[i]"You're not going to escape.."[/i]

She hadn't even gotten a chance to reply to the melancholy man before the smokey, older voice, startled her from behind. The man, dressed in grunt fatigues, lit a cigarette before he began again, completely ignoring her. Maria took mental notes as the soldier proceeded to berate them as well as examine him. His gray indicated he was older than her, by a few years at least. He was dressed in a similar manner to the rest of the cannon fodder present, though-- were they recruiting mercs? Had the government gotten that desperate?

 A few things he mentioned piqued her attention as well, [i]"This place was built to keep people inside, and even more it is meant to keep things out,"[/i] She agreed with the first part, not necessarily the last. She felt like they were rounded up like cattle, and threatened with death if they tried to escape-- yet since day one news of camps falling across the county-- and the [b]country[/b], they weren't 'good' at what they were doing, they were a little lucky! Keeping people trapped under insane pseudo-martial law is what was getting people killed, they were sitting ducks. And still in all of this, no news from the government. They had been rounded here to die.

[i]"Now lets imagine I requisition a few civilian volunteers or so to help me, would you be willing to accompany me on my recon?"[/i] The first logical thing, sensible thing the old cavalry man had said in the growing amount of minutes of her's he had wasted, she gave her best practiced 'grateful smile' as he finished, [i]"If your answer is yet then walk to the gate in twenty minutes, if not then you will have to find your own way out, but remember this... if you intend to go under the cover of darkness remember that its harder to identify someone who is alive or dead with no light."[/i]

That last bit was... [u][i]condescending[/i][/u]? It was almost as if the spirit of her mother enveloped her, catching up to the soldier, she let her mind known. "You didn't even [b]ASK[/b] where either of us wanted to go! What kind of soldier [i]ARE[/i] you? To just go into hostile territory with absolutely no plan? Not assessing our skills? Not telling us what the camp needs so we might be able to perhaps help? Speed up the whole thing-- maybe increase our chances of success? Our fucking names, for Christ's sake? Did [i][b]ANY[/b][/i] of this occur to your small, one-track, proletariat, trigger happy mind!?" Regal birth granted her some height few women shared, she used this to her advantage and looked the soldier directly in his eyes while she scolded him. "Were we in Portugal right now, I'd have you court marshaled on the fucking spot--" She took a guess at his military rank, none the confidence leaving her voice-- "--[i]Captain.[/i]"

She didn't care about any reactions he might have, she continued her rant, where she was from, this was how you disciplined incompetence and insolence. "Look--" She jabbed a hard finger into his chest, "I was never informed of martial law taking-- I'll take no orders from you." She gave another jab, in the distance she could see the man still resting on the wall, "[i]Whenever[/i] our temporary visitor an I decide to leave, we will." Another jab, accompanied with a step forward, she motioned in the man's direction and continued, "Believe it or not," her Iberian accent flared with her anger, "I currently hold the traditionally honorary role granted to a US Ambassador-- I say traditionally, because in times like these, those of major disorder, I retain some executive power." She gave a final jab and another step forward, "Unless you can show me documented members of local government or higher, I plan on using this authority... now."

With this, she walked back to the man against the wall, "If you no longer wish to execute your "recon mission" with civilian assistance-- fine. But just know that I will be leaving once I've got some semblance of a reliable plan to go with." She looked back at the man, a mix between coy, cocky and sexy on her face. "Right, and if you do intend on assisting us, I suggest you use that sword over that gun..." Finishing her walk back to the other man, she added a thought out loud-- "Has no one figured out it's the noise that attracts the infected... two weeks you've been firing those things, and more just keep popping up..."