Commander Li stood in silence for several long seconds after the screaming started again somewhere deeper in the civilian district.

The sound carried strangely through the rain-soaked tents and broken streets, rising above the coughing, crying, and arguing before fading back into the background noise of survival. Around him, people continued moving through the mud like none of it mattered anymore.

Or maybe they just couldn’t afford to care.

Luo Xin slowly stood from the ground after handing the dead infant back to its mother. Mud clung to the medic’s knees and lower coat, but he didn’t seem to notice. His expression had gone distant in a way Li didn’t like.

No one spoke as they started walking back toward the military sector.

The civilian district stayed behind them physically, but Li found that the smell followed anyway. Rot, sickness, starvation. It clung to every part of him and he wondered for a brief moment if he would ever be able to get himself clean again.

By the time the walls of the military compound came back into view, his men looked exhausted again.

Not physically so much a mentally,

Chen Minghao stared straight ahead without speaking while Gao Sheng’s usual easy attitude had disappeared entirely. Even Zhao Yicheng looked quieter than normal, his jaw tight as soldiers moved around them carrying crates of supplies toward the storage buildings.

Commander Li stopped near the barracks entrance and finally turned toward them.

"Get some rest," he ordered. "We don’t know when we’ll be sent out again."

Sun Ming frowned slightly. "Commander—"

"That wasn’t a suggestion." The corporal fell silent immediately and just nodded his head.

Li’s gaze moved across all of them once before settling briefly on Luo Xin. "You too."

The medic hesitated. "There are still injured—"

"And there will still be injured in three hours," Li interrupted evenly. "If you collapse, you help no one."

Luo Xin’s shoulders tightened slightly, but after a moment he nodded.

Li waited until the rest of his team disappeared into the barracks before turning toward headquarters alone.

The command building sat near the center of the military compound behind two reinforced checkpoints and a line of portable barricades that hadn’t been there before. Floodlights illuminated the concrete walls harshly enough to make everything look pale and washed out.

Soldiers saluted as he passed, but Li barely noticed. His mind was still back in the civilian sector. The starving children, the bodies, the father bargaining over his own son like he was negotiating over livestock instead of flesh and blood.

The woman driving a knife into her own chest because death had become easier than watching her children starve.

Commander Li had seen war before, he had seen riots, he had seen what desperation could do to people when systems broke down.

Before today, he was sure that he had seen the worst of humanity. But this? This was on a whole different level.

Because the military base was still functioning. Which meant someone had allowed the civilian sector to become that way.

The thought settled heavily in his chest as he reached General Wu Jianyu’s office.

A guard opened the door without question after recognizing him. "Commander Li," he greeted quietly, bowing his head. Li nodded once before stepping inside.

General Wu sat behind his desk surrounded by stacks of reports, maps, and handwritten supply records. Half-empty cups of coffee cluttered one corner while a portable lantern cast uneven light across the room after one of the overhead fixtures had apparently failed.

The General looked older than he had less than a week ago. There were dark circles under his eyes and exhaustion pulled at the lines around his mouth, but when his attention lifted toward Li, his posture straightened automatically.

"At ease," Wu said before Li could speak.

Li obeyed.

For a moment, neither man said anything.

Then Wu exhaled slowly and rubbed one hand across his face. "I read the preliminary reports," he said. "Your team encountered a large-scale siege event."

"Yes, sir."

"And survived."

"We did."

Wu studied him quietly for several seconds. "You also reported awakened abilities among both your men and the civilians sheltering at the residence."

Li hesitated only briefly. "Yes."

The General leaned back slightly in his chair. "If that is the case, why didn’t you bring the civilians back with you? We need people who can actually make a difference in this war. Anyone with powers is... exactly what we need."

Li didn’t answer immediately.

His mind flashed back to Rouxi sitting on the couch watching Mortal Kombat while an entire zombie siege rotted outside her front door. Then he thought about the civilian district they had just walked through, the starving people crammed beneath collapsing tarps, the bodies lying untouched in the mud.

Rouxi didn’t want to leave her house in the first place. And if Rouxi saw where she would be living? Yeah. She would never come willingly.

"They refused," Li said finally.

The General raised an eyebrow at Commander Li. "According to the reports, you have more men, more guns, and more powers. You should have brought them with you, whether they refused or not."

"Not advisable," Li replied, already shaking his head. "There is no guarantee that even with more men we would survive a fight between us. And I thought it better to maintain a good relationship with them then leave them... upset and bitter."

It wasn’t entirely a lie. After all, Rouxi had proved that if Li pissed her off enough, she would take out every last one of them and still not have to pause her shows.

General Wu studied him for several long seconds before letting out a slow breath and leaning back into his chair again. The exhaustion in his face looked heavier now beneath the uneven lantern light.

"That’s unfortunate," he muttered quietly. "People with abilities could change everything. At least we can always use them in the future."

Silence settled briefly between them before Li finally spoke again. "The civilian district is collapsing."

The General’s eyes shifted back toward the reports on his desk. "We’re aware."

"There are bodies lying in the streets."

"That’s because we don’t have enough personnel to remove them."

"People are starving."

Wu looked back up at him then, exhaustion clear in his expression. "We can barely feed ourselves, Commander. Why would we prioritize civilians who contribute nothing to the survival of the base?"

Li’s jaw tightened slightly. "They’re still people. We made promises."

"And my soldiers are still dying. I made promises to them, too. Are they less important than the civilians?"

The response came immediately, not angry, not defensive. Just stating a fact that they both knew and understood.

Commander Li stared at him. Wu leaned back slowly in his chair and closed his eyes for a brief moment before speaking again.

"People are only useful as long as they can contribute something," he said quietly. "Food. Labor. Security. Medical knowledge. Supplies. If they cannot contribute, then they become another mouth we cannot afford to feed."

Li thought about the father selling his son. About the civilians fighting over dead rats in the mud. "People are only three missed meals away from tearing everything apart," Li said.

General Wu gave a humorless scoff. "Starving people don’t revolt, Commander," he replied quietly. "They collapse. Those civilians are already past the point of being any type of threat."

The room fell silent again.

Li looked at the exhaustion carved deep into the older man’s face and realized something that unsettled him more than if Wu had simply been cruel.

The General believed he was doing the right thing.

Not because he hated civilians.

Not because he enjoyed any of this.

But because he genuinely thought sacrificing part of the population was the only way to ensure that anyone survived at all.

"But don’t worry," Wu said after a moment, his voice quieter now. "This won’t last forever."

Li said nothing, just waited for the General to keep going.

"The research teams are working on a solution," the General continued. "The government says it should be ready within two months."

Two months.

Li thought about the civilians outside again.

The starving children.

The bodies in the streets.

The rats.

None of those people had two months left.

Wu rubbed one hand over his tired eyes before looking back toward the reports spread across his desk.

"We just need to hold things together a little longer."

Commander Li stood there in silence.

For the first time since the outbreak began, he started noticing the cracks beneath the military structure he had trusted his entire life. Not sudden failures. Not incompetence. Something slower than that.

Compromises. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Corners cut.

People sacrificed quietly because someone higher up had decided the losses were acceptable.

And the worst part was that Li didn’t know how to fix any of it.

Because part of him understood exactly why the General had made those choices.