Chapter 24

The diary mostly contained trivial matters, with nothing more noteworthy except for the recorder's speculations about the medical examination results.

From the intermittent narrative, it was evident that a considerable number of troops had already been redeployed long before the virus outbreak.

Su Hao slowly furrowed his brow and muttered to himself, "Class A... Class B..."

The military archives of the future world did not mention any related information. Of course, it might also be because his clearance level at that time was insufficient to access more hidden secrets.

The sound of an engine roared from a distance.

Su Hao quickly walked to the window and saw two military heavy trucks drive in sequence through the gate. A zombie, which had emerged from somewhere and was wandering on the playground, excitedly pounced forward but crashed heavily into the bumper and was then run over by the tires.

Du Tianhao jumped off the truck, swung a club to smash the zombie's head under the truck, and behind him, Han Jing, who had just jumped out of the truck bed, held an assault rifle to guard the entrance. Tao Yuan drove the other truck slowly into the warehouse inside the passage. Through the front windshield, one could see Xinyan, her face sweaty, slightly nervous and excited.

Su Hao quickly ran downstairs and joined the ranks of those moving supplies.

The four trucks made three trips. By around six in the evening, everything stored in the armory and logistics warehouse had been cleared out, without the slightest omission.

...

The convoy, fully loaded with supplies, drove directly out of the city, following the route that the survivors were already familiar with, all the way to the warehouse in the suburbs, which appeared abandoned but was actually a renovated underground shelter.

Han Jing and Xinyan, holding new "Type 95" assault rifles, jumped out of the driver's cabin. They quickly closed the warehouse gate and climbed to the top of the adjacent small building to stand guard. Under Su Hao's command, Tao Yuan and Du Tianhao slowly drove the trucks into the warehouse. After he connected the power and pressed the button, they carefully drove down the ramp into the underground.

Next to the grain and flour storage area, several hours' worth of weapons and ammunition had been piled up. Without Su Hao's prompting, the two men had already pulled down the truck bed's side panels and unloaded boxes of canned food and compressed biscuits.

"Separate the food and weapons, and put the clothing and tools on the opposite side. Don't unload everything; leave half of each type."

Besides this place, there were two other underground warehouses in the southern and northern suburbs. They were actually abandoned air-raid shelters, with an area of only about one-fifth of this place, without power facilities or water pipes. The long period of peace had made people forget their original purpose, even treating them as underground structures that could be demolished at any time.

To avoid losses, the various supplies had to be stored separately. No one could predict what would happen in the future. Su Hao did not have extra personnel to station near the warehouses. The best approach was to keep the warehouses looking abandoned and continue the pretense.

Tao Yuan picked up an assault rifle, raised it to his chest, looked through the sight for a few seconds, and praised, "We are very powerful. Only now, with these things, do I truly feel safe."

Du Tianhao was clearly hungry. He tore open a pack of compressed rations, handed two pieces to Su Hao and Tao Yuan, and took one for himself, chewing it with a full mouth, saying, "These weapons are enough to equip hundreds of people, and there are plenty of bullets... Hmm, I was right! That basement is indeed a treasure trove."

Su Hao nodded noncommittally, finished the biscuit in a few bites, patted the crumbs off his hands, grabbed a bundle of paratrooper backpacks from the truck bed, and said seriously, "Move faster, let's try to finish everything tonight."

...

Rain and night fell together, washing the ground in the darkness, removing blood and dirt, and erasing the tire tracks left on the ground.

When the sun rose again, the sky had cleared. The thick clouds had long since turned into night rain and disappeared without a trace. The sunlight shone directly on the ground, and the water in the ditches quickly evaporated, enveloping the city in heat once more.

A small "Jinbei" minibus drove from the end of the western road. The milky white body was particularly eye-catching in the sunlight. It passed through the deserted red light intersection and drove into the gate of the military command headquarters from the opposite direction that Su Hao and others had left.

"Whoosh——"

The car door opened, and a group of nervous men jumped out. Three of them held guns, and the others held steel pipes and long-handled machetes. They were clearly familiar with the environment and quickly dispersed, scanning the surroundings with wary eyes.

"Wait, something's wrong... It's not right!"

A man with a slightly plump build, looking at the military trucks parked on the playground, exclaimed in surprise, "The number of trucks is wrong. How, how can there be only these? Where are the other four?"

His words immediately caught everyone's attention. Instantly, a chorus of voices broke out.

"That's right, I remember there were quite a few trucks here."

"Yes! The last time I came, they were all still here. Why are they gone now?"

"Someone must have been here. They might have taken them... "

The group buzzed with various opinions, sensing a change in the situation. They quickened their steps, passing through the corridor beside the building, and when they saw the iron doors of the warehouses on the first floor of the barracks area wide open, everyone's faces turned anxious and tense.

The warehouse was completely empty, with not a single item left.

"Basement, quickly to the basement——"

No one knew who first thought of this, but the agitated crowd immediately changed direction, rushing into the side door of the building and running down the stairs.

The steel door, which had been smashed open, still looked as it did when it was destroyed yesterday. The ground was littered with broken bricks, and the walls were peeling off chunks of cement. Although it had been twenty-four hours since yesterday morning, the air in the room was still stuffy, with a faint smell of gunpowder lingering.

Astonishment, shock, fear, doubt... The complex expressions on their faces formed a rich and silent scene at the entrance to the basement. No one spoke; even if their throats itched, they only covered their mouths and coughed slightly.

They all focused their gaze on the middle-aged man standing at the front.

He wore jeans, stood straight, was tall, and not particularly muscular. The clear muscle lines on his arms, visible through the short-sleeved T-shirt, showed his strength. His hair was short and neatly combed, giving him a strong and authoritative appearance.

Zhang Jilin's eyes were filled with a fiery rage.

He was a real estate developer and, relative to ordinary people, a so-called "successful person."

When the virus outbreak occurred, he was in a sales center at a construction site, holding a meeting. As the boss, he naturally gathered the employees and workers. Using the construction materials from the site, Zhang Jilin quickly set up a protected camp. As for the food and water needed for daily life... in the chaotic situation, who would care about the specific source of these things, whether they were stolen or bought?

In this era, those who could obtain land for real estate development had intricate connections with government officials. Through banquets and various entertainment venues, Zhang Jilin had met all kinds of officials. He also had a few close friends among the officers at the military command headquarters. Because of these connections, he had visited this office building several times and knew there was a small armory in the basement.

He was a law-abiding citizen and would never have the idea of robbing an armory. However, no one could have predicted that a virus outbreak would occur. The beautiful secretary standing by the conference table, holding a folder and reporting on the sales data of the housing project, and his most trusted resource manager, suddenly turned into the terrifying zombies from the movies, baring their teeth and claws and pouncing over...

Many of the construction materials on the site could be used as weapons, but they were only effective for close combat. With all external communications cut off, no police, and no rescue personnel, Zhang Jilin naturally thought of getting guns and remembered the underground armory at the military command headquarters.

Four days ago, he and others had already come once. From the barracks and the bodies of dead soldiers, they found a pistol, seven rifles, and over two hundred bullets. The steel door of the armory was abnormally sturdy, and hammers and crowbars could not budge it. Reluctantly, Zhang Jilin had to leave with his men and go elsewhere to find more powerful destructive tools.

He spent two days at a heavy machinery factory's exhibition hall, where he found a set of small impact drills used for mining. This equipment could penetrate thick granite, let alone ordinary concrete walls.

But now...

Zhang Jilin clenched his teeth, grinding them together. His eyes twitched, and his eyeballs were bloodshot, with a sense of despair gradually spreading in his mind.

He felt unprecedented regret. Even when his wife caught him cheating a few years ago and took half his assets through a divorce, he had never felt such a strong urge to slap himself—those zombies were very terrifying, and without enough weapons, it was difficult to survive in this city. If he had left a few people here, if he hadn't been afraid of attracting more zombies, and had driven an excavator from the construction site, everything in the armory would already be in his control.

Who?

Who stole my guns?

Zhang Jilin did not think there was anything wrong with this idea. He did not know why people turned into zombies, but he was sure that something had changed in the world. No radio waves, no order, and the things in the shops on the street could be taken freely... He did not like this; it felt very scary, made him anxious, and instinctively fearful.

His assets were worth five hundred million.

He owned a beautiful independent villa with a view and a luxury sports car worth millions.

He provided jobs for hundreds of people in his company. Whether secretaries, managers, workers... even ordinary lower-level government officials, when they saw him, their eyes always subconsciously showed flattery and respect.

Zhang Jilin enjoyed all of this. And because of this, he detested and deeply hated words like war, disaster, and chaos.

He never watched disaster or war movies. The names of movies like "2012" and "War of the Worlds" made him feel nauseous. His favorite were entertainment films like "Flowers in Full Bloom" and "Rice Field Romance." The reason was simple—war and chaos would not bring him any benefits; they would only make him fall from the top of society, turning the wealth he had struggled for years to accumulate into bubbles, making his savings and mansions worthless. If the world really became like that... what would he do?

This was indeed very scary—no one would be willing to work for him anymore, money would be just waste paper, and the employees who used to be obedient would no longer listen...

This was not a fantasy but a real situation happening around him.

After the virus outbreak, Zhang Jilin gathered all the survivors on the construction site. He knew very well that the reason these people obeyed his orders was only because he was their boss. His status, wealth, and authority were the only things that maintained his current position. But these things would gradually lose their effect over time. He had already noticed that some workers were defying his orders, and some were secretly plotting to leave the site. Even his driver and assistant were becoming less obedient.

All of this made him afraid.

Zhang Jilin understood that once he lost the dazzling halo of wealth and status, he could no longer command and control these people. Any one of them was stronger than him. If it weren't for the belief that the chaos was temporary and that the police and military would soon come to rescue, they would not be as obedient as they were now. They might even... kill him.

Just like in historical times of war, the richest people were always the primary targets for plunder and robbery.

Zhang Jilin had to maintain the advantages brought by wealth and status. Besides the identity that could be easily punctured, he could only rack his brains to prove his value. He had to show that he was smarter, more strategic, and more forward-thinking than others. Only then would he not be discarded like garbage.

Looking at the empty armory and the "concave" shaped steel door, he felt his mind go blank, as if he were a drowning person who had struggled for a long time, finally exhausted and sinking.

Without guns, what should I do?

Who stole the weapons that belonged to me?

I, I will kill him!

...

Tao Yuan stood by the electric stove, looking at the hen that had been stewing for over two hours, its skin glistening with a rich yellow oil. He excitedly licked his lips, picked up a packet of "Wang Shouyi Thirteen Spices" pepper, tore it open, and sprinkled it into the pot.

Liao Qiu squatted by the sink in the corner of the hall, using a small knife to cut open the belly of a field mouse that had been peeled, quickly removing the internal organs, cutting off the head, tail, and claws, and throwing the white, tender, and plump body into a bamboo basket that already contained over a dozen others. He then picked up another one from the ground and repeated the same actions.

The hen was found in a farmhouse during the return trip from the suburban shooting practice.

At that time, it was crouched in the deepest corner of the coop, staring in terror at its female owner, who had turned into a zombie but was blocked by the coop and could not catch it, making a series of "clucking" sounds. The survivors then cut off the head of the zombie woman, cleaned the poor hen, plucked its feathers, and cut it open, cooking it with scallions and ginger in the pot.

Its fate was the same, whether cooked or eaten raw.

As for the field mice... these guys were very fat. When cooked with star anise, cardamom, cinnamon, and chili, they tasted very good and were also tender.

The atmosphere at the dining table was lively, with people praising the taste of the dishes. The girls were clearly reluctant to eat the mouse meat but could not resist the rich aroma. Xinyan was the first to try a small piece, immediately abandoning her thoughts about the animal being disgusting, dirty, and full of parasites, and instead thinking it was fresh and delicious. Encouraged by her, the twin sisters also overcame their fear and even ate more boldly than the men.

Soon, the soup was drunk to the last drop, and the meat was chewed to the bone.

The survivors had been eating canned food for too long. If it weren't for the fresh vegetables they could find in the fields outside the city, they would often have the illusion that eating did not require taste, but was merely a mechanical process of food moving from the mouth to the stomach.

Du Tianhao wiped his oily mouth, took out a cigarette, passed it around the table, and lit one for himself, taking a deep puff and exhaling with great satisfaction.

"It's been a long time since I've eaten so comfortably..."

"Actually, we can build a chicken coop."

Li Xiaomei, as usual, was holding her child. She glanced at her husband, who was sitting beside her, and made a suggestion.

Su Hao shook his head: "No. That would attract zombies. Of course, farming and raising animals mean our future supplies. But before that, building a field base is the most important thing."

Xinyan interjected: "I've been to the nearby steel market. We can use a diesel generator to power the cutting of steel into the building materials we need."

Old Song took a sip of his tea and said, "There are plenty of supplies in the cement factory warehouse outside the city, mostly high-grade cement. We can take them freely, hehe... without paying."

Tao Yuan stroked his son's fluffy head and joined the discussion: "I've been reading books about excavators and concrete mixers from the car market