Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 219: The Line In The Sand

Chapter 219: The Line In The Sand

I didn’t understand how so many people couldn’t see what was going on under their very noses... or worse, saw it and just didn’t care.

"Anything assigned by the Princess is to receive the highest priority," explained Chang Guo Zi. And to a certain extent, I understood. If this were before, it wouldn’t be so out of the realm of possibility that a rich guy would want to spoil the mother of his child to this extent.

But this is no longer that world. Here, people would kill for a slice of bread; they would drink dirty water from a puddle if it meant that they could finally drink, and don’t even get me started on those looking for shelter.

Things like vases, glasses, and sheets were nothing less than the height of luxury. So why would we face consequences for putting things like food, water, and heat before the other stuff?

City A was nothing less than a den of corruption, where the good people were beaten down until they couldn’t get up, let alone speak out against the tyranny that they were facing.

I shook my head and came to my feet, causing everyone on my team to look at me. "Sorry, the idea leaves a bad taste in my mouth," I admitted.

"It would with anyone," agreed Yuan Bao as he handed me a flat piece of bread made from just flour and water. He tilted his head to the side, and I saw one of the Princess Teams staring at us and laughing at what we were eating.

They held up their plates piled high with biscuits, eggs, and sausage and then looked down at the bread in my hand.

"They really don’t see it, do they?" I asked him, cocking my head to the side. The man looked scary with his bald head and sheer size. He even had a large scar bisecting his face from the right to left. It must have been made by someone lefthanded.

"The mind is a powerful and deadly thing depending on how you use it... or don’t," he agreed before turning back to the fire to cook up some more of the bread. He then scrambled a single egg and washed it over the bread so that we could all have just a touch more protein.

"Those belonging to the Princess will always have the best of everything," said Hao Yuan Jun as he grabbed his own bit of breakfast. "The entire city might have only 20 chickens, found outside of the city before they set up all the barricades and brought back. The average cost of a single egg is $10.00 or three successful missions in a row."

"But her teams have enough eggs for every last person. Her people have actual chicken breasts to eat since thighs, wings, and legs aren’t fit to consume," added Duan Zhao Hui as he tore into his bread.

"Well, that is stupid. Thigh meat is the best part of the chicken," I grunted, thinking of all the dishes I wanted to eat. My stomach growled, so I tore a chunk off of the bread and put it into my mouth.

The flavor exploded, and I practically moaned. I don’t know how the man did it with the little he had, but he was definitely the best chef I had ever met.

"A bit of salt brings out the flavor in everything. It was why it was so expensive in the olden days," grunted Yuan Bao as he passed out breakfast to the rest of the guys.

Well, whatever he did, he did it well.

-----

It didn’t take much time to break down the camp and get back on the road again. I was surprised to learn that you could secure tents to concrete; it was just a matter of drilling the holes in the road and putting the stakes through them.

Chang Guo Zi had even pointed out that this was such a common thing now that teams looked for areas with predrilled holes in order to set up camp. No one was fixing the roads any time soon after all.

"There is a village about 15 miles from here," grunted Fang Ting Guang as all ten of the leaders crowded around a map placed on the ground in front of them.

"That place is too small," shot down one of the men with a shake of his head. "It won’t have the quality of glassware or sheets that we are looking for."

"But they might have at least something," argued Jia Yu Sheng, "Which is a huge step up from nothing."

"No, Su Chang Pu is right. We don’t stop until we get to City B," replied yet another team leader whom I had never met. However, I knew what side of the line he stood on.

"There is no way I am taking my team into City B. If you are that desperate to die, you don’t need to wait until the zombies get you. I’ll put you out of all of our miseries right now," growled Zhong Yong Zheng, pulling out his gun and aiming it at the other man’s head.

However, instead of looking scared, the man just smirked. "Go ahead and pull the trigger. We all know what will happen to you if you go back to City A without all of us alive and well. Hell, my team and I won’t even have to step foot in City B to get what is on the list. Consider us the guards and you the inmates. If you want to survive, you do what we say."

Chang Guo Zi and the men on our side of the street stiffened under his threat, but what worried me the most was that not a single one said anything contrary.

My guys started shifting back and forth on their feet, almost as if preparing for an all-out battle, but nothing happened.

"Fine," sneered Zhong Yong Zheng through his teeth. "We will go to City B after a stop at this village."

The man shook his head. "It sounds like you are trying to delay this mission... is that what I am to understand?"

"No," replied Zhong Yong Zheng with a shake of his head. "I am merely trying to get Princess enough of a variety of glassware so that she has options when we get back."

"I guess when you put it that way..." mused the man, clearly one of the leaders of a Princess Team. "We need to go to the village first."

"So kind," hissed Hao Yuan Jun under his breath. "If we don’t go to the village, we will starve on this mission. But they don’t care. They eat like kings."