Fate Online: Shadow

This is a Stronghold in the Apocalypse chapter.

I apologize for the inconvenience.

Meanwhile.

Inside the isolated navy vessel near the bay.

"Sir, it seems they have left for good"

A skinny young man in sailor uniform put down his binoculars and turned towards a middle aged man with a ragged appearance and just from his physique, he's seen his better days.

Which is not befitting for someone with the highest rank in the vessel.

The old man just nodded with a sigh, and just the expression on his face, someone would quickly notice that he's conflicted about something.

"With all due respect, but was it wise to not immediately contact them, sir? There's a good chance that they already know that there are survivors living in this vessel" said the young man, as he's really confused about why their Captain didn't take the initiative to make contact with Alex and the others earlier.

After all, it's not like there aren't any survivors on land that hadn't seen them before.

The old man just subtly smiled at the young man's words and said, "Don't worry, they will come back"

"How do you know that sir?"

"Gut feeling kid"

The young man has a confused look on his face while the old man just smiled like an amicable old man.

"Really?"

The young man was skeptical. After all, in his head, those people were their path to their survival as their appearance here is already a clear indication that there's a survivor camp out there and with a military might capable of taking on the menace of this world.

And obviously, the young man came to that conclusion when he saw that weird looking aircraft that looked like something that came out of a movie.

"Haha, it's called a gut feeling kid. You'll understand what I mean when you are old enough and had seen more of what the world can offer"

The old man soon then left the bridge after a hearty laugh.

"I hope so, because our food reserve for this month is running out soon, and that mutated zombie that can control other zombies out there already couldn't wait to get his hands on us if we ever disembark on land again"

"I just wonder what's that zombie's deal that it continuously targets us every time we scavenge supplies on land. Just what is it that it's so attracted to us?"

The young sailor just sighed to himself and sat on the chair at the side, and kept a lookout at the surrounding waters.

Somewhere inside the ship.

"Just what kind of plant have you become?"

The old captain gazed at the small bonsai tree lying on the desk in front of him, and what's weird is that it had beared fruits that had a similar appearance to a Clementine.

The old man sighed helplessly to himself because he had long had a hunch that this bonsai tree is the reason why that mutated zombie kept going after them, and had been camping on them ever since.

And at the same time, he doesn't dare to ingest any of its fruits as he doesn't know what might become of him if he does.

"But those people from that strange looking aircraft, they might know something about it. And if they do, then we can use this bonsai tree as a ticket for us to join them. I just hope it's something good because I'm already out of ideas, and the ship is already on its last straw because we can't repair some of its damaged parts as we can't properly scavenge the materials from the other ships because of that damnable zombie!"

The amicable look on the old man was suddenly replaced by hatred when he remembered the people who died because of that zombie who had been hunting them down!

And he wanted revenge more than any other!

Soon after that, the old man closed the door of his room and soon went to bed.

Around the ship, multiple faint snoring sounds could be heard, along with whispers of people talking to each other, and through the dimly lit surroundings, anyone would see the skinny bodies sleeping on the cold hard floors.

And while all of that was happening, two of the groups of survivors who had followed Alex to the base had already escaped to different directions, while the remaining group of six survivors remained behind.

"Aren't we gonna escape too?" said one of them in a panicky voice.

"No, we'll stay here, and behind the safety of the walled encampment"

One of the women replied with a voice full of confidence before she turned around and started walking toward the gate.

"What the hell are you talking ab-ohhh!"

One of them was about to angrily retort to her when the gate that they had thought was closed before actually opened up a bit from slight push from the woman which made the man and the rest flabbergasted.

"Told ya that it was wisest thing that we remained behind"

The woman turned her head towards them with a proud smile on her face, and then gave the gate a powerful push as the view inside slowly came into their view.

"Oh my god, yes! How did you know that it was actually open!? I'm pretty sure it was closed earlier and wouldn't even budge no matter how hard we tried to open it" asked one of them.

The woman just smiled but she didn't quickly give an answer as her gaze remained at the horde in the distance, "Bring the cars inside first. We'll talk about it later"

After that, all of them scrambled and drove their two vehicles inside before closing the gate and made sure it was locked tightly so no one could enter anymore after them.

And when they finally did that, they felt that their bodies were washed with relief behind the safety of the almost five meter tall concrete wall.

Soon after, the woman told them that she had actually noticed a shadow under the gate when they were arguing earlier, and whoever it was that left then, she suddenly had a hunch and finally discovered that the gate was actually open when she gave it a slight push, but she didn't share her discovery to the others.

"So that's the reason why you were so adamant earlier that we should leave last"

Realization finally dawned on them when they remembered how angry she was trying to convince them earlier and they also felt lucky that they listened to her.

"Happy now? Now, let's go look around the place and see what they left behind. I'm pretty sure that they didn't bring everything with them when they left"

Saying that, she scanned their surroundings before her eyes landed on the cargo truck in the middle of the place.

"Let's start with that truck, there should be something inside, and the others should look for a place where we can sleep for the night"

"Okay!"

Soon, they split into two groups, one group went to look for the sleeping quarters while the others group made their way towards the truck.

"F-food! Th-there's a lot of food inside! Hahaha, yes!"

"Shut up, lower your voice, you dumbas*!"

The woman angrily scolded the man for being loud, and even though the man was angry, he didn't say anything as he can only let her be proud this time because she had just saved them from their dangerous predicament,..for now that is.