Chapter 7
The next day, Ozpin entered the room at the appointed time, along with several other men. Guillermo had called in his more trusted men, and the relatives of the old folks. The room was bare, with only a chair in the front, with a light bulb in the ceiling. Ozpin stood inside, with a dozen other men inside the place. The men were milling about, confused and talking. Some were gossiping about him. Some were wondering where Guillermo was. Some were wondering why they were told to come here and not let anyone know.
The door opened, and Guillermo entered the room, with several backpacks and containers. He placed them in one corner, and sat down onto the chair, waiting for the noise to die down. Afterwards, he began. "Hello, boys. You're wondering why you're here. Its simple. And i don't want you tell anyone else about it. We're running out of food and medicine." There was silence at this. "So yes, we're doomed. We need food, we need medicine from the pharmacies, we need gasoline, and we need materials to construct a barricade. And we need a source of food for ourselves, if we're going to survive. So here's what we're going to do."
Gesturing to the backpacks and containers, he spoke. "You twelve are strong men. Good at carrying stuff. What I need you to do, is to go to Westland Mall, and pick up everything there. Everything. I've been there before, and there's a lot of stuff. You guys have been there before, and you know the supermarket. Where they store the food, the warehouses. And the fact that there are several pharmacies there, with their own backup generators for the medicines. And last but not least, gardening materials to make our own food. Don't give a shit about the flowers and stuff. Just anything thats edible. Lettuce, cabbages, turnips, potatoes, whatever. Any questions?"
The question came from a man beside Ozpin. "But G, ain't the entire place crawling with zombies? I think that the people tried to hole up there, before a zed got in and bit people. Now there are, like, a few thousand zombies crawling inside the place. No way are we going to do break in there. And we can't get past the barricade they put up anyway."
At this, Guillermo smiled. Standing up, he walked up to Ozpin and pointed at him. "I know that. See this guy? He's our solution. Remember those stories Miguel was talking about?"
"Yeah, those tall tales he was saying? Too bad he isn't a comic book writer." There was a small laugh at this.
"Well, I'm here to tell you this. He ain't wrong. In fact, I think he hasn't been telling us the weirder stuff." At this point, the laughter stopped. "What, don't believe me? Well, later, you're going to see what he can do. Ozpin? I'm going to need your help on this. We don't really have any good guns, and any shooting any will draw more. That's when I need you to take them down. Quietly. That ok with you?"
Ozpin then replied. "Fine then. Though I have to ask. What if we find other survivors?"
At that, Guillermo grimaced. "Then we can't let them know where we live. Others have tried to come here before. Looters. Thugs. We drove them off. Lost a few good men there. I'm afraid we can't let anyone go near us."
Ozpin was nonplussed by Guillermo's refusal. "What about children? Or people that are no threat? After all, more sets of hands means more things get done. You mostly have your hands full dealing with the old folks."
Eyes narrowing, Guillermo sighed, and finally replied to him. "Fine then. The old folks would love to have some children. Would brighten up the place a bit. And I know of several guns. Some of the boys talked about it. Some poor sap that got eaten, along with his horse. Seems that before that, he dropped a whole bag of guns on the street. Should still be there. If you can grab them, it'll be much easier to fight off any looters or robbers."
Turning to his side, he started handing out the backpacks and containers. Bring these. Whatever gasoline you can find, you fill the containers. Whatever food, canned food, anything edible, anything useful like tools? Put them in the backpack. But if its too heavy? Ditch them. We can always get them back. We can't with you. Now move out."
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They exited the place, and walked towards the mall, avoiding any large groups of shamblers. Any stragglers, they put down with pipes and crowbars. Until they finally turned around a corner and reached the mall.
The mall was dilapidated, with a large number of cars surrounding it haphazadly. Around them, were several dozen shamblers. They were wandering around aimlessly, as they have not detected them yet. Behind them, was the door of the mall, held shut by a barricade. The zed were too many for their men to fight. In this tight space, with no room to maneuver, they would be crowded, dragged down, and killed.
Behind him, the men whispered. "This is your turn, Ozpin. Show us what you can do." Shrugging his shoulders, Ozpin walked towards the shamblers. He smashed the closest one with his cane, then used his aura to sprint towards the next one. It was right next to a car. Using aura again, he leapt over the truck and killed another one. Using aura to increase his speed and strength, he smashed the skulls of every single shambler in the car park. Until he was right in front of the mall gates.
The gates were barred, with metal bars and wooden planks, with several layers of furniture and shelves behind it to make sure nothing got through. How unfortunate, then, that the danger came from within, not without.
He could see several corpses right next to the doors, amongst scattered pieces of the barricade. 'They must have been trying to escape, only now realizing that they have trapped themselves inside.' he thought. He could see palm prints on the door, where people had hammered and smacked onto the barricades when trying to escape, only to realize they were doomed. And the blood trails when they had been caught, and then dragged away. Behind them, there were at least several hundred zombies. He could see even more walking amongst the upper levels.
Sighing, Ozpin realized what he must do.
There was no way to open the doors quietly. If he tried to open it, the wooden barricades would drop and the zombies would notice him. If he smashed the glass, the zombies would still notice him due to the sound.
He would just have to bulldoze his way through, using maximum speed and strength. Lifting his cane, he swung.
The doors were shattered and sent flying. The wooden and metal planks and bars were shattered. The barricade was sent flying and tumbled through the air, only to land on the ground and roll forward crushing lines of shamblers. They began to turn, some were beginning to run. Ozpin leapt through the doors, in a stance. Lifting his cane, he concentrated aura at the tip.... and then released it.
A white line of energy flew through the zombie ranks, sizzling and cutting apart corpses where it touched them. It cut through the crowd of monsters, smashed straight through the water fountain in the center of the lobby, only to stop when smashing through several storefronts at the far end from the mall. The zombies from the second and third floors heard the noise, and started to move downwards.
No matter. With the mass of shamblers gone, Ozpin had space to maneuver. Now time to remove the stragglers and get the supplies.
Meantime, the men behind him had finally caught up. Looking at the pile of corpses covering the floor, they looked on in awe, looking around the mall that had recently been infested with shamblers, and had been taken down in less than 5 minutes 'Me cago en Dios' one said. They stared some more, until Ozpin interrupted them. Tapping his cane onto the ground twice, he reminded them. "Shouldn't you be going somewhere?"
Startled, the dozen-strong gang of men began to walk through the mall, grabbing anything they could find.