Enemies All Around Us

Ferdinand, Waylen and Simpson sauntered forward towards their operating base. They traversed multiple landscapes. They had to climb, jump, march and help themselves up like any other military drills. Soon they came by a terrain that they haven't seen before when they crossed over to the resource location. This brought doubt and confusion towards them, if their minds are just playing tricks on them or they are just really lost.

"I don't have a good feeling about this." Said Ferdinand.

"Commander, maybe we should retrace our steps back into the resource location and to rethink our strategies? Said Waylen.

"What? If we attempt to go back now to the resource location, then we could get even more lost and soon nighttime will come. Who knows what might happen in the night in this apocalyptic world?" Said Simpson.

"If we go back now, we could fortify our location and wait for dawn so that we could move forward and back to our base. Furthermore, Gael and Ezra could defend the base on their own as they still have a plentiful amount of ammunition to last through the night," Said Waylen.

"How about our ammunition? They are running low now, as we have fought earlier. Will it be enough to last us through the night? Especially if there are those rod shooting walkers roaming around. How are we supposed gonna fight them with such limited ammunition and limited vision through the night?" Said Simpson.

While the two soldiers were fighting over what to suggest to Ferdinand. Ferdinand was actually carefully listening to how the two bicker around. He was observing on people that he would promote once his army was established, so that he could create a proper chain of command. So far, his assessment of the two was good, as both points were valid. Unfortunately, no matter how much he wants to listen, time is running out and so he had to make a choice.

"Alright enough talking, both of you had made valid points, but I as a Commander has to make a choice not only for myself but for his soldiers to and so his soldiers are precious, not just some statistics on a paper that is written. So I have let us return to the resource location, as it is much more important because night is about to fall. It is better to be fortified in a location than to walk blindly in the night. We have lighters on our essentials pack so we can start a fire and spread it out in the forest so our limited vision at night would be partially solved," Said Ferdinand.

It may look like a simple explanation to anybody, but to the two soldiers, it inspired them as they came from a world where the officers didn't care about their lives and the public heavily discriminated against them. Maybe, just maybe, in this world that they have come to, they might be finally treated with respect and dignity and finally become heroes of the front.

"Yes, Commander!" Waylen and Simpson said in unison.

Then suddenly Ferdinand felt a premonition followed by the hush of wind and the leaves, which made him immediately anxious and so he immediately ordered his soldier.

"Dodge!"

Waylen and Simpson immediately followed the order as they were too veterans of the war, so they knew when something was wrong and so they immediately rolled over to their sides and Ferdinand did the same. After they dodge, heard the most disturbing sound to ever be heard by them. Unfortunately for them, there's more to come in the future.

All three of them immediately grabbed for their guns and immediately looked up and saw that there were a lot of those stalkers or, in the soldiers' definition, rod shooting things. They aimed at their enemy, but unfortunately the stalkers got to it first, so they had to dodge once again. It was a surprising turn of events that despite them being ambushed, none of them have been hit yet.

They dodged and fortunately; the stalkers were still in the process of growing their rods at their back and so they had a chance to fire back. Ferdinand carefully aimed at his iron sights, using his Mark 1 Bolt-Action Rifle, to which he was able to kill one walker by directly severing the spinal cord. It was a triumph for marksmanship. Unfortunately, he had the help of his passive skills such as quick snipe. That's why he was able to quickly fire and kill immediately after dodging.

Meanwhile, Waylen and Simpson took a little longer to fire their shots, as they don't have the same advantages as Ferdinand. After aiming down their sights, they immediately fired, to which they were able to kill each one stalker, respectively.

Time was up and so the stalker fired back to which Ferdinand and the soldiers, albeit this time, took a cover before they were hit.

Meanwhile, Ferdinand was hiding behind a rock when suddenly a stalker emerged into his field of view and was staring at Ferdinand mercilessly. Unfortunately for Ferdinand, he had to reload and so he brought out his Mark 1 pistol. Before he could fire the pistol, the stalker was already near him and so, in a surprising turn of events, smacked the pistol out of his hands.

Ferdinand was utterly shocked as the stalker then grabbed the rod at its back before he could react. It was already lunging down before him. Thankfully, Ferdinand recovered from the shock before the rod pierced him and so he was able to dodge the attack.

Ferdinand, being a quick thinker, he immediately brought out his Mark 1 Saber with enough range and distance. He was able to quickly slice down the stalker before the stalker could even react. As the rod which the stalker was holding was in fact deep down into the ground and wasn't able to get it out in time.

After Ferdinand slashed down the walker, a familiar sound came to his mind

[DING!]

[OWL HAS DETECTED THAT THE USER HAS KILLED A LEVEL 1 MUTANT HORDE STALKER!]

[GRANTING USER 7000 POINTS]

[OWL HAS DETECTED THAT THE USER HAS KILLED A STAKER A LEVEL 1 STALKER]

[OWL HAS DETECTED THAT THE USER'S SUBORDINATES HAS KILLED A LEVEL 1 STALKER]x5