Ch.172Chapter 20. Patriot (24)

Even with food, drink, and shelter, if you don’t have weapons to protect yourself, you might as well be dead. From that perspective, the four of us are half-dead. We have guns, but no bullets.

Laying out all our firearms in the hallway and arranging them by ammunition caliber clearly revealed the problem.

We had fewer than a hundred rounds each of .45 caliber for the MP45 submachine gun and 9mm for the Glock 17 pistol.

Though they lack the firepower of other weapons, their advantage is that with suppressors attached, they allow for quieter shooting than any other option. In cities where stealth is essential, the more you have, the better.

For standard firearms—R-15 rifles or M4 carbines that use the “standard” 5.56mm rounds—we had about a thousand rounds left. Standard stopping power and lethality.

One shot won’t make a zombie explode, but it’s enough to disable joints like knees or shoulders. Aiming for the head or neck usually takes one or two shots, but the torso can sometimes withstand up to four. Fortunately, Camilla, Leticia, and I are all good shots, so we’re very conservative with ammunition.

The issue isn’t the slightly inadequate performance of 5.56mm rounds. Greater power means greater noise, which attracts more zombies. In a rural village it might be different, but this is a city. Killing three to four hundred zombies barely makes a dent, and I don’t want to die from being bitten after recklessly firing shots.

From that perspective, 7.62mm would be better. It’s just as loud, but one shot can definitively shatter a zombie. The problem is we don’t have a single round. Next to Camilla’s beloved K11 SWS, there wasn’t a single bullet left.

“If I’d known it would be like this, I would have brought more from the Liberation Corps.”

Camilla gently caressed her beloved weapon. Beside her, Leticia sighed.

“I never thought I’d say this, but I miss having them now that they’re gone.”

Beast zombies were the problem.

If we were only dealing with humanoid zombies, 5.56mm rounds would be adequate enough—if we had plenty of them. The problem is that we have to face not just humanoids but also beasts with thick fur.

Of course, beasts die when shot too, but these aren’t just beasts—they’re zombie beasts. Zombies don’t feel pain. Unless their limbs are blown off, they ignore pain and just charge forward.

On the bright side, we had plenty of shotgun shells. 600 slugs for medium to long range, and 800 rounds for close range. The types of ammunition couldn’t be more varied, but most were quite reliable.

“Fear marketing works everywhere, doesn’t it?”

I unfolded a pamphlet wedged between the ammunition boxes.

It seemed to be made by a local gun shop, with rather provocative caricatures. On the left was a man firing a small-caliber submachine gun while backing away, with his terrified family screaming behind him.

On the right was a man who, with a single “click” of his shotgun, took care of an approaching zombie horde in one go, with his family cheering.

“Well, it’s not wrong. Setting aside the fact that more zombies will come than the ones you shoot down.”

From the locals’ perspective, a shotgun blast might be more appealing than a .22 caliber round. It’s a weapon that can also teach raiders a lesson.

Besides that, we had about ten each of grenades, flash bangs, smoke grenades, and flares, plus three C4 explosives. Enough to blow up a house, but beyond that, who knows.

“Anyway, to sum it up, if a zombie horde comes this way, it’ll be hard to stop them. Objectively speaking.”

At my observation, Cassandra slightly raised her hand. She was still keeping her distance from me, and with her mask on, it was hard to read her expression.

“Would a zombie horde even come here?”

“That guy Ellen seems like he’ll do ‘something’ soon, and though I don’t know what it is, I think things will get noisy. There might even be a shootout. Then zombies will come running.”

Cassandra nodded at Camilla’s explanation. Camilla frowned.

“Do you really think Virginia will act for our sake? I mean, do you really think Virginia will apprehend Ellen? They’re in different regions, right? He’s not even her direct subordinate.”

“The Virginia I know definitely would. She’s a woman who ignores the chain of command to get what she wants. She has many admirers thanks to her Roemer noble background. Especially in times like these when supplies are scarce and we have to rely on external black markets.”

Leticia answered confidently. However, even so, we need to stop Ellen’s “move” at least once. Virginia’s role is just to prevent one time from becoming two or three times.

“The question is how Ellen will harass us… Leticia, what would you do if you were him?”

This is where Red Team and Blue Team exercises come in handy. It’s a thought experiment where we imagine a hypothetical enemy and figure out how to counter them.

“If it were me, I’d first send reconnaissance to the health center. They probably know we’re here or at least that we’ve been here.”

Indeed, the detail about killing six of his superiors, laying them gently in beds, and placing their dog tags at their feet isn’t something he’d know without coming here personally. So Ellen already knows we were here or still are. After thinking deeply, Leticia continued her explanation.

“Since it’s reconnaissance, they won’t come right up to our doorstep. A skilled observer could easily assess our situation from a kilometer away, right? After gauging our strength, they’d send an appropriate force.”

I looked at Camilla.

“What about you? You’re the master of pursuit.”

“I think similarly. I believe they’ll send exactly two, at most three people. They’ll definitely avoid engagement since they don’t want things to get noisy…”

I didn’t expect much, but I also gave Cassandra a glance. Blushing, she shook her head vigorously.

“Ca-Cassandra doesn’t know much about these things. But are we really going to fight here?”

That’s the problem.

The enemy also knows what this central district looks like. They’ll probably send forces with enough firepower and manpower to break through to this central district. It won’t be a small force by any means.

The conclusion is clear. We shouldn’t fight here. None of us four should die or even get injured. But we can’t make this our frontline and last fortress. It’s far too disadvantageous for us.

“Johan, what do you think?” Cassandra asked me in return.

“Pretty much the same. Um… I think the 284 National Military Police Headquarters unit might come. That’s the rational assumption, right? They caused havoc here and then vanished, and above all, they reinforced this base themselves. They know the geography here better than anyone.”

According to official reports, out of 253 total headquarters personnel, 48 returned. That means 200 literally “evaporated.” In the worst case, we should be prepared for 200 soldiers rushing here.

“And you still provoked them?”

Camilla and Leticia looked at me incredulously. I nodded.

“Think about it. In the worst case, 200 people will come, but that also means supplies for 200 people will roll in. We won’t have to worry about bullets and food for a while.”

“Is that calculation correct?”

Both women simultaneously put their hands to their foreheads. Only Cassandra stood motionless. But why is she still wearing that mask?

“…Johan, you’re planning to kill all the soldiers who come.”

Cassandra asked in a somewhat ominous tone. I shrugged.

“It’s their fault for crawling into a death trap, not mine.”

“After provoking them like that?”

“I don’t think my provocation to Ellen warranted getting shot. He could have just elegantly cursed me back. And curses should be repaid with curses, not bullets.”

Leticia gave me a rather strange look. Camilla seemed to be holding back laughter.

“You have a plan, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. I just need to confirm one thing.”

“What is it?”

“If the weather’s good tomorrow, want to go to City Hall with me? The fire station or police station would work too.”

Camilla blinked.

“Why City Hall all of a sudden?”

“To see if the sirens work.”

Government buildings have warning systems for disaster situations. Even if power and communications are cut off, alarms can be sounded as long as there are speakers. And City Hall has an integrated control system that can control all government buildings.

There’s no need to fight with guns. We just need to know which direction they’re coming from. Once their infiltration route is clear, we can “slightly” sound the sirens of nearby government buildings by remote control, and the zombies will take care of them.

“What if the sirens don’t work? What if the remote control device is broken?”

“We can set alarms to go off every six hours. Then the zombies will spread out on their own. It’ll be a bit more troublesome.”

“…You make it sound so easy.”

Leticia seemed deflated, but I winked at her.

“It’ll be easier than the four of us fighting 200 people with guns.”