Camp Warfare

The Morning Of The Second Day – Near The End Of Gu Erin's Camp Meeting

Officer Xi Ying, had just gotten up, the morning was young as the pale blue sky was starting to show the first signs of the rising sun. She was never a morning person, but here in this new place she found it far easier to awaken. She was energized and far more refreshed, the air was crisp like a spring morning, and with each inhale she felt like her body was a year younger.

"Morning Miss Xi!" A young man called out. Officer Xi turned to him, he was one of the few people she enjoyed talking to, as he gave her a general feel of how the overall mood of the camp was.

Milo was a foreigner, however whatever the so-called Heaven's did to them allowed them to speak to each other no matter where they were from. It amazed her, yet brought her slight trepidation at the same time.

Milo himself was a young man, maybe just out of high school, although he was small, Officer Xi appreciated how hard of a worker he was. While other complained and had to be practically dragged to work, he always offered a helping hand with a bright smile. With light brown hair and green eyes, he looked cute rather than handsome.

"Milo, heading to work already?" Officer Xi asked with a light smile, she liked Milo, he was a good kid. Although some might argue she wasn't much older than him, he still had to go through further education and gain more life experience to reach her maturity.

"Of course, Miss Xi, the merchant I'm working for is leaving town in a few days, so I want to help as much as I can before he leaves." He smiled; his eyes full of innocence, as he started to walk alongside her.

Officer Xi chuckled, "just make sure you don't get fooled, one of the qualities of being an adult is to know the value of your time, understand?"

Milo looked slightly frustrated, "I'm nineteen now, I'm an adult, I can take care of myself!" it was clear this was quite a sore topic for the young lad, but this frustration only made Officer Xi smile. If only she had a younger sibling like him. Deciding to speak her thoughts she turned to Milo fully.

"Hey, you can stop being so formal with me, just call me Big Sis Xi, okay?" Officer Xi offered; however, she was a bit stricter with her words. Such a naive youth would no doubt be taken advantage of .

"Uhm, I…guess?" Milo agreed hesitantly, as they kept moving their way through the camp, passing by more and more people as time went by.

Although they weren't able to provide food for everyone, they still had some food that they could ration out. This first come first serve protocol, had been a slight point of conflict, luckily, the rule of children going first had allowed most of the contention to fade. Officer Xi was proud of the people in the camp, for being able to put their needs second for the sake of others.

"So… Big Sis Xi? What are you planning to do today? Are you going recruiting again?" Milo asked skeptically, he himself had been recruited by Miss Xi, so he knew how effective she was at doing so. There was just something… so trustworthy about her.

She smiled lightly, before it disappeared as a memory flashed in her mind. The image of that young man and young woman, however even now she still thought about him. Every time she still had the feeling that something was… just wrong with him. He wasn't in trouble, or in distress, nor was he the type that she felt danger from either. It was like he had absolute control, and anything not under his control was worthless. With each thought about that feeling, it reminded her of her older sister.

She had the same air about her, she had inherited her family business, that she didn't want. She may have been cut out of the inner workings of the family due to her job, but she had still heard things about what her sister was doing. Her frown deepened as she got lost in her thoughts, before Milo nudged her, snapping her out of her past contemplations.

"Oh, right sorry!" She paused, before getting back on track. "I'm heading to that spire, apparently you can get information there. I'm going to see if I can find out more about the rumor of people being able to cultivate."

Milo's eyes brightened, "heh, cultivation, like in the novels? Let me know, I want to be a cultivator, I want to be a swordsman!" However, not a second later Milo faltered. "Uh, maybe a bowman actually… I don't think I'd be any good in a fight."

Officer Xi had to hold back a laugh as Milo rubbed his head in embarrassment. "You'll be the first to know okay?"

"Thanks, Big Sis Xi!" Milo chuckled happily as he broke away from her, as she started heading towards the camps center rather than the rations.

Xi Ying now stood before a large tent, although it looked like it had seen better days, as it was bought for a fraction of the cost due to its third hand nature. It was no less useful for the camp, as it provided basic shelter for their supplies. Although it hadn't rained yet, it was still a worry that their hard-earned supplies would be ruined.

With a sigh Xi Ying entered the tent to find two other people, one being an older gentleman that looked like a friendly grandpa, and the other being a strict looking auntie. Xi Ying had just overheard them discussing the food shortage, as she entered the tent. Causing both of them to pause.

They both looked to her like they had seen their savoir, the kind looking auntie was the first to speak. "Officer Xi, tell this old coot that we need to stop building this wall! We need all hands on deck to get more revenue! People are starting to go hungry; the wall won't matter if we start dying of starvation!" The auntie argued.

The old man sighed, defeated, but still trying to get his point across. "I'm telling you we need those walls. I heard rumors about that third camp. They started hunting beasts, some were the size of cars. If something like that attacks us we'll have massive casualties."

Xi Ying frowned, this was the first she had heard of it, beasts the size of cars? Wasn't that impossible, however, before she could aske for more details the old man continued.

"One of my men heard from a member of their camp, that their leader forces them to cultivate, and they've turned into superhumans." The old man shook his head. "Although I'm not sure about this claim, I was in time to witness them dropping off their…. 'Catch'." The old man shivered.

Xi Ying could see the slight beads of sweat forming on the old man's brow, she had seen countless criminal cases. The old man had the same look in his eye, as the bystanders whom had seen something they had not been prepared for, or wished to see. She paused thinking about the current situation of the camp. People were starting to get hungry, however she had seen people starving before, she believed it wouldn't be a problem till later tomorrow.

She also knew it didn't stop the people who were working from getting their own food with their hard-earned money. The real outcry was from those who didn't wish to work. However, she still had to ask. "Do you think we can send out our own hunting parties?" Some of the people had gotten noticeably stronger, almost superhumanly so. Which gave credence to the belief of cultivation.

The old man paused, before he grew complaintive, "We'll need weapons, I was not joking about their size, those beasts were quite massive." He answered, rubbing his stubble.

"Beasts? As in multiple?" The auntie asked, finally settling down, now that the prospect of a ready food source was available.

"From what I heard they had caught over a dozen, and they said they planned to do more today. Maybe I can lead a group to follow them to their hunting ground? If prey is that abundant, I'm sure they wouldn't mind us doing our own hunting." The old man offered.

Officer Xi had to agree, this was the best plan to avoid their food shortage. Seeing both of us in agreement the old man left. Leaving her and the auntie alone, however Xi Ying wasn't much of a planner or a leader, although her charisma had helped form the camp, she had no experience managing large groups of people.

In the end, using half baked excuses she pardoned herself from the tent to go join Milo in the ration line. However, when she saw the line she immediately dismissed the idea. Instead, she waited for Milo to come out of the line. It seemed like he had the chance of actually getting some food. She wanted a walking partner for their small trek back to Haymire.

Milo soon joined her with a small portion of rice, that was placed on a cleaned strip of bark. They continued to walk toward the edge of camp clearly visible by the walls made of logs, even now there was a group of men and women who were working on moving more of said logs.

However, when they approached they notice that the group of people paused as if stunned. In the next moment an object was sent flying over the wall. It landed only a few meters away from Xi Ying and Milo.

Both of them blanched, Milo more so, even though Xi Ying had seen countless atrocities, she was affected due to one key factor. The object that was sent flying over the wall was a head. It was the head of an old man; the same old man Xi Ying had just been talking to. Not a second later, even more heads flew over the wall.

Mass panic, and countless screams followed.