Stronghold In The Apocalypse

Reinforcements coming from the island finally arrived at the temporary base.     

"They're here!"     

Austin said as he stood beside Bella while waving his hand towards the Pelican that's slowly making its descent to the ground.     

"What are you even getting excited for?" said Bella with a slight smile on her face, slightly amused at Austin's actions.     

'This kid is too excited for his own good' Bella thought with a slight shake of her head.     

After all, someone who can't hide his or her emotions during these dark times would only be getting themselves into trouble.     

Boom! Klang!     

The Scorpion Battle Tank hanging at the back of the aircraft dropped down on the ground with a loud bang as the ground lightly shook, and followed by the opening of the hatch, revealing a row of heavily armed soldiers wearing exo skeletons, and behind them is another group of four soldiers who immediately made their way towards the battle tank and started inspecting it.     

On the other hand, the squadron of soldiers ignored the curious looks directed towards them from their surroundings and hurriedly made their way towards the direction of where Leo and the rest were.     

Thump! Thump!     

Swoosh!     

""Sir!!!""     

Arriving before Leo, the soldiers hit their chest twice and saluted him, implementing their new military greeting.     

Looking at the solemn looks of the soldiers before him, Leo couldn't help but be pleased inside knowing that the base at the other side of the world is well taken care of just looking at this group of familiar faces in front of him, where most of them were once just ordinary civilians who in turn became battle hardened soldiers for survival and who had gone through thick and thin with him before.     

Then Leo led the soldiers inside and started talking to them, while the people outside immediately went towards the Scorpion Tank and surrounded it.     

"Looking at you lot, I presume that the base is doing well?" said Leo, even though he already knows the matters currently happening at Hope 101 through the reports coming from Gideon.     

Spouting those was just a form of formality for him, but for the soldiers before him, it was different, for them, that question was like indirectly asking them if the base is still under his control and that there are no rats that's causing trouble while the cat's away.     

Thud!     

The squadron leader immediately stood in attention and answered, "The community is doing well even with your absence sir, while the leaders you had assigned to run the community are still obediently following your plans, sir! Hope 101 now is basically a functioning community that's no different from the world before the chaos, sir!"     

"On the other hand, the chaos in most of the colonies have already been quelled with the deaths of the rebels, sir!"     

Leo looked at each and every one of them and smiled, "Take some rest first. We'll start our offensive at that mall this afternoon"     

The soldiers saluted and they quickly dispersed under the lead of Lin and Carl, as they lead them to their temporary quarters at the back.     

Soon, Leo and Alex had started discussing plans on how they plan to take down the zombie infested mall, with the most crucial plan of luring the Z out in the open, with Anthony listening to side.     

Meanwhile, outside of the hangar.     

While maintaining a respectful distance, a large number of survivors had already gathered around the Scorpion Battle Bank as they gazed at the monstrosity with eyes full of curiosity as this is their first time seeing this kind of tank that has this sleek and tyrannical design that just the presence of it strikes fear into their hearts, and all of them couldn't help but imagine how much power it has and how destructive it is compared to its counterparts.     

And there's also those formerly enthusiastic gamers among the crowd and could recognize what the tank is at first glance.     

"Owww sh*t, isn't this the M808B Main Battle Tank? Also known as the Scorpion? It seems the rumor going around is really true that the leader has a mutated ability that could summon things known to him. His ability to summon things from the Halo Universe must mean that he's an avid Halo player. I wonder if it's related to how humans are able to acquire supernatural abilities like they're in a game"     

With a hand on his chin, this particular bright looking young man is staring dazed at the battle tank while mumbling to himself, then his eyes suddenly lit up as he realized some shocking conjecture!     

"Wait…could it be…a strong desire? Is it truly desire perhaps?"     

The young man continued mumbling to himself as he walked away from the crowd while looking down on the ground, then he stopped in his tracks just after taking a few steps and hurriedly took out a notebook from his pocket and browsed through the notes before stopping at a particular page containing information he had gathered so far.     

Name: Austin Clark     

Ability: Windwall     

Characteristic: Can attack and defend     

Note: His ability appeared with the desire of wanting to protect his fiancee     

Name: Bella Smith     

Ability: Physical Enhancement     

Characteristic: Superhuman strength     

Note: Really likes training into different kinds of martial arts, gained her ability a week after the chaos started.     

Apart from Bella and Austin, there were also a couple of people listed on the page.     

Then the young man took out a pen and started writing something on the notebook.     

Name: Leo     

"Hmmm…"     

The young man placed the pen on his lips while thinking about something, before he resumed scribbling on the page.     

Ability: Able to summon things (need further confirmation)     

Note: Leader of a large survivor group, probably a ruthless character.     

"I need more information on him to complete his profile" mumbled the young man before he put his pen and notebook away and disappeared somewhere.     

Unbeknownst to the young man, a pair of eyes were carefully watching his movements ever since he took out his notebook.     

"What a suspicious person, is he a spy from another camp? But who in their right minds would even try to provoke this group?"     

Bella mumbled to herself, her eyes not leaving the suspicious figure in the distance.