Chapter 254: What Protest?
Commander Li made it six steps past the open gate before someone finally noticed him, which was not exactly the kind of thing that inspired confidence in a military base.
The empty checkpoint had been bad.
The unmanned watch platform had been worse.
And the fact that no one had stopped three military vehicles and one civilian car from rolling inside should probably have been enough to make everyone turn around.
But somehow, the part that annoyed Zhenlan the most was the young soldier beside the water barrels looking up like Commander Li had interrupted his break instead of returned to his own base.
"Commander?" the soldier blurted out, straightening so quickly that the barrel he had been leaning against rocked behind him.
His rifle hung loose across his chest, his helmet was clipped crookedly under one arm, and the salute came late enough that even Lingyun noticed.
Commander Li stopped in front of him and looked down at the kid. The soldier swallowed hard, but didn’t actually try to correct anything.
Zhenlan stepped out of the car behind Commander Li and took in the soldier’s face, uniform, weapon, and stance in one quick sweep.
He was too young, too tired, and way too... checked out to be embarrassed about how he was acting.
That combination was almost never good. It meant the man had already been shouted at, threatened, ignored, and worn down past the point where proper discipline could still scare him.
That was the type of soldier that let the zombies in just because they didn’t want to wake up the next day.
Chenghai got out on the driver’s side and closed the door without turning his back to the base.
Lingyun climbed out after him, still wearing Zhenlan’s spare boots and looking far too entertained for a man walking into a military compound that smelled like damp canvas, old blood, spoiled food, disinfectant, smoke, and too many people who had not had access to proper water in days.
Lingyun sniffed once, then frowned. "This place smells worse than Rouxi’s yard."
Chenghai looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "I dare you to tell her that," he chuckled, only for Lingyun to turn pale.
"I don’t mean it like that," Lingyun clarified quickly. "It’s a different kind of worse. Like the smell of despair."
"And just what does despair smell like?" pressed Chenghai, actually having fun at Lingyun’s expense. "Because I don’t think I’ve smelled a scented candle that smelled like that."
"Rouxi’s yard smells like blood, burned plants, damp soil, and murder. This place smelled like..." Lingyun paused for a second. "Wet gym socks and sneakers."
"Despair smells like sneakers?" At this point, Chenghai wasn’t even pretending to hold back his laughter.
"I can see where he is coming from," interrupted Zhenlan, effectively shutting down the conversation.
Commander Li, on the other hand, did not look away from the soldier in front of him. "Where is the gate team?"
The soldier’s throat moved. "Pulled back, sir."
"By whose order?"
The answer did not come quickly enough.
Commander Li took one step closer. "By whose order?"
"Colonel Wei’s office," the soldier answered, lowering his voice as if saying the name too loudly might summon the man out of the administrative building. "Temporary reassignment."
Lingyun made a soft, delighted sound. "Oh, even I can see just how stupid that call was."
Zhenlan almost agreed with him.
You didn’t leave the gates unmanned in a apocalypse... ever. That was how people died.
Commander Li heard the same thing. His face did not change, but his voice did. "How long?"
"Since this morning."
Tan Wei, who had come up behind him, swore under his breath. Sun Ming looked back toward the open gate as if expecting zombies, refugees, or common sense to come walking through it at any second.
The soldier shifted his weight. "It was supposed to be temporary."
"It has been open all day?" Commander Li asked.
The soldier looked miserable. "Yes, sir."
Before Commander Li could answer, someone shouted from deeper inside the base.
Zhenlan turned to try and see what the commotion was about.
Near the ration line, two civilians had closed in around a supply cart while a soldier tried to push them back with one hand and keep hold of a clipboard with the other.
The clipboard was the part that made Zhenlan want to laugh. Not because it was funny, but because the man was still clinging to it like everyone had to bow to the person holding it.
One civilian grabbed the edge of the cart while another shouted that his child had not eaten since yesterday. Someone in line screamed that everyone had children and a third person lunged, not for the food, but for the soldier’s rifle.
Chenghai moved before anyone else could decide whether this was their problem.
He crossed the distance with long strides that made the people closest to him step aside out of instinct.
He caught the wrist reaching for the rifle, twisted once, and forced the man down to his knees before the soldier even understood he had been saved from losing his weapon.
The civilian cried out, the ration line rippled backward, and half the people nearby suddenly remembered how much they liked having space between themselves and other people’s bad choices.
Lingyun lifted one hand, the heat of his fire already flowing away from him and toward everyone around them. Zhenlan grabbed his wrist before fire could form. "Don’t do it."
Lingyun looked offended. "I was going to be helpful."
"You were going to set something on fire beside a ration line."
"That would have created space."
"It would have created a riot."
"That is also a type of space."
Zhenlan rolled his eyes, but didn’t release him until Lingyun lowered his hand.
Across the yard, Chenghai leaned down and said something to the man kneeling in the dirt at his feet. Whatever it was, the man stopped struggling.
Commander Li’s expression darkened. "Why are civilians close enough to grab weapons?"
The young soldier at his side opened his mouth, then wisely closed it again.
A second soldier hurried over from the administrative building, his jacket half-fastened and his face drawn tight with exhaustion. He recognized Commander Li halfway across the packed dirt and nearly tripped over his own boots trying to salute.
"Commander Li."
"Report," Commander Li ordered.
The soldier looked at the young gate soldier, then at Zhenlan, Chenghai, and Lingyun. His eyes caught on the blood still dried near Lingyun’s collar and wisely moved on. "Sir, a lot has changed since you left."
Lingyun leaned closer to Zhenlan and murmured, "No shit. I didn’t know what it looked like before he left, but even I can see that it is different."
Commander Li’s voice remained flat. "How much?"
The soldier drew in a breath like a man deciding which disaster would get him yelled at the least.
"The west shelter had another fever outbreak. Medical says it is not zombie infection, but no one believes them anymore. Two ability users fought near the water station this morning. One of them broke part of the storage wall before they were restrained. Rations were delayed because three supply teams did not come back last night. The outer refugee section refused relocation orders after the inner compound was sealed. Fuel has been restricted to command vehicles only, and the gate team was pulled after the protest."
Commander Li went still. "What protest?"
The soldier’s eyes flickered toward the far side of the base.
