Cultivator in a Zombie Apocalypse

Chapter Eighty Nine - Clarify; Just Who Is The Real Enemy

"Impossible!"

Ren Zexian was calm of nature, an intellect and someone whose temper had been refined over the millennia.  It is not to say that in his youth he was never hot-tempered nor could he say that he was never foolish, however such impulsive reactions had become sharpened on the edge of both instinct and physical honing; he retained swift and decisive action for the battlefield as it had been so for many, many centuries.  But, it could not be said that he had no bottom line.

His obsidian eyes narrowed as they examined the twenty or so men and women before human; their uniform, their equipment, their auras or therefore lack of.  He was quick to notice Faith, who still hid her face in the shadow of her headwear, embarrassed by the behaviour of Thomas, who remained brash and unapologetic in the face of facts.

"Do elaborate," Ren Zexian urged, the curve of his lips remaining soft even though his eyes had hardened.  This disturbance upon his serene morning with his beloved was unfortunate at best, as long as misunderstandings were smoothed over, he could continue to enjoy it.  He was not the only one who felt discomfort, Nathan gripped his robes a lot more blatant in his unhappiness than his lover.

Thomas was unwilling and turned with an expression of accusation towards Faith; he had not seen the events that led the woman and the three soldiers who'd remained behind to believe that Ren Zexian carried the infection. Now seeing that the man not only had no signs of zombification after many days had passed, even appearing to be brimming with health, he felt that the information he'd been fed had been misleading, causing him to be embarrassed in front of a superior.

"Will someone please tell me just what is going on?" The man in charge of this mission was a few years older than Thomas and someone who he'd looked up to since being stationed in this foreign country.

"Sir..." he began, uncertain where to start. As much as he would like to pass the blame, he knew that this officer's personality was such that he disliked those that pushed bias and refused to take responsibility.

Faith sighed and stepped forward to advise him from her own point of view, but before a sound could escape her throat, a low guttural noise came from a short distance along with the small rumble of hooves upon dry mud. Both Dexter and Jimmy glanced down the road from which the soldiers originally came, while a few soldiers followed suit.

"The herd?" Jimmy questioned.

Dexter nodded. "Sounds like it." He returned his attention to the soldiers and sighed. "You lot better come inside unless you want turn into a bovine meal." He received some odd expressions. "A cow could kill a human even before becoming undead, imagine what a herd of them can do now."

The officer in charge ushered his people inside in an orderly fashion and the gates were closed behind them just as Dexter caught glance of the bull of the herd staring at the wall with mad, hungry eyes. Smoke blew from its nostrils before it turned towards the left and lead the herd in that direction. Dexter shuddered before slapping Jimmy's shoulder, who happened to look equally as disturbed and was rethinking his decision to end his bed-rest early.

*****

The company of soldiers glanced about the green verges and crawling ivy and vines uncomfortably, just as those they'd come to retrieve had all those weeks ago.  But again they were quickly warned not to touch the seemingly harmless vegetation and could only linger close to the centre of the crumbling road that linked the three large acreage properties of this small base.  Uncomfortable, they really doubted the wisdom of their mission.  Before they'd had a goal; eliminate the potentially dangerous undead man that  could easily be a threat to their base's survival and rescue any survivors, prioritising their own men first.  Only their commanding officer as well as Faith and Thomas understood that there was slightly more to this command, although the former did not know the political stand point complicating his mission further, but he suspected of much.