While Kai was looking after the two rescued people, the salvage continued.
In the store room, they pulled an Energy Power Cell from a Sentinel. To their surprise, it was still humming faintly!
"What?!"
"Be careful! It might explode or something!"
Wallace and Ralph couldn't help but feel worried that it might cause a disaster.
However, Victor's eyes remained calm.
"It's alright. This… this is gold. Maybe we can power more devices, maybe even recharge the rifles if I can stabilize the output."
Of course, he wasn't sure how the rifle worked just yet. Still, he couldn't help but imagine what he could do with this energy source.
Soon, he looked at the Plasma Rifle.
[ Item Obtained: Plasma Rifle ]
[ Description: A damaged standard‑issue rifle for the Sentinel unit. ]
It was scorched and dented but not destroyed. He lifted it carefully, and it was heavy!
Perhaps, if he didn't consume the Gene Serum, he would struggle carrying this thing.
Wallace turned to Victor. "Can you fix it?"
Victor examined the rifle. His fingers traced the warped casing. "There are two of them, and they aren't too badly damaged. With time, I can probably restore them. They'll be our strongest weapons yet."
"Awesome… Just like what Kai said, prioritize those rifles. They'll make the difference."
The Hounds were next. They do not have a lot of items they could recover.
'Synthetic muscle fibers… What am I supposed to do with these strings?''
Although Victor had no idea, he just continued harvesting any usable parts.
Just like that, they gathered the Beast Claw Component that could probably be repurposed into bladed weapons. As for the Hydraulic Joint Cylinder, he could only consider how it could be used to build tools… or even enhance armor's movement.
***
At the same time that this was happening, the scouts and other members of the resource-gathering team continued making more traps around the garbage field.
They piled debris, soaked rags in oil, and arranged flammable materials in various areas.
Rene, one of the members of the gatherers team, arranged the soaked rags across a pile of broken chair legs.
At the moment, he wasn't even wearing a mask as he had grown used to the stench of the garbage field…
Around him, the other members also worked quickly. He saw them drag broken bed frames, plastic scraps, and torn bedding into piles, after soaking them with oil they had scavenged in the scrapyard.
"Spread the grease here," Rene said, pointing to a section of the first trap.
"If the machines come through, the fire will catch faster."
Two men hauled a container of thick, black grease from the shelter's reserves.
Rene pried open one of the lids and dipped a rag inside, smearing the viscous substance across the debris. The smell was pungent, but he knew it would burn hot.
Soon, they layered plastics over wood, stuffing bedding between cracks, and pouring oil until the trap looked like nothing more than a pile of trash. But he knew the moment fire touched it, the trap would become a furnace.
As he wiped his hands on his trousers, Rene thought of the food he had eaten before…
A few cans of preserved meat from Leader Kai's storage were a life-changer. It was a luxury for him who had gotten used to eating nuts and leaves.
"Let's work properly… Leader Kai promised that we'll have a feast once this ends." Rene reminded the group.
"Yes!" Everyone answered in unison.
With such a motivation, the work was done quickly…
"Alright… That should do it. If they come through here, they'll regret it." Rene muttered, satisfied with their work.
Then, as they were about to return to the shelter through the hidden tunnel, he noticed some movements from afar…
Rene and the other froze as they realized what was going on!
Six figures were running across the garbage field, stumbling over heaps of twisted metal and broken plastic.
At first, they thought it was another scavenger team returning early. But there were too many of them… Then he saw their clothes.
That color of jacket and pants… They're the same kind of gear Kai's group had worn when they were first recruited.
"We have guests!" Rene was shocked.
The others also stared at the approaching figures, their hearts pounding. It was rare to see survivors out here, rarer still to see them running freely.
But then Rene's eyes caught something else.
Behind the survivors, shadows moved. Tall, metallic silhouettes were following them!
Sentinels.
"Shit! They're being chased!" he shouted.
The group of survivors stumbled closer, their faces pale…
"Retreat!" Rene ordered, then froze, as he realized something.
"No… wait! If we open the tunnel now, they'll know where it is!" He was torn between fear and duty.
The others hesitated, glancing at the desperate survivors. The young woman's cry echoed across the garbage field...
"Help us! Please!"
Rene clenched his jaw. "We can't save them... Smoke grenades, now! We need to hide the entrance..."
One of the scouts looked at him, horrified. "But… they're human!"
Rene's eyes hardened. "We don't know them. They could be raiders, deserters, or worse... bait sent by the machines. If we gamble on unknowns, we risk all of Haven‑45. Do you want the Sentinels to trace the tunnel back to the shelter?"
The team was stunned, torn between instinct and survival.
Rene reminded them once again.
"They're not from our shelter..." he said coldly.
"We can't afford to trust them... Not now."
With those words said, it didn't take long before the smoke grenades hissed as thick clouds spread across the garbage field.
However, as soon as Rene was able to enter the shelter, he immediately went to Kai, asking for help!