Chapter 301: Chapter 301: Qingyuan Crisis
"It's just three hours away from New Year's now. Man, when are we going back to Luoping?"
The soldier who was speaking had a private rank, and looking at appearances, he was at most in his early twenties.
Next to him was a Corporal-Rank soldier who looked bored out of his mind.
"It hasn't even been a week yet. Quit complaining, man. Newbies like you are always complaining so much."
As the two soldiers stared out to the darkness in the distance, the Corporal took out his canteen to drink.
"What are you drinking? That doesn't smell like water at all." The private asked curiously.
The Corporal continues taking a big sip before handing the canteen over, signaling him to try it.
With a short sniff, the strong alcohol smell hits the private right in the head.
"Geez, how did you get such a strong liquor?" The private curiously asked as he only took a small sip before handing it back.
"The locals sold it. You should go to the market they set up. We could even use our money to buy stuff there."
"Really? But why would they accept our money here?"
The Corporal shook his head as he put the canteen away, turned around, and stared him dead in the eye.
"Do you really think they have a choice to refuse? We're practically the American stationing in Japan. What are the locals going to do?"
"But the commander said we need to treat them as equals——"
"Yeah yeah, equal my ass. Who's the one that's going to die when the zombies attack? Besides, they can use that money to buy stuff from other merchants who are heading to Luoping anyway."
After seeing the private nodding in fear, the Corporal felt satisfied and turned back around to face forward.
"You want to know why I'm still a corporal?"
"N-No, sir."
"Too bad."
As the Corporal took out a cigarette, the Private immediately took out his lighter to light it up.
With a short whiff, the Corporal finally spoke up again.
"I bet you didn't know I'm already in my fifty——"
"Fifty? Sir, you look like you're in your twenties."
"Don't interrupt me. Anyway, since I'm already so old, they're going to put me in early retirement.
But I'm not going to complain. Who doesn't like to get paid early for free? Only an idiot wants to stay in such a dangerous job."
Hearing the Corporal suddenly laugh out loud, the private felt a little conflicted. The Corporal's face told him he didn't want to go yet.
"I recommend you find another job after your duty is up if you can't handle this... This isn't for every——"
Suddenly, their walkie-talkie received a signal, forcing the conversation to end abruptly.
"ALL UNITS ON STANDBY. All soldiers report back to the training field immediately. I repeat, return to the training field immediately."
As the transmission began to repeat the same message, the Corporal immediately turned it off.
"Sir, what's happening?" The private curiously asked as they walked travel down the stairs.
"Something bad. From my experience, it has to be some sort of attack... Ready your gun."
With a swift reverse kick, the half-locked door slammed outward.
"Let's go."
After running for half a block, a dark, shadowy figure appeared in their view, standing in the middle of the street.
"Wait."
The Corporal held the private back as he pulled out his binoculars to check. However, the darkness made it impossible to tell what it was besides being able to tell it could move slightly.
With a shorthand signal, the private immediately understood what the Corporal wanted to do as they began walking to the other side of the street around the figure.
However, the next street they walked into had the same thing, with a dark shadowy figure right in the middle.
"Fuck it. Get ready to pull your grenade if my shot doesn't kill it."
As the Corporal aimed his rifle, the private ready his grenade in hand, fully believing in the Corporal to land the shot.
But as the Corporal was about to pull the trigger, the shadowy figure suddenly disappeared.
"Shit!"
As the Corporal panicked to take his thermal camera, the Private threw the grenade forward. m vl _emp y,r the story platform
"What are you——"
The grenade somehow perfectly landed on the shadowy figure as it levitated in the air before going off.
"Holy shit, how did I land that?"
The private was completely dumbfounded as the blood of the shadowy figure was everywhere on the ground.
"Nevermind. Let's go before the noise causes us more trouble."
After running for a few more minutes, the two finally made it back to the training field, where the lights were fully on and the entire block was illuminated.
Although it was called a training field, it was actually a park with buildings surrounding it that were completely blocked off beside one entrance.
"You two, what's your code?" One of the soldiers at the gate asked as all of them aimed their gun at the two.
"25640, Chen Qizhen"
"11021, Ming Zhenping"
The gate finally opened, and the soldiers let out a sigh of relief as the two walked in.
"What's happening?" The Corporal asked curiously.
"All of the metro entrances broke open. It's absolute chaos right now. Endless zombies surround the entire city, and nothing can get in or out," one of the soldiers explained.
"Fuck... Of course, it has to happen just as I was about to retire." The Corporal murmured as he and the Private headed towards the assembly area.
---
"Zhen Ren, what should we do?" A Major asked as everyone in the command room looked completely lost.
"I don't know... But where the hell is Lin Zhen Ti? How the hell is the whole fucking city full of zombies in less than an hour?"
All of the majors looked at each other for a second, only to be silently staring at each other.
"Of course, he's not here... How many people do we have right now?"
"We have fifty thousand people right now——"
"Fifty thousand? How the hell did you get that number? Don't we only have eight thousand soldiers?"
"Yes, but a lot of civilians ran to us for help... I couldn't refuse them," A Major replied.
"Major Yiling, do you know how much food we have? We can't even support ourselves more than a week with our food supplies."
Zhen Ren angrily stood up for a second but sat back down after realizing there was no point in lashing out.
"Tell everyone to stay alert... There's nothing we can do until the morning. And double the patrol unit today."
After all the majors had left the room, Zhen Ren looked up at the clock, only to see it was only eleven O'clock.
"Fuck... Seven hours of waiting... Is it really just going to be waiting?"
Zhen Ren thought to himself as he looked out the window, only to see that the cloud had completely blocked the moon.
---
Meanwhile, the mayor's building in Qingyuan...
"Everyone, hold your ground! Remember, if we take a step back, all of our families behind us will have nowhere to hide!"
Zhen Ti yelled as hundreds of people stood behind the massive, thick wooden door. A loud banging sound echoed in the room, and more knocking sounds appeared.
"Mayor, the west block has fallen! The zombies will be here in less than five minutes!" a civilian in camo gear yelled as he ran toward Zhen Ti.
"Fuck! Everyone to the roof now!"
Within seconds, everyone who was holding the door immediately rushed upstairs while the two stood still at the entrance.
"Mayor! We need to go now!"
"Go? Where do we go? How the hell did twenty thousand soldiers at West Block not hold for more than an hour?"
Zhen Ti collapsed onto the floor as the camo gear soldier supported him back up.
"Sir! You know how they are! Half of them ran away after seeing hundreds of thousands of zombies rush in.
Please, sir. We need to go now. The people need you, and your son Zhen Ling still needs you!"
Hearing his son's name, Zhen Ti finally regained his motivation as the two walked up the stairs.
"Old Liu, what happens to our troops?" Zhen Ti asked, emphasizing the word our.
"They... They are all heroes... Without them, we wouldn't even have five minutes before they get here."
Zhen Ti froze for a second before bursting into tears as they continued up to the third floor.
"Fuck! How am I going to explain to their parents? I fucked everything up!"
"Sir! It's not your fault. Nobody expected this sudden outbreak. We should be getting revenge on those bastards who ran first and abandoned their metro hold."
Hearing Old Liu's words, Zhen Ti calmed down a little bit as they continued up the stairs.
"You're right. But we have to make it out alive first... They will pay for what they had done."
The tears disappeared as the only thing that filled Zhen Ti's eyes was revenge, as they finally caught up with the rest of the groups waiting on the roof.