Chapter 234: Danger Approaches
Chapter 234: Danger Approaches
“Brother Cockroach….” Three’s call woke Zhang Xiao Qiang up from his daze. He turned and saw Three running towards him. Behind Three was a 15m tall perimeter wall foundation that was already in place.
Workers moved and worked on the scaffolding like worker ants crawling about. A tall crane worked endlessly as it transported cargo after cargo of concrete and mud up. At the foot of the two hills were two complete defensive structures where two Type-92 Battalion Guns were installed.
“Brother Cockroach, I sense that there’s something wrong with the zombies….”
After leading the hundred odd people from the entire factory out, the base construction capability saw a huge upgrade. If they were able to locate a few specific raw materials, Zhang Xiao Qiang could build bombs and bullets.
After returning, Three also gained more self-confidence. He led a group of more than 10 men to look for supplies and survivors daily. It was much more difficult to discover a camp of more than 100 people at one go, but there were plenty of smaller groups everywhere. Zhang Xiao Qiang’s base grew up to a thousand odd people, with about 40 women per 100 people, the gender ratio of the base became more equal.
While exploring, Three noticed changes in the zombies. The zombies that were originally obstinate and stationary started to disperse. It was not one or two zombies but a phenomenon of all the zombies dispersing, leaving only a few elderly zombies in their usual positions.
Initially, Three did not care too much about it. But while exploring near a town, he realized that the zombies all over the town scattered like soybeans. Sensing something amiss, he returned and reported it to Zhang Xiao Qiang.
Zhang Xiao Qiang’s heart skipped a beat but did not reveal a change in expression. He looked at Three, “Escalate the Base’s alertness to Grade B, cancel all scouts outside temporarily and increase the manpower to get rid of all moving things in a 20km perimeter. Send people to the nearby towns to check them out, and also inform He Wen Bin and the rest, we are holding a meeting.”
On the way to the meeting room, Zhang Xiao Qiang’s mood turned heavy. The thing that he was most worried about had occurred. All along, Zhang Xiao Qiang had a pressing feeling that made him feel stifled, especially after gaining strength, the feeling did not disappear but become even stronger. An important note to know was that they had ammunition and grenades sufficient for the combat team to take care of a thousand zombie tide.
At the side of the road, there would be occasional carts pushed around emitting steam, filled with rice, salted vegetables, and diced meat. This was the workers’ lunch.
The diced meat was found at the factories. Looking at the ladies that had smiles on their faces once again, the emotions grew heavier. Zhang Xiao Qiang did not know if the base would still exist if they did not deal with the dangerous situation.
When he reached a small lake, Zhang Xiao Qiang noticed 20 women dressed in military uniform practicing their aim. The instructors were two ex-policewomen who had followed Zhang Xiao Qiang to battles. Initially, they had knots in their hearts, from ex-police, they had turned into cannon fodder bandits.
But as time passed, their thoughts changed. They instead became Zhang Xiao Qiang’s most firm supporters. As Three brought back even more women who suffered from sexual assaults, they realized the reality of the apocalypse. In the apocalypse, very few powers were willing to treat women well, almost to the point of being negligible. The two ex-police were women, how could they not know that Zhang Xiao Qiang’s rules were mainly to protect them?
Looking at the 20 newly recruited women team, Zhang Xiao Qiang felt slightly better. The Combat Team was too small and needed more manpower, but the main crux of the base was the walls and they could not recruit strong and able men to join the Combat Team. Upon thinking about the assistant machine gunner on guard that night, Zhang Xiao Qiang decided to recruit a few women.
The matter of recruiting these women to replenish the fighting force was a major move Zhang Xiao Qiang acted on. The selection process was initially painfully thought about by He Wen Bin. but in the end, Zhang Xiao Qiang used the way he thought Yuan Yi. He gave all of them a shield and a blade, captured a few crippled zombies and had them kill the zombies. In the end, out of the 30 women selected, 20 of them were qualified.
Zhang Xiao Qiang walked over and watched them practice. Suddenly, he noticed a female team member that had her face covered up. Her hair was extremely short as she wielded a Type-53 Rifle and aimed straight at her target.
Zhang Xiao Qiang walked over to her.
“Chen Ye, in the future, you’ll be handling more close quarters combat, just have a touch of the guns and it’ll be fine. It’ll be a waste of your skills if you continued to train on guns.”
Obviously, Zhang Xiao Qiang’s advise was ignored by the girl called Chen Ye. Slightly embarrassed, Zhang Xiao Qiang turned and walked away, no longer caring about whether this Agility Type Gen-Omega Human lived or die. It was as though that all Gen-Omega Humans aside from Yang Ke’er were all abnormal.
Zhang Xiao Qiang walked to the familiar building up the familiar stairs and into the meeting room. As usual, everyone waited for him. Zhang Xiao Qiang pulled his chair, sat down, and looked around. All the main in-charges of the base were present, except for Guo Fei. After the first meeting, he never participated in it.
Zhang Xiao Qiang was about to speak up when he saw Old Frank fishing out a stack of sealed papers. It looked as though Old Frank was prepared for his routine reports. He had written down the everyday events of work daily.
“Erm…..Old Frank, you don’t need to report for today, I need to discuss our current situation, a major issue that will decide our base’s life or death.”
After allowing Three to narrate the changes in the zombies, the expression of everyone present in the room changed. He Wen Bin’s expression turned dark, Old Frank kept on flipping through his own notes, assessing the progress of the construction, wanting to see if they could complete the perimeter walls before anything happens.
Wang Le was seemingly indifferent, with the enlarged factory, he had plenty of matters at hand, working day to night, he did not have time for any other things. On one note, Director Ma had become his deputy, something he requested for. Although Wang Le did not like Director Ma, they were familiar with each other, an encounter difficult to find in the apocalypse.
The only one who became afraid was Fat Chef. Upon hearing that the zombies had scattered and were showing signs of restlessness, he thought about his encounter with them and became afraid.
“Now, our most pressing task is the completion of the perimeter wall, Old Frank….” As Zhang Xiao Qiang highlighted the point, Old Frank stood up with passion burning in his eyes.
“Split your workers to two shifts, continue to work on the walls day and night. Don’t conserve on diesel fuel, I need speed…..think of ways to increase the completion of the wall. Put your engineers at the construction sites and get them to stand watch there. Tell them that if the walls are completed quickly, there will be a reward. For those who delay the time, they will be fed to the zombies.”
Old Frank nodded his head, he knew Zhang Xiao Qiang was for real. At that time, if his subordinates were to be punished, he would be shamed as well.
Old Frank sat down.
Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at Zhang Huai An, who had his eyes fixed on Zhang Xiao Qiang the entire time. He immediately stood up and waited for his orders.