Everyone in the room started heading out.
"Sir?" said Twitch.
"Traffic," said Nathan with a bored tone as he stroked his beardless chin.
While everyone was heading outside, a woman approached Nathan and Twitch.
She flashed a friendly smiled.
"Good morning, Captain. I"m part of Team 5 and my name is -"
Nathan yawned so wasn"t able to catch her name.
He pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
The woman"s friendly expression remained unchanged.
"Captain, please allow me to accompany you."
She sat down on one of the chairs nearby.
After a minutes or so, the room was finally empty except for the three of them.
He got up on his chair and flicked his cigarette away before grabbing his backpack.
He headed outside of the room and the two followed suit.
"Where are we headed?"
"Sir -"
"Captain -"
Having them talked at the same time, the two stopped and glanced at each other.
Nathan, on the other hand, upon hearing a female voice, turned around to see who was it coming from.
It was an average looking Caucasian woman, around her early 20s, about 5"7" tall, and had an athletic build - not the bodybuilder type.
Seeing the woman, Nathan squinted his eyes and remembered something.
He turned to Twitch.
"Did Rose mention to you anything about my request regarding a parkour instructor?
"I"m afraid not, sir."
He turned to the woman.
"And who the f.u.c.k are you?"
The woman was caught off guard only for a moment but immediately regained her composure.
She heard about Nathan"s infamous exploits and him being a Chosen One. And upon seeing his att.i.tude earlier and how Rose responded, she was impressed and wanted to leave a good impression on him.
Among the Scavenger Teams, teams with Chosen Ones usually have a lower casualty rate.
But in the case of Team 8, it was just pure bad luck that they encountered another Chosen One.
"Good morning, captain. My name is Kaija and a member of Team 5. I"m from Muwin."
He was surprised to hear she was from Muwin. He didn"t expect they were fellow countrymen because of her Caucasian-like features.
"Is this woman one of those crazies who like to identify themselves with whatever s.h.i.t they want? Kinda reminds me of the 30-year old man I saw in the news one time who identified himself as a unicorn."
Muwinians are typically browned skinned. And interestingly enough, in the Muwinian culture, most women and some men are obsessed with whitening their skin.
Nathan, however, wasn"t one of them.
He examined her features closely and only saw a handful of features that were typical of Muwinians.
He also tried to recall her accent. It sounded like a pure native Womanian.
As for the language used in Womania, it was Regisian, the national language of the country of Regisian, one of the most powerful countries in the world.
"Mixed race?" Nathan thought and asked her in Muwinian. "Which part of Muwin are you from?"
"The South. At Nila," she replied in Muwinian.
Hearing her speak in Muwinian, it was a little stiff.
"A woman from the Southern part of Muwin, huh."
He thought about someone from his past that was a Southern Muwinian.
Although Nathan grew up in the central region of Muwin, his parents are originally from the South and their religion was Iklas, but they weren"t as serious about it unlike other Southern Muwinians.
There are two religions that dominate in Muwin: Trinity and Iklas, making it a conservative country.
Northern and Southern Muwinians hated each other, mainly because of religion.
In the eyes of Northern Muwinians, the Southern Muwinians are too rigid in their beliefs and sees them as nothing but barbaric people unwilling to let go of their outdated beliefs.
On the other hand, in the eyes of Southern Muwinians, the Northern Muwinian are too lenient and sees them as nothing but hypocrites that likes to pretend to be pure and religious.
And in Nathan"s eyes, there were all the same - corrupted.
However, given that he grew up in a household where his parents, despite not being overly religious but more or less embodies the att.i.tude and practices of the Iklas religion and South Muwinians, and plus his own experiences in the past, his core beliefs more or less tilt towards the South Muwinian culture.
He turned to Twitch. "Kid, where are we going?"
"Tony"s Car Shop, sir. It"s right next to this building. That"s where all teams will go after gearing up."
Nathan looked over at Kaija.
She wasn"t carrying any weapons. Just an armor, boots and gloves from the System.
Noticing that Nathan was looking at her, Kaija immediately answered, "A friend of mine is holding my items, Captain."
"What about you, kid?"
"Sir, I"m a lover, not a fighter. Plus, I"m better off a.s.sisting you here as your eyes and ears."
"I guess not everyone shares the same desires with me…" Nathan thought. "Heh~ I thought you"re going to be my vice captain or something."
"Sir, the spot for your lieutenant has already been a.s.signed to a person named Bryan."
"Oh, where is he?"
"Sir, I believe he left right away to gear up."
He turned to Kaija.
"Hmm… Okay, you will be my lieutenant from now on."
"Captain…?" She was caught off guard.
She wasn"t expecting anything like this. The reason why she approached Nathan earlier was to leave him a good impression of her.
"Sir, you can"t -"
"It"s MY team, right? Or do I have to ask for Rose"s permission every time I take a dump?"
The two didn"t say anything after that.
The trio arrived at Tony"s Car Shop.
It was a large open warehouse.
In front of the shop were rows of cars and trucks, and there were many people walking around and carrying stuff.
Looking at the cars, he remembered the N1 zombie that slammed its body against Lester"s SUV. There was no way in h.e.l.l he was going to ride one, only a truck will do.
"Sir, that"s Team 5 and that"s Bryan talking to that mechanic over there."
Twitch pointed.
When Nathan approached his team, they all greeted him except for Bryan who was still busy talking to the mechanic.
"Yeah, I already fixed the brakes and I also did a few customizations. This baby is good to go," said the mechanic.
The two were talking about an armored truck that he, Brezine and the other teams looted two days ago. It was one of the four armored trucks.
"What about the other trucks?"
"They"re good to go as well. I even checked them myself earlier."
"Thanks, Tony. I owe you one," Bryan said.
"Yeah. I gotta go check on the other teams."
When Tony left, Bryan turned and saw Nathan.
He approached him immediately.
He greeted and offered his hand.
"Good morning, Captain. I"m Bryan. I"ll be serving as your lieutenant."
Nathan didn"t hear him and continued walking with Twitch and Kaija, and they were telling him some things.
"So these are the fresh recruits, while the others were transferred from the other Scavenger teams?"
"Yes, Captain."
Including Nathan, Team 5 had a total of 13 members. And based on what they told him, 7 of them were new recruits.
Nathan was etching their faces of the ones that got transferred from other Scavenger Teams in his head, including Bryan.
Team 5"s members were a mixture of s.e.xes - straight, gay, lesbian, trans and other things that Nathan could only wonder.
Well, the fact that Womania was a progressive country, such lineup was pretty much expected.
"What the f.u.c.k is this? Rainbow squad? Can these people even fight?" Nathan unconsciously muttered under his breath.
"Captain, to be able to join the Scavenger teams, most new recruits are trained for a couple of days before joining," Kaija said.
"A couple of days?"
"It"s only been about a week since the zombie apocalypse started! What is this b.i.t.c.h even talking about?"
"Yes, Captain. And the training is really intense."
"Yeah, sure. So where is the truck?"
Bryan, who was ignored earlier and has been silent for a while now, moved closer and spoke.
"Excuse me, Captain. If I may -"
"The h.e.l.l? Quit bothering me and f.u.c.k off!"
"Sir, that"s Bryan…" Twitch whispered on his shoulder.
Nathan raised an eyebrow as he looked at Bryan.
He turned to the rest members.
"All of you, gather around. I have an announcement to make."
He looked at Kaija.
"Miss, please come stand beside me."
"Yes, Captain."
Kaija stood 3ft away from Nathan.
"This is your Lieutenant. Anything you want to say to me, you go through her first and she will pa.s.s it to me. If I"m not around, you take orders from her."
"Wait! I object! You can"t do this!" Bryan shouted.
In the Scavenger Teams, if the captain dies, the lieutenant will be nominated as the leader and he/she can nominate a member to be a lieutenant. Meanwhile, if the lieutenant dies and the captain is still alive, he/she can nominate someone among the members. And if the captain didn"t nominate a lieutenant among the members of the team, the management will choose or send someone to fill that role.
As for the main reasons why many want to be the captain or lieutenant, it gives the person status within the organization, allowing one to have access to certain things and favors that normal members can"t get.
Nathan wasn"t aware of this.
In regards to Bryan, he didn"t have any intention of ignoring Nathan at all.
After what happened back at the meeting room, he decided to go straight away to Tony to ask about their vehicles and make sure that everything was okay. He was afraid that someone from the other teams might sabotage their vehicles out of revenge.
Nathan didn"t acknowledge him and said to Kaija, "Show me the truck."
"Yes, Captain. It"s this way."
Bryan was about to grab Nathan"s shoulder but was stopped by the other Team 5 members that knew him.
"Don"t do it, man."
"It"s not worth it, man. Chill."
"No! He can"t do this! This is against the rules!"
Bryan tried to break away from their hold.
"Just wait for the right moment, man."
"No! This is unfair!"
"Bryan!"
One of them grabbed him by the collar.
"Think about Lea! You want to risk your life just for the sake of a position?"
"Boozer, you don"t understand. Lea is sick! I needed this position so that I can ask the higher-ups to have Ashleigh heal her!"
Ashleigh"s status in the group was very special that not many people could just approach her. Even the captains can"t just approach her anytime they want.
In regards to her healing powers, the fact that it requires mana and it takes every 4 minutes to recover 1 mana point, she could only heal a number of people per day.
And although Bryan was part of the Scavenger Teams, there were a lot of people with terminal disease waiting in line to be healed by Ashleigh.
If he wanted to speed things up a little bit, he had to have a higher position within the group.
"Let me go. I just need -"
Bryan tried to break away again.
Boozer, who was still holding Bryan"s collar, pulled him closer to his face.
"Listen to me, Bryan! If you risk it now, then you lose all your chances of healing her!"
"I said f.u.c.king let go! I just want to talk!"
"You don"t get it! That man is already a dead man! Did you see how the Boss looks at him earlier? If there"s something that the Boss doesn"t like, it"s being disrespectful to her - I"ve seen it happen before."
Bryan finally stopped struggling.
Boozer released him and patted his shoulders.
"Don"t even bother asking favors from him. Just wait for the next chance, man."
Author"s thoughts:
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