It was just a huge room with sleeping bags and bunkbeds next to each other, there wasn't much privacy.

The room had multiple windows near the top of the walls, providing clear ventilation and cool air, making it very easy to drift into sleep.

As he stepped inside, the weight of multiple gazes immediately fell down on him, and this made him self-conscious.

Lucien lowered his head and hunched his shoulders, clutching the toiletries that he'd been given—trying to make himself small.

When he reached the spot where his sleeping bag was, a rough voice suddenly cut the silence. Lucien looked back to the source of the sound. 

"Hey newcomer! Bow down to the king if you want to live a peaceful life."

The voice came from a middle aged man, he was shouting from a bunkbed near the center of the room. Lucien moved his eyes and saw the man who was sitting cross-legged at the very top of the bunkbeds.

The "king" was a young, fit, guy with a buzz cut. His left eyebrow had a slit at the end, and his dark eyes were slanted.

Lucien unintentionally locked eyes with him. But he didn't stare any longer and bowed down, as one look from him forced Lucien to submission.

Fortunately, the night went by without a hitch, and falling sleep wasn't too troublesome. 

The men didn't bother him anymore, and just went back to what they were doing before.

The next day, Lucien got introduced to his teammates.

Evan was the youngest one at just 17, and Brandon was the oldest one at 25. Lucien recalled what the judge had said, and realized that he was actually being serious in recruiting only the youth.

Since Lucien didn't have any experience in leading a group, he just stood there awkwardly after introducing himself and didn't say anything else.

The team was in complete silence for a whole five minutes. Until the "king" with the buzz cut happened to pass by and the members quickly bowed down.

Seeing that everyone payed their respects, Lucien also did not play like someone with a hard head and bowed down as well.

Jace gave a small nod and they all raised their heads. 

When Lucien looked back up, he found Jace staring at him.

The boy sneered, the look in his eyes seemed to mock Lucien for his incompetence.

He raised an eyebrow and spoke condescendingly.

"You're the leader but you aren't taking the initiative?"

Lucien's lips thinned, but he said nothing.

Jace's expression didn't change and redirected his gaze to the team.

"Hmph, since your good-for-nothing leader can't do his job properly, I'll take pity on you newbies and help just this once."

Jace crossed his arms and walked towards the iron ward, his ego on full display with every step.

After finding their team's name on the register, Jace directed the group to the mission board. 

He recommended they take easy jobs first, as they were far too "weak" to take the harder missions, like fighting the zombies outside.

Perhaps as consideration for the newbie teams, the senior soldiers made a system where regular people could post their troubles on the mission board.

These troubles can only be solved by newly established teams for a certain period of time, before they eventually have to go into the real battlefield.

Lucien didn't know whether this was the actual genuine caring from the higher-ups, but he suspected that this was the idea of that wicked judge, to tempt young people into joining the frontlines.

It didn't help that the iron ward, despite it's cool sounding name, was decorated in a very trendy way that attracted young adults and teenagers.

Lucien couldn't help but face-palm in his heart. The judge's intentions were quite obvious.

But Lucien's suspicions aside, his team members each picked notes with specific problems that they thought they could easily solve.

Lucien didn't waste any more time on thinking about that unscrupulous judge, and quickly tore off a note that had a medium-difficulty problem written on it.

It was to track down and report a rogue soldier who’d gone missing during training exercises.

With that, his team members bid him farewell. They each went on their way and had to complete their missions before sundown.

Lucien's first step in finding the whereabouts of that soldier was to carefully study his personal information, and the people he had formed relationships with as clues to solve the problem.

He used the solar-powered computer in the iron ward to log onto the database and look for the soldier's information.

The database was practically accessible for everyone, but of course the higher-up's information was excluded.

After thirty minutes of searching, he had finally found the soldier.

His name was Raven Blackwood, twenty-two years old, a member of the moon team, registered in 20XX, Is proficient in using the crossbow, like cats, addicted to soda, kisses his mom goodnight...

He’d definitely read more than he needed to, but Lucien still gave the soldier an approving nod. Raven reminded him of himself, he believed that they could be great friends.

With this newfound information, Lucien set out to the training grounds and searched for Raven's friends.

A few ten meters away, he could see a familiar looking soldier that came up from Raven's relationship map.

It was a blonde-hair and delinquent looking guy. 

Lucien paced around the training grounds for a bit before taking the plunge and finally decided to talk to him.

"Hello... I believe Raven is your friend, yes?"

Lucien grabbed the print-out picture of Raven's face from his pocket, and showed it to him.

The blonde hair nodded his head and asked him why.

Lucien placed the picture back in his pocket and continued.

"He hasn't been going to training practices lately—have you seen him around?"

The blonde hair thought about it for a bit, before replying that he saw him talking to some burly men this morning, and that he was constantly escaping training practice without a reason other than today.

Lucien gave his thanks then once again scanned the area for a bit, before finding another of Raven's friend just about to leave the training grounds.

Lucien ran after him and managed to catch up just as the boy was about to slip over the ropes lining the edge of the training grounds.

"Huff...Wait! Do you know Raven? Raven Blackwood?"

The boy was surprised to see Lucien, one leg still hooked over the top rope. 

“Uh… yeah? Why?”

Lucien pressed a hand to his chest, trying to steady his breath.

He composed himself before speaking.

“He’s been missing training. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on, have you seen him?” 

The boy scratched his neck, his eyes looked left and right as if checking who was nearby.

He beckoned for Lucien to come closer, then he whispered.

"Uh, so don't tell anyone... But I've seen him go into the warehouse with a few scary looking guys."

His voice dropped low, like he was guilty.

"I was too scared to go inside. If you're going to go in there, please be careful."

Lucien nodded and thanked him for his help. 

There were multiple warehouses in the military base. Before being able to check them one by one, Lucien had to request a few higher-ups for permission, taking a chunk of time from his investigation.

After searching every warehouse except the smallest one that was tucked in the back, Lucien exhaled a sigh of relief. 

He was finally ready to finish this long drawn-out mission.

He saw that the last warehouse's door was slightly ajar. Lucien accidentally heard a muffled scream of a man inside.

His heart pounds as he peeks through the crack. Inside, Raven is restrained. 

His eyes were blindfolded, mouth was covered by a muffling cloth, and his limbs tied up with rope.

Lucien covered his shocked mouth, he didn't dare go inside.

Suddenly, the door creaks open.

Lucien's heart dropped, he stumbles back and falls on his bottom.

One intimidating, muscular guy came out.

“What the—?!"

Lucien peers at the back, and sees Jace squatting on the floor tightening the rope on Raven's leg.

Before he could react, Jace turns back and flashes a murderous glint in his eyes.

The big guy starts to inch closer, Lucien came to his senses.

He got back up and dashed away as fast as he could.

The man also chased after him, not letting him get away.

Lucien's eyes dart to any corner he could possibly escape to.

Until... He sees a big-enough hole in the chain-link fence. 

He dove through and never looked back.

He knew that if he did, there was no saying whether he'd live another day.

Did the regret of escaping the military base ever cross his mind while running away?

Well, Lucien didn't think about it too much.

All that mattered to him was that he was alive.

. . .

After a couple minutes of running around, the rain started to pour, and Lucien finally stopped in his tracks to look at the sky.

It's surrounding clouds started to bunch together, and they slowly tinted gray.

He looked ahead at the road in front of him, it was a lonely and desolated path.

Well... What do i do now?

A sense of hopelessness shrouded him as he walked without a direction to go.

It was like—the life he thought he was going to build in the military base—came crashing to shambles....

He didn't know what tomorrow holds, and had nowhere to go.

It was about to be sundown.

. . .

The sun was long gone, and he finally found refuge in a small stock pantry. 

It was near the military base, so all the food was practically looted before Lucien arrived.

Luckily, they didn't wreck the place to the point where the shutters were broken and the floors had collapsed.

Lucien got drenched in the freezing rain, so he closed off the pantry's shutters before finally crashing on the hard stone floor.

He still felt a little disheartened from earlier, but his mood got a little better after finding the pantry.

It was a small hope that sprouted in his heart.

For now, his tired legs wouldn't allow him to move any step longer. He leaned against the wall, just dazedly staring at the other side of the room.