Gladio

We are Gladio. We fight for living. We save lives for living. We die for living. Only matter of our existence is our cause, nothing else!

Indeed, the best way to make a living in a world like this is to become a mercenary. Of course, not everybody is capable of it. It would have been different if they could have kept this disease under control. Yet no man of science knew nor found a cure. They say it came out of nowhere and shattered our civilization within a week. Nobody really knows. The people who witnessed it were considered to be the last generation of humanity, but somehow we managed to live.

The first thing I remember about myself is the time I met that old guy named Wolf. He was the chairman of Gladio. It's an anonymous mercenary group. Every single mercenary under Gladio works alone; Gladio is there only to provide them contracts, so they can make their livings. I don't remember my life before meeting Wolf, not even my real name. They call me Snail, and Wolf said it fits me very well. I'm not a person who works that slow, but I think it's because of how cautious I am. I might be slower than my companions at work, but anyway.

Wolf was a weird guy, yet he was like a father to me. I don't think I am the only one who feels like that, though. He always cared about his soldiers. He knew we were the only ones who could protect locals from threats in the whole region. So he made himself sure to raise good soldiers and take care of them. We are mostly orphans. There are also some volunteers, but I'd say they're not as good as the others. Because orphans were raised to be soldiers. Wolf gave them a reason to live, so we did. I'm pretty sure he's still up late tonight to make sure everything is in order. We lack of manpower these days, so everybody has to work a lot more. Of course, it means we can fill our bellies one more day, but it is indeed exhausting.

Gladio is separated into two divisions. The first division is named Order. They stay at HQ and wait for contracts. So they can provide others some intelligence and lead them to their missions. In some situations, they group up to face massive threats, but it's really rare for this to happen. They're also responsible for defending HQ. The second division is the Wanderers. As you can expect from their name, they wander all around the region to help people in need. Since it's difficult to travel, it might take a while to send a help request to HQ. Wolf is now working on some methods to reach them faster. Last time, I heard that they're considering training pigeons and building communication centers in all settlements. None of them accepted our offer to build some radio stations, since electricity is a luxury. They would rather use their power for winter and lighting, which is very understandable. But I'm personally not sure if it's possible to train pigeons for a purpose like this. It seems like somebody has found an article about people using them to communicate. It sounds unreal, but who knows?

Speaking of which, there are no more cities, towns, or villages. There are settlements named Camps. I don't know why they chose this name, but it's probably about how they all started at first. I heard that people have run far away from cities and tried to live out in the wild. Cities were way too dangerous to return to, so it was never an option for them. They slowly grouped up and started to build a settlement over the years. They could have named them towns and villages again, but perhaps they didn't want to forget the beginning of their journey.

Each camp has a different type of management, but they all have a common part. If you want to live there, you have to contribute to the camp. There are sometimes fights between camps as well, which I have never been able to understand. They just make things harder for everybody. Besides that, some of them have some kind of governor, some of them have some kind of council, some of them rule by democracy, and some of them prefer individuality. They usually have a garrison of volunteers, but they usually pay mercenaries for extra protection.

And why is that? It's because of the Infecteds. An unknown disease caused humanity to collapse. People who got infected lost their sense of mind and became more violent. The virus led them to cannibalism; they seem to feel less pain, so they have a stronger grip. They also have deterioration in their bodies, but it's usually not always the same for each of them. The most common ones are growing claws, developing a stronger jaw, and having a hunched back. Their mouths are slightly larger and rounder than a human. They are all especially toxic to sunlight, and that's the only thing they fear, but they generally don't like the light sources. It's also the reason they build their nests underground, such as in caves or metro stations. Some smaller nests do exist on big buildings in cities, but they're not much of a threat. Every night, they left their nests to find some food. They're more likely to kidnap people than kill them immediately; it's probably because they want to keep them alive as long as possible. I suppose it's their instincts, since they're not very intelligent to find another way to avoid meat getting rotten.

It seems like they behave like animals in a way. They can breed, and females have maternal instincts. The time they need to reach maturity and their litter size are unknown, but they're expected to be the same as humans as well. Nobody is willing to investigate it since they become extremely aggressive around their cubs. Other than that, they're most likely to stalk their prey before attacking, especially if they're carrying some light with them. But it's usually not enough protection against Infecteds. They hate the light, so they'll do their best to get rid of it as soon as possible.

This virus has a high lethality rate and turns most of its victims into those Infecteds. There are some exceptions, such as me. It seems like I have some immunity against it, but from what I see, it just slows down the process. I'm much stronger than any other human. I haven't developed a habit such as cannibalism yet, but I admit that I can't really taste fruits and vegetables; they just make me want to throw out. I completely lost my ability to speak, and I need less sleep than any other human. It might be because of the light, though. It doesn't scare me or have a toxic effect on me, but it's indeed a little disturbing. Wolf is the only one who knows it; he also said that it's probably the reason I lost my memories. I wonder if he couldn't have named me something different than Snail.

"We're about to close, pay your thing and get out," said the bartender gruffly. "It's getting dark."

I nodded and took some pennies out of my pocket. I didn't realize that I was sitting there, lost in thoughts. I was traveling for so long, maybe I was a little bit tired. There were only a few garrison soldiers left in the tavern. All the local people had left the tavern earlier, before it got dark. But for soldiers, their shift hasn't begun yet. They were still drinking and having a chat between them. Usually they should have waited outside ready for any invasion, but they were a little complacent since there were not many invasions in the past few weeks, which is also my reason to be here. This kind of behavior usually means Infecteds were investigating the settlement for a while to see if they could find a way in. They are creatures moving with their instincts, but they are not completely stupid. I wouldn't let soldiers behave like this, but since I cannot talk, well, there's nothing else I can do. The bartender would lead them out soon, and there should be some soldiers on watch anyway.

While the thoughts were still passing through my mind, I heard a woman yelling.

"Please! Somebody help me! My daughter hasn't yet returned home..."

As she cried her lungs out, soldiers got up and turned their gaze to the door. A woman, roughly in her late 30s, entered the tavern.

"Please help me..."

Her voice was hoarse, and she was looking terrible. It wasn't hard to understand that she was extremely worried. It was dark enough to see some Infecteds outside. Some of them were more resistant to light.

"Where was your daughter?" asked one of the soldiers. He seemed to be a captain or a chief.

"She was on the field outside. I told her to come back home before it gets dark. She should have been already back!"

"We can't go outside, ma'am. It's too late for it," said one of the soldiers.

"It would be a suicide mission, you better forget her," said the first soldier again.

"Please, Captain. You were the one telling us they kidnap people rather than killing them! My daughter might be still alive..."

"Even going outside would mean our death sentence, yet you ask us to find their nest to find your kid? Get your mind together, woman! The underground is so dangerous that even a 30-man troop couldn't last more than half an hour. We don't have such a force anyway! Nobody would risk their lives for a half-dead person."

Besides how much I hate to admit it, they were right. Fields were usually built outside the camps to provide more space inside the walls, because as long as you have enough light around fields, Infecteds wouldn't even get closer to them. There was nothing interesting behind the fences since they're carnivores. But there was indeed a chance to save her, as long as if you know how to deal with a nest. Of course, it's still extremely dangerous, and the chance of survival is not really high. Gladio has tried to clear a few of them before, but it costed a lot of lives, and some of them were nothing but an unsuccessful attempt.

Still, I couldn't ignore her. I had a bigger chance to survive in there since I'm half infected as well. It's not like they wouldn't harm me, but it indeed confuses them a bit. I also had some previous experience, and I'm also a mercenary who meant to help people in need.

As I got up from my seat and headed through the door, our eyes met. I could see the pain within.

"Please, sir..."

I nodded, and I walked past her.

That pain is yet another thing I cannot ignore...