Chapter 20. Patriot (13)
* * * * *
Camilla slightly lifted the curtain of the trailer.
It was already the 20th time by Leticia’s count.
The short-range radio was silent, and no message came from the cell phone. Although Leticia was satisfied with that fact, she was extremely anxious.
The best scenario is for Johan and Cassandra to open the trailer door without either ringing. Next, a short-range radio call came in saying, ‘We’re on our way back, but we’re a bit stuck!’ The last contact is via mobile phone. This means that something happened that made it necessary to call them from a place so far away that short-range radios could not reach them.
So Leticia consciously suppressed her anxiety. Unless she’s a former terrorist who keeps raising her curtains shamefully, raising her anxiety.
“If you’re that worried, why don’t you go out and look for it?”
In the end, Leticia couldn’t bear it anymore and let out a loud voice.
Ever since John and Cassandra left, the two women had been arguing like always, and now they were so angry at each other that they didn’t say a word.
“Whether I’m a stranger or not, since when have you been so interested in me?”
So Camilla did not react well.
“Did you do it out of sight?”
Leticia criticized.
“You shouldn’t look at it.”
Camilla opened her curtains again.
“That’s a childish thing that would come out of the head of a bomb-crazy terrorist.”
Leticia twitched the corner of her mouth, wondering whether she should pick up her pistol that was under her pillow.
“Are you as shameless as a Roemer bastard?”
Camilla squinted at her dagger on her small shelf. ‘Which would be faster, me throwing the knife or that b*tch shooting the gun?’ She was wondering. Both women saw the other twitching their hands. They made eye contact, glanced at each other, and then turned their heads at the same time.
“I was so crazy about men that I deserted.”
Camilla turned her head.
“Is that guy’s first experience stolen from me?”
Leticia whistled slightly. Camilla was furious.
“I don’t f*ck everywhere like everyone else, right?”
“Okay. “Just set the tone and be done with it until I create a soccer team.”
“I understand.”
Leticia tilted her head at the unexpected words. Camilla was smiling.
“I understand that you are in a hurry because you are older. You have little chance, right? “I have a lot.”
Leticia hid her clenched fists behind her back. She must not fall for this kind of provocation.
“But you never took advantage of so many opportunities. “Aren’t you actually less attractive as a woman?”
“I don’t call her attractive just because she has too much fat on her butt. And then her lower belly will also gain flab? You can just hold it and turn it like a car steering wheel. If you just try a little harder. “Elsa, the soldiers were so fat and fat that they couldn’t catch the zombies.”
“Ha?”
Leticia was upset. She couldn’t stand this. Camila caught her reaction and twirled her finger in the air.
“No, that’s true, right? That great boss you respect, he put bleeding people in cages and lured zombies out. If the military had just tried, wouldn’t things like zombies have been eradicated a long time ago? But you didn’t do that. Instead, they drove civilians into the city and turned it into hell. Why? “Elsa, to make people obedient.”
“If you put her conscience in a can of Cybele bread and sold it, then at least keep her mouth shut. Who was responsible for the military’s inability to operate? “It’s because of you terrorist bastards in the Liberation Army!”
‘It’s a common excuse that soldiers make, right?’ Camilla didn’t think it was a big deal. But Leticia seemed to have accumulated a lot.
“Okay. I could do it if I wanted to. There was no need to use helicopters or armored vehicles. Machine guns, grenade launchers, grenades! At that level, as you say, it may not be possible to prevent the entire city, but it would have been possible to reduce it locally. If we had cornered them and fired a mortar at them, they would have easily been blown away with one hit! “Do you think we couldn’t do it because we didn’t know that?”
“So why didn’t you do it?”
“If we spend everything we have on catching zombies, who will protect Erza? Can your Liberation Corps protect all of Erza? From the gangsters, the Minsk capitalists, the Römer dictators?”
Leticia sighed and stroked her forehead. Camilla, who had been lying sideways on her bed, sat up.
“What do you mean by that? Who protects whom? Licking Roemer’s ass….”
“Hey. You tell me straight. What the hell did you bastards do? You exploded bombs here and there, cut off railroads and electric lines, made many people uncomfortable, and then sat around handing out leaflets to show off!
While you bastards were doing that, the National Military Police were beating down armed gangs and keeping the Minsk and Römer guys in check! Especially the Minsk bastards, they are still eagerly targeting Elsa. “If the National Military Police had not preserved its forces, it would have been eaten right away!”
When Camilla saw Leticia wheezing, she couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Oh, so you put innocent Elsa people in prison, monitored them, and made one out of every hundred people into civilian guards? By making people suspicious of each other! Is that the security you’re talking about? They made people swim in a pool with their friends and the professor’s corpse floating around… !”
Camilla covered her mouth as she poured out her words in excitement. She gritted her teeth as if biting her tongue. Leticia’s eyes sunken.
“… What?”
“Shut up.”
Camilla responded as if barbed. Leticia became angry.
“What’s the story about the swimming pool? What are you talking about? “This is my first time hearing this!”
“f*ck, shut up!”
“Ji said it first, then why are you talking sh*t to me!”
Camilla held her dagger upside down. Leticia grabbed the handle of her pistol. Camilla didn’t raise her arm, and Leticia didn’t put her finger on the trigger.
Clink.
Camilla put down her knife and cupped her face in her palms. Leticia put down her pistol.
“… “I am no longer a member of the Liberation Corps.”
“I’m not part of the National Military Police either.”
Leticia threw out her words as if chewing them up. Camilla shook her head and frowned.
“… If the national military police weren’t going to catch the zombies, she wanted to catch them at least with the Liberation Corps. Why didn’t I think of that? All citizens would have liked it. “If only Hans hadn’t objected.”
Hans. She was someone Leticia also knew. The emotional leader of the central region of the Liberation Corps who was incompetent in many ways. Now his whereabouts are unknown.
“Why did this guy Hans object?”
“You said that if you use up all your bullets to kill zombies, then you will fight with your bare fists. It wasn’t wrong. We were short on supplies. “It was worse than a gang.”
“… The National Military Police was not much different. Römer gave us a lot of weapons, but did not provide us with enough ammunition. Because he didn’t want to be independent. What we have is not enough to the point that even if we fight the best, we would have to give up 20% of our country. “I don’t have enough anymore.”
Leticia answered in a tired voice.
“I didn’t know zombies would be such a problem.”
Camilla sobbed.
“… “No one would have known.”
Leticia nodded her head.
The two women were thinking the same thing. I wonder if the situation could have changed if the National Military Police and the Liberation Corps had at least put up a united front against the zombie outbreak. Camilla lowered her hand and cleared her throat.
“Big. Why did you leave the National Military Police? It went pretty well. I also received a lot of recognition. At least that’s what our profile said.”
“… Tell me why you left the Liberation Corps and I will answer you. “You even filmed propaganda.”
Camilla decided not to say things like ‘I asked you first’. She was too tired to argue.
“At first, I really thought we were fighting for the people of Erza. Elsa: Don’t try to deny that there were a lot of bad guys among politicians, soldiers, and business people. I believed that by beating up the really bad guys, we were changing the world for the better. But, that wasn’t it. “The group has changed since the zombie outbreak.”
“How?”
“Sponsorship was cut off and it became difficult to expect support from headquarters, so we became increasingly obsessed with big things. In the end, it went so far as to intimidate civilians. I didn’t know anything else, but I thought this was crossing the line, and as you said, there were many members who saw my propaganda and joined, so I was deterred at first… It was getting harder. So I came out. “I didn’t want to see with my own eyes that it deteriorated to the level of a gang.”
After finishing her sentence, Camilla leaned her head against her trailer. Leticia recalled her information file on Camilla. After finding out her identity, she deliberately searched the intelligence agency’s database. They are highly loyal to the organization and are filled with the belief that they are right… That was the main point.
‘After all, you can’t trust information that isn’t up to date.’
Leticia sighed softly. Camilla thought she might be a different person than she seemed.
“I left the National Military Police because I didn’t want to push people around. “It’s partly because of John, but that’s not everything.”
“Push them in?”
Camilla looked at Leticia in disbelief. Leticia thought for a moment, but decided not to go into detail.
“There was a petty thief running around in the Hamptons. Copycats appeared everywhere, but they never really subsided. So the commander of Virginia said he could kill anyone. The real culprit was clearly someone else. At that moment, John appeared in front of me, and I suddenly chose another option. “That’s it.”
The two women fell silent at the same time. But we had different thoughts.
‘It’s not a lie, but I also didn’t say everything.’
Camilla couldn’t believe that Leticia had given up all her benefits just because of a petty thief. Considering what she had seen of Leticia’s snobbery, she found it even more difficult to believe it. However, in the end, Leticia did not choose her bad side. That was definitely a good thing.
‘Elsa National University… swimming pool…. I think something happened. ‘What was it?’
Leticia recalled her memories. She definitely had a memory of seeing her somewhere. I saw her not long after joining the Information Department, but she couldn’t remember where she read it.
What was clear was that Camilla was not in her information and profile. She certainly remembered her phrase, ‘She gave up her water ballet after college, turning to extremes.’
‘That woman may not be completely irredeemable.’
Camilla reached her conclusion.
‘There was a reason why you treated me like a crazy b*tch. ‘I don’t know what it is.’
Leticia thought she should find out more.
Knock knock.
The two women stood up at the same time. There was a pistol in Leticia’s hand, and a dagger in Camilla’s hand.
“We are here.”
After unlocking the trailer, Johan and Cassandra came in. It was a mess. There was a strong smell of burnt, bloody, and sweat.
“Oh my god.”
Camilla quickly closed the door. Before closing, I saw two bicycles left abandoned outside the fence. It was a classic bicycle that had to be pedaled.
“What about electric bikes? What happened? “What happened?”
Leticia asked several questions at once. Cassandra thoughtlessly said, “There are so many…” .” I answered, “Nothing happened.” In response to John’s answer, she closed her mouth.
“More than that.”
John waved his arms to draw attention to Cassandra.
“I found a place to stay.”