Chapter 1168 Night Battle
Night Province Night Market City
After a day of intense fighting, time quietly slipped into the early hours of the morning...
The daytime clamor and the roar of destruction seemed to have been forcibly silenced by an invisible hand, replaced by a deeper, more oppressive silence, like a heavy shroud, completely covering this riddled city.
The night market, the former capital of the province, now fully reveals the hideous scars of the catastrophe it suffered.
The crumbling walls cast distorted shadows in the dim moonlight, like lurking monsters.
Huge craters covered the streets and squares, some as small as ponds, others as large as meteorite craters, filled with murky mud and water mixed with fuel, dark red blood, and ash, reflecting the pale, fleeting light of artillery flares from the sky.
The ground was almost covered with a viscous "carpet" of dismembered bodies, limbs, and entrails, which made a sickening "plop" sound when stepped on.
Dark red blood pooled in the low-lying areas, forming countless bloodstains of varying sizes. It slightly coagulated at the low temperature, and its surface had an oily sheen.
A complex and suffocating stench permeated the air:
The strong, pungent smell of gunpowder, the acrid odor of burning plastic and rubber, the charred aroma of protein carbonized at high temperatures, and a deeper, more primal... rotten, sweet, and fishy smell—the stench of death emanating from the combined action of flesh and bacteria after countless lives have perished in an instant.
Buzz buzz buzz——————
To ensure nighttime defense, field diesel generators were roaring desperately in each of the temporarily occupied areas, their rumbling becoming the most persistent background noise in this desolate wasteland.
Thick cables, like pythons, snaked across the ground, submerged in a pool of blood and sewage, connecting to high-powered searchlights mounted high above.
These beams of light, like sharp swords, pierced the darkness, scanning back and forth among the ruins, illuminating the bullet holes in the broken walls, the piles of wreckage at street corners, and the faintly reflective fragments of bone in pools of blood.
In the forward positions and gaps where there was no electricity or darkness due to damaged lines, the defending forces fired flares into the sky almost every half minute.
shhhhh--
boom! ! !
With a sharp whistling sound, flares, trailing dazzling plumes of flame, climbed to their designated height and then burst into bloom, like a fleeting artificial moon, casting a pale, lifeless light upon the earth.
Under the sudden burst of intense light, every detail of the ruins was revealed, and the horrific state of every corpse was laid bare. The contrast between light and shadow was so intense as to be almost cruel, creating a chilling and eerie atmosphere reminiscent of a stage play.
The light has a limited duration; once the flare burns out and falls, darkness will quickly engulf everything again until the next one rises.
Following orders from the frontline command, the ground forces, having completed a day of intense offensive, have fully withdrawn, abandoning most of the streets and advance lines they had captured during the day, and are now holding their ground in a ring-shaped defensive position built around major transportation arteries and fortified buildings.
The soldiers, relying on tanks and armored vehicles covered in blood and flesh, hastily constructed fortifications made of sandbags and bricks, and reinforced building windows, vigilantly watched the bottomless darkness between the flare beams.
No one dared to be careless; everyone knew that the night was a paradise where many "things" were active.
Sporadic gunshots, like discordant notes in a deathly symphony, occasionally rang out from all directions of the city.
"Bang! Bang!"
At a forward observation post, soldiers used QBZ-191 assault rifles equipped with silencers to accurately fire single shots, killing several ordinary zombies that were attracted by the light and staggered closer with headshots.
"There's movement behind the low wall at eleven o'clock!" a squad leader growled.
In an instant, several gun barrels turned, and the red dots of the infrared laser sights flashed across the darkness.
bang bang bang-
A short burst of gunfire followed by several suppressed roars and the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground from behind the low wall.
But these small-scale, defensive exchanges were merely the prelude to the night.
Sudden--
Awooo!
A piercing, extremely sharp shriek came from the depths of a park in the northeast that had been severely damaged by artillery fire. The sound contained a kind of psychological shock, which made the soldiers who heard it feel uneasy.
Immediately afterwards, a barrage of gunfire erupted in the area, interspersed with the roars of soldiers and... the piercing sound of some kind of chitin being torn apart!
“It’s ‘piercing attackers’! There are many of them! Requesting illumination! Repeat, requesting illumination to cover area D7!” A desperate cry for help rang out in the communication channel.
Almost at the same time the request was made, the mortar positions located in the rear, whose parameters had already been marked, responded.
Connect! Connect! Connect!
Several flares were fired into the sky above area D7, their stark white light instantly illuminating the scene below.
Dozens of slender mutants with bone spurs on their limbs and ghostly speed are using the complex terrain to launch a frenzied attack on the defensive point of an infantry platoon in the park!
"Requesting artillery support! Positions have been marked and uploaded! Area D7, advance barrage, intercepting fire! Quickly!" A higher-level command link was established.
After a while——
Rumble, rumble—! ! !
The artillery support from outside the city was like a belated thunderbolt; the roar of the 155mm heavy guns instantly drowned out the sounds of gunfire in the park!
Dense fireballs exploded one after another at the edge of the park and along the path of the piercer's impact. The huge shockwaves uprooted trees, and mud, limbs, and shrapnel flew everywhere!
This rapid-fire support briefly halted the piercers' offensive.
However, in another corner of the city, the defensive position built on the south side, relying on a large shopping mall, encountered even greater trouble.
An abnormal vibration was felt in the ground.
It started as very mild, but quickly became like the beating of drums!
"A large-scale seismic source has been detected! It's coming from the direction of the abandoned tunnel of Metro Line 2! The number... the number is extremely large!" The technician's voice changed as he looked at the data from the seismic sensor on the screen.
Before the words were even finished, a massive horde of corpses surged out of the shopping center, facing the subway exit, like a flood bursting its banks!
They roared, jostling and trampling each other, forming a pure, destructive wave of flesh and madness!
"Fire! All firepower! Stop them!" The company commander's voice was hoarse and strained amidst the explosions and shouts.
The heavy machine guns spat out tongues of fire that were half a meter long, and the bullets swept towards the horde of zombies like a metal storm. The zombies in the front row fell down in droves like cut straw, but the ones that followed immediately stepped on the remains of their comrades and continued to surge forward!
The individual rocket launcher, trailing a fiery exhaust, crashed into the densest part of the zombie horde, exploding into clouds of blood mist and bits of flesh!
The automatic grenade launcher sprayed grenades at an extremely high rate of fire, and the continuous explosions cleared patches of empty space in the horde of zombies, only to be filled again in an instant!
The position is in grave danger!
"This is area C19! Requesting heavy firepower coverage! Coordinates XXX, YYY! Repeat, requesting maximum yield firepower coverage!" The company commander was practically roaring.
This time, the response came faster and was more violent.
Outside the night market, on the army group's artillery positions, the PHL-191 long-range rocket artillery battalion roared deafeningly!
Dozens of 370mm rockets, trailing dazzling contrails, streaked across the dark night sky like the javelins of a vengeful goddess, precisely striking the vast area in front of the subway exit!
boom! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
A series of deafening roars, like the sky collapsing and the earth splitting apart!
The ground across the entire southern front was trembling violently!
The fireballs from the explosion merged into one, instantly turning that area into an absolute hell of death!
The high temperature and shockwave instantly vaporized and annihilated everything within range, whether it was zombies or building debris!
The dazzling white light even briefly overshadowed all the flares, illuminating half of the night market as if it were daytime!
This devastating volley was like a bucket of ice water poured over the boiling horde of corpses, halting the surging offensive.
