Team Four

The next day, Mark woke up as soon as the sun came, and went to the main building inside the city.

There he could see a wall filled with several jobs to do, and the credits paid for doing it, Mark was not sure how this credit system came to be, but he thought it was smart, he understood that people needed to unite to fight against the beasts, but unite while taking everyone freedom was a thing they could not do, and because of that, they came up with the credit system, where people could freely choose what to do.

'Inside mission, inside mission, found it, outside mission!'

"Dammit, only the water mission" muttered to himself Mark, he wanted an outside mission to find more mutated animals, but the water mission was in the opposite direction of the closest forest, and it was rocky terrain, with barely any trees or vegetation, any animal there would be able to spot him from miles away, he would not find any animals there.

'I can try to set up a trap and check tomorrow? Nah, too troublesome. I don't have the right things to build a good one, maybe fishing?'

Mark nodded to himself and went to the girl responsible for the handling the missions.

"Hey Isa, I want the water mission" said Mark, putting a smile that he could not afford, because Isabelle was leagues above him. The girl was the most coveted on the entire base.

"Another outside mission, Mark? You did one yesterday."

Mark still didn't know what kind of superpower this girl had to always remember every mission he took and when.

"I'm bored, and I also want to help John. He only has credits for today." said Mark. It was not the complete truth but was close to it, and a believable one.

"You are always taking care of that moron, what did he do to deserve you as a friend?" said Isabelle, already filling the forms for Mark.

Mark shrugged his shoulders but said nothing.

Isabelle put the form on the counter, and said "Here, take care Mark, don't push yourself too hard."

Mark grabbed the form from Isabelle's hand and after saying his goodbyes left the building and headed to the barracks, "I'm on the water mission" said Mark giving his form to the sergeant responsible for the teams.

The sergeant stamped the form and said, "Team four, in the garage"

Mark nodded and left the building. He was already used to that routine of the army, it was always the same.

Reaching the garage, Mark said aloud, "Team four?" and a guy raised his hand, Mark noticed the corporal badge on his arm and felt more at ease, at least this mission was not that hard, otherwise they would not put a corporal in charge of it.

Mark approached the group of people and showed his form to the corporal. The guy barely looked at it and gave a nod. Nobody wished to go on outside missions. There was no reason to doubt a form for an outside mission.

'This will change in the future' Thought to himself Mark as he realized people would beg to go outside in the future.

Mark gave a nod to the other soldiers and rested his back against the truck, just like some were doing.

'Dammit! I forgot to prepare a fishing rod!' thought Mark, already slapping his own face in shame for forgetting something so obvious.

"Is everything alright?" asked a guy by Mark's side.

Mark looked at the guy, but his attention was grabbed by the best fishing equipment he could imagine, a net, covering the back of the water truck, it was a camouflage net used to when a vehicle needed to stay too much time outside, just like any water collect mission, because the truck had to stay there for a long time while collecting water from the river.

"Ah? Nothing, nothing, I forgot to feed my cat," said Mark without even thinking about what he said. After all, who would have a cat in the apocalypse?

The guy furrowed his brows but asked nothing more, it was clear that Mark was avoiding conversation.

Mark was unaware of how and when this habit of his started, but as time passed and because of how many people he saw die by his side, he stopped caring for them, then later, he stopped to even interact with everyone that went on a mission with him.

Mark didn't know that, nor was he aware of his own behavior, but that was his own way of stopping to feel bad every time a friend or someone he knew died, things were much easier when he didn't know the people who died.

Time passed and a few minutes later, the water truck set off. The team was composed of four people, and observing the behavior of the corporeal Mark noticed that the guy always did this same mission or at least he did it frequently.

Half an hour later, the water truck finally reached the river and Mark could see the blurry water. It was not clean as the one he drank and Mark guessed they did some kind of treatment before giving the water to everyone.

"Ok guys, help me set the water pumping hose," said the corporeal jumping from the driving seat from the water truck.

Mark jumped from the truck's back. The truck only had two seats in the front, and Mark had to travel the entire time by hanging from the ladder at the back of the truck.

The process of putting the water pump hose and setting the camouflage was quick and very straightforward, and in less than five minutes, they had done everything. Now they needed to wait for the pump to fill the water tank.

"How much time takes to fill the tank?" asked Mark to the corporeal responsible for the mission

"It takes an hour or less, but don't worry, this area is safe. We never saw a beast here before," said the corporeal, giving a slap at Mark's shoulder.

'He must be thinking that I fear the beasts, or that this is my first mission,' thought Mark, but he understood the guy, because many people in this base never actually fought against the beast on the battlefront's like Mark.

"So, you guys do nothing and just wait the entire time?" said Mark

"Basically, yes, you can do whatever you want. Just stay close to the water truck," said the corporeal.

Mark put on his best smile and asked, "Do you want to eat fish today?"