Chapter 17. Desertion (3)
* * * * *
The next day.
Head to the Hamptons in a pickup truck pulled by Minsk mercenaries. The camping car was left in the lab yard.
This car seems to have been well maintained and runs very well. It was nice to be able to rush forward with just a slight step on the pedal.
After spending the night in a deserted warehouse, stopping at a gas station to fill up the tank, we head to the Hamptons.
Strangely, the further I went into the city, the more obstacles I saw. Things like vehicles abandoned on the road or white bones scattered here and there.
It seemed like the frequency was increasing, and eventually I saw abandoned vehicles lined up on both sides of the road. Nothing was okay. Either it burned down, or the tire burst and it collapsed.
“Oh my god.”
Now the road is completely blocked. All 8 lane roads. It’s full of burned and damaged cars. Looking at the map, it takes two more hours to get to the Hamptons.
The side of the road is a wide open wasteland. Judging from the tire marks scattered here and there, it appears that other cars also bypassed this pile.
For some reason, I feel like something is creeping up the back of my neck. I often felt this way when playing multiplayer in the past, the feeling that if I turn that path, I’ll run into an enemy waiting in advance.
Why do I feel this way?
I looked at the pile of vehicles again. Something was strange.
The cars in the center of the obstacle were clearly old. A miserable sight, burned and melted. However, the cars outside were a little dented but not burned down.
I saw the car in front. I could see the gas filler fully open. The driver’s side window is broken. It’s a bullet mark.
It’s a gang thing.
Anyone would have slowed down in front of an obstacle like this. And then you’ll drive by the obstacle, grumbling like I’m doing now. The speed would inevitably have been slow, and the novice who was waiting in advance would have fired his gun.
What should I do?
From Noble mtl dot com
They must have been watching me coming from afar. So, if you step away from here, you will only be traced back. Above all, I don’t want to waste time in a place like this.
Then you have to use force to break through.
* * * * *
A gap in a pile of scrap metal, reminiscent of a junkyard. Three young men were leisurely aiming guns.
“It’s such a beautiful day. Birds don’t sing, flowers don’t bloom… On a day like this, kids like you should be burning in hell.”
“When exactly is this story?”
“A land being eaten by zombies, a hell burning forever. “If you had to choose between the two, which would you choose?”
“Isn’t this hell? “That bastard hasn’t been coming from there for over 20 minutes.”
There is no name for the gang. Because they didn’t think of themselves as a gang.
They were young men from Hampton District 14, joined the Virginia Volunteer Corps, and were given the job of clearing highway trash.
Trash cleaning does not mean carrying a broom or shovel. They were assigned a specially grandiose truck. It is a truck with wires attached to the front and back for vehicle towing.
These days, the number of citizens turning into zombies has increased. No matter where you are or what you are doing. The same goes for the pile of obstacles they hide behind.
The driver who was heading to the Hamptons carrying refugees suddenly turned into a zombie, jumped up, tried to bite the passengers, and the bus overturned. Because it caused a series of collisions with the vehicles that were following. The reason was that the temperature of the refugees was checked, but the driver was not checked.
This is not the first time this has happened. Sometimes, when I see cars driving like crazy people, there are many times when there is not a person in the driver’s seat but a zombie going berserk.
In a collapsing world, vehicle transportation is almost the only hope. If the roads through which goods and people can travel are blocked, Hampton will become an even more living hell than it is now.
So, it is no exaggeration to say that the three of them feed the Hamptons. I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do a little side work in the process. Just shoot the driver with a mounted gun and take the items inside. What would anyone say if the driver was actually a zombie?
It was easy until now. Anyone becomes solemn in the face of a huge obstacle. All you have to do is wait for it to come back slowly and shoot it with a bang.
But the guy who came this time shows no signs of coming. Has he gone back, or is he holding a memorial service?
“Someone go and see it again.”
“No. If you get caught, you won’t run away. “Wait a minute, I can hear the engine.”
I could hear the sound of a car rolling, albeit slowly. The three people pointed their guns forward. Eventually, the pickup truck they had been waiting for appeared.
“… What?”
There is no one in the driver’s seat. The car was rolling alone. At a constant speed.
“Hey, what is that? “Why is there no one there?”
“How do I know?”
“Perhaps. Maybe he collapsed in the car? “The car was left in cruise mode and the person was already dead.”
It didn’t make a lot of sense.
I’ve only seen it once, but it was a driver who died after ingesting cyanide and crashed into a pile of obstacles while pedaling. He seemed to have known in advance that he would become a zombie and had prepared for it.
“Scissors. Rock. Paper. “Ah, sir.”
In the end, the unlucky one who was chosen walked away with a gun. The speed of the car was so slow that it seemed like even an elderly person could get on it.
“If you want to die, die gracefully, don’t bother people… “
Bang!
Suddenly a gunshot rang out. “Evil!” The guy who was approaching the vehicle grabbed his shoulder and dropped his gun. Bang! The gun that fell on the floor misfired. Fortunately, no one was injured.
“What, what is it?”
The two friends were embarrassed. The direction from which the gunfire was heard was not in front of them. It was in the back. The guy who got shot looked towards them and screamed.
“Be careful!”
The two friends tried to run away without realizing it. Until they heard the sound of a gun being pointed behind them.
“You guys were here?”
Cold and deep voice. The two friends didn’t even dare to look back.
“The guy over there who got hit on the shoulder! If you do something stupid, these two guys will lose their heads. You two. Leave the gun there and raise your arms up. That’s right. “Turn back slowly.”
It was a man wearing sunglasses and covering his face with a mask. He held a pistol in his left hand and an M4 carbine in his right. He even carried an M14 rifle on his back.
“Um, teacher? We… “
“Take it off.”
“Yes?”
“Take it off. Just hold the gun in your hand. I’ll shoot every single joint of your toes. Same goes for that bastard. “Tell them to take it off.”
I did as I was told. Because life is precious. The muzzle of the gun was shaking. The story was to go over there.
“Where is it?”
“What, what is it?”
“Where are the things you guys took like this?”
“Oh, I don’t have any because I took it and sold it on the black market. “It’s real.”
A young man cried. I couldn’t see his face well, but he seemed very disappointed. Suddenly his pistol burst into flames.
“Ke, kehehehe! Hey, we’re in the car. It’s in the bed of our truck! Banknotes, alcohol, that’s all there is to it! Really!”
The man in sunglasses looked like he was worried about something. But only for a moment.
“Untie your shoe laces and bundle them up next to you.”
“Yes, yes!”
It was a relatively sturdy military boot, and the thread was waxed so it unraveled smoothly. Now they are dressed in quite avant-garde clothing, wearing nothing but military boots with their tongues sticking out.
“Put on your military boots and run.”
“… Yes?”
Bang! The pistol fired again. A piece of asphalt stone bounced at the feet of a young man standing in the distance.
“Run. In the opposite direction of Hampton.”
Life is precious.
* * * * *
I really didn’t have much.
Biscuits. Alcohol. Clothes. Underwear. Hygiene products. It seems so pathetic that they committed robbery just to get something like this.
Out of frustration, I fired three more shots into the air. The guys, naked and wearing only military boots, lie down on the asphalt all at once. For some reason, it seems like their canter speed has slowed down a bit, but I guess it doesn’t really matter since there are a couple of zombies running at full speed from over there. If you want to survive, you will run on your own.
What I’m concerned about is their ID. They were young men from Hampton District 14 and belonged to the Hampton Civil Defense Corps. It is also understandable that the situation is so bad that civilians have to be conscripted, and that they are disorganized and have no military discipline.
Trucks are for military use. Although the firearms are poor, they are clearly the weapons of Erza’s regular army.
“It will fail sooner or later.”
After shooting holes in each of the truck tires with a pistol, I got back into the pickup truck that was running well by myself. I removed the dead tree from the pedal and drove back to the Hamptons.
I ran for a full hour and a half. I saw long lines, Humvees equipped with M60 machine guns, and soldiers on troop transport trucks pointing their guns toward the front. There is no one sitting on the ground. Everyone is in the car.
“Kwaaak!”
Someone screams from afar. Suddenly, a gunshot rings out. A group of soldiers pushed a vehicle to the side of the road. People wearing full-body biochemical protective suits rushed over and dragged the body across the street.
Although the waiting line was long, the inspection itself was not complicated. Name. Purpose of visit. All you have to do is measure your temperature. Temperature is also checked not with a classic thermometer, but with a heat detector that emits infrared rays.
“What is your name?”
A woman wearing a sergeant rank insignia asks in an indifferent tone.
“Picky.”
I roughly gave it a random name.
“What is the purpose of your visit?”
“Purchase goods. I’m from Lennington, and I’m only buying the important stuff. “It won’t last longer than three days.”
“I will take your temperature.”
Beep. It didn’t seem any different from scanning an item with a barcode. The sergeant signed the scribbled document and handed it to me.
“Keep it with you at all times and pay attention to the expiration date. You must comply with the interrogation, and if you fail to do so, you will be immediately killed. Please note that there is no prior warning.”
I felt like my attitude was very stiff, so I held out the biscuit I had snatched from the idiots earlier. The sergeant’s face suddenly softened.
“Is it because of zombies?”
Just in case someone saw him, the sergeant quickly grabbed the snacks and put them in his pants pocket.
“It’s gotten worse these days.”
The sergeant frowned.
“Even within the safe area, one or two zombies are coming out. Everyone is making a fuss, but there is a lot of talk that normal humans are now mutating into zombies. I am sincere in asking you to respond well to the interrogation. “Everyone has become so sensitive that even the smallest things make them take out their guns?”
It was just as Cassandra said. As the virus spread and spread, it was gradually reaching a critical point.
“But Hampton makes sure to check for weapons, right?”
“That too is a thing of the past. Captain Virginia had authorized civilian volunteer corps to be recruited and guns to be freely used. Thanks to this, our workload has been reduced significantly, but different problems are arising.”
“For example?”
“Don’t even talk. It is a mistake to say that a normal human being was shot and killed, but then insisted that there was nothing they could do because he was turning into a zombie. The roads are clogged, the goods coming and government support are decreasing day by day, and the stores have been closed for a long time. “Are these shrewd guys taking control of the warehouse and selling it little by little on the black market?”
It was quite similar to what happens when a communist country collapses. There are no goods, people distrust each other, and the country loses its function. As the promises of society that had supported them until now began to fall apart one by one, we entered an era where each person had to make a living on their own.
“… Still, Captain Virginia will do well.”
There was something like faith on the sergeant’s face.
“What did this woman named Virginia do?”
“… “You’re preparing something really big.”
The sergeant narrowed his eyes and tapped his bonnet. Now it was time to get out of the way. He took out his cell phone and called Leticia.