The atmosphere was tense and heavy, but for Kisha, it was good that everyone was reminded of the danger. They are being complacent just because they have found a place to settle down.
This tense atmosphere was interrupted by Hawk who came in a little later than Duke. With the frowning Duke, he could already imagine that some of the people in the conference room had rubbed him the wrong way. He accidentally made an eye contact with Eagle, if only eyes could speak. Eagle's eye would have already said. "Do something!"
Hawk cleared his throat to get Duke's attention, and once he did, he whispered something in his ear that made Duke's body turn stiff, he pursed his lips and the suffocating aura around him intensified.
He eyed Kisha to follow him outside, feeling that it was a piece of important information, she followed suit almost instantly. And before she left the room, she gave Eagle an order to take care of the rest.
When everyone thought that Eagle was a soft persimmon and was easier to deal with than Kisha, they started another bout of complaint and the room was in a moment of chaos, but Eagle who is a capable elite, did not take long to keep everything in order and did not care about anyone's dissatisfaction. He did not argue like Kisha did nor intimidate anyone like Duke but his killing intent was plain and simple, he let his attitude tell everyone that he would not hear any of them and he just followed one man, and maybe, an additional woman.
And Melody was not so stupid after all, they already heard Duke's stance so if she continued to make a scene, there was no telling when they were going to kick her out so she compromised. She retreated to advance. "I apologize Mr. Eagle for my narrow-mindedness and for giving you trouble. I will follow your arrangement and will learn with all my heart. And I hope that you will not hold this against me." She smiled gently.
Edward was glad to see his daughter going back to being sensible like she used to be and felt that he should take good care of her as much as possible. He subconsciously started comparing the sensible Melody to the cold Kisha and felt that the latter was too insensible.
....
Duke led Kisha to his office, just like his office in Alpha Empire Corporation the big room had a black and wood theme which looked elegant and noble. The floor-to-ceiling window behind Duke reflected the dark and gloomy forest which added a hint of danger to the person sitting in the middle of the room with his cold aura permeating the room.
Kisha took a big stride and sat on the sofa in front of Duke and waited for him to talk.
"Sparrow had found a trace of the convoy." He exhaled and his aura turned colder before he continued. "He reported, out of the twenty elite guards. They encountered seven that turned into a zombie, those seven had severe wounds on their body and." He paused for a moment, trying to contain the heavy bloodlust and anger that wanted to come out of his body. And through gritted teeth, he continues. "Their limbs were intentionally broken while they were alive and were gnawed by the zombie as they struggled for their lives. They could hardly be recognized, if not for their dog tags."
Hawk, who was standing behind Duke had a tense jaw, veins bulging in his forehead and jawline. His eyes are red but he refuses to shed a tear, the hands behind his back are balled so tightly that his knuckles turn white. He could hardly imagine how much pain and suffering his brothers had to experience to turn out like that. He could not erase from his memory how they looked like from the pictures, Sparrow sent just now.
They all looked miserable, he could not imagine how much hatred the person who did it had for them. And because of it, they are more worried about the Old master, Mr. and Mrs. Winters's whereabouts, and hope that they have yet to fall into the enemy's hands.
Kisha felt the need to say something to console Duke, but she could hardly think of anything to say right now. She had already accepted this kind of outcome in the apocalypse and many such occurrences happened in her past life, those who have evil minds weaponized zombies like this against their enemies and only strength can determine what's right and what's wrong. She sympathized with the victims but her heart was not big enough to empathize with all of them. That's why, when it comes to consoling, she is useless. She and the Duke of her previous life, don't need to console each other, they have a tacit understanding of one's feelings and what matters is action, and that is where they are good at.
She knew how much anger was burning in Duke's heart right now and she couldn't blame him. His men are all ophan that he chose and nurtured with his own hard-earned money, it has nothing to do with the Winters, and he treated them as his own brothers.
[Ding....]
She was brought back from her trance by the system's notification
[Successful purchase of Scarlet Queen Bee.] She was baffled by this transaction.
"Host, I have found it!"
"Found what?"
Before 008 could answer, Duke received another report from Sparrow. He did not dilly-dally and quickly checked the content of the report only to find one sentence. But this sentence is enough to make him have a little hope and at the same time anxious.
"Boss, we've found one survivor but he's wretch." Sparrow seemed to be in a hurry to send the SOS signal to his boss for another instruction and only said what was important. He did not include any other findings about his investigation, since, they have no other traces or clues other than the survivor who was on the verge of death.
Sparrow and Vulture did a quick first-aid but they were afraid to move the survivor thinking that it would aggravate his wounds.
Duke understood their action and their meaning so he asked Hawk to call for Elios. Shortly after, Elios who was distraught was dragged by Hawk into the office, he did not know why he was brought in a hurry and sneakily. He was in the mini hospital checking the inventory and arranging his tools according to how it was in his hospital, it's just to make it easier for him to remember their location and for his convenience.
But who would have thought that he would be dragged without prior explanation, this is enough to make him think that something happened to Kisha, he remembered that Kisha was with Duke and Hawk, he was fidgety and anxious but when he entered the room, the first thing he saw was Kisha who was calmly sitting in the sofa like a willow tree that's slowly swaying in the spring breeze, elegant and beautiful.
He let out a sigh of relief and composed himself. He turned to Duke and asked. "Is there something I can help you, Duke?"
Duke did not say anything but instead, he video-called Sparrow and let him explain what was going on with Elios while showing him the wounds and status of the person.
Elios did not waste a second and jumped straight to explaining and showing some samples using Hawk as a mannequin and letting Sparrow follow his every action. Hawk silently played dead as his body was moved from time to time, dressed his invisible wounds with torn clothes, and many other more. With the four people's effort, they were able to put the survivor in the back seat of the car, secure his life that was hanging in a thin thread, and travel steadily back to the base.