~Military Camp~

Colonel Brown was reading the ceased order from the higher up, it's an order direct from the office of the general himself and was passed to his subordinates below him. The ceased order arrived in his office at 10:00 in the morning today through the fax machine.

He already read the ceased order ten times, trying to decipher why on earth the general will abandon the mission when it's about to be completed?

To be honest, he was glad that the general stopped the operation as it's pointless to harm the remaining vampires, since their only goal is to survive without harming anyone, besides they will become all mortal soon and no longer a threat to the society, but then...there's something wrong with the order...or maybe he was just trying to find something that isn't there anymore. He would like to believe that the general was done with his revenge already and allow the remaining vampires to live in peace, but the general's hatred runs too deep and too personal to let go. The general has been obsessing to kill the rest of the surviving vampires and stopping the operation abruptly looks too good to be true and yet at the same time looks foggy to him.

He picked up his phone and make a call to Captain Mercado.

"Hello, Sir! Good morning!" the captain answered right away.

"Good morning, Captain! I have good news for you, drop by at my office anytime today if you're not busy."

"Copy that Sir!"

Colonel Brown ended the call, he placed his phone back in the table.

Two hours later.

Captain Mercado arrived in the colonel's office, he performed the customary hand salute in front of his superior.

"Sit down Captain," the colonel pointed at the chair in front of the table.

Captain Mercado is sitting comfortably in the chair, the colonel placed the ceased order in front of the captain. "This is the good news that I'd been telling you earlier, you read it yourself. Due to this good news, I think you don't need to retire too early."

The captain picked up the paper and read what was written on it, his face lighted up instantly. "This is good news, Sir!"

"Yes indeed! I guess you no longer need to retire early, eh?"

A bright smile appeared on the captain's face. "Yes. The direct order from General Smith is a blessing, Sir. I no longer have to fear getting killed by the crossbred. I can continue serving the army and the people until I'm reaching my retirement age. This piece of good news will make that crossbred happy too. I can't wait to share the good news with her!"

Colonel Brown no longer reveals to his subordinate what's on his mind, he just can't destroy the happiness that the captain was feeling right now. For the time being, he will keep it to himself, he knows the general was planning on something...he can smell it across the miles. If the general thinks he will win in the end, he is wrong. He had not seen the capabilities of the crossbred yet, because if he did, he won't be planning something or risk losing his life or his family in the end just like what happened to his brother.

The war against vampires had been raging for a century and in the end, human beings emerged the victorious ones. If he was on the general's shoes it's about time to put the army in the place where it can be useful and not spends the resources and time hunting the last extinct vampires that were trying to live in peace on their own place.

Now at the present times the war between human to human such as terrorist attack, random bombing in the city, serial killer and rapist on the loose, kidnappings are now rampant in the society, and the worst icing of the cake is the unstable economy...the gap between the rich and the poor was widening, shortage of jobs, homelessness, poverty and a lot more...the society's condition is worsening...it's like cancer growing slowly but at steady rate and making the people lose their minds...suicides among young and adult happens all over the world...the problems of the world so huge and complicated it's the kind of war that is hard to win.

Every government across the globe was spending more on the defense department and purchasing war weapons to put a strong defense just in case other foreign territories will strike the country and they can defend and protect the masses... yet the society's quality of life itself is deteriorating like a flower wilting day by day.

"Captain...it's ironic that every government is putting too much money and resources in upgrading it's military defense yet terrorist attack, bomb attack, kidnapping, random killing, raping women and other recurring problems in the society can't be eradicated? Why is that?"

Captain Mercado was at a loss of words to say to his superior, he noticed that the colonel was in deep thoughts so he just stays silent in his chair, then the colonel's question took him off guard.

After some time the captain began to speak...

"Because we are living in a very dark age, Sir. The threat of another World War 3 is real and is looming in the distance, every country is erecting their military defense just to survive just in case something catastrophic will happen in the future..."

Colonel Brown looked at his junior. "That's exactly my point...If only every government of every country in the world would focus more on the problem of their society, a lot of problems can be solved instead of spending too much money and resources erecting the defenses to the highest standard while its very own people are dying of hunger, random killing, surprised terrorist bombing attacks that was happening here and everywhere and so on...so much problem occurring in every country of the world and no viable solution that can help solve all. I felt sad that we are now in a very advanced estate when it comes to technology yet the one thing that modern technology can not help is eradicating poverty, homelessness, lack of jobs, the worsening mental and emotional problem of people and so on. I have interrogated Aston the leader of the kidnapper in his cell yesterday...he grew up in a dysfunctional family, he only finishes high school, he helps to pay his sister's tuition. There's a lack of decent job for people like him, his wife got comatose and so on...those unfortunate circumstances define his life in a bad way. How many people like Aston are there in our midst, forced to do against their will just to survive in this money centered society?"

Captain Mercado was dumbfounded and shaking his head.

"The problem Sir is...sick society produces sick citizens. If we have a healthy society, it will produce healthy people. In our current situation right now...in my rough estimate...we only have 10% people who are rich and have stable money flow compare to the 40% who are middle income, struggling to make their family afloat and the rest of the 50% are barely making a decent living at all, I could be wrong though. It's tragic..."

"Yeah, it's indeed tragic...Seeing all these problems happening in our society is very sad. Yet we can't do anything at all because we are just military officers, it's beyond our responsibility, we can only watch and observe from a distance," the colonel said.

"We can only help protect the people against violence and terrorist attack because it's our job description, Sir, the rest...let's leave it to the government officials," the captain said.

Colonel Brown smiled.

"I guess you are right, maybe I think too much because I have seen it all already. My only wish before I die is to see no more homeless people roaming in the streets and poor people be given equal opportunity to live a decent life, it will help a lot in decreasing violence and crimes in our society. Because let's face it...you can't see wealthy people doing pickpocketing, kidnapping, raping, doing heinous crimes, and all that... crimes like those are mostly perpetrated by poor people, the majority of the crime offenders were pushed to the edge and have poor mental and emotional upbringing. Let's end poverty and we can see a decrease in violence and crimes. But I guess that will never happen in our lifetime."

Captain Mercado looked outside the window. "The key is to end the poverty...the crime in society will decrease...people will live a decent life...when a person's mind is tranquil and he is living a contented life, his subconscious will be filled with positivity and bad thoughts can no longer thrive....therefore peace and prosperity can be attained if poverty can be eradicated."

"That's right, Captain, you nailed it right! Anyways enough of the fantasy, let's go back to reality. Have you already received the rewards money in your bank account given by the girls' father?"

"Yes, Sir."

"That's good. You can save that money and use it for emergencies...or if you want to go on an exotic vacation with your family go for it...you can also donate it to the charity...you can do all of the above, your choice. By the way...it's nice talking to you, Captain!"

"Thank you, Sir!"

"Regarding the press conference, we just make it quiet since it's not right to receive the praises when we both know it is the crossbred who made everything possible on that night. Anyways, the vampires will have peace for now that the general has aborted the mission. Let's enjoy the peace for a while and divert our attention to other areas in our society that needed our attention the most."

"Agree...Sir!"

"You can go now and enjoy the rest of the day," the colonel said.

Captain Mercado was about to exit the room...

"Captain wait...is there any chance that you can get our weapons and the bomb launcher back?"

"The crossbred told me that she will take me to the place where she hides the weapon. I'm still waiting for her to visit me one of these days, Sir."

"Okay, that's good! Extend to her my thanks for helping the mission a big success. You can go now," Colonel Brown said.

Captain Mercado left the room.

Colonel Brown read the ceased order for the last time.

It's not the right time yet to think about the doubts lingering in his mind regarding the general's hidden agenda, there's a right time for that.

He placed the ceased order in one of the empty folders and proceed to continue his daily routine.