Chapter 676 - Deadline
A few days passed in the blink of an eye and I actually followed Marisha’s advice.
I took it easy for a few days and I just did things that would calm me.
It was mostly goofing around with Kaley, Zeus, family, and friends, reloading cartridges, doing administrative work, working out, and giving training to those who needed it. Well, the training included babysitting for our young ones and introducing their new friends.
All of them just gelled up nicely since almost all of them had the same interests as each other.
Sheila and Melanie were present to look after their younger siblings but they didn’t last long when they started running after them at our parkour center. Those little devils equipped with protective gear and the promise of getting ice cream if they catch me afterward was enough to bring catastrophe to the world.
It was still a little awkward for the two that I know their secrets but as Marisha said to them, they just needed to forget about it and slowly start over. They were free to do anything they wanted for a time period but as long as it was on the right track.
They were also responsible for helping their younger siblings with the adjustment even if they were still adjusting themselves to the new people and environment. Things would be different from now on and it was also up to them if they could recover faster.
On the other hand, my main group except for Kaley and Tatiana continued to follow the lead of Artem as they started to dig deeper into the places we haven’t visited yet.
They went to places where hordes and infested areas were spotted and they took them down without suffering losses.
Kristoff was already a devastating loss from their small group and that led them to learn a powerful lesson. Even if they were against a single deadhead that wasn’t even remotely similar to the one that killed their comrade, they’d take it down with extreme violence.
It was a totally different vibe every time they’d go on their own runs because they’d almost always burn through their ammo reserve, except for Jared and Ibarra. They’d just burn through half of them but nevertheless, they were using more than what they were provided.
That reserve was specifically tucked away on the way back in case anything happens and the reason I’m not saying much was that they’re still grieving Kristoff’s death and the number of bodies they’d leave after they were done was fucking staggering.
It was more than twice a few roaming groups combined and that wasn’t including the ones they took down with their handheld weapons.
Their bodycam footage was proof of their kills and the number of casings that came back checked out. There were always a few or a bunch they hadn’t picked up but If they were stashing ammo somewhere, Jared would’ve noticed and we’ve already established a good relationship with them, it would be fucking stupid to do that if I could give them all they could shoot.
With that said, we came upon a deadline. A very specific deadline that should be met.
It was about the people that the president dumped on me that were to be executed.
Last week, the president sent me a group of people that I was supposed to welcome on my fold but the thing was, some of them committed crimes against our people that warranted a bullet in the head. Furthermore, their family members here were the ones that were supposed to put them down and I needed to be the one that would make sure that they’d see it through.
One of Morales’ officers, Jose, had already done his job but the others were still thinking of ways to reverse the order.
In which case, I offered them seven days to convince me to overturn the president’s decision and just take them in, and the rest of their relatives from Mindanao instead.
They were still locked up in their cells in the meantime but now was the time to tell me about what they thought about, obviously with the help of Morales and the rest of his soldiers.
When it was finally time, I received a call from Morales himself and he asked me to drive into a specific location.
It was this Eastern University right in the middle of Malabon City and Monumento.
This university had nine buildings all-in-all and it had a huge open lot right in the middle. It was cleared pretty recently and all of the entrances and exits were blocked off, leaving this place as a blank canvas. Furthermore, the surrounding buildings were also secured to make sure that there wouldn’t be a lot of issues once relocating starts.
A number of things were already running through my head but then I opened my mouth.
“So, this is what you guys thought about?”
Morales replied, “What do you think?”
“What do you plan to do with it?”
“Another outpost large enough to bridge the gap between our three main bases and our roaming outposts. We could send mobile outposts all-day long but we’re guzzling gas when we started to do it. Yes, it’s safer for everyone but we need something to cut our usage of gas for more than half and we need someplace where we could safely expand.”
“Hmm…”
“I’m saying this because once the rest of our family members are sent here, we can’t just let them be padding for our existing jobs available. With that said, the same can be said with my city. As you already know, the majority of the people living in my base are soldiers and even if they’re learning new things as per your instruction, they’re still soldiers…”
“You’re right about that… What are you saying then?”
“What I’m saying is… once… once they arrive, I’ll be taking a small portion of that group and a larger portion of my current group to build this place up. We’d obviously need a larger number of soldiers around these parts while we’ll need more people to bring back more aquatic resources from our original base. Well, we’d need a few farmers to start us up here obviously but we’d need to worry about security. I’ll–”
“You’d also need a doctor, a few nurses, mechanics, technicians, carpenters, cooks, and the like.”
“Y-Yeah, but–”
“I’ll handle those. I’ll pick a few people and I’ll see which of them wanted a promotion. This place is much larger than our outposts in Pulo and in Meycauayan… you’d need all the help you can get.”
“Y-You mean…?”
“Yeah, I like this idea. But…”
“But what?”
“I appreciate the work you did here but what part did your cousin and the rest of them play in this?”
“Since Col. Goodman entrusted me with the keys to their cells when you were away, they contributed with the work we’ve done here. I gave them the proper tools for the job– and before you tell me I shouldn’t even give them guns, we were all watching their every move. They had plenty of chances to rise up but they didn’t… I talked to them multiple times about the difference of this place compared to the president’s place and they really wanted to start over here…”
“…”
“Granted they still needed to smooth out the conflict they had with the Russians– Artem and his soldiers, I think one of your ‘events’ could fix that. It worked for me, it’ll work for them. However…”
“Hmm?”
“We weren’t able to do anything about one of ours that forced himself into a civilian.”
“I remember that guy. I told him that if he can’t prove himself innocent, I’ll have his dick cut off. What do you mean by you weren’t able to do anything?”
“We tried contacting the person who accused him of the act but she was missing.”
“Missing? How?”
“We don’t know. She was in one of the work camps away from the president’s main HQ and she just disappeared as they said. She could have deserted the camp or was now a deadhead but we aren’t sure what happened to her until they find her body. No one just disappears like that without notice from our soldiers. With that said, no one can prove whether he really is guilty or not…”
“How about the NPA? Could she have been kidnapped or could she have been a member?”
“The people I got in contact with aren’t exactly sure but they would’ve already found her body given the timeframe, dead or alive.”
“Wait– Didn’t all of them got processed?”
“I think all of them are– You mean… Mrs. Payan? Your wife’s mother?”
“Yeah… Just a sec…”
I actually forgot that Marisha already talked to them but what I didn’t know yet was the result of her evaluation. 𝐧𝒪𝔳𝓔𝗅𝑵𝞮xt.𝗰𝑂𝓂
A lot of things have popped up in this past week and this issue kinda similar to what we just went through was almost forgotten.
Long story short, someone will be happy that he wouldn’t be turned into a eunuch.
Granted Marisha’s insight capabilities weren’t exactly 100% foolproof, digging deep into someone’s mind could reveal a lot of things. Memories and recollections could be brought out subconsciously and sometimes, with her own techniques, suggest a narration that could reveal what exactly happened in the person’s eyes.
This thing was bordering to be pseudo-scientific but nevertheless, that soldier would still be closely monitored.
Despite Marisha’s findings, I’d still need solid proof but until we could find the accuser, we would just delay passing judgment, or if his future behavior and actions proved contrary to what he was accused of, everything would just go as it should.
After some time, it was finally decided that Morales would lead this new outpost with a few of his hand-picked soldiers while Jose would be the one leading their base at Navotas City. I would supply his much-needed people and resources until their positions would be filled up and we will gradually cut down our roaming groups right until this outpost could stand on its own.
It’s just that Iskoh caught wind of what we were doing and he decided to lend a hand as well.
Since this place would be a pivotal point between our bases, he decided to supply what he could spare plus a bit of padding to the soldiers keeping the place secure. If nothing else, the president had given us more soldiers than resources to go around.
However, the challenge was how we could smoothly integrate the people who would be coming once I tell the president the news.
Since Iskoh already decided to lend a hand, some of the people that’ll be arriving should go to his place.
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