Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 272: Changing Of The Guard

Before Matthieu could knock on the door, it was already swinging open, revealing a pissed-off Raines. "What the fuck happened?" he snarled, stepping back into his office to give everyone room to get inside.

However, most of the men had disappeared between the front entrance and the office, leaving only Harper, Gideon, and Matthieu to speak to Raines. Gideon pushed past Matthieu and Harper, beelining for one of the chairs.

"I take it the survivors didn’t pan out?" sneered Raines as he made his way back to his chair. Haper and Matthieu didn’t bother to sit down, even though there was still one chair left.

"We don’t talk about the survivors," hissed Gideon, looking around the room frantically like even thinking about HER was enough to make her appear. "They... they..."

"They what?" demanded Raines, clearly frustrated with Gideon’s blubbering. "They took all the supplies that you were supposed to bring back? They were killed? They what?!?"

"What Gideon is trying to say, but doing a piss poor job of it, is that there has been a change in leadership for the Blackguard Compound. In fact, there has been a change in leadership for the entire city," replied Harper as he leaned against the door.

Crossing his arms and ankles in front of him, he smiled at the Commander. He had always hated the bastard. The man assumed that just because he was on his way to becoming a general in the Country M military that that made him hot shit.

What it made him was a moron. However, he wasn’t the only one. Everyone in the compound who was part of the ’legitimate’ military was the same way. The stupid fuckers didn’t understand that while they might live and breathe their calling, they didn’t have a sweet clue when it came to the real world.

One of the warlords that he had been working with in Country S liked to refer to Country M’s military men and women as the bullets. They went where they were told to go and did what their intended purpose was.

Mercenaries, on the other hand, were more like the computer system that saw the bigger picture and told the bullets where to fly.

But he was digressing. Back to the subject at hand.

"Oh, really?" mused Raines, a disgusting grin on his face. "And just who has determined that?"

"Don’t!" screamed Gideon, jumping to his feet as if his movement was enough to stop Harper from saying her name.

Harper couldn’t help but laugh, and even Matthieu couldn’t hold back his smile. Raines, however, was staring at Gideon like this was his first time seeing him.

"What is on your face?" he asked, cocking his head to the side as he studied the symbols carved into Gideon’s face. They weren’t the only ones on his body; they were just the most visible since his clothes covered the rest.

"Protection spells," whispered Gideon, settling back down into his seat. "But you can’t speak about---" ’her’ was mouthed like he refused to speak that word out loud.

Raines raised an eyebrow at Harper, but the other man only shrugged. "How are you completely fine, but my best man is a blubbering wreck? What happened this past week?"

"I told you," sighed Harper like he was speaking to a child. "There has been a change in leadership. The Scavengers are spreading the word to their people, and now I’ll telling you."

"And just who is this new leader?"

"Me," smiled Harper brightly. "I was the smart one, Gideon, who promised to protect her until his dying breath changed his mind, and now his mind is broken."

Raines looked like he wasn’t to argue, but Gideon was now nothing more than a whimpering mass, rocking back and forth in his chair with his hands over his ears. "You can’t say that. You can’t say that...."

"What can’t you say?" demanded Raines as he picked up his radio. "I need a psych eval on the team member who just came back. Figure out what the fuck is going on and if it is a result of a spirit power or something worse."

"On it, Commander," came the voice when Raines released the button.

"Gideon, go out and speak to the shrink on duty. You don’t have to report back for active duty until you have been cleared."

"Don’t say... can’t say..." murmured Gideon, getting worse and worse with every passing second. He wasn’t this bad on the road, but that didn’t mean shit now.

"What can’t you say?" demanded Raines, getting more and more frustrated.

"He doesn’t want to tell you that the Devil has determined to come out and play," chuckled Harper just as Gideon screamed. Harper was quick to get out of the other man’s way as Gideon crashed into the door, trying to get out of the room.

"Impossible," sneered Raines. "There is no such thing as the Devil. And I can tell you that even if this is Hell on Earth, there is no way he is walking around."

"She," smiled Harper as Matthieu opened the door for the frantic man. "I’m sure this will come as a surprise to you, but the Devil is a woman. And she is just getting started."

Raines narrowed his eyes as he studied Harper. "The little girl. The one who was being protected by the men. Is that who you are talking about?"

Harper shrugged his shoulders. "I have been appointed as the Head of L City. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to voice them. But for right now, I would like you out of my office. I need to get things in order for the changing of the guard."

------

"So, where to next?" asked Tank as he picked me up and started to carry me away.

The only problem was that I had no idea where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. I mean, the world must have changed a lot, but besides some of the details, everything seemed to be the same.

"I don’t know," I replied after a moment.

"How about we get a good night’s sleep," smiled Chang Xuefeng as he stroked the back of my hair. "I’m sure the house is around here somewhere, right?"

I hummed as I thought about it. "We just have to find a closed door," I replied after a second. We all looked around for a closed door, but it wasn’t the easiest thing to find amongst all the destruction. "Or not."