Chapter 23: Camila
Camila was watching calm waves roll over the deep ocean. She was far from her family, but they weren’t the source of her worries. Her concerns were too profound to be actionable, and that drove her crazy. She was naturally decisive, seizing upon worthy goals and taking action to accomplish them. In this case, there wasn’t much she could do. Her worries were for the future of humanity as a whole.
When reality fell apart, she latched onto the first sign of sanity she found. Despite Charlie being a timid one, it was immediately clear that they shared the same reservations toward the aliens. She had thrown in with the sweet cinnamon bun and neither would allow the pair to be separated. Camila thought they made a perfect combination, like chips and salsa.
People thought Camila was inherently talented, but that wasn’t how she saw it. She was constantly working hard to become the person she wanted to be, creating her own opportunities and striving to perform beyond expectations. Then a bunch of aliens just had to invade Earth and mess everything up. The invaders actually had the nerve to act like they were doing humans a favor, like they were uplifting a primitive society by sharing the wonders of mana. They even hand selected individuals and called them Chosen, then bestowed blessings upon them, like they were Gods.
The entire scenario was too pretentious. Camila saw through her faction’s posturing immediately, but intended to take every advantage she could get her hands on. She’d take whatever resources they were willing to provide, whether it was intel on their new system, magical equipment, or just networking, but she wouldn’t be manipulated into becoming their tool.
Camila was shocked other people actually fell for it. Somehow, after barely any time at all, the Empire had managed to convince regular people that they were special, capable of conquering the entire world and presenting it as a gift to the aliens. All in exchange for the mere promise of a place of honor among the stars. Some really believed they were the Chosen of Gods.
Observing her temporary companions left her shaking her head. Give people the tiniest of ways to differentiate themselves from others and they immediately take it to a violent extreme. A week previously these would-be conquerors had been cashiers and office workers. The Champion of the Endless Empire’s settlement was a freaking sophomore film student. It only took a week before he murdered someone to claim the settlement in the name of the Empire.
It was damn fanatical. The aliens said jump and these people asked ‘how high?’ She didn’t want any part of it, but all signs pointed to them needing a settlement for survival. She still planned on making her own way once they gathered the right people.
She and Charlie had a simple plan after being returned to Earth from the attempted indoctrination with the Endless Empire, but they had been met with complication after complication. The first step required them to establish their homebase in the nearest settlement, where they could take advantage of being trained by the aliens to regroup with their own people.
Even the first step turned out to be a pain. The state of the settlement they meant to use as their haven had been a major disappointment. The Empire’s lackeys were ruling the settlement like authoritarians, trying to force loyalty with the threat of being exiled from the safe territory. Camila didn’t like it one bit.
Camila and Charlie wanted to make sure that Charlie’s parents would be safe in the settlement, so they were still playing along. Charlie wanted to rescue a pair of island caretakers that she knew before the apocalypse. So, like good little soldiers, they approached some of the leadership to let them know they would be gone on an expedition and would be returning soon with a few more.
Those damn weirdos thought the expedition was such a brilliant idea they formed an entire squad to go along and map the region while scouting for intel on potential threats. A little attention from some purple aliens and they were already treating the rest of humanity as either pawns or enemies.
Charlie and Camila wanted it to just be the pair of them, but instead there were four parties of five sailing through the ocean. The only essential member of the entire squad of 20 was Charlie, as she used her skills to fill the sails and was the one navigating to an island that none of the rest had ever heard of. But everytime someone spotted some land or structure they had to go investigate thanks to their enthusiastic squad leader, Kevin the Hammer, as he called himself. Camila didn’t think anyone had any nautical experience at all, and worse yet they were sailing some relic of preindustrial exploration.