CHAPTER 17: News for Hannibal

Some helpful hands pulled Alcan up through the demolished staircase to the first floor. People were smiling at him. Few of them were asking what happened? And if he is alright. But he didn't pay attention to them. All he wanted to get to the elevator, up to his warm bed and sleep for two days. At least.

He knew he wasn't allowed to do it just yet, but he could still dream about a little. Right?

He shook and nodded his head when people were asking him even more questions. Someone clever enough started to tell everyone to leave him alone. They all see how tired and bruised he was. People stopped blocking an elevator door, and Alcan could finally get inside.

He left a tired sigh. The noise was ringing inside his head. He wasn't sure if that was because of all those people downstairs or because he hit his head too hard. Either way, it was nothing to what was coming for him. He was exhausted by those people being just worried about him, but now he was about to be questioned and forced to give full report before, he would be allowed to go lay and just rest.

The bumps during traveling the elevator increased the nausea feeling Alcan had. He tried to put his forehead to the cold wall, but the next bump made him hit himself. Not the greatest idea, he had.

When the doors slid open, he found a few people waiting for him already. He blinked few times. Right. Everyone knew he was back.

Lena was amongst them and she moved in front of the group looking much more worried than he wanted her to be. She put her hand on his forehead and examined him from top to bottom. She didn't like what she saw but also knew she couldn't take him to the medical bay. Not yet, at least.

Alcan felt being helped out of the elevator and someone made him lean over him. He looked to his right. Hayir, one of the Tower's runners. Tall, pale man, with always untidied hairs and clothing. But a very kind man. Alcan liked him a lot. He always was there to help and give advice. He could be someone the closest to Alcan right now. A mentor almost.

They both went slowly towards Hannibal's Headquarters. The rest of the men followed. He looked behind and saw Lena following too. She won't leave him and was ready to fight for him if Hannibal would decide to question him for hours. Alcan was very grateful for her care and smiled at her.

It was when he noticed people were talking to him something. The ring inside of his head lighten a little and he finally could hear them.

- Remember, stick to the facts. Hayir sounded concerned and felt a need to give him some advices. You don't have to tell every fucking detail. This can be done later. Right now, just tell what's important and you would be over with.

Oh, he was saying about the report he had to make. Well, those were good advices. Alcan tried to note them in his mind, but he kept struggling to make it work. He was so tired. A bed would be nice. And some cold compress for all his bruised parts of his body. The moment, he thought about them, immediately felt all cramping and aches.

He groaned quietly, but Hayir managed to hear it and looked at him with a question in mind. He interpreted it wrongly and tried to console Alcan a bit.

- Don't you worry, it will be over soon and... He looked back at someone. Lena will take care of you.

They were already there. In front of Headquarters. Voices could be heard from inside. Hannibal's and someone else. They seemed to angrily discuss something. Alcan wasn't sure he wanted to get inside, but Hayir already pushed the first door and knocked into the next one. Voices died down and soon doors opened.

Everyone came inside. The other man, Hannibal argued was Quartermaster. He wasn't happy, but Alcan couldn't read much from his expression. But he managed to see the angry face of Hannibal, jut before he turned his back to them and walked through the room. When he finally turned around, his face was calm and professional. No sign of a recent argument happening between two men.

- You can go. Hannibal turned to Quartermaster and added. We will talk later.

The man nodded and went through the door. Before walking by Alcan, he threw a glance at the young runner and smiled consolingly. To comfort him and say how sorry, he was, he will have to go through it too.

- So, what do we have here? Hannibal asked looking intensively into Alcan. You are Alcan, right?

- Yes... yes sir.

He kept taxing him from feet to the top of his head with his piercing eyes. He grimaced on something, he didn't like and said.

- You look like shit, young man. He looked back on the rest of the people standing still behind Alcan. What are you waiting for? He looks like he needs to sit or he will faint here. Get him to the sofa. With this being said, he pointed at nearby furniture.

Alcan tried to argue quietly, but no one listened. They pushed him toward the sofa and almost forced him to sit. The softness of it made him relax a little, but he still had a report to make. But before, he could even open a mouth, Hannibal spoke again.

- Would you like some water? Or maybe something stronger...? Hannibal looked at him and Alcan shook his head. As you wish. So, tell me. He sat comfortably in front of Alcan with crossed legs. Why do you look like shit and where were you? It's been almost two days if I'm not mistaken? I'm sure you have some very interesting stories to tell.

Someone touched Alcan's shoulder and made him flinch. He looked back and saw Hayir be his side. He didn't notice when he came and stood behind the sofa. He smiled to rise a little his spirit. Alcan took a deep breath and looked back at Hannibal. Let's rock'n roll...

Answering all those questions wasn't as exhaustive as giving a report to Hannibal. He asked about each, tiniest detail and Alcan had to stop and describe in detail each scene, person, and encounter.

Hannibal has been mostly interested in those maps, Alcan found in Matt's safe zone. He asked him to draw them, but he couldn't get it to work. He saw them only briefly, so his sketches looked awkwardly and weren't detailed at all. It didn't satisfy Hannibal, but he couldn't manage to make him draw it better. Especially considering the pen, which was handed over to the young runner, was shaking uncontrollably in his hand, due to extreme exhaustion. So he dropped the subject.

But when Alcan started describing how this mysterious man rescued him from horde of zombie in Stuffed Turtle, Hannibal exhaled loudly and spoke in the middle of Alcan's sentence.

- A guy? Hannibal interrupted him suddenly. His attention increased dramatically. What guy?

- I don't know, really.

- Does he look familiar to you? Like one of the survivors living in any of the closeby settlements...?

- No. I didn't recognize him, but I... He was about to say, he doesn't know the face of everyone in this area, but Hannibal cut him off.

- How does he look like? This is important, so stay focused.

Alcan blinked few times and tried to remember his encounter with him.

- He... he looked like a normal guy, really. Well maybe expect, he wore face disguise...

- A disguise?

- Yeah, like a mask... He thought for a second and then continued. Well, it was actually a combo of hood, bandana, and sunglasses. I wasn't able to see his face at all like he didn't want me to know, who he was. He didn't want to tell me his name either. But...

He stopped for a second and frowned, not sure if that's even important. But, he couldn't think about it too long, since made Hannibal impatient.

- Go on. He hurried him.

- So he looked like he knew the route to The Tower very well. Almost too well I would say. And he also didn't want to come too close.

- Interesting... Hannibal stood up and started to walk back and forth. He looked back at Alcan with excitement in his eyes. Does anything look out of order with this guy? Anything strange happened?

- When you ask, there was actually something a little weird about him. Alcan didn't give much of a thought about it before. He fought amazingly. I never saw someone that good at slicing through Infected, to be honest. And it looked like, he had some kind of cloak, maybe? Alcan saw the surprise on Hannibal's face, so he added. You know, like a potion, which makes Infected not see nor attack you for some time.

- So Infected wasn't interested in this guy at all? Hayir spoke for the first time since they came to this room. This made Alcan flinch again. He forgot, there were other people here too.

- Yeah... They didn't even look at him before he started to hit them.

Hannibal stood still and looked intensively at Alcan. Then he noticed the rest of the people gathered in the room.

- Alright, everyone out. I have pressing matters to talk through with Mr. Tasci. He added when he saw a protest in Hayir eyes. ALONE.

Lena tried to pretest too, but with one swing of the hand, he silenced here.

- This is not under discussion.

Both Alcan and Hannibal waited for everyone to leave the room before the leader looked back at the runner again and continued.

- So. It looks like you met our lovely ex-runner.

- Ex-runner... Who? Alcan couldn't think of anyone, who recently left The Tower.

- That's not the most important right now. Hannibal didn't want to go into details, so he continued. So listen up. Now, you are going to get a good night sleep, Lena will take care of you, and when you will feel up to it, you will go and try to contact this guy. This is extremely important to keep it only between us two, right? I want you to work with him and give me reports about his doings.

- So, you want me to follow him? Alcan wasn't sure what is this all about.

- No, no no. Not follow. Befriend him. He looked very serious about this. This is important. Right now, you have only this one task. We will talk more before, you leave. Of course after your well-deserved rest.

With this being said, Alcan understood talk is over and he supposed to leave. Still confused and not sure, what Hannibal expected him to do, he stood up clumsily and headed towards the door. The Hannibal's voice came to him and he looked back.

- But remember, Alcan. This needs to stay between us only, right? His face looked menacing in the shadows.

Alcan nodded in agreement and walked past the door, far away from him. This guy was giving him chills sometimes.

The moment he stood a foot on the corridor, he saw a worried face of Lena. She immediately grabbed him by his arm and touched his forehead, trying to determine, if he had a fever. She shook her head in disappointment and started talking, how he was careless and he will one day end up dead. But Alcan wasn't listening. He was one leg in his bed right now, started dreaming.

She helped him get to the medical bay and laid him on one of the beds. Before she turned away from him, he managed to see last bits of sunlight coming through the curtain and his mind drifted away.

Young runner finally had his deserved rest, he so much needed.

This is part 2 / 3 of Alcan POV. I still need to flesh him out more I think, but this can be done in the following chapters. Right now I need to give Crane something to do, so some action is coming soon!

Also, I'm close to hitting 50k, which is (from my brief estimates) halfway through PHASE I. I think I should be able to finish it before reaching 100k. This won't be of course the end of the story. It's nowhere near that, but when I get to 50k I will switch to uploading once a week. With finishing the first phase of FF, I will take some break probably, and then get back to you with PHASE II.

Version 1.0 ~ 13/06/20