There was no need to worry about Arian.
In the darkness, an ordinary human wouldn't be able to spot Arian.
Aiden himself was also confident in infiltration.
If he had to pick one good thing about being a zombie, it was that he didn't feel uncomfortable maintaining a low posture for a long time or holding his breath for extended periods, and his stamina was also far superior to that of ordinary people.
He was more curious about when he had ever lacked stamina in the first place.
Aiden kept his body as low as possible and entered the western building of the high school.
There was nothing particularly noteworthy on the first floor.
Immediately going up to the second floor, Aiden found several fanatics deep in sleep in the classrooms.
Empty bottles of alcohol were scattered around them.
'They seem to have fallen asleep drunk. Is EL's internal discipline a mess?'
Aiden searched around the sleeping fanatics but found nothing useful.
Only in some boxes were there restraints whose purpose he couldn't guess.
Judging there was nothing more to see, Aiden thoroughly examined the remaining areas of the second floor.
'There doesn't seem to be anything special in this building.'
Just as Aiden was coming down to the first floor, several fanatics appeared, loitering around.
Aiden hid his body among the piles of trash on the stairs.
"There's news that the Bishop is returning."
"What? That means he succeeded in the grand plan, right?"
Aiden listened carefully to the content of the passing fanatics' chatter.
"Ah, I should have participated too."
"As if! With your level of faith, you wouldn't stand a chance. Anyway, Las Vegas will now become our territory."
"The Bishop has done great things. The day when our EL unifies the Western US is not far off."
After the boisterous fanatics passed by, Aiden got up and left the building.
The fanatics' conversation was quite shocking, but for now, he had to finish the reconnaissance first.
He immediately entered the interior of the building in the northwest of the high school.
* * *
Arian finished exploring several other buildings in an instant and infiltrated the interior of the last remaining building located in the east of the high school.
There were quite a few fanatics standing guard there.
However, none of them could spot Arian, and she passed the stairs leading to the basement where surveillance seemed most intense, hiding her body on the ceiling of the basement and began observing the interior.
At that moment, she doubted her eyes.
'What am I seeing right now?'
The basement Arian was looking down at had been converted into a wide open space as if all the surrounding walls had been destroyed, and it was filled with densely packed large iron cages.
And inside those cages, dozens of zombies were lying down, their entire bodies restrained.
The zombies had their hands tied behind their backs, their legs bound with iron chains to prevent movement, and metal gags in their mouths.
Clack clack
The sound of teeth hitting metal as the zombies tried to bite the gags filled the basement incessantly.
'A breeding ground? No, this is imprisonment... They're imprisoning zombies?'
Arian was dumbfounded, but she looked at the interior of the basement more slowly.
She couldn't come down from the ceiling to examine the cages.
If the zombies went berserk and she was discovered, it would surely cause troublesome issues.
'No matter how crazy they are, now they're doing all sorts of bizarre things.'
Arian frowned as if her head hurt, then immediately left the basement.
Then, hiding her body in the darkness inside the building, she went up to the second floor.
At the end of the second floor, she saw the door of a large office that looked like the principal's office.
Two fanatics were guarding the door, standing watch, so Arian thought it would be difficult to enter through the door.
She immediately went up to the rooftop on the third floor, then jumped down towards the window where the principal's office was located.
Looking into the interior of the principal's office from outside the window, Arian confirmed that there was no one inside.
Slide
Quietly opening the window and entering the room, Arian examined the documents cluttered on the desk.
Most of them were about item movement and believer movement within Bakersfield.
Then Arian discovered one peculiar document.
-The number of zombies held in Greenfield is 40, and additional acquisition is unnecessary.
-Need to replenish catalysts to move 50 zombies held at Pumpkin Center to Santa Clarita.
-Need additional information from spies dispatched to LA.
.
.
.
There were various other contents, but they weren't important, so Arian put down the document and thoroughly searched the room.
Finding nothing particularly fruitful, Arian checked her watch once and, as the time for her appointment with Aiden was approaching, opened the window of the principal's office and immediately launched her body towards the outside of the high school.
Whoosh
Like an eagle, Arian cut through the air in an elegant curve and instantly spread out beyond the high school.
Landing very lightly on the ground, Arian immediately headed for the rooftop where she was supposed to meet Aiden.
Aiden, who had arrived at the rooftop earlier, gestured to Arian as she arrived.
Arian also gestured to Aiden and sat down next to him.
"Was there any harvest?"
Aiden asked.
"It seems there's quite a bit, more than expected. How about you?"
"My side seems to be less."
Arian first told Aiden about the zombies they were imprisoning.
The number was 40.
All were wearing restraints and locked in the basement prison, she said.
"Then, the identity of the restraints I discovered on my side was what they used to tie up the zombies."
Aiden finally understood the identity of the restraints he had discovered.
Then Arian began explaining about the documents.
"There's one more place besides Greenfield. They say they're holding 50 zombies at Pumpkin Center, west of here. And it seems they're planning to move them to Santa Clarita soon."
"Move, huh."
Aiden took out a map.
Santa Clarita is a small city surrounded by mountains located northwest of LA.
"When we passed by, there weren't that many zombies inside the city, were there?"
Aiden nodded at Arian's question.
"That's right. Which means they haven't moved yet."
"And it seems they have something that can control zombies. The word 'catalyst' came up in the documents."
Aiden, for now, wrote down the information Arian had brought in his notebook, organizing it.
"On my side, I couldn't confirm anything inside. However, I heard what they were talking about."
Aiden shared with Arian the content of what the fanatics were talking about: Las Vegas, the Bishop, and finally, the unification of the Western US.
"They're really crazy. Then what's happening in Las Vegas now?"
"We don't have the capacity to worry about that place now."
Arian immediately agreed with Aiden's words.
"Alright. Then we need to make a decision here. Whether to go deeper or pull out."
"If we go deeper and miss the timing to pull out, it could be dangerous."
Aiden thought about the travel time from LA to Bakersfield.
He was thinking about the case where if they went deeper and the fanatics moved all the zombies to Santa Clarita, they might be isolated in the middle and unable to deliver news to LA.
"We can say we're lucky right now."
"In what way?"
"We obtained information without any particular problems. And that too, at the entrance of Bakersfield."
Arian nodded.
"We need to move right away. We're returning to LA."
"Right."
Aiden and Arian gathered the equipment they had hidden and immediately left the building.
Then, quietly but quickly, they left Bakersfield in the darkness.
* * *
Two days later.
Arriving in LA, Aiden and Arian immediately headed to the military to meet Ava.
A soldier who confirmed their appearance quickly guided them to Ava.
"You're back? Was there any gain?"
Aiden showed his notebook to Ava.
After confirming the neatly organized information, Ava sighed.
"Damn it. Just as all the recoveries are finally ending, now these fanatic bastards are causing trouble."
Despite Ava's rough language, Aiden and Arian just quietly watched her.
Ava took out a sheet of paper from her desk and began writing down the information Aiden had brought.
After writing down all the content, Ava called her aide.
"This is top-secret. Handwrite all the content and request a meeting convocation in my name."
"Yes, ma'am!"
The aide saluted and ran out immediately.
"Are the preparations going well?"
When Aiden asked, Ava frowned.
"We're extracting as much vaccine as possible, prioritizing administration to soldiers. And we're scraping together ammunition and weapons."
"I see, is there anything more we can help with?"
"I'll have to think about it."
"Alright. But if you need anything, call us anytime."
At Aiden's words, Ava expressed her gratitude.
"We couldn't figure out how they can move zombies at will. That's a bit unsettling."
Ava agreed.
The biggest question was whether it was possible to move zombies as desired, when it wasn't even Ross Preston.
"It seems they can handle not only ordinary zombies but also mutants. When we were returning from Las Vegas, we were attacked by both zombies and mutants simultaneously."
"It's a headache. We'll have to devise strategies considering that aspect too. Arian, leave the fight between humans to the military. However, can you handle the zombies to prevent increasing casualties among the soldiers?"
"Of course. It's entirely possible."
Arian immediately accepted Ava's request.
"Aiden, could you not leave Beyond, just in case? I might have separate tasks to ask of you."
"Understood. I'll gather more information from wandering scavengers and junk dealers."
As the three were talking about various future matters, there was a knock on the door.
Knock knock
"Come in."
"Commander Ava, the meeting convocation is complete."
"Good, I'll go right away."
Ava briefly exchanged greetings with Aiden and Arian and then rushed out to the conference room.
The two who remained headed towards the residential area to meet Sadie, worrying about future events.