Chapter 1332 Shocking change!
It was late at night, 3 a.m.
The reconnaissance battalion headquarters was located in an abandoned quarry about five kilometers southwest of Gucheng Lake.
The terrain here is slightly elevated, offering a wide view that allows for the monitoring of large areas of plains and low hills to the west and south.
The abandoned sheds were reinforced and transformed into barracks and command posts, and the rubble-strewn platforms became natural parking lots and training grounds. Barbed wire fences were erected around the perimeter, and simple fortifications and watchtowers were built in key locations.
Wuwuwu——
The night wind, carrying the chill of early winter, swept across the empty quarry, whistling softly.
As the battalion political instructor, Gu Chengyun, after checking the sentry posts, walked back to the reinforced prefabricated houses where the battalion headquarters were located, his body covered in the cold dew.
At the gate, the sentry holding his gun was so sleepy that his eyelids were drooping, but when he saw the instructor, he immediately straightened up and raised his right arm.
"Good morning, instructor!" The voice was exceptionally clear in the quiet night, carrying a youthful hoarseness and a desperate attempt to maintain alertness.
Upon hearing this, even though he was equally exhausted, Gu Chengyun stopped in his tracks, faced the sentry, and returned a perfectly standard and powerful military salute.
"You've worked hard. Stay vigilant," he whispered to himself before pushing open the door and stepping into the relatively warmer corridor of the battalion headquarters.
His single room was at the end of the corridor; it was small but clean.
He took off his damp, chilly military overcoat, hung it up, and sat on the edge of the bed. He habitually pulled a photograph out from under his pillow.
The photo was a family portrait taken at home before he came. That day, everyone in the family was gathered together, including his parents, his brother, and Wanying and her two sisters.
My mom even joked that thanks to her, the family was finally reunited...
Looking at his smiling family in the photo, Gu Chengyun's anxiety and pressure were instantly relieved...
'Judging by the time, it'll be Chinese New Year in two or three months. If things are alright here in Nanjing, I might be able to take leave and go back...'
"Oh, by the way, my wife and her family asked me to visit their parents when I have time. I've been a bit busy lately, but I'll see if I can find the time later..."
...
As the bed gradually warmed up, Gu Chengyun, with the family photo pinned to his chest, had various thoughts flashing through his mind like a slideshow. When his body was overwhelmed by a wave of exhaustion, he finally fell into a deep sleep.
Outside the window, there was only the sound of the wind and the occasional very faint footsteps from the distant sentry post.
……
Meanwhile, on the west side of the camp, the outermost watchtower, No. 2, is about ten meters high, made of steel, and its top platform can only accommodate two or three people.
At this moment, sentries Wang Tiezhu and Li Xiaohai, fully armed and wrapped in thick winter training coats, are holding QBZ-191 rifles equipped with night vision goggles, guarding the most difficult second half of the night.
To dispel drowsiness and chill, the two were speaking in hushed tones, their voices carried away by the wind.
"...Once I get back from this rotation break, I'll definitely apply for a long leave and go back to Ye Province to get some proper rest." Wang Tiezhu exhaled a puff of white breath, squinting at the dark west, the direction of Jinling City:
"Damn it, I just don't feel right here in Nanjing. It's chilling to the bone."
"Go back for what? To have a wife, kids, and a warm bed?" Li Xiaohai, being a bit younger, chuckled, his expression filled with longing.
"I don't ask for much. I just want to go on a blind date and find someone who can manage a household. In this world, having a home makes me feel at ease."
"Home?" Wang Tiezhu pursed his lips, but his tone softened: "My son is at Fuxing No. 1 Primary School. I heard it's strict, but the food is good and the studies are good."
"Last time I was on a mission, I passed by an abandoned toy store... I sneaked in and found a few toy cars and Transformers that were still in relatively good condition, and hid them in my backpack."
At this point, a slightly embarrassed yet smug smile appeared on his face: "When we get back, I'll give it all to that little brat; he'll be ecstatic."
"Old Wang, you're amazing!"
Li Xiaohai laughed: "Take me to see it then, I'll learn too, it'll come in handy when I have kids..."
The two were chatting about their fragmented hopes for an ordinary future, trying to use this faint warmth to combat the long and desolate darkness of the apocalypse.
Suddenly, Li Xiaohai seemed to realize something, stopped talking, turned his head in confusion, and looked at the deeper night sky in the west.
"Brother Tiezhu...look over there, in the sky...is there something moving?"
Upon hearing this, Wang Tiezhu immediately suppressed his smile, quickly moved closer to the railing, squinted in the direction Li Xiaohai pointed, and adjusted the night vision goggles on his gun.
At first, I couldn't see anything.
As night fell and the starlight dimmed, a discordant sense of "flow" gradually came into view.
That wasn't a cloud... at least not any normal cloud in their understanding.
Patches and clusters of indescribable shadows were slowly spreading from the horizon in the direction of Jinling City, silently but much faster than they appeared.
Their colors were dark, almost blending into the night, but their edges seemed to have an extremely faint, ominous dark hue, like diluted blood clots, or the dim fluorescence of some kind of organism.
Its shape is constantly twisting and stretching, as if it possesses a viscous life, stretching its enormous body in the night sky.
"Something's not right!" Alarm bells rang in Wang Tiezhu's mind. He immediately grabbed the high-powered flashlight set up next to him and turned it on sharply!
A thick beam of light pierced the darkness, shooting straight towards the eerie "cloud".
Under the light, the scene became clearer and even more chilling.
It wasn't a cloud made of condensed water vapor at all, but rather... a suspension of countless extremely fine, dark dust particles or grains, densely packed and constantly shifting.
In the beam of the flashlight, countless tiny reflective points can be vaguely seen, like billions of cold compound eyes.
As the beam of light swept across, the "cloud" seemed to have no reaction, continuing to drift towards the camp along a fixed trajectory and at a fixed speed.
Its movement was eerily smooth, almost unaffected by the night wind.
"Quickly! Report to headquarters! A large unidentified suspended object has appeared in the western sky and is moving towards us! It's moving very fast!" Wang Tiezhu shouted at Li Xiaohai, his voice trembling with tension.
Li Xiaohai had already picked up the wired telephone inside the watchtower, connected to the battalion headquarters duty room, and reported the unusual situation he had observed at a rapid pace.
As soon as they hung up the phone, the two of them looked up and couldn't help but gasp!
In just a dozen seconds, that strange "cloud" had already invaded the sky not far above our heads!
The distance was so close that you could see its outline slowly surging and stretching like a living thing, silent yet carrying an overwhelming and suffocating eeriness.
Immediately afterwards——
