Chapter 366: 366
“Really? Then once you guys get back, tell them to add to their projects gun racks for vehicles. It doesn’t have to be fancy, I want something you could just strap on the back of the seat or something similar. I want to be able to bring it anywhere and any vehicle. Make them customizable too so I could add and remove anything I wanted.” I said to Russel.
“Something like legos?” Russel was a bit confused.
“Yeah, something like that.” I replied.
While the group was filling the other vehicles with gas, we placed all of the items we scavenged from the HUMVEE and the Raptor to the 6-wheeler. The two other soldiers with them just greeted me when they were helping us. They mentioned that they encountered a few armed torsos on the way here and they took care of it. However, when I showed them footage from my drones, they were flabbergasted. It wasn’t even the whole thing and they were much more when we haven’t started.
“Wait till they see the footage from our helmets…” I thought to myself.
I told them a short version of what happened earlier and time quickly passed.
The two wanted to stay behind and help us but I told them that they were more needed to guard our haul. Bing and Russel wanted to stay behind as well but I stopped them four. Jay and the rest bid their goodbyes and we started our own vehicles.
We drove back the same way but we turned left when we saw the boutique on the right.
We continued driving but instead of continuing to where the two main roads meet, we turned to the left once more after passing an upholstery shop and a vocational school.
“Why do we need to follow this route bro?” Jared asked.
“Hmm? So we’ll see the passage towards Malinta. Furthermore, I want us to take this sideroad because, on the way back, we’ll use the roads we didn’t take so we could have a better understanding of the status of each area.” I explained.
“I don’t mind. We’ll encounter more biters on the road we haven’t taken, right?” Lois added, taking down one near a lamp post.
“Why are there a lot of little eateries here?” Lawrence asked.
“See those large walled facilities? They’re factories for different kinds of products. I’m not sure what each one does but they have a lot of workers. I guess people living near them took advantage of the situation and made a small side-job.” I replied and Lawrence nodded a few times.
We started to pass a few more factories but we reached another chapel. It was near a few houses and a shop that used to sell projectors. Looking at the left side, there was a small passage that leads to Malinta we were talking about earlier. It was a small bridge that has a weight limit of 10 tons and a few corpses were hanging from the side. We decided to only close the bridge that connected to the Bulacan area from Tawiran because that was the area where the cult was coming from.
Driving for more than half an hour, there were fewer places to loot from this side of the road but the undead to kill never diminished. We weren’t driving too fast in case we miss something important and so our shooters could have an easier time. We mostly burn the bodies we kill near the places we loot but the ones we shoot from a distance were left bleeding out on the road.
We finally reached the medium-sized bridge that would take us to the City of Malabon but we encountered a little mishap. From the convenience store up to where we could still see the road from the other side, it was full of abandoned vehicles.
We could see slow-moving figures moving from some of the vehicles where the windows weren’t as tinted. Some of them were even looted and a few roamers were stuck between a few vehicles.
“This is the way that leads to Iskoh, right?” Jared asked.
“Yeah, and it’s blocked.” I replied.
“Is there another way?” Lois asked, looking around.
“We could bring the flatbeds with a winch attached to them and slowly move these vehicles or just drive around the City of Navotas and see the situation on that side.” I replied.
“Are we starting a chopshop?” Lois chuckled.
“Bro, why don’t we just use the main highway instead of traversing around these small cities?” Jared asked.
“It’s not like we’re avoiding going to the larger cities because it’s safer, it’s just that driving this way is the most direct path. Besides, did you forget how many we were facing each time at the City of Manila? If we used the highway that hugs the border of the City of Quezon towards the City of Manila, we’d be out of bullets once we reach the other side.” I explained.
“And why is that? Sorry, I’m not from around here.” Lawrence chimed.
“Those two cities combined are the largest and the most densely populated city not only in this region and island group but the whole country. Millions of people every single day come to those cities for work and they were coming from different regions as well. You will have a headache adding the population and the workers all in all that turned when it hit. It would be great if our plan is to thin their numbers for now but it isn’t. Our plan is to establish a relatively safe route where we wouldn’t use as much of our resources.” I explained.
“So, what’s our plan now?” Lawrence asked.
I looked at my watch first and it was two hours before sunset.
“We turn around for now but we’ll use the other road that leads to the border of the City of Navotas.” I replied.
“How about the vehicles here?” Lois asked.
“We need to clean them all out. Not only we would have a surplus of vehicles and their parts, but we could also save on gas if the road we are taking is shorter. It could take a while and it would be a boring process but that’s the most efficient way compared to driving around a long route or driving around a dangerous route.” I concluded,
I tapped on the roof of the Raptor and then we drove the other way. However, before we did, we tried to start one of the vehicles blocking the road to get started. We chose one with a little more cargo space and I was the one driving it.
Since we already achieved our goal for the day, we started looting places with high-resource value. I first chose a place where it used to sell car batteries and a few vehicle accessories. We found more solar panels and generators among the other shops but the time left was about to run out. We came home and we continued the process of scouting and we saw Oscar and the rest successfully coming home and bringing back several pieces of equipment.
We didn’t encounter the people Cyrill mentioned in that area and we might need to enter the City of Navotas to meet them. I was hoping to at least capture a glance from their vehicle but luck was not on my side at that time.
A few days passed and it was now the day for their gathering.
Jared and I were somewhere elevated and we were doing different things. Jared was looking through his DOPE which stands for Data Of Previous Engagements and he was holding his Kestrel Ballistic Calculator.
I on the other hand was looking through my scope while lying prone.
Looking at ourselves, anyone could tell that we were camping for a while because our hairs were oily and our clothes were dirty. However, we heard a little buzz in our radio and it was the signal. I still hadn’t moved from my spot for a while and good thing I wore an a.d.u.l.t diaper. Whether I used it or not, was only known to me.
“Bro…” Jared trailed.
“Yeah?” I replied.
“Range is-” I cut him off.
“I already know.”
“Oh, the wind is-”
“I got it.”
“Why am I even here…”
“I need help.”
“Clearly you didn’t… you should be the one spotting… not me…”
“Do you have a Barrett?”
“No…”
“Of course you don’t.”
“F.U.C.K YOU!!!”
“Shh… be quiet… didn’t I teach you that?”
“…”
“Good. Just like that.”
“…”
My lips were the only thing moving but when I saw the target, I placed my finger on the trigger. My head performed the calculations several times and then I performed the calculations again. I cut Jared several times in conversation because of the number of times he reminded me of the data we have on hand just from the last minute.
The scenery inside was different before they went in but it didn’t matter.
I was here to kill.
I held my breath.
I pulled the trigger.
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