Looking at the serious-looking man in front of him, Barry was both worried and excited, so he quickly nodded when he heard what this person said.
"Don't worry, as long as we understand each other, there is no reason why we can't answer all your questions."
The long-haired and messy man nodded, indicating to everyone else to relax and keep an eye out before speaking slowly: "You can call me Airon. I am the leader of these people. What's your name?"
"Mr. Airon, nice to see you all. I was in charge of security for the warehouse in this place. My name is Barry Berkmar. You can just call me Barry."
Airon was very grateful for the cooperative attitude of the person in front of him and nodded in a non-hostile manner while his eyes scanned the surroundings of this warehouse. When he didn't get a response, he looked back at Barry.
"Are you the only survivor here?"
Upon hearing the question, Barry's expression became a bit sad, and he finally just nodded.
"Are you sure? Our reports tell us that there were many people here. Am I wrong?"
Welles couldn't help but ask something when he saw all the rooms and floors: "Commander, if everyone had hidden, I'm sure there would be survivors, but there's only this person who introduced himself as Barry..."
At that moment, a squadron leader approached and reported: "Sir, there are no survivors on this floor. Where did you send our people?"
"Clean up the hallways and put the bodies in bags. That's the least we can do now!"
"Wait a minute, why did it take so long for you to come? What happened to my family...?" Barry interrupted the conversation of the people in front of him, but everyone seemed to ignore his questions.
Barry focused only on Airon since this person has been in charge since he came in. That person who just arrived called him Commander a moment ago. Obviously, he is the leader of this group of soldiers. After containing himself for over a year, finally, all those questions he had to himself came out uncontrollably from his mouth.
"Stop, Mr. Barry! Listen to me. I understand perfectly that you have been trapped in this place for a long time, and I understand that what you want most right now is to find out the situation outside, but my duty now is to confirm the safety of my group. We will talk as soon as I finish organizing the situation in this place. Do you understand me?"
For Airon, it's normal to have these kinds of thoughts. Bases have been established in several important cities, and a rigorous point system has been implemented with government agencies, while troops have become even more important now.
Although it's called an army, when there is no daily battle, apart from fulfilling some duty and outing tasks, most of the time is still devoted to the construction of bases, crops, border guards, weapon maintenance, and other things that need their supervision.
However, there has been military-like training that made less experienced people now competent soldiers who know how to listen and follow orders.
Everyone knows why a weapon is wielded, so they all agree with what's being done in this place. After a while, Welles went to investigate and returned with two soldiers by his side.
"Airon, I found a hallway. There seem to be other facilities there..."
All the people in the room unconsciously looked at Barry standing in the most prominent position in the center of the group, while he himself stood there without understanding.
"Other facilities? Are you referring to that hallway? That's the base warehouse..." Welles frowned and said in a somewhat disgusted tone while pointing to a door. "Are you kidding me? Didn't you say this is a warehouse?"
Barry shook his head and said, "No, no, don't get me wrong. This is the soldiers' supply warehouse, and that's the base warehouse."
Upon hearing these words, Airon asked directly, "What are you storing here? Why do you need so many people guarding such a hidden base?"
Barry, who was somewhat worried about the misunderstanding, looked around at the people, a little hesitant, as if he was thinking about what to say. The fact that no one had come to rescue him for more than a year had mentally prepared him for whatever was happening, but before hearing confirmation, no one wanted to admit that the outside world had ended, right?
"What's your concern? A confidentiality agreement? If so, then you don't have to worry. I am the commander of the resistance of humanity. The conventional system has been destroyed by the virus, and most of the population has died."
"Most have died?"
"Yes, in fact, we are all infected with that virus, including you, but the only reason we are not those corpses is that it has not fully activated yet. We normally call those infected walkers, but they are still just damn infected."
Barry sat on the ground with a pale expression. One of the motivations for staying alive was to convince himself that the outside world was not like his base. As for the reason why no one had come to rescue him, it was probably because the supply had not run out. With over a year of food support, it was normal not to come for a long time. Covering his face full of clear emotions, Barry felt his whole body trembling, held back the tears that were about to fall, and vigorously rubbed his hands on his face.
"It's okay! I'll tell everyone, this base is..."
Listening to Barry's narration of his experience in the base, from the moment he entered the base to how the infection was exposed.
"Originally, I thought that as long as I persisted for more than a year, someone from outside would come to rescue me. After all, when supplies are delivered, we have a few days off before the base is sealed again for a certain period of time, but even then, I realized from the beginning that things were not that simple."
"Staying in this kind of place tends to make one lose the concept of time. It's not like I was in hell, I still exercised and slept when I was tired..."
"If you look at that wall, you'll understand everything..."
Everyone looked towards the wall, only to discover densely marked lines in a corner. Airon had good eyesight and clearly saw the marks that were obviously used to count the number of days.
"That's where I counted the number of days approximately. I don't know exactly how much time has passed, I'd be lying if I gave you a number. This room is the supply warehouse for over two hundred people who will survive here for a year... And as for the hallway you mentioned, and why this base exists..."
Seeing that he had finally come to the interesting point, everyone concentrated their attention.
"It's because there's something very important we must protect. We don't know what it is, to tell you the truth, I was just a soldier and my jurisdiction couldn't take me closer to that place."
A soldier with little patience angrily struck a corpse a couple of times. He was about to pull out his gun and aim it at Barry for telling that whole story if he wasn't going to say anything in the end, but he was stopped by Airon.
"Barry! Are you kidding me?"
Barry quickly raised his hands and yelled in panic. "No, I'm not lying. Although I don't know what's in that warehouse, I'm sure I can open it."
"Alright, let's all calm down... You, Barry, open that warehouse, whatever it may be."