Ch.176Chapter 20. Patriot (28)

“Hmm. Hmm hmm.”

Thanks to the zombies all gathering over there, this shopping district is quiet. There are a few zombies—some that woke up from dozing, others crawling on the ground—but nothing to worry about much.

Because of this, I could afford the luxury of unfolding a map and jotting down notes. I didn’t forget to spray the streets at regular intervals either.

“This place has been looted. Here’s a clothing store. Here’s a sporting goods store. And here, oh, a pharmacy.”

I tried not to touch anything unless necessary. Right now, what’s important is to diligently scout around and figure out what’s where. I can come back for the items later.

The pharmacy is an exception, though. I left the counter items alone and collected one of each type of prescription medication from the dispensary. I wouldn’t have bothered if Casandra hadn’t asked. I’m not sure why, but she said having these would “allow us to deal with a wider range of situations and improve the spray,” so I guess it’s good.

After wandering around for quite a while, it was now late afternoon.

“My legs hurt.”

I stepped into a candy store for a moment and crunched on a whiskey bonbon. Despite the heat, it had kept its shape relatively well, probably because it was stored in a cool place.

“When this job is done, I’ll need to rest for a couple of days.”

We’ve been moving really busily for several days.

First, we visited city hall and “inspected” the disaster management system.

Surprisingly, the CCTV cameras were still operational—solar panels served as backup power sources, allowing them to run for quite a while even at night.

The problem was that with the power cut off throughout the city, we couldn’t display the CCTV footage on the city hall monitors. There was an emergency generator in the basement, but it was an old model and poorly maintained, so it was barely functioning.

But it was enough to sound the alarm sirens.

Befitting a small nation caught between superpowers, Elza’s disaster management system was systematic and sophisticated. With the flip of a switch, sirens could easily be activated in any street within the central district.

After securing city hall, we visited toy stores, mobile phone shops, and electronics markets.

We attached cam cameras to more RC helicopters and connected them to the latest mobile phones so we could control them and view the camera feed simultaneously.

Now, those helicopters are quietly perched on residential balconies, truck joints, or atop church ornaments, providing high-definition views of the surroundings.

“What are our friends up to?”

The reconnaissance team members who were cornered in a dead-end street seemed to have taken refuge inside a building.

They had arranged Humvees in a semicircle at the entrance to form a defensive line, with barbed wire forming a slightly larger semicircle beyond that.

The barbed wire seemed to have been stored in the Humvees, but judging by how awkwardly it was set up, these weren’t properly trained personnel.

The machine gunners were resting with their backs against the Humvees, while the rest were looking outside through the building’s windows.

They were all staring at the same place.

The road. The burning road. The aftermath of the explosion had subsided, but the fire continued to spread. That’s because so many zombies had gathered there.

Zombies don’t bother putting out fires on their own clothes. Instead, they rub against other zombies and flap their arms like chickens, scattering sparks everywhere.

Attracted by the noise and the savory smell, zombies get drawn in, and the fire spreads from one zombie’s clothes to another, and another, and another.

The zombies naturally moved around. Some collapsed into cars.

This time, the fire spread to car seats. Soon, entire vehicles were engulfed in flames, and then—boom—a burning car with a ruptured fuel tank rolled around on its own, crashing into storefronts.

Bang! This time it must have hit a gas tank inside a building. I could feel the ground trembling even where I sat.

“It’s good, but…”

It’s not bad. The zombies are too busy causing a commotion among themselves to pay much attention to the humans in the Humvees or to me.

The reconnaissance team members only fire a shot or two at zombies that get too close to the barbed wire, and even that was quite rare. They had positioned themselves downwind, so the smell was spreading toward the city center.

“But it’s a bit disappointing?”

The fire will eventually go out. But the smell lingers. That means zombies will naturally gather. And that will inevitably lead to combat.

Combat itself isn’t bad. The more zombies the reconnaissance team kills, the safer we become.

But what I need isn’t people to kill zombies for us, but ammunition that we can freely use. Military-grade ammunition, specifically. The very thing that’s oddly difficult to obtain.

What should I do?

My brain wasn’t working well, so I opened another whiskey bonbon. My mouth felt dry, so I opened a can of cola. It was a bit lukewarm, but I could forgive that for the fierce sensation of carbonation hitting my mouth.

“Yeah, Leticia. It’s me. When I give the signal tonight, can you turn on the loudspeakers at the point? You have the city grid map too, right? The square one. Yeah. Yeah. You’re asking if it’ll attract them?”

– Yeah, I wrote it all down. Wait a minute! What’s this? If it sounds like that, you’ll be trapped inside!

It’s probably better to just give a vague answer than to be honest and make her worry.

“Ah, I’ll be hiding somewhere. Those guys will take care of the catching part.”

– Alright. Send a message if there are any changes.

* * * * *

Leticia put down her phone. Since it was on speaker, both Camilla and Casandra had heard the conversation.

“Yes, Johan is here.”

Casandra showed them the laptop screen. Johan was in a shopping district street not far from where the reconnaissance team had set up.

“What? How did you find this?”

Camilla looked at Casandra in surprise. Casandra didn’t bat an eye.

“The anti-tracking program on your phones? Casandra wrote that. Of course she knows how to bypass it. She can track all your locations, or more precisely, your phone locations.”

“…You can’t read the message content too, can you?”

Leticia flinched. Casandra said nothing. She just turned away from Leticia with a reddened face.

“What? What’s going on?”

Camilla, not understanding what was happening, looked back and forth between the two women.

* * * * *

The powerless city should have been shrouded in darkness, but tonight was different. It was because of the spreading embers. These weren’t gentle campfire flames.

They were monsters licking through windows from inside houses, reapers settling on corpses’ backs to extract one more piece of flesh, and tyrants distorting what were once cars that might have carried lovers and families on happy outings.

Beyond the wall of fire, zombies flickered. They never tired, day or night. The smell of burning flesh whetted their appetite, and the crimson flames and warmth were irresistible.

“Grrraaah!”

“They’re coming!”

Catherine, Elian, and the others knew they shouldn’t shoot.

After all, they were people who had survived by fighting in human non-protected zones until this day. But it was also true that they had no other option.

“We can’t get out to the road! We’re blocked! Even with Humvees, we can’t push through all those corpses! Maybe if we had a truck with big wheels, but…”

“So we just wait here until we run out of bullets and die?”

“Ammo change! Vehicles 1 and 3, barrels overheating! Vehicles 2 and 4, respond!”

While shouting continued on the second floor, Elian was busy requesting support on the third floor.

“They said no.”

“Let me try.”

Catherine took the phone. She walked off somewhere with it determinedly, and returned a moment later looking somewhat relieved.

“They said they’ll send reinforcements.”

“How did you manage that?”

“I told them we’d abandon all the Humvees, guns, everything, and just escape with our bodies, so they should know that. They said they’ll come, but in exchange, my food rations will be cut for a week, so please save some food for me.”

“Good Lord.”

“But there’s a condition. They can’t leave now; they’ll come tomorrow. We need to hold out here tonight. Can we do it?”

Elian was about to say it wouldn’t be a problem. Until the ear-splitting noise began.

– Air raid warning! Air raid warning!

“Someone shoot down that damn loudspeaker!”

It was impossible. The utility poles were already tangled with communication networks, power lines, and power distribution devices.

Under the cloudy night sky with the moon hidden, they looked like strands of seaweed hanging down.

The sound echoed between buildings, making it difficult to determine its direction.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Continuous vibrations. The sound of something heavy taking steps. It sounded like human footsteps. There was no other way to describe it. Dust on the walls fell with a soft rustle.

“We’ll all die if we stay here! We need to get out, we need to get out!”

Elian, in a panic, stamped his feet. Catherine looked like she was about to burst into tears.

“But where to?!”

“Anywhere, even the sky!”

CRASH!

“Eek!”

Suddenly, a window shattered with a loud noise. At the same time, a flashlight beam illuminated the wall.

“This, could it be letters…?”

It seemed like someone had written letters on paper and covered a flashlight with it, making holes for the light to shine through. The letters were reversed, so it took a moment to read, but it wasn’t difficult.

“If you want to live, come to the roof right now. Leave the Humvees.”