Stronghold In The Apocalypse

Chapter 141: Gaia Training Ground

*BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!*

"That's...a pretty big punching bag, isn't it?" a soldier leaned to the side and slowly whispered to the guy beside him while looking at the person in front of him in amazement.

"Yeah..we'd die if that thing falls on us" the other guy replied as he gulped nervously.

Currently, Leo is in the new training ground for the purpose of creating his greatest army!

The new training ground is three times bigger than an american football field. They acquire this huge plot of land by..demolishing a lot of buildings! After all, this is a freaking city!

Of course they could've also use Etihad Stadium and the nearby sports fields but sadly it's impossible for the time being as a huge commercial plane had landed on that very stadium but that's only one of the reasons and the other reason is that the place is not within the walls of the Hope 101.

The walls could only protect the lands within one mile from Beetham Tower and Etihad Stadium is over two miles away from the Tower so there is at least another mile between the wall near the Etihad Stadium.

*BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!*

Leo just continued sending punch after punch towards the huge punching bag or it would more appropriate to call it "Punching Block" instead with how big it is.

Because Leo's punching bag is not a regular punching bag filled with sand but instead a huge trunk of a tree around two meters in diameter and five meters in height.

Recruits and Officers crowded around him as they watched him with amazement as they felt that every punched that landed on that huge tree trunk would cause tremors on the ground with how every punch he released.

Leo got into a boxing stance while smiling as flashes of cold lights would appear in his eyes as he remembered a certain boxing technique he saw on TV before and wanted to try it out.

Leo then clenched his fists as he stepped in harder as his hips turned at the same time and his shoulder turned inwards as his came flying towards the punching block!

"Haa!" Leo yelled like an angry bear!

*BOOM!* *Crack~!* *Thud* *Thud* *Thud*

And the moment his fist connected, the tree trunk flew up high that it even shattered into pieces and this tree trunk would have flew higher from how powerful Leo's is if it wasn't for the chains that kept it in place!

Scattered pieces of wood flew everywhere around Leo and silence suddenly loomed over as the people watching him was slack jawed in shock!

Then moments later, the entire training field erupted in cheers!

""Ohhh~!!!""

"That was awesome!"

"The leader is so powerful! Punching that huge block of tree trunk is already amazing without protection but actually smash it into pieces!? What a monster!"

"Right!? Whoever was the one on the receiving end of that kind of punch won't be even able to survive! He would be like that that tree trunk, blasted to pieces!"

"It made my blood boil watching that!"

"ENOUGH!"

The commotion immediately stop along with that loud yell. Some of them are holding their ears while some were pale white but every single one of them only have one thought in their minds even the ones currently training and the ground officers weren't spared from it.

'How terrifying!'

Because what they felt like is like someone just pounded their ears with a hammer when they heard that shout.

"Everyone needs to give their very best in your trainings and whoever slacks off would receive military punishment and people who have shown excellent performance and qualities would receive a personal gift from me after you finish your trainings!"

"Now, scram out of my sight and go train yourselves you, pussies! We are not obliged to babysit every single one of you all day and anyone who doesn't show a decent performance every weekly inspection would be immediately kick out!"

"Do you understand!?" Leo yelled as every cell of his body oozed absolute authority.

""YES COMMANDER, SIR!!!""

"IF YOU UNDERSTAND THEN WHAT ARE YOU GUYS WAITING FOR? GET YOUR A**SES OUT OF HERE!"

Everyone immediately dispersed with excitement, they didn't even care about Leo cursing at them because the only thoughts in their minds is "Be the best of best and get that gift from the commander" every single one of them knows that Leo is very generous with his gifts especially the Exoskeleton Suit that was given to some of the members of the First Squad which literally every single one of them and even the members of the other Hunting Squads cry in envy!

But thinking that they are not alone in thinking these, all of them glared at each other and the people around them as sparks of competitiveness or rivalry would fly off between them!

Every single one of these trainees all had the same thoughts in their minds!

'Everyone in this training ground is competition and only a few would rise to the top and I'm one of them!'

Every single one of these trainees, young or adults are blazing with fighting spirit because they are not only fighting for themselves but their families too! So that they could lead a more peaceful life inside the walls and to not worry about the dangers of going out of the walls just so that they could provide food on their tables everyday because for them joining the army is better than being a hunter, were going outside of the protection of the walls would mean their deaths if they make a single mistake!

And this is what Leo wanted, he purposely gave many benefits of joining the army. After all, no one would always want to live under the blade of the grim reaper, especially in this troubled times!

Leo didn't care how much or how generous the benefits are because for him, securing the safety of their planet is the real benefit here!

Especially now that he's going to be a father soon!

He wouldn't just let anyone to waltz in here and let them destroy this rare peace and the time that was invested into making these place a sanctuary for those fortunate survivors who arrived here and especially the various sacrifices of people who died just for that little bit of hope. That hope that everything would go back to the way they are before where humans doesn't need to fear any mutated beasts or zombies anymore!

Because this survivors finally knows what true despair and helplessness in front of death is! The repercussions behind their rash and stupid actions before where they took everything that the Earth had willingly provided them for granted!

These people finally realized what true idiocy is!

And the people who died during the expeditions, conflicts with other human groups and the recent defense war had their full names along with the exact date that they died etched at the concrete walls surrounding the Beetham Tower as a sign of respect so that the future generations wouldn't forget the people who died to secure a better future for them!

And every single soldiers or survivors were given a proper military funeral just like those soldiers that died in the wars before even this Apocalypse happened.

Leo clenched his fists as he observe the people training around him and thought, 'Just like what the people of the East says, Troubled times produce Heroes!'

"And I hope these "heroes" would join under my flag and assist me towards a better future" Leo murmured as he turned around as his black robe fluttered behind him looking cool and the like and this time he plans to go check out the spaceship of the Octopi scout he killed back at the mountain hideout

And Leo also named the training ground as Gaia's Training Ground and people who learned about it misinterpreted the meaning behind it because they thought the Leo was giving his due respect to the planet that they are living on but what they truly don't know is that Leo named it that way as a sign of homage for the fallen Gaia Race because he already knew that the technology of humans today is very similar to the technology of the Gaia Race even though the humans current technology has a fifteen thousand years gap from the technological era of the Gaia Race before they disappeared, leaving only one survivor behind where the humans had only achieved their current technology today due to the help of that last descendant of the Gaia Race, the Goddess Gaia whom had given and guided them through the years.

*****

While Leo was showing off at the training.

Rachel and the girls were busy celebrating when they found out that Amanda and Michelle are currently both pregnant and Rachel even went as far as asking Gideon for confirmation because they currently don't have the current equipment for a Pregnancy Scan mostly because they really doesn't really need something like that right now so they didn't even bother taking one of these hospital equipment so far.

"Oh my god. This is so good, it's been quite a while since I've eaten this food before" Amanda said with a face full of satisfaction while eating a Creamy Macaroni Salad on the dining table of the mansion

While Michelle is eating dark chocolate bars after dark chocolate bars and she had already eaten seven of them.

"Isn't their cravings to early?" Angie quietly whispered to Rachel while both of them are watching the two women to their heart's content.

"Well, I think it's pretty normal. It's not like we even fully know what the extent of a human body is right now or even before. If you know what I mean" Rachel just shook her head and gave a smile, clearly indicating to Angie that the body of a human is clearly hard to figure out especially with mutants or evolvers popping out from time to time bringing with them supernatural abilities beyond a humans common sense.

Angie was a bit startled at her comment and being a doctor such as herself. She immediately understood what she meant because as even humans themselves doesn't understand much about their bodies especially now that there are even Mutated Humans among them who had absurd abilities especially Leo who had the most mysterious abilities among all the mutants that she had met before.

"But I'm really really looking forward to having grandchildren soon" Rachel continued as she giggled happily at the thought of having grandchildren

"Yeah, I wonder what their genders would be!" Angie had already tossed aside what she was thinking earlier and the only in her mind right now is about what her future grandchild would look like.

But seeing that Amanda and Michelle still haven't stop eating made them bitterly smile as they saw that Amanda had already eaten three medium size bowls of the macaroni salad while Michelle had even ten dark chocolate bars and they are still going at it.

'These two girls could really eat, huh?' they both thought as they found the scene in front of them incredibly funny as they also they also remembered the days that they also had cravings like them when they were pregnant with their children.

*****

Leo is already near the mountain so he stopped and stored his motorcycle inside his Inventory and proceeded to walk.

"Sir!" the soldiers keeping a lookout at the outer perimeter of the entrance greeted him with eyes full of admiration and respect and this continued to all the soldiers that he passed by.

This place had became heavily fortified with metal fences stretching fifty meters away from the tunnel entrance in a half circle with thirty fully armed soldiers manning this place along with the pilots of the Scorpion Battle Tank that is now stationed in this place.

After all, this place had become very important because this place still had that alien spaceship here that still haven't been opened till now even with Alastair and the rest of his team working around the clock trying to figure out how to freaking open the spaceship.