Chapter 238: A Walk Through the City
The smell of barbecue won.
It always did.
Ten minutes later, Adrian found himself walking through the market district of Basa Air Base with Ryan on his left, Ramos on his right, and Chandrika somehow in the middle of all of them. The streets were more crowded than usual because news of the Bataan mission had already spread. People knew the refinery had been secured. They understood what it meant even if they didn’t know the technical details.
Fuel.
Electricity.
Transportation.
A future.
The entire district felt livelier than normal.
Warm yellow lights hung above the streets, strung between buildings and utility poles. Food stalls occupied nearly every available corner, and the smell of grilled meat, noodles, coffee, and freshly baked bread filled the air. Children darted through the crowd carrying paper windmills and toy helicopters while musicians played old Filipino songs near the central fountain.
The apocalypse felt very far away tonight.
Ramos stopped in front of a barbecue stall.
"I have found heaven."
The elderly woman tending the grill looked up and smiled.
"Oh, it’s you again."
"I have returned."
"You were here yesterday."
"I missed your food."
The old woman laughed.
Ryan stepped beside him.
"I also missed her food."
"You’ve never eaten here."
"I missed it preemptively."
The woman shook her head in amusement.
Chandrika looked at Adrian.
"Are they always like this?"
"Unfortunately."
"I can hear you," Ryan said.
"I know."
The woman behind the stall laughed again.
"What can I get for all of you?"
Before anyone else could speak, Ramos pointed at nearly everything.
"Those. Those. That. Two of those."
He looked at another tray.
"Actually, make it three."
Ryan looked impressed.
"You have ambition."
"I have hunger."
Chandrika looked horrified.
"Can you even eat all of that?"
The man looked offended.
"Of course."
Adrian wasn’t entirely sure.
He had seen Ramos eat enough food to concern medical professionals.
The old woman prepared the orders while the four of them stood near the stall. Several people passing by recognized Adrian and greeted him. He returned each greeting with a nod or brief smile.
An elderly man carrying vegetables saluted awkwardly.
A little girl waved.
Two mechanics yelled their thanks from across the street.
Chandrika quietly watched every interaction.
Nobody looked afraid of him.
Nobody looked nervous.
They simply greeted him like someone they knew.
Like a neighbor.
It was strange.
He commanded aircraft, warships, and thousands of soldiers. Yet here he stood beneath decorative lights waiting for barbecue while a child tried to show him a paper airplane.
The contradiction somehow made perfect sense.
The old woman handed them their food.
"You all look exhausted."
"We are," Ryan replied.
"Then eat more."
She added extra skewers.
"No charge."
Ryan looked emotional.
"Ma’am, you’re a hero."
The woman laughed.
"You boys say that every week."
Because apparently this wasn’t the first time.
They found an empty table near the fountain and sat down. The plaza remained busy around them. Families occupied the nearby benches while several off-duty soldiers watched children play tag across the square.
Someone had set up a projector against one of the buildings.
An old movie was playing.
People had gathered to watch.
Chandrika looked around with fascination.
"You have movie nights?"
Ryan looked confused.
"Of course."
"Why?"
The question made him pause.
"Because... movies are fun?"
She blinked.
"No, I mean... why bother?"
A brief silence settled over the table.
This time Adrian answered.
"Because if we stop doing normal things, then the infected already won."
She looked at him.
He continued eating as if he had said something obvious.
"We fight to survive. But we also fight so people can live."
The words lingered in her mind.
A little boy suddenly ran past their table.
He stopped.
Looked at Adrian.
Then at the others.
His eyes widened.
"You’re the Commander!"
Several nearby adults looked embarrassed.
Apparently they had failed to keep their children from recognizing him.
Adrian smiled slightly.
"Hello."
The boy looked starstruck.
"My dad says you killed thousands of zombies."
Ryan nearly choked.
"Your father has been exaggerating."
The boy ignored him.
"Is it true?"
"No."
The child looked disappointed.
Adrian sighed.
"I didn’t kill thousands personally."
The boy looked hopeful again.
"Oh."
He thought about it.
"Did you kill hundreds?"
Ryan burst out laughing.
The child looked confused.
Adrian looked like he regretted every decision that had led him to this table.
A man hurried over.
"I’m so sorry, sir."
"It’s fine."
The father looked mortified.
The boy, however, had no intention of leaving.
He looked at Chandrika.
"Are you a soldier too?"
She blinked.
"Yes."
"Wow."
The child looked amazed.
"Did you fight zombies?"
She nodded slowly.
The boy’s eyes somehow became even bigger.
"That’s so cool."
She didn’t know what to say to that.
A year ago, she had hidden in a hotel room.
Now children thought she was cool.
Life was strange.
The father finally managed to drag his son away, though not before the boy waved enthusiastically.
"Bye, soldier ate!"
She laughed softly and waved back.
Ryan noticed.
"You smile a lot more now."
She looked at him.
"...Do I?"
"Definitely."
Ramos nodded while eating his fifth skewer.
"You looked terrifying when we first met."
She looked offended.
"I did not."
"You absolutely did."
Adrian hid a smile behind his drink.
She noticed.
"You too?"
He looked innocent.
"I didn’t say anything."
"Your face said it."
Ryan burst out laughing.
The evening passed peacefully after that.
They walked through the market district, occasionally stopping whenever someone recognized them or when Ramos smelled food from another direction. At one point, he somehow acquired fried bananas despite already eating enough to feed a squad.
The city glowed beneath the night sky.
Lights reflected from windows.
Conversations drifted through the streets.
Music played somewhere in the distance.
Chandrika realized she had never truly explored Basa before.
She had trained.
Worked.
Studied.
But she had never simply walked through it.
Now she saw things she had missed.
A small library.
A tailor shop.
A café built inside an old barracks.
A garden where people grew flowers.
Flowers.
Someone had taken the time to grow flowers during the apocalypse.
The realization made her smile.
They eventually reached the edge of the residential district.
The streets here were quieter.
Apartment buildings stood beneath streetlights while people sat on benches outside their homes.
A woman watered plants.
An old man read a newspaper.
Somewhere nearby, a radio played soft music.
The city felt... peaceful.
Chandrika stopped walking.
The others did too.
She looked at the lights stretching across the district.
Then toward the distant airfield where aircraft sat beneath floodlights.
Then farther still, toward the perimeter walls.
Beyond those walls lay the dead world.
Ruined cities.
Millions of infected.
An uncertain future.
Yet inside these walls...
Life continued.
She spoke so softly that only the three beside her heard.
"It feels like we’re protecting the last city on Earth."
Nobody answered immediately.
Because the thought had crossed their minds before.
Ryan looked toward the lights.
"Maybe we are."
The answer settled quietly between them.
A cool evening breeze passed through the street.
Somewhere nearby, children laughed.
A dog barked.
A couple walked hand in hand beneath the streetlights.
Everything looked so normal.
And perhaps that was what made it precious.
Because normal had become rare.
Painfully rare.
Adrian looked over the city.
He saw homes.
Families.
Friends.
Dreams.
He saw people planning for tomorrow.
Planning for next year.
Planning for lives they weren’t sure they would get to have.
Yet they planned anyway.
That, more than anything else, felt like victory.
He looked at Chandrika.
She still watched the city with an expression that was difficult to describe.
Wonder.
Disbelief.
Hope.
Maybe all three.
She noticed him looking and turned slightly.
"What?"
He smiled faintly.
"Nothing."
She narrowed her eyes.
"You keep saying that."
He chuckled.
"Maybe."
For some reason, that answer made her smile.
The four of them remained there for several minutes, saying little.
They simply watched the city.
Watched the lights.
Watched people continue living.
Above them, the stars slowly emerged.
And beneath those stars, in a world that had nearly ended, a city refused to surrender.
Basa lived.
And tonight, that felt like enough.
