

"For now, no. But perhaps, you will sooner or later." I shot him a glint of glare.

"That is so fucking absurd! You're a judgemental dumbass!"

"Hush. Lower down your voice, unless you want other people to get the wrong idea." My cheeks flushed for foreign reasons.

The fuck with that!

"Asshole!" I feel like I wanted to clamor my frustration. This Lieutenant is fucking annoying!

I took a massive brisk pace out of there and I wanted to wrap my ears so bad when his troublesome chuckles still lingered in my mind! Ah! I need someone to smack my head, uh, no- rephrase that, I need someone to beat the hell out of that asshole Lieutenant!

I would be lying if I say that his words didn't hurt. It stings a little but I can rectify it. It's bearable, hence I don't bother to dwell on it.

Still, damn that man!

"Hi!" I almost leap when someone bumps me and thwarts my way.

"Uh, hi?" I replied, forehead knotted.

"I'm Belle Clarksville." She enlarged her hand to me while her ledges curled.

My mouth snapped latch but still take her offer to do some stir hands. "Xiomara,"

"For how long you've been here?" I swabbed my palms together and lugged myself for a walk, and I didn't know that she will follow me without my approval. Belle promptly eradicated the hallway with her non-stop inquiries.

Loquacious, huh?

"A few hours ago."

"Oh. So they rescued you from the walkers?"

"Yes."

"Those walkers are dreadful as fuck!" I halted and wobbled my face to her.

"You know what? I should head back and sleep."

"Oh. Yes, yes. Right."

I probed the aftermath of my doing before veering my back and put up with a step off from her. I just flapped my hand in the air to bid my goodbye and she just squealed similarly.

I sauntered back to my room. Silly, I'm not here to make friends. I'm here for my survival, not making some companion. The only dupe who chose to be voracious in this chaos the world was presently struggling.

"Lieutenant, the situation was getting urgent. West border was already crammed with those infected and I'm afraid that we can't save the remaining people out there. If, there's still." I postponed my stride and hung around in a limited scope away from them.

"In no time, this place will be a heap by those walkers. That's why we need myriad aid to back us up to get out of here and evacuate these people to the East. That's the safest place for now."

I heard a vigorous gait, gasping like he's been hounded by hell. A skittish form on his brow drips breaded down to his face, and terror spewed in his eyes.

"Lieutenant! There are still survivors in the North! We received a call just now."

The hue from my face seeped. Fear fogged my features. My breaths hastened and my lips throbbed as well as my vision became humid.

I sloped my hand on the doorknob like I'm reaping my stability from there.

North. This is where I came from. Fuck! There's a huge possibility that my mom is still there and she might be alive! Oh, God.

"Assemble the team. We're gonna rescue them!"

Soldiers saluted at him and dispersed in various tracts, resided by their duty.

That's my cue to show myself up. I saw how his eyes went spherical but fast to gain his stance back.

"I'm coming with you."