The Eternal Winter - Chapter 16 - Exposed (Patreon)

                                                                Alexander North

Absolute silence fills the central area of BF6 after my captain’s rather loud exclamation.

After several seconds of this silence, I hear Phillip mutter, “His gut? So that’s where the damage to his armor there came from…”

I glare at him – although not that he can tell considering my helmet – before whispers start to spread through the gathered soldiers. Meanwhile, my squad continues to stare at me with a mixture of hope and fear.

Well, good to see that they care about me.

“Stop it! All of you!” Michelle suddenly shouts while letting go of me and looking at them while pointing at me. “He’s standing right here and is obviously still human, otherwise he’d be roaming around outside as a damned monster!” She then turns to look at me and asks, “Right?”

I purse my lips at that, but before I can answer, the major’s voice suddenly fills the newfound silence, “Second lieutenant North, would you please take your helmet off?”

My mouth shuts again at that as everyone begins to stare at me in silence, waiting for me to take it off.

And so, I do. I slowly raise my hands up to my helmet, undo the clasps, and pull it off. With my eyes and mouth closed.

“See?” I hear Michelle’s voice. “He’s still human!”

More whispering follows this, just for captain Ruthers to cut it off by stating, “Open your eyes, second lieutenant.”

Guess there’s no hiding from it now.

I open my eyes, revealing my clearly inhuman eyes to all of the soldiers and officers present.

Several of the soldiers swear while backing away from me and pulling out their swords, meanwhile my own squad members seem to look frightened, albeit also a little curious and relieved at the same time.

Although captain Ruthers actually looks even more relieved than them.

I guess he’s happy to know that I didn’t use nepotism to get a symbiont after all?

When I turn my gaze to the major, I find him seemingly lost in thought while staring at me, so I turn to Michelle, who is staring directly at me as well. But she has tears in her eyes, unlike the major.

She then reaches out to touch my face and asks, “Alex? Is that really still you?”

I nod my head at that and answer, “Yep.”

The instant the soldiers wielding swords hear my voice despite seeing my eyes, they begin to grow confused. Especially the two second lieutenants who came with the major and had never met me before.

“I would like some questions answered, if you don’t mind,” the major suddenly says, drawing my eyes back to him again. Once he sees me nod my head, he continues, “Do you feel any strange desires? Such as a desire to eat humans or kill us?”

This question immediately makes the others back further away from me, but I shake my head and quickly answer, “No. Outside of a desire to absorb the energy left in the monsters’ corpses, which I’ve learned makes me grow stronger, I don’t feel any urges like that.”

The major’s eyebrows raise at the extended answer I gave but they lower again as he continues, “Do the other monsters still attack you?”

“I can answer that one,” captain Ruthers suddenly says, drawing everyone’s eyes to him. “He was attacked plenty of times by the monsters while we were coming down here.”

“Okay,” the major states in a neutral tone that leaves me guessing as to what he’s thinking. He then turns to look at me again as he asks, “Will you be willing to let the scientists downstairs in BF7 do some tests on you and ask you questions? Particularly about this energy you spoke of?”

This time my eyebrows raise at his question, but I answer it nonetheless since I had already expected that this would happen, “Yes. But I will warn you, I have a 100% artificial heart. And I believe that might have something to do with why I didn’t fully turn.”

The major crosses his arms while still looking at me for a few seconds before nodding his head and turning to the captains to say, “Captains Andrew and Ruthers, I would like you two keep an eye on the young heir to the archduchy until we meet with the lieutenant colonel. If he seems like he’s losing control, then restrain him.” He then turns and starts walking towards the door on the opposite side of the central area while adding, “We’ll be going to BF7 now to meet up with the base commander.”

I let out a sigh of relief at seeing that the man isn’t just gonna have me killed – which would get him in major trouble – or abandoned on one of the upper floors.

After sending me a few wary glances, most of the soldiers follow the major to the door, leaving behind me, the two captains that were just designated as my babysitters, Phillip, and my actual team.

“I don’t care if you’re not a human anymore, you’re still you,” Michelle says with a smile after not having said anything for a while before quickly hugging me again and then stepping back. Meanwhile Michael and Victoria both nod their heads in agreement with smiles on their faces.

Even captain Andrew seems extremely relieved to have me here and nods his head with them. Almost a little too relieved to be honest, considering the fact that I think he’s crying.

Robert on the other hand…

“I… I don’t know,” he suddenly says before walking away to join the others going to BF7.

I frown at his retreating back, but Phillip suddenly speaks up next with his thumbs pointing upwards as he says, “He’ll come around, don’t you worry!”

When I look at him, I raise an eyebrow and ask, “You’re not mad that I didn’t tell you?”

He just walks up to me and puts his arm around my shoulder before saying, “Nah, but you really should have! After all, you’re not human anymore! Isn’t that co- OOF!”

The man suddenly falls down to the ground while holding his side as Michelle scolds, “Don’t be insensitive!” obviously having kicked him in the back.

I can’t help but chuckle at that, which seems to surprise Michelle. But captain Ruthers stops us from messing around by saying, “We should catch up with the others before they lock us on BF6.”

The others all mutter agreements with his statement before walking over to the now-open door along with captain Andrew, who hasn’t stopped smiling since he heard the major’s decision. However, when I try to join them, I feel captain Ruthers put a hand on my shoulder.

I look back at him to find him smiling as he says, “I’m glad to see I wasn’t wrong about you when we first met.”

He then pats my shoulder again and starts walking towards the door, leaving me to catch up after a few seconds.

I raise an eyebrow at his departing back.

Leaving me behind isn’t exactly doing a good job at babysitting.

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