Doomsday Pillars

About 100 men gathered within the city hall of Aula. The people invited to these meetings were the highest-ranking and the key people in rebuilding the nation. Half of them were previous ministers, surviving cabinet members, society figures and high ranking military officers. 

There were many faces that Alex didn't really recognize within this room. There's a good chance in his previous life these people didn't get to survive this long. Other than Rico, James Randall, and Regent Suryo, Alex only recognized around twenty people; standing close to Rico, there was Silvia, the beautiful cabinet member, and the two Colonels Rano and Andri. Next to the regent, there was Colonel Arief, the metal spirit enhancer and the Regent's two little generals Anton and Rafid.

James Randall was standing in one corner together with some people, other than Winter, his bodyguard, James seemed to be standing next to an old man in the 60's, this was Anthony, one of the 9 dragons from Jakarta, he came together with the Jakarta Survivors a few days ago. He realized James' position within the new government and decided to stick close to James, joining their resources could also be beneficial to James.

As for Alex, he only brought along Theo and Cindy, Alex brought Theo for the obvious reason, with Theo's mind-reading ability, Alex was curious to know which of the people in this room really were sincere on rebuilding the country or had their own hidden agenda. It's important for Alex to map them out now.

As for Cindy, she's been ranting non-stop about wanting to join the meeting... Alex didn't really want to argue with her, and nobody in this room would dare to restrict Alex's access, so currently she was able to join the meeting, Cindy looked really excited.

On the contrary, the other girl standing next to Cindy has been quiet all day, Alex was already used to this Ice Queen to stay quite near him but recently things have been a little different. Although quiet, she has been more attentive than usual.

"You ok, Aria?"

"Yes I am... do you need anything?... Water maybe?"

"No, no... I am fine"

Things turned awkward, fortunately, three figures came approaching Alex and Aria, seeing them, a delighted smile appeared on Alex's face.

They were the two Deathsquad commanders Donny, Dario, and the smart ex-military intelligence Farell. They just arrived last night from Surabaya, their arrival brought many cheers to the people as they brought the armaments taken from the Pindad Weapon Factory.

They brought along trucks of weapons and ammunition, hundreds of vehicles such as tanks, APV's and even advance artilleries. The firearms fighters will not need to be worried about weapons and ammo for a while now. Farell even took the time to cleanly disassemble a few of the bullets making machinery from the factory and took as many as he could to this city. Last night they have been busy organizing the supplies, therefore this was the first time they met. But Alex knew better than last night these people came to visit the regent first, but Alex really didn't mind it at all.

It seems everyone's already in the room and the meeting was about to start. The room was set up with hundreds of chairs surrounding a huge table in the center showing the map of Indonesia with little figurines marking important information on the map.

As Rico has been officially announced as the leader of the nation, he started the meeting with an open discussion, he allowed the people gathered to express their opinions on what to be prioritized on rebuilding the nation

The new armaments brought by Farell gives confidence to the people in these rooms. Some thinking about gathering more survivers, some concerned about food supplies, some thinking about reinforcing the city with walls for defense. All ideas came with solid and detailed plans. Alex just stayed quiet watching these people interacting with Rico on the details, Alex watching attentively each person who talked and making sure Theo gave a note on each person.

One guy suddenly felt impatient and was emotionally ranting about how the new governor should first establish new ministers and Rico as the new commander in chief should carefully pick the right person for the job.

The discussion suddenly heading towards more on politics, on how they should choose some of the old ministers, or the need to find each ethnic as a representation. These things really made Rico's frown.

Rico raised his hand, and everyone stops talking, Rico then looked at the regent and asked for his opinion.

"What do you think, Regent?"

"Hahaha... What do old men know about this situation, all that has been discussed is already great."

"Please, Regent", Rico insisted.

"Ok, if I may add, this old man thinks we should broaden out our scope... We should stop thinking only about the survivors of this nation... What about our surrounding countries, what happened to the US who's claimed to be the world's greatest nation. Or what about India, our neighbor, they have the largest population. Aren't we curious to know how many nations survived the disaster? I know we should prioritize on our surrounding islands. Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Papua. But I think we should send representatives to other nations... I am sure everyone here already heard that the dangers we currently have are just the start and it will only get worse. I think combining resources with surrounding nations is also a priority."

The regent had the reputation and the charisma when he spoke, so everyone listened attentively, but the people suddenly reminded about the news of how things would get worse and they suddenly remembered the man who brought that news. Eyes started staring at Alex.

One man, an old minister suddenly said to Alex:

"Are you the friend mentioned by President Rico?"

"Is this really true? Will things get much worse?"

Alex could no longer be quiet, he looked at Rico, and it seems the president also wanted more explanations. Alex gathered his thoughts and started saying:

"I'm afraid it's true... Things will only get worse."

"How bad... Please explain."

"Let me think... I know you all are very happy with the armaments brought by the army yesterday. The tanks, artillery and such. I am afraid those things would become obsolete In one or two years time."

"That's crazy..."

Alex's words created commotions, these people couldn't imagine a solution beyond those big caliber guns and explosives. And hearing Alex saying these things will become unusable in two years' time was unthinkable.

Alex continued:

"I am sure everyone in this room is already informed about the existence of the next stage of zombies. The pitch-black zombies. High caliber bullets or rockets are only able to hurt him but very difficult to kill him. In one year's time, these black zombies would start attacking in groups. With their speed, strength and regenerative ability. What do you think are the chances those guns could help us?"

"..."

"Within one year there will be an even stronger monster... By then no amount of walls made by humans would be able to stop them... As I said, things will only get worse."

"..."

The room turned silent.

A few months ago, when Alex revealed his predictions, everyone could make a joke out of it. But now, when half of his prediction came true, the people in the room were really in a dilemma. Some weak-minded would just want to run and hide, others just stayed in denial. Only real survivors would find the courage to fight.

"Then what should we do?"

Alex walked to the front table and took out a large piece of paper from his storage ring.

It's a huge map of Indonesia. It's similar to the one in the table, but this one seemed to have dozens of marks made by Alex. Five green marks, a dozen red marks and about 50 plus black marks.

"Let me explain."