Ch.163Chapter 20. Patriot (15)

*****

Ready.

Begin.

As always, the beginning involves breaking the window of a luxury car. The more expensive, the better. That way, the high-performance alarm will blare loudly.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!

“But your owner has already abandoned you.”

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! HONK! HONK!

BANG. A zombie burst out from the neighboring house, flinging the door open. A noisy beeping sound came from its worn-out pants pocket.

“I guess not.”

I opened the driver’s side door and circled around the car. I smashed the passenger window too. When the zombie still didn’t move, I struck the side mirror with the butt of my pistol. The zombie crawled into the driver’s seat.

BANG. I shot a hole in its head. Its body slumped onto the seat. I grabbed a tablecloth from the house the zombie had just emerged from, stuffed it into the fuel tank, and lit it with a lighter.

“Now you’ll be with your owner forever.”

Sitting on my motorcycle, I waited. BOOM. The car exploded.

“Grrrr!”

Then the zombies approached, shuffling slowly. I shot the knees of the ones in front. As they collapsed, the ones behind tripped over them and fell.

After creating some distance and weaving through several alleys, I said “Now” into the transmitter in my helmet.

BOOM.

The surrounding houses exploded in sequence. Every home has explosives like gas tanks. After positioning them in good shooting spots, Camilla sniped them from a distance to set them off.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

The flames spread in a ㄷ shape. Zombies swarmed in the open area. Fortunately, this was a wealthy neighborhood with spacious yards between houses, providing plenty of escape routes even as the fire spread.

I accelerated through a gap. Zombies followed but—BANG. BANG.—their heads exploded from Camilla’s sniper shots. The flames quickly filled the gap behind me.

The zombies that followed me were as good as trapped. Fire blocked the front and sides, while more zombies crowded behind them. All that remained was a clean incineration.

A truck approached from behind the zombies. Cassandra was driving, with Leticia in the cargo area. She threw pre-made Molotov cocktails onto the zombies’ heads. She didn’t even need to light them.

“KYAAAAK!”

The burning zombies ran around wildly before exploding on their own.

“Ugh.”

The horrible stench of burning hair wafted through the air. Even with my mask and motorcycle helmet on, the smell couldn’t be filtered out.

Cassandra had already departed. I rode my motorcycle, shaking off as many zombies as possible. Most zombies tried to follow me at first but soon turned toward the fire area, drawn by the noise, flames, and smell of cooking meat.

There was a large tree upwind. Monkeys sat on the branches, watching us. They were obviously infected.

It’s strange.

During chaos like this, only the weakest human-form zombies swarm in. Animal zombies never approach. Do they think there’s nothing to gain by going in first? Or perhaps even when infected, animal intelligence doesn’t deteriorate as much as human intelligence does.

The sky suddenly darkened. The humidity rose rapidly. I wanted to take off my jacket in the stuffiness, but I had to endure.

As forecasted, a light rain began to fall.

Under the darkened sky, the burning residential area stood out vividly. Not just the flames, but the black soot seemed to cover the entire sky. It might even be visible from the central district.

At least that means other areas would be safer.

I carefully drove my motorcycle to avoid slipping on the rain-soaked road. By the time I reached our target health center, it was well past lunchtime.

Click.

I turned off the motorcycle completely and surveyed the surroundings. I spotted familiar vehicles. Camilla, Leticia, and Cassandra were already waiting. Each wore motorcycle helmets, rider jackets, gloves, and combat boots. If we had to fight zombies up close, we’d be at a disadvantage.

Entry.

Mud oozed from burst sandbags. The mounted machine gun was completely rusted—I wasn’t sure if it was still usable. Human-sized black plastic bags were placed throughout the position, but I had no desire to open them.

This was clearly a base made by people, but there were no signs of living ones. Instead, there were only bodies with holes in various parts, lying dead.

I turned on my pistol flashlight and examined a corpse. A soldier. He held a pistol in his right hand, with a hole in the right side of his head. Other soldiers nearby had also died with their helmets neatly removed, holes in their heads and hearts.

There were no signs of mutation.

“This is strange.”

Leticia’s voice came through the radio.

“They’re all headquarters personnel. Since they weren’t shot in the back or the back of the head, they weren’t shot while fleeing. No signs of restraints, so they weren’t captured either. They were all shot from the front. Unarmed.”

“What? Are you saying they all committed suicide here?”

Camilla snapped sharply.

“Leticia. Do you really know nothing about the 284 Military Police?”

“No. The 284 wasn’t even near our unit. Like I said before, we were busy just handling our own unit. We might find something if we accessed the database, but that would be dangerous. We could be tracked.”

Camilla stopped walking and gestured. Ammunition boxes. All completely empty. I checked the magazine of the mounted machine gun just in case. Also empty. Rusted shell casings were piled on the floor, requiring careful steps to avoid slipping.

Did they defend this place until the very end, then commit mass suicide when they couldn’t hold out any longer?

That doesn’t make sense either. If it was important enough for the National Military Police Headquarters to defend directly, it would have made more sense to evacuate it by any means necessary. There was no reason to build a position and hold out in a place like this.

The rain grew heavier.

CRASH—lightning tore through the sky. The protein smell that had lingered was gone now.

I gestured to Cassandra. She slung her gun over her shoulder and pushed hard against the barricade. The seemingly immovable structure began to shift little by little. Though not as strong as Virginia, Cassandra could still exert considerable force.

“Three o’clock. I’ve got it.”

As soon as she spoke, there was a SWOOSH sound. Leticia easily dispatched a zombie that had approached. The road was secured. Leticia and I guarded the road while Camilla and Cassandra approached our vehicles and started the engines.

Our plan was to clear the road obstacles, move the vehicles into the parking lot, and finally secure the building itself.

First the heavily armed Humvee. Then the pickup truck and camping trailer. We moved all vehicles. We left the entrance open just in case.

CRASH—lightning struck again. The entrance to Evergreen Health Center came into view. It looked more like an elegant mansion than a health center. Curtains covered the glass windows, preventing us from seeing inside.

I took out my hunting knife and ran it along the door crack. If there were alarm devices, they would be at the top or bottom. Fortunately, nothing caught.

The door was locked from the inside, but Camilla stepped forward. She inserted a flathead screwdriver into the keyhole and poked around with a straightened paperclip until—click—the lock opened.

Three. Two. One.

Creeeeak.

We entered. A pungent smell hit us. Perhaps due to the high humidity, the nauseating odor was more intense. The inside had been sealed off from the outside for a long time.

“Too clean and quiet.”

I took the lead, with Cassandra right behind me, followed by Leticia and Camilla. We covered each other’s blind spots. Past the large hall was a straight corridor with nameplates like “Examination Room,” “Nurses’ Station,” “Waiting Room,” “Blood Testing Lab.”

I opened the first examination room door.

Buzzing… flies. Six beds. Six emaciated corpses. Six gunshot wounds. Flies. When the cool outside air blew in, the flies quickly flew out.

“Look at this.”

Leticia’s voice trembled. Dog tags were placed at the feet of the six corpses.

“J. Clayton”

“Someone you know?”

“The commander of the 284 Military Police. I remember his name.”

We didn’t need to look far. Their dress uniforms and caps were neatly folded in the closet. Military Police Commander. Headquarters Commander. Personnel Staff Officer. Intelligence Staff Officer…

“Let’s get these bodies out first. We need to do something about the flies.”

Without body bags, we couldn’t possibly carry them. We had no choice but to push the examination beds themselves outside the building. Fortunately, they had wheels.

Seeing Leticia collecting the dog tags, Camilla silently gathered the rest and handed them to her.

“What’s this for?”

“I don’t want to worry about affiliations even with the dead.”

Leticia seemed to bow her head slightly.

Rain was pounding the world. Praying for the souls of the dead to rest in peace, I pushed the beds hard. Six beds carrying corpses slid along the road. Thankfully, no zombies appeared to feed on them.

“Can we go back in?”

“Yes.”

There was nothing special on the first floor. The good news was that the medical equipment was intact. After a brief inspection, Cassandra diagnosed that “there doesn’t seem to be any damage, though we’d need electricity to know for sure.” However, the test tubes filled with blood were disturbing.

“No, don’t dispose of them. We don’t know what’s inside.”

We went up to the second floor. If the first floor was for patients, the second floor appeared to be the living quarters for medical staff.

First, we saw a closet. Medical records of the town’s residents were neatly organized by district. The front room was the director’s office.

We pressed our bodies firmly against the corridor wall. Camilla grabbed the doorknob. She pushed the door open with her body while aiming her gun.

Huh?

She opened the door wider. Camilla, Leticia, and Cassandra all exhaled.

The room was empty. There were only monitors filling one wall. Small monitors, about A5 size, were densely arranged. All monitors were turned off.

“43rd Street”

“Zoo Back Entrance”

“City Hall Square #1”

On the opposite wall hung a map of the central district with pins stuck in it. Looking closely at the pinned locations, they corresponded to the addresses written under the monitors.

The laptop on the desk was off. We brought a power bank from the vehicle and connected it. After a moment, it turned on. There was a message:

“Live streaming mode terminated. Press ‘Yes’ to restart.”

The rain that had been falling until just now suddenly stopped. Sunlight shone everywhere again.

“Wait.”

I connected the power to the monitor labeled “43rd Street” with the power bank. The monitor turned on, clearly showing the scene of 43rd Street. Zombies looking around. Damaged cars. Destroyed streets.

“It’s solar-powered.”

The CCTV itself was probably powered by solar generators. Only the monitors here had lost power.

“Look at this.”

Cassandra pointed to the laptop with a calm voice. The desktop background looked familiar. It was a picture of the Goddess of Hunger.

After examining the laptop briefly, Cassandra entered a simple search term. Soon, a results page appeared on the screen:

“Report List”

A1. Effects of Crow Virus on Pregnant Animals – Analysis of Impact on Mother and Offspring According to Pregnancy Cycle and Infection Timing

A2. Survival Strategies of Humanoid Zombies in Enclosed Spaces – Survival Methods of the Weak Against Predators and Their Applications

A3…

Someone had turned this central district into a massive experiment, not only broadcasting the world’s state to the outside but also writing reports.

Just then.

A faint sound came from the doorway.