Chapter 418: 418
“Oh, we just didn’t get enough sleep… yesterday night uhh… the surroundings were just so quiet here that all you could hear was the dead’s growls and snarls… I said we took turns sleeping but the most we could do was just close our eyes…” Max started.
“We never experience it at camp because we always clear the dead but being in a city where there’s a lot of them just roaming around is kinda different. They also come in droves so sometimes it would get louder and the reason would be another herd passing by.” Crisanto added.
“I just talked with the people I could contact in the DDR Camp so I managed to sleep for a few minutes.” Alonzo chimed.
“Okay, it’s not as bad as I thought but you three need to get some proper rest after we’re done here. Are you three sure that there’s nothing else that happened in the night aside from that? Have you seen any places with light sources or heard vehicles randomly passing by?” I asked as I peeked through the window.
“No, sir. It was just really quiet so we even refrained from using our lamps too much. The moon provided enough light so we could see without much issue.” Crisanto replied.
“Hmm, anything else to report then?” I asked as I was still looking through the window.
“Umm… since there was not much to do yesterday… I tried counting the dead in the open area of the park as much as I could and they’re hovering around 300+, not including the ones that might be inside the buildings. I could make out a few silhouettes from some of the windows but not through the ones I couldn’t see through because of the angles. Also, there might be back entrances that are wide open that I couldn’t see from this side because I tagged one of them and I saw it walking outside, away from that place.” Max reported.
“It must be the place at the back where all the trash is collected.” I thought to myself.
“Oh, if you’d also check that pile where they climbed over the fences, they’re not all just corpses piled over one another but some were just trapped inside. We need to watch out for that also because when we try to clear them out, one might get scratched or pulled inside.” Alonzo added.
“Okay, before we start clearing all of them in the City Hall, we need to do more recon by using the drones. Jared, bring Lois with you to the roof to check for more blind spots or places of interest and just mark them in the map we brought. Marvin, bring your group to go around this block to slowly thin the numbers outside for the meantime. Tatiana, bring a group with you to drive to the other side around the City Hall so we could have eyes from the other side. I spotted that house over there with a green roof and it seemed that it’s walled so it’s a good place to hole in for the meantime. If we could go as quiet as possible, that would be great. Go now while I check in to the situation of the others watching the other points.” I instructed a few things.
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*bzzt*
“Yo, how are you guys doing over there?”
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
“Umm, still okay sir. Same old, same old.”
*bzzt*
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Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt*bzzt*
“Had to kill a few sir ‘coz they got a little too close. We just dragged the bodies behind the building so it’s not in the open.”
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
“Okay, you’ll be there for a few hours but the bodies you put down, wait till we’re about to leave before you burn them, okay?”
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
“Okay, sir.”
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
“Roger.”
*bzzt*
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The drones then flew out from the love hotel at the same time as the other vehicles drove off in their respective roles. Mikhail and Russel were still with me in the same location though they were at the ground level with a few soldiers, watching the entrance for anything that might want to bite a chunk off of our bodies. Cynthia, Lawrence, and Max came with Tatiana and the rest of Mark’s group because we needed to distribute our good shooters evenly from both sides. Kaley was always by my side though I could feel that she wanted to take shots on the dead already. However, she was patiently watching Jared and Lois do their work while out for the people below.
So far, I haven’t heard a single gunshot, suppressed or unsuppressed, and it goes to show my group knew the importance of saving them even if I was handing them out like we literally have a f.u.c.kton of them.
“We do have a f.u.c.kton but they don’t f.u.c.k.i.n.g know that.” I smiled inwardly.
They would surely fire a round sooner or later because it was inevitable but each biter down with a melee weapon was a step in the right direction. Especially if it was a special taken down with simple and creative means.
After observing the other clearing groups, they were using something I might add to my arsenal. I discovered that Jay not only made nets for catching the dead and the garbage floating in the canal system, but he also made a few as an entanglement device to either hold them in place temporarily or catch one if I so requested.
They were made with thick ropes and a few of the clearing groups already incorporated them with their runs.
The drones arrived at their destination but they were in different places. Jared first drove it in the center of the park to try and attract most of them to get a general idea of their actual number while Lois drove around the edges of it to check for more blind spots. They also checked on the buildings surrounding it and my eyes were glued to the screens.
We could simply charge in guns blazing but it was more important to come back to our home with everyone still present. Most of the time, preparation for a project would take longer than the actual execution of the project itself. However, the longer you prepare for it the more the success rate of it will be depending on the circ.u.mstances.
“If I’m gonna repurpose a place to make another outpost here, where would I even place it? The City Hall with all the other buildings plus the People’s Park in this city is attractive but I need something easily defensible, partially hidden, and sustainable where we could grow crops and the like. Hmm, we’d just get to it after this city’s zombie presence lowers…” I thought to myself.
It took a bit of time before I heard Tatiana’s voice.
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*bzzt*
“We’re here inside the house. Nice place but we had to put down a lot on the way. We could see the other side of the City Hall but it’s just a few destroyed exits where a lot of trash is placed and where some of the dead wanders around. A few must’ve fallen to the small canal-like ditch here with a lot of water lilies since the wooden fences are broken.”
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
“Hold that place for now but take down anything that comes. I’ll make Marvin and Mikhail hold the other points as well so only a few people would proceed on clearing the City Hall.”
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
“What? What’s our plan again?”
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
“Well, we’ll do a little something very frowned upon in shooting games. With our backs covered doing this is almost illegal. We’d save a lot on our other bullets too.”
*bzzt*
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm–
*bzzt*
“Oh. Go ahead then, it would be more exciting to hold a point here…”
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
“Sure, thanks.”
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
“Okay…”
*bzzt*
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The plan was to isolate that area of anything incoming so we wouldn’t be disrupted in clearing that whole area. That was also the reason for planting two separate groups in farther locations as an early warning device so we could quickly retreat if things go awry.
I brought in the rest of my group and as we drew closer, the smell wafting was getting more and more horrible. We went inside another elevated building that was much closer so we would have a clearer shot and a better vantage point.
Their numbers exceed a few hundred but our .22 LRs in our ammo cans were more than double. We even brought extra rifles chambered in .22 LR so Lois was a little excited. A .22 LR wasn’t that much compared to other cartridges but it was one of the cartridges that killed a lot of the undead in our books. Like an old adage, shot placement was always key.
We still have our usual loadout but the rest of my group started to put down body after body with a suppressed .22 rifle. The dead couldn’t even figure out where the shots were coming from because shooting a .22 rifle suppressed wouldn’t even require hearing protection. It was still loud but it wasn’t enough to cause any sort of hearing damage.
“This is like cheating bro.” Jared chuckled.
“Heh, stop saying that every single time we camp on the dead. That’s the DOJ’s office over there, sue me.” I replied, smiling.
“Should I aim for some of the windows? They might get attracted to the sound and fall to their deaths?” Lois asked.
“After we’re done with the ones below. There’s also the piles where the gates were supposed to be.” I replied.
“This is really~ like cheating bro.” Jared once again commented.