8. Trust Issues?

A while after Leon and the rest of the convoy made it to the settlement, he was led to a large building with multiple floors. They brought him inside and into an elevator. Going up three floors they made it to his new room. Since he is a V.I.P of sorts they let him use one of the better rooms available.

Leon didn't mind it. He wasn't one for luxury. If it was up to him he would live out in a tent in the woods. Once inside the soldiers said they would have a mission for him tomorrow so he can relax for the rest of the day.

That's part of his new job. He gets sent on missions from the military to do various different things. They told him they like to have at least one person with an artifact in every team.

With Leon, Alexis, and spike left alone in this new apartment room, they decided to explore a little. It wasn't too big, but for just the three of them it was plenty. There's a decent sized living room with a couch. The TV works but they aren't getting any channels so he will have to keep an eye out for something to play movies for Alexis.

There is one bathroom with running water, two bedrooms, and a kitchen. The whole place was practically untouched since the apocalypse started so it was in good shape.

"So Alex." Leon says

Leon suddenly turns and looks at Alexis with a serious expression. Noticing the change in mood she looks back at him and gulps. She's never seen Leon so serious.

"Uh, yes?" she squeaks.

"Which room do you want?" Leon says.

Alexis looks at him with a dumbfounded expression.

"I... Um..."

Leon suddenly grabs Alexis and puts her on his shoulders. She struggles a bit but soon they're both running through the rooms laughing.

He begins walking around the rooms looking through the closets and out the windows and exploring every inch of the place.

Alexis finally decides that she wants the room with a view of the rest of the settlement. So Leon takes the only other room.

After getting settled in and unpacked. They're both sitting on the couch when they hear a knock on the door.

KNOCK KNOCK.

Leon gets up and opens the door.

"Excuse me sir. The general asked me to stop by and give you this." The soldier says while handing Leon an envelope. He then salutes and walks away.

Leon closes the door and sits back on the couch next to Alexis.

"What is it?" she asks.

"Let's take a look." Leon rips the envelope open and pulls out a small letter from the General and a pouch of tokens falls out as well.

The letters says that these tokens are the type of currency they use in this settlement for trading goods and for buying supplies. He says the pouch included in this envelope is for the food he had stocked up in his apartment that they took.

Leon was still very agitated that they just showed up out of now where and took his stuff but what can he do?

Fortunately it looks like quite a lot of tokens.

"Hey Alex, do you want to go shopping?"

"Can we?!" she asks with sparkles in her eyes.

"Yeah come on, we have plenty of spending money now." Leon says while jiggling the pouch of tokens.

They decide to leave spike inside their room so he can protect it and because he'll draw to much attention outside. He is able to un-summon him but it just doesn't feel right to do that unless he needs to.

Him and Alexis are now walking through the streets of their new home. It's quite busy with people of all types running around. There are groups of soldiers going here and there as they are either returning home or going to relieve someone.

They make it to the market area as they start to see stalls lining the streets. There are a few big shops in buildings as well.

Leon grabs Alexis' hand when the street becomes filled to the brim with people moving about. Some stalls are selling jewelry and others are selling weapons like guns, knives, and even swords.

Sadly he doesn't see anyone selling artifacts. They're just too rare to be sold around like that. Plus if the military found out about it they would buy it up ASAP.

Alexis finds a few things she likes and of course Leon buys them for her. Including a working DVD player and some movies. After shopping for a few hours they start walking back to their new apartment. Alexis is super happy with all her new toys.

Leon bought a couple of things for dinner. Such as some meat, a bag of rice, and some random assorted veggies.

For the rest of the day, Leon and Alexis stayed home. Leon cooked up a big feast while Alexis ran around the room playing with spike. Once the food was done Leon called for Alexis and they ate as much food as they could while watching movies. They both passed out on the couch soon after.

Leon woke up early in the morning before the sun was even up. Today is the day that he has to go on his first mission for the military. He's not looking forward to it at all.

The only thing good that can come out of this is if he gets lucky enough to get an artifact.

He carefully moves Alexis off of him and lays a blanket over her. He packs up a few rations and a water bottle. Also his crank flashlight, a small medkit, and some matches. He didn't forget to pack the shadow cloak either and neatly folded it to where he could grab it when needed.

With everything packed and ready to go, he heads out to the meeting place the soldier told him about before.

There's a couple of soldiers standing around the meeting place. It seems not everyone is here yet. When he arrives a couple of the soldier look up at him.

Of course he is going to be a little famous around here. He has spike following him around and he's new in the settlement.

"Oh well, let's just get this over with." he says to himself.

After a couple of minutes the last soldier arrives. Every soldier in this group is carrying guns and knives. Leon is the only one with an artifact. The leader of this mission orders everyone to get in the truck and they set off.

They haven't said a single thing about what the mission is. They only told Leon that his job is to protect the soldiers while they focus on their own missions.

Leon jumps in the back of the truck with spike right behind him and the truck roars to life. They drive out of the settlement as the gates close behind them.

The sun is at its highest point in the sky. A large military truck is driving through the abandoned streets of the city. Old cars litter the roads as the truck maneuvers in between them.

Leon is sitting in the back of the truck sweating from the unbelievable heat. Thankfully he doesn't have to do much because spike is running around the truck killing any zombies that gets too close.

"That dog really does have infinite stamina..." Leon sighs.

The other soldier are giving him mixed looks every now and then. Some are relieved to have him along and others look at him with a greedy look maybe?

He can't really tell but it's not a good look that's for sure.

After driving through the city for a couple of painstaking hours, they finally stop outside a decent looking house for the day.

"Good work today buddy."Leon says while petting spikes skull.

Clack clack!

"That's one hell of a companion you have there." a soldier says while approaching Leon and spike. The rest of the soldiers make their way inside the house to barricade it up for the night.

Apparently nights in the city are much worse then it is in the outskirts where Leon's apartment was located.

"Yeah, I got really lucky." Leon replies.

"The names Thomas." He says while offering a handshake.

Leon takes his hand and replies "Leon."

"Glad to have you on the squad leon. We made double the progress today then we have in the past few trips."

"Well anyway, I'm going to get some grub. Don't stay out here too long. You never know when a horde will show up." Thomas says and then he walks inside the house.

Thomas seems like a decent guy but Leon can't bring himself to trust the military just yet. Everything they've done so far has appeared to be good but even though they aren't outright saying it, they are basically giving him no choice.

If he was to decline joining the military they would have most likely just killed him and taken his artifact.

His plan for now is to just try to lay low and gather as many artifacts he can until he's strong enough to leave on his own.

As for his former group members, hes not sure why they gave the military so much information about him and even led them to his place.

He can't trust anyone right now, except for Alexis probably. He's still curious about her background but there's nothing he can do about it right now.