Surviving the Apocalypse While Being Tempted by an Elf and a Dark Elf

          When the sun was starting to rise, Luke finally could see Miami again. The number of zombies blocking that entrance that he used previously had decreased tremendously. Hence, they passed through it with relative ease. The other group members could see how much such a city had been destroyed… several buildings had fallen due to the first earthquake. Still, there wasn't much smoke since they didn't have to deal with the Red Fangs, but there was a lot of dust in the air…

          After entering the city, they immediately headed toward the northeast. While Luke kept his cool the whole trip, the group knew that he was in a bad mood, even while his eyes were closed. Even though his wounds had mostly disappeared thanks to Rina's hard work throughout the night… As expected, the contents of last night's conversation still bothered him… thanks to that, everyone traveled in silence.

        After a couple of minutes, they reached the extreme northwestern part of the city. They then found a group of men wearing military clothes and carrying shields and lances. Luke used Appraisal on them, and he confirmed that they were level twenty… they had been fighting. Still, they certainly weren't among the group that bombarded the city from above. By his estimations, those guys were at least at level fifty.

"We are survivors from Orlando," Luke said after he jumped from the pickup. "This is the family of Captain Billy Saunders."

"We were notified of your arrival… and your name is…" the short-haired, blonde soldier asked.

"... Luke Kennedy," Luke replied after thinking for a few moments.

"Another group is scouting the area ahead for survivors. They will come soon enough and guide you to our base," the soldier said.

              The survivors sighed in relief since they began to think that they were free of worries and dangers now. Meanwhile, Luke didn't drop his guard, and Billy's family would truly relax after they met Billy. Now that he didn't have anything to do, Billy got bored. In the end, he asks Rina and Shalia to wake him up if something happens. He needed to take a nap to get even more refreshed. Things would only get tenser from now on, after all.

          After waiting for half an hour, a jeep appeared with another group of military men, and then they headed toward the base. It seemed that they failed in finding. It was no surprise since a week had passed since the monsters appeared… those who didn't have the courage to fight probably got weakened due to hunger and thirst. When they didn't have any other choice, they probably left the homes only to find beasts much more powerful than before...

          One hour later, the group reached the base of operations that Billy had mentioned. It was huge and took over one of the largest farms in the area. There were many tents around and numerous jeeps and choppers… there was even a recently made landing area for airplanes… Luke found one there… a massive one. It was a military one used to transport a lot of cargo. They certainly were well-prepared.

"Chloe! Dad, Mom!" A big black-haired guy suddenly shouted while he was running toward them.

          Billy had arrived. He had brown eyes and the body of someone who never skipped the gym in ten years. Luke wished that he could be that physically strong if only he didn't have to work out four to six hours every day to do so. Just like Chloe, he was also armed with bracers and some steel boots that protect most of his legs. Not only that, Luke noticed that he was almost at the level of the others… so he had fought more than a little bit.

After a touching reunion that lasted for quite a while since they kept hugging each other, Billy finally turned to face Luke. He noticed that Luke was in a bad mood, but he decided to ignore that and opened his arms.

"Luke, I really owe you…" Billy said.

"When are we going to leave?" Luke asked with his arms crossed.

"At noon… but before that, we will have a meeting with the others that will come with us," Billy said.

"I see. I hope to hear exactly how you convinced your superior… since we are going to use such an airplane, my guess is that you guys want to rescue someone aside from my parents," Luke said.

"Yes, you will…" Billy said. "I am sorry if things aren't going to be the way you wanted."

"As if apologies will change anything," Luke said and then began to grab his things from the pickup.

          While Luke was working, he felt some stares coming from many soldiers. It seemed that Billy was respected by many, but that didn't bother him in the least.

"We will carry your things to the airplane for you," A random soldier said. 

"No, you won't," Luke said to refuse the help.

            Aside from his weapons and pieces of armor, Luke didn't have many things inside his backpack. Only needles and nails. Still, once you give room to some people to do things the way they want, they never stop, so Luke was planning to avoid that.

          Luke carried his things to the vicinity of the largest tent since he saw Billy heading there, and the place was heavily guarded. He imagined the meeting would take place there.

"This kind of place is filled with people that care a lot about discipline and the chain of command," Rina said. "Shouldn't you be more tactful, Luke?"

"So what? I am not in the army," Luke said.

          Rina sighed after hearing that. While it was true, he shouldn't make enemies in such a place for things to go well for him. Unfortunately, Luke couldn't care less about it… Rina felt that she would have more persuasive power if she hadn't made a mistake a few days ago, but in the end, she only stayed silent.