June 15, Rongguang Avenue Commercial Street.
After a day and a half of continuous street sweeps beginning on the afternoon of June 13, there were now no living Zombies left anywhere on Rongguang Avenue Commercial Street.
Every shop had been cleaned out thoroughly, with nothing overlooked.
This commercial street, which had been bustling before the disaster, had fallen into a strange kind of liveliness once again today.
"Wow, LV bags! Before the disaster, I couldn't afford even one after saving for half a year. Haha, and there's a limited edition one too. I'm taking it."
"Yeah, an iPhone 4S! I've always wanted one. I heard the base has electricity, right? Haha, I'm taking five."
"Wow, what a huge gold chain. And Nike sneakers, diamond watches—this is our trendy set of three symbols of wealth. I'm stocking up on several sets."
"Cigarettes! Cigarettes! Cigarettes! I'm taking as many as I can."
"Good idea. I'm going to fill an entire truck with red wine."
Inside the Walmart Department Store, more than thirty men and women wore excited, satisfied smiles as they pushed shopping carts around, picking out the items they liked and needed from different stalls.
Morales's two children rushed into the snack section first, grabbed a pile of expensive, hard-to-find snacks from before the disaster, then sat directly on the floor and began stuffing themselves. They didn't have to work and had plenty of time to enjoy them slowly.
To avoid affecting transportation, all the Zombie corpses here had been carried outside. Only dried traces of blood remained on the floor.
This was Leon's reward for their hard work over the past few days and for joining Umbrella Corporation. After this mission, everyone would receive a brand-new sedan and the right to choose any goods they wanted until the car was full.
Some people chose luxury goods such as clothing and accessories. Others chose necessities such as tobacco, alcohol, and food. A few farsighted people took an entire truckload of various medicines.
Everyone was extremely excited. They were all ordinary people and had never had an opportunity to spend so freely.
Perhaps this was the only benefit of the apocalypse. Many valuable things had become ownerless. As long as you had the ability and enough luck, you could obtain them.
The entrance to the Interstate Highway
Amy wore a pair of tight-fitting ripped jeans, with a white camisole and a red vest on top. Holding a notebook, she stood beside Leon, who was leaning against a sports car and smoking a cigar. In a soft voice, she reported:
"Mr. Castor, there are fifty-eight shops on this street. Eight of them are various restaurants, twelve are clothing stores, six sell various drinks, eight sell all kinds of daily accessories, and fifteen sell various professional tools and supplies, making a total of forty-nine small shops."
"The remaining nine are large commercial establishments. There are two gas stations, one International Chain Pharmacy, one Car Dealership, one Auto Repair Center, one Large Building Materials Center, one Medium Clinic, one Shooting Training Center, and one Walmart Department Store."
"May I ask which things we should choose to transport?"
Beginning yesterday morning, she had come to Rongguang Avenue Commercial Street with her sister Andrea and Ms. Quinn. They had spent a full day and a half cataloging every shop and every product.
The process had taken an extremely long time and consumed tremendous energy, but not one of the three women felt tired. Instead, they were all full of energy.
Even before the disaster, such a massive quantity and variety of supplies would have represented an astonishing fortune.
They could already imagine how wealthy their future lives would be.
Amy smiled, her eyes shining as she gazed at Leon with admiration. His handsome face always wore a calm, indifferent smile, while his dark green eyes were deep and unfathomable, like an abyss that could ensnare the soul.
Leon gave his little assistant a strange look and said in a tone that carried a hint of instruction:
"Of course we're taking everything!"
"Think about it. Everything here consists of items indispensable to our lives. Even those luxury goods can bring our employees both physical and emotional pleasure, as well as spiritual satisfaction."
"This is the disaster period. Supplies this complete are hard to find, and opportunities to search them safely won't come often."
"Everything here belongs to me—ah, no, to Umbrella Corporation. How could we waste any of it?"
Amy lowered her head, feeling somewhat ashamed. She stammered:
"I understand, Mr. Castor."
She fell silent, looking a little aggrieved for several seconds before continuing:
"Mr. Castor, what instructions do you have regarding the personnel arrangements for the transfer?"
Leon rubbed his chin, where stubble had begun to grow, considered for a few seconds, then asked:
"How much gasoline and diesel is at the gas stations? How much have we loaded onto the trucks?"
Amy flipped through the notebook in her hands and said:
"The first batch has already been loaded, Mr. Castor, but there's a bit of a problem."
"We only found two Oil Tankers and thirty-two oil drums at the gas stations. Each tanker can transport roughly 4.5 tons of gasoline, and it takes eight oil drums to hold one ton of gasoline. In other words, we can transport at most seventeen tons of gasoline the first time, and only nine tons the second time."
"However, the two gas stations have roughly fifty tons in storage. We'll have to make about five trips to transport it all."
Hearing this, Leon glanced at the Rolex on his wrist. It was one in the afternoon. Rongguang Avenue was about an hour and a half from the Atlanta CDC by car, making a round trip roughly three hours. Including loading and unloading, each trip would take at least five hours.
It was summer, and the sun would set at around seven. In other words, he didn't have much time left today.
"Do this: go urge them to speed up the loading. My promise is always valid. They can even choose their supplies after returning to the base. Remember to assign your sister and Ms. Quinn to coordinate the transportation work here. You'll be leaving with me this afternoon. We'll return to the base first, where you'll also need to arrange the work."
"This transfer mission will probably last a week, but we have to move faster. Otherwise, Zombies from other places may be attracted by the commotion here and cause us a lot of trouble."
"We currently have eleven trucks. Once they're loaded, we have to leave before three this afternoon."
"Go. Hurry up, and have Merle come find me while you're at it."
Amy sighed softly. After thinking about the truckload of treasures she had obtained, a great deal of energy surged back into her tired body.
Leaning against the sports car, Leon watched the petite beauty's graceful back gradually disappear, his thoughts returning to the present.
He was happy, but even more than that, he was troubled.
At present, Umbrella Corporation had thirty-five employees in total, excluding Dr. Jenner, Dr. Melpha, and those seriously ill elderly people. Of them, aside from Morales's two children, only thirty-three were truly capable of working.
With so few people, they still had to handle security, transportation, loading, driving, and all kinds of other work. There were simply too few people to exploit. How could such a small workforce enable him, the boss, to live the happy, ideal life he wanted?
Thinking of how he would have to divide these people into two groups after returning to the base, assigning them to load, transport, dismantle, renovate the base, distribute housing, clear the surrounding Zombies, and handle the mountains of other work...
Damn it, even his scalp was starting to tingle.
But living people were truly hard to find in the apocalypse. He recalled the locations he had seen in the story.
The few populated places he could think of included Woodbury, the Governor's district, Maggie's family's Farm, Alexandria, God's Country, and the Salvation Army's Sanctuary.
Most of these places had unknown locations. More importantly, at this point in time, they might not have formed yet—or might not even exist.
Finding them would be no simple task.
For now, the only place he had any confidence in was Maggie's family's Farm. He knew roughly where it was. As long as he found their farm, he had a good chance of persuading Hershel.
Oh, right.
There were also Terminus, Morgan, Rick, and Shane.
Before he could continue thinking, he saw Merle walking toward him with a smile at the corners of his mouth.
The old hoodlum had truly been happy lately. Although the messed-up world had turned into an apocalypse, the difference wasn't all that great to him. He had practically lived in hell before.
Now, he had found a powerful boss who valued him, gained a group of capable underlings, earned everyone's respect, and his younger brother Daryl was doing well too. He could clearly see that as long as he remained loyal and got things done, an even better and more hopeful life was within reach.
This was far more enjoyable than his former life as a bottom-rung enforcer whom everyone had hated before the disaster.
Thinking of the fine wine and cigarettes loaded into the cars—things he once hadn't even dared to imagine—he looked at Leon, his boss, in the distance. An ingratiating smile involuntarily appeared on his face.
"Boss, you called Old Merle over. What do you need?"
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