After a few minutes of small talk, Mark finally asked the thing that was most bothering him, "Jane, I need to ask. Why you never told me that you were with the rebels? I mean... I understand why Frank would not say anything. He is always pondering things too much, and thinks thrice before doing something, but you? We went through hell together..."
Hearing that, Jane lowered her head as if ashamed for hiding things from Mark, and said, "To tell the true... I was afraid of losing you, afraid that you would give me a cold shoulder because I was a rebel... Mark... You always defended the union when we talked about it... I was not sure how you would react if I had told you."
Mark's lips opened but shame took over him and he didn't say anything. He knew she was right, the him from before would probably try to avoid any trouble with the union. He would not turn against her, but Mark guessed he would do as she said. He probably would have avoided her.
"You are right," Mark said, while slowly putting his hand over Jane's hand, in an attempt to comfort her and as if asking for forgiveness at the same time. Things with Jane were always complicated, but was with her that Mark felt like he could be himself, the him from before the apocalypse.
Unfortunately, the apocalypse made everyone grow stronger, in a bad way, in a way that people were not supposed to. Children without parents, teenagers not being able to experience the first love in normal way, the first hangover, to waste time reading books or playing video games, and old people having to watch their sons die before them.
Some people broke with that, some grew more resilient, but all of them mourned from time to time. That was the hidden bound between everyone in the apocalypse. The common trait that everyone shared, from the most cold man to the most soft girl.
For a girl like Jane, that was always on the verge of her emotions, to hide that from Mark, for fear of losing him, it was a weight that Mark could only imagine.
Mark was about to say something to comfort Jane, but the door slammed open and Frank stormed inside.
"Did I interrupt something?" Frank asked, seeing both of them touching hands in an awkward silence.
"N-No... of course not!" Jane said while quickly removing her hand from below Mark's hand.
Only now that Mark realized what he had done, he was about to say something, but nothing came out of his mouth.
Seeing Mark turn into tomato and Jane with her head lowered in shame, Frank coughed lightly and said, "Well, I passed the message to the rest of the rebels, I'm not sure what they will do with that information right now... but is better for us to prepare for what is about to come"
"What do you mean?" Mark asked
Frank closed the door and said in a low voice, "We took a military base from the union. You can't expect them to leave things by that.... They will send an army to reconquer the city. Heck, if this city was not so important to them, they would have already sent missiles to kill everyone here and avoid news of mutations and all the human experiments to spread further."
"Can we try to defend the city? I mean.. How many people survived the battle?" Mark asked.
Jane shook her head and said, "Barely a hundred, and some of those didn't take part in the battle and don't care who wins or loses. They just want to live to see the next day."
"Jane is right," Frank said while sitting on a chair that was by his side, "We made a head count today and there are 87 people inside the base, from those, my guess is that only fifty will take part in any kind of battle against the union, the rest will hide and wait for the result."
Mark almost didn't believe what he was hearing. The city had thousands of people, and now only 87 remained, "What the hell happened? How is possible that so many people died in that day?"
"When your attempt to kill the leaders failed, the remaining soldiers grouped together and started attacking instead of defending, and that lasted an entire day. It was a bloodbath, and many people died on both sides. You are only alive now, because they had no way of going up there and kill you. Also, that sniper that was with you played an important role against the union. He and Jane made possible for us to control the battle and revert it. Otherwise, everyone in this room would be dead now," Frank said while tilting his head in Jane's direction, and giving a nod. He really admired Jane for having the ability that she had to control the flow of a battle as a sniper.
"How is John?" Mark asked, feeling a bit ashamed because it was only now that he remembered about his friend.
"He is fine. He stood with me all the time during the battle. He is our comm guy now, and is all the time in the radio tower trying to scry any radio transmission that the army may let slip away. It's a long shot, but it may give us some information or even warn us if they are coming"
Mark felt relieved knowing John was fine, but the fact the army could come and attack them at any time made him feel as if a reaper was waiting behind his back. Mark knew from first hand the sheer size of troops the army could mobilize if they wanted, and staying in the city was like having a big target on his back.
"When are we leaving?" Mark asked, going directly to the point, because he knew that Frank already had a plan in mind. He always had a plan.