Chapter 169: 169
“Oh! What’s that something special then?” Chris was excited.
“Heh, it wouldn’t be special if I told you that now. I want it to be a mystery but do know that it really is something really worth it.” I smirked.
“It applies to everyone here, correct?” Tatiana asked from the side.
“Shit. I should bring out all I got out now. Well… doing this could also make me slightly gauge out her limits as well.” I thought to myself.
“Yeah, it applies to everyone. However, you can only do a challenge a day when we’re training here and only when I’m present. Also, since everyone is still improving day by day, me included. I’m also allowed to challenge my own time so that you can beat me at the top of my game. You could practice here on your spare time since the equipment is still here but be sure to bring it when you try to challenge the top time. We’ll make a list of everyone’s progress too since this is not just a challenge for fun, it also serves as a way to improve ourselves too.” I explained a few more rules on the way.
“Wait a minute… how about the routine in shooting practice? Can we also have a ranking system there too?” Lois from the side said as well. The other people grew excited as well.
“Yeah, we’ll have a ranking system for everything. Just tell me if you have a few more ideas.” I replied as I grew a bit excited too.
I then set the cups on the middle of the gym and I took my stance. When the timer beeps, I performed the best I could while using the less extra movements as possible to finish the challenge. I went from Center to South, South to Center, Center to Southeast, Southeast to Center, and so on and so on and after that you’ll go clockwise after that counter-clockwise direction. When I’m almost a quarter done, it kicked in.
I stopped thinking all together and I just moved.
“Hey!” I felt a hand on my shoulder as I snapped back to reality.
I saw Kaley looking at me with a smirk and the look she’s giving me says, “You blacked out, didn’t you?”
“You were standing there for a few seconds; I know it happened.” she whispered.
“Thanks.” I replied.
“Only time I liked it when it happened, almost cheating but a lot is at stake. Good thing it stops when the goal is done. I really hope I could control this thing.” I thought to myself.
Since Kaley noticed it happening, almost everyone thought I was just catching my breath or something though a few who knows it already are giving helpless smiles while a few of the few is giving a look of serious thought.
I then performed on the other exercises though it never kicked in since it was too short even if I made it to be a few repetitions to factor in stamina in the mix. Yet, the time is still fast and I doubt anyone could beat it at this point in time, for now.
I left the gym since a few of them wanted to take a shot at it first and almost everyone wanted to see their best time.
“Hey, you’re leaving already? Don’t you want to wait until someone beat you?” Chris said.
“Heh, I highly doubt it. Maybe in the future, but now? Highly doubt it.” I replied then he got annoyed.
“I’ll beat your record and I’ll see what the prize is.” he looks determined now.
“Need to push everyone to do more. Even at the cost of them hating me a bit but on Chris, being a bit arrogant works wonders.” I thought to myself.
I smiled and said, “Sure. You’ll be happy when you receive it. What happened with Charlotte?”
His expression changed a few times and I thought he almost short-circuited. He stuttered a few times and I couldn’t understand what he’s saying. However, he’s red all over and he went back inside the gym to avoid my gaze.
“It worked. Heh.” I thought to myself.
I walked down and I saw the trainees, Marvin and the rest on the pool area having small conversations with each other and I approached them.
“Hey, will we be doing the same training tomorrow with Oscar and Johnny?” he asked.
“Yeah, pretty much. You’d be doing that for a while since I need more people to complete another monumental task. We’ll be taking something very important from the City Hall.”
“W-wait, the City Hall?!” Brian exclaimed.
“Yeah.” I replied.
“But that place is full of them! I also saw the video where you took a glance at the People’s Park next to it.” Carlo chimed.
“That place is really full of those things. If we need to take something from the City Hall, we’re gonna be clearing that place too, right?” Ashley chimed as well.
“Yeah, that’s the plan. They don’t die naturally don’t they? Besides, I need something there to make our future runs yield better results. We need to be ahead from everyone specially this time when resources are starting to grow fewer by the second.” I replied.
“What?” Marvin asked.
“All of the records in this city are stored there. Business permits, gun licenses, location of storage units and anything that you could think of is there. Having the information to where to look at is better than randomly going at houses hoping to find something good. Let’s eat first we’ll talk about it in the meeting later.” I said.
We had ‘Paksiw na Bangus’ for dinner and it’s basically Milk Fish cooked with vinegar stock after adding more ingredients like garlic, pepper and onions. It’s best eaten with fried rice sautéed in garlic. The leftovers could be fried the next day since it would be marinated by the vinegar for a set amount of time.
We started our meeting right after we all finished eating.
“Okay, we had a huge influx of members to our group now and I’d like you all to treat them as our own. Some of them I know personally while some are not. However, that doesn’t mean that I will treat you any differently. Once you’re here, you’re one of us now. If you’re worried that I would treat you harshly, ask each people that have their short time here. I won’t send you to suicide missions while I’m here enjoying a cup of tea. We follow a set of rules here and all of you will follow it. Now, if you could all introduce yourselves. I already know all of your names but tell me a little bit about yourself as well.” I started.
The group I brought here promptly introduced themselves and they are welcomed by everyone.
“Okay, give me the report on the 3rd road.” I said.
“The 3rd road is clear of zombies but the garbage below the houses still needed to be cleared. We cleared most of the garbage off and we’d probably make a landfill on the other side of the plot of land where the targets for the shooting practice are located. We’ve also started on dismantling some of the houses that are just hammered in but we would leave the houses on the wooden poles but won’t let anyone occupy them.” Uncle Zeidrick said.
“How about the bodies?” I asked.
“We sniped or poked all that moved and made sure to double-tap the ones that are not moving for good measure. There could be a few more underneath but we’ll know once the water started to flow. We burned a few bodies with Jay that they cleared while checking the alleys but the ones submerged are still there.” Lois said.
“Rin, situation on food? Can we keep up with the increase in number?” I asked.
“Well, it could still sustain us since we still have a lot in stock but it wouldn’t hurt to always have a supply run every day. Some of the crops could be harvested and some would need to wait a few more weeks.” she replied.
“I started on leaving some of the eggs to be nursed by the hens so we could have baby chicks. Add to that what you brought earlier. The variety of our animals is good. I see that I have another professional help with the animals and it is greatly appreciated.” Derek added while Jeremy smiled.
“Okay, to our newcomers you will be processed by Oscar first and Francis, Jocelyn, Margie and a few more of our medical staff. I’d like you to help Oscar with that since you’ll be assigned to do the checkups in the future since this old man will have a few more things to do. We already have a file for everyone here and just make something similar to that so we could combine them all together.” I said.
I saw Marvin raising his hand.
“Yeah?” I said.
“You said earlier that you’d take us on a few missions first but we’ll head to clear the city hall in the future. Can we talk about that now?” he asked.
“Sure, that’s actually the next topic I’m going to bring up.” I replied.