The Eternal Winter - Book 2 - Chapter 6 - The Councilman Part I (Patreon)

                                                  Moments ago outside of the Bunker

Throughout the entire trip over to the bunker, Cynthia can’t get her mind off of how she’ll deal with the idiotic councilman when she gets back. But when she arrives at the bunker door, she just puts those thoughts out of her mind and takes a deep breath, then presses the call button on the small terminal outside.

I’m so glad that they made those power sources work... because it would be a major pain opening and closing this bunker door otherwise.

Several seconds pass in silence with no answer, making Cynthia come to the conclusion that Alexia is out scouting right now. So instead of waiting, she just enters the code for the door and opens it herself before going inside.

Might as well go see Alex while I’m waiting.

She closes the door behind her and begins walking towards the med room, only to freeze the moment she enters the doorway and finds the pod dock wide open with no one inside of it.

A moment passes. Then another. And by the third, Cynthia immediately begins running towards the pod dock before checking everything and looking around the room, only to notice the armor closet wide open with a set of armor missing. She then runs out of the room and looks around the rest of the bunker in an attempt to find any sign – any at all – that Alex had woken up.

Please, oh pleeeaaase be awake!

Not long into her scavenge for signs, the sound of the bunker door open draws her back to the entry room, where she finds both Aria and her cousin walking into the bunker.

Cynthia’s eyes widen in shock, and she freezes for a moment, only for him to raise his hand in a gentle wave and say, “Hey Cynthia, how have you-”

The girl doesn’t let him finish, tackling him with a hug. Not that it budges him almost at all, Alex only seemingly letting out a little bit of air and stiffening up a little when she does so.

But she doesn’t care.

He’s awake!!!

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                                                    Alexander North

I frown for a moment at my cousin who is hugging me in what would’ve been a death grip before I became whatever it is that I am but is now only as strong as a regular hug from a normal person. To me at least. She could probably still hurt someone with this hug if they were normal.

That aside though, why does everyone keep reacting this way? First Alexia, and now Cynthia.

I understand they’re happy, but there’s no need to tackle me.

At least Cynthia’s not crying like Alexia did.

I hear Alexia chuckling a little as she closes the bunker door behind us, but Cynthia proceeds to ignore that in favor of not letting go.

This really is getting old.

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It takes a few minutes, but she finally manages to calm down and let go, following which Cynthia and I sit down on the couch and begin talking.

“So how’ve things been for you?” I ask Cynthia, briefly watching Alexia as she goes around stashing some of the supplies that Cynthia had brought us. Supplies that mostly consist of things like coffee and popcorn. Nothing really too important, considering our lack of actual need for food or drink. Mostly just junk food and stuff a lot of people enjoy.

Although, that is a lot of bags of popcorn. Wonder where Cynthia’s getting it in the first place?

I know some our technology is working again as long as the uses cold energy as a power source, but I doubt it’s enough to grow fields. In fact, most of the fields on the planet have probably been wiped out by now.

Except maybe the underground ones.

Cynthia tenses up for a moment, only to look me in the eye and sag slightly into the sofa as she answers, “Not very good.”

I raise an eyebrow, prompting her to continue, “Councilman Rogers is the highest surviving authority on the planet in terms of the Empire, but none of the other bases can agree with him, and for good reason. The man has taken over our base, the closest base to the capital I might add, and not done squat with it.”

That has my other brow raising.

“Even after we lost contact with the rest of the universe, the man was convinced all we needed to do to survive was to build ourselves a sturdy base and dig our feet in, defending against any attacks that would come our way until backup would arrive,” Cynthia says, a look both disgusted and exhausted on her face as she looks up at the ceiling. “It’s reached the point that he’s sending some of the regular soldiers who don’t have symbionts out on suicide missions just to clear out nearby frozen one nests and remove their threat from the base.”

“Shit, really?” I exclaim, sitting up a little bit with a frown. “Also, nests?”

Cynthia glances at me, but Alexia explains in her stead, “They’re places where the non-sapient frozen ones grouped together.”

I glance at her before nodding my head in appreciation and focusing on Cynthia again.

“What about the other bases? What are they doing about the councilman?” I ask.

Cynthia answers rather quickly, “None of the other bases are as strong as ours, with the exception of maybe one that is led by a man whose symbiont advanced to Tier 3 during all of this. So while they don’t agree with the councilman, they can’t do much to help us out. Instead staying where they are and dealing with their own problems.”

That’s… unfortunate. Although it is good news to know we have a Tier 3 symbiont host.

There’s still the most important question though.

I directly meet Cynthia’s eyes as I ask, “Where is my team? Are they okay?”

Cynthia flinches slightly at that, making my frown grow worse before she says, “They… were a part of one of the suicide missions.”

I immediately tense up at that, an emotion I’d equate to rage building up inside of me. But it’s hard to tell sometimes with that particular emotion, and before I can say or do anything, Cynthia raises her hands and says, “Don’t worry! They’re all still alive!”

That has me relaxing again. But something tells me there’s more.

“That said, they’re all in comas,” she continues, making my eyes narrow. “And they’re also what the councilman is using to blackmail me into staying at his base, giving him some extra credence to his claim of power.”

“Oh, is he now?” I ask, my tone sounding dangerously low even for me.

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