The house window that was ten ters ahead.
“There he is!”
A man hiding there spotted Aiden and shouted.
The brown shotgun he was holding was imdiately aid at Aiden.
The opponent, who had already estimated Aiden’s position to so extent, had a faster aim.
Judging so, Aiden gave up the attack, quickly hid behind the building again.
Bang!
The shotgun fired, and Aiden once again concealed himself behind the building almost simultaneously.
So of the buckshot rcilessly tore through the wooden wall of the building, and the rest whizzed past Aiden’s head, accompanied by the sharp sound of the wind.
A sight that would send shivers down the spine of an ordinary person.
“...”
However, at that mont, Aiden recalled not the emotions of such a mont but the model of the shotgun the man was holding.
The looter’s shotgun was a weapon Aiden knew well.
A hunting double-barreled shotgun.
A break-action shotgun that didn’t use a magazine, requiring manual loading of one round into each of the two barrels.
To be honest, in the current world overrun by zombies, it wasn’t the best weapon.
However, as it was widely available for civilians, it was one of the common firearms among wanderers or looters who couldn’t obtain military-grade automatic rifles.
So, the response was straightforward.
Aiden extended only his hand beside the building, engaging in a counterattack.
Without aiming, he shot a couple of rounds in the direction where the man was, shooting a few steps and hiding his body.
Then, as if in response, another gunshot returned.
The second storm of buckshot tore through the adjacent space once again.
Having confird this, Aiden imdiately turned his entire body and aid the revolver at the window where the man was.
However, the man at the window was not visible.
It was as Aiden expected.
After two shots, reloading was definitely necessary, so he had hidden inside to reload.
A few seconds later, when the man finished reloading and raised his head above the window.
Bang!
Aiden’s waiting pistol bullet pierced through his forehead.
The man with the shotgun fell, splattering blood.
Now, one person down.
As he reloaded the revolver, intending to move forward.
“It’s all done.”
Suddenly, Arian’s voice ca from behind.
Whether she had taken care of all her share in those tens of seconds of exchanged gunfire.
However, upon hearing the continuing words, she hadn’t finished only her part.
“There was so ti left, so I took care of the one you were supposed to take care of. Is that okay?”
During the exchange of threatening gunfire, had she taken down all three ard marauders?
It was a surprising ability, albeit not unexpected.
“Good job. Any injuries?”
Arian shook her head and spoke sowhat urgently.
“More importantly, I found another person.”
“Another looter?”
“It doesn’t seem like that. No sll of gunpowder, just a strong scent of blood. Probably badly injured.”
“Is that so?”
Several conjectures crossed Aiden’s mind.
While there was a possibility of him being a comrade of the looters.
The most plausible guess was that he was a victim who had suffered at the hands of the looters.
“I’ll check it out first.”
Arian took Aiden to a small warehouse on the outskirts of the village.
A small warehouse standing alone next to a wide field.
Inside, a middle-aged man was hanging upside down, tied to a rope, covered in blood.
“...”
The man’s injuries were serious even at a glance.
Flesh torn here and there, and burns visible on his back.
At the grueso sight, Arian’s eyes twitched.
The man was unconscious.
Aiden first took down the man hanging and checked his condition.
“How is he?”
Arian asked, but Aiden shook his head slightly.
There were no proper dical examination tools, but just by looking at the amount of spilled blood in the vicinity, it was evident.
The man had lost a significant amount of blood. Furthermore, judging by his weak breathing and pulse, it seed like his stamina had been considerably depleted.
Even for a forr doctor like Aiden, there was almost nothing he could do for such a man.
Upon hearing such an explanation, Arian wrinkled her face in disapproval.
“Why on earth would soone do this? Are they fanatics too?”
Inside the warehouse, there were clubs and blood-stained pliers scattered around. Perhaps the looters had tortured this man as if it were an interrogation.
Aiden added calmly to Arian’s words, Arian, who seed to lack understanding.
“No, probably no particular reason. It was likely just for entertainnt.”
“Entertainnt?”
“There’s not much to do in this world.”
Arian let out a hollow laugh.
At that mont.
“Uhh...”
The man, covered in blood, regained consciousness, perhaps due to the blood draining from his head. He slowly raised his eyelids, directing his hazy gaze toward Aiden and Arian.
“Who are you... again?”
With an undisguised sense of wariness, he spoke with a hoarse voice filled with resentnt. However, it was just talk; the man remained lying down, unable to lift even his upper body, indicating his poor physical condition.
Upon hearing this, Aiden promptly introduced himself:
“I’m Aiden Lee, just a passing junk dealer.”
“What...? Junk dealer?”
“It seed like you were captured by looters. Is that right?”
The man rolled his eyes and alternately looked at Aiden and Arian. Aiden, wearing a black helt, might not have been recognized, but Arian was clearly a face he had never seen before.
So, he quickly realized that Aiden’s group had no connection to the looters.
“...Those bastards?”
“They’re dead.”
For a brief mont, the expression on the man’s face disappeared.
However, soon after, a twisted smile stretched across his lips.
“Haha... damn bastards. Well, that’s good.”
For a while, he muttered curses in a dying voice against the looters who had tornted him. Aiden, who had been silently listening to his rightful venting, asked him:
“Are you a wanderer?”
“? I’m... like you guys. A junk dealer. I was handling a request and... cough... ran into bad luck two days ago.”
“A request?”
“Yeah. It was a kind of... strange request to deliver a letter... Damn... that turned out to be Owen’s last request.”
Referring to himself as Owen, he let out a low laughter. However, instead of his na, Aiden’s attention was stolen by sothing else.
“A letter? Where were you sending it?”
“Why... are you offering to... deliver it instead?”
Owen joked, but for Aiden, there was indeed a willingness to deliver that letter on his behalf.
“It’s possible. We are looking for a survivor group. If it’s in the direction we are heading, we can’t refuse.”
At that mont, the mischievousness disappeared from Owen’s face. He gestured with his eyes toward a corner of the warehouse.
“My... my bag...”
Aiden checked the place he was looking at and soon found a small, crushed brown bag discarded there. Most of its contents were just odds and ends, but among them was the letter Owen had ntioned.
“Little Rock. There... a gang was doing business. You can find a kid nad Carter...”
Little Rock was the capital of Arkansas, located about 200 km west of mphis.
Since Aiden and his group had been planning to continue south after passing through mphis, they had no information about the city. However, if there was a gang there, the situation would be different.
Aiden listened attentively to his words and tucked the letter into his pocket.
While he still didn’t know much about this gang, he had gained a reason to make contact.
“Got it. I’ll handle this request.”
“...Do as you please.”
Owen said that while struggling to catch his breath. However, his eyes stared intently at Aiden.
Perhaps it was because he was also a junk dealer. Owen implied that he would reward Aiden for taking care of his request.
Of course, Owen couldn’t offer much in his current condition – at most, just the information he knew. So, Aiden asked him:
“Do you know anything about mphis?”
“Dangerous... but useless.”
Owen spoke slowly.
As Claire had ntioned, there was an abandoned military base in mphis. However, over the past two years, people feeling the scarcity of resources hadn’t left that place alone.
Several gangs had waged war against the zombies at the military base, eventually reclaiming the surface and sweeping up the supplies there.
However, there was still one area these gangs hadn’t touched – the underground warehouse of the military base.
“There are... special mutants underground. I don’t know the details either. The gangs gave up on the underground because of those mutans. If you want to find sothing, you’ll probably have to go underground.”
“Alright, that’s enough.”
Aiden nodded after hearing information about mphis. Although there were still questions about the gangs west of mphis and other factions, he considered Owen’s current state.
Unfortunately, Owen seed too exhausted to provide any more information.
So it seed.
Having finished speaking, Owen silently stared at the ceiling.
Feeling the stifling atmosphere in his gaze, Aiden asked:
“Is there anything you need?”
“It’s... too dark here. Can you move to a brighter place?”
Aiden lifted him and sat him in a large wooden chair that had been waiting outside the warehouse.
Although Owen seed to feel pain even with the slight shock of the move, he managed to smile when he was finally seated.
“It’s very nice. Warm, bright, and... well, that’s enough. You can leave now.”
Owen said that while gazing at the sky, blinking slowly. Although the sun was still in the sky, for so reason, the sky he saw gradually darkened.
At that mont, Aiden’s voice was heard.
“One last thing. Owen, what’s your last na?”
At that question, Owen let out a small laugh.
And co to think of it, he hadn’t revealed his na to this junk dealer.
“...Freeman. Owen Freeman. That’s... my na.”
“Got it. I’ll rember that.”
Hearing his na, Aiden turned away from Owen.
The footsteps of the two gradually faded away.
And eventually, they were no longer heard.
In the midday sun, where the dazzling sunlight poured directly down, Owen slowly closed his eyes.
* * *
“Sadie, are you okay?”
Arian, who had returned in the vehicle, first checked Sadie’s safety.
Responding to her question, Sadie, who had co out from among the baggage, nodded lightly.
“I’m fine. I heard gunshots... are you uninjured?”
“Then, everything’s fine.”
At that mont, Aiden, who was sorting through the belongings, boarded the vehicle a bit late.
“We should hurry. I need to make use of that blood.”
Aiden said, looking towards the trunk.
What he had just placed there was an amount of blood exceeding 6 liters. It was the blood of the four raiders who had opposed Aiden’s group, all extracted by Arian’s ability and temporarily stored in a plastic container.
However, blood that is not frozen can only last for a few days at best and will easily spoil afterward. Therefore, the deadline for using this blood was roughly around three days.
“That’s right. With this, we should be able to handle any mutants in the underground.”
Even though Aiden knew about the mutated creature lurking in mphis’ underground, the reason for heading there was precisely this.
Arian had convinced Aiden that with a large amount of blood, they could bring down powerful mutations.
Apart from that, Aiden secured a few rounds of ammunition from the raiders’ belongings. It wasn’t overly abundant, but it was sufficient for one round of combat.
With this, even though he didn’t know what kind of mutants twere there, Aiden thought it was worth fighting once.
Vroom!
Aiden started the engine of the vehicle again. The vehicle, returning to the road it had temporarily left, smoothly passed through a small town.
The warehouse where Owen was stood nearby, approaching rapidly, and then gradually moved away.
Soon, following a detour, they re-entered the highway they needed to take two days later to reach mphis.
The road was still clean, and the sunlight was dazzling.
Aiden’s group’s vehicle glided smoothly along the road where not even ordinary wreckage was visible.
There were no obstacles on the way. Thanks to that, just as planned, two days later in the morning, they reached mphis.
“...Is that it?”
A vast warehouse area located south of mphis International Airport. Getting off the car near the entrance, Arian asked while surveying the surroundings.
Having checked the surroundings, Aiden soon nodded.
“Yeah, without a doubt. This is it.”
“But... it’s quite extensive, isn’t it? It seems difficult to find whatever is here.”
As she said, mphis’ warehouse area was quite vast. Several warehouse buildings, large enough to accommodate a few soccer stadiums, were lined up in front of them in a straight row.
In addition, there were three warehouse areas, with a lake at the center.
Because of this, with only large warehouse buildings exceeding ten, and combining them with dium-sized warehouses, the total number exceeded thirty.
It was too vast a place to search blindly. However, Aiden had already secretly guessed the location of the military base.
“The military base is likely to be north of the warehouse area, close to the airport.”
Now, even if planes like airplanes were not operating at all at the mont, back when the military base was established, aircraft were essential for their transportation.
So, unless there was a specific reason, Aiden judged that the military base would be north, close to the airport.
“Got it. Let’s start looking from the north then.”
“But before that...”
Aiden took a plastic container from the car trunk.
With red liquid inside, Aiden extended it to Arian.
“We need to take this. How’s the condition of this blood?”
Upon Aiden’s words, Arian opened the lid of the plastic container. Then, using a finger, she dipped into the blood and put it in her mouth.
With a subtle expression, blinking her eyebrows, she shrugged and said:
“It’s not fresh, but edible.”
When Arian made a casual gesture, the blood inside the container rose into the air on its own.
It ford a round blood ball about the size of a soccer ball, which floated next to Arian, following her.
Sadie looked at the scene as if finding it fascinating.
“Alright, let’s move.”
Aiden’s group headed straight to the north of the warehouse area.
Then, a large emblem hung on the biggest warehouse, closest to the airport, caught their eyes.
An emblem representing the U.S. Army with an eagle.
There was no mistake.
This place was undoubtedly an abandoned military base.
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