Chapter 2: Lifeless eyes.

Once more, very soon, Bernard knocks at the door and unlocks it. He calls Steve out, for one more day of work. Again he gives a bucket and a mop to the lad and this time takes him to the mess hall. The mess hall is big and it's pretty unclear, mainly because among the civilians who eat there, some kids usually drop a lot of food on the floor. Bernard said:

- When you finish, I give you the can opener. The problem is that the beans expire tomorrow, you better clean fast.

After saying this, the man goes back to his room, and the armed soldiers stand by on the mess hall's door. The lad gets set to mop the floor. He rubs fast, trying to finish already, but part of the dirt is quite stuck to the floor. He rubs over and over. He then sees someone entering the mess hall and going to the kitchen. It was Melanie, the little survivor girl from the family he and the others have killed. She gets a handful of food in a bowl and then goes to Steve. She kicks the bucket, dropping all the water across the floor. Right after she walks out of the mess, she says goodbye to the soldiers securing the place and goes back to her room.

Steve has rubbed half of the mess hall, but he has to rub as quick as ever now, or the dropped water will dry. He rubs and scrubs, trying to spread the water that got dropped. He then turns to the soldiers and asks:

- Can't you bring another bucket?

- No. - One of them answers, laughing at the situation.

He goes back to mop. Part of the water has already dried, but it is still possible to clean with the other portion. He wipes up until where he can, but then the water dries totally. Bernard goes back to the hall, to see the guy's progress. Nearly everything is clean, but he sees a part of the floor that is still unclean. He looks at Bernad and the other soldiers then grabs the mop and goes to the part that was still unclean. He crouches and scours the floor hard, using the mop. He can take out the dirt with a lot of effort but grazes all his fingers.

Bernard congratulates him, goes to the kitchen, and gets a can opener. He sees a woman there, turned to the wall. He puts the opener on the table and approaches her. He says:

- Lady, excuse me but you can't get food anymore today. The last one to take it was a little girl some minutes ago.

The woman does not answer. Bernard holds her by her shoulder and pulls her softly. She turns and screams deafening. Her skin has high veins and her eyes were red around. She tries to attack Bernard, but he runs out of the kitchen. She follows him to the mess hall and on the way, she falls on the floor and starts screaming and contorting. The soldiers already point their guns and Steve raises the mop.

The woman slowly stands up and turns to the soldiers. Her eyes were completely white. She has turned into one of the zombies. She walked to them, limping on one leg. Suddenly, she looks in Steve´s direction and walks towards him. She tries to grab him, but he defends himself with the mop, pushing her back. She falls on the floor and the soldiers open fire. She turns her face to them while she takes the gunshots until one of them hits her face. She stops moving. Blood had spilled all around. Bernard looked at Steve and said:

- Still unclean.

Steve went to the woman's body, grabbed the mop, and started rubbing the blood. All the soldiers looked at him, surprised by what he was doing. Bernard then said:

- What are you doing?

- Cleaning, duh. You said it's still unclean. My frie... the others who are with me have to eat. I need the can opener. - The boy keeps rubbing.

- Take him to the lab to see if he is infected. Freaking shit, what a ludicrous guy! - Bernard got out of the room after saying this.

The other soldiers told Steve to stop cleaning and escorted him to the lab, keeping a distance from him. Many scientists are working there on a kind of research. The soldiers came in pushing Steve, threw him inside of a room with a fake mirror, and closed the door. The soldiers asked for the scientists to verify if the boy is infected.

Steve looked around, unsure of where he is. The walls are white, and there is nothing there. A gas gets released into the room. Steve looks around but sees no place to run, so he just hopes the gas is not lethal. In a few minutes, the room is entirely covered in gas. He feels nothing with the gas and gets calm, but still finds all of that weird. Some seconds go by and the gas dissipates. The door opens and he is taken out of there. The scientists approach him and point a white flashlight to his eyes. They turn off the flashlight, whisper something among them, and then tell the soldiers they can take the boy, for he is not infected.

The other assassins sleep in the small room when the door opens and Steve is thrown inside again. The door is locked and the soldiers go away. Yumi wakes up with the noise of Steve falling on the floor. She gets close to see if he is alright. He seems tired, but nothing abnormal. The three others are then pulled out of the room to make the same kind of test. The test is also negative for them, so they are taken back to the room. The door is once more locked, and they are left there, into the cold floor.

After that, soldiers take civilians to the same lab to which they have taken Steve before. They have to make the tests of infection too, as there has been an incident with an infected there. People took the test one at a time, forming a row in the corridor. There seems to be no other who's infected.

One more night goes by. Once again, Bernard wakes Steve up very early. Bernard sees that the assassins don't show a good appearance. They were pale and getting thin and with insect bites. It has been a while since they don't eat anything. Steve receives a job, this time for cleaning the corridors. The boy gets ready for one more day of work, but to his surprise, on this day, the other three also offered to help. Bernad was finding it all somewhat suspicious but allowed them to help. They all worked together, but without talking to each other. By the end of the day, they won a canned bean, this time with the opener. They went back to their small room and opened the can. The problem now is where they would put the beans to eat. They have no choice but to dump a little of the bean in their hands. Each one of them takes a bunch and eats. In the room there was nothing, they couldn't clean their hands there, so they lick their hands then rub them on their clothes.

Some weeks go by. They clean hard, day after day, cleaning every corner of the base and always getting a canned bean by the end of each day. The case with the infected woman has not been solved yet. The scientists still investigate the cause, but they seem not to progress so much. The civilians are still fed and taken care of, but they seem to be getting used to staying there. Bernard is kinda sympathetic with the civilians and even gives extra food portions for the kids. However, he is still really harsh on the assassins. The four go back talking to each other bit by bit. While they were cleaning the bathrooms for the third time in the month, Steve asks Yumi:

- Yumi, what's the dragon tattoo on your back? I didn't mean to see it. It was a while ago.

- This? Well... Alright, I tell you. - The other three turn their attention to her.

- I did it in honor of my father. He was from Yakuza, was the dragon of the family. He got killed by another clan, another family. Both families waged a war. Our house got invaded by some of them. Some men who served my father protected me and my mother. She ran away with me to protect me. I don't know what happened then, with the two families. We moved from Japan to here. Years later, my mother got killed by a professional assassin. I don't know why or who sent him. I entered this branch in search of vengeance. - Explained Yumi, with a sad expression on her face.

For the first time, one of them opened with the others. Her story doesn't justify killing people but it's understandable. The other three keep silent after hearing her story. Steve embraced her from behind. She seemed a little uncomfortable when he did it, but she didn't say anything. They then go back on cleaning. Yumi seemed nervous and awkward for the rest of the day. After they finish, Bernard comes to bring them one more can of beans. Steve then gets pissed off and says:

- Come on, what do you want with this? It is the same thing for days. I want to change, not to be a janitor. Give me something real to do, I don't mind what it is.

- Man, calm down. Everything has its time. Start from the little things first. You won't become a saint from day to night, now get the god damn beans, go back to your room and be happy with this! - Bernard pushes the canned beans to Steve's hands.

Steve gets upset, takes the can, and goes back to the room with heavy steps. He enters the little room and throws the can to Adam. Adam almost let it fall, and notices Steve is unhappy. He refused to eat that night. He sat turned to the wall and spent a sleepless night in that position. On the next morning, Bernard unlocked the door and when he opened it, Steve was already standing, waiting. The man got scared seeing the lad already standing, even before the usual time. Not saying a word, Steve took the bucket and the mop and went to the corridor. The other three also took the buckets and joined him.

Bernard watched them work for a while. He started asking himself if Steve really want to change. If they had not been captured, would they want to change? Given the situation, there is no way to know it. He then goes back to his room with some yet unanswered questions in his head. While he mops the floor, Steve feels a bad sensation about himself. He doesn't think starting with small things will make any difference. The boy then shouts, releases the mop on the floor, and crouches, with both hands on his head. He seems to feel pain.

The others talk to him, trying to help him, but he doesn't seem to be listening. In his mind, horrible images burn. Images of things he caused. Lives he took. He shouts things like:

- It wasn't me. NO! STOP! OPEN YOUR EYES!

The rest of the group embraced him and tried to contain him softly. He shakes and screams even louder until it stopped and his conscience came back to now. His breath was heavy and he is wide-eyed. He then stood up with the help of the others and they told him to take some rest. The three keep with the cleaning but still seem worried about him. Seeing the guy like that has made Adam have memories too. His life before being an assassin has already been good. He understands Steve's desire to change.

The only one in the group who hasn't shown any will to change or regrets is Livia. She has always been the most violent and merciless in the group. Even so, she is the one who seems more afraid of the living dead and all that is happening. By the end of the day, another canned bean was won and Bernard noticed Steve doesn't look well. The lad was taken back to the room with the help of the other three. They shared the beans and Yumi helped Steve to eat because he was nervously shaking. On this night, Yumi lay close to Steve, for him to feel calmer. He looked into her eyes and felt less stressed. Yumi is kind of cute and looks younger than she actually is.

On the next morning, Bernard did not go to the room. The assassins found it weird. Adam went to the door and noticed it was unlocked. He came out and saw armed soldiers on the outside. He went to them, to know what is happening:

- What's up? Where is the general? Is there no work today?

- He is not here. Back to the room - answers one of them.

Adam went back to the room, still finding fishy what is happening. The others also seemed confused. What could be happening?

On the outside, two armored vehicles patrol the base. There are many living dead roaming there. At the top of one of the vehicles, is Bernard. He holds a gun that the vehicle is equipped with and shoots some zombies that are close to the vehicle. The soldiers seem to be looking for something. Bernard then took his walkie-talkie and contacted someone inside of the base:

- Are you sure you saw her here, outside?

- Yes, sir, I do - answers the person on the transmitter.

- Keep searching - says Bernard, talking to the soldiers who drive the vehicles.

They keep driving around the base, passing over and shooting some zombies. The base is now located in a devastated city. All around was grey. Bernard looks at the buildings and houses that were closer to the base. He sees through the window of one of the houses, a blonde girl with an orange hoodie. She didn't look infected. He then shouts:

- There, there she is! - The man points to the house where he saw the girl.

The vehicles go in the direction of that house. Getting there, Bernard and some soldiers come down of the vehicles. They cautiously enter the house. A group of zombies that were in one of the rooms advance against them. They were five in total, all middle-aged people. The soldiers open fire against them, blood spills on the walls, and the zombies fall to the floor. They still shake a bit after getting the gunshots, but they represent no threat anymore. The girl in the orange hoodie came ran down the stairs when she heard the gunshots. Bernard gets disappointed seeing her:

- That is not her, you incompetents. Damn, is better than nothing!

The girl gets confused about hearing him say that. She looks at the dead zombies and then at the soldiers. She then sees the armored vehicles outside, through the window. She then asks in a shy way:

- Can I go with you?

- Of course, you do, I'm sorry - sympathetically answers Bernard.

The girl walked to the soldiers and they escorted her to the vehicles. Bernard once again got at the top of one of the vehicles. They then go back to the base. Getting there, they put the girl together with the other civilians. Bernard still looks disappointed. One of the soldiers says:

- Don't worry, sir, we are going to find her.

Bernard let out a tear and shook hands with the soldier. He then went back to his room. He turned on his record player and listened to music, alone. It was some kind of country music, but slower. Later on that day, he told the soldiers to take the four assassins to the mess hall, to dine along with the other civilians.

The four got surprised when taken to the mess hall. People around still don't look at them, but at least they would have something decent to eat. This time, a plate of food is served for each. The portion of food is also similar to the others. Melanie looks at them with anger, from a table right in front of theirs. Adam feels bad about the look of the little girl. From another table, a tall and strong man stands up and goes to the assassins' table. He looks at Adam and says:

- Who do you think you are? Do you think you can eat along with us, good people?

Adam looks at the man, but don't answer at all. The man then lifts Adam's plate, and Adam holds his arm. The two of them exchange a look of rage. The man spits on Adam's food. Adam let go of his arm and stands up. The two keep staring at each other until Adam throws the plate's food at the man's face. The man punches Adam. After taking the hit, he turns at the man and also punches him. The two then start a fight, exchanging punches and kicks. Adam has the advantage of being an assassin, more used to combats. The man already bleeds through the nose and is stunned. The soldiers then hold Adam and take him outside the mess hall. The man who started the fight cleans the blood from his face, looks angry at the assassins, and goes back to his table.

They finish eating and get out of the hall. Instead of being taken to the small room, they are taken to Bernard´s room. Getting there, they see Adam was already in the room. Bernard, as usual, has his feet on the table. He points at Steve and says:

- You asked! You'll do more than cleaning today. You, me, and some other soldiers are going outside. No more cinch for you guys!

They look at each other, seeming concerned. Steve, however, feels disposed of doing it. Bernard got out of the room and asked them to follow him. They walked the corridor until another room, this one kind of dark. Bernard turned on the lights. There are cardboard boxes piled up and spread across all the room. Bernard put one of them on an iron table in the middle of the room. He opened the box and there are things there that belong to the assassins. It is the things that got taken away from them on the first day the soldiers found them, including Yumi's katana.

Bernard pointed at the katana and told her she can take it. She took the sword, dabbed the sheat with her right hand as if she was missing the weapon, and held it to her waist. She seemed satisfied about having that back. Bernard told the others to also get ready. They take some of the weapons that are inside. Steve took two pistols and his machete. Adam took the hunting knife and a submachine gun. Livia took a grenade launcher.

- Don't make me regret giving you weapons - said the general.

Bernard then guided them to the outside of the base. Everyone's hearts beat fast. Anxiety takes over Steve and fear take over Livia. Bernard right away goes to the top of the vehicle and tells them to get inside. The city is dark. The headlights of the vehicles enlighten the streets and some zombies walking around there.