Base Alexandria

This world can be a little overwhelming and confusing at times. Sometimes it seems too big, and sometimes it seems too small, there's good people and then there's bad people, or people who are just too closed-minded to see the truth, but who am i?  Am i on the good side or bad? Alexandria, the biggest base on this continent, smack dab in the middle of the Nevada desert. Five-hundred thousand refugees, one-hundred fifty thousand military personnel and five-hundred scientists. Then there's me. Plenty of my peers would kill to have my skill set, my rank and my life, but they would quickly change their minds if they understood what it took for me to get here or the losses i had to take, even almost losing my life. "Sam...?" I turned to look at Kyle, my boyfriend, one of the reassuring aspects of my life. Kind, caring, loyal, a real prince charming when he's relaxed, but don't try to talk to him while he's training, he can be a different person while he's focused. "Are you sure you're alright? You seem like you've been a bit distracted these past couple of days." He's not wrong. Lately I've been having a weird feeling, as if something bad is gonna happen. I don't want him to distract himself by worrying about me, besides the one thing he should be worried about is what my dad will say about Kyle asking for my hand. "Yea i'm ok, we should get going before dad drills a hole in the both of us with one his, you're late speech's" We both giggled, because we really wouldn't hear the end of it. The base is big and you would think that's all it was. A couple of buildings here and there with no uniqueness about them, but that's not really the case. In fact the Alexandria base is its own city you could say. Apartment like complexes built a little differently than the last, the military division has its main building with a school for kids wanting to join later on and a couple of buildings for training and advanced training.Then there's the science division, which has a hospital as the main building and a couple of smaller buildings for different findings and experiments and a regular school for kids who just want to know what the world was before it was.....nothing. Finally everyone's piece of mind, the downtime district or the lively part of the base. Consists of three bars, three restaurants, and two dancing clubs. Fortunately back when Vegas was still Vegas, someone thought it would be a good idea to smuggle ALOT of goods out of the place and sell it off to the military and i can say it helps the worst of days, unfortunately not all of them. We were making our way to the downtime district to the nicer restaurant. You know where all the richer people who survived made it a point to let everyone know it was more for them. The closed minded fuckers, even in a world where not many people have survived they still think they are better, but Kyle insisted we go to this one. When we walked in immediately all eyes averted towards us. I instantly got an overwhelmed feeling "Why is everyone staring at us?" I whispered to Kyle "Well you know, you are the general's daughter, and you are very beautiful you turn heads literally" I looked at him, and i couldn't help but to smile, but at the back of my head my bad feeling was still lurking, and i felt uneasy. "Kyle wait." He looked at me in confusion "Why don't we just go to pastor Carrie? I mean we don't have to tell dad right now, we could just get married and tell them later i'm sure they'd understand." The way he chuckled as if he'd heard something he shouldn't have  "What? so your dad can kill me later on too? It'll be ok Samantha I mean what could possibly go wrong? He respects me enough to actually give consent to marry you.....i think. So let's just get through the dinner and we'll be married in a couple weeks." He kissed my forehead.  But I still couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. I could see my mom waving us over from the corner of my eye, at a table not too far from the entrance. She is beautiful, and a really smart scientist. Before I knew anything about being a soldier I wanted to be like her, and work alongside her. She wanted the same, but my dad General Briggs had other plans.  General Briggs is the most respected man on this base, and his presence can be quite intimidating. Everywhere he goes regular civilians stop and stare, then you hear the ridiculous whispers, "I heard he killed 3 rebels with one hand behind his back." or my favorite one "They say he forced his wife to marry him." Which i can for sure say, that is most definitely NOT true. As a kid before all this soldier stuff, mom always told me stories about how they met, and i think the only person that isn't intimidated by dad is mom. Their love is.....weird but strong, sometimes i think only they can understand it.  "Over here Lieutenant Briggs!" "Please sit down Amanda, you're waving around like a crazy lady." "well they don't call me the mad scientist for nothing honey." She came into me for a big hug as she always did, but when i greet dad it's always awkward. Kyle greets him with the usual salute and handshake but with me it's not even a hug, it's almost like there's a void there. Most of the time I just shake it off, he must still feel guilty for what happened when i was a kid. "Lieutenant." "Hi daddy." "Hank honey, smile a little it's a special occasion tonight." She winked at me and Kyle, because she already knew what the occasion was. We told mom a couple days earlier and she was excited for us, seeing as me and Kyle have known each other since we were young and basically inseparable. The hard part was telling dad, seeing as how he doesn't smile about much these days or even get excited. We ate and mom did most of the talking, while dad did mostly nodding and trying hard to pay attention. It pissed me off sometimes how he couldn't even pretend to be happy. He's the one who insisted on me going to basic training, but there was a time when he did smile often and laugh more but that was before and this is now. "So can i know what exactly this so called special occasion is? I'm getting a bit tired." Kyle turned to me and smiled. "Well General as you know, i'm madly in love with your daughter and i've asked her to marry me and well we wanted yours and Mrs. Briggs blessing before we started planning everything." We all fell silent while waiting for his response. He picked up his glass of whiskey and drank the rest of it before putting it back down on the table. "Dad?" "No." We all stared at him in silence, and I started clenching my fists together. "What?" "You heard me lieutenant Briggs, I said no." “What the hell do you mean no? Haven’t both Kyle and I done everything you ask of us? Your missions, your trainings, hell wasn’t me almost losing my life for that f*****g basic training ENOUGH!? So what the hell do you mean NO?!?!”  He didn’t say anything, he only stood up, wiped himself off and said “ my office tomorrow 0800”. With that he left.