"Of course you're not a monster, I know that." She looks at me confused and a bit shocked by my words. I hope that she'll still think the same about me when I finish my explanation. I clear my throat before speaking again.
"I'm Lieutenant Iselen Martin from the Special operation Group of the Spanish Army. I'm a Green Beret and a sniper... besides other things. My training was comprehensive and intensive and also includes skydiving, scuba diving, camouflage and survival techniques, languages, handling of explosives and more."
"I've never heard of women in the Special Forces before." She looks at me shocked again, her eyes rake over my body from head to toe, noticing my toned muscles and the knife scar on my arm. "Wait till you see my abs, honey," I think while trying to hide a cocky smirk.
"There're some girls in the Special Forces, above all working as a technician at the Command of the groups but the ones that serve in the frontline are a chosen few. In fact, you can count on one hand the women that work with me side by side. Our main law guarantees that we're all equal and no one may be discriminated against on any ground, no matter your race, ethnicity, gender, religion, social origin, opinion or any other status. And I stress the word 'gender,' so basically if you pass the test, you're in, even if you're a woman. What happens is that mental and physical test of special operations skills, tactics, techniques and procedures are pretty hard and hardly any women pass the test. Of course, they don't lower the standards for us and I can assure you that the instructors have no mercy for any applicant; quite the contrary, their job is to put as much pressure on us as possible. I almost failed some of the physical tests but I'm more skilled than my comrades in other areas, for example my shooting score is better than the one of my Commander." Ruby is still looking at me like I'm a weirdo.
"Listen, one day we were... in a horrible place in one of those countries where the sand covers everything, backed into a corner with a steep rock wall behind us while a group of enemies was coming for us. We didn't have a clear shot from there so we had to wait unable to move and we couldn't fire until we were able to see the whites of their eyes; that meant some of us would end up wounded. I grab my rifle and climbed the wall till I reached a ledge a few feet above the ground, quick as a cat in record time, and I shot our enemies from the distance keeping my team safe. I climbed down and we rushed out that place. Due to their body weight they'd never be able to climb that wall, not as fast as I did it. Do you think my comrades are bad soldiers because of that?" Ruby shakes her head firmly. "Then, do you think I'm a bad soldier because I don't have their brute force? And I can assure you that pure and simple brute force is rarely necessary, other thing is endurance under adverse conditions... I have tons of that. It's a matter of mental power over physical power."
"I'm pretty sure that you're a great soldier," she answers smiling. "But I don't understand why I have to marry you and become Mrs. Martin... or something like that." I clear my throat, this is the hard part to explain."
"You're now Mrs. Langenheim, women don't take the name of their spouse in Spain and their children use two surnames, the first one of each parent. You're you and you'll still be you, with your own identity completely independent from mine. It's always been like that, it's not a new feminist thing." Ruby smiles again, I think that she likes the idea of keeping intact her identity. I go on with my explanation. "Some time ago, when all those Resident Evil movies and some other like Doom where in vogue, the NATO speculated about the possibility of a real zombie apocalypse. We were forced to participate in an international evacuation and containment drill, named with the code 666, that we took as a joke to be honest. We thought that something like that was impossible, it seemed crazy to us, so we enjoyed those days like they were a retreat with soldiers from other countries, packed with recreational activities such as teambuilding days, training courses and technical days and we didn't think about the 'zombie issue.' That week, the General that was our superior officer took my team into a separate room and explained us everything about other operation, a serious and well-planed military operation, which would be launched in case of... well, he didn't thought about zombies, but rather a global epidemic of any kind. The Safe Zone operation is..."
