The corpses of all the walkers that had been eliminated were burned at Dominic's request and with Sergeant Castro's approval, who agreed after seeing what others thought.
Everyone who had seen him fight the undead stopped joking around with Dominic, who was covered in blood. His emotionless gaze gave him a coldness that very few had; no one could understand how he still moved forward if he had lost his loved ones.
"Who would be strong enough to achieve something like that?"
Dominic had a secret that no one else knew, and that made him different; he could admit that he felt things differently. He was narcissistic; at least it was a trait he wanted to forget, and he did when he met Emma, but right now he knew he had to be as controlling as possible to pave the way for the perfect future.
Everyone needed to be controlled, guided, and instructed toward a future where, if lucky, they would survive. That's the reality of the world; Dominic had to become the person he used to be if he wanted to dominate over everyone.
"Dominic, clean the blood off." Cole handed Dominic a handkerchief, who had sat down next to a truck of civilians.
Dominic reached out and took the handkerchief, wiped the blood off his hands, which was the most noticeable, and then off his face. Many people who had been saved from the walkers dared not look at Dominic, who seemed very aggressive.
"Blood doesn't infect people; you should know that." Dominic looked at Cole, who seemed very concerned.
Dominic smiled slightly, embarrassed, and said, "I'm not thinking about that; I'm just wondering what will happen later... Do you have family?"
"My father is missing; the others are dead." Cole said as he carefully cleaned his hands.
"I'm sorry..."
"That's the reality; why would you apologize?"
Cole understood the pain of losing his family; he only had his mother, and that gave him serious problems being here when the world was in chaos. "I have a mother; she's probably helping people, and what I fear most is that she's one of those people we burned. We've done bad things to preserve others' safety, and although it's necessary, we all know what might be happening with our families."
"Where does your mother live? I have friends who might be able to help her. The last time I contacted them, they were in a shelter, so maybe she's among the group." Dominic smiled slightly at having another person on his list of investments.
"What are you talking about?" Cole had no idea what Dominic was talking about.
But knowing people's reactions to these questions, Dominic, who showed no reaction, muttered, "I have a way to help you; do you want to know more about it?"
"Then you can..." Cole looked at Dominic's seriousness, so he began to tell him everything he would need to know to hear news of her.
By the time the truck with the survivors arrived, Dominic had gone to the dressing rooms to remove his bloodied clothes.
Dominic had received new clothes, and by protocol, all the ones stained with blood had to be burned along with all the other survivors who had not been able to overcome their illnesses.
What Dominic had noticed upon arriving at this refugee center was that there were hundreds of sick people. There were the elderly with heart problems, women with uncontrolled diabetes, and children with asthma who could not be comforted. They all needed the necessary and specific medications, or they would die soon, so they were assured with a compressed air shot to their heads before being incinerated.
The little time they had here was not to save the people but to evacuate the most essential ones from the shelters. Dominic knew that the Cobalt Order would eventually abandon all these sick people.
"Those who cannot be on my side must be killed." Damian, after getting dressed, refilled the ammunition magazines and walked through the refugee room, which practically looked like a prison.
The people being brought in, in simple words, were garbage to the soldiers according to the orders of the higher-ups. It is worth noting that many disagreed; just thinking that their relatives would be like these people makes them feel the need to abandon everything.
"This is a mistake; I'm just a businessperson, and you can confirm that I'm not infected, for God's sake." Shouted a black-suited man while being pulled by two soldiers who seemed to have no consideration.
"If you tell them politely, there won't be a need to treat him that way. Am I wrong? He's a person, not a damn animal." Dominic walked towards those two soldiers and stopped them from doing what they were doing.
One of the soldiers frowned.
But Dominic gave them a piercing look, which made everyone else feel a sense of fear. To differentiate the soldiers who go out for cleaning from those who don't, they wear an orange ribbon, so at the moment, Dominic had more chances in this place.
Now that Dominic had intervened, those two soldiers couldn't say anything more.
"What team do you belong to?"
Dominic didn't give an answer and indicated that they should leave.
After taking a deep breath, Dominic gave more explanations to this suit-wearing man who seemed to be resisting: "You must understand that we're just following orders; we don't want to treat you like this either because our relatives are in the same situation as you. If you cooperate, no one will have a problem until we figure out what to do."
"Tell me your name, friend; you don't seem to be old enough to be a high-ranking soldier, so I suppose you've been able to move around in these last few days. By the way, you can call me Victor Strand; thanks for what you did a moment ago." Victor tried to be friendly but was reading Dominic's behavior to know how to treat him.
"If you're the right person, maybe you can help me; I'll be watching you over the next few days, and you'll know what you need to do to get out of this place." Dominic didn't give more answers; he knew perfectly well who the man in front of him was, and that's why he had interfered.
Victor Strand looked at Dominic and smiled slightly. He couldn't read what this man wanted, but that was okay. "You're leaving me without any weapon; at least you should give me something."
"There's a knife in my right bag; if you know how to use it against a walker, just try to damage the brain." Dominic, after leaving a knife with this man, walked away. Circumstances change, and he wouldn't risk a valuable asset dying.
Victor, on the other hand, sat in the corner of the shared cell. He knew things would be very different now, so he would take advantage of what Dominic could offer since he had found the difference within this base. "Things are moving in my favor."