My name is Mariana Gareth. I’m an aristocratic daughter.

  I’m aware of some of the crimes committed by other aristocrats against our people.

  I aim to better their wrongdoings and ensure no other children, like my friend Lily, suffer.

  That is why I am part of this journey from which I might not return.

  With the loss of the Alpha team, all hardships were left with the Victory team – my team – and the last survivor from the former.

  I… I don’t think we could manage to do it.

  The plan was simple despite being vague: embark and go to point A, where we’d get an “object” that we had to transport; from point A, team Alpha would go to point B; my team would follow two days later; after the delivery, we’d get additional support for our safe trip to point C from where we’d go back home.

  And yet… we were at the start and everything fell apart.

  I couldn’t bear seeing my close ones die for nothing.

  But if I gave up, all my dreams would become nought.

  Was there some way or someone who could make the hardship more bearable?

  I was thinking as such alone in the steamy bath I entered a while ago. The hot water in the bathtub wet my skin. With the help of the fragrant green apple soap, I cleansed all the impurities that dirtied my skin and made the stench of blood from my body go away.

  It was a deserved respite after this day of constant moving and fighting for my life. I felt like if I closed my eyes, I’d fall asleep.

  The mission finished half an hour ago. It was a success. Soon, we could resume our real mission…

  While enjoying the relaxing bath and cleaning my slightly wounded body with the soap, I remembered something – someone.

  A man with black hair and dark brown eyes, constantly wearing camouflaged clothes, always armed and unfriendly. He has quite the attitude. One moment, he is nonchalant and uncaring, the other – annoyed and confrontational, ready to solve all problems with violence.

  I still recall the first time I knew of his existence.

  The day before yesterday, while Lily and I were in the noise guild where she was moving around, accepting and serving the customers’ orders, we saw how the man and two other Mercenaries colluded. He left and the other two followed suit. The two looked irritated.

  I thought they might do something, so I went after them with Lily. We kept a long distance and spectated them. The best outcome would have been if nothing had happened.

  The three of them went into an alley and following them was risky. I wanted to continue, but Lily was against it. She reasoned that we’d get spotted and if a fight did break out, the crossfire might affect us.

  We had to stay and hope nothing bad would happen.

  I knew it was a bad idea to attract attention. That was why we only watched from a distance. Still, if a fight broke out on the street where there were a few passengers, we’d have intervened, but in the alley where there were no bystanders, the fight might have been to the death.

  Lily came with me solely for my protection. She couldn’t care less about them. Whether they died or not, she had no interest in that.

  In all honesty, I saw her reasoning and had to agree. Still, for people to kill each other over such a minor issue was a worthless death. If there were the slightest possibility that a life could be spared if I intervened, I would.

  We sat on a bench and after some time, I heard two consecutive shots. I was startled, but Lily was nonchalant. The few passengers pretended they heard nothing and continued with their day.

  Soon, he went out of the alley like nothing had ever happened. We waited for him to go away and went inside.

  After we checked, we saw the two corpses and reported to one of our hidden agents. In this settlement, we knew two people who would support us, both of whom only associated with us if necessary.

  It was hard to get in touch with the person we reported to, but we eventually met at night. He wasn’t very pleased. He asked us about what happened before and how the perpetrator looked.

  He added that such accidents could happen occasionally, but the two who died were paid to do something for him. He usually wouldn’t care about the minor Mercenaries’ scuffles, but he would keep an eye on him.

  As I determined he might be problematic during the mission, I had him with Lily and me. She should be able to take him down if he were to try something and since he was with two beauties, his guard should be down.

  I tried to gather information about who he was, but all my attempts hardly got anything useful.

  The mission was a horrendous experience. I expected bloodshed, but I was far from mentally prepared for what I saw and felt.

  A contender for the most embarrassing moment in the mission was when he and I both fell during our descent to the next floor. Back then, I wanted to hide somewhere from embarrassment, but the undead forced me to get a hold of myself.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The most traumatic encounter was the soldier who died after we found him. His letter to his family, to his mother… I also thought about my mother…

  While Lily and I were reading the letter, he turned and attacked him. He managed to pin the undead to the wall and I went to help him, but when I pointed my gun at the undead’s head, I froze. I could not pull the trigger. Lily intervened and finished it in my stead.

  During one of the ambushes we had to fend off during the mission in a canteen, we split.

  He had to defend our rear while my escort and I had to deal with the sluggish undead. We had no problem doing so. In fact, we could have gone and helped with his share.

  I was still wary of him then and wanted to see the full extent of his power. I was lucky that Lily was thinking similarly.

  “Don’t kill all of them fast,” Lily told me.

  “Why?” I tried to play dumb.

  “It’s a way to test how strong he is.”

  “What if he gets overrun?”

  “If he gets overrun by some Runners, then he wasn’t a threat to begin with. As for the Runners, I will deal with them myself if it gets to that.”

  True. She’s strong.

  Even if I didn’t like the room, even if the dismembered rotting corpses around made me nauseous, even if I wanted to puke back then, I decided to endure for the time being.

  All to get a partial understanding of what he was capable of. By now, what he showed us was slightly above most other Mercenaries in the mission. Lily and Roosevelt showed little of their full powers. What stopped others from hiding theirs?

  We were taking our time until we heard an explosion behind us. Both of us were surprised and stopped playing around.

  Soon after, he came.

  “What was that noise?” I asked.

  “Nothing. Just our path getting blocked,” he replied nonchalantly.

  “Is that nothing? Now we have nowhere but forwards to go!” Lily said with displeasure.

  “It was either the corridor or this room getting blown up.”

  Did a Bomber come? If that was the case, I had to agree with him.

  “You made the right choice.”

  He rolled his eyes after my reply, but said nothing.

  We continued and everything was going somewhat well.

  All my teammates, including me, knew the layout of the base’s upper buildings and the underground area. The upper structures were just the tip of the iceberg. The real deal was underground.

  Still, we were uncertain where the “object” we were looking for was. Therefore, we had to split and look everywhere for it. It was not ideal that Lily and I went underground, but it worked out well in the end.

  Due to a mistake on my part, he was in danger. I admit to having been wary of him, but I never wanted him to die.

  I felt guilty and tried my best to find him with Lily’s help.

  By then, we wandered aimlessly, but with a clear goal and our understanding of the layout, we traversed with ease. The only problem was that the layout we knew excluded all the damage the base suffered.

  When we reunited later on, Lily stopped me from helping him immediately. I’d have stayed put and spectated him even if she didn’t. I needed more information about him. I did feel guilty about it, but the safety of my friends took precedence over that of strangers.

  If I were in his shoes, I would have been very mad. Both for what happened before and back then.

  As for Lily, she also wanted to spectate him, but as he was nearing his end, I had to help.

  He hadn’t done any direct harm to us. Who knows? It might have been the others who provoked him back then.

  In the end, I did a prayer to Alason’s mutilated, turned corpse, retrieved the “object” and we went back to our biggest supporter, the stronghold commander.

  He was the agent from our organisation to whom we reported the accident the other day.

  My only regret was being unable to retrieve my compatriot’s corpse for a formal funeral. Leaving him like that left a bad aftertaste. I wanted to take something to give to his family when we returned, but Lily stopped me. She said that he was turned into one of the more infecting undead. Therefore, taking anything from him had a risk of turning us into the undead. We even had to cover the object in sterile material for safety.

  He didn’t seem too angry with me, but he wasn’t in good condition. He had a severe wound on his right leg, but by the time we got close to see it, he had already done the first aid. My only hope was that he didn’t get injured by Alason.

  In his eyes, we might’ve been saviours. We intervened at the last moment we could save him.

  He was having difficulties walking with his injured leg and I proposed helping him. He initially refused, but soon agreed. We managed to get up without problems. Time was the only thing cornering us, but with the employer being one of our people, I knew we wouldn’t be late.

  He couldn’t have known that and with the situation he was in until a while ago, time was the last thing on his mind, but when Lily reminded him, he panicked and rushed, even with his injury.

  We knew the way and were faster, so we led while making sure he could follow us.

  There was a shocking scene when we returned to the rendezvous point. No, even before it, there were blood and corpses, but he didn’t even register them, only going to the top.

  The thick scent of blood and rot almost made me puke again, but I managed to hold it.

  I must get accustomed to things such as these. Even worse might be waiting for us.

  This was a valuable experience, even if it was quite displeasing.

  Lily and I went to speak with our other teammates, while he sat near a tree.

  The boys found nothing, but that was fine! It was the two of us who had recovered it! We also exchanged the major parts of what happened while we were separated.

  I intended to meet him, the one who didn’t give us his real name, to apologise.

  I’d do so tomorrow or the day after.

  Maybe I could even ask him to join us? With his help, I thought we would be safer. After all, he survived something like that. Even if he wasn’t a good person. Not like there were many of them.

  I had cleaned myself and my skin returned its magnificent look. The minor injuries I sustained should heal soon. The hot water cooled down, becoming lukewarm.

  I stayed too long. Lily was also going to use the water after me.

  I got out of the bath, water droplets falling off my body and hair, took the bath towel from the door hanger and wrapped it around my slender body. I hid all my intimate parts with it, leaving only my legs, arms, shoulders, neck and above visible. Even if it were just Lily and me in the room, my upbringing forced me to hide such parts of my body.

  I also used a normal towel to dry my hair.

  I exited the bathroom, Lily and I exchanged goodnights and I went to lie down on my bed. She went to take a bath herself with the leftover lukewarm water and I waited for my body to dry. After a while, I dressed in my delicate nightwear and headed to bed.

  I rested my head on the pillow. The white bed linen was below average, but after the day, it felt priceless.

  The clothes we used today were put in a basket to be cleaned later and the “object” was in Roosevelt’s possession, who took on the role of disinfecting it. He’d give it back tomorrow.

  It was the same night after the mission. I was exhausted – both mentally and physically.

  It took no time before I was awoken by the morning sun. Was it already morning?