Chapter 35

The new members continue to repeat the training procedures that the core members once underwent, including live ammunition shooting drills in the wilderness. They start with the basics of assembling and disassembling firearms, understanding the weaknesses of zombies, and learning to use terrain to outmaneuver zombie hordes while on the move, continuously eliminating zombies. They are curious about these courses they have never encountered before, and after experiencing the threat of death and the hardships of battle, their suspicion and hostility towards the core members gradually fade, and they truly begin to integrate into the team.

Every person who returns home brings back painful and sorrowful memories.

No one's family has survived. They have either been infected and mutated into zombies, died, or simply vanished. Whenever such times come, Li Xiaomei always tries to make the food on the dining table more abundant. Du Tianhao and the twin sisters will comfort and console each other based on gender, age, and with a gentle demeanor.

This is a process that everyone must go through and bear. Team members will encourage each other during such times, using words of encouragement and consolation to help them forget their grief.

Firearms and ammunition have been distributed. With mutual understanding as a foundation, rapidly enhancing overall combat capabilities has become an urgent issue that needs to be addressed.

The open car windows let in gusts of wind, dispelling the heat.

Chen Kun, looking at the road that continuously recedes, asks curiously, "I don't understand, why did you think of setting up a camp in the wilderness? There are many empty houses in the city that can be used. Just reinforce or renovate them, and the facilities are very convenient."

Su Hao controls the car speed and answers calmly, "Zombies will evolve. There are too many buildings in the city, and the terrain is very complex, making it difficult to defend. Besides, we need a thick enough wall."

From the back seat, Zhou Chen gazes at his back and interjects, "I have a question: I don't quite understand, where did you get this medicine?"

As he speaks, he takes out an empty syringe and hands it directly to Su Hao.

This thing was originally full, containing Su Hao's blood.

Glancing at the rearview mirror, Su Hao's face shows no emotion. He says calmly, "I can勉强 be considered a half-doctor, and I have considerable expertise in formulating medications. Don't worry! This medicine is very safe, and we have all taken it."

He skillfully avoids some key issues, but Zhou Chen is clearly unsatisfied with this vague explanation. He pulls out a silver bone granule from his pocket and continues to ask, "What about this? Why do you need to collect this thing?"

Su Hao frowns slightly.

He slams on the brakes, and the rapidly spinning tires are suddenly stopped by the springs, sliding several meters on the ground, producing a harsh and unpleasant noise, leaving a long black skid mark.

Su Hao turns around from the driver's seat, staring at Zhou Chen, his tone icy, "Are you interrogating me?"

Zhou Chen is taken aback by this sudden change. He shakes his head in confusion and fear, quickly defending himself, "No! No misunderstanding! I absolutely have no such intention. I just find it curious and mysterious. When you distributed the medicine, you said it could combat the virus and produce immunity. So I think this medicine must be very precious. For a while now, you have been asking us to kill zombies and collect silver bones from their bodies. I speculate that there must be some connection between the two. Silver bones are likely an essential ingredient in formulating the medicine. From a biological perspective, this hypothesis should be valid, at least theoretically..."

He speaks quickly, his explanation well-organized and filled with personal insights. Perhaps noticing that both Su Hao and Chen Kun are looking at him, Zhou Chen's pale face turns slightly red. He lowers his head, embarrassed, and whispers, "...I am a doctor. I have no intention of prying into your personal privacy; I just find it interesting and curious."

Su Hao gazes at Zhou Chen, silent.

If it were half a year later, he would think this person is a spy who infiltrated the team.

Now, there is no such possibility.

Time and circumstances confirm that Zhou Chen is just an ordinary person. He, like other team members, is a survivor of the viral outbreak disaster.

Almost forgot, Cao Rui once mentioned: Zhou Chen is a doctoral student at a medical university, and it is natural for him to be interested in such issues.

"I really have no other intention, please believe me."

His expression is incredibly sincere.

Su Hao smiles faintly. He pats Zhou Chen's shoulder hard and says seriously, "Let's find a time to talk. Your professional knowledge should be very helpful for some problems that have been troubling me."

Zhou Chen's eyes light up with excitement, and he nods vigorously.

The tension on Chen Kun's face gradually fades. He has been worried that things would get out of control. Now, he finally relaxes, sits back down, and gazes out the window, scanning the distant streets and buildings.

Suddenly, a building several hundred meters away, still under construction and covered in a light green protective net, catches his attention. Staring at it for about five seconds, Chen Kun suddenly opens his eyes wide, extends his right hand out the window, pointing to the location, and grabs Su Hao's clothes with his left hand, calling out urgently, "Quick! Quick! Look over there, what is that?"

Su Hao and Zhou Chen's gazes immediately focus on the spot.

On the rooftop, a red flag is waving back and forth, very prominently.

"It should be a survivor."

Su Hao stares at the distant waving flag and says slowly, "He can see us and wants to get our attention this way."

Zhou Chen's expression is serious and solemn, "It could also be a plea for help; they might be in trouble."

...

Zhang Jilin is slumped on the ground, panting heavily. His hair is disheveled, his shirt torn, and large patches of skin on his cheeks and shoulders are visibly scratched and bloody. His left leg is bound with a splint, tightly wrapped with rags, but it cannot stop the inflammation and swelling of the wound.

This is the rooftop of the building, the highest point of the entire construction site.

He ultimately failed to find the people who took the weapons from the military command post. Despite his frustration, he had to find another way.

The city is large, and Su Hao's team has always been centered around the bank building, operating in the nearby area. Zhang Jilin's construction site is located in the outskirts, in a remote area, making the chances of the two groups meeting very low, almost impossible.

They have been plagued by a lack of food—this area is a development zone with few nearby shops, and there are large groups of zombies active in the adjacent streets. All external communications have been cut off, and no one knows what is happening outside. Zhang Jilin has thought about leaving, but he cannot find a safer place than the construction site in a short time. The amount of firearms and ammunition obtained from the dead soldiers is not much, and each trip to collect food consumes some. The fuel needed to start the vehicles is also running low.

After a few weeks, half of the people gathered at the construction site have dispersed.

Zhang Jilin encountered the same problem as Su Hao—many people believe they can find rescue forces elsewhere. They leave for various reasons or simply disappear without a word. None of these people have returned or sent any messages... until one day, a few workers went out in a car to find food and discovered two skeletons on a street half a kilometer away.

The dead were stripped of their clothes, and the ground was scattered with banknotes, ID cards, and construction site access cards... all evidence indicating that the dead were their former coworkers. Now, even the bones cannot be pieced together.

No one mentions leaving anymore. People go crazy, desperately reinforcing the walls, filling gaps with various materials. The tragedy that befell their comrades makes them completely abandon their illusions and no longer complain about the distribution of food and water. They do not know of any place safer than the construction site and do not want to waste time finding a suitable residence. There are bricks, cement, steel bars, and machinery here, and the workers even used a pile driver to dig a well.

The crops in the nearby fields have been stripped bare. People cut unripe wheat, removed the outer hard shell, and cooked the grains to eat. They tried to use a truck to break through the zombie hordes on nearby streets to find food from farther away. This method seemed feasible, but in practice, it turned out that the dense zombie hordes were fearless. They surged like a tide toward the speeding truck. Many zombies were knocked over and crushed, their rotting flesh sticking to the wheels, causing the truck to spin in place, unable to move forward. The driver in the cab was surrounded by hundreds of zombies. The terrifying cannibalistic creatures broke through the windshield and crawled in, gnawing away every piece of flesh from the poor man's body.

People were completely despairing.

Every day, they stand on the unfinished building's rooftop, looking around. They make megaphones from metal sheets and write "SOS," "People here," "Save us" on banners with ink. They have seen signs of other survivors through binoculars more than once, but the distance is too great, and the others cannot hear or see clearly.

Last week, Zhang Jilin and his workers filled the excavator's fuel tank with the last of the fuel and used the machine to dig up a large amount of观音土 (a type of clay). This substance is white, very fine, and has a faint sweet aroma when sniffed. Zhang Jilin tasted a little with his finger, and it was not bad, just passable.

Even during famines, few people use观音土 to eat. It is true that it can be eaten, but it expands in the body. Stomach acid cannot break it down, and the intestinal walls cannot absorb it, so it goes in and out almost unchanged. If it can be excreted, that's good; if not, it completely blocks the intestines, leading to a painful death.

A little can be eaten, but too much is fatal.

The idea to dig up观音土 was proposed by everyone, including Zhang Jilin—there was not much food left on the construction site, only a few kilograms of rice, a large pack of "Lao Tan Suan Cai" instant noodles, a dozen "Jin Si Hou" lollipops, and some wild vegetables found in nearby fields.

This amount of food would not last long. To survive, especially to ensure the survival of most people, the only method... was to draw lots.

This sounds cruel and insane. Zhang Jilin's authority as the boss among the workers still held, and he ultimately rejected this terrifying idea, opting for a seemingly more humane method, which was not much different in practice.

Dig up a pile of观音土, and whoever is too hungry can eat it.

Eating too much of this will definitely lead to death, and the others will eat the dead person's body.

Everyone agreed—killing a randomly selected comrade would produce a strong sense of guilt. Eating a naturally deceased comrade is different and becomes justified.

The white clay piled up outside like a small mountain. The hungry people sat on the first floor of the unfinished building, staring blankly. No one spoke; their lips were slightly open, desire and will battling in their eyes, their hands trembling, their feet shaking. Even Zhang Jilin unconsciously drooled, the saliva stretching from his mouth to the ground, making him look like a brain-damaged idiot who had lost control.

The观音土 is very white and can be ground into a fine powder with a touch, like glutinous rice flour.

Zhang Jilin finally understood the articles written by dieters on the internet—when starving, one really sees floor tiles as sliced green bean cake, bamboo mats as noodles, and even the clouds in the sky as roast duck, wontons, steamed buns, and char siu...

No one wants to die, nor do they want to kill their comrades.

Everyone is waiting for a weak-willed person to step forward first. To eat the first piece of meat as quickly as possible, the workers even prepared a large pot of boiling water on a makeshift stove.

Whoever dies first will be thrown in.

Unfortunately, they did not wait for the first death amidst their complex mix of anticipation and resistance but instead faced a large group of terrifying zombies.

There were many zombies wandering near the construction site. One of them spotted the half-dead survivors through the gap in the iron gate. If it were before, Zhang Jilin and the workers would have killed this zombie immediately to prevent it from attracting more. However, their nerves, numbed by hunger, made them overlook this. The number of zombies gathered outside the iron gate increased, from a few to dozens, to hundreds...

The iron gate was sturdy, with thick steel bars serving as a lock. The zombie horde could not break through the gate, but they pushed down the adjacent wall and surged in.

The wall, which seemed solid, was actually a temporary structure made of bricks and mortar. Despite the workers' continuous reinforcement, they could not cover every point.

Zhang Xuezhong was knocked down by two zombies, a large chunk of flesh torn from his face, and his nose gnawed off. The monsters dug out his eyes and savored them.

Chen Fugui's body was torn apart on the spot, his head split in two. He did not even have time to scream; his tongue was pulled out and severed by the zombies.

Liu Dali's buttocks were bitten, and his intestines were dragged out of his anus, with several zombies fighting over them. They ate quickly, seemingly without chewing, and their faces and bodies were covered in feces squeezed from the intestines.

The construction site was in chaos.

Zhang Jilin led the remaining people into the building, fleeing up the stairs for their lives—the floor leading to the rooftop was their resting place, equipped with two iron grilles, making it the safest place.

However, it was also a dead end.

Only six people followed Zhang Jilin to the rooftop. They huddled behind the locked iron grilles, trembling with fear and despair, listening to the gnawing, tearing, howling, and screaming coming from the unfinished building below.

Zhang Jilin had fallen a few days ago, his calf pierced by a steel bar. If not for the workers who carried him to safety, he would have already become a pile of unrecognizable bones.

He had never owed anyone their wages. In the workers' eyes, he was a conscientious boss.

The rooftop was safe, but there was no food or water.

They were completely despairing.

At this moment, they saw a SUV driving on the distant road.

...

The zombie horde that flooded into the construction site numbered about a hundred, a medium-sized group.

The SUV, speeding at high speed, drove through the collapsed wall and directly into the construction site, knocking several zombies lingering outside to the ground. The thick tires plowed deep, bloody grooves into the ground, accompanied by a harsh screeching sound, and came to a sudden stop in front of the building entrance.

Before the car had even stopped, Su Hao, full of killing intent, jumped out of the driver's seat. He wore a black sportswear set from an "Adidas" store, his face resolute and emotionless, and his powerful hands each held a hunting knife. He ran like a wolf, forcing his way through the encircling zombies. The sharp blades sliced through the air at a speed invisible to the naked eye, cutting through the zombies' necks and severing their heads.

Chen Kun and Zhou Chen followed behind, firing automatic rifles at the zombies. This was their first close encounter with a zombie horde without guidance or supervision from others. Panic and tension were inevitable, and they completely forgot the instructions Su Hao had repeatedly given during shooting training: "Aim for the head," "Don't fire in bursts," "Maintain distance." The thirty bullets were quickly depleted, and Zhou Chen frantically squatted to reload the magazine, while Chen Kun, tense and forgetful, swung the rifle butt at the zombies charging at him.

They had all taken Su Hao's blood, so they were not afraid of being bitten or infected. However, they lacked combat experience and still felt fear and terror when facing a dense horde of zombies.

"Stay close to me, watch the flanks—"

While fighting, Su Hao continuously issued commands to the two people behind him. His mental awareness extended over a radius of more than 200 meters, allowing him to precisely grasp every movement of Chen Kun and Zhou Chen. His enhanced brain processed information at an extremely fast speed, calculating the positions, movement speeds, and attack angles of the zombies. Su Hao used these results to strike with his knife and guide the two followers to maximize the effectiveness of their killing.