"No, I mean—" Gray opened the door slightly. "What's really going on here," he said, peaking through into the hallway.
"What? Were you under the impression things would be different? It's an apocalypse, the NPCs started doing 'frightened' NPC things," Joshua replied.
Gray glanced at him, before looking back at the hallway. "Be serious. I made a deal with them, I need to know if I just fucked myself over." He so wanted there to have been a reason for their shooting that couple. A good enough excuse for him not to care about what they were doing and just focus on his deal.
"No no, this might not be a complete fuck up," Joshua replied, rushing to get his shoes on. "If you made a deal with them, we might just be able to walk out of here without getting put down," he added, struggling with the remaining shoe.
"But why would they shoot people just for trying to leave?" Gray asked, closing the door.
Joshua sighed, staring down at his shoe that he still hadn't gotten on properly.
"Does it matter? Do you actually want a reason for the shit they're doing?" he asked. "Because I can't give you one man. They say they want to protect us, but you'd have to be an NPC to believe that."
"And an even bigger one if you tried fighting against it, only to cry when shit doesn't go your way," he added, before finally fitting into his shoe.
"So fuck if I know. Like I said, NPCs doing NPC shit. It doesn't involve us."
Gray stared at him for a moment. Maybe he was right. This was an apocalypse, people being mistreated was a given. Whether it was by the hand of monsters or other humans, most people were going to suffer.
"I was serious about the deal though. There's something I need from them, I can't just leave," he said, after some thought.
"Something worth potentially having your head blown off?"
"Death isn't permanent in the safe point. I'll keep working with them for now, see what I really think of them," Gray replied.
"Isn't permanent? Like what? People come back to life?" Joshua asked, a confused expression on his face.
Gray nodded in response.
"And how are you so sure? Did you already—"
"What, no. I didn't kill anyone."
There was a knock at the door. "General Bradley wants to have a word," a voice called from outside.
Gray moved to open the door but paused just as he was about to pull down the handle.
"Just stay behind me, and don't talk. I don't want to lose out on this just because you ran your mouth when you shouldn't have," he warned.
"Do I look stupid to you?" Joshua asked.
Gray looked at him in silence, before turning back to the door. "You do in fact, look kind of stupid in those clothes," he said, before opening the door.
"This way," the soldier waiting outside said, gesturing toward his left. "You can go back to your unit," he added, now looking at Joshua.
"He's with me actually. I need him for what I'm going to talk about with General Bradley," Gray said. The soldier looked at him with a blank expression before looking back at Joshua.
"I mean, just call in and ask him right?" Gray added.
He and Joshua waited in silence as the soldier whispered something over the walkie. After a minute of back and forth, he finally came back to them.
"Follow me."
#
The soldier led them up 30 flights of stairs to the final floor; down the corridor towards the last room. He gestured for them to wait outside before knocking on the door and entering.
Joshua rested his ears against the door the moment it closed. "Sounds like someone's getting their ass grilled," he whispered.
"Get away fro—" The door opened and Joshua snapped back to his place beside Gray.
"We're not done. All of you wait in the next room," Bradley's voice called from inside, as a group of soldiers walked out. Some of them were scowling, and some of them had distant expressions; staring at nothing in particular as their comrades whispered amongst themselves.
"Come in," Bradley called out.
Gray walked in. The room was sort of dark, with only a little bit of light coming from the barely drawn curtains. Bradley was sitting behind a brown desk at the center, and a soldier, slender and tall, stood behind him.
"Your contact is a kid?" the soldier asked, looking down at Bradley.
Joshua closed the door behind him.
"Sorry, two kids," he added. He walked to the other side of the table and studied the two of them for a moment. "How old are you?" he asked, looking at Joshua.
"Does it matter?" Joshua replied.
The soldier scowled, before looking back at Bradley. "You can't just change the rules now that no one's watching," he said. "Involving children in war? What, is all the stress getting to you?"
~War? I never agreed to that,~ Gray thought to himself.
Bradley moved in his chair, searching for something in his pockets. He retrieved a pack of cigarettes a moment later.
"Are you listening? You can't just recruit child soldiers," the slender soldier added.
Bradley lit the cigarette, taking his time to take a puff. "Rules didn't stop us yesterday. It sure as hell didn't stop what we did today either. What's the sudden flash of righteousness? Where's the Kinsley that spoke of necessity," Bradley asked, taking another puff.
"It's our duty to do what we have to, right?" Bradley mocked.
There was silence. The slender soldier, Kinsley, looked back at Gray and nodded, before taking his place behind Bradley once more.
"Anyway, I've thought about it," Bradley said, now looking at Gray. "It might be possible,"
For the first time since things went to shit, Gray felt genuine relief; he had half expected Bradley to tell him it was impossible madness. At least with this out of the way, he could focus solely on survival.
He was about to thank him before Bradley raised his hand.
"But, there's a catch," Bradley interrupted.
"You'll have to go yourself."
Gray was certain he hadn't heard that properly. "What?" he asked.
"I can arrange for transport, I can maybe arrange for some supplies, but I can't promise you any personnel. And this is only if the information you give actually proves useful. Otherwise, I can't justify using my personal contacts, or giving you government supplies," he explained.
Gray hadn't thought about that, but perhaps that was what he should've been asking for from the beginning. Who else could he trust more than himself to rescue his parents? However he had to admit, traveling to the Amazon amid an apocalypse sounded crazy at best... suicidal even.
"Okay then. What do I do now?"