The Eternal Winter - Book 2 - Chapter 4 - A New World (Patreon)

                                            A Base North of the City

The various soldiers and civilians alike loitering around the surface of the base as the sunless day greets them with very little snow, the eternal winter not passing through at the moment. But their attention is quickly brought to the main gate once it begins to grind open, soon revealing Cynthia as she slowly drags the carcass of a wendigo through it – a term that she managed to get the base commander to designate it in honor of Alex’s rescue and sacrifice.

Some of the soldiers begin to salute, whereas many of the civilians point at her and whisper amongst themselves, taking advantages of their off time from duties to chatter about anything they can find that’ll alleviate their boredom and fear.

Cynthia really wishes they would stop doing this every single time she gets back from hunting, but she understands that there isn’t much she can do about it. So she doesn’t pause for even a second as she continues dragging the wendigo into the base, heading directly indoors and then down the hall towards the lab where the researchers are.

After she enters the lab, drawing the eyes of all of the researchers in the process, she simply dumps the carcass in there, signs a document registering that it was her kill, and leaves again without another word.

That was a rather powerful wendigo, so it was a good thing I managed to find it before any of the other hunting parties did.

Over the last six months, the researchers have made quite the number of breakthroughs, one of which being a power source that uses the energy of the frozen ones themselves to run what used to be electronics. But the power sources have their limits, requiring a large amount of energy from the frozen ones themselves to run for any period of time, making it not very usable outside of the field when necessary.

But what Cynthia cares more about is the armor they’ve begun to make out of the frozen one’s corpses. Particularly out of their bones, which seem to have gained a special quality to them that is much stronger than the metal used in their armor suits. Suits that won’t work even with the power sources the researchers have made.

Cynthia lets out a sigh as she continues walking through the base towards her quarters – a special area set aside for her as a symbiont host and the princess of the Empire. And as she walks, she can’t help but hear footsteps coming from the direction of the councilman’s office, making her let out a groan of irritation before she quickens her pace.

I do not want to deal with that idiot right now.

As she continues speedwalking towards her room she hears the man shout, “How many times do I have to tell you not to go out on your own?! Do you know just how-” Cynthia reaches her room before closing the door, cutting off the man’s shouts as she lets out a sigh of relief.

Barely made it…

The princess glances at the door for a moment, only to shake her head when she hears the councilman storming off in a rage. She then turns around and heads over to her bunk and plops down on it to stare up at the ceiling with one arm draped across her body and the other hanging off the edge of the bunk.

Tomorrow should be Saturday, so I’ll go check up on Alexia again then…

Ever since Cynthia first found the girl, she’s been going to visit her on a weekly basis to give her training in combat and to just keep her company. At the beginning, she wasn’t sure is she could’ve taken Alexia to the base thanks to her inhuman changes. But after other strange occurrences of humans being infected and managing to retain their intelligence, she started to think it was fine. But Alexia refused nonetheless, stating that she was adamant that she would stay at the bunker with Alex.

And there was nothing Cynthia could say against that.

Cynthia sighs as she thinks about it.

Then again, Alex and Alexia seem to be very different from those new ‘mutants,’ who apparently gained some rather difficult to control instincts along with their powers, along with some unpleasant looking mutations for some of them. Alex and Alexia only gained power. Gained benefits from their change, with no downsides like the mutants. They also seem to be much faster at absorbing energy from what I’ve seen of Rachel.

Cynthia’s lips purse at the thought of the girl who’d shown up one day at the base after getting infected but retaining her intelligence, nonetheless. And no matter how Cynthia looks at it, there’s something off with her. She still works well and takes orders, helping the base despite everyone’s initial lack of trust, but she seems to be completely detached from anyone at the base. Even after three months of staying with them and finally gaining some of the trust of the soldiers and civilians.

Silence fills the princess’s quarters for several minutes, and she can’t help but wonder how Alexia is doing right now. The girl should be able to fight very well at this point thanks to her training along with her inhuman strength, but she’s still just a child, and Cynthia can’t help but worry about her.

And Alex…

Cynthia feels a pit develop in her chest at the thought of her cousin. As she thinks of the many times she finds herself just gazing at his med pod when visiting Alexia.

I hope he wakes up soon… and there’s the matter of his team as well.

The girl feels a hint of anger as she remembers just what the councilman tried to do to them if she hadn’t stepped in.

They’re safe. That’s all that matters.

Cynthia lets out another sigh at the thought before situating herself on the bunk a little better, taking off her boots and removing her sword from her waist, then finally getting under the covers and beginning to go to sleep.

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