Huh?

Once Ethan was inside the camp, Grant turned back towards Brock only to see that the man had a very comical look on his face. His face looked like that of a child who had just been told that Santa wasn't actually real.

Grant couldn't resist letting out a few soft chuckles before patting the man on the shoulder to rouse the man from his internal thoughts.

After a few quick taps, Brock quickly regained his composure and looked focused his attention on Grant. Grant's facial expression which had been jovial and bright quickly darkened and turned sinister before he gave Brock a few quick and concise instructions.

"You do not appear to be a bad person on the surface, so I advise you to steer clear of me and my friend down there until we accomplish our goals.

If I see you with another gun in your hands threatening either of us or the people of this camp, I will not hesitate to end your life. If you know what's good for you, you will climb down this ladder find your friends or family, and lay in wait until we are finished. Do you understand?"

Intimidated by the sheer pressure that Grant was exuding, Brock was unable to speak but managed to nod his head up and down to express that he understood.

Seeing Brock's affirmation, Grant quickly dropped the dark and sinister expression and once again replaced it with his jovial and happy one before he turned and readied himself to once again drop to the ground below. Before he leapt from the tower though, he made sure to remind Brock to get the guard in the other tower so that something didn't happen to him while he was unconscious.

Brock once again gave a silent nod to acknowledge his understanding.

With that, Grant leapt from the tower and landed softly on the ground below.

He quickly walked over to Ethan who had been standing there waiting for him before they both began to walk in the direction that Grant had originally came from.

After they disappeared from view, Brock let out a deep breath and stood rooted in place for a few seconds before he smacked both of his cheeks with both hands and quickly made his way down the ladder and into the other tower where his friend was laying unconscious. When he arrived in the tower and saw the telltale rise and fall of his friends chest which indicated that he was in fact alive, he let out another deep breathe before peering off in the direction that Grant and Ethan had disappeared.

While he was looking down the street he noticed a few men that were creeping in the shadows of the buildings, heading in the direction that Grant and Ethan were headed.

His first reaction was to be concerned for Grant and Ethan, but he realized that unless Andrew himself made an appearance, it was likely that the ones who would suffer in a fight, would be the guards and leadership of the camp.

Which, as far as Brock was concerned, was a good thing. For a week now, he had been trying to fight the corruption of the guards from the inside, but had made zero progress. Other than Brock himself, there was only one guard who had not abused their power to exploit the people of the camp, and that was his buddy laying unconscious next to him.

Not knowing that he had just become someone's greatest hope for a brighter tomorrow, Grant continued to walk side by side with Ethan, towards the direction of the hospital.

It was clear to Grant that Ethan wasn't going to let him off the hook for disrupting their plans, so while they walked, Grant explained the series of events that had led them to their current situation.

Ethan was unsurprisingly enraged by what Grant told him about the camp they were currently "invading" and nearly ran off in the direction of the hospital the moment Grant had finished his story.

Ethan managed to hold himself back though, since he knew that without Grant, their was a strong likelihood that he would end up dead or severely injured if he tried to take on everyone in the camp.

It would be illogical for someone weak and without power to be able to manage a camp the size of the CRMC Camp, so he forced his anger down and thought logically about the situation which forced him to remain at Grant's side.

After the two had walked for a couple minutes in silence, Grant suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Ethan was surprised at first and immediately took a defensive stance, readying himself for a fight.

While Ethan was scanning the surroundings vigilantly, a rucksack was thrust into his face, catching him off guard.

"Hold the pack for a second Ethan."

"If you were going to stop to get our gear out, why didn't you just say so!"

While pulling item after item from the bag, Grant looked at Ethan with an expression oozing sarcasm.

"I should have said something before I stopped, I'm sorry! I will do better next time boss!"

And with that, Grant gave Ethan an exaggerated bow before standing back up and removing items from the bag.

Seeing Grant's actions, Ethan was simultaneously confused and enraged. Grant had always been a difficult person to deal with who at times could be a complete and utter dick, with a dry sense of humor, and a sarcastic nature, but he was never this bad.

Before Ethan could even speak though, Grant thrust his own armor into Ethan's hands.

"Put these on boss, you should be ready for the fight to come!"

Having had enough of Grant's sarcasm, Ethan turned to face Grant and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could even make a sound, he froze. The look in Grant's eyes betrayed his attitude which made Ethan realize that something was amiss. Not knowing what Grant was planning, he decided to play along.

He quickly snatched the armor from his hands and started to put it on.

"Took you long enough to hand it over! Why do I even bother bringing you along if you're so incompetent?!"

Seeing that Ethan had managed to catch on, Grant quickly handed over all of the armor and helped Ethan quickly equip the gear.

Other than his accessories and weapon, Grant handed over all of his armor to Ethan to equip. After Ethan was done putting on the armor, he quickly took the bag from Ethan's hands and once again, gave an exaggerated bow.

"I apologize boss. It won't happen again! I'm sorry!"

Still bowing, Grant took a few steps back to distance himself from Ethan. While he was backing up, Grant raised his hand in front of his head and rolled his wrist a few times like they did in the old medieval movies he watched.

While Grant rolled his wrists however, he also subtly gestured to Ethan to move forward and walk ahead as if he was really the man in charge.

It took a few overly dramatic movements by Grant for Ethan to catch on, but he eventually turned and faced away from Grant, getting ready to resume the trek towards the hospital.

"As long as you understand your failures, I will forgive you this time. There will be no second time!"

While Grant was still bowing, he could hear faint footsteps of people approaching them from all directions.

Rather than react though, Grant allowed the ambushers to believe they were still undiscovered. Grant was non-to-concerned about his own safety because his passive detection didn't fluctuate even a tiny bit no matter how closely the ambushers approached.

As Ethan renewed his walking, Grant finally stopped bowing and prepared to move forward himself. Or at least, made it appear that he was going to move. He could tell that one of the individuals was already standing directly behind him.

Sure enough, a knife was placed against his neck, followed by a man speaking.

"You in the armor! Stop where you are!

Who the fuck are you two and what area you doing here?!

Come quietly or I will make sure your lackey here dies a slow and painful death!"

Contrary to Martin's expectations though, Ethan continued to walk without so much as a glance back.

"Hey fucker! Did you not hear me?! You think I'm bluffing?!"

Finally, Ethan paused his footsteps and turned around to face the direction that Grant and Martin were in.

The moment he turned around, a group of men, all wielding different style firearms, emerged from the surrounding darkness and encircled Ethan and Grant.

"That's what I thought. Now tell me who the fuck you are and why you are in our camp! Are you the one who killed my men?!"

At first Ethan just stood there without saying anything, staring directly into Grant's eyes with a multitude of emotions coursing through his own eyes.

Grant knew that Ethan was currently wrestling with the very issue that he had warned him about on their way to the camp.

If Ethan were to follow him into the camp, there was a chance that he would have to kill actual human beings. Even if they were monsters on the inside, they were still human on the outside and only Ethan would know if he could take another human's life or not when he needed too.

Seeing that Ethan had no intentions of speaking, Martin once again resumed his threats, "Are you going to answer me or do I need to torture this bitch here until you realize I'm not bluffing?"

In an attempt to show that he was serious with his threats, Martin removed the dagger from Grant's neck and lowered it until the dagger was hovering above Grant's thigh. Without even a milliseconds hesitation, he plunged the dagger downward.

Contrary to his expectations though, the dagger simply impacted Grant's thigh before bouncing back into the air.

Martin just froze, with a look that seemed to question the reality of the world itself before his hostage spoke for the first time.

"Huh?

Are you trying to torture me or tickle me?"