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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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The next day.
I headed to Hampton in the pickup truck that the Minsk mercenaries had brought. The camper van was left behind in the research facility yard.
The vehicle was well-maintained and drove extremely well. I liked how it would shoot forward with a roar even with a slight press of the pedal.
After spending a night in a deserted warehouse and stopping by a gas station to fill up on fuel, I drove diligently to Hampton.
Strangely, the closer I got to the city, the more obstacles I saw. Things like abandoned vehicles on the road, and scattered white bones.
The frequency seemed to increase, and finally, I saw wrecked cars lined up on both sides of the road. Not a single one was intact. They were either burnt out, or had their tires burst and had collapsed.
“Well, well.”
Now the road was completely blocked. All eight lanes. It was full of burnt and broken cars. From what I had seen on the map, it was still a two-hour drive to Hampton.
Next to the road was a cracked wasteland. Judging by the tire tracks here and there, it seemed other cars had also detoured around this pile.
For some reason, I felt something crawling up the back of my neck. The feeling I had often felt when playing multiplayer games, that if I turned that corner, I would run into an enemy who was waiting in advance.
Why was I feeling this?
I looked at the pile of vehicles again. Something was strange.
The cars in the center of the obstacle were clearly old ones. A tragic sight, burnt and melted. But the cars on the outside, though a little dented, were not burnt.
I looked at the car in the very front. I saw the fuel cap, wide open. The driver’s side window was broken. It was a bullet hole.
This was the work of a gang.
Anyone would have slowed down in front of an obstacle like this. And then, they would drive their car around the side of the obstacle, grumbling like I was now. Their speed would have been unavoidably slow, and a rookie who was waiting in advance would have fired a shot.
What should I do?
They must have been watching me coming from a distance. So if I retreated here, I would only be tracked back. Most of all, I didn’t want to waste time in a place like this.
Then I guess I have to break through with force.
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In the gap of a pile of scrap metal that resembled a junkyard. Three young men were casually aiming their guns.
“It’s a beautiful day. The birds aren’t chirping, the flowers aren’t blooming… on days like these, kids like you should be burning in hell.”
“What an old story.”
“Being eaten by zombies on earth, or burning in hell forever. If you had to choose one, what would it be?”
“Isn’t this hell? That bastard hasn’t come for over 20 minutes.”
The gang had no name. Because they themselves did not think of themselves as a gang.
They were the young men of Hampton’s 14th National Military Police, had joined Virginia’s volunteer corps, and had been assigned the task of cleaning up the highway trash.
Cleaning up trash didn’t mean they had to carry brooms or shovels. They had been assigned a particularly grand truck. A truck with vehicle-towing wires on the front and back.
Lately, the number of citizens turning into zombies had increased. No matter where or what they were doing. The pile of obstacles they were hiding in was a case in point.
Because the driver, who was taking refugees to Hampton, had suddenly turned into a zombie, had stood up, and had tried to bite the passengers, causing the bus to overturn. It had caused a chain collision with the following vehicles. They had checked the refugees’ temperatures, but the cause was that they hadn’t checked the driver’s.
This wasn’t the first or second time this had happened. Sometimes, when you saw cars driving like a madman, there was often a single zombie in a frenzy in the driver’s seat, not a person.
In a collapsing world, vehicle transport was almost the only hope. If the roads where goods and people could pass were blocked, Hampton would become a living hell worse than it was now.
So it was no exaggeration to say that the three of them were feeding Hampton. The process of doing a little side job was also, they thought, not bad. Just shooting the driver with the mounted gun and taking the things inside. If you said the driver was actually a zombie, who would say anything.
It had been easy so far. In front of a huge obstacle, anyone becomes solemn. All you had to do was wait for them to slowly turn around and then shoot them with a bang.
But the one that had come this time showed no signs of coming. Had he turned back, or was he holding a memorial service or something.
“Someone go and check again.”
“No way. If they see us, they’ll run away. Wait a minute, I hear an engine.”
The sound of a vehicle rolling in, albeit slowly, was heard. The three men aimed their respective guns forward. Before long, the pickup truck they had been waiting for appeared.
“…What?”
There was no one in the driver’s seat. The car was rolling in on its own. At a constant speed.
“Hey, what’s that? Why is there no one?”
“How should I know?”
“Maybe, you know. He collapsed in the car? The car was left in cruise control and the person is already dead.”
It wasn’t entirely impossible.
He had only seen it once, but there had been a case where a driver who had died from eating cyanide had crashed into a pile of obstacles while pressing the pedal. It seemed he had known in advance that he would become a zombie, and had also prepared for it.
“Rock. Paper. Scissors. Aww, damn.”
In the end, the unlucky one who had been picked walked over with his gun. The car’s speed was so slow that it seemed even an elderly person could get on.
“If you’re going to die, die cleanly, making a person’s life difficult…”
Bang!
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out.
“Ack!”
The one who had been getting closer to the vehicle grabbed his shoulder and dropped his gun.
Bang!
The gun that had fallen on the ground went off. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
“What, what was that?”
The two friends were flustered. The direction the gunshot had come from was not in front of them. It was behind them. The one who had been shot looked at them and shouted.
“Be careful!”
The two friends were about to run out without thinking. Until they heard the sound of a gun being aimed from behind them.
“So you were here?”
A cold, thick voice. The two friends did not even dare to turn around.
“You, the one with the shoulder wound! If you make a foolish move, these two’s heads will be blown off. You two. Leave your guns there and raise both your arms. That’s right. Slowly turn around.”
It was a man wearing sunglasses and a mask covering his face. In his left hand, he held a pistol, and in his right, he aimed an M4 carbine. He even had an M14 rifle slung on his back.
“Sir, sir? We’re…”
“Take it off.”
“Pardon?”
“I said take it off. Just try to grab your gun. I’ll shoot every single one of your toe joints off. The same goes for that bastard over there. Tell him to take it off.”
For now, they did as they were told. Because life is precious. The muzzle of the gun bobbed up and down. It was a story of going that way.
“Where is it?”
“Wha-what?”
“I said, where is the stuff you guys got like this?”
“Ah, we sold it at the black market, so we don’t have it. It’s true.”
One of the young men was on the verge of tears. Although his face was covered and not clearly visible, he seemed very disappointed. Suddenly, the pistol spat fire.
“Ke-kehuk! I-it’s in our car. It’s in our truck’s cargo bed! Just cash, and alcohol, that’s all there is! It’s true!”
The man in sunglasses seemed to be in thought. But it was only for a very brief moment.
“Untie your shoelaces and leave them in a pile on the side.”
“Yes, yes!”
They were relatively sturdy combat boots, and since they were actually waxed, they came undone smoothly. Now they were in a rather avant-garde attire, naked with only their combat boots, their tongues sticking out.
“Run with your boots on.”
“…Pardon?”
*Bang!* The pistol spat fire again. A piece of asphalt stone flew up at the feet of the young man standing at a distance.
“Run. In the opposite direction of Hampton.”
Life is precious.
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There really wasn’t much.
Biscuits. Alcohol. Clothes. Underwear. Hygiene products. To think they were robbing people for just this, it seemed incredibly pathetic.
Out of spite, I fired three more shots into the air. The ones who were naked with only their combat boots on all dropped to the asphalt. For some reason, their running speed seemed to have slowed down a bit, but since a couple of zombies were running at full speed from that direction, I thought it wouldn’t matter. They’d run on their own if they wanted to survive.
What was on my mind were their IDs. They were the young men of the 14th National Military Police, and they belonged to the Hampton Civil Defense Corps. The fact that the situation was bad enough to have to conscript civilians, and that they were a bunch of slackers with no military discipline, was also something I could tell.
The truck was military-grade. The firearms were shoddy, but they were definitely the weapons of the Elza regular army.
“It’s going to be ruined soon.”
After shooting holes in each of the truck’s tires with the pistol, I got back into the pickup truck, which was rolling along nicely on its own. I removed the block I had placed on the pedal and drove the car back to Hampton.
I drove for a good hour and a half. I saw a long line, and soldiers on a Humvee with an M60 machine gun mounted, and on a troop transport truck, aiming their guns forward. There was no one sitting on the ground. Everyone was in their cars.
“Krak!”
Someone screamed from a distance.
Tatang
A gunshot rang out. A group of soldiers pushed a vehicle to the side of the road with a grunt. People in full-body biohazard suits ran over and dragged the corpse to the other side of the road.
Although the waiting line was long, the checkpoint itself was not complicated. Name. Purpose of visit. Taking temperature was all. And the temperature was also checked not with a classic thermometer, but with a thermal sensor that shot infrared rays.
“Name?”
A woman wearing a sergeant’s rank insignia asked in an indifferent tone.
“Picky.”
I just gave a random name.
“Purpose of visit?”
“Purchasing goods. I came from Remington, and I’ll just buy the important things and leave. I won’t be here for more than three days.”
“I’ll take your temperature.”
Beep.
It didn’t seem much different from scanning a barcode. The sergeant scribbled a signature on a document and held it out to me.
“Carry it with you at all times and be mindful of the expiration date. You must comply with random inspections, and if you fail to comply, you will be shot on sight. Please be aware that there is no prior warning.”
Since her attitude seemed a bit stiff, I held out the biscuits I had taken from those amateurs earlier. The sergeant’s face immediately softened.
“Is it because of the zombies?”
In case someone was watching, the sergeant quickly took the snacks and put them in her trouser pocket.
“It’s gotten worse lately.”
The sergeant frowned.
“Even in the safe zones, one or two zombies are appearing. Everyone’s keeping quiet about it, but there’s a lot of talk that even normal people are turning into zombies now. Please cooperate with the inspections, I’m serious. Everyone’s nerves are on edge, so they pull out their guns at the slightest thing.”
It was as Cassandra had said. As the virus spread and spread, it was gradually crossing the threshold.
“Still, Hampton does a thorough armament check, don’t they?”
“That’s a thing of the past too. Commander Virginia has been recruiting civilian volunteer corps and has allowed them to use guns as they please. Thanks to that, our work has decreased significantly, but some other problems are arising.”
“For example?”
“Don’t even get me started. A case where a normal person was shot dead, and then they claimed they had no choice because they were turning into a zombie, is just the tip of the iceberg. The roads are blocked, the incoming goods and government support are decreasing day by day, and the shopping districts have been closed for a long time. The cunning ones are controlling the warehouses and are slowly releasing things on the black market.”
It was quite similar to what happened when a communist country collapsed. There were no goods, people distrusted each other, and the state lost its function. As the social promises that had supported them until now collapsed one by one, it was becoming an era where everyone had to fend for themselves.
“…Still, Commander Virginia will take care of it, right.”
There was something like faith in the sergeant’s face.
“What has that woman named Virginia done?”
“…She’s preparing something very big.”
The sergeant winked and then patted the hood of the car. It was time to clear the way. I took out my cell phone and called Letitia.
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