There was no powerful mutant nearby, but the reality seemed to say otherwise.
It felt like a hand had drawn the spread out zombies together to surround them.
“The zombie concentration ahead is zero, I feel like something is off.” Seeing the life detection map at the right corner of his pupil, Jiang Chen can’t help but raised his eyebrows.
Disregarding the possibility of mutant.
Zombies were not exactly dead as they still maintain some features of a live creature. For example, their understanding of survival space. The zombie’s distribution was highly concentrated in the city center and spreads out in all directions from that point on. The asexually produced zombies moved outwards from the crowded city center to the rural area. In most cases, the relatively less concentrated areas would rarely produce a sea of zombies.
But the zombies seemed to have gathered together as they surrounded the entire base. The result was that after they manage to break through, the streets were empty.
Sun Jiao frowned as she was also uncertain.
“That’s right, something is off.”
However, it was futile to overthink right now as the armored vehicle broke through the sea of zombies and began to accelerate. The armored soldiers also activated the wheels on their feet and started the turbine engine behind their back. As they changed from a running stance to a gliding stance, they immediately began moving alongside the armored vehicle.
[Balance system, functional. Fu*k, I forgot to check this thing.] Jiang Chen cursed as sweat rolled down. It was functional or else it would have been problematic.
“Be careful of your surroundings, free fire.” Sun Jiao voiced transmitted through the public channel.
“Affirmative.”
The arrow like formation pushed forward, into the middle of the highway. The vehicles in the way were either pushed away or rolled over.
Their surrounding was filled with deafening silence. Other than the missile’s homing noise there were no other noises. Everyone was alert, holding the tactical in shooting position.
“Weird, there is not even a single mutant.” A soldier complained in the public channel.
“Did they hide or something?”
“Don’t be distracted, hold your position!”
“Yes!” The two soldiers immediately shut their mouth.
Could it be because of the unknown bacteria in the air?
Jiang Chen had a feeling something was not right. A bacteria that could make a bloodthirsty mutant afraid would not be as simple as it sounded.
After three kilometers, the team stopped in front of an apartment building surrounded by barbed wire.
It was an ancient building, like most buildings on the wasteland. The paint on the surface was already erased from the aftershock of the nuclear explosion, with only the gray concrete walls left. The wall had some old paint sprayed words.
Through the pitch black, a machine gun slanted against the window could barely be made out, and cloth replaced the glass on the windows.
On the roof of the building, vegetation covered in plastics to make what looked like soilless culture. This was where most of the survivor groups received their food. But in the radiation filled apocalypse, you wouldn’t expect a seed to produce a single fruit.
These fruits, with uncertain toxicology, still had a market on the Sixth Street. A lot of factories would purchase these in bulk quantities at a low price, and then sell the non-toxic ones in the luxury market. The toxic ones would be placed in extraction machines for vitamin, vegetable proteins, and other substances to produce high-quality grade A or B nutrient supply. (Compared to the nutrient supply created through the blood and fat of mutant and zombies, it was more “tasty” and “nutritious”.)
The situation here was similar to Fishbone Base as the zombies surrounded the building. But quantity wise, it was significantly less than the zombies around the base.
It was a frightening prospect, but not because of some zombies.
Did zombies possess intelligence? Or, was a higher intelligence controlling them?
Despite this, there was not much suspense in the battle as some zombies did not reach the critical state.
Although the zombies did possess crystals, the organic nature of their body meant that they were still regular zombies. Despite how hard they tried, they did not have the defense of the power armor.
A few gunshots finished the annoying zombies as they approached the apartment building.
There was a wooden board with some crooked words.
<Private property, do not enter>
[Psh, what?]
“Code 01 survivor group, the life detection device indicates a total of 30-40 people,” Sun Jiao reported to Jiang Chen through the private channel.
“What does code 01 mean? That’s an ugly name,” Jiang Chen mocked.
“…I gave them the name. Survivor groups usually don’t give their home a name as the desire to expand and need for land are minimal. The goal was to survive.” Sun Jiao walked up to ring the bell and backed up.
Momentarily, the door opened as a cautious looking middle-aged man carefully stepped out.
“Who are you guys?” His face had suspense and fright written all over it. The rifle in his hands trembled as he knew his rifle could not even break their armor.
The only thing that could damage the power armor was probably the dusty recoilless cannon in the back of the room.
“We are from the nearby Fishbone Base,” Jiang Chen took off his mask and said emotionlessly.
“What are you guys doing here?” The middle-aged man cautiously asked. He, of course, saw the group of people eradicate the zombies. The heavy firepower deterred any thought of resistance.
“I trust that you already realized the unusual zombie activity. Under the influence of the unknown bacteria, these zombies would exhibit high attack behaviors. The reliable report indicated that the unknown bacteria level is increasing in the air, so we have decided to eliminate the bacteria source.” Jiang Chen tried to make his tone sound friendly.
But the next sentence made Jiang Chen furious.
“What does that have to do with us?” Still the cautious and apathetic voice.
“You are asking what does that have to do with you?” Jiang Chen was shocked. He did not look angry as he laughed instead. “Do you know that the source is closer to you?”
The middle-aged man was speechless, but he felt that Jiang Chen was not as vicious as other bandits. He then prompted up the courage and argued back.
“But then it has more influence on you guys. Or else you guys wouldn’t be out here. We don’t need your help, so don’t bother us…”
The middle-aged man already has a plan. Since they were willing to take care of the trouble, then they can go. Although the odd bacteria certainly gave him a headache, what can he do? He’ll just hide there. If other people can’t take it anymore, then they’ll send their forces out.
Although those zombies had crystals behind the back of their head, they couldn’t advance forward and stop to collect the crystals at the same time. Why does he have to go with them if he could just pick up scraps that are left behind?
Jiang Chen was at a loss, but then he started to laugh.
He saw through the man’s deceitful eyes and could guess what was on his mind.
Shameless, too shameless. Haha.
[It certainly expanded his worldview that people could be this selfish. The problem is already in your backyard, and you are still waiting for a “dumbass” to make the first move so you can take advantage of their reward afterward? If I didn’t show up here, you were just going to wait here to die?
Wait, this is the apocalypse.]
Jiang Chen sudden realized. He almost thought he was on the negotiation table with Wang Dehai or 361 corporations.
Then, his eyes turned grim.
“What, what do you want?” The middle-aged man sensed a glimpse of hostility on Jiang Chen’s face as he cautiously opened his mouth. At the same time, he signaled the people behind him.
The window opened on top of the building as a black barrel extended out and was aimed at the armored vehicle.
“Boss, I have been locked in by an anti-tank weapon. Requesting permission to fire.” The driver hastily reported into the public channel.
Sun Jiao immediately lifted the tactical rifle and aimed at the person on top of the building. The power armor soldiers all engaged in a firing position.
Sun Jiao was in command during combats, but Jiang Chen decided in regards to the neutral forces.
If Jiang Chen ordered, Sun Jiao was fully confident that they could wipe these people off of the wasteland.
The middle-aged man was struggling too as he stared at Jiang Chen. He was not a friendly character. He knew the highly mobile power armor would be hard to hit. So he dared to risk his own life to signal his subordinate to aim at the armored vehicle, clearly carrying plenty of supplies.
He was betting. Betting on the fact that Jiang Chen would not risk the highly valuable armored vehicle and the countless amount of supplies for their irrelevant life.
However, Jiang Chen laughed. He knew exactly what the middle-aged man’s intentions were.
[He has the audacity to bet? To save ammunition and not fire a single bullet at zombies, but turn the gun on us who’re planning on eliminating the source?]
But Jiang Chen did not look surprised anymore. There was only a grimace was left in his vision.
“Perhaps it was my mistake to negotiate with you,” Jiang Chen slowly said the words as he shut his helmet.
The action scared the middle-aged man to death. If revealing the face meant sincerity to negotiate, then closing the helmet…
Speaker open, the icy words echoed through the entire street.
“I’ll only ask once. Surrender, or face death!”
The tactical rifle lowered.
Replacing them was ten raised revolving machine guns. The trident shaped machine gun rotated rapidly…