Chapter 663 - The Dug Up Mistake, A Simple But Agonizing Long Term Punishment (1/2)

Day 148 - 07:01 AM - North East Gate, Catanduanes Circ.u.mferential Road, Catanduanes Military Settlement, Codon, San Andres, Catanduanes

The sun had risen in the east. It was another day in the apocalypse.

This time, people were gathered at the North East Gate of the Catanduanes Settlement. While most of them were soldiers, there were also a lot of bystanders. As usual, they were there to just watch what was going on. After all, they were curious about why the General was here in the first place.

Of course, the soldiers tried to drive these people away. However, it was not like use force and could only keep them some distance away.

Even though General Padilla, Vanessa, Andrew, and the rest of their entourage were here, none of them were the center of attraction. It was the two young soldiers talking with the group.

As the gallery knew that these two soldiers were not usually seen around the General, they took the people's attention. Some were just curious, but some had other goals for remembering their faces.

The two were no other than Ernesh Geronimo and Joules Padua. They were the two Privates that were detained due to the ill will of Captain Zacharia in Caram.o.a.n Feeder Port.

They were already freed as the investigation deemed them as the victims. Furthermore, the soldier that Private Padua shot had already confessed what happened. However, the two did not have any reason to continue being soldiers anymore.

To say, the General and the higher-ups of the military in this Settlement were too late to take action. The damage had already been done because of the holes in their management.

As such, they lost two promising young soldiers in their camp.

General Padilla talked to the two young soldiers with pity. The more he interacted with the two, the more he saw how decent they were even compared to some veterans in their field.

Unfortunately, they were too late, and Mark got the full allegiance of the two.

”General, are we really letting go of these two?”

Vanessa, the General's Secretary, asked. She had been in this field for a long time and could see the same thing as the General about the two. The two might need some nurturing, but they were definitely good seeds.

”That Mark had already beaten us to the punch.” The General sighed. ”If not for Seguerra, we could have gotten rid of that Zacharia soon. That pig brought us more damage than help.”

That was right. Zacharia was one of General Seguerra's direct subordinates. In fact, after the death of the Marines General, they learned from his subordinates that his appearance at the beach yesterday was not just because of the report of the monster.

Since the night before, even before General Padilla knew, General Seguerra already knew about the arrival of Mark's group and the package they were carrying.

That was why it was totally odd that General Seguerra arrived too fast at that time. Aside from his brother's situation, one of his goals was to capture Mark's group and take the package away from them.

Unfortunately for the Marines General, his greediness horribly backfired.

As the crimes had gone to light, they actually wanted to recall Captain Zacharia and capture him by surprise.

Well, that was if they could still do it. However, the military could not and would not be able to do it in the future.

It was because the Military Camp at the Caram.o.a.n Feeder Port no longer existed as of last night.

The reason was not hard to assume. After all, everyone in the Settlement knew the threat that appeared last night.

All communications to the Military Camp was gone, and all the soldiers there were declared MIA. The last radio exchange they had was them reporting a large scale attack at the camp. It was very likely that a lot of the infected that attacked the Military Settlement last night passed by that area.

Ten minutes after everyone was gathered here, the people they were waiting for finally appeared.

A lot of people were shocked. Some even tried to run away.

After all, who would not be afraid to see a huge winged lizard flying towards the Settlement's gates. Some of the soldiers also flinched and moved into battle positions. However, they saw General Padilla signal them to be at ease. That was when they saw people riding on the dragon's back.

Without attacking anyone, the dragon landed outside the gates.

The two young soldiers were surprised at the spectacle. Even more when they saw Mark jump off the back of Chaflar.

General Padilla approached Mark, beckoning the two young soldiers to follow him.

”You guys are pretty early. I won't be surprised if you guys came here a few hours later. I didn't set any exact time, after all.”

Mark said as the General's group approached.

Some were confused why Mark said that. There were also those who frowned. As for the General, he could only sigh.

Ignoring Mark's sarcastic remark, the General replied.

”We decided at this time since it's not too early but not too late in the morning.” The General then made the two soldiers step forward. ”As you requested, we brought these two.”

The two soldiers looked at each other and nodded. They then made their way towards Mark.

”Boss, you really came for us, huh?”

Padua said to Mark, rubbing his nose.

”Dude, be respectful. He's our Boss now.”

Geronimo reprimanded his friend.

”It's fine,” Mark said to Geronimo. ”I don't mind how you speak as long as you two behaved properly.”

”See, it's fine!”

Padua nudged his friend, who could only let a troubled sigh.

Ignoring the antics of the two, Mark turned back to the General.

”Then, I'll be taking away these two.”

”It's fine,” The General nodded. ”They also requested to leave already. As I said before, we are not going to force anyone to stay.”

Of course, the General did not make any effort to hide his pity from the loss of some good seeds.

”Though to say, I'm quite dissatisfied. I don't think that it's enough of a reward for helping us last night.”

The General said. After all, he would allow the two soldiers to leave the military if they did not want to continue. Because of this, even though they fulfilled Mark's request, it still felt that they owed him.

At this point, Mark smiled. An eerily uncomfortable smile.

”Then, General,” Mark spoke. ”Actually, there is something else.”

”I'm listening.”

The General replied, unsettled by that smile.

”I want to ask about the person in charge of the evacuation in Baras.”

Everyone heard Mark's request and felt that something was wrong.

”I heard something. It seems that whoever that was, he tried to hit on a woman and chased away the people with her when she rejected his invitation.”

Mark added.