Chapter 53

The broken walls looked much the same as when Su Hao left a few months ago. The bodies of the soldiers in the corridor had been removed, leaving only scattered footprints everywhere. The storeroom was empty, causing unease. A spider climbed up the wall, its compound eyes wide open, carefully examining Wu Guoguang from countless mirror patterns, curiously trying to find a place on him worth building a web.

Wu Guoguang's face was grim as he paced back and forth in the empty room.

Although he had also been injected with the immunity and first-stage enhancement serum, as an officer, Wu Guoguang had received more training than ordinary soldiers and had a deeper understanding of zombies, viruses, evolution, and enhancement.

This steel door was clearly not damaged by mechanical force but was smashed open by a person's fists.

Wu Guoguang knew very well that even if he told the soldiers, few would believe him.

During his training at the Northern Base, he had seen people on the test field smashing tanks with their fists and carrying off-road vehicles as if they were sandbags for weight training. It was said that this was the effect of the third or fourth-stage enhancement serum. The formula was not perfect, with significant side effects, but the enhancement effect far exceeded the first-stage serum he had injected.

Yuan Bin's incident had a terrible impact within the military, and the opposition deliberately spread it, so many people knew about the KD01 base and the prototype serum. Wu Guoguang was only a 37-year-old lieutenant, unfamiliar with the city and unaware of what had happened at the Garrison Command. He didn't know if these events were related to Yuan Bin. Therefore, he remained silent for a few minutes, clearing all unrealistic thoughts from his mind and no longer paying attention to the violently damaged steel door. He calmly instructed the soldiers to be vigilant and to construct fortifications on the rooftop before slowly leaving the basement.

Wu Guoguang's mission was only to establish a monitoring station.

He could not and dared not get involved in the disputes among the big shots. Apart from being torn apart, he would gain nothing from it.

The city was full of zombies. Those mutated creatures ate people and might also enjoy playing the game of headbutting doors. As for the missing weapons and ammunition... the military directive never mentioned them, so why should I invite trouble?

Anyway, the plane would always bring enough weapons and supplies.

Life is long; waiting a few hours or even a few days is not a waste of time.

...

The city, after the rain, had a cold, crisp air.

Su Hao stood on the rooftop of a 36-story building with a "Guotai Junan" sign, holding a tactical telescope, silently observing the Garrison Command several hundred meters away through the falling raindrops.

At 900 meters, with the magnification of the telescope, he could clearly see the lieutenant and the soldiers' movements—they were installing pulleys and an external elevator on the roof of the command. The roof was cleared of all debris, with a "Black Hawk" helicopter parked in the center. Machine guns were faintly visible in a few windows on the street side, and the entrance had two sandbag fortifications.

The computer records from the future world showed that September 27th was the day the military established monitoring stations in various cities.

According to his memory, Su Hao dispatched team members to search the city in the following days.

The records only provided the date, not the specific coordinates within the city. However, the military made no effort to hide their actions. Apart from the zombies, finding a group of fully armed soldiers in an empty city was not as difficult as one might imagine.

To set up a monitoring station in a city full of zombies, defense and safety must be considered first. To encourage more survivors to contact the soldiers, the location must be conspicuous. To meet these prerequisites, the first monitoring station could not be set up outside the city; it would only be established within an existing military-controlled area, gradually expanding to other regions.

There were many similar buildings in the city: the Armed Police Brigade, the Fire Brigade, the Police Station... Su Hao only needed to dispatch some team members to observe nearby areas and report any signs of military presence. It was not difficult to find the Garrison Command after a few days.

Under the dark clouds, the city was pitch black, and Su Hao could clearly hear his own breathing.

Including the lieutenant who seemed to be the commander, there were a total of sixteen people.

Of course, Su Hao did not know the lieutenant's name was Wu Guoguang. Even if he did, the name would be meaningless to him.

The world below was stretched out by the distance. The streets were narrow, and the vehicles were no bigger than matchboxes. With his enhanced vision, Su Hao saw several zombies swaying across the road, moving toward the Garrison Command like flies drawn to blood. Before they reached the entrance, they suddenly fell backward, as if their strings were pulled, and crashed heavily to the ground.

From a distance, Su Hao still heard the slight vibration in the cold wind.

It was the sound of a gunshot, small but enough to be caught by his enhanced auditory nerves.

Clearly, the soldiers responsible for vigilance had silencers on their guns. They did not want the gunshots to attract more zombies.

Putting down the telescope, Su Hao turned and left the rooftop, walking down the stairs to the nearest room on the lower floor.

He took out a makeup kit from his backpack, looked at the mirror on the wall, and used his fingers to smear mud on his face. Soon, his face was covered in grease, his skin darker, between coffee and dark tea. To make his appearance look haggard and miserable, he had started growing his hair and beard over a month ago, and his nails were long and filled with black mud, looking dirty and disgusting.

Su Hao was not foolish enough to deliberately change his appearance. He just wore an old overcoat, a pair of unwashed jeans, and shoes that he had stepped in mud and then dried before putting them on... He looked like a survivor who had been hiding for a long time, appearing gaunt from lack of food and rest but still alert.

The wilderness camp was not a secret, and he believed more people would soon discover it. Su Hao just wanted to make his position more solid and to logically face the military's upcoming inspection. More importantly, to gain more benefits.

For example, silver bones.

For example, his knowledge of zombies and the common knowledge that had been widely spread in the future world.

These things could be used as bargaining chips. Weapons, food, machinery... The military had a large amount of resources, and Su Hao could get more from them.

The sky gradually darkened.

Su Hao prepared all the necessary items, looked at himself in the mirror one last time to ensure there were no flaws, and then smiled faintly.

He loaded his "95" pistol, picked up the iron pipe he used as a sidearm, and left the room with steady steps, heading down the stairs toward the Garrison Command a few streets away.

...

Wu Guoguang sat in a chair, holding a military food box.

The main dish for dinner was rice, with dishes of braised beef and tomatoes and stir-fried black beans with dried chili peppers, and a bowl of seaweed and egg flower soup.

The armored transport vehicle carried a complete set of field kitchen utensils and a week's worth of supplies for the advance team. Next week, new supplies would be delivered from KD03. There were several large military grain warehouses near the base, stocked with supplies prepared years ago. It was said that similar warehouses existed nationwide to prepare for a possible war with a certain country.

The underground well in the command post area had been repaired, and the clean groundwater was sufficient for the team's daily consumption, making cooking and frying no problem. Wu Guoguang liked this slightly hard rice. The beef and tomatoes in the dishes were canned, not particularly delicious but substantial, with a very authentic military meal flavor.

Raindrops trickled down the glass, leaving curved wet streaks. It was cold outside, and the sparse raindrops, under the warmth of the indoor heat, seemed like an elusive mist. Wu Guoguang chewed his rice and beef contentedly, looking at the window on the opposite side of the table. A fully armed soldier sat next to him, eating, with a large-caliber sniper rifle set up in front of the window.

This feeling was warm, giving Wu Guoguang a faint sense of home...

However, this thought flashed through his mind and then disappeared—because the soldier, regardless of gender or appearance, had no relation to his deceased wife and could not wear a floral dress or a bra.

The soldier kept watching outside.

He was responsible for vigilance in this direction and would not slack off during his shift. As the team commander, Wu Guoguang had no other entertainment. The two of them chewed their food, silently watching the gray world.

"Hmm?"

After a few minutes, the soldier grunted from his nose. He squinted his eyes, slowed his chewing, leaned forward, and focused on the end of the distant road.

Wu Guoguang also saw it—a man walking in the rain. He was still a long way away, wearing waterproof clothing with a hood, carrying a travel bag. His clothes were blue, but he looked dark overall.

He was walking fast... No! He was running. Several zombies blocked his path, and two more chased him from behind. He held a steel pipe, swinging it wildly around. The swings were large and inaccurate, consuming a lot of energy, but he managed to hit two zombies' heads and fled in panic from their gray-black claws.

The soldier put down his food box, picked up the sniper rifle by the window, and was about to aim through the scope when Wu Guoguang stopped him with a hand.

"Our mission is not to save people. There are at least a few million zombies in this city, and we can't kill many of them."

Wu Guoguang watched the man struggling among the zombies with a concerned expression and said calmly, "Wait a bit longer! If he can make it here, we'll help him."

The soldier put down his gun, looking hesitant, and asked, "What if he gets bitten? He hasn't been injected with the immunity serum."

"Then it's his bad luck. He'll die in vain."

Wu Guoguang said this coldly, returned to his chair, and continued eating.

...

Su Hao's performance was successful.

When he was covered in blood, staggering, exhausted, and out of breath, with eyes that seemed ready to roll back, he ran to the entrance of the Garrison Command. The electric security gate began to slowly descend, revealing enough space to pass through. His pale, bloodless face immediately showed a mix of surprise and joy, and he stumbled in, then fell and could not get up for a long time.

Su Hao, lying on the ground like a pile of mud, was helped up by several soldiers who supported his arms and sat him against the wall.

Wu Guoguang had already walked downstairs and looked at him with a sympathetic and melancholic gaze.

"Thank you... Finally... Finally, someone has come to save us."

Su Hao's eyes were filled with a mix of gratitude and sorrow, perfectly fitting the role of a survivor who had narrowly escaped a disaster. He took the hot water offered by a soldier, drank it with an indescribable sense of happiness and comfort, took a deep breath, and then looked at the strangers with a questioning gaze.

Wu Guoguang walked out from among the soldiers, standing about three meters away, and said in a low, hoarse voice, "Do you have your ID?"

Su Hao shook his head blankly, his expression strange.

He had observed the soldiers in the building for two days. They were cold and only helped survivors who could run into the Garrison Command. It was an invisible line; even if the distance was only ten centimeters, they would not extend a hand but would watch coldly as the person was bitten and torn apart by zombies.

This perfectly matched the records in the future world's computer archives—soldiers sent on missions were brainwashed and only helped those who could struggle and protect themselves in the chaos, those who could survive in a terrifying environment. Only among these people could natural evolution produce strong individuals, whom the military would gather, train intensively, and use to fight high-level monsters.

Since they were to be recruited as soldiers, the survivors' identities had to be verified. The authenticity of this verification could not be compared to peacetime, but it had some effect.

The battles against high-level monsters were brutal, and many died. Whether they were honest when registering their identities, the living could never argue with the dead.

"Those monsters eat people, and I didn't even have time to run, let alone get my ID."

Su Hao's expression was more real than ever. He tightly held the enamel cup of hot water, his lips trembling, his eyes vacant: "Many people died, eaten like snacks by zombies. I and a few others stayed together, searching for food. We called for help every day, hung 'SOS' banners on the building, and sent people out to look for rescue forces... but we got nothing, and the food became scarce. We had no choice but to leave the city and set up a camp in the wilderness. Ha, I never thought I would have to pick up a hoe and dig the ground in my life. May, June, July... we waited every day, hoping someone would come to save us. It felt terrible, like the protagonist in 'Robinson Crusoe,' standing on the cliff and silently hoping for a sail on the horizon..."

As he spoke, Su Hao wiped his eyes, sniffed, and looked at the surrounding soldiers with infinite gratitude, saying, "Thank you! Thank you! I... I... I..."

His words were frantic, and his emotions were so intense that he could not speak. Every muscle in his body was trembling, not from fear but from unprecedented excitement.

This expression was something Su Hao had learned from others—over the past two days, more than ten survivors had passed by the Garrison Command. Four were killed by the zombies that followed them, and the rest entered the compound, telling their stories in similar tones. From a distance, Su Hao could not hear their conversations with the soldiers but could guess the general meaning from their lip movements. They all believed the government had sent the military to save them, and when Lieutenant Wu Guoguang asked them to join the military, they showed surprise and confusion.

Not everyone was chosen; about two-thirds were deemed不合格. They did not want to return to the dark and terrifying life, crying and begging to stay. Wu Guoguang did not give them a chance to explain, directly throwing them over the top of the protective steel fence. The cries attracted the surrounding zombies, which replaced the soldiers in driving them away, chasing them down the street.

The soldiers, who had heard too many tragic stories in the past few days, showed no pity. They remained silent, and Wu Guoguang, growing impatient, coughed and said more firmly, "No ID? Then tell me your name, age, home address, and phone number."

"My name is Su Hao, I am 22 years old, I live at Panjiang East Road No. XX6, and my phone number is 1339876XXXX... Why are you asking these things?"

The future world's computer stored a large amount of population data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs during peacetime. Su Hao searched for a long time and found information similar to his new identity. Based on the computer-recorded photos, he modified the facial features of his new body to match, achieving a 99% similarity in appearance, blood type, and fingerprints. With this identity as a cover, there would be no suspicion.

As for the original owner of this information... the population census in the future world every ten years did not find a corresponding record. The young man with the same name and surname might have already died or been infected and mutated during the early stages of the virus outbreak.

Wu Guoguang took out an electronic notebook from his pocket and quickly recorded the identity information Su Hao provided. After finishing, his expression softened slightly, and he said slowly, "I need to correct you—we are not a rescue team, and we cannot save anyone."