Chapter 19. First wave (5)
“Don’t make any noise and open it quickly or not.”
I felt a stinging gaze on the back of my head, but I paid it no mind. Whatever the circumstances, it’s none of my business. A woman named Kanna bit her lip and walked towards me.
The closer I got, the more I could see the big and small wounds on the body. It was so bad that even bandages cut from clothes couldn’t cover it all. Band-shaped marks, especially on the neck, wrists, and ankles. The wounds are the same as those suffered by former resort slaves who were abandoned with their limbs and tendons severed.
Were you a gang slave?
If so, it explains a lot. The reason people here are so hostile. Even though there was a warning not to open the cargo compartment, there was a reason why they tried to open it.
It seems like there is a lot to be gained, right?
“Just open here.”
I quietly approached Kanna’s side. Blunt. The zombies are knocking on the cargo bay again. Kanna grabbed the cargo compartment door and gently pulled it open.
“Kyaaa!”
Of course, the ugliest military police officer gets his face.
“aaah!”
Kanna sighed and stepped behind her. Bang! He closed the cargo compartment door and quickly wrapped his arms around her neck, knocking her out. Because it was so light, it rested on my arm like laundry.
“Kannaaa!”
The kid named Jim screamed and tried to grab her gun. Bang! Camilla shot her gun. A rock bounced right in front of her little boy’s shoes.
Leticia jumped up like a thunderbolt and kicked her kid’s ankle and slapped him in the face. Her little one spun around next to her and fell out. Bang! Camilla fired again.
“You missed it on purpose! Next time, go up a little!”
When I wondered where he had shot me, it was at the guy at the gas station. The shivering man’s pants were becoming damp.
“Let’s quickly add gas and get out! Cassandra, help me!”
Wrapping the unconscious Kanna in her blanket, wrapping her in her leash, and then roughly putting her in her trailer. She filled not only the car but also the spare fuel tank and set off. It feels like the car has become a bit sluggish because I put so much in it.
* * * * *
It was not possible to go straight to Beitra City. It was too dangerous. If it’s true that the people at the gas station called out the cult, they could run into them anywhere.
So we made a big semicircle around the gas station. There was a small village with a few empty farmhouses and warehouses, so I hid the car.
“Okay. Would you like to explain now? “She gave me some rough advice earlier, but why did you bring this girl?”
Camilla asked me, leaning against her car. I pointed to Kanna, who was still sleeping comfortably. They spread plastic and a blanket on the ground and laid down on it. Cassandra was holding a stethoscope and pressing it here and there on Kanna’s body.
“Here. Look at your neck, wrists and ankles. Can you see the band-shaped bruise? To me, this looks like traces of slavery. I remember? “That resort.”
“I can’t forget it.”
Camilla muttered displeasedly. Leticia, an expert in these areas, carefully inspected her Kanna’s bruises.
“I think I was put in a difficult situation. Look at this. The calluses on her fingertips were not only cracked, but her fingernails were all broken. And here, your knees.”
Her knees were so dark that it seemed like they were necrotic. I thought I knew what this woman was doing.
“It was a corpse burying.”
Slaves did not necessarily ‘serve’ only in their residences. There are also people who are forcibly kicked out of their residences in the morning and have to meet their daily quota before returning.
They are given only meager clothes, shoes, and sturdy bags. Zombie farming is known to be generally inefficient, but ‘shabby but good-looking zombies’ were worth a try.
“That’s my opinion too.”
Leticia even confirmed it. These ‘corpse traders’ would not have been able to roam around the city center collecting supplies, so they would have had to hide in vents, sewers, or back alleys. She kept crawling, so her knees were torn apart, her fingertips were split, and her fingernails were broken.
Cassandra stood up, wiping her stethoscope with an alcohol swab.
“How do you feel?”
“It’s not good. Her body is so damaged. The signs of zombification haven’t started yet, but she has severe pneumonia, so she’ll be suffering for a while. “At least she has improved a bit recently as she has been receiving proper nutrition.”
The treatment of slaves is very bad. I roughly wrapped Kanna’s body in a blanket. In her wake, Kanna looks down at her own body and growls.
“You damn bastards!”
I lifted her up on her feet and walked towards her truck. Kanna, who had been spouting all her curses, closed her mouth and her body trembled. She smelled sour so she put it back on her floor. Instead she warned.
“Okay. The choice is yours. I don’t care if you answer my question or not. No matter what, your life will be guaranteed. Instead, I will throw that little boy named ‘Jim’ and the man who was dancing with a grenade ‘inside’. In front of you “I’ll give you the hug I couldn’t give you earlier later.”
Kanna cooperated very actively, and she even answered questions that were not asked. Her speech was slurred as she shook her body in fear, but then she put all her energy into answering so clearly that she didn’t have to ask again.
Beitra City is divided into five districts: North, South, East and West. Among these, gangs are dominant in the north and west, and religious groups and civilians are dominant in the east and south. No one goes to the central district, and that’s because when the zombie outbreak broke out, they crowded the central district with infected people and sealed it off.
However, neither the gang nor the cult completely took control of the city. It was not because the two forces were equal, but because there were too many zombies. That was why gangs used slaves to gather supplies.
“That’s a bit strange. In most cases, he would have run away. “Why were you located in such an ambiguous place?”
“… Ugh, my relatives and friends are being held as slaves. When my body, my body, gets better, I’ll go back and save it….”
“You’re going to take down a gang by yourself? “That’s amazing.”
Kanna shook her head at my question.
“Oh, no. “It was a religious order.”
I forgot what to say for a moment. Platform? The church uses slaves?
“Tell me in detail.”
I treated him a little kindly, but his tone soon changed to a whimpering tone.
“Gangs openly use slaves, but denominations… If you want to live, they tell you to bring your own resources. The more you pay, the more mileage you earn. Then, when you reach a certain level, you can get an injection.”
“Injection?”
“It’s a zombification immune injection.”
Cassandra opened her eyes wide. She even twitched her lips. Kanna seemed to have misunderstood that expression.
“Gee, that’s really true! I saw it too. “A person who was in the process of being zombified got significantly better after receiving the injection!”
“There’s no way something like that exists!”
“But it was given to me by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency! Even the brand was clear. I also work as a hospital nurse, so I can tell if it’s genuine or not! According to the words of the church leader and vice president… It is a drug that is too dangerous to be used on humans… It was said that ‘chosen’ people like us from Elza can create miracles….”
This woman, she didn’t run away, did she just lose her brainwashing?
“The words are incoherent. Aren’t you still protected by the church? “But you were a slave belonging to a religious order and then ran away?”
“The Limos Church in Beitra was divided into two. “The side that believes in Bishop Malone, and the side that believes in Archdeacon Aslan.”
Malon was close to a typical trash priest. He was a vicious man who called women every night and stole their food. If you didn’t respond to his summons, he would call strong men to raid the room, grab every single piece of candy he had hidden, and suck it right in front of your eyes. Baytra’s hunger pollution index seemed to be quite high.
Vice-principal Aslan didn’t seem to be much different, but he was a bit more rational than Malon. He gathered a lot of people who opposed Malone and started a protest.
Kanna and her friends were exploited by Malone, but thanks to Aslan’s uprising, Kanna was the only one who was able to escape, and she and Jim, who were her neighbors as a child, ran a gas station run by Jim’s father. He said he had joined.
“Bishop Malone is in charge of the eastern sector, and Vice-Bishop Aslan is in charge of the southern sector. Our gas station is also in the southern block. However, since this is the outskirts of the city, there are gangs… They go there often. I was kidnapped a week ago. Luckily, the church patrollers saved him and he was released, but then again… “I got caught.”
“How many patrollers are there?”
“I don’t know much either. The bishop and the vice-bishop were torn apart… “I believe there are over three hundred.”
“What are the gang numbers?”
“I don’t know that either.”
It was not an easy place. However, I am satisfied that neither the gang nor the cult leader has completely taken over the area. If small forces fight each other, there will be gaps.
“Now, what are you going to do with me?”
Kanna asked with resignation.
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