Doomsday Pillars

Diponegoro University in the district of Semarang City, a once famous university, was turned into a survival base. All of its residential and faculty buildings were renovated to house the survivors. Hundreds of large tents also filled the green fields. The 200 hectares districts were reinforced with thick walls and barb wires to slow down the advance of the hordes of zombies and mutated beasts. Few of the entrances were being guarded by hundreds of survivors. Currently, on the huge field in front of the main gates, thousands of men could be seen waiting.

Alex was standing in front of these thousands of men. Alex’s elite teams, James Randall, as well as Jakarta’s second division commander Colonel Rano, and Ruslan and his Madurese fighters were standing next to him.

Up in the distance, they saw a large group of people heading to the university’s district. There were also thousands of them.

Each and every survivor of Semarang city could not hide their excitement while waiting. The approaching large group were the survivors from another city. They come from the west, these survivors came from the capital city of Jakarta.

Soon enough, Alex and James could finally see a familiar figure in front leading the groups.

"That’s General Rico right?"

"Yes, that’s him..."

"Thank God, he survived."

"Yep."

The group led by General Rico finally entered the university’s district. There were at least ten thousands of them walking on foot. There were also a few dozens of vehicles and a few of the ’Badak’ tank, but these vehicles were mostly being used to carry the supplies. Alex could tell that most of these ten thousand men were fighters.

The general approached closer while looking for a familiar figure, and finally, he saw Alex.

It had been almost two months from the time they last met, but because of the chaos, it felt like a year’s worth of time had passed. Many things had happened within the last two months. The colonel had suddenly become the commander in chief of the country. The heavy responsibility had burdened him ever since. When he finally saw Alex, the colonel felt like some of his burden had been finally lifted.

Alex welcomed the general and shook his hand with a firm grip,

"You’re finally here, general."

"Yes, we are finally here."

"Ooohh sorry, I believe I should call you president now?"

The general could tell that Alex was teasing him, he responded,

"Yes, maybe you should."

"Yes, maybe I should."

Their grip on each other’s hands suddenly became tighter. Upon seeing this, James laughed out loud,

"Hahaha! Get a room already!"

Alex let go of his grip with a big smile. He’s in such a good mood. Half of his preparations before doomsday had finally succeeded, although Alex knew that the general was a capable man and received some of his advice, Alex could not help himself in being concerned as anything could happen with the chaos the doomsday brought. The general being able to bring the survivors from Jakarta here was already considered a fortunate event for Alex.

"I can’t help but notice that these men are all fighters, general. Where are the civilians?"

"This is the advance team, the groups with civilians are at least two to three days behind."

"That’s great."

Alex slowly asked an important question.

"So, how many people survived in Jakarta?"

"We found more survivors along the way, combine that with the survivors from Jakarta and the ones from West Jakarta, there should be more than 400,000 people."

"I see."

These numbers were much more than what Alex had anticipated. He expected only half of that number would survive. But it seemed that either his warning or General Rico’s capabilities really made the difference.

General Rico added,

"I have two more divisions going through the cities on the south coast of Java. There should be more survivors once they returned."

"That’s really great."

Talking about the divisions that were dispatched to the south coast made General Rico think about his son Adam. They should have arrived already at this city, it had been a month since they separated. But thinking about the three thousand units that went along with his son,

’They should reach here soon...’

The general lost in thought,

"Ehem... General, you probably have a lot of things to do first and would want to rest after. Your team could settle in the south side of the district as it’s already late. Let’s gather for a strategy meeting tomorrow morning, bring along your leaders."

"Ok sure."

The general followed Alex’s suggestion and moved the whole army to settle in the allocated area. The interactions between Alex and the general, including what Alex ordered, made a few of the general’s men confused. Especially Silvia, the beautiful surviving cabinet member, who is also the granddaughter of the first president of Indonesia.

That night, like all other nights, Silvia dropped by Rico’s room for a special visit. After they finished their steamy sessions, Silvia expressed her concerns to the general,

"Darling... Who is this guy named Alex? I think I have never seen him before. What is his background?"

The general had a long journey, add to that the hours of the special session, he’s not really in the mood to have any conversation. But beautiful girls were always his weakness, even worse naked beautiful girls.

Silvia continued, "Is he from the army?"

"Nah.. he isn’t."

"..."

"A politician or... maybe military intelligence?... how long have you known him?"

The general’s a smart man, he understood where this conversation was going,

"To tell you the truth, I only have known the guy for a few months. I also did a detailed background check on him. He was just a normal businessman and he wasn’t even that successful."

"Then why...."

"Why am I close to him or why did I listen to him, right?

"Yes..."

"Silvia, you have seen the strength of people who have eaten the spirit stone right? I know you are smart enough to know that later on, guns will become obsolete. Military training will also become obsolete. The government can only govern the people because of its military strength. So when the military becomes obsolete, who will then govern them?"

"..."

"It will be the one with the most power. Don’t you agree..?"

Silvia slowly nodded,

"This guy named Alex is currently the most powerful man in this country and he is not alone. He also has powerful people on his side that are supporting him. A simple businessman suddenly turning like this is really weird. But even though I have only known the guy for a few months, I feel like can trust him. That’s even weirder right?."

The night ended with another steamy session of the couple.

The next morning, General Rico brought along a couple of people; Colonel Rano, Colonel Andry, a few of the surviving cabinet members, and of course, Silvia.

Alex was accompanied by James and a few of his elites; Aria, the twins, Cindy and Theo. Ruslan the Madurese leader was also invited to join the meeting. When he received the invite, he couldn’t hide the large smile on his face.

The group gathered around in a large meeting room with a big table in the middle. On top of the table, there was a large map of Indonesia with little figurines showing the location of the armies, supplies and important establishments.

Alex started by saying,

"First, we need to think about where to settle the expected 500,000 people from Jakarta and Semarang. I was initially planning to move the base in one of the little villages close to the pillar, but with the time constraint and number of survivors, I think the only way to solve this problem is by eradicating all the zombies from the city of Semarang and take back the city from the undead."

Everyone was very interested in hearing about the plan, but Colonel Andri suddenly cuts in while Alex was explaining,

"Do we have enough men to clean up the city within a week or so?"

Colonel Rano, who had been fighting in Semarang for the last two weeks with Alex explained,

"With both of our fighters combined, there should be around 20,000 men. Clearing out the millions of zombies in Semarang city and its vicinity would take 4-5 days the fastest."

Alex added

"We just got the message last night, Soon another group will arrive. Adding their force along with ours, we should be able to finish it faster"

In the last few weeks, one of Alex’s main objective was to finish installing the high-frequency radar on a few strategic locations around Java island. Due to this, he was able to pick up long ranged radio messages, this was the reason why Alex was able to anticipate Rico’s arrival.

"Which group? Who is it?"

Rico was really interested to know, but before Alex was able to explain, a man suddenly went inside the meeting room and reported to Alex,

"Ok great, bring them in."

"They are here already," Alex added,

Soon after, a dozen strong men wearing black uniforms went inside the room to make a path for an old man. Aria was standing next to Alex and was startled upon seeing the people who just arrived. She couldn’t help but be shocked because all of these men are Death Squad soldiers, and the old man is the retired Regent Suryo, Aria’s grandfather.

"!!!"

The regent was very famous. He was a national hero, the only living 5 star general and was the vice president for a period of time. He was held in high regard, not just among the military, but among all Indonesian citizens. Everyone in the room recognized him.

The colonels and the surviving cabinet members especially Silvia, knew very well of the regent’s status and power. They were all speechless.

Alex approached the regent and gave him a warm handshake.

"Welcome, Regent Suryo."

"I’m glad that everyone’s been gathered, this is good."

The regent tapped Alex’s shoulder and went to give handshakes to the other people in the room. Finally, the regent faced Aria,

"You seem well, that’s good."

Before the doomsday, their relationship was complicated, but the chaos and death made her realize and think of the only family she has left, her grandfather.

"Yes, I am well, Grandfather."

"That’s good... Very good."

"From now on you are dismissed from your duty and you will follow me closely." The regent said

"..."

The regent didn’t wait for an answer and then continued to make acquaintance with the people in the room. Aria was left with mixed feelings.. She unconsciously stared at Alex not sure what to do.

.

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