At the time Aiden was heading to the hotel.
Randy, the camp's leader, appeared at an old container warehouse isolated at the outermost edge of the camp, without anyone knowing.
He went to the innermost part of the warehouse, where a person with a hood on could be seen tied to a chair, and next to them, sturdy men were standing quietly in a reverent posture.
Behind them was a wall filled with unknown symbols and a red altar with something like a large bowl placed on it.
As Randy appeared, a man approached him, knelt down, and said:
"Elder."
"Is the preparation complete?"
Randy asked, looking only at the tied-up person without paying attention to the kneeling man.
"Yes, Elder."
Randy slowly approached the person tied to the chair.
"Peter. Do you know why you're in this state?"
The person called Peter shook violently.
"Why did you go around poking your nose everywhere?"
Randy removed Peter's hood.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
With the hood removed and a gag in his mouth, Peter made unintelligible sounds.
Peter seemed terrified at the fact that Randy was in front of him, turning pale.
Regardless of Peter's pallor, Randy took out a wire saw, a dagger engraved with strange patterns, a hammer, and thick nails from the bag he had brought and placed them in front of Peter.
Then, in a praying posture, he muttered to himself before looking at Peter's face, grinning and saying:
"Let's begin the service."
"Mmph!! Mmph!!"
Peter struggled.
Randy picked up the hammer and thick nails.
The cold touch of the nail met Peter's instep.
Bang! Squelch!
Bang! Squelch!
"Hehe!! Hehehehe!!"
Randy's maniacal laughter and the sound of the hammer striking the nails filled the container box for a while, showing no signs of stopping.
* * *
As soon as morning broke, Aiden left Sadie with Arian and went out.
Looking around near the pub he had visited in the evening, he saw the junk dealers' request office, and from early morning, several junk dealers were actively moving around to find suitable requests.
Aiden had no intention of sitting still waiting for Lois's information, so he looked at the request board.
Various requests were listed, but there were no missing person-related requests that Aiden was looking for, so he looked for someone who seemed to be running the request office.
Then he saw a man sitting at a table in a corner of the request office, organizing scraps of paper with an unlit half-cigar in his mouth.
Aiden immediately approached him.
"Aiden, a junk dealer from LA."
"Huh? What's with the sudden self-introduction?"
"Are there no missing person-related requests?"
The man, looking at Aiden who abruptly got to the point, frowned and slowly looked him up and down.
"Your aura is not ordinary, Aiden, you say? I'm Chad. Chad Pierce. Annoyingly, I'm in charge of this request office."
"Nice to meet you. So, are there no missing person requests?"
"Huh, this guy lacks social skills. Tsk."
When Aiden didn't budge even at his sarcasm, Chad took out a bundle of request forms from the cabinet next to the table.
"Here, these are the missing person request forms. If you've been a junk dealer for a long time, you'd know that finding missing persons in this era is not an easy request, so they're piled up like this."
The bundle of request forms Chad put down seemed quite substantial even at Aiden's glance.
"May I take a look? There certainly are a lot."
"Do as you please."
Aiden sat down comfortably and started organizing the requests by the date they were filed, examining them one by one.
After looking at the request forms for a while, Aiden sorted out a list worth investigating.
January XX, Dennis Oh
Missing at James Regional Sports Park
April XX, Tiffany Struthers
Missing at Nevada Trails Park
June XX, Kane Houston
Missing at Cougar Creek Park
Mixed in different periods, it would have been hard to find a peculiarity unless specifically looking for it, but Aiden was particularly interested in the location of disappearance being 'parks'.
This was because, in a situation like now, with no supplies and difficulty in hiding, how could someone go missing in a park?
Moreover, all of them were parks located in Enterprise.
Aiden pulled out these three missing person request forms and handed the rest back to Chad.
"I'll take these three requests."
"Are you really planning to take on missing person requests?"
"If not, I wouldn't have looked for them separately."
"I don't know what you're thinking... but it's not my business. Request acceptance confirmed. I wish you luck."
Aiden just nodded once and left the request office without lingering, heading to the checkpoint where he had parked the jeep.
Being a military checkpoint, there were no signs of anyone tampering with the equipment inside the jeep.
Aiden started gathering some equipment, including the rifle.
"Are you Aiden Lee?"
A soldier approached Aiden and spoke to him.
"That's right."
"There were instructions from above to leave you alone whatever you do. And this."
The soldier handed Aiden something similar to a military dog tag.
"You can consider it an entry pass for the gate. If you show this when entering or exiting the gate, you'll be allowed to pass immediately without separate inspection."
Aiden silently received the pass handed by the soldier and hung it around his neck.
The soldier was staring intently at the doctor's name tag hanging on his neck rather than the pass.
"Do you have something more to say?"
"Are you a doctor?"
"A junk dealer and a doctor."
The soldier was silent for a moment, as if thinking.
Aiden packed spare magazines, leaving the soldier like that.
"My name is Tom. My father is in poor health, but he refuses to move to see a doctor."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, if you have time, could I ask you to examine my father?"
"If it's a request, I'll accept it. I'll examine him within two days."
When Aiden answered without hesitation, Tom's expression brightened.
"Yes. Thank you, Aiden. Then please find me at the gate when you're done with your business."
"I will do that."
Tom saluted Aiden and left.
Aiden, who had been quietly watching his retreating figure, finished packing his equipment and headed to the hotel.
* * *
"So you're saying the cause of the disappearances is due to the fanatics' rituals?"
"Thinking about the characteristics of the guys we've encountered so far, they consistently showed signs of performing something like rituals."
"That's true. So you're going to investigate outside? And I'll investigate inside."
"What about me?"
Aiden and Arian looked at Sadie simultaneously.
Sadie was pouting, seemingly displeased about being left out of the work.
Aiden and Arian fell into contemplation.
Sadie must have made a lot of effort to be helpful to them, both for this request and otherwise, and they couldn't keep ignoring her will by always seeing her as just a child.
"Sadie, what would you like to do?"
Arian asked, reversing the question.
Then Sadie thought for a moment and raised her hand, saying:
"How about I listen to what the staff are saying inside the government office?"
"That's a good idea."
Aiden agreed with Sadie's thought.
Arian also looked at Sadie with a proud expression.
"Then, let's gather information after doing what we can each do."
"Yes!"
"Alright."
"What you need to be sure of is not to overdo it. We're passing on useful information to LA, which wants to trade with this camp, to prevent harm."
The two nodded at Aiden's words.
"I won't interfere much with your actions. Discuss well and move accordingly. I'll look for traces of fanatics while solving the missing person requests."
"Be careful."
Aiden nodded lightly at Sadie's words and immediately got up and left the room.
As Aiden left, Arian and Sadie put their heads together, starting to ponder as if planning a strategy.
* * *
"Is it possible to borrow a motorcycle?"
As it was cumbersome to take out the jeep, Aiden moved to the front of the gate and asked a soldier.
"Follow me."
Aiden had honestly thought he would be refused and was just asking anyway, but at the casual offer to lend a motorcycle, he forgot what to say and followed behind the soldier.
Following silently behind the soldier, Aiden arrived in front of a large warehouse that seemed to be a vehicle storage managed separately by the military.
"Please wait a moment."
The soldier went inside the warehouse, and after a short while, he came out pulling a mountain bike that seemed to be somewhat maintained.
He handed the key to Aiden and then left without any further words.
Aiden was curious about Randy's intentions, but since he couldn't know for now, he started the mountain bike.
Vroom! Vroom!
The characteristic ripping exhaust sound of the mountain bike resonated.
Aiden got on the bike without hesitation, pulled the accelerator, and instantly headed to the front of the gate. As if it had been arranged in advance, the gate's barrier was raised, so he rushed out of the gate without hesitation.
Woong!! Woong!!
The rough engine and exhaust sounds echoed through the empty city of Enterprise.
Some zombies heard the sound and ran towards Aiden's direction, but they couldn't catch up with the bike's speed.
The first place to investigate was Cougar Creek Park, the closest to the camp.
As he had roughly memorized the map in his head, Aiden was able to arrive at the park entrance in just a few dozen minutes.
Aiden turned off the bike's engine and took off his helmet.
Unless he encounters a mutant, no zombies would rush at him now.
There might be some that occasionally rush at him, but not enough to worry about.
Entering the park, a wide expanse of vegetation-covered park interior spread out.
This park was originally used a lot as a walking trail for citizens, but now trees and grass had grown densely.
Zombies visible here and there were wandering aimlessly.
They showed slight reactions whenever Aiden moved, but since Aiden's outward appearance was unmistakably the same as their own zombie selves to anyone who looked, they just flinched a bit without any other movement.
Aiden took out the request form he had prepared.
June XX, Kane Houston
Missing at Cougar Creek Park
First sighting information confirmed by wanderers searching for supplies nearby.
Wearing a green baseball cap, wearing torn jeans all over, and a brown checkered shirt, they say.
Request to confirm survival status and retrieve belongings if deceased.
Requester: Jane Foster (cohabitant)
Reward: 10L of gasoline, food supplies, 50 rounds of 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition
Aiden read the request form once more, then started carefully observing one by one along the park's walking path.
After walking along the path for a while, suspicious traces finally caught Aiden's eye.
It was a trace of dried blood stretching from the walking path into the grass thicket.
"It's a trace of something being dragged. Is it heading towards the center of the park?"
Aiden thought about the information board at the park entrance.
It was a place with a small playground for children to enjoy and a separate exercise area.
"Being hidden by the grass thicket, it would be an ideal place to do something."
Aiden crossed through the grass thicket towards the center.
There were more zombies wandering in the grass thicket than Aiden had thought.
"Should I reduce their numbers a bit in advance?"
Aiden drew his dagger.
And he advanced, plunging the dagger into the heads of zombies he encountered in the grass thicket.