Chapter 5 I've got a plan

Alex held the phone up to Schmidt.

"He wants you back." Schmidt took the phone. Alex turned to Schornhof and slapped her on the cheek. 

"Gitte, it's time to get up. You'll be late for work and you still have to get dressed and clean up."

She groaned, rubbed her neck and stood up. She nodded dazedly and swayed as she stood up. Then she took a few steps, stopped and looked at Alex. 

He was grinning. She pulled the balaclava off her face. Beneath it, a woman's face, about 28 years old, was revealed. With an undercut haircut in the middle, it was straw-blond and about 20 centimeters long. She looked at him with green-gray eyes. Looking at the small scars and the burn scar on her neck, she could be called a hot sweeper. 

"Do I look like your cleaner?"

Alex continued to grin.

"You reacted to that."

She gave him the middle finger.

Schmidt hung up and cleared his throat. Schornshof looked at him. 

"What, you told me to bring in suspects! He's a suspect!" She pointed at Alex. 

Schmidt looked at the corporal.

"Oleg, what does the system say?"

The corporal looked at everyone. 

"Well, apart from the fact that 90% of his service record is blocked." Well Schmidt, you're not the highest ranking one here anymore."

Schornshof looked at Schmidt in confusion. 

"I don't understand."

Schmidt looked at her. 

"Well, first, best wishes from your father, Lt."

She grumbled. 

"Then," he looked at the monitor.

"Holy shit..." he looked at Alex.

"Then welcome aboard, Colonel," said

Schornsthof said to Alex. 

"A colonel?" she asked, looking at the monitor. In the meantime, Alex took a plastic box full of memory cards out of her backpack.

"I guess my promotion went through after all. Right, I'll apply for leave straight away." 

"So, Colonel, the general said you're in charge here now." 

"Well, first of all, one you is enough." Then I want to introduce myself to the others, see what the situation is here and then take care of the bandits." 

"You can do that." Schmidt nodded.

"I'll leave you in charge of the zone."

Schornsthof stared at him.

"After ten years, you suddenly turn up?"

"Eh yeah?" He looked at her. 

"You broke it off, not me, and that was before the wedding."

She stared at him. 

"You've suddenly disappeared!"

"Yeah, right. Had to protect your ass somehow, remember?" As you said to me back then: fuck off, you piece of shit. I don't want to waste my youth and experience something. 

Alex shrugged his shoulders. 

"You just took off!" She stepped closer.

"Right, after I pulled your ass out of the crashed car and you were screaming in the hospital, the doctors said you have temporary memory loss and have panic and rage attacks when you see me. Think for yourself what sense it would have made if I had stayed," he looked at her.

She snorted and stomped out.

"Is there something I need to know?"

Alex looked after her.

"Well, it's just unexpected for her. She's getting herself together. Let's take a tour of the zone."

Alex was right. After Schmidt's tour of the Zone with a wolf, Schornshof stood in front of the marina building. 

Alex had to take a 50-year-old dog to the vet in the zone, which he had examined and sent for a shower. There he was attacked by her again, this time in a different way.

He had just started showering and enjoying the hot water when she came in undressed. Now he could see that the burn scar from her neck ran like a snake across her shoulder, upper arm and down her side. She also had more bust than he remembered. 

She looked at him scrutinizingly.

"At least someone's excited to have me here," she said. 

He looked down, then looked at her and grinned. 

"Well... so you've been thinking about what you want to do yourself now?"

She looked at him. 

"I want a place where I can be who I am and not disappoint or hate anyone. You said something about shooters." 

Alex nodded and rubbed soap into his hair. 

"When you can only see the woman you love and only get her affection when she's asleep, you have to decide if you're going to let her go."

He looked at her. "I let you go before you asked. All these years I wondered how you were. Seven months ago, I got an answer to my question."

"Seven months?"

"Yes," he corrected her as he smeared a load of soap on her head. 

"But you still had hair on the sides. You were with a brunette and a girl. Your car was damaged and caused traffic chaos." 

Schornsthof looked at him thoughtfully.

"That's right, I was out with my ex and her daughter.

I was the officer who checked you out, and seeing you laughing, smiling and happy again was enough for me." 

He washed his head under the stream of water. 

"She was cheating on me right before the outbreak, an eco-protest vegan." Alex grinned. 

"A new world has begun, Gitte. Just think about what you want in this one."

She leaned against the wall.

"Okay, let's go for a push first. Then you conquer the world and build me a nest."

"A nest? Maybe a daughter to go with it?"

"Hmm, yes..." 

"But don't complain if I find more play partners along the way."

"I will complain though." I can be very selfish. So show me how fit you're supposed to be."

They both came out of the shower half an hour later, having had a good romp. Gitte went to get some ice cream. Alex put on the fresh clothes he had been given and made himself comfortable in the main room of the yacht club with a cup of coffee and a cigarette. Schmidt came in and sat next to him on the settee.

"You were loud," Alex said to him.

"Yes, but she needed it," Schmidt replied. 

Well, so did I, but she was starving.

"She has a reputation for being a loner, but also a lesbian. That's why she was sent here, where there are so few women."

"She's more bi. Let's move on to the bandits. I'll leave when it gets dark and start my hunt."

"But the infected are more active at night than during the day."

"Yes, because it's quieter than during the day. I'll upload my footage in the next few days."

"What's your plan anyway?"

"Stage one is to turn Kiel into a fortress, stage two is land reclamation for reconstruction."

"Yes, fine, but you can't do that with so few people."

"There are still scattered survivors. If there's a fortress where they can go, it'll draw them in."

"Yes, but also infected people."

"I have a defense plan for them."

"I'm curious then."

Alex set off as dawn broke to search his old camp for his things first. He then began to set up traps over the next few days. In the zone itself, he read through the reports and uploaded his data to the network.