Chapter 162: 162
I threw a simple and quick jab and he tried to counter with his own. I dodged at the right moment while I nicked his ear. I dashed in and tried to hit a left hook to his side but he jumped right and threw another jab. I was in the middle of a punch but I turned clock-wise to switch it to an elbow coming from the back followed by a right kick coming straight down with power.
*shwip*
*woosh*
He avoided the elbow and he didn’t bother to dodge my kick since he thought it would miss. What he didn’t know that I’m not aiming for his head.
*crrck*
My right heel sunk to his left foot. I could see his lip folding for a bit to endure the pain.
“He’s afraid of getting his head taking damage. But I like this guy, he likes to ‘see’ as well.” I concluded in my head.
He winced but I followed up with a left kick to his head to check my theory. He avoided it again so when my foot landed, I closed in and threw a quick jab and straight towards his head. He bobbed and weaved so I threw a right middle kick after another jab and straight. He kept on backing away and what he didn’t notice that he’s close to the military jeep and have no more room left to back up.
*thud*
I connected to his side but he sunk an elbow to my leg after it connected. However, the damage is abysmal since my leg is already going for another wind. I lifted my leg to a hit to his head once more and he jumped sideways to gain more distance. The group is watching silently and he’s watching me intently.
“It’s annoying since he always jumps back but this cautious nature is what I want. It makes the opponent irritable but it takes more than that to annoy me completely to give out any openings. If you wanna protect your head, everything below will hurt.” I thought to myself.
He has no intent of initiating so I slowly creeped in.
*PA*
Low kick to his leg. I would faint with my hands and would immediately kick his legs when he tried to avoid a headshot. I could see him trying to endure the continuous kicks from below since he’s afraid to get hit in the head. He’s slowly familiarizing the timing I was giving him though he would still get hit.
I could see him wearing down from the continuous kicks now and I threw another one but slower.
“I think he got the timing I’m giving him now. Then… wait for it…” I thought to myself.
He avoided it then he got worried when I stopped halfway.
“Shit!” he exclaimed.
He was in the middle of throwing a right straight to me then I caught his fist and threw him on the ground when I placed it over my shoulder as I turned around.
*THUD*
“There’s a reason why people practice in the mats. It hurts like hell when you get thrown on solid ground. You can’t even break your fall that easily since you’re being held by your opponent.” I thought to myself.
He quickly yielded before I started on throwing everything after I mounted him after that throw. He had a solemn expression and the group is having the same look as well. I stood up from him and handed him a hand so he could stand up.
“Anyone want to have a try as well?” I said to the 9 that are left. They all shook their heads while they also went back to gather their things.
“Now you scared them off. I’ll be the good guy so they’ll follow me more, Hah! Wanna start the interviews?” Oscar asked me.
We sat inside one of the rooms as we four talked to each one separately. They have different medical expertise and Oscar and I was the only one talking while Kaley, Marisha, Earnest and Shayne is just watching them and listening. Oscar is leading the interview while I tried to learn from it as well. He would ask about different things like in how would they react to certain scenarios and he kept on giving them questions if they could find alternatives or any other means if they only have certain resources at hand.
Marisha would sometimes give me a look if she thinks a person is overcompensating or subtle hints that the person that we’re talking to is fibbing after each one came in. If the person has family or friends inside, we asked the soldiers to bring them as well to double check and other people that knew them to see if they checkout and to learn what they are like. Before we end the interview, Marisha have sets of questions for each person while I have a few of my own. The people I’m with would ask about their medical knowledge while I ask the golden questions.
“How many walk- zombies have you killed?”
“How many people have you killed?”
“Why?”
“AR-15 or AK47?”
“9mm or .45ACP?”
“What is life’s greatest illusion?”
“Ali or Tyson?”
“Yanny or Lauriel?”
“Is it white-gold or black-blue?”
“Coffee o tea?”
“What is…”
The person receiving my questions would always get caught off-guard while Oscar tried to step on my foot beneath the table everytime I ask them with a straight face. Kaley is in the corner with Earnest trying to hold their laughter while Marisha has a helpless reaction. It took as the better part of the morning but we took two medical staff with their family if they have it.
The first one is a guy named Francis Manangan a Pediatrician. He’s been on the job for 10 years now and he has a small clinic near Petron. He’s not actually one of the workers in the hospital since all they gave us was people who came to this place for refuge. He has a wife and a daughter that we will also be taking with us named Julie and Julianne.
The second one was a female EENT Doctor named Jocelyn Lopez. She also has a small clinic that she inherited from his late dad. She lives alone and decided to come here when everything went down. She’s a bit older than me, probably on Tatiana’s range and she seemed eager to leave the place which I understood why from what we discovered they are making people do here on their own.
After an hour of organizing everything, I left the a few medicine bottles of Marijuana, hard liquor, cigarettes, beer and a few movies for the people that I took before them asking for payment for the trainees and the two doctors I collected. It felt weird trading things for people now but I think this is something we would be doing in the future more and more. The people we took rode behind the truck and we make our way back to the compound.
Each of them got excited to see the place and I told them to pick a place that they wanted. The soldiers decided to stay at the apartment next to the covered court, Francis’s family decided to stay at the gated houses next to Derek’s house on the other side while Jocelyn decided to pick a room inside the compound.
Like a good coincidence, Josh and his partner chose to stay at Quinn’s house before since they said that they like that overall vibe of the place. Christian and his family decided to stay at the houses near Derek’s family where Anthony’s family is housed as well. The five laborers also made that place their home and they all bunked together.
I never let anyone go to the houses towards to the 3rd road yet since the place is still under renovation. Add to the fact that the houses starting from our compound onwards looked much better. Well, aside from my old house and a couple in the 3rd road.
It was almost lunch when we got back and everyone else at the compound is busy doing their assigned tasks.
I saw Lois and Allan on top of the wall in our compound munching on a snack. Lois saw me and his eyes lit up.
“Bro! They came back earlier and found a huge supply of food. Mom fried a few of them and they’re letting us eat the first batch.” Lois said.
I took a piece and they seemed to be oyster mushrooms.
“Jared must’ve led them near the Pulo Area. There’s a place there where they farm this thing.” I thought to myself.
“Did they bring the bags of soil too?” I asked.
“What? I believe they didn’t. Charlotte said the same thing and now they went back to check if they missed them.” Allan chimed.
“They’re called fruiting bags where you grow these things. It is a viable business and very easy to maintain. I just didn’t have the time to work on it to have them here but we could definitely start with them now, I guess. If they found nothing when they went back, it’s very easy to start since we only need to make a culture of this thing and the rest that are needed is readily available.” I said.
“We need to find more ways to increase our food source since we got another bump in our numbers. Looting outside isn’t enough, we need to have more ways to get our food from.” I thought to myself.
All of a sudden Oscar went outside his house wearing his service uniform with all of his medals. He’s carrying a very old saber and a flintlock pistol. I almost dropped the mushroom in my mouth as I saw his getup.
“Alright, trainees you’ll be trained by the best person at this camp and it would be me! You’re now part of this place’s army and after this you’ll be battle hardened soldiers that could tear down a horde by using only an M1 Garand with a bayonet and Fruitloops as your only food! Follow me!” Oscar shouted as he led them further in the compound towards the covered court.
“Oh boy.” I thought to myself.