"Take care of the rookie, make him the driver, and this will be the way he doesn't get in our way." Corporal Arsher communicated over the radio to make this joke, which made everyone laugh.
Sergeant Castro didn't say anything; he didn't want to dampen the only moment where everyone could smile a bit. He asked, "Do the jokes they make about you bother you?"
"Not at all, sergeant; they make me feel like part of the group." Dominic's last feeling would be annoyance at these jokes.
Sergeant Castro nodded satisfactorily with the response; recruits are not often as sensible with surrounding situations, but it seemed that Dominic was adapting very well.
"How many are we going to eliminate?"
"Not many; I suppose no more than two hundred targets."
Dominic looked at the streets where there were corpses on the ground and asked, "Wouldn't it be better to burn them?"
"It would take us a long time, and with the small number of soldiers, we would end up exhausting ourselves." Sergeant Castro didn't want to tire his men with something like that.
Corporal Arsher joined the conversation and said, "We also don't want to get infected; that would be very unfortunate."
"We don't get infected by moving some corpses and burning them; if the infection were viral, we would have been dead a long time ago." Dominic couldn't stay silent.
It seemed that these soldiers didn't have clear information about the virus and how it spreads.
Sergeant Castro asked, "Do you have information that we don't?"
"Before joining you, I met a biology professor who gave us a simulation of a class on viruses and bacteria, where he made it clear that if, for some reason, an infected person was compromised and we were a hundred meters from their position, we might be infected. But the possibility of them infecting us through that contamination method is erroneous. The dead don't breathe, they don't have saliva, and their blood stops moving like that of a living being, so how could they infect us even if it's infectious?"
Everyone fell silent; that made sense, and a lot if you thought about it that way.
"Many here have been in contact with the undead, and they are all fine; none have a fever, which proves exactly what I'm saying with facts." Dominic knew he wouldn't have another chance to address these people in such a direct way and pointed out, "If days pass and we don't burn the bodies, we'll end up getting sick, but with something else."
Sergeant Castro fell silent; that made a lot of sense. "Even if we do it, we would lose valuable time."
"Then maybe other people should take care of it; they won't be protected by us all the time. They will have to cooperate; they will have to sacrifice something, don't you think?" Dominic asked a question that made everyone feel good.
Everything was fine until the next words from Sergeant Castro said, "What if one of the cleaners is bitten and doesn't mention it? We would be compromising not only our security but also that of the community we are supposed to protect."
"We would just need a security protocol; it wouldn't be so complicated." Said Dominic, but at that moment, the vehicle's machine guns started firing at a group of walkers up ahead.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Now, everyone get out of the vehicles and eliminate all those bastards." Said Sergeant Castro, who immediately got out and started firing at the walkers.
Dominic was surprised but quickly got out of the vehicle and opened fire. "Let them get closer; we can aim better if they are closer."
"Everyone, cease fire." Sergeant Castro made everyone stop firing and let the walkers get closer.
Dominic looked around and knew that more walkers were approaching from all directions. "Sir, they're moving targets, so it will be easy to eliminate them head-on. I recommend taking the initiative and eliminating them as soon as possible."
"Half of the men, follow me; the rest stay and watch our backs." Dominic pulled up his scarf to cover his face and, in the company of his men, advanced to eliminate the walkers.
Dominic could see great work from these men; he knew that in head-on combat against such small numbers, the soldiers would always come out victorious. Now he understood that the only reason soldiers died was because they ventured into buildings for elimination and were surprised by the large masses hiding inside.
"Sir, more are approaching from the north."
"Zz… Let the machine guns open fire against the larger groups; we'll take care of eliminating the isolated ones." Said Sergeant Castro as he reloaded his weapon, but at the same time, he saw how Dominic performed on the battlefield.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
There was no expression on his face, just a look full of hatred for those things, as if from one moment to the next, they had stopped being human.
It was only now that he realized that Dominic had probably lost someone very close to him; those expressions weren't those of a normal person.
Boom!
At that moment, an explosion eliminated a group of walkers, sending numerous limbs flying through the air.
"Zz… Approaching for elimination." Dominic advanced among the walkers on the ground, and any that were still moving were eliminated by him with a single shot.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The earth and the smell of dust flew around; Dominic knew that because the walkers were still freshly transformed, it was impossible to damage their brains with a single blow.