Chapter 608: Not Hidden Very Well
Chapter 608: Chapter 608: Not Hidden Very Well
Nina Jacobs also noticed Adrian Paige’s reaction. Aside from surprise and confusion, he didn’t question her actions.
However, Kevin Nash had already snapped out of it, putting on a heartbroken expression. "Weren’t you people from City D Base supposed to help our South Riven Base? Now you’re massacring unarmed villagers! What are your true intentions?"
"They were far from unarmed villagers. They were just a gang of bandits," Shirley Lucas said. "If we hadn’t killed them, we would be the ones dead. Rest assured, I have all the evidence and the full story of what happened from start to finish. We’ll explain everything later."
Nina had made Shirley record everything: Peldon using humans as feed for mutated animals, the gruesome scene in the back kitchen, and the confessions of those so-called "villagers." She did this precisely for moments like this when words wouldn’t be enough. Combined with the low-frequency sonic devices they had found in the Twin City Corridor, it was all ironclad evidence.
"What do you mean, ’explain everything later’?" Kevin roared, pointing an accusing finger at Nina and her group. "You’d better explain yourselves right now! What gave you the right to kill them? And the supplies here are gone, too. You must have murdered them to hoard the supplies for yourselves!"
Ivan Young, Jude Stone, and the others wore complicated expressions. Even though Kevin belonged to their base—and was even their superior—Nina had saved their lives, and her team had escorted them all the way here. But why would Nina slaughter an entire village?
"General Nash, please listen to us," Aaron Lynch, who had been present the entire time, pleaded. "There’s a reason for all this. The people of Peldon lured us here and tried to steal our supplies..."
His explanation was abruptly cut off by a woman who had been standing beside Kevin. "No matter the reason, you can’t just slaughter innocent people! It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to build this place. Not only did you murder everyone, but you also destroyed the village. That’s downright malicious!"
The woman’s name was Tessa Wren, another of Kevin’s assistants.
"Miss Wren, if I recall correctly, didn’t General Nash claim that you only stumbled upon Peldon by accident half a month ago?" Adrian asked. Kevin’s overly aggressive reaction earlier had already sparked his suspicions.
"I... I just heard it from the locals," Tessa stammered, visibly flustered.
Her reaction didn’t escape Adrian’s eyes. It seemed these people were indeed hiding something.
"The people here did us a favor, and Tessa is just speaking out of concern," Kevin interjected, glaring at Nina as if he wanted to tear her apart. "Once we return to the base, I expect Miss Jacobs to give South Riven a proper explanation."
"You make a fair point. We discovered this, so we definitely need to provide an explanation," Nina said, her palm twitching slightly. "But not to you."
With unstoppable force, several golden stone spikes erupted from the ground beneath Kevin. The stone spikes shot up around him, instantly trapping him within a stony cage.
"What are you doing? Release General Nash!" Tessa yelled, shocked and furious. She had never seen anyone so arrogant.
Meanwhile, Adrian noticed quite a few people approaching from outside the main gates. They were soldiers from South Riven Base—the very same people Kevin had ordered to wait in the vehicles nearby. Regina Garner stood among them, watching the scene expressionlessly with no intention of intervening.
"Captain Jacobs, what on earth is going on?" Ivan and the others asked, completely caught off guard by this turn of events.
Spotting the arrivals, Kevin shouted at the top of his lungs, "Soldiers of South Riven Base, hear my orders! This woman massacred the village and is trying to silence me! Apprehend her at once!"
However, the base soldiers remained completely impassive.
"Regina Garner, are you all deaf?!" Tessa shrieked.
Nina observed the strangers standing at the entrance. There must have been several hundred of them, all emaciated and sickly-looking. Purple chilblains covered their cheeks and the tips of their ears. Their clothes were stiff and curled at the edges, and a few had emergency blankets draped over their shoulders. Though their gazes seemed numb, a feral panic born of deep-seated hatred flickered in their eyes.
"Kevin, this is where you murdered Captain Adam Donovan and the others, isn’t it?" Regina said, no longer bothering to conceal the hatred on her face as she stared at the caged man.
"What did you just say?" Jude immediately asked at the mention of Adam. "Wasn’t Adam killed by zombies..."
"No!" Regina’s voice cracked with a sob. "Captain Donovan was lured away and killed by them! Someone saw it with their own eyes!"
"You used the excuse of going out to scavenge for supplies and seek rescue, but it was all a ploy to trap us," Regina continued. "The few who went out with you and actually made it back alive are already your lackeys. Did you really think we couldn’t see through that?"
"It was Leo Bishop, wasn’t it?" Kevin sneered. "He was the only one who got away that day."
Chuckling, Kevin simply sat down on the ground. "If I had known you all were already aware, I wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble."
Adrian had already pieced most of the puzzle together by now. Kevin must have teamed up with the people of Peldon to assassinate numerous soldiers from South Riven Base.
"What was your goal?" Adrian asked, stepping forward.
"My goal?" Kevin retorted. "South Riven Base has been circling the drain for a long time. Who decreed that an area can only have one base? Leo Langley and I merely wanted to build a new one."
"So you murdered all those people who fought side by side with you?" a man with half of his face wrapped in bandages standing next to Regina spat out. "You’ve changed too much, Kevin. You’re no longer the General Nash who led us against the zombies."
Nina raised an eyebrow. It seemed she wouldn’t need to explain anything after all. Kevin was terrible at hiding his tracks.
"The man I used to be died a long time ago," Kevin shot back. "Didn’t you all constantly accuse me of leaving people to die? Just because I chose not to save a few people, I—who risked my life day in and day out—had to face demotions and disciplinary actions from those parasites sitting comfortably back at the base! Don’t you think that’s grossly unfair?
"How many missions did I complete? How many supplies did I secure for the base? I’m not some savior! Why should I be judged by those hypocrites? Since we have the power, why shouldn’t we build a base where we call the shots? Adam and his crew didn’t know what was good for them. Since they refused to fall in line, there was no point in keeping them alive."
Kevin even pulled out a cigarette, attempting to light it. But after several tries, it remained unlit.
"Kevin! When you were demoted, do you have any idea how many people Adam rallied to speak up for you?" Jude cried out. "He even offended a lot of important people in the process! Have you forgotten all of that?"
Jude couldn’t believe such words were coming out of Kevin’s mouth.
"Yes, which is exactly why I wanted to share my success with him," Kevin replied. "But who would’ve thought that after hearing our plan, he’d point his finger right at my face and curse me out? You think I could tolerate that?
"And why did you busybodies from City D have to meddle in this? If it weren’t for you, Leo Langley’s and my plan would have gone off without a hitch. You ruined our new base!" Kevin snarled, crushing the unlit cigarette into pieces in his hand as he glared at Nina’s group with venomous hatred.
"You and that Leo Langley are truly cut from the same cloth. Building a new base is just a pretty excuse to cover up your power grab, isn’t it? I’m guessing what you really wanted was to usurp the position of South Riven’s Base Commander," Nina remarked.
Nina recalled something she had heard in her previous life.
Back then, South Riven Base had faced an existential crisis due to a massive zombie tide. It was the sudden appearance of a grassroots organization from outside the base that allowed South Riven Base to survive.
After that incident, South Riven Base got a new Base Commander.