บท 27: 27. Horrors of the forest

Dexter reached the entrance of the door of the building which was at the middle of the camp. There, he saw that two soldiers who were holding batons were looking at him. As he approached the door, one of them suddenly blocked his path.

"State your business," One of the soldiers said while looking at Dexter from head to toe.

They noticed how flashy he dressed with his black and golden robe and they thought whether he was from the exploration team.

"I'm with the exploration team. Also with Laurence," Dexter said while he yawned tiredly.

"No confirmation. The camp leader is currently having a meeting," One of the soldier said and tried to push Dexter backwards.

"Ah." Dexter slapped the first soldier and he spinned and fell to the floor unconscious.

Seeing his friend who went unconscious by just a slap, the second guard nearly fell to the ground.

"You– you're one of the explorers," The guard mumbled in a fearful tone but Dexter just sighed.

"I'm having a bad day. Just tell me where Laurence is."

"O...of course. He's upstairs with the head of the camp..." the guard gave him directions and Dexter just opened the door and went upstairs.

The guard breathed a sigh of relief after Dexter left.

"If only I had courage to face monsters head on, I would join the exploration team." He then turned to his unconscious friend. "This fool should learn to ask questions first."

The guard then picked his friend and took him away to the nursing section.

...

Dexter entered the door to see a staircase that leads upstairs with a bunch of other sections. Ignoring other places, he made his way upstairs until he saw a door and entered it.

Entering the door, he found himself in a wide living room with people sitting in a round couch.

Zain spoke as he turned around, "Dexter? I see you're better now."

The others then turned to him and that's when Dexter noticed a slightly aged man with bald head and a scar on his left eye. His brown pupils complimented his brown skin and they gazed at Dexter directly.

Dexter just ignored him.

"Yeah, I'm feeling so much better. What happened back at the supermarket?" He asked as he walked towards them.

"We had to leave since we were all weak and exhausted." Zain then looked at the bald man. "This is the head of the camp, colonel packard, of the military."

"It's nice to meet you, sir." Dexter said with a nod which made a lot of them in the room furrow their brows.

Zain, Leo, and Rina just acted as if it was normal. They already knew how unsocial Dexter was.

"So, Dexter. I hear you were going to Serene district before you stopped here." The man pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it by touching his finger at the bottom.

"My brothers live there alone. I plan to find them before I head to the Federal university," Dexter explained while taking a seat.

"What if you don't find your brothers?" The man suddenly asked as he sat up.

Dexter raised a brow as he knew what the man was implying.

"I would find them. I know my brothers, this apocalypse isn't enough to kill those rascals." He laughed and the colonel found him amusing.

"Yes. Before you came we were discussing on the main issue at hand. Crossing the forest area and making it to the bridge which leads to Serene." The man nodded at Laurence.

Laurence stood up as he began to explain, "Currently we suspect that a titan is within the forest as one of the asteroids fell into the forest. As most of us know, creatures that were too close to the asteroids turned into titans.

Titans are normally as big as a fifteen meters tall building and the smallest we have seen was only nine metres tall.

Plus, animals that were mutated were a lot more stronger than the zombies with some even wielding special abilities..."

Dexter then remembered the blue furred dog they fought back at the police station a few days ago. The black miasma that condensed into a sharp blade that could split a car into two was very scary.

"We saw a bunch of titans but those are very far away from the camp. We currently don't have enough power to venture into the forest, but we can train more people to become stronger by getting spirit points," Laurence suggested.

The others pondered about it. It was a really good idea that they could use. The more people getting stronger the higher their chances of passing the forest safely.

Leo sighed as he looked up and began to talk, "We should also send out teams to check the forest for these titans. It would be great if we have information on what we could encounter in the forest."

"Yeah, that's also true," Laurence supported him.

Colonel Packard breathed out smoke from his mouth as he considered all the points made and came to a conclusion.

"Chapman, Johnny, Dexter and Leo would be on scouting duty," He said.

"Huh? But why them?" Laurence asked with a raised brow.

"I'm not sure they have what it takes to train people. The rest of you can recruit more people that can stand up for themselves and coach them on how things are done," Packard said and Laurence sighed tiredly and agreed.

'It's a good thing I wasn't on teaching duty. I don't like stress.' Dexter thought and he was about to leave when he saw a telephone with a wire connected to a cube shaped machine which was on a table.

"What is that?" He asked.

"Hm? This is a military telephone for reaching out to other military bases that were far away. Doesn't require satellite," Packard answered.

"Can it call cell phones too?" Dexter asked with eyes full of hope.

"I'm afraid not. Cell phones have a method of collecting and transmitting of energy. This one is different." Laurence clarified and Dexter nodded sadly.

...

After everything was settled they all made their way out of the main building and that's when Dexter remembered something.

"Hey. I forgot to say this. We got a few more rewards from killing the queen bee," Dexter said and Laurence and his men stopped along with Beatrice.

"Have you checked them out?" He asked and Dexter shook his head.

"You guys can have it. I and my team are about to enter Heaven's tower anyways," Laurence said and walked away with the others except Beatrice.

"Let's head to the room then," Zain said and Beatrice followed them.

She has already entered Heaven's tower but seems like she also needed to get stronger too.