CHAPTER 94: EVERYTHING HAS ITS PURPOSE

Death breeze flew across the iron gate of the barracks, carrying with it black polythene bags, wrapped together with a yellow rubber band.

Two soldiers standing at the sides of the closed gate, their eyes wide and sharp as an eagle, stretched their spears as they noticed two people walking through the smoke and approaching the barracks wall.

Clicking sound echoed as one of the two soldiers shook his spear, letting the short chain slam on the top surface of the triangular-shaped iron shimmering under the moon’s gaze.

After shaking the spear for straight five minutes, the black-skinned guy standing in a ready-to-fight stance loosened his grip on his spear, then turned to the guy shaking the spear.

"Cut the crap... can’t you see it’s our senior and the lady everyone wants..." he said, turning a slightly sharp gaze at the fat guy, then moved two steps back and leaned on the wall.

Whistling sound erupted from the guy as Oin and Jinx appeared from the smoke, but he squeezed his eyes and frowned when he noticed a blood-stained girl resting at the left shoulder of Oin.

Both soldiers greeted them and opened the gate for Oin, Jinx, and the girl wrapped on Oin’s shoulder to pass.

While the black guy kept a sharp gaze at the scattered hair and face of the girl, the fat guy stared at the wobbling ass of Jinx.

The fat soldier’s tongue dangled in the air as he wet his lips with it.

"James..." the black-skinned soldier shouted as he walked toward the fat guy and slapped the back of his neck.

A wet sound echoed as the guy’s palm landed at the back of the fat soldier. The moment he drew his arm back, the fat soldier raised his left arm and screeched it at the back of his neck.

"WTF... bro!" the fat guy said, frowning as he endured the elected pain that drew his attention from the wobbling ass he saw to be a hymn being played by a naked angel.

The black-skinned laughed and moved to his post.

For over an hour, they stood there, chuckling at themselves, and in that time frame, their eyes remained at the sides of both roads; from the left and the right.

For their spears, it screamed under their tight grips as if it was their last hope of survival.

Inside the closed gate of the barracks, soldiers moved across the large courtyard, marching in groups and halting at one particular monument.

Each of the soldiers standing at the front of the queues raised their sword and stretched it at the half-side of a human figure and closed their eyes.

From their backs, female soldiers holding red dresses walked, marching in unison and halting at the front of the soldier stretching their sword.

From all four sides of the monument, the ladies leaned at the side of the monument, calmly placing the bouquet of roses on the raised platform beneath the monument, then saluted.

Loud echoing sound erupted as Max and all the senior soldiers marched toward the monument, their weapons at their sides. They moved in an X arc, drew their weapons, and bowed to the monument.

They bowed for ten minutes, and within that period, the moon’s ray moved from the last soldier standing in the courtyard and landed on the name carved boldly on the raised platform.

THE SHIELD OF BION CITY

LIEUTENANT GRAY

That night, as every last soldier standing in the courtyard moved to their rooms, leaving those on duty to guard the barracks and the city, silence ruled in the courtyard.

Dried leaves spun, drifting and tilting under the movement of the wind. One after another, they surrounded the monument in the same stance like the soldiers, as if the trees were also paying their respect to the monument.

...

Months flew by, turning the dead trees to life, and the strong trees dead.

In those months, more soldiers sent to the city to search for civilians got affected by the zombified virus; the name the barrack’s technician gave to the rising tension.

In the lab, which now was dislocated into the abandoned training ground at the side of the junior dormitory, where Lieutenant Gray and the unyielding kid senior corporal everyone feared used to train.

Metal crashing sound echoed in the open door of the lab, and inside it, countless zombified soldiers remained restrained in huge chains that were wrapped around them like a full-grown man’s outfit.

Under the drawer at which one slightly leased female zombified human laid on, Ryo stood there shoveling through the metals packed in the drawers.

And when he straightened himself, his body had transformed from the one point one-meter height to one point seven meters.

Ryo moved toward the untied and trembling hand of the female zombie, carved a wound at its shoulder, then inserted a neatly sliced stone into it.

The moment the stone touched the skin of the zombified lady, she screamed, grinned her teeth, and turned a sharp gaze at Ryo.

At that instant, the technician, who had also grown in terms of height and weight, walked toward Ryo, holding countless stones, same in size with the one Ryo had used.

"Did it work this time?" the technician asked, her male voice now sounding slightly in a feminine tone.

Ryo nodded, opened the drawer in which he took the stone from, and helped her place the stone in it.

And as the drawer got pushed out, a stone with a human eye shape fell, slammed on the ground, and shattered.

The technician smiled as she spotted a green thin gas erupting from the stone.

Instead of closing her mouth or telling Ryo to do same, she leaned in the direction the gas was traveling, raised both halves of the stone, and placed them on the chest of the zombified lady.

"Everything has its purpose..." she said, turned a calm gaze at Ryo and back at the zombified lady.

The moment the green gas stopped, the sickly green veins of the zombified lady vanished, leaving her skin as new as a freshly born baby.

And for the first time, the zombified lady stopped behaving madly, looked at the technician and Ryo, blinked, then smiled.

Seeing the smile on the lady’s face, Ryo exhaled deeply and hugged the technician.

"Kai’s awakening that turned the nurse into a stone has now turned a blessing for us," he said, tightening his arms at the back of the technician.

Outside the lab, few soldiers walking by stopped as they heard joyous screams erupting from the lab.

They paused, turned confused gazes at each other. Their eyes widened as they saw the lady they all knew had turned into a zombie and was locked in the lab exiting and walking calmly like one of them.

As the lady fully exited through the gate, Ryo and the technician walked out of the gate, holding their arms and smiling.

...

Meanwhile, at the far distance outside the walls of Bion City, and in the far western side of Westeros, countless monks dressed in wine-colored dresses stood there, their hands placed at their backs.

At their front, seven men stood there, their faces sharp as newly sharpened sword.

And at the back of one boy with long black and blue hair, a lady with a slightly aged body stood there, smiling.