Apocalyptic Survivor

Footsteps reverberated within the base as about a hundred people were currently on the first floor, hastily walking around. Except for that, it was dreadfully silent, nobody was talking or discussing anything with eachother, they all seemed to be busy with work, ironic. Well it was, until Erika walked in.

"How can you just leave me behind, you little shit."

Her voice echoed throughout the whole floor, catching the attention of everybody within it for a quick moment before going back to work again. The people were used to her antics, and were not surprised with what was currently ongoing, they could all predict that it was Jean.

Jean, being at the center of it all, stayed silent. Now that he was back at the base, he could lessen his paranoia for a little, all he wanted right now, after 5 hours of non-stop fighting was rest and he was not going to let Erika stand in the way of that goal.

Seeing this, Erika couldn't do anything except remind him of the coming meeting.

"Argh damn, ignoring me now huh? Fuck it, just make sure to come to the meeting 2 hours later."

"Alright."

"If you're late, I'll fucking kill you."

"Sure..."

And with that, Jean arrived at his room. The entrance was simple, with a door and a sign that said "Jean" on top and both were made from metal. Jean pushed the door.

The door opened, revealing a space with dimensions of 5x5 and a height of 5 meters. It could be considered quite large but compared to the other rooms in the base, this was on the smaller side. The room's walls were painted with a pleasant and super dark shade of blue - black. The whole room was deep black, even the furnitures were also black. The only thing that wasn't black in this room was Jean.

With a massive bed opposite him in the middle of the room, Jean fell onto it, consequently falling asleep. Aside from the massive bed, there was nothing else in the room. Jean said that it was due to his artistic taste, and that he loved emptiness, even the dimensions of the room were the results of his choice.

Such awful choices.

***

And as such, two hours had passed since Jean got into the base. And currently, in a certain room, there was an ongoing meeting. It was to discuss about the Rogues, with only the most powerful individuals in attendance.

Inside the room were 10 people, with two currently missing. One of those was Andre, who was performing an important mission of gathering information on both the Rogues and the Zirtues. All attendees were notified of this, however the other one that was missing... was Jean.

Suddenly, a male voice spoke up, breaking the awkward silence in the room.

"Miss Erika, do you know where sir Jean is? It's been ten minutes already, we can't wait for him forever."

That voice came from a man named Xander, he had luscious black hair, a lean body and a finely shaped face. He might not look like it but he was the shield of the group, crazy endurance and an unmoving body, capable of holding back dozens of Zirtues at once. He was impatient right now though, rightfully so.

"That little fucker went to rest a little over 2 hours ago, maybe he is still sleeping."

Everyone could tell that Erika was very angry even if it didn't show on her face, Xander included, and he didn't want to undergo her crazy experiments, so he chose to stay silent.

"He is never on time, knowing this, I reminded him with very very kind words, yet he's still late."

Xander wanted to ask her to go wake him up but he knew better. So he just got comfortable in his seat.

In all of these meetings, the only ones who really spoke was Erika and Xander. Why? Erika, because she led the whole meeting, Xander because he was everyone's friend, his voice was their voice and as such only he was needed to voice everyone's opinions.

"Fuck it, let's just start the meeting, any objections?"

As if sharing one mind, everybody shook their heads, agreeing to start the meeting. Erika started first.

"So to start, I'd like to inform you all of the information I've just got. According to Andre, there's a group of considerable size of twenty forming among the Rogues. It is being led by Anastasia, and it seems this started a year ago. For ease of speech, let's call them 'Wanderers'."

Erika paused for a bit, carefully studying the faces of everyone present. Most were shocked, scared and one even fell off their chair but they all remained silent, except for the pained groan from the one that fell down.

"The Wanderers are no joke, aside from Anastasia whom we all know too well, pretty much everyone of them are able to beat a Crab-III in combat. So, before we send that fucker to win over the Rogues, we have to do that with the Wanderers, to do that, we must know their intentions first, as they could very well be gathering forces to go against us."

Sipping her drink, she picked up a piece of paper and continued.

"Well, it does seem that only Andre is enough for this, but we actually have to call him back."

The whole room was very surprised with what Erika was saying, Andre was performing so well and will perform better in the near future, bringing us with valuable information. It was not like Andre couldn't defend himself. Why call him back?

"Now, I understand your confusion but it has to be done. Andre is in danger, there are signs of a Crab-V, borderline Platonic-I appearing near the vicinity of Andre and the Wanderers. With a dangerous distance of 3 kilometers"

"And that's the second reason for today's meeting, ensuring Andre's safety back to the base. I have already informed him of the Zirtue, hopefully we don't run into Anastasia in the process."

"So, I propose we create a team."

Before she could continue, a sound was heard. A loud, creaking sound that sent chills up the attendees' necks. The door to the room was opening, and standing behind it was a looming figure. As the door opened completely, the figure was revealed to be that of Jean's. Catching everyone's attention, he spoke.

"Uhh, hi."

***

It was around 30 minutes after the start of the meeting that Jean finally woke up. He was well rested but had definitely overslept. Although Erika couldn't actually kill him, she could still use him as a guinea pig for her crazy, terrible experiments. And he did not want to go through that a 8624th time.

So, he hurriedlly left his room, and started to walk in a certain direction. The room for the meeting was located on the first floor, at the place furthest from the elevator and had a giant door, so it was easily discernable. As a matter of fact, there were arrows pointing at the door, this was to help one of the members to locate the meeting room, as their sense of direction was terrible.

Walking up to the door, he could hear people talking inside. Without skipping a beat, he opened the door.

Suddenly, all sound escaped from the room as he found everyone staring at him, one with a more intense gaze than others.

"Uhh hi."

He closed the door, quickly found himself a seat and sat down. He looked around the room and saw that no one was staring at him anymore, except one person.

Noticing this, Xander tried to calm Erika down to continue the meeting.

"Miss Erika, let's just continue the meeting okay? I'm sure you can give sir Jean your words of advice later."

And miraculously, it worked.

"Damn it. Xander, explain what we talked about in the previous 30 minutes, you have one minute."

"Y-Yes!"

And with his excellent sumarisation skills, Xander quickly but faithfully retold everything that had happened in the last 30 minutes. All in less than 30 seconds.

"Okay, let's decide this by votes, who wants to send Jean?"

And immediately after saying that, 10 hands were raised upwards, as if not giving it a thought at all.

'Huh? Strange, I don't remember them being this united.'

"So the first member is Jean."

The meeting continued until we reached a conclusion of sending Jean, Xander and Aceso.

Xander, because he was a great line of defense, having him would greatly increase the chance of Andre coming back alive.

Aceso, because she could heal people, making the operation much safer and easier, a must if we wanted to have Andre uninjured.

And Jean was Jean, also because he had a history with Anastasia. Of course, Erika didn't rid of the fact that the Wanderers would've already known of Andre and the Zirtue, sending Jean was a way to confirm their information network and also a way to pave way for some negotiations if Jean was caught. She knew too well who Anastasia was, and of her history with Jean.

And thus, the meeting ended.

"Ah, you three are to start going immediately or as soon as possible, can't waste time around a Crab-V."

"Alright."

"Yes!"

"..."

After getting out of the room, they each prepared for their operations, from food and drinks to even pickaxes which were essential when trying to get through blocked roads and paths, and of course, the corpses of Zirtues, most were Tree-IV and finally, their weapons. After getting done being prepared, they grouped up.

The three of them then made their way towards the elevator, which was still in repairs. They got into it, and began the 6 minutes wait. Jean tried to take out something from his pocket but grimaced when he realised he had forgotten it in his room. So, he opted for a second way to pass time, talking with the two people next to him.

"Where was Andre again?"

Answering his question, Xander spoke.

"Miss Erika did say that she had told him to cease all activity and wait for us to come, so based off his last location, he should be 4600 kilometers away from here. I think Aceso has the coordinates too, right?"

"Yes."

"I see, then I guess I don't need to worry about anything."

"Yes, yes sir Jean, just relax. I think that this operation is going to end spectacularly. In fact, I think that we won't even suffer any damages or injuries with Aceso here, and sir Jean is here too. We are literally unstoppable!"

Silence filled the elevator as both Jean and Aceso stared at Xander. Xander didn't know what was happening though.

"Uhhh, did I say something wrong?"

"Aceso, tell him."

"I don't even know what to say."

"Uhhh, guys?"

"Why did you even say that? Man."

They didn't continue this quarrel for long, as soon, the elevator stopped and now they were back on the surface. A lone, desolate and cold dark view greeted them, this was the remnants of the countless Zirtues that were killed in order to protect this place. In the old map, the place where they were currently standing was Nepal and now they were trying to get to Turkey, on foot.

That was the only choice that they really had, flying had its own troubles as it would attract the special types of Zirtues that could fly. Luckily for them though, all the oceans evaporated long ago so they didn't have to cross any oceans. Well, the journey from Nepal to Turkey didn't cross any significant bodies of water anyways.

And so they walked, running would have saved time but right now, walking was enough. However, they were not slow at all. With each step they took, they would have already travelled 10 meters. From an outsider's perspective, it might've even looked funny.

"Did any of you bring any entertainment?"

"No sir."

"I guess that this is going to be quite the boring journey then."