Chapter 263: Chapter 263: Desperate Measures
But after a short moment, Lingang's voice finally came back.
"Yeah, I can hear you. A jockey mutant just jumped over the wall and almost got on top of me."
"Okay. If you need reinforcement, just tell me, and I'll send them over."
Xiaoyun ended the transmission as he shifted his attention back to the battlefield.
The zombies were using the zombies' bodies from the last wave to climb up the wall as the moat and trenches in front of the wall filled up.
With every zombie killed, it created more height for a zombie staircase up the wall.
The firepower from all of the soldiers firing their guns was still able to hold them back.
But as more and more zombie bodies piled up, it finally reached the point where zombies could straight-up run the bodies towards the wall.
To make the situation worse, an entire pack of jockey mutants hiding among the normal zombies suddenly appeared out of nowhere, with hundreds of hunter mutants lunging at the soldiers.
With more and more soldiers being injured by the mutants, the firepower was starting to slow down.
The ammo stockpile was also starting to run dry despite all the ammo that came along with the inner soldier swaps.
But as Xiaoyun and all the majors continued to fight alongside the soldiers, nobody dared to retreat from the fight.
More importantly, the home of the soldiers and the civilian volunteers was right behind them, with their loved ones having nowhere to run to.
Soon, as more and more zombies overwhelmed the soldier's firepower, Xiaoyun started considering a mass retreat to the inner walls.
But there was still some precious ammo that the soldiers still hadn't used up.
Suddenly, his walkie-talkie got a transmission.
It was Yezi's voice.
"Xiaoyun, order a retreat to the inner wall. I had set up explosives at the outer wall to delay the zombies."
Without any hesitation, Xiaoyun immediately issued a retreat.
The soldiers quickly started grouping up in formation as they slowly moved towards the nearest staircase down the wall.
Seeing the civilian volunteers rushing down the stairs, Xiaoyun didn't blame them as the fact that they fought was brave enough.
As the soldiers began to get off the wall, Xiaoyun noticed several injured soldiers who were still sitting at the mounted MG-40 or firing their rifles next to the ammo stockpiles.
"Why are you guys not going? Everyone can retreat!" Xiaoyun yelled as he stood near the staircase.
One of them yelled back as they showed a bite mark on their shoulder.
"Commander Xiaoyun! Sorry, we can't serve you any longer! Please take care of our families."
Right before everyone's eyes, one of the injured soldiers pulled the grenade pin and lunged towards the nearest zombie.
"Fuck!"
Helplessness and despair filled everyone's mind as all they could do was retreat down the stairs before the zombies overwhelmed the wall.
And despite their heroic sacrifice, the zombies quickly filled in the gap and began rushing towards the soldiers who were down on the ground.
After the soldiers got far enough from the wall, Xiaoyun quickly sent a signal to Yezi.
"You can pull the explosion."
Just before the zombies could jump down the wall to chase after the soldiers, a large explosion combined with a massive flame engulfed all of them.
All the soldiers froze as they looked back at the explosion at the outer wall, with the top covered in smoke as the explosion had caused a small fire that was starting to expand rapidly.
"Don't just stand there! Don't let their sacrifice go in vain!" Xiaoyun urgently yelled.
All the soldiers quickly snapped back to reality as they began sprinting towards the inner wall down the road.
Despite the distance between the outer and inner walls being less than a block, it felt like forever as new zombies quickly replaced the zombies who died in the explosion.
After the last person entered through one of the entrances, all the gates were completely shut off, as the zombies were now halfway between the outer and inner walls.
Just as more and more zombies flooded the space between the two walls, all of the buildings at the trading zone exploded and went up in flames.
"Xiaoyun, you okay?" Yezi asked as he approached Xiaoyun from the side.
"I'm fine... How long can the inner wall hold?" Xiaoyun asked as he took a deep breath to calm himself down.
"It should be enough to hold this zombie wave off since it's almost twice as tall. But the scout outside reported..."
Yezi stood still in silence as he didn't know how to tell it to Xiaoyun.
"How many waves is it?" Xiaoyun asked.
After a long silence, Yezi finally said the number.
"There were four waves total..."
"Fuck! We're only on the second wave, and you're telling me there's more?"
Xiaoyun closed his eyes in disbelief as his mind was getting tired from fighting nonstop for several hours.
After calming down for a bit, Xiaoyun changed back to their normal self.
"Does anyone else know about this?" Xiaoyun asked.
"Besides the scout who's hidden outside, I haven't told this to anyone," Yezi replied.
"Okay... I'll think of a way to solve this... You go direct the defense right now."
Yezi immediately went over to the inner wall to help with directing the defense with the majors.
Meanwhile, Xiaoyun went over to the old command center where he and Yezi always used to sit when the town was still super small.
"Fuck! What can I do? I can't create enough bullets, and the raw material I can make takes too long to become bullets...
I need something that can kill a lot of zombies at once... And we already can use the raw materials that don't need to be constructed..."
As Xiaoyun looked out the windows at the logistic crews carrying ammo and supplies from the factory, he suddenly got an idea.
Xiaoyun quickly pulled out his phone and called Yuqi.
"Hey Qiqi, how much wood do we have in the stockpile?"
"Um, like wooden plank or wooden log? Or just raw wood?"
"Just anything flammable. How many are there?"
"We got so many of them that we can barely store them in like ten warehouses.
Did you forget we chopped the forest to make space for houses? And the space in front of the outer wall and inner wall?" Yuqi pointed out.
"Oh right, perfect! Can you immediately transport all of them over to the wall? I'll call Lingang to help you with it." Xiaoyun urgently asked.
Yuqi got curious about why Xiaoyun was trying to get all the wood at the wall, but she didn't ask why, as it was still an emergency.
"Okay, I'll start having people loading them in the cars and trucks."
After Xiaoyun ended the call, he immediately ran over to a semi-truck that was parked nearby.
Fortunately, the semi-truck container was unlocked and empty, just like how he wanted.
"Gasoline can... I need to fill up at least half of this truck."
As Xiaoyun started creating a gasoline can inside the truck, his body was starting to get a little exhausted.
After creating over twenty of them, his head was beginning to hurt. But he held himself together as he continued creating them.
Just as he got to the halfway point, he almost collapsed from exhaustion.
Xiaoyun slowly pulled out his phone and called Yezi.
"Yezi, you there?"
"Yeah. I'm fighting at the wall right now. Why do you sound so tired?"
Xiaoyun could hear the gunshots and explosions in the phone call as the fighting at the inner wall was getting more and more intense.
"I just sent Yuqi to start bringing wood planks and logs to the wall. Can you tell Lingang to help her with their vehicles?"
"Okay, but why are we bringing wood to the wall? Just having logs rolling down the wall barely do anything." Yezi pointed out
"It's going to be flammable. I made a truck full of gasoline. It's inside the truck near the old command center." Xiaoyun explained.
Yezi paused for a second. Then, he finally realized what Xiaoyun was trying to do.
"Okay. I'll send someone right now to go get it."
Xiaoyun ended the call and stepped out of the truck trailer.
But before he closed the door, he looked towards the empty gap that still hadn't been filled yet.
"I can do this. The town needs me. If I can't do this, nobody else can save us."
After taking a deep breath, Xiaoyun turned over to Tianci, who had been standing near him in silence the whole time.
"Hey Tianci. Can you bring me back home when I'm unconscious?"
"What? Why are you asking——"
Before Tianci could finish, gas canisters suddenly appeared in bulk in front of the two, filling the truck with gas cans.
"Shit——"
The sharp headache instantly made Xiaoyun fall unconscious as it protected itself by shutting it off.