Kaleg was furious.

Zehno, you idiot!– He thought.

He never much liked his foolish little cousin, but still, he was family.

"Don't worry Kal," said Darem, his best friend and his squad leader, under normal circumstances.

But, occasionally, the commander liked to lead a scavenging squad personally, as it happened that very day, the day of Zehno's first mission. It was a great honor, but his idiot cousin managed to ruin it all, of course.

"I'm not so sure, Dar... The commander was very angry. She idolizes the Lord Protector, and he would execute anyone for something like this... And perhaps he would be right."

"Now hold on a sec, you don't mean that."

"I don't know, man. He screwed up big time. Would you like to have him on your squad again?"

„Hell, no. But that doesn't mean he should be killed. Scavenging is not the only thing one can do."

Kaleg shrugged. For him life outside of the military was worse than death. Civilians were little better than slaves, except for the scientists and the monks, and he doesn't want to be either.

"You know what, dude?" Asked Darem. "I put in a good word for him. After all, I am his squad leader. Maybe I can get a cleaning job for him."

"Yeah, thanks Dar. That's really kind of you. I owe you a favor, if you can save his neck."

"You owe me nothing," said Darem as he finished his beer.

Kaleg followed his example, and they left the canteen after that.

***

Jukava was quite nice during the early spring. There was still some snow on the nearby Fairam Mountains, which was a ski paradise before the Apocalypse. The air had been chilly that morning, but it was quite pleasant when they left the canteen, which was located, like most of the local military buildings, in the former campus of the Rainar Military University. It was a nice place and an important one.

The Purged Ruins of the capital was nearby, and it was a good source of building materials. That area was free of the zombies thanks to the Salt Wall. Perhaps it would be better to call it just salt wall, with no capitals, since there were a lot of salt walls, every human settlements and bases had their own one in the Protectorate, but it was, by far, the biggest. Salt walls were made from simple but durable salt bags. Zombies hated salt, among other things, like garlic, silver and sunlight. So when they started to claw at the salt wall, and the outpouring salt started to burn their skin, they usually gave up any attempts of getting through the wall, and started to look for easier prey, and didn't return for a couple of days. Of course, the walls required constant maintenance, but luckily the Protectorate had quite a few salt mines and salterns near the Warm Sea. The most important bases were all located nearby a salt mine or a saltern. With the exception of Jukava which oversaw the Capital Ruins. Purging the Ruins was a long process. The undead seemed to be extraordinarily intelligent here, at least a few of them did, even putting up a semblance of organized resistance here and there. They immediately took back every occupied territories, unless they were protected by salt walls. But there was only so much salt the Protectorate could waste on purging the Capital Ruins. So the purged area only grew slowly during the last decade, and then finally it stopped to grow.

They went back to their barracks– former dormitories– to wait for Zehno's return. It was customary to give a little hazing for the newest recruits after their first mission, and Marem just received his. Hazing was illegal, but the commander tolerated it to a certain degree. And she was very consistent with that rule, turning a blind eye over minor hazings, and severely punishing the major ones. So Zehno would have had a better time here, running around the barracks in girls' clothes with Marem, than sweating in the commander's office.

They joined a few lesser officer smoking and watching Marem's run. They seemed more interested in the smoking and their conversation, then in the hazing.

"Yo, Private Kaleg!" One of them called out to him. He was in his twenties, a big, muscular guy, but still not as big, as Kaleg. "Where is your cousin? Don't tell me a zombie ate him already." He laughed at his own joke, but when Kaleg and Darem didn't join him, he turned serious. "Damn, don't tell me he was really..."

"No, Corporal Gavun. He is at the commander's office," said Kaleg.

Gavun swore.

"Would have preferred the zombies, personally," he said.

"Yeah," Kaleg agreed.

There was some chit-chatting about Zehno and the events of the morning, and then about the news from the other bases. Nothing really interesting, aside from the usual tales of superintelligent zombies or those who possessed elemental abilities, never mind that the elementals themselves were extinct long before the Apocalypse.

"But what if they weren't?" Asked Sergeant Fenton. He was over thirty, old for a squad leader. "What if some of them survived? The Plague must have gotten them too. If they became zombies, then..."

"Please, Fen," said to him Darem. He was the only other sergeant in their group, the others were all corporals or would-be corporals, like Kaleg himself.

"Why not, Dar? They could probably retain their abilities after death and that would explain how some zombies have elemental powers! In fact, it may even explain their unusual intelligence!"

"With all due respect, Sarge," said Gavun, who was a team leader in Fenton's squad, "But there's no evidence, that the elementals were more intelligent than the... What was their name?"

"Golems, Gavun. They called our kind golems."

"That's right, Sarge. And we golems invented electricity, and defeated them elementals without the help of any fancy powers. If you ask me, the golem-zombies should be more intelligent then the elemental-zombies, if there were any."

It went on like that for a while, when they finally saw Zehno heading back to the dormitory. It was late, and most of their little group went back to the barracks building by then, only Darem, Tarik– Kaleg's and Zehno's team leader– two other privates and Kaleg himself remained.

Tarik became team leader after Darem's promotion, right after Kaleg was added to the team, after his graduation. If Zehno would have been added to their team permanently, it would have been very likely, that Tarik would have been made squad leader at another squad, and Kaleg himself would have been promoted to team leader. But of course that was an unlikely scenario anymore. So, Tarik was at least as angry at Zehno as Kaleg.

"Hey, stop right there, Private!" Commanded Tarik. "Care to explain what the hell..."

"It's okay, Corporal," said Darem. "I take it from here."

Tarik was visibly displeased by Darem's intervention, but he conceded with an "Of course, sir!".

"Could you give us some space?" Asked Darem the other privates. They did of course. He could have commanded them, even though they weren't part of his squad, but he preferred to be polite, when it was possible.

"So, Zehno... First of all, tell us what was the commander's decision."

"She sentenced me to cleaning duty, sir." Zehno said.

Darem seemed to be as surprised as Kaleg. Cleaning duty? For endangering the whole squad?

"Care to elaborate, Private?"

"Yes, sir. I am to clean the gym every weekday for a year, additionally to my normal duties. My new team leader, Corporal Kaleg, will be given an exact time table, so he can see when I am needed at the gym. Also, I am forbidden to take part in any scavenging missions for a year. The commander wishes to speak with Corporal Kaleg tomorrow morning at 0800."

Darem seemed thoughtful for a moment, then nodded.

"Thank you, Private. You are dismissed."

Zehno saluted, then left. He seemed to be in a hurry.

"Cleaning duty...," said Tarik. "The commander's gone soft..."

"Yeah, or the sarge is a fire elemental in secret, right Sarge?" Asked Kaleg, jokingly. "You wanted to get him a cleaning job."

"That's right," said Darem. "But as a civilian... He's no soldier."

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about him for a year."

"A year is not a long time though... But you are right. Also, you got a promotion! You know what that means? Party night tomorrow!"

"Yeah, but what about my promotion?" Asked Tarik. "You heard him. He didn't say anything about Sergeant Tarik. I think he blamed me before the commander."

"Come on, Tarik! You can't be serious!" Said Kaleg.

"Don't lecture me, Kaleg! I am still officially your team leader."

"Sir, yes, sir!" Said Kaleg with a mock salute.

Tarik's face went dark, but he didn't say anything, just left them there.

Perhaps that was a bit much - Kaleg thought, still amused.