Chapter 1229 Downtime III - He's here now, by the way--
Looking at Quinn's reaction to our words, she looked like she was really thinking about the possibility of actually living with us, because let's face it, if she were to have a child with me, it was the best place to be in. It's not like we were throwing shade at her workshop/garage but I'm gonna be honest and say that her place is not the best for having or taking care of a baby.
But funnily enough, Quinn was just mulling over herself—talking, chuckling, and blushing randomly with just her thoughts, and Rin and I just let her be for the moment because she'd blow our eardrums if we teased her.
My relationship with everyone else was pretty good so far—especially with Kaley, of course—but I wouldn't lie and say that I wasn't excited to be a father. I joked around with Kaley before about having a family but I just had a feeling she wasn't ready—and Quinn presenting herself was probably the best thing that could've happened to either of us.
It hit two birds— no, three birds with one stone but if I was still being honest, I'd still want to have a kid with Kaley too.
With that thought aside, we sunk more and more hours in and Quinn had to stop me from moving my hands because I fell into my trance-like state once again and it was 15 minutes past lunch.
"Seriously? You couldn't wait past fifteen—"
"OH, SHADDAP! I WANNA EAT!"
"Pfft—"
"YOU SHADDAP TOO, RIN! I CAN FLING YOU AS FAR AS I COULD— Ugh… So hungry doing things over and over again…"
I rolled my eyes, "I don't even feel hungry, this shit is very therapeutic to me."
"Me too! That's why I made a lot the past few weeks!"
"You two are so— Can't we just eat! C'mon! I'm hungry!"
"Yeah, yeah~ Let's…"
And as we had lunch, I discovered that Kaley took June and Ella to the indoor range to practice with Lois and Olivia but like Quinn, Charlotte had to drag Chris off the treadmill so he could have a bite to eat. It was good that he hadn't heard about the psychological shit I did to my group or else he'd just do it to himself which he would definitely do.
'He still goes out from time to time but Charlotte's his rock in a way… They're young, they could spend as much time with each other and it's also beneficial aside from going through Hell Week…'
In any case, it didn't take long before the three of us were back to our workshop and the only time my attention was taken elsewhere was when the old man appeared and dumped a few sacks of spent casings from different calibers and told me that they took care of several hordes in a day with the help of Artem and his team.
"So… you just shot guns?"
"Wha— Different kind of guns! You remember the shit you made me play before?"
"Which one?"
"T-The one where you get a different gun after each kill?"
"Yeah! That one! Also, the challenge was to have all the ammo in one big-ass bowl and they'd have to fish out the right one for the random-ass gun I prepared for them! Fun, right?!"
I chuckled, "I gotta admit, that'd be pretty fucking hell for me… Was anyone hurt?"
"Not at all— some of them did experience cramps in the middle of it but the focus was fucking shooting shit you aren't comfortable or familiar with. We have the usual loadout for everybody but there's just those times when you can only use what's available, right?"
"That's a good lesson, I agree— But did Artem and his group come back with you all or did they stay in Morales' outpost again?"
"They stayed, they stayed. Said they'll be back until you need them but they're doing work, I tell ya. In the future, we might just build outposts in each train station if we have enough people and after we clear each one. The problem is making the trains work and making sure they're clear of those tentacle fucks.
Seeing them from afar is eerie, especially if they're hanging from it instead of just hanging their tongues down. Makes it look like they offed themselves."
"That's the plan we had for a while but that's a very big project. We have to consider the other LRT lines and the MRT lines too so we have the full benefit of transportation."
Oscar nodded, "Well, Morales is the one doing some work on that. He already made contact with another group in Quezon City and it's part of the same one in that Memorial Veteran Center. They have a group stationed near Balintawak, by that mall— what's it name again?"
"Ayala Mall?"
Your next chapter is on empire
"I dunno, that must be it— but starting from Monumento then driving straight ahead over to Quezon City is where the MRT Line is, right?"
"Yeah, it's somewhat connected to the LRT Line and it'd be a huge boon to have full control of that."
Quinn cut in, "And why is that?"
Oscar answered, "Well~ we can just punch in to each station if we need something specific from a certain city instead of clearing the whole way down the road. The stations themselves—especially the big ones in the bigger cities—are mazes themselves but they're good outpost locations if we manage to secure them… or if they let us, all of 'em."
I added, "I kind of want that too but it'd be impossible with our numbers still. We're based a bit far off from that area and the one who could benefit from that the most is Morales' group and Iskoh's. Add to that how we deviated our focus by going for Subic Bay and the other places by the coast."
"You got a point there, kid, but it wouldn't hurt to try, right? We can still clear it for Iskoh and have him manage it himself. Better yet, once we have our donation of troops, maybe a dozen in each station could do the trick plus fifty or so civs, no?"
I thought for a bit, "We'll talk it with Iskoh first— and Morales too. We might not be able to handle the whole thing but for the ones we could take over, it should be rock solid as any other outpost. And since we can easily close off the entrance and exits, we can min-max how many people we'd have on each station when the time comes."
"Hmm~ Sounds good, we'll set up the meeting. He's here now, by the way—"
"WHAT?!"