Chapter 1338 During the Retreat
"Old Zhou! What are you daydreaming about! Third squad! Get in vehicle number three! Quick!" The captain's shout pulled him back to reality.
Before he could even sigh, Old Zhou hugged his son tightly and, along with his familiar coworkers, ran toward the blue medium-sized truck with peeling paint and guardrails installed in the cargo box.
Some people had already set up makeshift ladders, and people were helping each other, climbing into the carriage using both hands and feet.
The carriage was cold, covered with dry grass and old canvas, and filled with the smell of engine oil and dust.
Old Zhou first lifted the small stone up and handed it to the coworker who went up first, then gritted his teeth and climbed up himself.
The carriage quickly filled with people, mostly familiar faces: men, women, and a few teenagers, all huddled together, warming each other with their body heat. Their faces were still shaken, but their eyes held a hint of reliance—at least they hadn't been abandoned, and they had a train.
Similar scenes are playing out in various parts of the Gucheng Lake area.
Factory areas, farmland management team camps, residential areas... groups of people, under the hoarse commands of a few armed soldiers or grassroots managers, surged toward the designated assembly and boarding points.
The beams of headlights crisscrossed the night sky, and the roar of engines replaced the initial silence. A massive and hastily assembled transfer machine, urged on by the highest alarm, roared into action.
However, order is only on the surface; panic, like an undercurrent, never truly subsides.
Just as the blue truck carrying Lao Zhou closed its tailgate and the driver jumped into the cab, preparing to await the final departure order—
"boom!!!"
A crisp, short, and penetrating gunshot, still highly penetrating amidst the noise, suddenly came from the direction of another assembly point not far away!
That's the sound of a rifle! It definitely wasn't an accidental discharge!
The gunshot was like an icicle, instantly piercing the atmosphere that had just eased slightly because of the sight of the vehicle.
Everyone in the carriage shuddered, and Little Stone was so frightened that he burst into tears, clinging tightly to Old Zhou's neck and burying his face in his chest.
Old Zhou's heart pounded again. He instinctively hugged his son tighter and, like everyone else, looked in terror through the gaps in the train carriage railings toward the direction from which the gunshots came.
There were figures moving about, and shouts and cries could be faintly heard, but the distance and darkness made it impossible to see exactly what was happening.
"Execute him on the spot...?" The words from the report still echoed in my ears.
'Someone...was really...killed?'
Was it because of the scramble to get on the bus? Was it because they wanted to run back to get something? Or...did something far more terrible happen?
..
The fragile sense of security that had just been established crumbled once again with the sound of that real gunshot.
The carriage was deathly silent, save for the roar of the engine and the suppressed sobs of the children.
...
Buzz buzz————
Finally, after receiving the departure notice from the settlement management committee, the blue truck's diesel engine, under the driver's almost rough handling, emitted a series of labored coughs and roared violently, causing the vehicle to shake violently.
The people in the carriage swayed and staggered due to inertia, emitting a series of suppressed gasps and clattering sounds.
"Hold on tight! Hold on to the railings!" The squad leader in charge of their group shouted hoarsely at the front of the carriage, while he himself gripped the edge of the front panel of the carriage tightly.
Old Zhou braced his back against the cold side of the carriage, spread his legs to steady himself, and held Xiao Shitou tightly in his arms to cushion the child's movements as much as possible.
The child was in a little pain from being strangled, but extreme fear made Little Stone bury his face deeper into his father's chest, which smelled of sweat and tobacco, his little hands gripping his father's rough clothes tightly.
The car moved slowly, leaving the relatively narrow open space of the construction team's dormitory area and turning onto the main road connecting the various functional areas of the settlement.
As soon as they set off, the sight before them made even Old Zhou, who had been struggling in the post-apocalyptic world for almost two years, gasp in shock.
This is no longer the bustling yet orderly Gucheng Lake gathering place it used to be.
Before us was an unusually wide dirt and stone road—when the army was planning it, they overruled objections and insisted on building such a "wasteful" road in the core area of the settlement, supposedly to deal with possible emergencies.
At this moment, this eight-lane "lifeline" is crowded with all kinds of vehicles!
Heavy trucks, medium-sized vans, dilapidated buses, and even a few tracked agricultural tractors towing trailers—all the movable steel shells, at this moment, were like a herd of beasts being driven, panting heavily, their headlights either glaring or dim, as they struggled to move forward.
Every single vehicle was severely overloaded!
People like Lao Zhou are considered lucky; at least the construction team is mainly composed of young and middle-aged men.
More trucks were packed with men, women, and children, huddled together like sardines, their faces reflecting a uniform, deathly fear under the headlights and the flashing red lights of the distant sirens.
The cries of children, the sobs of women, the heavy breathing and coughing of men, and the sporadic curses and shoving caused by overcrowding, mixed with the deafening roar of engines and the shrill background noise of alarms, formed a desperate and chaotic symphony of escape.
However, on either side of this chaotic torrent stands a completely different scene.
On both sides of the main road, along the emergency lanes and some sidewalks, were parked vehicles that were all military green.
There were military trucks covered with canvas, Mengshi assault vehicles with machine guns mounted on their roofs, and even two low-slung wheeled assault guns with menacing cannon barrels, silently exuding a deterrent presence.
These military vehicles, as well as key intersections and bridges, were surrounded by heavily armed soldiers.
They are no longer just soldiers in the gray uniforms of the garrison regiment, but more like soldiers of the 1st Infantry Brigade of Yezhou, fully covered in protective suits, wearing gas masks, and completely wrapped up.
The reason why the majority of soldiers in the 1st Infantry Brigade of Yezhou were from the garrison regiments had already received orders to leave the city in advance to ensure the smooth passage of the evacuation route and maintain order along the way.
Behind this order can be seen as a disguised form of protection for the poorly equipped garrison troops by the military district's high command.
It is foreseeable that the 1st Night State Infantry Brigade, which is currently maintaining order in the city, will most likely be unable to evacuate before the spore surge arrives.
At this moment, the soldiers of the 1st Infantry Brigade of Yezhou, in squads and platoons, constructed simple circular defenses or roadblocks, their guns pointed outwards, their cold eyes scanning the congested traffic on the road and the darkness beyond.
Some officers, holding megaphones or waving fluorescent batons, shouted at the top of their lungs, trying to clear the congested traffic and direct different convoys to different side roads.
"All vehicles must maintain a safe distance! Proceed in an orderly manner! No cutting in front!"
"The sign! Look at the sign!"
"That bus over there! Keep up! Don't stop!"
...
Their voices were mostly hoarse and cracked, but against the backdrop of sporadic gunfire and chaos, they became the only guiding force to prevent this fragile "lifeline" from collapsing completely.
Old Zhou's convoy, following a truck with the words "Grain and Oil Processing Plant" painted on it, slowly merged into the southbound traffic on the main road.
The speed was as slow as a snail, and every now and then it had to come to a complete stop, waiting for the congestion ahead to clear.
Each time the train stopped, the unease inside the carriage intensified.
People craned their necks, trying to see what was happening ahead, and whispers spread like wildfire.
"What happened up ahead? Why did you stop?"
"Is the road blocked?"
"What on earth happened? Why the sudden departure? Could something have happened in Jinling?"
...
Panic is brewing amid the stagnation.
at this time--
"Bang! Bang!"
