The End Of Life - Chapter 118

The jeep stopped in front of a huge warehouse. Mark looked at the closed warehouse and sighed. It was locked from the outside. All of them got out of the car and looked at the huge shutter in front of them.

“So, what should we do now? Should we search for another one?” asked Kevin, looking at David and Mark.

David shook his head and said, “No, it would be a waste. This is the repair workshop for the trains. So there would be a place for us to park the truck. The other warehouses are for storing the trains themselves. So we won’t have many places to keep the truck.” pointing at the signboard to the side.

“So, should we go and search inside the main block now?” asked Suzie.

All of them went silent hearing her question, and they turned towards Mark for an answer. Mark looked at them and said pointing to the distance, “Why to go to the main block when we can easily find the keys there.”

They turned towards the direction he pointed and found a small horde of zombies making their way towards them. David sighed but nodded as he took out the beretta 97. Kevin held his AK 47 tighter while Suzie just took another pole from the side.

“The bloater in the middle of that horde is a security guard. He should be having the keys to the warehouses.” explaining the objective. They noticed the huge bloater wearing a security uniform. Everyone nodded and ran towards the horde.

Mark took out his sword instead of the gun and swiftly went through the bitters in front as the rest continued to shoot. Suzie used the huge pole to mainly push back the zombies while taking out a few of them in the process. It did not take Mark long to reach the huge bloater, and he quickly jumped high enough and sliced its head off.

But he did not stop and continued to slice through the surrounding zombies in a quick fashion. He felt relieved that there were no acid zombies. If they were in the mix, it would just be a horrible idea to jump right into a zombie horde.

Suzie continued to support him using the large electric pipe in her hand while Kevin and David used the guns to shoot the zombies from afar. It took them another 10 minutes to finally stop their bodies and look at the dead zombie bodies on the ground.

Mark looked at the huge bloater wearing the security uniform in the middle of the bodies and made his way towards it. He looked at the headless body and checked the pockets to find the key card with the owner’s name and the warehouse number. He exhaled in relief when he saw the title ‘Chief of Security’. It meant the card had access to all the warehouses.

He made his way towards the group with the card in his hands. David sighed when he noticed the card in Mark’s hand. As Mark got closer he said, “Looks like we found the right card.”

Mark nodded, and they made their way towards the warehouse. He handed the card over to David and David went to the machine on the side and swiped the card. The shutter slowly opened with a noise at the start, probably due to it being tight after being closed for 2 to 3 weeks.

As the shutter slowly opened, Mark saw the empty warehouse only with various tools on the ground. Mark looked at Kevin and gave a signal. Kevin went to the back and got inside the truck as he drove it inside. Kevin stopped the truck right in the middle where there was sunlight.

Mark drove the jeep to the side and entered the warehouse with the rest. He noticed Kevin already removing his tools and other non-food items from the inside to turn the freezer of the truck on. They slowly arranged all those stuff to the side on a shelf. Kevin then turned the freezer on using the sunlight, which takes time.

“Well, as it would take time for the solar to get working, why don’t we have lunch by then?” turning towards Suzie. Suzie gave a nod and took out a few vegetables and meat for them. Kevin started salivating when he saw the meat in Suzie’s hand.

Mark could only lightly smack on the back of his head and shake his head. Suzie got to cooking using the solar appliances she got from the store. The rest sat on the chairs and started cleaning their weapons. Mark slowly cleaned the beretta while teaching David how to and Kevin cleaned the AK 47.

“Come, let’s eat.” sounded Suzie. They left the cleaned guns to the side and went towards Suzie. They noticed a pot of vegetable soup and some freshly fried meat. They took their own portions and got to eating.

Kevin was in tears as he ate the meat and gave thumbs up to Suzie. Suzie could only smile at her friend’s tears and continue eating. Mark had his thoughts on the military base camp. ‘With this out of the way, we need to find the military camp quickly. But we have no clue about its whereabouts right now.’ he sighed and continued to eat.

After getting lunch out of the way, Kevin noticed the freezer was running and gave a nod to Mark. Mark responded the same and Kevin closed the truck while keeping the freezer running.

“Alright then. Let’s get going. We need to find the base camp in the town quickly.” clapped Mark.

Everyone gave a nod as Kevin closed the warehouse and gave back the key to Mark. Mark sat behind the wheel while David sat in the front seat. Looking at everyone, Mark started the jeep and drove out of the railway station.

He slowly drove through the streets thinking about a suitable place the military would settle in that city. He turned towards David, who had the most knowledge of the city, and asked, “Where are the major buildings and communities in the city?”

David could only shake his head and respond, “I don’t know. I always stayed in my own place or a hotel. I don’t have much idea about the city in general.” Mark gave a nod and continued to drive through the city. Mark could only curse the old general for not giving the right coordination for them to work with.

*IN STARGAZE CITY MILITARY BASE*

“*sneeze* ugh,” grunted Donald as he rubbed his nose with a tissue.

“Are you alright, Dad?” asked Steve, holding a report in his hands.

Donald nodded and signaled him to continue his report on the work inside the base.

*BACK TO EVERGREEN CITY*

Mark continued to drive through the city, completely clueless. He looked at the empty streets, void of any humans and only a few zombies which got shot down by David when they got near to them.

As they crossed a section, Mark suddenly looked to the side and noticed a huge horde of zombies running towards them. Mark’s eyes went wide when he saw this, and as he turned the wheel, something else caught his attention.

It was a running person. A human was waving his hands at them while running away from the zombies. Mark looked closer and noticed the khaki military uniform on him and hit the brakes.

“Mark, let’s go. We can’t get away from that horde.” said an anxious Kevin. The rest were also looking at him with confused and pale faces.

“No, our ticket to finding the military base is running away from that horde. We need that person to find out where the base is at.” pointing at the soldier running away from the horde. The rest looked out of the window and finally noticed the heavily wounded soldier running away from the horde.

“But he is wounded. He might be affected already.” voiced out, David.

Mark shook his head and said, “No, those wounds are not from a zombie. Look at him. If those wounds were from a zombie, he would not be able to run that quick and the area around that wound would be black. So he isn’t affected yet.” making them realize what he said was true.

Mark did not wait for another sentence from them as he turned the jeep around and went head-on towards the horde. As he was only several meters away from the horde, he turned the jeep to the side and stopped it. Suzie opened the door, and the soldier understood their intentions.

He continued to run and leaped towards the jeep as a zombie almost caught onto him. Mark shot it with a gun and Suzie pulled him in. Mark did not wait for another second to hit the gas and drive off from that street.

The soldier was in pain. Suzie closed the door and David as a doctor looked at him. Mark stopped the car inside an empty alleyway. He turned around towards the soldier and asked, “So, soldier. How are you?” with a smile.

IMP NOTICE IN THE AUTHORS NOTE BELOW. PLEASE READ IT.