My Sniper System in a Zombie Apocalypse World-Chapter 107: Cold Eyes

"Huff... huff... huff..." their breaths came in ragged gasps.

"Jaxon..." Na-rin’s voice broke the silence as she looked ahead.

Everyone froze. The warehouse wasn’t empty. Soldiers stood there, rifles raised with caution.

Jaxon and the group recognized the faces before them. These were the same soldiers from the train.

From behind, flashlights flicked on one by one, cutting through the darkness of the warehouse. They saw not just soldiers, but survivors too, more than twenty people huddled together, tense and weary, alongside the eight soldiers.

"There are... other survivors?" murmurs ran through the survivors.

Everyone’s eyes scanned Jaxon’s group desperately, hoping to spot family or friends, but there was no one they recognized.

Then one man stepped forward, his face tightening as recognition dawned. He was one of the Train Security Supervisors before. "Wait... aren’t you the ones they moved to another car? The ones they said were infected?"

"We aren’t infected," Bong-gu said, frowning.

"So... it’s them," a survivor murmured, glancing nervously at the group. "Do you think... they might still be infected?"

"What if they are? I don’t want... them joining us here," another whispered, unease spreading like wildfire.

A woman stepped closer to the soldiers, her voice sharp. "You’re not actually going to let them in, are you?"

The soldiers exchanged uncertain glances, hesitation clear in their stance as whispers and murmurs grew louder.

"How can you do that? We fought to get in here. We just wanted a place to rest," Jannah’s voice cracked, Hiromi’s joining hers as tears formed and streaked down their cheeks.

"Get back, Jannah, Hiromi. They won’t listen to us," Natasha said quietly, then stepped forward. Her eyes met the soldiers’. "We’ve been out there for over six hours. None of us turned. Isn’t that proof enough that we’re not infected?"

One of the soldiers finally nodded, stepping aside to let them in. Relief flickered briefly across the group, but it was cut short as the former train security supervisor stepped forward. His gaze swept over them coldly.

"If you’re staying here, I’ll need to check every one of you. Every part of your bodies for wounds. No exceptions. That’s the only way I’ll know you’re safe."

Bong-gu’s patience snapped. "Bastard! Do you think you own the place?"

But he didn’t step back. "You want to risk everyone here? This is for safety."

"Fuck you!" Bong-gu roared, slamming his rifle down and punched the man square in the face.

"Bong-gu, stop!" Elaine shouted, rushing forward, but her voice was almost drowned in the tension.

The soldiers moved cautiously, trying to calm both sides. But the man who’d been punched straightened, glaring at them, his lips curling with disgust. "Yeah, you’re all infected. Maybe it’s because of you the train crashed in the first place."

From behind, Jaxon, who had been holding himself back, slowly set Sumiko down. He vanished from sight, moving with a blur.

In an instant, he appeared in front of the man and drove a fist into his gut, sending him flying several meters across the floor. The man coughed violently, struggling to catch his breath as he hit the ground.

"Stop! Stop this now!" one soldier shouted, raising his gun toward Jaxon.

Jaxon turned to him slowly, eyes cold and unblinking. "What... are you going to drive us away too?" His voice had no patience left. His entire mood teetered on the edge of snapping. If his family weren’t behind him, he wouldn’t have held back at all. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Seeing the gun pointed at Jaxon, Elena and the others raised theirs immediately. No one was thinking clearly, everyone was on edge, and these people were pushing them closer to their snapping point.

Tension hung thick in the air. The slightest wrong move could ignite chaos.

The survivors who had spoken earlier suddenly went quiet. The soldiers tightened their grips on their weapons, but even they hesitated, sensing the fury simmering in Jaxon’s group. As seasoned veterans, they could tell, this was not a group to be trifled with.

"Enough." A calm, firm voice spoke from behind. Thomas, the squad captain of the previous Alpha unit, stepped forward. "Those guns shouldn’t be pointed at your fellow humans."

"Say that to your men." Jaxon’s cold eyes locked on him. "If you hurt even a single one of them, I will kill every last one of you."

Thomas felt a strange tremor run through him.

’A soldier like me, hardened from countless battles, felt a flicker of fear at the eyes of a civilian?’ He swallowed hard.

"I... I apologize for that man’s actions," Thomas said, his voice quieter and strained. "Let’s calm down and talk." He gestured sharply, and the soldiers lowered their weapons, albeit reluctantly.

Natasha, Cindy, and Isabel stepped forward, placing hands on Jaxon’s arms, trying to ease the tension coiling in his body.

"Can you lower your guns now?" Thomas asked again.

"If they hadn’t been talking like idiots earlier, none of this would have happened," Bong-gu spat, still fuming.

Thomas nodded, his tone even. "And we apologize for that."

Bong-gu snorted, but Elaine stepped forward, her voice steady but soft. "We apologize as well, sir... we just lost a family. None of us are thinking clearly right now."

Thomas didn’t flinch. "Look around you. You’re not the only ones who’ve lost someone."

Their eyes followed his motion, and the group’s expressions changed. Survivors huddled in corners, some quietly crying, others staring blankly, as if hope had slipped away. A small child sat alone, clutching a ragged blanket in the corner.

The sight pressed on their hearts, quieting the anger and tension that had boiled moments ago. Jaxon clenched his jaw, and took a deep breath to calm himself. Without a word, he passed by the soldiers, the others following closely behind him.

The soldiers glanced at Thomas, who shook his head. "Maintain your posts. Don’t interfere with them, they seem capable. We might need their help soon."

The soldiers saluted, and one moved forward to help the former security supervisor to his feet.

Meanwhile, Jaxon led the others to a quiet corner of the warehouse to settle in. Then he handed out another round of heat packs.

"Na-rin," he called quietly, bringing out cans of food. She looked at him, surprise and curiosity in her eyes.

"Can you trade these and see if the soldiers or other survivors have any dry clothes or towels?" Jaxon asked quietly. "Sorry... I might get irrational again, but you seem calmer than the rest of us."

Na-rin didn’t press him on where the food came from and simply nodded. "It’s fine. This won’t be a problem."

Jaxon forced a small smile and returned to tending the group.

Soon, Na-rin returned with towels and dry clothes. Everyone changed, especially Sumiko, who shivered as fever ran through her. Jaxon pulled out the first aid kit and medicine from his storage, tending to cuts and bruises with careful hands.

Once they were patched up, they ate the food he had brought. They ate in silence, the weight of Burgors’ absence hanging heavily over them. Some allowed quiet tears to fall onto the cold concrete floor as they rested for the first time in hours, letting themselves feel the grief they had held back for so long.