THE FIGHTERS

So that was his name. Evander, Ocean's boyfriend, reinforcement 090, Zev still didn't quite understand that concept, much less the fact that they were named with numbers. Some people, mainly men, were the ones who approached, they were tall and stocky guys, with the bearing of soldiers, Zev wasn't sure he was going until he saw Milo approaching Evander, the same thing happened with the girl who offered her help to the soldier, she was the only woman there, that made her curious.

"Can we have two jobs?" Zev asked the commander.

"Yeah! Although if you also choose to be a rescue soldier it will demand more of your time, what did you choose?"

"The infirmary."

"That's perfect, many healers were needed, if you're a soldier you'll be a great help boy."

Zev was motivated by those words and by the fact that Milo would risk being a soldier, maybe he was doing it for the money but being so determined caused him to admire his brother.

When the volunteers were complete, Evander took them to the training area and as expected there was Ocean, with a serious expression leaning against one of the walls, staring at all who arrived.

"Umm, I will teach you to fight and defend yourself, also to use weapons but know one thing, your life is at stake from now on, you will serve as rescuers but that doesn't mean that you cannot die so if anyone wants to think things through, it is time to do it and walk away."

He looked at all of them, hoping that some of them would decide not to continue, but it seemed that none of them were leaving.

"You," he pointed to the girl, "are you sure you don't want to go?"

Everyone fixed their gaze on her making her feel uncomfortable, she was short, porcelain skin and blonde hair, she looked like a fragile doll. She shook her head in denial, she wasn't willing to back off, she wanted to try, to be strong for the first time.

"Well, the new crew arrived, they're down there," he pointed towards the back of the room, there seemed to be a floor below.

The volunteers came closer and looked down, Evander showed them some stairs where they could go down and meet the new soldiers. When they went down they were ambushed by a group of highly trained soldiers who left them in pieces in a matter of seconds, they did not understand anything, they did not even have time to defend themselves.

"So, are you the new rescuers?" Asked a dark-haired woman with slanted eyes, crossing her arms, "what a disappointment…"

The six boys frowned at her and still, no one said anything to defend themselves, except for the petite blonde girl.

"You say it because you already have experience," her voice was broken and her face was red with embarrassment.

"The first step to be strong is to pretend that you are strong even though inside your voice is trembling," the rude woman approached her still with her arms crossed and let out a small laugh, "you won't last even five minutes out there," she said. She said, showing her how she chewed a piece of gum.

"I'll make sure she does it, Ronda," Ocean interrupted, touching the woman by the shoulder.

She turned around and both girls smiled at each other. Apparently they were very close and understood each other well, so the woman left the little girl aside and went with Ocean to another part of the room. Zev watched every action Ocean made like a stalker and Evander had noticed that.

Evander called the new ones to instruct them a little that day, there was no time to lose as many people began to appear in every corner of the planet in search of being rescued. Three of the volunteers were going well in their training but Zev, Milo and the blonde were weaklings, without strength or physique for something so heavy, even with that he gave them a chance because what counted was the intention.

When they finished he let them go, it was the perfect time for a hot shower, food and to go to sleep. Milo went ahead while Zev was the last to get out, someone from behind was following him until he finally tagged him from behind.

"Hey," turning around, he saw the blonde girl staring at him.

"Yeah?"

"I know it sounds daring but I wanted to ask you, why didn't you stop seeing the one with the black hair during training?"

Zev didn't know what to say, he had no idea how obvious and inconspicuous he was, he didn't even want to admit he was watching her.

"What do I tell her?" He thought, looking in all directions, "She looks like someone I know, that's all," he replied without even looking at her and continued on his way.

"By the way, my name is Luna," the girl yelled as she waved goodbye.

Zev didn't care about Luna, he wanted to get closer to Ocean, it wasn't possible that she didn't recognize him, she could be pretending not to know of his existence even though she really seemed like a different person.

After washing up and having dinner, he went to his room, lying on the bed, he couldn't get Ocean's face out of his head, she went from being serious to smiling a little when she saw the soldier Ronda.

"I have to face her one more time, she can't be so proud to act as if she didn't know me", he said clenching his fist, "I have to…"

He got out of bed, searched through his clothes for a sweatshirt, found a black one with a hood, and put it on over his pajamas. He left stealthily, walking on tiptoes so as not to make any noise, he reached the soldiers' rooms and their lights were still on, many voices could be heard talking at the same time.

"There is another problem besides the oxygen of 090 and 091," the commander said as he puffed on his cigarette, " the community of Dawn expanded its security and the firing range of its snipers, they have also bombed several cities in the country, they are looking for Ocean and Evander."

The murmurs did not wait, everyone had different opinions regarding what the commander told them.

"The sons of bitches are offering a reward," he made quotation marks with his fingers, "for their capture or for sighting information."

"I can imagine what kind of reward they are giving," Ronda said, rolling her eyes, "eternal life."

Zev was not understanding anything, because they were soldiers he thought they spoke in code or something like that, eternal life couldn't be literal and the fact that they offered that to capture the boys left a lot to the imagination, he wondered if Ocean knew regarding this, when he peeked through a half-open door, he couldn't see her or her boyfriend.

"We have to be careful, we have already exposed Ocean a lot and I don't want to endanger the citizens," he looked down with a sad expression, "Soldiers, there are things that we still have to keep hidden…"

At that moment Zev stopped having doubts, there were many secrets about the resistance, about Ocean and Evander, he couldn't lower his guard if he wanted to get to the bottom of the situation but now he didn't trust those soldiers.

He took a quick look and noticed that he wasn't the only one spying on the military, Luna was on the other side of the hall. Their gazes met in the middle, both without expression on their features until they reacted and returned to the room area.

"What were you doing there?" Luna asked, very curious.

"What were you doing?" he replied with the same question.

"I don't trust the resistance, they hide things from us, just as you heard," she murmured when she said the last thing, "also, I'm very intrigued about Ocean and Evander, when they rescued me I saw that the black-haired woman was about to be injured by one of the limbs of a walker but her skin resisted it."

"What are you saying?"

"I swear! They were going to tear her but her skin couldn't be cut, not to mention that she has another power, pyrokinesis," her eyes widened, "they are not from this planet."