WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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Chapter 210: Survivors (13)

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When the fire truck was halfway out of the garage, Gyeoul waved his arms in front of the pickup truck.

"Wait. Everyone stop for a moment."

The platoon members, just about to put their backs into it, looked puzzled. Morales, the most senior among them, stepped forward.

"What is it, sir?"

"I think this is inefficient."

As he said that, Gyeoul pointed toward where the gas station should be.

"Let's stop there first. If it has a repair shop too, there might be batteries, right?"

It was only one block away. The building with the solar panels was right in front of them, but considering the time and hassle of running a wire from the inverter, Gyeoul had a point.

"Hmm. Understood. Hey, Ale! Wesley! Disconnect it!"

The Private called Ale, as in beer, was actually named Alejandro. The nickname came from the first part of the name. Ale was often teased for awkward English, and though Ale found it annoying, Ale did not seem to truly hate it. For Gyeoul, who had to keep an eye on the mood of the temporary platoon under his command, that was fortunate.

The tow gear was released. The soldier driving the truck looked relieved, saying they had been worried the axle might bend.

Given the fire truck's weight class, that could happen. It would not cause a serious problem right away, but still. Gyeoul had experienced something similar.

'That was a contest to see whose vehicle had more power.'

He remembered the crowd going wild over that simple fight. An apocalypse from another time. His opponents had been an armed group he encountered in Washington DC. Vehicles modified like monsters inside and out had roared, kicking up chunks of asphalt. Even now, the skeleton cross dangling from the hood was clear in his mind. The driver's white tattoo had also left an impression as the driver gripped the wheel and screamed. The atmosphere had been brutal, but the match had begun as a relatively peaceful way to reach a compromise. The prizes were the food, medicine, or slaves each side possessed.

Back then, the infection had spread so quickly that civilization had left plenty behind. It was a world where humanity vanished faster than the remaining supplies could be used up. So the survivors who had lost hope became bands of barbarians digging up the graves of the previous age.

He hoped this world would not end up like that.

Gyeoul still thought the chance of the final apocalypse arriving was slim. But it was not zero, so he had to prepare himself little by little. If possible, he wanted it to be peaceful enough not to unsettle him. It was the boy's modest wish. He hoped he would have plenty of time to savor his one lingering attachment after death.

The gas station stood across the road from a small bank. Behind it was a radio station. One of the soldiers who looked back gave a bitter smile. They said it was a channel they had often listened to while working as a store clerk. At that, Gyeoul suddenly wondered if the radio broadcasts he had heard on the Pequod were still going. The President must have made a new address. How was the blockade line doing? And how was the American government responding now?

"Found them! There are tons! Whew, and the fuel stabilizer's stacked up by the box too."

The soldiers who wiped the windows and peered inside cheered under their breath. Perhaps because of the typhoon, there were signs of water leaking from the ceiling, but most of the batteries had been stored well. They were new, with the leak-prevention tape still attached. The fuel stabilizer was the same. Gyeoul gave an order.

"Change the truck battery first. The one in there was completely dead, so it looked weak."

"Yes sir."

It was nothing special, but everyone brightened. They, too, were people used to fighting despair.

Even a small pleasure was fine. Gyeoul pried open the vending machine in front of the office. When he jammed the crowbar in and twisted hard, it opened at once with a crack. There was only cola. It was about half a year past the expiration date. It usually did not spoil easily, but just in case, Gyeoul tasted a few first. 「Survival Instinct」 stayed quiet.

"How is it, sir? Is it drinkable?"

The question was full of expectation. Instead of answering, Gyeoul tossed over several blue cans. The soldiers laughed cheerfully.

"I don't handle flat beer or lukewarm cola, sir."

Morales said that, but did not refuse. After each person had one, the rest were loaded into the cargo bed. If they chilled them and handed them out, they would make an unexpected gift for the whole Company. As Captain Langford had said, sometimes the difference between life and death was one spoonful of ice cream.

For some of the audience in the physical world, that would be sex.

Gyeoul did not despise them.

There was an unexpected find: two small fuel tankers. Normally, they probably drove out to vehicles stopped in the middle of the long road and overcharged them. Each could carry only 4,500 liters, but that was enough to fill ninety Humvees and still have fuel left over.

At this point, Baker Company's options had grown considerably.

'It'd be nice if there were an abandoned armored vehicle on the way. A tank would be even better.'

Gyeoul entertained a lavish thought. Their fuel efficiency was poor, but the power of an armored vehicle or tank was absolute. Even without shells. Fort Roberts' Meerkat had mercilessly crushed a mutant horde to death. Its 1,500-horsepower engine and high reliability had made that possible. The noise was a burden, but there were ways to use that too. There was also the advantage of handling dirt roads and open ground well. At least while crossing the plains, it would be very useful.

Was the fuel capacity of an American tank 1,900 liters? With that much, it could move more than 400 kilometers.

The soldiers wrestling with the pumps drew fuel straight from the underground storage tank. Since it had been stored in bulk, it was in good condition. They had already secured plenty of additives anyway.

Opinions were split. Should both tankers be filled with diesel, or should one carry gasoline? At any rate, every vehicle they had secured right now had a diesel engine. Even later, if they selected vehicles, pickup trucks would come first. Put gasoline in those, and the engine would be wrecked.

Gyeoul ended the argument.

"We're not trying to cross the continent right now, are we? One tanker of diesel is enough. If we secure a new type of vehicle, we'll need gasoline. An armored vehicle, for example."

Tank engines were said to run even if you poured perfume into them, but they were not compatible with diesel. There was no guarantee that every additional vehicle they secured would have a diesel engine. Gyeoul had heard Russia had military aircraft that could use both gasoline and diesel, but he had no idea how such things were made.

Once their batteries were replaced, the fire truck and ambulance operated normally.

If measured by quantity alone, the food haul exceeded expectations. There were three bakeries within one block, and the flour secured from them alone was enough to feed the Company for more than two weeks. The soldiers, though, were deeply disgusted. One place had a fair number of bugs. Flour was not usually eaten by bugs, but when enough time passed without human hands touching it, this could happen.

"Ugh. Can we even eat this?"

"Think of it as emergency rations. What else can you do if you're starving to death? It's better than eating people or mutants."

Gyeoul's words, which brought April Pacific to mind, made the soldiers look even more uncomfortable.

"Mark the outside separately. We'll take it for now, then decide later whether to throw it away depending on the situation."

It took some time to sift the sacks of flour. If cooked thoroughly, it should not be a major problem. In any case, it was emergency food. If they had not secured extra vehicles, they would have left it behind. Beyond nutrition, they had to consider the psychology of the people eating it.

He did not even order them to keep what they had seen a secret. It would be a secret that could not be kept anyway.

The town's only grocery store was a cauldron of rot. There were so many roaches in particular that the soldiers did not dare go inside. Still, when Gyeoul said he would go alone, a few stepped up out of responsibility.

Inside the shelves, he found an unusual trace. Among countless marks where insects had been crushed to death, one spot stood out as strangely clean. It looked as if something broad and flat had been sitting there.

'Come to think of it, this was unfamiliar too.'

He had experienced it several times, but he still did not know the reason. It was a phenomenon that had not existed in past apocalypses. What did these cockroaches that did not fear people mean? Was it simply a change meant to create atmosphere...? No, that was unlikely. So far, meaningless changes had been rare.

At first, he had considered it minor. But the more often it caught his eye, the more it bothered him.

Even now, half the roaches avoided people, while the other half flew straight at their faces without fear. Swatting them away only worked for a moment. They flew and crawled blindly, making the soldiers recoil in horror. What was the difference?

"Lieutenant! Do we have to search this place?"

Gyeoul swept his gaze across the shelves and floor. The interior was dark, but a handful of light was enough for him to see. Even the spots outside the reach of the soldiers' lanterns were clear.

Many bottles were broken. The limp sugar bags showed obvious tooth marks. Even so, plenty of sealed goods remained intact. Mostly vinegar or strong sauces. He could picture a few roaches trying to lick them and recoiling in disgust. The alcohol section was fairly intact too. About half the salt was gone.

They took what they needed and disinfected it with vinegar and alcohol. The soldiers shook their heads.

At this point, searching private homes was impossible. Their transport weight had reached its limit. As their last stop, they visited the medical center below the main street. Medicine had expiration dates too, but they were able to secure a sufficient quantity of vitamins, supplements, and antibiotics.

"Everyone except the mobile unit should take the vehicles and return first. I think we'll need to go pretty far today. Tell the Captain we'll be back by EENT at the latest."

As Gyeoul gave the order, he was looking at the distant sky. A small light aircraft was passing at a distance the soldiers could never have seen. A faint contrail trailed behind it.

'What is that? There's no reason for something like that to be flying around this area...'

He was a little confused. It was not the Battlefield Control Aircraft that had once disappeared and then returned. It was a civilian plane without even a roundel (a national identification mark on a military aircraft). Its white paint gleamed under the spring sunlight.

After escorting the vehicle column to the bridge south of town, Gyeoul immediately turned his mount east. This was advance reconnaissance of the path the Company would take, and also a mission to look for traces of survivors. The light aircraft he had just seen bothered him a great deal too. If it entered airspace near the quarantine front without permission, it would be shot down immediately.

Surely the air defense network could not be such a mess that it was not operating at all.

With Gyeoul in the lead, five riders galloped toward the horizon where the sun was rising.

When they crossed the ridge, a group of alpacas suddenly passed by. It seemed the ones raised at a nearby ranch had somehow survived. The bizarre-looking bundles of fur were startled by people and fled in every direction. They must have been chased many times by monsters that had once been human. They were good food, but he decided to ignore them for now. Now that he knew their location, he could track them later.

Their route bent when they reached a lake. Perhaps the people who abandoned the dam had opened the floodgates before leaving, because the water level was very low. They crossed a bridge spanning the water and continued onward.

Kwaaaaaaah!

Maybe it had fallen behind its group, or maybe it had been infected and woken up later. A gaunt mutant sprang out from the scene of a chain collision, so Gyeoul struck it without slowing down and rode past. Its neck spun around twice before it was kicked by the hooves of the following horses.

"Ah, fuck! Jesus!"

The horse startled. The mobile unit member, terrified out of their wits, barely avoided falling. If their Riding skill had been a little better, the horse would have leapt aside and avoided it, but no matter how high the efficiency of 「Instruction」 was, this was still the current limit.

After passing through a valley about one kilometer long, they came to a small basin. Originally, they planned to pass through this basin, circle far to the northwest, then return south along State Route 1. It was to confirm whether the eastern road or the northern road was safer from the temporary base.

At that moment, countless shrieks echoed from the nearby mountains.

It was not a mutant horde visible to the naked eye. They were probably hidden by the trees. If they were in a place Gyeoul could not see, then they would not have discovered his side either. If they were screaming anyway, there was a high chance they were chasing separate prey. Was that prey really a wild animal?

After holding a funeral that morning, it was hard to be complacent.

============================ Author's Note ============================

#Q&A

Q. Calpis: Hearing about the blockade line reminds me of the Maginot Line. Will the blockade line also end up like the Maginot Line... surely not...?

A. I think it will be more fun if you keep watching with that "surely not" anxiety. There are no spoilers. Haha.

Q. FlyingDori: The chat window hasn't appeared much lately~!! When will it show up? Haha.

A. The chat window will continue until the end of the immature-tier episodes that appear from time to time. But many people, not only here but on other platforms too, strongly dislike the chat parts, so I hesitate to include them often.

Q. Epsilon00: @(omitted) Oh, and I have a question. The U.S. has the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Isn't the Washington side beyond the blockade line dangerous too because of mutants coming from the ocean? Also, did it come up earlier that the mutants appearing differ slightly depending on the country? If so, since the U.S. borders both oceans, it seems like there would be differences between Atlantic-side mutants and Pacific-side mutants. I'm curious whether the military leadership is aware of this.

A. The Atlantic blockade line is still holding up well. Eastern North America is safe. Citizens, please feel at ease and devote yourselves to your livelihoods... just kidding. :)

Special mutants are also the result of adaptation according to environment and resistance, so there may be new special mutants in each region. Since there are still quite a few countries that have not collapsed, the U.S. government has also accumulated related information.

At this point, the U.S. is successfully blocking the influx of overseas mutants, but as I said earlier, I think it will be more fun if you watch anxiously.

Q. NoblesseBuffer: Monday is great! Monday is great~ That Russia story was touching... The guy even had a wife and kid. T.T

A. It is unfortunate.

Footnotes:

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