Novel Full 232 Salvaging the vans
“Water, rise,” Carol whispered right as she took a step to the back to stabilize her position.
The girl brought her hands down with her palms directly facing the ground. And then, she started to slowly raise her hands up.
And following her gesture, the blood on the ground dried out, letting out all the water contained inside. Then, the ground itself dried out, deprived of the water that the girl stole.
Finishing her spell took Carol only about ten seconds, by the end of which a huge pillow-sized ball of water floated in the air, right at the same level as the girl’s hands.
“Water, burst forth!” the girl then whispered her second order, raising her palms so that their bottom would face the direction she wanted the water to go.
And just like one could expect from the words she used to mark her spells, the water contained within the massive bubble rushed forth as if someone attached a hose to it and ramped up the pressure to maximum.
The radius of the ball of water Carol created was just short of half a meter. And when it burst forth, it only took about three seconds to empty out, with all of it turning into a stream that flooded the insides of the car’s cabin.
‘Damn,’ Mathew gulped down the saliva that formed in his mouth when he watched the event take place. ‘I sure wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of this kind of shower,’ he thought, watching how the pure water raised by Carol washed off most of the filth from the inside of the car.
And surely enough, once most of the water flew out of the car and carried the filth away, Mathew could spot several interesting pieces inside.
“Not only a gun but also a radio?” he muttered to himself, sliding over the top of the car to get back to its cleaner side. And then, ignoring the disgusting remains of the filth that ended up stuck on the car’s frame and now mostly dissolved into the water that remained, he reached out and pulled out an assault rifle.
‘This also explains why I couldn’t pick it up with my blade,’ Mathew realized when he had to jerk the gun a few times to free it from the position it was locked in. Yet, as he looked around, he ended up gritting his teeth. ‘I guess asking for some spare ammo would be too much,’ he thought, pulling the gun out before gently placing it down on a relatively clean patch of a road nearby. ‘As for the radio…’ Mathew thought, looking down at a laptop-like piece left in the middle area between the seats. ‘Well, it’s not like I know how to pull it out. Even using it would be a challenge,’ he thought, only for his face to darken a little.
“I guess it means we will need to bring Daniel here,” Mathew muttered only to do a quick check through all the car’s compartments before sliding out of the cabin. In the end, besides the gun he already moved away, he only found some flares, a set of two walkie-talkies, and an opened medicinal kit.
‘Not great, not terrible,’ Mathew thought, bringing out the loot before stockpiling it on a small pile where he left the gun. He then turned his eyes toward the back of the car.
As it wasn’t just your simple patrol car but one that brought an entire anti-terrorist unit to the school, there was a chance that the insides would hide some pretty valuable equipment. That, or just a bunch of zombies waiting for someone to free them so that they could unleash their wrath upon the outside world.
Sadly, as there were no windows connecting the driver’s cabin with the back box, Mathew had no other choice but to pull himself out of the car before moving around to its back. He then stood to the side of the winged doors, grabbing at the handle and pulling on it.
This time, however, the doors offered no resistance, allowing the young man to freely open the piece.
‘That went surprisingly easy,’ he thought, waiting a second for any potential zombies to come out with his saber ready to strike them down. Yet, when nothing happened after some time, Mathew finally moved around the opened wing of the door and glanced inside… Only to release a disappointed sigh before slamming the door shut.
“Nothing?” Carol asked, leisurely staring at Mathew’s actions while waiting for further orders.
“There might be something in there but we don’t really have the time to properly check it all out,” Mathew replied.
In truth, the insides of the back cabin of the police’s van were nothing less than a treasure trove full of straps, protective clothing, and all sorts of equipment that people of the apocalypse would be willing to kill for. Yet, in Mathew’s eyes, there wasn’t anything inside that he was willing to risk the entire operation for, especially with seven more cars that his team had to go through.
“If we leave it open, zombies might get inside and dirty it all over,” he stated as he ensured the doors were safely closed before moving to the next van in line. “It’s not the last time for us to visit this place, so it’s best to just snatch the most important and readily useful stuff,” he explained his approach as he moved on to the second van.
“How is it on your end?” Mathew called out to Nadia who was still busying herself with the first van on her end.
“I can see some boxes inside this one,” the girl shouted back. “Some of them are open and emptied out but there I can’t see any markings to figure out what those boxes are for!”
‘I guess asking for a huge stockpile of munitions would be a bit too unrealistic,’ Mathew thought, noticing the flaw in the logic that made him organize this expedition.
The police that arrived on the scene were surely well equipped for their task. But how many bullets would an anti-terrorist force need to subjugate a single potential threat? Even when taking Mathew’s request to bring out the heavy guns, the answer wouldn’t change all that much.
“I guess we can only hope for some occasional loot after all,” Mathew muttered to himself as he looked inside the driver’s cabin of the next van. Thankfully, though, this one was completely empty with nothing more but the standard equipment inside. And from the lack of any diodes or other electric light, it was pretty clear that whatever was inside, was long dead.
Mathew took a step back before repeating the simple procedure of aiming his saber before cutting off the part of the door with the locking bolts. And then, all it took to open the car doors was a single, rapid pull.
The young man then rushed to check out all the compartments inside.
‘Speed gun, some more flares, radio, laptop…’ he muttered in a mute voice as he rummaged through the insides. Yet, besides the properly sealed med kit, there was hardly any loot worth mentioning inside. Just to make sure he didn’t miss anything, Mathew threw one last look around the cabin, only to notice one thing that made this van different from the one he checked before.
This time, there was a small, grated window that allowed one to peer inside the back cabin of the van.
And through this small window, Mathew could hear some faint winning coming out!