Undead 09

Chapter 09

B Military District, the emergency contact room.

“The analysis report has come out. All the Omegas have been genetically identified, but we can’t find the target among them.” Red emergency lights flashed across the face of the female researcher. She was sweating and appeared a bit out of breath from sprinting.

A man with a star on the shoulder of his uniform was seated with his head buried deeply in his palm. After a few seconds, he looked up at the woman. “I know.”

The old man picked up the satellite phone in front of him and entered a string of numbers. After half a minute, the phone was answered. “Major General Qian, please report the result.”

The old man opened his mouth but didn’t make a sound.

The silence itself was answer enough.

“We will check all the cities in DC918 for a more thorough investigation. If the plane really crashed, it should have left traces somewhere.” The voice at the other end of the phone was very heavy. It paused a bit before asking, “Is there any news about the situation of the special secret team unit-188? ”

“……I sent all my eight squadrons out. Three are confirmed to have fallen, two are missing and have failed to return. The sixth squadron lead by Major Zhou team rescued hundreds of trapped people, but after the rescue helicopters were infected, we lost contact with them…”.

Major General Qian took a deep breath to stabilize his emotion; when he continued, his voice had turned somewhat harsh. “I can send the last two teams out, but we need more information about the target. Otherwise, like looking for a needle in the haystack, this mission will be impossible to accomplish!”

“I can’t do it.” The person on the other side refused. “In the past six months, the target has been in sole contact with Vice Minister Guo. All information about his identity is highly confidential, and Vice Minister Guo has confirmed his death during the transfer.”

Major General Qian was angered: “Identity is unknown, appearance is unknown, the only one who knows him is an extremely vigilant politician with unclear stance. How will my people be able to find this person? Should we just broadcast news about the target in all the major cities and wait for him to come knocking at our door himself?”

“……”

“To avoid the possibility of him running away because of alpha pheromones, all of my special soldiers were disguised as beta and went into the zombie-filled land. But it’s still not working! Maybe the target really has died in the plane crash!”

“If he dies,” The voice on the other end of the phone began, sounding cold and clear, “All our current hopes will die along with him…”

Major General Qian breathed deeply into the phone and closed his eyes. Just as he was about to say something, there was suddenly a loud crash from the corridor outside.

Some of the researchers quickly got up, their faces pale. Major General Qian turned back tensely.

BANG!

Again, this time closer.

“They… They’re coming.” Major General Qian gulped, hung up the phone, and took out his hand gun.

In the deadly silence, a third bang sounded from near the door before stopping.

Everyone’s hearts beat frantically as they stared at the closed metal door. A sound similar to a beast’s impatient grunt was heard from outside, and after about 10 seconds, another sound finally rang out:

BANG!

The room began shaking violently. All the people looked wide-eyed at the metal door, horror reflected in their terrified eyes.

***

The next morning, six o’clock.

The skylight peeked faintly from behind the clouds; the air was filled with the smelled salty. The awaken survivors began talking among themselves, looking out the windows while still wrapped in their makeshift blankets.

Zhou Rong had taken his people to the highway to check abandoned vehicles. They raided what’s left of those vehicles’ fuel tanks, transferring them to a few barrels with transparent hoses. The smell of gasoline filled their noses but all of them ignored it as they stood guard on the roadside.

The group departed at half past six and arrived at the industrial area at seven o’clock. The minibus stopped at a fertilizer factory.

Yan Hao led the team to circle around and cleaned up more than a dozen zombies before finally giving a signal for the other survivors to come in.

The factory building was a mess. There was blood everywhere but not much damage to the facility itself– the backyard even had an acre of vegetable patch and a few chicken. The more than 30 survivors were divided into workers ‘ dormitories. Under the leadership of Ding Shi and Zhang Yingjie, the men conducted a large-scale cleaning to repair the barbed wire and further explore the surrounding environment. Meanwhile, the women found pots, pans, and gas tanks in the kitchen and took up the responsibility of cooking.

Zhou Rong stood at the edge of the front yard faucet, washing his face with the slightly yellowed water coming out of the rusty tap.

“The ground is high, the building is firm, the supplies are stored, and the nearest residence is five kilometers away. We can stay here for the time being while we wait for contact from the military base and act accordingly later.” One of the special force members, Guo Weixiang, reported.

Zhou Rong didn’t answer. He put his head under the faucet for a few seconds before standing straight and shaking his head to get rid of the droplets.

“Although there is no electricity, there are diesel generators in the factory. Yan Hao is registering the survivors’ information and preparing to organize a security team to ensure that there are people patrolling 24 hours every day…”

“Two days,” Zhou Rong suddenly interrupted him.

Guo Xiang: “?”

“If there is no nuclear bomb launched at City B in two days, I’ll go to the B Military District myself. The rest of you stay here with the survivors and wait for news from me.”

Zhou Rong lifted his T-shirt to rub his face, his camouflage trousers was hanging low on his waist, revealing a sturdy eight-pack abs. His words made Guo Weixiang anxious so he followed behind him and said, “You can’t go, Rong Ge! To reach the military district you’ll have to go across the entire B city. Unless you can fly there, you’ll surely die. You can’t grow wings, you know!”

Zhou Rong glanced at him teasingly, “Why don’t you call your grandfather to send me a helicopter, second generation young master?”

Guo Xiang answered helplessly, “If I can contact him, I’ll even ask him to send you a F-22 combat plane. One wrong move and you’ll die.”

[T/N: F-22 Combat Plane]

“Rong Ge!” Chun Cao suddenly came out of the factory. “Come here, we’ve found a…..”

The two men’s first thought was a corpse, but unexpectedly Chun Cao pulled hard at Zhou Rong’s hand and said two words with face full of tension, “…pregnant woman. ”

Zhou Rong: “Hah?!”

Zhou Rong put his head into his palm, feeling a headache coming.

***

“……What’s your name?” Si Nan, who was seated in the canteen, asked gently.

There were only six women among the survivors, two of whom were in their twenties. They were probably friends as they had clung to each other the whole time.

The weather was cool at the end of September, and one of them was dressed very thickly. Initially, everyone merely thought that the woman looked a little fat and that she might be feeling cold.

Turns out, she was actually six months pregnant.

“Wang, Wang Wen…” The pregnant woman replied, “I am very strong, I can work…”

The beautiful girl beside her moved to stand in front of the pregnant woman and said: “She doesn’t eat much, she doesn’t need anyone to take care of her. We’re not going to drag people down. We can run fast, we were able to follow everyone running out of the mall, weren’t we? ”

Si Nan shared a look with Yan Hao.

“Don’t leave her behind.” The girl pleaded again, looking at the two young men in front of her.

The man on the right was handsome, but he rarely spoke. He always appeared cold and totally didn’t seem like a soft-hearted person.

On the other hand, the special soldier on the left appeared to be a more secure option. He had protected the survivors in the minibus during their escape, and his actions were warm and welcoming in general.

“We can eat less.” After forming a plan in her heart, the girl leaned her body toward Yan Hao. She tried to squeeze a few drops of tears from her eyes before pleading, “This world is not easy for anyone. Her husband was trapped in T city, we don’t even know whether he is alive or dead. How can a pregnant woman survive if she is left alone? Please, handsome brother, I know you are a good person. My name is Wu XinYan, you can call me YanYan…”

Wu XinYan was a really beautiful girl, so her pitiful appearance tugged at everyone’s hearts.

Unfortunately, Yan Hao took no notice of this. He stared at Wang Wen’s belly for a long while, deep in thought. Beside him, Si Nan said, “Six months, too late to abort.”

His words were a statement of fact, but in the ears of the two women that wasn’t the case. Wang Wen’s face turned pale.

Yan Hao hurriedly tried to calm her. “Don’t cry, we also don’t want to make you abort! It’s just.. if you have a baby… what about the diapers, the baby powder, etc… “

Amidst this chaos, he caught a glimpse of Zhou Rong’s figure at the canteen doorway. He rushed to get up and said, “I’ll go and ask our team leader.”

In the eyes of these people, Zhou Rong was a ruthless person. Wu XinYan panicked and grabbed onto Yan Hao’s hand as the man walked by. “Big Brother, please!”

Yan Hao immediately pulled his hand out from the girl’s grasp and instinctively looked at Si Nan, “It’s fine, I’ll help you,” before quickly trotting toward Zhou Rong.

‘……Why are you looking at me?’ Si Nan thought in confusion.

Then he glanced at Wu XinYan’s eyes– the girl looked at Yan Hao like he was their savior, her gaze filled with worship and hope.

‘Oh, he was afraid I’ll tell Zhou Rong.’ Si Nan concluded. He looked at the backs of the two men standing a few meters away from him and though, They must have faced a lot of difficulties in their love affair.

“Don’t send her out.” After listening to the situation, Zhou Rong gave a decision: “There are more than 30 people who don’t know each other here. Let the pregnant woman and her friend stay on their own and instruct them not to walk around too much.”

Yan Hao nodded.

“Give her one egg from the backyard every day and don’t let anyone else know. Everyone has a lot of mental stress now; they are as tense as a bow string. It’s better to avoid conflict until we regain contact with the base.”

Yan Hao nodded once again. He saw Zhou Rong turning away to go and asked, “Where are you going, Captain?”

“To find something in the storeroom.”

“What are you looking for?”

Zhou Rong opened his mouth to answer but stopped when he caught a glimpse of Si Nan from the corner of his eyes. He realized that the young man was sitting together with Yan Hao before and felt his heart sink slightly.

“……Nothing.” Zhou Rong smiled and said, “I’ll get two boxes of beer so we can get together at night.”

Zhou Rong went to the storeroom to move a few boxes of things to the back of the factory building before picking up the boxes of beer. At night, he called all the people to the canteen and gave a short speech.

“We are currently unable to contact the military district, but please rest assured that the government and the army will not abandon any survivors. The food supplies we brought from T city are all stored in the storeroom, and it will be enough to support us up to three months. During these three months, I believe that we’ll be able to find a refuge base for everyone.”

“Regardless of our previous situation, the fact that we are still alive and sitting here today is worth celebrating.” he said. “We will not abandon anyone, but please, all of you also need to help and support each other.” Zhou Rong lifted up his beer and continued, “Thank you all, a toast for all of us.” After saying this, he took two big gulps of his beer.

The survivors felt moved. Some people took the initiative to come forward to toast and some others began to introduce themselves: “I’m a salesman. I was meeting with a customer in the mall that day…”

“I’m the mall’s security guard…”

“I worked in the hospital as a surgeon…”

“Surgeon?” Zhou Rong interrupted.

He stood up and took the middle-aged surgeon by the hand, pulling him to the side: “How lucky! What diseases have you treated?”

“…… Ah? ”

“How about delivering a baby? Do you know how?”

“A little… A little bit. There was one time I have to assist..”

Zhou Rong patted his shoulder and said, “I really respect those who devote themselves to saving injured people!”

The middle-aged man, Zheng, had obviously seen the interaction between Zhou Rong and the doctor at T City’s mall, so he was alarmed to witness the change in his attitude.  He didn’t dare to say anything though and could only offer a stiff smile as he promised to obey the team’s requests.

Meanwhile, Wu XinYan got up and took a seat beside Yan Hao with a can of beer in her hands. She said shyly, “Hello. Thank you for this afternoon…”

She had her head bowed, long hair brushing over Yan Hao’s shoulder. Her hair was very thick and soft, with an interesting faint fragrance oozing from it,

Surprisingly, Yan Hao hurriedly stood up from the table without waiting for her to finish and said, “It’s nothing.”

Wu XinYan’s ‘I want to toast in your honor’ was left stuck in her throat. Yan Hao walked past her and took a seat at another table.

During this time Si Nan was eating a noodle cake. When he saw Yan Hao coming over with a panicked face, he tried to catch the man’s gaze and ask ‘what’s wrong?’ with his eyes.

“……”

Yan Hao’s eyebrows were long and his eyes bright with a pair of double eyelids– his appearance was clearly something that could melt any girl’s heart. When he looked serious and focused, few people could bear to look away from him.

“What do you want to say?” Si Nan asked after swallowing his noodle cake.

Yan Hao didn’t answer his question and asked instead: “What’s in those boxes at the back of the factory building?”

“Ah, Zhou Rong said you guys are out of bullets, so I asked him to find some nitric acid, glycerin and iron scraps. I want to try making soil bombs.”

Yan Hao fell silent for a moment.

Si Nan raised one eyebrow, feeling a bit unsure, but waited politely for Yan Hao’s response.

After a while, the other man finally whispered:

“…The team captain is busy, you don’t have to ask him. Next time you want to look for something, you can call me. If you need any help.. You can call me whenever you want. ”

His attitude was so serious that for a few seconds Si Nan was confused. But he suddenly remembered the relationship between the two betas in the team and was immediately enlightened. “Okay.”

Yan Hao hung his head to hide the little smile on his face. After a few seconds, he got up and walked away.

 

 

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Proofreader: Salted Butter

Meet Yan Hao, the man who needs to give up chasing after our dear Si Nan! \0/

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