บท 148: Government Shelter (7)
<Author's note: The things (racism, sexism, political views, etc.) depicted or mentioned in this story do not reflect the real world and are purely coincidences. If they do, please keep in mind that they are simply for world-building and are only work of fiction. Thank you for your understanding.>
"We surrender! Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" said the people who came out of the burning building.
They were 5 people -- 4 men and 1 woman. They were all kneeling on the ground with their hands held up in the air.
The people that Makeda came with aimed their weapons -- some had System weapons, while others pointed their guns at the people who surrendered.
"Don't shoot! Arrest them!" said Makeda.
8 people from Makeda's group approached the 5 survivors and pulled out handcuffs.
And as they were handcuffing the survivors, one of the men, a black man, struck one of the survivors on the face with the butt of their rifle.
Pah!
The survivor fell to the ground and was dizzy.
"THAT'S FOR MY BROTHER! IF DON'T FIND MY BROTHER ALIVE IN THERE, I'M GOING TO FIND YOU AND TORTURE YOU!" said the man and then proceeded to cuff the survivor.
Seeing what the man did, the other people decided to take a cheap shot as well at the other survivors -- kicking and shoving them down to the ground.
"Stop! I SAID STOP!!!" said Sweet Dave.
Some of the members of Foxtrot, including Lisa and Nur arrived at the scene.
As for Nathan, he wasn't there because of reasons.
Makeda's companions looked at Sweet Dave.
Sweet Dave continued, "They've already surrendered. There's no reason to hit them."
"No reason? Sweet Dave, I respect you and all, but after all these people have done since the zombie apocalypse, hitting them is the very least thing we should do to them. Also, did you just forget that our family and friends -- even your wife was inside when the shelter exploded? Aren't you angry?!" said the man who initiated the cheap shots.
"Solving violence with violence would only bring more violence. If we give in to our dark desires, how will we be any different from animals and zombies? This isn't the time for killing each other. We should do better than this!"
The man scoffed and said, "Get off of your high horse! You know, I feel so sorry for your wife and the people who follow you. You're nothing but another old white man who thinks he's better than everyone else and knows everything about the world. Who are you to tell us what to do, what to think? Go shove that self-righteous --"
"The both of you, that's enough!" said Makeda.
Both Sweet Dave and the man stopped arguing.
"Send the prisoners to the holding center for interrogation," she said before turning to Sweet Dave. "Continue having your team secure the perimeter and send one back to the office to request help in putting out the fire. Don't worry, you'll still be part of the teams to enter the building."
Sweet Dave nodded and left.
Makeda turned to one of the members of her team.
"Get the medical team to prepare for standby in case we find any survivors."
The member nodded and left.
"Okay, I need a group of volunteers to enter the building once the fire is put out."
Meanwhile, Nathan, who was watching the whole show from afar, resumed heading to the building he had his sights on to pick up a chair.
He didn't bother to go near because there was nothing to see other than the burning building and dead bodies. And most importantly, there could be a second explosion and there are too many brown-Caucasians here, who knows, they might suddenly go crazy and start an explosion of their own.
It's better just to be far away from crowded places because despite his high VIT, he wasn't willing to gamble his life against a full blast explosion. And plus, it was a waste of potions and clothes.
***
It took more than 3 hours before Makeda and the rest were able to put out the fire and enter the blast shelter to investigate and search for survivors.
Based on what they've discovered, the people who hid inside the blast shelter (aka prisoners) did set up a trap on B1 by using the missiles and some of the explosives kept on B1. They covered it with 40% of food supplies to attract the intruders.
However, they underestimated the power of the missiles and explosives that when they exploded. It destroyed the blast door separating B1 and B2 and then spread, destroying more than half of the remaining food kept on the B2 level.
The 5 people earlier were the lucky ones, while their other companions either got caught in the explosion or died from suffocation.
Nathan was on a corner, sitting on a chair.
There were bystanders watching the whole event.
He yawned and checked his watch.
"Haaaaa~"
5:11 pm.
'Machine Gun Mouth did say that her pilot friend will be returning around 5:00 pm and she will introduce him to me over at dinner at 6:00 pm at that place she mentioned.'
He tried to look for Sweet Dave and spotted him.
He was checking one of the body bags and talking to some people.
'Hmm… He seems too busy right now for me to ask him if he knows any pilots…'
'Well… I just hope that all this playing house thingy that I've been doing with him won't be a complete waste of my time or I'll be fucking pissed.'
'However…'
He swept his gaze all over the area.
'How long will this fucking take? They've already investigated everything there is to investigate on that building, right? So what are they even doing?'
He got up and went straight to Sweet Dave.
***
Nathan got to Sweet Dave.
"Hey, how long is this going to last? It's been almost 4 hours already."
Sweet Dave turned to him and said, "What?"
"I said it's been 4 hours already. Haven't you guys already investigated enough? What's the point in delaying things?"
Sweet Dave knitted his brows.
'Oh, it's the guy that arrived a couple of hours ago. I forgot about him.'
Putting aside the stress and problems caused by the zombie apocalypse, his wife just died and many people lost their loved ones during the explosion.
Earlier, when the explosion happened, the loss hasn't completely sunk in him yet. And although he's usually a calm and collected person, after seeing the burnt corpse of his wife, that's when he felt the weight of his wife's passing.
And at the moment, he didn't have the energy to deal with other people's problems.
"We're still investigating. There's still --"
"They're already dead. What else is there to do and say? Get over it. You people aren't the only ones who lost loved ones."
Sweet Dave took a deep breath.
Although he finds Nathan's words a bit too insensitive to the point he was tempted to lash out at him, he understood where he was coming from.
He let out a sigh and said, "It's your first day anyway. You have my permission. You're free to go. I'll also ask Lisa and Nur to give me a report about your performance and then make a report."
"About my performance?"
"Don't worry, I'll put on a good word for you."
Nathan turned and was about to leave but went back, "I need some information about pilots. Do you know anyone who knows how to fly a plane or helicopter?"
If Sweet Dave wasn't preoccupied with the death of his wife, he would've suspected that Nathan was planning to steal one of the helicopters in the base and warn him to forget about the idea if he wanted to continue staying in this base.
Anyone who wants to take them must get the permission of all the leaders in this base. However, even if he did, things at the moment were in chaos because 4 out of the 5 leaders died in the explosion.
Only Makeda was left.
"Yeah, I know a few. No, I only know one. The others died from the explosion."
"Who is this person who knows? Can you introduce him to me?"
"I'll introduce him later to you over dinner. He's out right now with a group searching for food supplies outside and will return very soon."
'He's out? Could he be the same person that Machine Gun Mouth was referring to?' he thought. "Okay. I will see you later then."
Nathan finally left.
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Immortal_Shades
Immortal_Shades I haven't properly edited this chapter yet. I'll probably do some edits later.
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