Chapter 14. So that even zombies can understand (2)
– Caesar! How is it? Those vicious women aren’t being too bad, are they?
Leticia still knows me as Caesar, and she believes that she is being held captive by vicious women.
In the phone call so far, I said, ‘I have discovered a fatal weakness for those women, and if I make an unexpected move, several people will get hurt. So, we have to cooperate with them for the time being.’
A position like, ‘I got caught up in something evil, even though I didn’t mean to, and became a villain’s ally.’
“But it was a little better than before. They give us free time to talk on the phone like this. But you didn’t call me when you were busy, right?”
– Caesar’s phone call is always a top priority, so don’t worry about that. And who cares about whom now, really?
It’s not wrong.
This is good when talking on the phone with Leticia. Perhaps because they have a lot to hide from each other, they only tell stories that are pleasant to hear.
I took out a blanket from my backpack, laid it out here and there, and continued talking on the phone. I called on speaker phone so the sound could spread out a little more.
“How about working at a clothing store?”
Unusually, Leticia never says that she is a soldier.
When I look at the Internet news window, I often see photos and articles about ‘Leticia, the right-hand woman of the Iron-Blooded Empress Virginia.’ One time, I even asked her, ‘Isn’t that you?’ I ended up working at her clothing store.
And then, ‘This is something new, what do you think? ‘Do you think it will sell well?’ She said, sending her pictures of her own clothes.
It’s a good excuse and a convenient lie. Of course, there are circumstances where you cannot tell someone. Maybe Leticia also noticed that I was being vague and ignored it.
Since we are all different, we just say that what is good is good, and move on. That kind of relationship.
– I don’t know. I think I need to seriously look into something else. Rather than purchasing new clothes and selling them, it seems more promising to wash and re-repair contaminated clothes and sell them.
“Are things really bad?”
– Zombie animals have become more cunning. In addition, zombies that were previously in non-protected areas are increasingly pouring into cities and roads.
Leticia said that more and more zombies are flocking to the city. Zombies are predatory animals. Predatory animals move to their hunting grounds when they run out of food.
The city there is full of strange sounds and smells. The problem is that zombies sometimes block the roads.
– If someone dies on the road, zombies flock around them. If you shoot and subdue them, they will hear the sound and come rushing in.
– Roads across the country are being paralyzed like this. Highways with wide lanes are at least better, but small roads are gradually disappearing.
What happens next is obvious. When roads are cut off, supplies run out quickly. At first, one or two will disappear, but soon they will become empty.
However, in the city there are not only military police but also armed vigilantes. People who have nothing to eat but have weapons to kill others live together in narrow cities.
It is obvious what will happen.
“Then what about you? Are you okay?”
Leticia was silent for a moment. She was a little lost when her voice came through the phone again.
– … Thanks for asking. Yes. Are you okay. The military police are doing a good job. They go out on a regular basis to open roads, and the vigilantes are also working enthusiastically. Above all, the general manager.
“Director Virginia Helford? “I saw it on the news.”
Virginia’s popularity was growing day by day. Each time, new reform and improvement plans were proposed, and all of them were measures that the military could take in an emergency situation.
Distributing water purification tablets stored for military emergency use to citizens, mobilizing medical units to expand hygiene and health, collaborating with cooks and restaurant owners to establish a joint meal system, etc.
Overall, this is not a good sign. This means that they have begun to control supplies on a group scale.
This is probably why the vigilante group was organized. If you ask ordinary citizens to cooperate, they will not listen, but the story is different if you are a ‘vigilante group’ that is a subordinate organization of the military and must receive cooperation.
The militaryization of civilians. A movie about urban illness. No matter how you look at it, Virginia appears to be raising an army.
– But thanks to that, I was able to safely obtain the reagent that Caesar had requested. I know people here and there in the military. Maybe you can come to the Hamptons in two or three weeks.
* * * * *
Hampton City Hall, conference room.
A container was placed inside the conference room. The reason was that it was cheaper to just place a soundproofed container than to soundproof the entire conference room.
Thanks to this, Leticia and her subordinates were able to yell at each other as much as they wanted, swear at each other, make a fuss, and finally come up with a reasonable solution without any noise being heard.
But now Leticia is the only one in the conference room. She leaves her office with the excuse, ‘I need to look at some papers in a quiet place,’ and finds herself on the phone with Caesar.
‘I can’t stop.’
She herself knew that it was a deviation. But she was already addicted.
Not a Roemer stooge, but a righteous enemy of Tights. She is not the head of a special security team, but a woman of salvation who wants to somehow free the unfortunate man from the clutches of evil.
Leticia, she was able to become a better person than she thought she was. As long as she was with Caesar, it seemed like she would always be that way.
Then my eyes suddenly fell on the document.
The number of tights impersonators was not decreasing at all. Even men did such hideous things.
You may think that it is a pleasant event, but breaking into a home with a gun and making threats is a different story. In some cities, it was even said that gang thieves appeared.
Also, somewhere, a tights robber was bitten by a zombie and a full-body tights zombie appeared, becoming a topic of gossip.
Should punishment be strengthened? Or, since the government and military seem to keep responding and escalating the situation, should we lower the severity of the punishment and ignore it?
Her document asked Leticia for that opinion.
– Thank you. Letty. Then next time…
“Hey, Caesar?”
Leticia urgently caught him.
– Yes, please do so.
I caught it, but Leticia was in trouble.
Somewhere in my heart, I thought, ‘Just say it. ‘If you’re really going to marry someone anyway, you need to make sure that they can rely on you in this regard as well,’ she whispers.
But on the other side, ‘Isn’t it too heavy to talk about this now? It’s more important to give the impression that you’re just a fun and cheerful person. Don’t be mistaken. ‘It hasn’t even been that long since you guys met in person,’ she said, dissuading him.
But for Leticia, it was truly a story that shook her soul. Virginia really gave ‘harsh’ punishment to the tight tights.
She didn’t cut off limbs and throw them at zombies, but she did inflict worse public corporal punishment. Even in this chaotic situation, it was enough to socially bury one person.
But. In fact, if Leticia, whom Virginia trusted more than anyone else, was the ‘real’ tights. So if you never catch it…
Leticia did not want to disappoint Virginia. However, she could not easily let go of her liberation.
When running around the streets of the Hamptons at night wearing tight leather clothes, you guard a wealthy man’s house during the day, rob the house at night, and then return the next morning to interrogate how the robbery occurred. Silver…
It was thrilling and fun. And gradually, I was becoming more and more insensitive. Leticia was an investigator, so she knew how to catch criminals who were caught off guard.
I know. I know. She couldn’t stop. If things continue like this, there will only be catastrophe. With her entire body bound, she will be repeatedly stimulated by electric needles that give her pleasure, and will eventually be electrocuted to death.
– Letty? There is?
Ah. He is asking He asked, so you have to answer. ‘I had an intention to say something from the beginning. Otherwise, there would be no reason to even worry about this.’ Leticia eventually asked.
“It’s a bit of a random story, but when someone has high expectations of me, but I know that I can’t actually meet those expectations. “What should I do?”
Both this side and the other side of my mind were in turmoil. ‘Hey! It’s too abstract! You know, there is A, there is B, and there is C, but in fact C is… Even middle school girls who say blah blah don’t talk like that!’
As expected, it was me. Caesar did not answer for a long time. All I could do was breathe heavily.
“I’m sorry. I’m so ridiculous… “
– What should I do when I feel like I’m fooling someone?
It felt like my heart stopped for a moment. Leticia looked like she was about to cry. As expected, her insight was right. Caesar is a man she can trust her whole life.
“Yes. I feel guilty. “It feels like I’m cheating.”
– It looks like you like that person very much. If you see that I don’t want to hurt you.
That’s right. It was like that. Leticia likes Virginia. She is a superior who recognized and acknowledged her hard work and truly recognized her value. But now she is deceiving the person who recognized her.
“Yes. That’s right.”
– Well. Hmm… Everyone has circumstances that prevent them from speaking. If it were me, I would rather not say anything unless you really offer a proper alternative.
“… “May I ask why?”
– Sometimes people are more important than the truth, right? Sometimes, even when dealing with certain contradictions, there are things you don’t want to miss. That’s what the mind is like.
‘Like our relationship, Caesar.’ Leticia smiled.
“But shouldn’t relationships be honest?”
– We have to be honest, but shouldn’t we be considerate before that? It’s a consideration of whether the other person can hear this and whether they can handle it.
Be considerate. As for Leticia, this is something she hadn’t thought about.
– Letty. Please change your perspective and think about it. Someone said to Leti, ‘I’m only telling this story because I’m a real friend…’ ‘ What would you think if you kept saying things you didn’t want to hear?
“I would tell you to mind your own business and not show off.”
-Wouldn’t that person who is precious to Leti also feel the same way?
“… Then, I… “There’s nothing I can do for now except complain to you.”
It was a serious statement, but laughter could be heard on the other end of the phone.
“Are you smiling just now?”
– No. I’ve been worrying about that too these days. I think we really get along well. That’s incredible synchronicity.
Leticia didn’t really know what synchronicity meant, but it somehow made her feel better. And she soon became curious. Who is being held hostage?
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“Thank you. Caesar. I felt a little relieved. That’s right. “You shouldn’t make hasty predictions without knowing whether the other person is ready to listen.”
– Thank you too. Letty. Thanks to you, I solved some of my concerns.
Leticia tilted her head. What kind of situation has this man gotten himself into? It won’t work. Leticia looked through his documents and drew her signature on a plan.
“Caesar. If you come to the Hamptons this time, you need to prepare well for the day. “I can’t help it.”
– Yes? Why?
“The disinfection procedures have increased. “It will take a very long time to get in and out, so it’s almost impossible to get in and out on the same day.”
It hasn’t happened yet, but it will happen. Because Leticia herself signed the plan to strengthen disinfection procedures. In fact, this is causing inconvenience to too many people.
The fact that disinfection procedures have been strengthened does not mean anything else. It only means leaving the car on the road for a longer period of time to see whether mutations occur or not.
However, this was the only way I could immediately think of to get Caesar to sleep at Leti’s house for the night.
“So… “
I was about to say something more, but a strange sound came from the other end of the phone.
The sound of zombies howling.
– Letty. Sorry. I need to hang up. I’ll contact you when it’s over.
Suddenly.
“… “I hung up.”
I thought about calling again, but Leticia decided not to. Because I don’t know what Caesar’s situation is. If you send a text message incorrectly, you may be in danger.
“Of course it won’t work. “You have to hold on to it somehow.”
Leticia stood up from her seat. She said 20 minutes had already passed.
Upon entering her office, personnel from each department stood up from their seats as if to ask Leticia where on earth she had gone.
“Everyone will be going to Hampton for an emergency safety inspection, so be ready within 10 minutes.”
Leticia gave an overbearing command.