Before the world ended, I met countless people that could put a smile on my face with the simplest things or could sour my mood with a simple word that they said. But currently, the people I’m interacting with were in the most extreme of the latter and I wasn’t even one of the cadets they get to boss around for more than two weeks prior to their enrollment.

They could say I wasn’t exactly wearing the same uniform as theirs but I was granted special authority within their ranks, and I’m basically like the special unit created by The Monstrous Bird of Qin.

It’s just that it felt so wrong to have someone that was supposed to be on the “good” side commit to such an act that was supposed to “happen more than I thought” because everyone else from the “bad” side had only thrown harsh words to Kaley and completely respected authority.

But yeah, saying that it happens more than I thought was technically correct because again, even before the world ended, such things happening were brought to light and even had the chance to be put on the news and then some.

However, seeing how things were happening right now, it seemed like people abusing their power was still a thing and the only difference was that it was more prevalent than ever—and no one still had any way to fucking stop it so they just let them slide, or even join eventually… except for now.

I don’t know who and what the fuck was that motherfucker was contributing to this place but I’m gonna make him fucking obsolete after giving him a good thrashing.

At this point, I was ready to pick a fight with the people I should be trying to get along with but Jesus quickly squeezed his way between us to avoid more conflict.

“Easy now, brothers… We’re not here to start a fight, alright? We should—”

“I didn’t start shit and don’t get up in my face—” the Mallari dude tried to shove Jesus away but Jesus never budged an inch and I never felt any push transfer, “Listen…” he sighed heavily as he looked at me, “As I said earlier, not much happened and you’re trying to blow things out of proportion—”

I cut him off as I stepped back and glanced at each and every cadet, soldier, and current officers watching us, “You hearing that? Tell me, which of you guys and girls HAD ‘mUcH HaPpeNed’ prior to coming here? Weren’t you supposed to be trained as soldiers to defend and serve the people not be used for quick relief?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Silence. Completely and total fucking silence.

I continued with a bitter chuckle, “Fuck, I’d understand if you applied to be a sex worker—because it usually comes with the job—the higher-ups testing the goods, I mean… but some of them could still say no and move on with their lives. I know it’s the end of the fucking world but—”

Diaz, the female officer, suddenly came up to me while a vein was about to pop in her forehead, “YOU FUCKING SHUT YOUR MOUTH! DON’T DARE SULLY THE NAME OF—”

I shouted back, “SULLY WHAT?! ONE OF YOUR PEOPLE TOUCHED MY WIFE AND I DON’T GET TO SAY ANYTHING?! HOW FUCKED IN THE HEAD ARE ALL OF YA?!”

“NOT EVERYONE IS LIKE—”

“BUT EVERYONE’S HERE FUCKING READY TO DEFEND A PIECE OF SHIT TOOTH AND NAIL JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE WEARING THE SAME UNIFORM! HOW FUCKED UP IS THAT?! I’VE SEEN CROOKS WITH MORE HONOR THAN THIS SHIT!”

“WE ALREADY HAD HIM ESCORTED OUT AND—”

“AND WHAT?! PROBABLY FUCKING A CADET THAT’S TOO FUCKING SCARED TO SAY NO?! WHY DOES HE GET A FUCKING TIMEOUT AND STILL GET WHAT HE FUCKING WANTS WHILE WE’RE THE ONES FUCKING TRYING TO KEEP IT IN?! IS HE THAT FUCKING IMPORTANT OR ARE ALL OF YOU USED TO GET FUCKING ABUSED?!”

“…!”

At this point, Diaz was trying hard to refute everything that I said but that certain look in her eyes told me a bitter story that shouldn’t even be shared with strangers but unfortunately… it was a story that plenty of people—not all—in this fold have experienced. In any case, I shouldn’t be directing my hate towards her but the perpetrator himself.

Furthermore, a spoilt batch still had some edible parts on it and I should try to surgically separate the bad side from the good.

I just sighed briefly before I said, “Listen, I don’t know how much you had to endure to get to where you are but you gotta feel and know where we’re coming from…”

She glared at me while shaking her head, “Then what do you fucking want, huh?!”

I put my hands up jokingly as I smirked, “You didn’t hear me the first time? I want that Lopez guy back here so I can beat his ass. You don’t have to tie him up or anything because I want him to be able to fight back and shit just to keep things fair. Something he doesn’t fucking deserve but he’ll learn soon anyways…”

‘And I doubt he’d even get to get to use fairness to his advantage…’

Mallari shook his head from hearing the same thing twice, “What would that accomplish though?”

I laughed in his face, “Absolutely nothing!”

“Then why—”

“In the short term, I’d feel good about punching him once or twice because he seemed so important that I can’t just put a bullet in his head but in the long term… I just want this place to learn that they could reasonably fight back against authority because even if the ones in power could dictate what’s right and wrong, it’s still not what’s right AND what’s wrong.

Trust me, I want to rebuild this place from the ground up but I have more problems to take care of and I think just by the way things currently are, you wouldn’t let a stranger do just that.”

“…”

“It’s deeply rooted in this place but I wish you guys the best of luck. Now where’s the fucker at?”

At this point, it had never been so silent but a thunderous laugh came out of nowhere and broke the silence. I almost thought that a giant just happened to pass by but it was actually one of their highest-ranking officers that caught wind of what was going on.

Diaz and Mallari instantly took a step back before they lowered their heads and muttered:

“M-Major…”

With a quick look, the guy didn’t look like one of these uptight officers but more like one of Quinn’s brethren that happened to pick up a service coat and draped it over his wide, boulder shoulders.

‘Major Perez, huh?’

Yeah, this major that popped out from nowhere was fucking jacked to fuck even though he looked to be in his 50s, but he approached me with an amused expression before he checked me out top to bottom while puffing a cigar with his left hand.

He chuckled as he leaned even closer, “You’re the fucking ‘kid’, huh?”

Everyone gave a mix of expressions but I turned to him and did the same thing he did before I replied:

“You run this place?”

“You could say that,” he answered with a cheeky smile and a raised eyebrow.

“You don’t look the type.”

“Hah! You don’t look like the type either.”

“Type to what, exactly?”

He shook his head as he snickered, “Kid, I know who you fucking are. These dumbasses don’t so cut them some slack. However, I’ll fucking acknowledge something I heard on my way here but you gotta stop cutting so deep.”

“Hmm?”

“Let’s just say that there’s an easy solution to one of this place’s problems but with my current alliances, we can’t possibly do that… you know, in the open. I should also inform you that it’s not as bad as you imagined but yeah, it’s still bad if you think about it because we’re not doing anything to stop it—BUT it’s also not always like that.

It’s sometimes a ‘you scratch my back I scratch yours’ kind of thing, you know?”

“…”

“However, with YOUR current alliances, you might be able to just help this place with that problem and in turn, I’ll let you give Lopez a piece of your mind or two.”

‘Ah…’

“You do know that if he did that shit in my place, getting his arms chopped off is the lightest sentence I could give him, you know?”

He let out a chuckle as he puffed his cigar one more time, “I know. But this place here is not your place~ It’s mine. So… I’ll let you play around with him and I’ll just tell you to stop when I think you’ve done enough.”

“I still think I’m getting screwed over though.”

“Hah! You are, you fucking are. But what can you do though? It’s the best I could offer.”

“Then you’re gonna fucking love what I could offer.”

“Hmm?”