#17 - Chapter 17 Weapons
Chapter 17: Weapons!
Morning.
Sunlight streamed across the land, painting the ground with a golden hue. Plants, deprived of sunlight for two days, eagerly unfurled their leaves, greedily absorbing the energy from the great star.
In contrast to the plants' indifference, most other life forms had suffered unimaginable disasters in the past two days.
Roads were littered with haphazardly parked cars, and many buildings were scarred and damaged. Here and there, pools of blackish-red blood stained the roadside, a grim testament to the horrors that had transpired.
Just then.
A convoy of vehicles sped along the road, the wind whipping up plastic bags and scraps of paper, sending them fluttering in its wake.
Leading the convoy were two heavily modified and reinforced off-road vehicles, followed by two heavy trucks and a freight truck, all similarly equipped with menacing external armor.
It was Qin Jin and his group, setting out from the Green Source Base.
They had only just left the base and were now on a nearby national highway, so far encountering no immediate danger.
Qin Jin’s objective for today’s expedition was clear: every police station nearest to the base!
He needed to acquire firearms at the very beginning of the apocalypse. Only then would he have the means to maintain control of the base and expand its power!
Humanity’s future evolution would be limited; he couldn't expect to rally people to his cause through personal charisma alone. Everything would depend on firepower!
Otherwise, it would all be a pipe dream.
As they drove, everyone was on high alert, wary of any potential dangers.
The nearest police station to Qin Jin and his team was only a dozen kilometers from the base, a mere half-hour drive in peacetime.
Now, however, the timing was uncertain.
The convoy wasn't moving particularly fast, only reaching speeds of 50-70 kilometers per hour.
The main roads were occasionally blocked by debris and abandoned vehicles, forcing the cars to swerve and detour. When necessary, they had to reduce speed and use the ram to push obstacles aside.
The team members occasionally spotted skeletons, picked clean, by the roadside. These shocking and tragic scenes were subtly altering their worldview.
Qin Jin, however, was used to it; he had seen far too much of it in his past life.
Suddenly, the driver of the lead vehicle spoke to Qin Jin, “Mr. Qin, there are zombies ahead!”
Qin Jin shifted his attention to the front of the vehicle and, sure enough, saw a figure standing in the road ahead.
The figure was dressed in tattered clothes, covered in blood. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that its left arm was broken off at the elbow. It stood quietly in the middle of the road, clearly a zombie.
Apparently, the sound of the vehicles had attracted its attention, and it began to run slowly towards the convoy.
After only two seconds of consideration, Qin Jin ordered the driver beside him, “Floor it! Run it over!”
“You got it, boss!”
Vroom—
The lead off-road vehicle roared, accelerating away from the other vehicles, charging towards the zombie.
Bang—
The solitary zombie, like a toppled stack of blocks, was instantly torn to pieces, its limbs flying forward in arcs, scattering dozens of meters before landing.
Qin Jin’s vehicle also came to a stop, and people got out to inspect the reinforced steel ram at the front.
It had suffered some very minor deformation but did not impede continued use, suggesting that the modifications were quite effective.
The vehicles then continued forward.
The blood splattered onto the front windshield, and the driver pressed the windshield washer button. The wipers struggled several times before clearing a clean area, no longer obstructing the driver’s view.
The front of the car was covered in blood, making the vehicle look even more menacing.
The rest of the journey passed without incident.
The route that navigation said would take 24 minutes actually took nearly 40 minutes. They avoided zombies when possible, but when unavoidable, they simply rammed them and ran them over!
After arriving near their destination, Qin Jin used the intercom to instruct the convoy to stop. The lead vehicle was covered in blood, and even the ram was severely deformed, indicating the number of zombies they had encountered along the way.
This was the aftereffect of the end of the corpse fog; the zombies were still somewhat frenzied.
Their destination was a county-level police station; Mentang Town fell under its jurisdiction.
The main gate stood wide open, and several police cars were parked haphazardly around the entrance. Some of the vehicles had clearly been burned, with only the charred frames remaining, emitting wisps of black smoke.
Several incomplete zombie bodies were crawling slowly. Perhaps these were people who hadn't transformed during the initial outbreak and had later been bitten and infected by other zombies.
Now, due to their impaired mobility, they had not yet found a shady place to rest.
In the apocalypse, many zombies with missing limbs or covered in wounds were those who hadn’t transformed initially and were later caught and attacked by other zombies. Those with intact bodies were often the first to transform.
Some unlucky individuals had their necks or brains destroyed when they were knocked down by zombies, losing the “opportunity” to transform. Others were simply devoured into skeletons before they could transform.
Zombies prefer shade. When the sun comes out during the day, they tend to find a shady spot nearby to stay. They only come out if stimulated, unlike at night when they can roam everywhere. Therefore, human survivors tend to move around during the day and avoid going out at night.
The convoy did not drive directly to the police station entrance but instead parked at a street corner a few dozen meters away.
A direct confrontation was out of the question; only by using their wits could they minimize losses.
Qin Jin observed the surroundings for a while. It was quiet, with no moving zombies in sight. The surrounding buildings were not tall, providing a relatively open field of vision. Theoretically, any hidden zombies would be in these buildings.
He then activated the drone he had brought, sending it flying towards the police station.
It hovered three meters in front of the police station gate.
After ensuring the position was suitable, he activated a button, and the speaker beneath the drone emitted a familiar song:
“You are my little apple, I can never love you enough #%=￥\u0026^*—”
The speaker had been specially customized by Qin Jin, with attention paid to both high and low frequencies, making it extremely penetrating and able to carry over long distances.
Instantly.
A commotion erupted. It was as if a giant monster had been awakened. Howls echoed from the surrounding buildings, even drowning out the sound of the speaker!
Soon, zombies poured out of the buildings, running towards the drone. In just ten seconds, nearly a hundred zombies had appeared in sight!!
Except for Qin Jin, who remained relatively calm, the other combat team members were a little weak-kneed. This was the first time they had been so close to so many zombies, some of which even ran past their vehicles.
Less than a meter away.
More and more zombies gathered beneath the drone. Qin Jin raised the drone to a height of five meters, focusing on the police station, from which zombies continued to emerge.
The zombies continued to reach for the drone relentlessly, stacking up to three meters high in just a few minutes!!
Zombies arriving later stepped on their comrades in front to move upwards, only to be stepped on again by zombies behind them. Repeatedly, like an ant colony, they piled higher and higher!!
Only then did the combat team members understand why their boss wasn't satisfied with the five-meter-high walls of the base.
Zombies really could climb that high!! (This world doesn’t have bizarre zombie films and games like World War Z and Left 4 Dead; most are similar to Resident Evil).
Compared to the others' shock, Qin Jin was unfazed.
He had seen this many times when defending against zombies in his past life.
He continued to control the drone, occasionally moving it left and right, causing the zombie tower to change direction. Unstable, zombies were shaken off, preventing the tower from becoming too high and affecting his ability to lure zombies out of the police station.
The drone continued to fly for nearly ten minutes. Fewer and fewer zombies emerged from the police station, and none had emerged in the last two minutes. He knew it was about time.
He handed the drone over to Zhong Yu, another team member who knew how to operate it, instructing him to lead the horde away!
He had demonstrated this to Zhong Yu yesterday at the base, and it wasn't difficult to operate. All he needed to do was maintain the drone's speed to prevent the horde from falling behind.
After a while, the zombie horde was led to a location one kilometer away.
Qin Jin instructed one team member to protect Zhong Yu as he continued to lead the horde away, reporting the situation via walkie-talkie.
Then, he ordered the remaining team members to drive to the police station entrance. Everyone got out of the vehicles and immediately formed a formation, leaving two people to watch the vehicles and observe the surroundings. He then led the way into the police station!!
As soon as he stepped through the gate, a strong metallic smell rushed into his nostrils. He knew it was the smell of blood.
He thought to himself that there must have been a fierce battle here.
Bullet holes could occasionally be seen on the walls. The office lobby was a mess, with various documents and chairs scattered around. The glass of the reception window was shattered, and traces of blood that had not completely dried could still be seen on the remaining glass.
There were no zombies or corpses in sight.
It seemed that the zombies had all been lured away.
He breathed a slight sigh of relief and then whispered to the team members behind him:
“We’ll split into three teams here and search different areas. Firearms are usually stored in the armory, which should be on the third floor. I’ll lead a team there. The other two teams will search other areas. Bring back any weapons and supplies you find! The zombies should have been lured away, but we can't be sure if there are any left. Everyone, be extra careful if you want to get back safely!”
He quickly finished speaking to the team members in a low voice, then stopped wasting words, pressed his right hand forward, and finally said: “Move out!!”
He quickly lowered his body, aiming his crossbow forward, each step seemingly calculated, silently heading towards the stairwell.
The team members in his group followed his movements, holding shields and machetes as they advanced!
———————————————
Gao Qiang.
36 years old, dark-skinned, with a square face, thin lips, and a height of about 1.7 meters, his appearance was as ordinary as could be.
He was originally a fishmonger in the Mentang Town agricultural market.
On the morning of October 10th, he had an argument with the market's management, which escalated into a fight. He punched one of them in the eye, drawing blood, and was detained by the police who arrived.
After being interrogated, he was thrown into the detention center.
While he was filled with remorse for the assault, wondering how much money it would take to resolve the matter, the disaster broke out that night.
Fortunately, he was locked in a temporary cell by himself, allowing him to witness firsthand the other detainees in the nearby rooms gradually transforming into zombies, frantically tearing and devouring those around them. Later, even the police officers guarding them transformed, chasing after the officers who hadn't yet turned.
They died, almost everyone died.
He felt like he was going crazy because he couldn't believe it was real.
As time passed, he realized that he wasn't crazy, but that everyone else really had gone crazy and died.
Many of those who had been bitten gradually turned into new zombies. A detainee with a severed neck was devoured by a large group of zombies in another cell just a few meters away from him!
The splattered blood even landed on him!!
Even though he usually made a living killing fish, accustomed to being a butcher of seafood, he was terrified by this scene, his scalp tingling and his body ice-cold.
He wondered if he had killed too much in his life and was now directly in hell, suffering this punishment.
After his “cellmate” was eaten clean, the zombies didn't disperse. They continued to surround his cell, reaching out and roaring, clearly still wanting to eat him.
The iron bars that he had once resented for hindering his freedom now only made him want to strengthen them with his mind, reinforce them, reinforce them again! Strengthen them to the point that the zombies couldn't destroy them!
He had never imagined what despair tasted like, but now he had the opportunity to experience it.
Facing the blood-soaked, hideous zombies, some with missing arms and legs, he felt surrounded by a horde of demons. He wished he could dig through the concrete floor and hide, anything was better than being stared at by demons!
And his dear younger sister and younger brother outside, he wondered how they were doing. Had zombies broken out outside as well?
Had they found a safe place to hide!?
The more he thought, the more his heart sank towards hell!
Perhaps his mental reinforcement worked, the iron bars had resisted the zombies' invasion, keeping them several meters away from Gao Qiang.
Until two days later, the fog dissipated, and the zombies were no longer frantic, their aggressiveness greatly reduced.
Many zombies' sense of smell was not as sensitive, or they were attracted by other sounds. The zombies surrounding him were no longer as numerous, leaving only a few stubborn ones still persisting.
Only then did his mind relax from its highly tense state. At that moment, he felt as exhausted as if he had masturbated ten times in one night.
Coupled with not eating or drinking for two days and two nights, he was on the verge of collapse.
Just like that, Gao Qiang vaguely lost track of time until a classic song suddenly woke him up!
The remaining zombies that had been surrounding him were also attracted by the song and walked away, leaving him alone in the space.
He felt a jolt!
As if an entire syringe of adrenaline had been injected directly into his arteries, a long-awaited thought flashed through his mind: rescue had arrived!
But another strange thought flashed through his mind: why does this rescue team seem a little unserious!?
(End of this chapter)
