Army of the Damned

VOLUME 3 Chapter 5

"Yes sir!" The two reply.

"I'd like to ask where I could get some trench coats."

"Second floor sir, there's a uniform locker with some Army trench coats."

"Could you fetch one, I'd like to wear one before heading out."

"Yes sir!" The soldier makes another salute and jogs to the second floor. He turns to the other soldier that's on the left with him.

"Busy day isn't it?"

"Yes sir, I did not expect to see the city all lively once again."

"What's the current number of players here?"

"A little over five thousand sir."

"Jesus, I've only been gone for two weeks." Paul moves over as a man in a suit brushes over him. Hitting the man's shoulder rudely as he continued walking, ignoring the uniformed man.

"Hey! That's a gener-!" He puts his hand over the MPs shoulder.

"Let him be, looks like everyone is stressed."

The other military police returns to the main lobby with an olive trench coat, he also bought with him some epaulets with 4 stars, signifying the rank of a 4-Star General. The soldier gives it to the general and helps him in putting the epaulets on.

"Alright, two of you with me."

"Yes sir!" The two MPs proudly join the high ranking Officer.

Before heading outside, one of the soldiers quickly grabs an umbrella and protects the general from rain as they go down the flight of stairs outside of the city hall. After entering the sidewalk, Paul takes a good look around and sees that some of the people around are still wearing fantasy medieval outfits and knight armor.

He approaches a man sitting on a bench in chainmail. The guy was slouched down, looking extremely saddened and traumatized. He hears the clacking of the general's Oxford shoes and quickly looks at his direction.

"Hello sir, may I ask where you came from?"

"Down south. South of the continent, near the ocean."

"And how did you get here exactly?"

"One of your Generals, Francis was it? Saved me and some of the citizens of our town from slavers, but many also got captured."

"I see, slavers huh. I get it they'd be a bit high level or medium level to take you on?"

"No, they scared most of us. They weren't afraid to cut open people in front of our town till we submitted. We fought back but they only intensified it. It was only when one of your folks came and called in air strikes against their camp did they finally stop."

"Ah, air strikes... on medieval slavers..."

"Yes, but many of us were already captured. Did you know Mister, Players come with a high price on the slave market. Were educated and know medicine, royalty loves to use us as playthings or test subjects."

Sound of splashes came as Humvees passing by at high speed threw water over the curb.

"I'm guessing this is for the low and mid level players? I highly doubt high leveled ones would get captured, let alone be seen."

"Yes, and I tried coming to the town hall to call for help... maybe send a regiment or platoon to the Deserts and take on the slavers. But no one cared, it's all the same with this bureaucratic crap!"

"Okay sir, I'll remember this, but I can't promise you anything yet. The continents are fairly large, maybe even larger than Europe and Asia combined. It's going to take us some time to not only map this but also create a suitable supply chain for such an endeavor."