4 A.M.
The night was still dark, with countless stars in the sky.
Landon was already wide awake, ready for action.
He and Lucy had stayed up all night since she wanted to spend as much time as he could with her before leaving.
The lovey-dovey couple watched Tv, spoke intimately, rolled on the sheets for quite some time before Landon calmly got up to take his bath.
And as he expected, by the time he was back, Lucy was dead asleep, laying there motionlessly like a log of wood.
Landon wrote a little note for her, placed it by her nightstand and kissed her forehead passionately: "Bye-Bye, wifey."
A warm smile emerged on Lucy's face, even though she was deep asleep.
Landon shook his head wryly, thinking of the little note he left for her.
If these were modern times, a simple text message would suffice. But who asked him to get stuck in these times?
Poetry was a must and a powerful way of expressing one's emotions in these times.
And over the years, even though he always felt awkward writing an entire handwritten letter of love, he still enjoyed writing them greatly.
Maybe it was a psychological aspect, but whenever he took the time to write these love letters, Lucy's image would continuously pop up in his mind. And the more he would write or describe his feelings, the stronger they became. It was as though his writing was also affirming his unyielding love for her.
Tsk!
No doubt Shakespeare and all those people back in the day would go crazy from writing and passing letters around.
But who could blame them? They had no other means of communicating except talking and writing. No texting, no phone calls... Nothing.
He left Lucy with a little scavenger hunt, hoping she would find all the gifts he kept for her hidden all over their private wing.
It was the little things like these that always kept their relationship fun and alive.
.
Landon left their enormous bedroom, strolled to his private office on the 2nd floor of his wing, and collected several documents he would work on during their travels.
With that, he finally stepped out of his wing, headed towards the building's lower floors, and immediately came face to face with several men already waiting for him, all in Navy, Marine, Army uniform.
And the moment they spotted Landon, they swiftly gave a military salute before walking alongside him and providing a clear update on the current situation at hand.
"Your majesty! Captain Kirk has just sent word that the men are currently headed down for roll-call."
"Hmmm... What about Commander Hopkins?"
"Your majesty, Hopkins hasn't updated us about his mission team yet. But I believe that very soon, he will contact us about the situation of Mission: Zombie Virus (Z.A)... Those involved should soon arrive at the port soon enough." One of the well-decorated men stated.
And with one swift move, he opened the vehicle don't, allowing Landon to hop in.
Good... Everyone was here, and now, they could finally leave.
~Vrrrmmmmm~
The car speeded up on the seemingly clear roads, as many were fast sound asleep at this time.
Landon glanced at his watch and nodded to himself.
Before leaving, he contacted Josh & Grace's home, checking up on him. And by that time, Josh was just about to head towards the Port.
So the big guy should already be down there, right?
As for Mitchen, he won't be coming with them this time because he was working on the case with those T.O.E.P people who tried to free someone in their prison (Ulrich). For now, they didn't know who they were after.
But it won't be long before everything becomes clear. After all, nothing can be hidden under the sun for long.
Like so, the joinery to the port was fast and smooth, with no hiccups on the way.
And in the blink of an eye, they had arrived at the scene.
.
The air was salty and dry.
And one by one, hundreds and thousands of people marched in order of missions, heading towards their check-in stations.
Before they were to leave, everyone knew which Navy ship they would be boarding on, and in what group order they would be doing so.
And those doing the roll-calls worked with each segment of people as they came in.
"Doctor Mcguire Banja!"
"Here, Sir!" Replied one of the doctors wearing an official mission jacket and hat with a cross on it.
The doctor answered and quickly boarded the ship with his backpack and other small-bag luggages at hand.
"Nurse, Naima Jenkins!"
"Here, Sir!"
"Doctor Elizabeth Taylor!"
"Here, Sir!"
(*^*)
Everyone carried their little essentials and were quickly shown their sleeping quarters for as long as their mission was in order.
They were only to bring a few attires.
For the case with the doctors and so on, before today, they had been given a total of 6 different clothing attires, which included jackets and hats.
Each attire was meant for different weather conditions and situations that might arise unexpectedly.
Additionally, they were also given boots and what they nicknamed a medical belt that they could use to place essential items like pepper spray for protection, hand sanitizer, tiny bars of soaps, and even a discardable mask when out in the field.
One doesn't know when these things would come in handy. So why not have them close by?
The Navy officers chosen for the missions had long done their own roll-call an hour and a half ago. So now, they were only focusing on the Marines, Soldiers, Doctors, Nurses and everyone else involved with the various missions.
.
~Din. Din. Din. Din!
Landon walked onto the main ship alongside Josh and a few others while taking in the scene around then from time to time.
Josh frowned deeply.
Something was weighing heavily on his mind.
"Brother... I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling about Dafaren."
"Oh?" Landon raised his brows curiously: "What's the matter?"
Josh suddenly froze in place before staring at the moon above.
Everything looked calm and relaxed on the surface. But underneath... Something chaotic was brooding in his heart!
"Brother.... This time, I fear not something but someone!"