A Virtuous Death

In the suit room facing the ocean glittering with stars, her legs crossed and back rested with the couch. Yulia sat with a bunch of papers and cellphones. One of which was already in her hand, pressing against her ear.

"Is that all you could gather?" She asked.

The light reflecting on the golden tiles of the ceiling made the room glistening like gold. Yulia looked like a sculpture ,very carefully curved, with that expensive shining metal in her casual knee long top and skin fit jeans. She picked up her mug of coffee and took in the aroma while listening to the other side of the phone.

The bitter taste of the coffee, revived her sense of taste, raised her stimuli then smoothly glided down her throat.

The scent of organic coffee remained attached to her clothes even though the mug was emptied. She uncrossed her feet to put down the mug next to the kettle.

"No. Its enough. Thank you for your hard work."

Immediately as she disconnected the call, her other cell phone rang.

"Alright. Thank you." She took a different phone in her hand and redialed a number.

After waiting for a while the other side responded.

"Greetings sir. This is Yulia Orks from DOR. I've requested your permission…"

"You need not repeat, Yulia." The deep and raspy voice of an old man spoke. "I've heard about your situation. You wanted military support, right?"

"Yes."

"Let me remind you that the soldiers cannot be sent there. You know why, don't you?"

"I remember sir. But the matter calls for an urgency. I'd very much appreciate it if the ministry of defence would lend us at least some firearms."

"How many allotments do you need?"

"Not only allotments.. let DOR monitor the entire firearm division of Novoulhea."

Silence reigned among the talkers.

"I cannot allow you to take them all, Yulia. Due to the outbreak, the world military has suffered from a tremendous loss of firearms and soldiers. It is thanks to the United Nations that we even have something left in store."

"Regardless, we cannot underestimate the urgency of the situation, sir. There must be a reason if I'm asking for such a huge favour."

"No. Allowing you to monitor them all will be nothing but stupidity. We need to save some for future purposes."

She sighed as though it was expected. She never intended to monitor the entire firearm division. Simply so that the minister agreed with her, she raised the bar so high and then lowered it.

"Fine. Seven barrels of ammunition. Four air support. And three war ships. I hope it isn't much." The glares on her eyes sharpened.

"Are… are you going on a war, Yulia?!"

"Yes, sir." She smiled. "It is a war."

The man on the other side responded in dismay. "Alright. I'll see how much i can send."

Yulia giggled. "Thank you sir. I'd be grateful if they arrived as early as possible."

"Fine. Fine."

The call between them disconnected.

Yulia spread her arms and stretched her feet.

A foundation had been laid out for the bait-lure strategy.

"But… who will be the bait?"

"Yes. We will come to that eventually."

Before the second round of the meeting had commenced in the early morning in haste, Ran, Fein, Kuina, Eudimor and Ludic were especially called to weave the sequence of events for their strategy.

"I've received information about the beasts camping inside Von2402. And they've gone ferocious for the lack of food." Yulia explained. "The first one has stereotypical claws and strengths like most other beasts. I hope everyone here is aware of the structure of beasts."

"I've never run into one…" said Kuina. "But I heard from others."

"I'll continue." Yulia tapped at one corner of the table. A hologram of the blueprint of the marine vessel floated in the air. "The second one has an abnormality which is the ability to walk on walls. It may not sound as threatening but it has killed a good number of our comrades by ambushing them from the ceiling."

She showed them the footage of the battle on the hologram. It brought a poignant feeling among them.

"The third one has high jump abilities. It is quite fast and can jump at least 65-70 metres on assumption."

She showed them the external footage of the beast jumping onto the vessel, breaking through the glass.

"So.." Fein rubbed his chin. "One is a lizard, the other is a kangaroo?"

The women broke into a slight laughter, lightening the heavy atmosphere. While the men intensely glared at him. They wondered if it was on purpose or not.

"Pfft.. Yes. You're right."

Eudimor looked down from the hologram and asked Yulia. "What are their positions?"

"The first one is in the inner section 2. The second one is at 5, the side closest to the land. The last one is stationing at 3."

Ludic asked another question. "What is the base of this plan?"

"We will lure beasts out from the vessel and engage in a fight. The accompanied forces will kill the few undeads that are wandering inside and depart with the survivors. The ministry of defence has agreed to support us with armed helicopters and war ships."

"That is a splendid plan." Said Ran. "But it still ain't enough for those, is it?"

"No. It isn't. But there's hope."

Kuina stared into the blank as she said. "There's also a possibility that the bullets firing from the helicopter or ships might hit us who'll be on the front line."

"Yes. There is. And we can do nothing about it but to accept it as fate."

"Then. Let's just not all fight together." Fein opined. "We can use either the human force or the material force in intervals."

"And we die in the meantime?!" Exclaimed Ran.

"No. We need not engage in the battle directly. Keeping them busy on us while the vessel departs is enough."

"There's also this way."

"How are we going to lure them outside?"

Fein continued to explain. "The beasts are capable of tracking human presence. If we can intensify our presence, they should come out to eat us, considering how much they are starving."

"How are we going to intensify…"

"By using blood." Replied Yulia. "More than any other fluid in our body, blood has the strongest scent. Since their staple food is our flesh, it should appetize them."

"The bait will need to remain in the visible range so that the beasts can see them." Spoke Ludic.

"In the situation…" Fein looked down at the table and started to count the number of screws on his mind while talking. "There's a fifty-fifty chance that the beasts might attack altogether or fight themselves to win over the food."

"However we will proceed assuming that they might attack the bait altogether."

"What if they still don't come out after intensifying our presence?"

Fein replied to Kuina who was being paranoid, "We'll keep a beta plan in case."

"Well.. so.." Eudimor glanced at everyone in the room in turns. "Who's going to be the bait?"

Silence prevailed and heaviness pressed on them. In the darkened room with only glowing blue lights, all of their faces became stern. It was as if it was common knowledge that the bait would definitely die. After trying so hard all these days to survive, no one wants to die. It might be a virtue to die for a cause but no one wanted to be virtuous. They had chosen to live as sinners than to die for a virtue. It was the main reason why no one in DOR ever spoke of the bait-lure strategy before.

However… Our boy Fein, not so righteous nor so evil, threw his life away onto the field. "I'll be the bait."

Not because he wanted to die for virtue. But because he had foreseen all the possible outcomes already. A perfect simulation had been created into his brain.

His five words astounded everyone in the room. Even the roaches crawling on the metallic floor were probably surprised.