Surviving the Apocalypse

Trade

Two days later Hanna and Squad 1 returned to the research lab to meet with Crystal, her men arriving this time in a vehicle that was clearly armored. She watched as three of them pulled in, the one in the front and rear opening before they surrounded the one in the center with 10 men before the final one opened and Crystal got out from one side as an elderly man came around the other side. His eyes were sharp as he looked over the 4 men with Hanna, their single SUV clearly not armored against attacks like the ones from Camp Epsilon.

"Hanna, I would like to introduce my father and Commander of Camp Epsilon, Brigadier General Harold Johnson." Crystal said as Hanna nodded.

"I understand you were educated in one of the Military Academies." he said simply.

"Colonel Hanna Storm of Bridgeport Academy, leader of Camp Hope." she said formally without a salute.

"You show such disrespect to a superior officer?" he asked surprised.

Hanna scoffed as she looked at him. "Since the outbreak and subsequent retreat and fall of all governing bodies, your rank in a fallen military has no bearing here. So if you expect your irrelevant rank to hold some sway with me, you will be sadly mistaken." she replied bluntly looking him over.

He shook his head as he looked at her. "One would think that it would have instilled a respect for the chain of command. It seems our academies have failed more and more over the years."

"Why should I respect cowards who refused to stand and fight? Why should I respect tyrants that forcibly separated men from their families? Why should I respect an establishment that tucked tail and ran far away when it suited them, leaving thousands of people to fend for themselves while this happened?" she asked him. "You want respect from me, get off your lazy ass and earn it yourself instead of sending your daughter out here to do your dirty work for you."

"What do you know about what I do or don't do? You think running a Camp is easy?" Harold demanded of her as she smiled.

"No, it isn't. Do you see me hiding behind walls and my men so I can safely lead from behind? No, you see me out here every single day, fighting side by side with them to get what we need to survive. You see me leading those under my command by example, not through misguided respect for an archaic idea that saw the end of the world as we know it."

General Johnson shook his head. "How nice it must be to be young and naive, we had no choices but to fall back with as many lives as we could. What use would it have been to order men and women like those 4 to fight to the death?" he demanded as Hanna laughed.

"Naive am I? Like how you are naive enough to believe your superiors had no idea what would happen after they spent 6 years attempting to force the very virus that caused this to mutate? Like how naive you are to think you can come here and say whatever you wish without consequences? You do not want me to show you how naive I am not Brigadier General Johnson. It will not end well for you or your Camp." she replied so calmly that Lucas felt a chill go up his spine.

Harold Johnson narrowed his eyes at her, wondering just what she was talking about. "You have evidence to back up your assertions?" he asked her.

"So do you, in your very own copy of the data that was retrieved from this very research lab." Hanna said as his eyes went wide. "So, there are two ways we can move forward after this. Which one we employ will be entirely up to you. First option, you forget about being respected by me until you have proven you are worthy of respect. We continue trading and assisting one another, and I don't see your ugly face again unless you are joining the team that assembles to take out the next target of mutual need. Option 2, I show you naive and leave your ass here with absolutely nothing. Which do you choose General?" she demanded folding her arms as his eyes went wide.

"I thought the zombies were your only enemy?" he asked amazed at her brazenness.

"That is why you leave here alive today, and I didn't include killing any of your scavenger teams we encounter. Not being my enemy doesn't automatically make us friends or allies because you have a few brain cells left to think or a heart pumping blood through those worthless veins of yours." Hanna told him making a few of his men snort and cough as they tried to hide their amazement at her statement. "And before you mistakenly believe you can threaten me by withholding trade from us, know that we have no need to trade with you. Now or ever. Unlike your Camp, we were prepared when the outbreak occurred. We can feed and protect the people of our Camp, and have capabilities you haven't even dreamed of attempting to obtain again. Not trading with you would hurt your Camp far more than it would mine." she told him bluntly.

Harold snorted as he looked at her. "You think a few drones and missiles are going to help you against a swarm of zombies intent on breaking through your walls? That they will be able to kill enough of the undead to make a difference?"

Hanna shook her head. "The three drones we recovered from the warehouse, and 2 dozen missiles? No, those won't impact our ability to defend ourselves at all." she said as he looked at her smugly. "But they will allow us to reverse engineer them so we can build more drones and learn how to make the missiles ourselves using the equipment recovered from the ammunition factory that was right next to it. They will allow us to not only scout which paths we wish to pursue, but give us strike capabilities that will mean killing zombies by the hundreds without so much as risking a single hair on our people's heads. They will allow us to upgrade dozens of other drones that we already use for that purpose, as well as improve the technology we employ to ensure that humanity survives long after your Camp fails because you can't do something as simple as grow food." she said wiping the smug look from his face as his mouth fell open in shock.

"How can you even dream of doing those things?" he demanded.

Hanna laughed as she looked at him. "Why would you even dream I would tell you something like that?" she asked him. "You seem to be under the impression that your former rank and position entitle you to whatever you want. Time to wake from your fantasy and face the real world General, I do not answer to you or whatever fragment of a fallen military that abandoned the people they swore to protect. You are not entitled to anything more than what you can claim by whatever means necessary, no matter what it is you used to do." she told him.

"Than why shouldn't I kill you now and just claim the victory you think I am unable to achieve?" he asked threateningly.

Hanna laughed as she regarded him. "Because if your men even so much as raise those guns my people will give you a full demonstration of what level 5 abilities look like." she answered with a smile that told him she wasn't joking. "Personally, I will take the opportunity to see just how big of a fireball will fit up your ass before your body turns to ash. If you think 13 men is enough to win, perhaps you should know at this very moment a drone has missile lock on that very shiny car you arrived in. You see, we only needed to use one drone to reverse engineer the technology it possesses. Just as we only needed to disassemble one missile to learn how to make more of them. How is that for a naive little girl that you believe you can take advantage of?" she asked him.

Harold Johnson glared at her, knowing that if what she said was true, his men wouldn't stand a chance as those drones could fly at 75,000 feet and launch missiles that could fly for hundreds of miles. He nodded as his daughter looked at him, deciding that she was indeed far from naive. "How is it you were so prepared? Not even the military was prepared for this."

"My secrets are my own. I don't care how many abilities you have seen, I assure you I possess one so rare that you would never be able to guess what it is. The fact of the matter is, we were prepared enough that we could seal our gates today and never have to worry about zombies breaching our walls." she told him bluntly. "So, what will your choice be? Swallow your pride and realize you need our Camp far more than we need yours? Or keep your head shoved up your ass and demand respect you haven't earned since this s**t show began?"

"We wish to remain allies, despite your attitude and disrespect." he finally said after several moments before his men opened the back of his SUV and pulled out a bag filled with Heart Crystals. "As agreed, 15,000 Heart Crystals in exchange for 1,000 doses of Evojuice and the ability to achieve the same purity levels you have managed to achieve."

Hanna extended her hand to Crystal who shook it before she realized it was a direct transfer from one storage space to another. As soon as she released her hand she removed the prototype machine they had created that had the same efficiency as the one her quest had rewarded her with. She pulled an ordinary Crystal from the bag and slid it into the machine before she took an empty vial from her storage and placed it under the output spout before she pushed the button.

It took just two minutes for the entire process to complete, the crystal clear liquid filling the vial 3/4 the way before the leftover shards were spit out the other side all over the pavement. Harold drank it quickly, the same feeling from the previous doses enhancing his water ability to level 3 now. She watched as he shook his head before she clapped.

"Congratulations on reaching level 3, now you are the same level as our most basic ability user. Here is the schematic and details you need to replicate the machine, achieving this level of purity will be up to you. The entire process is outlined for whoever you have work on it, assuming of course they still have half the brains of the people within my Camp. Next time, just send your daughter. She seems to understand the world is no longer the one you used to run." Hanna said before she turned back to her SUV and got in before they returned to their Camp.