Thrive in Catastrophe - Chap 62
“Move out.”
Just as Heine’s order fell, more zombies moved in toward them.
“Let’s go.”
The rope dropped and Xiao secured himself and shot up to the craft. Mark hauled Luther over his shoulder and as they rose upward, Luther watched the ground pull farther away. His heart nearly stopped at the sharp ascent. Mark rather rudely threw Luther into the cabin and pushed him into his seat. Luther was shocked at the rough treatment, but Xiao Yan merely laughed and secured his safety device for him.
Mark smiled jovially, clearly intending to scare the Colonel. Xiao Yan shot him a helpless look, remembering when he was the target of Mark’s teasing.
Soon they entered the base and Shen Bing waited for them at the platform with his arms crossed.
Heine stepped out of the cabin. He walked past Shen Bing, giving a slight nod of acknowledgment.
“Thank you.”
They ceremonially saluted each other.
Xiao looked over at Shen Bing. The man looked as stern as ever, but rather ragged and gaunt. Being one of the research bases that was a focus of the Surge attacks, the future doesn’t look very optimistic to the base commander. Shen Bing’s eyes grazed over Xiao Yan and his lips tilted in an undeniable smirk.
“Long time no see, lesser Lt.” He overly emphasizes the ‘lesser’ in his rank.
Xiao hurried over to Shen Bing.
“Colonel you know Xiao Yan?” Luther asked.
“Hm. The last time that I saw him he was a dumb rookie who had trapped himself in his own mind.”
“When was that?”
“About a year ago.”
“It seems that he has grown a lot since then, no one would assume his is a rookie now.” Luther expresses his deep appreciation and admiration for Xiao Yan.”
Shen Bing contacted the Shire. They are sending a special task force to escort the Colonel and virus samples back to the City within three hours.
This break is very valuable to Xiao Yan. While the Colonels were in discussion, Xiao fell asleep in his chair. Shen Bing had arranged a lounge for him and the quartermaster approached to wake him up. Heine brushes him away and picks up Xiao Yan, heading toward the lounge.
Shen Bing looked at the odd scene before shaking his head in surprise. Mark and the other soldiers are playing an old fashioned card game. Liv is arranging her equipment. None seemed particularly startled at Heine’s actions.
“When did Colonel Burton get so close to Xiao Yan?” Shen Bing looked at the group of Special Forces.
“Xiao Yan is our own technical soldier. The boss will not go on a mission with another tech.” Mark grinned with a dull expression as though he was saying, ‘really you don’t know this…such old news.’
“He even personally trained Xiao Yan in combat.” Another soldier threw down a card.
“Hey! I taught him too.” Mark said indignantly.
Liv deflated his sails. “Winn taught him more.”
“Too bad that Winn was tasked with protecting the Academy, otherwise he would have been able to see Xiao’s performance in actual combat. He would have been very pleased.”
“No wonder he is so different from the other technical soldiers.” Luther sighed, he knew in his heart that there was no way every researcher could have achieved the level of ability that Xiao Yan displayed.
