Ch.161Chapter 20. Patriot (13)

Camilla slightly lifted the curtain of the trailer.

It was the twentieth time Leticia had counted.

The short-range radio remained silent, and no messages had arrived on her phone. Leticia found this both satisfying and unbearably anxiety-inducing.

The best-case scenario would be if neither device rang and Johann and Cassandra simply threw open the trailer door. The next best would be receiving a short-range radio message saying, “We’re on our way back, but there’s some traffic!” The worst would be getting a call on the mobile phone, meaning something had happened that required their assistance from a distance too far for the short-range radio to reach.

So Leticia consciously suppressed her anxiety. If only she didn’t have to deal with the former terrorist who kept irritatingly peeking through the curtains, stoking her unease.

“If you’re that worried, why don’t you go out and look for them yourself?”

Leticia finally couldn’t hold back and snapped.

Since Johann and Cassandra had left, the two women had been arguing as usual, and now they were so angry with each other that they weren’t speaking at all.

“Mind your own business. Since when did you care so much about what I do?”

Camilla didn’t respond kindly either.

“Do it where I can’t see you.”

Leticia reproached her.

“Then don’t look.”

Camilla yanked the curtain open again.

“That’s the kind of childish remark I’d expect from a bomb-crazy terrorist.”

Leticia’s lips twitched as she contemplated grabbing the gun she’d placed under her pillow.

“Typical shameless Römer dog.”

Camilla glanced sideways at the dagger she’d placed on a small shelf, wondering, ‘Which would be faster—me throwing the knife or her firing the gun?’ Both women noticed the other’s hand twitch. Their eyes met, they glared at each other, then simultaneously looked away.

“Rich coming from someone who deserted for a man.”

Camilla turned her head.

“Says the one who lost that man’s first time to me?”

Leticia whistled softly. Camilla bristled.

“At least I don’t sleep around with just anyone like some people.”

“Right. Keep playing hard to get until you could field a soccer team.”

“I understand.”

Surprised by the unexpected response, Leticia tilted her head. Camilla was smiling.

“I understand why you’re so desperate at your age. You have fewer opportunities, don’t you? I have plenty.”

Leticia hid her clenched fist behind her back. She shouldn’t fall for such provocation.

“Yet you’ve never managed to seize any of those many opportunities. Maybe you’re just lacking in feminine charm?”

“Having excessive fat only on your backside isn’t what I’d call attractive. You’ll probably get a flabby belly next. It’ll be like grabbing and turning a car steering wheel. Just a little more effort and you’ll get there. No wonder Elsa soldiers like you couldn’t kill zombies with all that flab weighing you down.”

“What?”

Leticia flared up. This was too much to bear. Seeing she’d gotten a reaction, Camilla twirled her finger in the air.

“It’s true, isn’t it? That superior officer you respect so much—she had no problem putting bleeding people in cages to lure zombies. If the military had really wanted to, they could have eradicated the zombies long ago, couldn’t they? But you didn’t. Instead, you herded civilians into cities and turned them into hell. Why? To keep the people of Elsa docile.”

“If you sold your conscience for a can of Kybele bread, at least keep your mouth shut. Who prevented the military from carrying out operations? It was you terrorists from the Liberation Corps!”

‘Just the usual excuse soldiers make,’ Camilla thought dismissively. But Leticia seemed to have a lot bottled up.

“Yes, we could have done it if we’d wanted to. We wouldn’t even have needed helicopters or armored vehicles. Machine guns, grenade launchers, hand grenades! With those, as you say, we might not have cleared entire cities, but we could have reduced their numbers locally. Hell, we could have corralled them and blown them away with mortars in one go! Do you think we didn’t know that?”

“So why didn’t you do it?”

“If we’d used all our ammunition on zombies, who would have protected Elsa? Could your Liberation Corps protect the entire country? From the gangs, the Minsk capitalists, and the Römer dictators?”

Leticia swept her forehead, breathing heavily. Camilla, who had been lying diagonally on the bed, sat up.

“What are you talking about? Who’s protecting whom? While you were busy licking Römer ass…”

“Hey, speak plainly. What did you people actually do? You just set off bombs everywhere, cut railway and power lines to inconvenience everyone, and then sat around distributing leaflets like you’d done something great!

While you were doing that, the National Gendarmerie was fighting armed gangs and keeping Minsk and Römer in check! Especially those Minsk bastards—they’re still eyeing Elsa hungrily. If the Gendarmerie hadn’t preserved its forces, we would have been devoured immediately!”

Seeing Leticia’s agitation, Camilla couldn’t hold back either.

“Oh, so that’s why you imprisoned innocent Elsa citizens, monitored them, and planted one civilian monitor for every hundred people? Making everyone suspicious of each other! Is that what you call security? Making people swim in pools where the bodies of their friends and professors were floating…”

Camilla suddenly covered her mouth, biting her tongue as if she’d said too much. Leticia’s eyes sank.

“…What?”

“Shut up.”

Camilla retorted sharply. Leticia’s anger surged.

“What’s this about a pool? What are you talking about? I’ve never heard of this!”

“Fuck, I said shut up!”

“You brought it up first, why are you lashing out at me!”

Camilla gripped her dagger in reverse. Leticia grabbed her gun handle. Camilla didn’t raise her arm, and Leticia didn’t put her finger on the trigger.

Clang.

Camilla dropped the knife and covered her face with her palms. Leticia put down her gun.

“…I’m not with the Liberation Corps anymore.”

“And I’m not with the National Gendarmerie anymore.”

Leticia spat out the words. Camilla shook her head and muttered.

“…If the Gendarmerie wasn’t going to deal with the zombies, the Liberation Corps wanted to do it. Why wouldn’t we think that way? The citizens would have loved it. If only Hans hadn’t opposed it.”

Hans. Leticia knew him too. The incompetent, emotional leader of the Liberation Corps’ Central Region. His whereabouts were now unknown.

“Why did this Hans oppose it?”

“He said if we used all our bullets on zombies, what would we fight with next—our bare hands? He wasn’t wrong. We were short on supplies. Even less than the gangs had.”

“…The Gendarmerie wasn’t much different. Römer gave us plenty of weapons but not enough ammunition. They didn’t want us to become independent. With what we had, even fighting at our best, we would have had to give up 20% of our territory. Now we have even less.”

Leticia answered in a tired voice.

“I never thought zombies would become such a problem.”

Camilla sobbed.

“…No one could have known.”

Leticia nodded.

Both women were thinking the same thing: if the National Gendarmerie and the Liberation Corps had formed a united front, at least against the zombie crisis, could things have turned out differently? Camilla lowered her hands and cleared her throat.

“Ahem. Why did you leave the Gendarmerie? You were doing well there. You received a lot of recognition. At least that’s what our profile on you said.”

“…I’ll tell you if you tell me why you left the Liberation Corps. You even appeared in propaganda videos.”

Camilla decided not to say something childish like ‘I asked first.’ She was too tired for another argument.

“At first, I really believed we were fighting for the people of Elsa. I won’t deny there were many bad people among Elsa’s politicians, soldiers, and business leaders. I believed we were making the world better by taking down the truly bad ones. But that wasn’t the case. After the zombie outbreak, the organization changed.”

“How?”

“With sponsorships cut off and headquarters support harder to come by, they became increasingly fixated on bigger targets. Eventually, they started intimidating civilians. I said this crossed a line, and since, as you mentioned, many members had joined after seeing my propaganda, I was able to restrain them at first… but it became increasingly difficult. So I left. I didn’t want to watch us sink to the level of a gang.”

Camilla finished speaking and leaned her head against the trailer wall. Leticia recalled the information file on Camilla. After discovering her identity, she had deliberately searched the intelligence database. High loyalty to the organization, filled with conviction in her own righteousness… that was the gist of it.

‘Outdated information really can’t be trusted.’

Leticia sighed softly. She thought that Camilla might be somewhat different from what she had assumed.

“I left the Gendarmerie because I didn’t want to frame people. It was partly because of Johann, but that wasn’t all of it.”

“Frame people?”

Camilla looked at Leticia incredulously. Leticia considered for a moment but decided not to go into detail.

“There was a petty thief causing trouble in Hampton. Copycats were appearing everywhere, and it wasn’t dying down. So Commander Virginia ordered us to take down anyone. The real culprit was clearly someone else. Just then, Johann appeared before me, and I simply chose a different option. That’s all there is to it.”

Both women fell silent simultaneously. But they were lost in different thoughts.

‘It’s not a lie, but it’s not the whole truth either.’

Camilla found it hard to believe that Leticia had given up all her privileges just because of one petty thief. Considering Leticia’s materialistic nature that she’d observed so far, it seemed even more implausible. But in the end, Leticia hadn’t chosen the wrong path. That was definitely a good thing.

‘Elsa National University… swimming pool… I feel like there was something. What was it?’

Leticia tried to recall. She definitely remembered seeing something somewhere. She had read it not long after joining the intelligence division, but she couldn’t remember where.

What was clear was that it wasn’t in the intelligence profile on Camilla. She did, however, distinctly remember a phrase: “After graduating from university, she gave up underwater ballet and developed extreme tendencies.”

‘Maybe she’s not completely beyond redemption.’

Camilla concluded.

‘She had a reason for acting crazy toward me. I don’t know what it is, though.’

Leticia thought she should look into it more.

Knock knock.

Both women stood up simultaneously. Leticia held a gun, and Camilla held a dagger.

“We’re back.”

After unlocking the trailer, Johann and Cassandra entered. They looked a complete mess. The smell of gunpowder, blood, and sweat hit them strongly.

“My God.”

Camilla quickly closed the door. Before it shut, they could see two bicycles abandoned outside the fence. They were classic bicycles that required pedaling.

“What happened to the electric bikes? What on earth happened? What’s going on?”

Leticia fired off several questions at once. Cassandra instinctively began to answer, “A lot of…” but fell silent when Johann said, “Nothing much.”

“More importantly,”

Johann waved his arms to draw attention away from Cassandra.

“We found a place to stay.”