Seven days after Sean Raines left with his men, he sent someone back with a report.
The messenger collapsed from exhaustion the moment he arrived at the base, before Paige Summers even had a chance to question him.
Fortunately, Sean Raines’s letter was extremely detailed.
The letter said they had tracked the enemy for five full days before finally finding their location.
It turned out to be Mount Gorrow, to the southeast.
Mount Gorrow was an unassuming peak in a coastal mountain range, neither the tallest nor the shortest. Mutated Sea Beasts were a common sight, though not in large numbers. One could say it was a place that possessed a certain degree of danger, but not enough to provoke humanity’s strong desire for conquest.
This, perhaps, was precisely why those people had chosen it.
According to Sean Raines, the enemy’s base was even larger than they had imagined. His team was too small to risk making a move, and he needed her to send reinforcements.
The letter’s contents were straightforward, but Paige Summers read much more between the lines.
After careful examination, she found Mount Gorrow’s location to be quite peculiar. It was surprisingly close to the Southern Front, where Marcus Monroe was currently stationed—only about a two or three-day journey away.
This inevitably led her to think of something else.
’The origin of those Zombies!’
Southreach regularly dispatched teams to clear out nearby Zombies, and they had confirmed no gathering points remained. Yet, seemingly overnight, large hordes of those Zombies had appeared and even attacked Harborcrest Base.
’No matter how I look at it, this can’t be a coincidence.’
’So, where in the world were all these multiplying Zombies coming from?’
Realizing that Mount Gorrow was being used as a base by their assailants, Paige Summers couldn’t help but grow suspicious.
’Could it be... that this was all deliberate?!’
With this suspicion in mind, Paige Summers deliberated before having Sweetie deliver a letter to Marcus Monroe. She hoped he could take a team there to confirm the situation in person. Simultaneously, she had to send people from her base as well. She wasn’t an expert on battlefield tactics, so she had to have a backup plan. If Marcus Monroe was delayed or couldn’t send anyone, she would have Sean Raines take his own men and find a way forward. Even if they couldn’t take Mount Gorrow, they had to at least sow chaos.
But just as she was selecting team members, another incident occurred at the base.
Several team members had died during the capture of Nora Lowell. Now, upon hearing that Nora Lowell hadn’t been killed but had instead been taken to Levi Young’s lab, the younger brother of one of the deceased members began to cause a disturbance.
That day, accompanied by Mason Hayes, Paige Summers headed to the training grounds. While still a good distance away, she heard a young man’s voice, filled with grief and indignation. "...That monster killed my brother! If we hadn’t caught it, that would be one thing. But we did catch it, and now, because of someone’s selfish desires, not only have they not killed it to avenge my brother and his teammates, they’re *raising* it! What is this?! Are our lives worth less than a single Zombie monster?!"
"...And that day, the situation was critical, but that guy Ben never showed up! I know he’s the Deputy Base Chief’s bodyguard, but the Deputy Base Chief was safe inside the base, out of all danger! What could have been so important? He’s clearly so powerful, yet he didn’t help fight! If he had been out there, maybe my brother and the others wouldn’t have had to die! What kind of sense does it make to have all that strength but hide in the base out of fear, letting other people go die in your place?!"
"And another thing..."
The man’s words caught in his throat. His eyes, fixed on a point in the distance, widened as his pupils contracted sharply.
The silent crowd followed his gaze and was startled to see the figures of Paige Summers and Mason Hayes.
The team members grew visibly uneasy.
After letting her calm gaze sweep over their faces, Paige Summers glanced at Mason Hayes. The vast majority of these men were his subordinates, including the one who had been speaking out so prominently... She couldn’t help but wonder, ’Is this really just about a brother crying injustice for his sibling’s death?’
Mason Hayes’s face was already beet-red with shame, and her glance made him look even more mortified.
Paige could confirm his emotions were genuine and that he had no prior knowledge of this, which put her at ease. She turned to the young man, her expression a humorless smile. "Was there something else?"
"N-no..." The man trembled, unable to speak another word.
Paige Summers looked around at the others. "You all heard him. Do you think he’s right?"
The training ground was silent for a moment before one of the team members stepped forward. "Deputy Base Chief, about that Zombie... we do have our doubts. It’s very dangerous. Keeping it here in the base like this... well, it makes people uneasy."
Paige Summers looked at him and gave a slight smile. His words were reasonable and well-founded, and clearly spoken out of concern for the base. She could understand that.
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