Ch.147Chapter 19. First Broadcast (5)

“Stop making noise and either open it quickly or don’t.”

I felt a burning gaze on the back of my head, but I paid it no mind. Whatever the circumstances, it wasn’t my problem. The woman called Kanna bit her lip and staggered toward me.

As she got closer, the various wounds on her body became more visible. They were too numerous to be covered even with bandages made from cut clothing. Especially noticeable were the band-shaped marks on her neck, wrists, and ankles. The same injuries as those resort slaves who were abandoned after having their arm and leg tendons cut.

Was she a gang slave?

If so, that would explain a lot. The reason these people were acting hostile. The reason they insisted on opening the cargo hold despite warnings not to.

Seems like there’s a lot to gain here?

“You need to open this.”

I casually moved closer to Kanna’s side. Thump, thump, thump. Those zombie bastards were knocking on the cargo hold again. Kanna grabbed the cargo door and pulled it slightly.

“KYAAAAK!”

Of course, the ugliest military police guy thrust his face forward.

“KYAAAAK!”

Kanna screamed and stepped back. Bang! I closed the cargo door and quickly wrapped my arm around her neck until she passed out. Her body was so light that she draped over my arm like laundry.

“KANNAAAA!”

The kid named Jim let out a shriek and tried to grab a gun. Bang! Camilla fired. Stones kicked up right in front of the kid’s shoes.

Leticia darted out like lightning, swept the kid’s ankle and slapped his cheek. The kid spun sideways and fell. Bang! Camilla fired again.

“I missed on purpose! Next time I’ll aim a little higher!”

I wondered where she’d shot, but it was at the gas station attendant. The trembling man’s pants were getting wet.

“Let’s fill up and get out of here! Cassandra, help me out!”

I wrapped the unconscious Kanna in a blanket, tied her up, and roughly tossed her into the trailer. We filled not only the car but also the spare fuel tanks generously before departing. The car felt a bit sluggish from how much we’d loaded.

* * * * *

We couldn’t drive straight to Beitra City. It was too dangerous. If the gas station people had really called the cult, we could run into them anywhere.

So we made a wide semicircle around the gas station. We found a small village with several empty farmhouses and warehouses where we hid the car.

“Alright. Care to explain now? I went along with it back there, but why did you bring this woman?”

Camilla asked me, leaning against the car. I pointed to Kanna, who was still sound asleep. We had laid her on plastic sheeting and a blanket on the ground. Cassandra was pressing various parts of Kanna’s body with a stethoscope.

“Look here. See her neck, wrists, and ankles? See those band-shaped bruises? To me, these look like slave marks. Remember? That resort.”

“How could I forget.”

Camilla muttered with displeasure. Leticia, an expert in these matters, examined Kanna’s bruises carefully.

“She’s definitely been through rough work. Look. Not only are her fingertips calloused, but they’re also cracked, and her nails are all broken. And here, her knees.”

Her knees were so dark they almost looked necrotic. I could guess what this woman had been doing.

“She was a corpse collector.”

Slaves don’t just “serve” in residential areas. Some are forcibly kicked out of their residences in the morning and can only return after meeting their daily quota.

They’re given only shabby clothes, shoes, and a sturdy bag. Zombie farming is generally known to be inefficient, but a “shabby zombie with a good bag” was worth taking a stab at.

“That’s what I think too.”

Leticia confirmed. This kind of “corpse collector” couldn’t wander around the city center gathering items, so she would have had to hide in vents, sewers, or secluded alleys. Constant crawling had ruined her knees, cracked her fingertips, and broken her nails.

Cassandra stood up, wiping her stethoscope with an alcohol swab.

“How is she?”

“Not good. Her body is severely damaged. No signs of zombification yet, but she has severe pneumonia that will trouble her for a while. She’s improved somewhat from getting proper nutrition recently.”

Treatment of slaves tends to be extremely poor. I roughly wrapped Kanna’s body in the blanket. She woke up and growled as she looked down at herself.

“You fucking bastards!”

I lifted her up and walked toward the cargo truck. After spewing all kinds of curses, Kanna closed her mouth and trembled. There was a sour smell, so I put her back down on the ground. Instead, I warned her.

“Look. The choice is yours. You can answer my questions or not. I’ll guarantee your life either way. But I’m going to throw that kid ‘Jim’ and that dancing uncle with the grenade ‘in here.’ Right in front of you. Then I’ll let you have that hug you couldn’t get earlier.”

Kanna cooperated very enthusiastically, answering even things I hadn’t asked. Her pronunciation was unclear as she trembled in fear, but then she made a supreme effort to speak clearly, so I didn’t need to ask again.

Beitra City is divided into five sectors: north, south, east, west, and central. Gangs control the north and west, while the cult and civilians dominate the east and south. Nobody goes to the central district because when the zombie outbreak happened, they herded the infected there and sealed it off.

However, neither the gangs nor the cult have complete control of the city. Not because the two forces are evenly matched, but because there are too many zombies. That’s why the gangs use slaves to gather resources.

“That’s a bit strange. Normally people would have fled far away. Why did you settle in such an ambiguous place?”

“…hic, my fr-friends are still captured as slaves. When my body, uh, when my body heals, I was planning to go back and rescue them…”

“You were going to take on the gang alone? Impressive.”

Kanna shook her head at my question.

“N-no. It was the cult.”

For a moment, I was speechless. The cult? The cult uses slaves?

“Tell me more.”

When I treated her a little more kindly, her tone quickly changed to sniffling.

“The gangs openly use slaves, but the cult… they tell you to bring resources on your own if you want to live. The more tribute you pay, the more ‘mileage’ you accumulate. And when you reach a certain threshold, you can get the injection.”

“Injection?”

“The zombie immunity vaccine.”

Cassandra’s eyes widened. Her lips quivered. Kanna seemed to misinterpret that expression.

“I-it’s real! I saw it myself. Someone whose zombification was progressing took that injection and recovered completely!”

“That’s impossible!”

“But it came from the Disease Control Agency! The label was clear. I worked as a hospital nurse, so I can at least identify genuine product markings! The High Priest and Vice High Priest said… it’s too dangerous to use on regular people, but ‘chosen’ people like us from Elza can create miracles…”

This woman—was she not an escapee but someone whose brainwashing hadn’t fully worn off?

“You’re contradicting yourself. Weren’t you still under the cult’s protection? But you were a cult slave who escaped?”

“The Limos Cult in Beitra is divided in two. Those who follow Bishop Marlon, and those who follow Vice Bishop Aslan.”

Marlon was close to a typical garbage clergyman. Every night, he would summon women and take their food—a vicious man. If someone didn’t respond to his summons, he would call strong men to ransack their rooms and take even a hidden candy to suck on right in front of them. Beitra’s hunger contamination index must be quite high.

Vice Bishop Aslan didn’t seem much different, though he was somewhat more rational than Marlon. After all, he gathered many people who opposed Marlon and staged a rebellion.

Kanna and her friends were being exploited by Marlon, but thanks to Aslan’s uprising, only Kanna was able to escape. She joined the gas station run by Jim and his father, who had been her childhood neighbors.

“Bishop Marlon controls the eastern sector, and Vice Bishop Aslan is in charge of the south. Our gas station is in the southern sector too. But since we’re on the outskirts of the city, gang members… often pass through. I was kidnapped a week ago. Fortunately, cult patrollers rescued me, but now… I’ve been captured again.”

“How many patrollers are there?”

“I don’t know exactly. Since they split between the Bishop and Vice Bishop… I think there are over three hundred.”

“And the gang numbers?”

“I don’t know that either.”

It wasn’t an easy situation. But at least neither the gang nor the cult had complete control of the area, which was somewhat satisfying. When small factions squabble, there are gaps to exploit.

“What are you going to do with me now?”

Kanna asked, seemingly resigned.