Chapter 2 - Military Center

As he continued traveling in the overgrown field, he could now pull away a bit further from the road and look for a sign of any puddles. In his cargo pants, he was equipped with some things necessary for survival such as a flask, hence him separating from the road was to find a puddle that he could draw water from and wash the blood off of his face.

He eventually felt the ground under him become extremely soft and knew that there must have been some water nearby that had caused the soil to be so wet. Since it wasn't raining and hadn't for the last week or so from what he remembered, it had to be a pond or something. He carefully ventured deeper into the field and heard some grunts nearby but continued anyway. While he was moving into the field at a faster rate, the ground below him was getting wet and slushy, he reached down and was happy to feel the mud on his fingers.

At this point, he could no longer see the road so he crouched down even lower and moved in deeper until the water was now up to his ankles. However, he couldn't get any water yet because there was still a lot of mud! He then was realizing how bad of a decision he made as the grunts grow louder and the sound of a creature moving in water could be heard literally right beside him and he could actually see rustling near him!

Most people would have run away by now but his gene had reduced his stress and he walked closer to the water and stepping over the creature which he could now identify as a mutated but very young alligator. It had sharp blades leading up from his tail to his head and he could just barely see that it had plenty of pink and purple teeth indicating that it was poisonous!

He slowly reached down and filled his flask up with water, he ripped off a piece off his shirt and also dipped that into the water then used it to wipe himself clean. When he was done using the water he tried walking back slowly towards the road but was suddenly terrified of the alligator as it jumped at him from the grass!

He just managed to dodge it as his improved hearing had alerted him of the sudden movements leading up to the attack and then he landed a heavy kick towards the alligator's torso, flipping it away from him. He then remained silent and crept back towards the road without making too many sudden movements in case there was another creature that he could not see or hear yet.

The alligator was young but he knew that it would be impossible to kill it mainly because of the blades on his back! Choking it out wouldn't be possible because of them and he wouldn't be able to attack it in any other way either because a single brush of its teeth on his skin would be more than enough to render him unconscious or worse...

Hence, he safely escorted himself away from the water and finally reached the road and decided to stick with it unless he desperate for something else.

-

A few hours had passed and he still didn't find a single shelter but a number of cries and roars from the creatures that he wasn't in any position to meet right now. He even had to take an odd route around to avoid two creatures that were clashing against each other. However, his persistence had rewarded himself eventually, or so he thought as he ended up walking into a wall that was quite high and made recently because of the materials he saw that it was constructed with it.

He went off-road and chose a side blindly and start walking along the side of the wall until he eventually ran into no one else but his captain, Terrence.

"Sir?" Maxwell called out to him and the man that was currently leaning against the wall with his head over his hand. He looked up and almost cried when he saw Maxwell and threw himself onto him which was quite weird considering that he was the manliest guy he had ever seen.

Terrence pushed himself away shortly after and wiped his eyes before speaking, "I'm so happy one of you guys survived! I won't have to face expulsion any time soon, please follow me, we are at one of the gas stations, I need you to back up my story and we will both be better off."

Maxwell didn't say anything and nodded his head in approval, what Terrence had said was true, if only one of them made it back they would be treated as scavengers and kicked out from the military and their dreams of staying or becoming a member of the Rogue Unit would be crushed completely.

The two later walked onward towards the entrance which was heavily guarded by, of course, a Rogue Unit member and they had to offer some form of identification to him, luckily they both had tattooed barcodes on their arms that would act as identifications unless they were kicked from the military and in that case it wasn't a form of ID anymore. The soldier asked them to lift their arms to a small gap inside the wall and then he took his device out and scanned both of their arms before letting them inside.

The inside of the gas station there was a bunch of people and because of the barrier technology invented by one of the Rogue Unit generals, the inside of the base wasn't fogged up at all which was always a pleasant sight. It was the best of a view that they could ever get!

Terrence exchanged some information with the soldier and then he guided both of them toward a steel building with the words 'Military Centre' printed on top of it. These centers were designed for the military and soldiers would be able to have a place to stay and inside there was also a bar and working cable which usually played old movies or sometimes there would be an active news channel.

When they walked in, Maxwell was so happy to be a soldier at this moment and looked around at the exquisite interior. The soldier led them into an office where a high-ranked soldier was currently at work sorting some files, even when they walked inside he didn't look up at them until he was done.

A few minutes later, he dropped his pen and inspected the two thoroughly before speaking, "So, you must be the two that had arrived just there, please lift your arms," they both did as instructed and the man scanned their arms with his device then spoke again, "Terrence, glad to have you back, this guy, Maxwell is from your unit, affirmative?"

"Yes sir, this here is my right-hand man, Maxwell," Terrence said with a salute and for the sake of respect, Maxwell saluted him too once his name was mentioned. The man's face was annoyingly expressionless and they both knew he did not really want them around.

"So, Terrence, tell me... are you here as a pitstop, intel gathering or have you retreated from someplace?"

"We retreated from-"

"Retreated, isn't that just brilliant? How many men did you lose?" He cut Terrence off and then suddenly switched his mood from expressionless to uncontrollably angry.

"The whole squad except this man," Terrence responded without too much worry.

"You better be coming from Fort Juno..." when he said that both Terrence and Maxwell seemed to have relaxed and their shoulders no longer stiff with stress.

"Yes sir, we are soldiers from Fort Juno."

"What the hell are you guys doing out here?!" The man suddenly calmed down and asked them with a wry smile on him, he was incredibly bi-polar but they didn't seem to mind too much.

"Mission, of course," Terrence said with a straight face and silence had fell straight after so he continued to speak, "Electrical Factory, its a long drive but its worth it, as well as deemed acceptable by the missions committee," this was the department that dealt with handing out missions to ambitious soldiers that wanted to acquire more genes.

"Failure is not acceptable, you shouldn't have screwed up this much, I bet you lost a vehicle too?" the man all of a sudden got angry once again which seemed normal at this point.

"Not the committee's vehicle, mine own."

"You can serve all of that crap elsewhere but not here!"

"Registration number is 399SIDAC3, you must have something to verify it personally?" When Terrence said this the other man went silent and then looked up his details again and then went silent for a few seconds and stared at the screen in horror.

"Terrence Rogers... from the special forces in the Rogue Unit, although you are known for your great achievements you are also known to take overly-dangerous missions... I apologize for my behavior, it is only necessary in these times."

Terence did not even make a move and just stood there while looking the man dead in the eyes until the man coughed and sat there patiently until Terrence decided to speak, "Get us some beds, a meal, and a shower... once you're done, I will need access to the communication tower to send us a transport vehicle."

"Of course, sir," The man saluted Terrence and then walked out of the office to get on his tasks while Maxwell stood there dumbfounded at the situation. He knew that Terrence was a known soldier but didn't know he had this sort of authority in the military and at the time he chose him because the rewards for the mission were quite high.

"Maxwell, let's go get some food and I will head off to the communication tower a bit later while you shower, you stink with blood," he said calmly. Maxwell simply nodded and the two walked on towards the bar where a man was running from the kitchen and back preparing a meal for both of them. Other than him, there were a few other soldiers inside the base and a lot of them sat on their own and drank liquor or just beer, they seemed quite depressed and only glanced at the two of them.

Terrence took a seat at one of the tables and pulled out a cigar from his pocket, when Maxwell sat across from him he felt even more intimidated than before when he found out that this man was quite the brute in the military. The fact made about him is known for taking on dangerous missions wasn't wrong, if not for his greed maybe he would have risen up the ranks in a different manner.

"Maxwell, tell me, why did you decide to go along with me despite the danger level associated with the job?" he asked quite randomly and Maxwell had to think about it for a bit before he spoke.

"Well sir, considering the rewards related to the mission... the risk would be necessary if one wants to become stronger? Also, it would get me the chance to enlist for the Rogue Unit," He responded as he wasn't particularly worried about him knowing the truth and then asked something himself, "What was the reason for you to placing me as your assistant through the mission?"

"You have a gene given you at birth that lowers your stress, right? That kind of a gene is incredibly rare and now worth quite a lot... it helped in getting you here didn't it?" Terrence said while lighting his cigar.

"Probably..." before the two could speak much more, the food had come. Maxwell was pleasantly surprised to see a juicy steak next some rice and a few vegetables. The thing about military centers was that they would not be allowed to be used by soldiers unless they were on their way back from a mission, not to a mission and definitely not for deserters. That's why Terence exchanged information with the guard and had to be personally investigated by that soldier inside the office.

Terrence had eaten his Meal quite quickly excused himself before heading down to the Communications tower while Maxwell ate his meal up shortly after and went to take a shower and was given a fresh bundle of clothes.