The Eternal Winter - Chapter 20 - New Orders (Patreon)

                                                                   Alexander North

Over the course of the next few hours, we all take a break from the whole ‘Eternal Winter’ thing to chat and eat and drink. But eventually, the lieutenant colonel brings us back to reality as he walks up to the center of the room and shouts, “Attention!”

Almost as one, all of the soldiers and officers – including myself – shoot to our feet at attention and salute.

“Now that we’ve had a short break and another squad has joined us,” he pauses while pointing at the door, where another squad enters the room from, “It’s time for us to start taking back the base!”

A roar of cheers follows his announcement.

I smirk in his direction, only to raise an eyebrow as I hear his next statement.

“To start things off, I will only be sending out the symbiont hosts and second lieutenant North, but after a couple of days, I’ll be sending the captains’ squads along with them,” he says, surprising me quite a bit in the process.

Wasn’t he planning on having the scientists examine me?

The commander doesn’t say anything about that to me and just nods towards me and each of the captains before nodding towards the door, signaling us to head out.

Actually, now that I think about it, what time is it?

I open my terminal to see if that function still works, since some of them don’t work despite the device still working – after all, some of the functions require a connection to basic locations to work, like the public internet.

Fortunately, it works, and the time quickly appears on the corner of my vision.

My brows furrow once I read it though.

It’s already 07:00? So the sun should be raising past the horizon right about now?

I wonder if we can even see it.

After bidding farewell to my team members, I walk over with captain Andrew through the room and then the hall into the staircase to meet up with the other captains. Just to end up finding them already talking with major Vaugns.

“-first check the symbiont storage on BF2 before you do anything else,” I hear the man say before he turns to see me and the captain entering the staircase. “Did you hear what I told them?”

We nod, understanding what he said as we stop in front of him and the other five captains around him. The major then turns to look behind us as the remaining four captains approach the stairs.

“I’ll repeat it anyways,” he says before waiting a second for the last of the captains to enter the stairwell and then saying, “I’ll be going with you on this mission while major Carter will be staying behind with the lieutenant colonel. Our priority is to get to the symbiont storage on BF2 and secure the symbionts for emergency use according to Section 8, article 51 of the Military Manual of Regulations, Military Emergencies.”

“How many symbionts are in the storage if you don’t mind me asking, sir?” captain Ruthers asks while gripping his sword and looking up at the staircase.

The major turns to acknowledge him with a nod as he answers, “There should be enough for just a third of the current soldiers in the bunker.”

I wince at that.

There’s absolutely going to be some infighting over those things.

Which makes me glad that I don’t need one anymore. In fact, I doubt I would even be able to use one considering how they’re artificially created to link with a human’s DNA.

And I’m not exactly human anymore.

A smile sneaks its way across my face at the thought of not having to go through that incredibly painful surgery. Because who in their right mind would enjoy having a foreign entity surgically planted inside of them while they’re still awake?

Although it would probably be best to make myself scarce when they start picking who gets them. Because it won’t be a pretty sight.

The other captains seem to share my sentiment considering the looks they’re sharing with each other before the major grimaces and says, “I understand how you feel about that, but we need the extra symbiont hosts. Otherwise, we’ll be overwhelmed. Unless you think the others can take the monsters with nothing but human strength and a blade?”

No one says anything.

“Thought so,” he grunts with a nod before continuing, “Once we get each of the symbionts here – assuming they’re still there and haven’t been eaten by monsters themselves, which would be… unfortunate – we will then start splitting off into groups to clear each floor one by one of monsters until we get rid of them all. Meanwhile, the soldiers who don’t have a symbiont at that point will be in charge of defending the already-cleared floors.”

I hold myself back from raising an eyebrow as I put my helmet back on while ignoring the looks sent my way by two of the captains that I hadn’t seen yet since the apocalypse started.

It would be a lot worse than simply ‘unfortunate’.

I glance at the captains out of the corner of my eye now that I have my helmet on.

Also, I really don’t like the way those two captains are staring at me. Because they don’t look very friendly.

Both of them are straight up glaring at me behind the major’s back. At least until captains Andrew and Ruthers notice them and glare back, making them focus on the major again.

Those two might become a problem later on… I just hope I don’t get stuck alone with them at some point. Because while I think I’m stronger than a Tier 1 symbiont host, I would rather not test my luck against two at once.

Although I at least know that they won’t try anything while we’re with the others if they try anything at all. After all, they should know not to rock the boat in the middle of an emergency… right?

Yeah. Right.

I put my palm on the pommel of my sword just in case as I listen to the major finish speaking, “For our first trip, we’ll stay together in one group and move through the base to the restricted storage area. But after we get back, we’ll start moving in four groups, with two of them always being out hunting the monsters and clearing the base, one of them standing on guard, and one of them on break.”

“Everyone understand?” he asks while looking at each of us, just to get a series of “Yes, sirs!” in response.

The major then turns around and begins walking up the stairs while stating, “Then put your helmets on. We’re heading out.”

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