Base

"Boss, you called Old Merle over—what's the order?"

Leon tossed Merle a cigar and said, "After 3 PM, I'm taking the convoy back to base, and I won't be coming by for the next few days either."

"I'm leaving the entire combat team with you, but you have to guarantee everyone's safety here. Can you do that?"

Merle took the cigar, sniffed it without lighting it, and tucked it into his pocket. He thumped his chest and assured Leon, "No problem, boss. I swear to you, I'll bring every single person back safe and sound."

Leon nodded and added, "You know where the base is, right? Atlanta CDC, about an hour and a half drive from here."

"On the supply runs, you also need to send a team to guard them. Make sure no blind bastard tries to ambush us. Our enemies aren't just zombies—you should know, some people have no bottom line."

"Got it, boss. Rest assured, I'll arrange everything."

At 3 PM, Leon drove a blue off-road sports car at the front of the line. Behind him, 11 large trucks and 2 tanker trucks formed a long column, carrying over 100 tons of various daily supplies.

Under Leon's lead, the group traveled along the interstate highway without incident and arrived at the outer plaza of the Atlanta CDC.

After reaching the destination, Leon didn't get out immediately. Instead, he drove the sports car around the CDC for a cautious inspection.

Spotting no large zombie horde, he casually took out two zombies that had wandered there aimlessly, then returned to the metal gate of the CDC.

The drivers, movers, little assistant Amy, and a dozen Umbrella Corporation employees were all waiting for him there.

Their faces carried a hint of disappointment, thinking this Umbrella base wasn't as safe as Leon had advertised. But cowed by Leon's authority, no one dared to actually speak up.

No high walls or thick fortifications, no machine guns or artillery, no large manpower—how could these glass panes hold off the zombies that had even defeated the military?

Leon didn't waste words. He simply pulled out his silenced pistol from his belt and fired at the nearby glass—pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft—emptying a magazine. The sound made the movers and drivers instinctively shrink their necks.

Watching the bullets ricochet off, the bulletproof glass not even scratched, Leon shrugged at the crowd and said, "Everyone, rest assured. This place is a true fortress. Without cannons or tanks, no one can really hurt you here."

"There's also a complete water and power system. You can live a civilized, modern life here."

"Of course, if anyone's still not satisfied with this environment, I don't mind excluding them and letting them go live the life they want."

With that, Leon paid no more attention to the others. He glanced at his little assistant Amy and spoke to the sensor on the metal gate: "Red Queen, open the gate."

"Yes, master." A ethereal female voice rang out.

After gaining control of the ground buildings, Leon had modified the smart system here to his preferred mode.

Since it was Umbrella Corporation, the smart system should be called Red Queen.

Too bad this smart system wasn't as intelligent as imagined—it could only handle simple voice recognition controls, with no way to add more advanced capabilities.

Beep!

Click! Click! Click!

The metal roll-up door quickly retracted, revealing the glass sliding doors inside. Through the two glass doors, one could see the spacious, bright modern reception room further in.

"Come on in, follow me. I'll give you a tour of the base first—this is where you'll be living for a long time to come."

Leon waved at the crowd. Amy obediently followed half a step behind him, looking like she was waiting for orders at any moment.

The CDC's ground buildings were roughly divided into three parts: the Tourist Area, the Staff Area, and the Underground Parking Lot.

The Tourist Area included the Exhibition Hall and the Reception Center. It was a large modern landmark building covering 3,000 square meters and standing about 40 meters tall, with an elegant design and strong visual appeal.

Its exterior walls used a steel-concrete hybrid structure, mostly assembled from large steel frames and hundreds of large bulletproof glass panels into a transparent outer wall. Inside, it was divided into 4 floors: the first floor was the Reception Center, and the upper three were the Exhibition Hall.

Inside were exhibits covering the CDC's entire history, various achievements made at different times, and the contributions of many famous medical and biological experts to the world. The variety was broad, but it was all fairly standard face-project stuff.

The Staff Area included the Office Area and the Living Area. It was a fairly common rectangular three-story office building covering about 2,000 square meters.

The first floor was the Living Area, with a large cafeteria, a huge visitor activity room, restrooms, bathhouse, smoking room, storage, and other functional buildings needed for daily life.

The second floor was the clerical office area, composed of a dozen private offices and four large offices.

The third floor was for receiving important guests—a meeting room, screening room, private lounge, and entertainment room, luxuriously decorated, intended by Leon as his future private space.

The first two areas together covered nearly 6,000 square meters, but their actual usable floor area added up to a full 15,000 square meters—an astonishing amount of space.

But the largest of the three areas was neither of the first two—it was the Underground Parking Lot below.

For whatever reason, the CDC's parking lot was built enormous, with each floor quite tall. It was divided into 4 levels, each with a floor-to-ceiling height of 8 meters, covering 5,000 square meters per level, for a total actual area exceeding 20,000 square meters.

Perhaps because all the staff had fled after the disaster, only about twenty or thirty cars were parked here, making the vast empty space feel even more desolate.

Still, regardless of the reason, to gain such a massive safe environment, Leon as the owner was naturally overjoyed.

After giving the group a rough tour of the base, Leon and the others arrived at the first level of the Underground Parking Lot. This level connected to the lot's external exit, a large protective metal door made of three thick bulletproof steel plates, 6 meters high and 10 meters wide, allowing all types of vehicles to pass through.

He addressed the dozen drivers and the Logistics Department movers: "For now, the first basement level has been cleared. It will serve as our warehouse."

"You can drive the vehicles directly inside later. Today's task is to move all the supplies from the trucks here, and Miss Amy will be in charge of planning the layout."

With that, he turned to Amy, who was following at his side, and said:

"Miss Amy, you're responsible for helping them organize the warehouse usage. Be as meticulous as possible in categorizing every type of material, and leave enough gaps to serve as walkable pathways."

"Before long, we'll renovate this place, build walls, and turn it into a proper warehouse."

Leon glanced at his Rolex. It was already 5 PM. He patted Amy on the shoulder and said:

"I still have some matters to attend to, so I'll take my leave first. After 8 o'clock, bring them to the first-floor common dining hall to meet up."

"If anything urgent comes up, every monitor here is connected to the smart computer Red Queen. As long as you call out her name to them, you can reach me."

"That's it for now. I'm off."

Ten minutes later, Leon stood at the entrance of the Underground Research Institute, holding a massive backpack stuffed with an astonishing number of glass test tubes. There, he met Dr. Melpha and Dr. Jenner.

Both doctors wore expressions of pleasant surprise. After exchanging a few pleasantries with Leon, the three entered the conference room. Leon pushed the backpack toward Dr. Melpha.

"Doctor, this is the virus sample you requested."

"I've collected blood from over forty humans and samples from more than fifty zombies at varying stages of infection. Everything is labeled."

"It should be enough for you to work with for a while."

Dr. Melpha nodded, pulled the backpack to her side, and didn't rush to inspect it. Instead, she asked Leon:

"How did it feel, spending four days exploring outside this time?"

"I see you brought back fifteen people and over a dozen truckloads of supplies. Looks like a fruitful haul."

Leon nodded, thought for a few seconds, and said somewhat casually:

"It was alright. Survivors are pretty scarce, though. I only gathered a little over forty people, and there are still thousands of tons of daily necessities waiting to be transported back."

"What!"

"Thousands of tons of supplies? Did you empty out a few towns?"