The Eternal Winter - Chapter 15 - Reunited (Patreon)

                                                       Alexander North

I stare at the man’s back for a few seconds before turning to look at the others, none of which seem to have noticed our interaction.

Did I just lose the guy’s respect because he thinks I got my dad to get me a symbiont?

I turn back to look at the captain again, only to find him talking to the other two captains while glancing at me.

Huh.

Well, as much as I hate misunderstandings, this one might just be for the best. Considering that I don’t really know what they’d do if they knew I wasn’t human anymore.

Although I doubt I’d be able to keep that misunderstanding up for long. Especially not once we eventually meet up with my own squad again. Because the last thing they remember was seeing me get skewered by a shard.

I look at the frozen patches left on the ground by the spider’s deaths for a few more minutes before hearing the captain declaring, “Alright, let’s get moving.”

When I look up again, I find him and the other captains walking over to the far back part of the room, only for all three of them to grab onto a book, each at a different bookcase.

What are they…

My thoughts trail off as all three pull on the books, causing the sounds of a bunch of gears to start turning behind the walls, followed by the wall lowering into the ground to reveal a combination locked and key locked door. The three captains then walk over to the door and enter a key, unlocking it before pulling it open to reveal a staircase.

“I thought so,” the captain of my temporary squad says, “since the power went out, the magnetic lock unlocked itself.”

He then walks through the doorway into the stairway, followed shortly after by the other captains.

After that, the soldiers and I walk through ourselves, with about five of the soldiers needing help getting through due to the minor frostbite given to them by the suicide bombing spiders, and we all begin to climb down the stairs to BF6.

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The first thing we find after entering floor BF6 is a completely empty hallway without any monsters or shards in sight. At most, there is a lot of mist floating about. But there isn’t a single shard, unlike the higher up floors.

“If the lieutenant colonel is on this floor, then he’d be at the housing area meant for the colonel,” one of the captains explains as we walk before adding, “although I’d put my money on him being on floor BF7, in the real command room.”

We all follow along behind the captains in silence until we eventually find a large, circular room with several doors.

“This is the central area of the floor,” my temporary captain explains before pointing at the hallway directly opposite to the one we just exited and saying, “while that is the way to the other entrance to this floor, which leads up to BF1.” He then turns to point at three of the doors in particular and says, “Those three doors lead separately to the colonel and the two major’s living spaces.”

They really have their living spaces in a hidden floor? Seriously?

The captain just starts walking towards the center of the three, only for it to open right as he is about to reach for the doorknob.

“Get ready!” he shouts while backing up and pulling out his sword as we all do the same. However, the door continues to open until it reveals one of the two majors working in this base.

If I remember correctly, I believe his name was Arnold Vaugns – a member of the Vaugns marquis family.

“Captain Ruthers?” the major asks while taking off his helmet. And once the captain takes his helmet off in kind, the major nods his head and says, “Good to see that you made it down here.” He then surveys his gaze across each of us before adding, “And with so many soldiers still alive at that.”

I’m kind of surprised the major is down here. Shouldn’t he have been on duty up above to-

My thoughts come to a halt as I see my own squad following him through the doorway, along with two second lieutenants.

Shit. There goes my act.

I slowly back up towards the back of the room, however, the moment captain Ruthers sees captain Andrew, he exclaims, “Captain Andrew!” and turns to look at me, only to frown slightly as he realizes I’m not standing where I was before. He then turns to look through the soldiers in the room until his eyes land on me and he says, “I seem to have found a lost lamb of yours.”

Everyone turns to look at me, and with that, everyone has a different reaction towards seeing me. Or more accurately, considering that I still have my helmet on, seeing the crest on my shoulder.

The major seems very happy – likely because it means that he won’t get on the general’s bad side for being one of the ones in charge when his son died – whereas everyone on my squad looks shocked and everyone that I traveled with looks happy and laughs, likely proud that they were able to reunite me with my squad or something.

“How are you…” captain Andrew begins, only for the major to cut him off as he exclaims, “Why didn’t you tell me that you had second lieutenant North in your squad!”

I raise an eyebrow at that.

How didn’t the major know that?

Actually, never mind. I almost forgot that he had just transferred here.

The captain opens his mouth to speak, but this time Michelle just bursts forwards, physically knocking him out of the way as she charges towards me and pulls me into a hug while crying and muttering, “You’re okay…” over and over again.

This for some reason gets applause from the squad members of the groups I came with, and especially from Phillip, who has a broad grin on his face as if he had won the lottery.

But it all comes crashing down when the captain finally regains his composure and exclaims, “How are you still alive and human? We saw you get pierced in the gut by a shard!”

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