Chapter 17 - Jasmine and the Military

Two days later...

Jasmine was sleeping in the guest room for two continuous days.

James had prepared a plan to turn jasmine under his wing. With Jasmine, the shelter's combat prowess would increase significantly. He had already thought of exposing his and black's awakening for implementing his plan and approach her positively.

He would have not thought of poaching her, but the hatred towards this fellow general she mentioned was enough to give him a hope. The gears in his head were moving nonstop to avoid any mistakes or revealing black's identity. Thinking positively, he had already reached a success rate of more than 50% in his calculative brain.

He was munching on his breakfast with everyone when the guest room's door opened. Jasmine had messy hair, and she was still drooling when coming towards everyone. James nearly chocked himself as if he had seen a ghost.

James coughed slightly and noticed that Jasmine sat beside him. She asked with a soft tone for water from his mother.

Before gulping down the water filled glass, Jasmine remembered that she was not in her house. Immediately, she sat elegantly on the dining table with smile on her face. She stood up and started speaking, "I'm really thankful for your hospitality. I don't know how I can repay this favor back. I don't have any place to live anymore, as the military shelter has already abandoned me, which resulted in my team's death-" when her speech was interrupted by James' mother, "Oh my, don't worry about that. If the shelter cannot be your home, then you can live here. We have plenty of empty rooms here."

Listening to her caring voice, Jasmine immediately looked at everyone on the dining table just to notice that they were nodding at her while smiling. Her eyes turned again into a water stream. She couldn't refuse the gentleness of these people who barely knew her.

James had no choice but to curse in his head about making plans to poach Jasmine.

To his surprise, his mother was ahead of him and even convinced Jasmine to live here. If she lived here, then it meant she was a part of the shelter.

"Then….please allow me to be a part of your humble abode." said Jasmine with a smile on her face after wiping off the tears.

James' mother stood beside her and asked, "Child, you should follow me to the nearby shop for grabbing clothes that suite your body." looking at the mountain peaks choked by Alita's clothes.

Alita was jealous to look at the mountain peaks when she was changing Jasmine's clothes. She couldn't hold back her curiosity to ask her about their growth method. She stood up frantically and said, "I'm also going too!"

After hearing out the two ladies, Jasmine agreed, "This… Umm… Fine." when a thought crossed her head, making her scream, "But isn't there danger outside!".

James' mother told her to not worry about the situation outside, as she told her that the neighborhood has been cleared out a week ago.

Jasmine was stunned to hear the mention of her explanation. She remembered the tree roots that pinned her to the wall and thought that it was an awakened's ability. Shocked to know that there were two awakened others than the military base, she immediately looked at James and Black and spoke, "If you ever encounter the people from military, try not to expose your abilities." with a serious expression.

"What do you have against the military base?" asked James.

"It's not the military base but the general there." replied Jasmine with her clenched fists. There was a sudden spark of flame in her eyes, after which she sighed and told them everything from the start.

Three years ago, Jasmine was recruited into the army with her merits. She worked hard and became popular in the camp. In a year, she was acknowledged by many superiors and had completed every single mission flawlessly with her trusted team.

The bond between her teammates was similar to that of her family. After two years of serving the military, she had already completed some confidential missions along with her trustworthy teammates. They had been posted here three months ago to minimize the crime rate as a special task force. But after the month of their posting, apocalypse broke out.

The military issued them to protect the shelter expansion project until its construction was completed. General Herald was given the responsibility of organizing the military shelter after its construction was completed.

The construction had neared its end, after which the population inside could breathe freely. The general's nephew Garry had a lustful personality, and inside the shelter no one could stop his uncle's authority.

Countless women were captured as a source of tribute to live in the shelter, as both the uncle and nephew destroyed their lives.

His nephew had his eyes on Jasmine and proposed a marriage to her, which she refused, knowing what he did to the others.

Garry went outside to kill zombies with his team, so Jasmine would acknowledge him, but his team lost contact with the shelter when they entered a mall situated near it.

Only screams could be heard over the radio.

The enraged general forced Jasmine and her team to rescue his nephew, who was already dead out of his selfishness. She received a satellite phone for direct communication with the general.

Her team had arrived by the mall in a week's journey. They carefully entered the mall, avoiding any commotion with the lurking zombies. To their surprise, there was only silence in the mall and no zombies could be noticed by them. Searching every floor, they could only find some torn apart military clothes and the guns were lying on the ground like trash.

They had cleared the upper floors, but only the basement was left to search. They went down to only find out a pool of blood made up of zombies and human bodies. It was only visible because of their night vision goggles provided by the military.

They carefully moved out of the basement and camped at the second floor to report the situation.