He Was Almost Absorbed By The System - Part Two

Chapter One Hundred And Seventy Eight - The General's Base

The secret army's base of operations was perhaps cliché in the fact that it was actually underground. Indeed their base was in a basement below the main switchboard which was the hub of communications across the city. This was also not so unexpected if an outsider were to think about it; able to access the switchboard so easily, they were privy to everything!

As the horror of the outbreak became clear, General Reginald Fort and his close subordinates had commandeered the building above them, clearing out the individuals who had turned before them, even as his squadrons fought outside of the building to ensure their safety. It was swift and decisive and the building was declared a safe zone, but it was one that required expansion.

The politicals, who had not turned, as well as a few well known personages such as the Crown Prince, immediately demanded via the switchboard, that they be rescued by the armed forces. The General was disdainful, not wanted to risk his men for this handful who were in places out of their immediate reach. The army barracks within the city had their hands full dealing with their own men, who had been sick within their beds before turning into undead. The police were mostly lost within days of the outbreak, desperately trying to keep the peace upon the streets and ultimately failing, ill equipped to deal with these monstrosities. In the end, the General and his counterpart in the barracks agreed that the politicals would have to wait until the situation was more stable.

Both men sought to create a decent space of safety about them, they spoke about perhaps uniting, but in truth, their locations were quite far apart.

The General claimed close by buildings, as well as resorting to collapsing others to create a ring around his base. It was not overly large, perhaps five hundred metres in radius, but it was a beginning. They accepted refugees, but were quick to learn that those scratched by the zombies could in turn become zombies themselves. It was a slower turning, more obvious that the sickness that had ultimately resulted in this outbreak, but less of swift pace of a zombie bite. A bitten person might not even last thirty minutes before their whole body was transformed.

With increasing numbers refugees placed in isolation or allowed to enter the base, the obvious flaw to their survival became apparent. Their food supplies were rapidly deteriorating. A few of their brighter minds had already saved seeds from their fruits and certain vegetables, but although they could plant them now, their supplies would disappear before they even sprouted at this rate!

Thus the General sent his squads and any brave souls who wished to join them to collect food from the nearby area and beyond. Also, he placed a strict rule that those upon his base who wished to eat, must work for their supper. Most commoners were used to such ideas, so would clean, learn to grow food, build more permanent walls, almost anything asked of them. The nobles did not like this and fought with the General and his men, which resulted in a humiliating loss for them. The General even went so far to offer them a switch knife and point them to the newly formed gates in the wall. They acquiesced immediately.

It had been a month since the apocalypse, but the General had created order within that time upon his base. The first seeds had begun to sprout in the ramshackle green houses and there was a small whisper of hope beginning to spread throughout the base. Even more so when the first survivor to appear in five days came accompanied by a notorious squad that the small populace had learned to avoid at all costs.

"This boy is the vigilante?" To the General, this youth looked too skinny despite the forming muscles upon his arms and legs, but that was not the true reason for his sneers. The boy was too good-looking and his lover did enjoy visual beauty too much for his liking.

"I am twenty one," the youth argued, he had had this confirmed by the landlady before the end. Unfortunately, she had turned into a zombie, bitten by the looks of it, so he had put her out of her misery.