Stronghold In The Apocalypse

"You fell unconscious for three days after being thrown by Captain Austin for over two kilometers" a man named Logan was the first one to answer while giving a small nod.

"What!?" Charlie opened his eyes wide in shock as he wasn"t expecting to hear that he actually flew for two kilometers.

Suddenly, there were multiple footsteps heading towards them.

Charlie, Rose and others looked over towards the direction of the sound and they saw Austin along with three soldiers armed with M16 Rifles slowly walking over towards them.

"You looked like someone who got hit by a powerful typhoon and now looked like s.h.i.+t!" it was Austin"s first comment when he again saw Charlie lying on the bed and had already woken up and currently being surrounded by his companions.

"Hmmp! Isn"t it because you"re a monster in a human skin?" Charlie snorted with a bit of anger in his eyes.

"No, no, no! You got that one wrong. I"m no monster…"

"I"m just too awesome!" Austin grinned at them looking incredibly proud at how he bullied this guys.

Charlie and the rest literally spurted a mouthful of blood when they heard how much he overpraised himself.

"Anyway, I wasn"t here to just visit you. The madam had already a.s.signed a job for you guys" Austin looked at them and said.

Their ears immediately p.r.i.c.ked up when they heard. After all, they been staying here for three days and freeloading without doing much to help around especially when they saw that everyone living here had a duty of their own which made them even feel more miserable for not doing anything.

The worse is that the kids here looks at them full of disdain like their eyes are telling them "You"re just eating and not even doing anything? Shame on you, freeloaders! Even us kids have our own ch.o.r.es around here!" and that"s watering the plants in the somewhat huge garden behind Leo"s Mansion.

What"s more those kids here could even fight better than them! And they are sure that they would be no match if those kids had the same strength like they do!

d.a.m.n! How frustrating!

That"s the reason why they have been eagerly waiting to be appointed to a duty but that"s not the only reason why they want to have their own task around the base. Their actual purpose is to actually acc.u.mulate a lot of merits and maybe they could even discover a valuable item if they are able to join one of the Hunting Squads so that they could purchase an Exoskeleton Combat Suit that they saw the first time they arrived here!

And the only people that are equipped with the Exoskeleton Combat Suit are the soldiers/members of the First Hunting Squad lead by Caleb and David.

Sadly for them, if only they knew that they could also learn magic here then they would probably turn crazy at wanting to complete more task just so that they could get a spot to join the Elite Hunting Squad also known as the Magic Corps, consisted mostly of young bloods that have been carefully picked to learn one of the core secrets of the camp!

Unfortunately for Charlie and his group, they didn"t know anything about this group as the people who managed to join it was training in secret somewhere in Hope 101 but the reason they didn"t hear anything about this group is because this is considered a Top Secret that even the people who was the first batch to join the base when they got rescued didn"t even know anything about this much less newcomers like them and only the upper echelons of the base knew about this.

"So what is it?" Rose eagerly said.

Austin smiled when he saw the eager look in their eyes as he somehow understand why they are acting like this while at the same feeling lucky and fortunate that he and his family were able to meet Leo early and join his bandwagon.

"You guys will join the Expedition Squad" Austin said with a blank tone while looking at every single one of them.

"Expedition Squad?" Marcus muttered with a confused look on his face as they also started looking each other as they really never heard of a Expedition Squad before.

"Are there others with us?" Charlie asked weakly.

"No, it"s only gonna be you guys who will be part of the Expedition Squad"

"What?~" the five of them almost said it simultaneously! They didn"t expect that! They thought that they would at least join Austin"s Hunting Squad or another group at most.

But they didn"t expect that they would have a Squad of their own! Which is really great but…
"Just hearing the word Expedition..do you want us to explore places?" Charlie was the one among them who wasn"t that bit excited about it. After all, he knows how dangerous it is to live under the scythe of the Grim Reaper.

But of course, if he only knew what his companions saw when they first came here then he would probably be acting like them by now and not even think about how dangerous their job would be.

Austin already knew what he was worried about and immediately added, "Don"t worry, you guys would be fully equipped with all the equipments you need so get some rest and immediately heal yourself back so that you guys can finally start"

Austin said before he turned around and left the building with his men following behind him.

Charlie just stared at the back of Austin with a pondering look on his face while his companions are excitedly chattering about their new undertaking and then from the corner of his eye, Charlie finally noticed something out of place among them.

"Anthony...what the heck happened to your face while I was out?" Charlie asked trying to stifle his laughter because he was feeling dazed earlier. Only now did he noticed Anthony"s bruised face, who currently have two black eyes.

"Huh? It"s nothing" Anthony was a bit startled by the sudden question so he just gave a dry laugh as he didn"t want to even mention what happened to him anymore.

Another man named Ivan around thirty years old immediately bellowed as he laugh and said, "He got beaten up by Captain Austin just after you fell unconscious a few days ago, hahaha!"

"Shut up! No one was asking you!" Anthony immediately flared up due to that embarra.s.sing event a few days where he couldn"t even put up a fight and where he just laid helplessly on the ground as he watched Austin"s fist bombarding his face and the only good thing is that Austin made sure to hold back so his punches weren"t that heavy but it still gave him a black eye on both of his eyes.

"Hahaha!" then all of them started laughing at him which made it even worse.

"d.a.m.n you all! I"m outta here!"

Bang!

Anthony angrily stormed out of the hospital but not before kicking the bed Charlie was resting on.

A moment later, their laughter finally stopped.

"So why did he suffered like that while you guys look fine instead?" Charlie asked, feeling curious inside about why this people in front of him didn"t suffer like Anthony.

"Actually, we really don"t know why that happened to Anthony because when Austin sent you flying we immediately ran towards the direction where you were sent flying and when we finally reached where you landed, only did we noticed that Anthony wasn"t with us" Marcus said.

Rose b.u.t.ted in and said, "Yeah, we thought he had just fallen behind us or maybe even got attacked without us noticing it but when me and Logan decided to look for him. We all heard a piercing scream from the direction of where Boss Leo and rest were so immediately picked you up and hastily headed where we were greeted by the scene of Anthony getting pummeled on the ground which was pretty hilarious I must say with how he flailed like a girl!" Rose gave a laugh at the end when she remembered the scene of Anthony getting pummeled appeared in her mind.

"Well, he had it coming" Logan added from the side while knitting what looks like a scarf.