Chapter 174: A Way Out
Three precise bursts landed directly in front of their feet.
Sparks burst from the ground steel plate.
Wan Hao staggered back a step, then saw a nimble young man grabbing a rope and leaping up in two steps.
Xiao Ma excitedly growled, “Brother Xiao, caught a big fish!”
A worker behind Old Yuan and Wan Hao stepped forward, his muscles bulging under the blue uniform, and fiercely smashed a fist toward Xiao Ma, but Xiao Ma dodged it. However, Xiao Ma still underestimated his strength and was directly smashed headfirst into the nearby wall.
The second grappling hook flew up.
Lu Xiao held the assault rifle in one hand and climbed with the other.
In three or two moves, he rushed up, swinging the assault rifle forward in mid-air.
Two crisp collision sounds rang out in the air.
Two white marks appeared on the gun body.
Another worker tried the same trick, charging toward Lu Xiao, but Lu Xiao was not like the inexperienced Xiao Ma. He flipped the assault rifle behind his back and took down the worker in two close-range moves, incidentally rescuing Xiao Ma.
Old Yuan and Wan Hao took the chance to continue running forward.
At that moment, the walkway bridge in front of them was suddenly twisted into a twist by some immense force.
Accompanied by the creaking of metal, the unfinished automobile bodies on the surrounding production lines, as well as the metal on the nearby walls, were all fused into a slope.
A youth sitting in a wheelchair slowly drove up along the slope.
His sleeves rolled up, with broken hair just past his eyebrows.
With a hint of seriousness in his eyes, he said, “We won’t hurt you. Don’t run forward anymore. There’s a sniper outside. He doesn’t know the situation inside. You’ll die if you go out.”
(Xiao Ba)
Old Yuan and Wan Hao exchanged a glance, with a hint of shock and fear in their eyes.
The threatening presence from the youthful boy in front of them was even stronger than the burly man behind them!
“Bang!”
Liang Kuan stomped down on a semi-finished vehicle hanging on the production line, then leaped onto the high platform like a tiger. With one hand, he yanked, and accompanied by a teeth-grinding tearing sound, the shield was pulled out from the wall.
A faint heat wave spread from his bulging muscles, and his voice was steady, “Do you still want to fight?”
Old Yuan looked toward Wan Hao, who gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
Their firepower was inferior, their military quality was inferior, and even their evolutionary degree was inferior.
The opponent had charged recklessly into their lair of several hundred people, killing their way in and out seven times.
Fight?
What the hell was there to fight!
The hundreds of workers below had already been controlled by the soldiers, and now the leader was grinning at them while carrying two heavy machine guns.
He knew very well what effect those two things would have when hitting a person.
Without hesitation, he said.
“We surrender.”
……
Before He Jie could finish clearing the battlefield, an alert soldier reported that the battle had attracted a group of zombies.
He could only hand over the remaining matters to Purser Hu Shuo and Lu Xiao’s team.
Hu Shuo was not combat personnel, but auxiliary recruitment personnel for this mission, also handling battle merit statistics.
He himself led Xiao Ba and a few others with a portion of soldiers back outside the building to block the zombies.
Hu Shuo skillfully shook the roster and said loudly, “We are from the armored train. We need some skilled workers. Now come out one leader to connect with me.”
Everyone hesitated, subconsciously looking toward Wan Hao and Old Yuan who were blocked upstairs.
Wan Hao stared blankly at the man below wearing a dark blue linen shirt and tentatively asked, “Translator Hu?”
Hearing the voice, Hu Shuo looked up in surprise, not expecting to actually meet an acquaintance.
As a translator, he often attended high-end occasions and had wide connections.
But he was just a high-level wage earner. Not to mention real capital tycoons, he couldn’t compare even to the wealthy merchant bigshot in front of him.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been unwittingly swept into the apocalypse.
But this one in front of him, if he remembered correctly, his core business was ocean shipping. Running inland was one thing.
How did he end up at an obscure automobile manufacturing plant?
Although Hu Shuo had doubts in his heart, time was short, so he suppressed them and handled business.
With an acquaintance, the following matters were easy to handle.
Wan Hao and Old Yuan came clean: the entire automobile manufacturing plant had over three thousand workers in total. After the apocalypse, some went home, and half had conflicts with them and left to fend for themselves.
In total, over eight hundred workers remained, plus family members totaling over two thousand one hundred, though most were in the family area behind the factory.
The over eight hundred workers were also dispersed in several different factory buildings.
To avoid gathering together and attracting zombies and monsters.
Additionally, there were three submachine guns and six tactical handguns, all scavenged by them from the nearby public security bureau.
Including the two of them, there were a total of two hundred ten evolvers.
According to Su Huan’s order, all these over two thousand people were to be taken.
Normally, one bus could hold over fifty people, and in special cases, squeezing could fit around eighty without issue.
But for over two thousand people, it would still require around twenty-seven buses.
The factory had a total of ten buses, leaving a shortfall of seventeen, but fortunately, this was an automobile manufacturing plant with plenty of vehicles.
Various small cars made up dozens, plus over a dozen cargo trucks, forcibly assembling a large convoy.
The workers, bewildered, began packing up and moving.
Old Yuan, Wan Hao, and Hu Shuo stood a bit farther away.
Hu Shuo finally had time to ask his question, “President Wan, how did you end up here?”
Wan Hao sighed, tugged at Old Yuan beside him, “I won’t say much else. This is my university classmate, friends for decades. This factory is his. Now we’re your captives. For old times’ sake, give us the bottom line—whether kill or scrape, we’ll accept it.”
Hu Shuo’s shrewd gaze swept over the two, roughly understanding the situation.
He pondered and said, “We definitely won’t hurt you. We want the skilled workers in the factory. As long as you cooperate with our actions, there will be benefits afterward.”
“Are you going to build something?”
Hu Shuo shook his head, “You’ll know when you get there. The train conductor didn’t brief on this, so I can’t speak carelessly.”
Hearing “train conductor,” Wan Hao’s eyes lit up slightly, “You’re now with the armored train, is it an official organization?”
“No, the armored train is just a force, a very complex force.”
Old Yuan beside frowned; this was as good as not saying anything.
But one thing was confirmed: official organizations had indeed disappeared.
Just unsure how benevolent this “armored train” was, and the name itself was intriguing.
The two were unsure if it was the “train” they imagined.
Wan Hao nodded with his chin toward Lu Xiao maintaining order in the distance; the opponent’s clean takedown of two strength-type workers left a deep impression, “What position do elite warriors like this hold on the train?”
Hu Shuo’s gaze was subtle, “Captain Lu? If you mean status, it’s decent, about level with me. If combat power, similar to those ordinary armed soldiers.”
Wan Hao’s eyelid twitched, “Then Translator Hu…”
“I’m the purser of the armored train. There are four pursers like me, and three captains like Captain Lu. We generally handle auxiliary combat tasks and daily management, equivalent to middle layer. Real combat tasks are done by core members. The two who caught you earlier are core members.”
Hu Shuo explained with a smile.
This kind of organizational information wasn’t classified intelligence; it was meant to be explained to ordinary passengers anyway.
Wan Hao thought of that monster-like burly man, his throat dry.
Even without those armed soldiers, that one person alone could wipe out all their evolvers, complete suppression in strength and speed.
No room to fight back at all.
And the other youth was even more outrageous; metal was like plasticine in his hands. In that instant, Wan Hao felt the entire world under the youth’s control.
That feeling was too despairing.
If core members were this fierce, how strong would the train conductor with dual guns be?
But Wan Hao quickly reined in his emotions, thinking about how to demonstrate his own value.
With over two thousand people cooperating, various important equipment was loaded onto trucks, and personnel all boarded vehicles.
But it was far from the initially predicted twenty-plus buses.
A large convoy of over a hundred vehicles of all kinds set off toward the high-speed rail manufacturing base.
Old Yuan and Wan Hao rode with He Jie, as the lead opening vehicle.
On the way back, they encountered a small zombie horde of three Tier 1 Skull Crushers and four Tier 1 Night Demons. Wan Hao personally witnessed He Jie’s excellent command ability.
The lead personnel carriers formed a temporary defense line at the crossroads, metal barriers rising from the ground, connecting the personnel carriers.
Heavy machine guns’ fierce firepower shredded the terrifying Tier 1 zombies on the spot.
The crisp clanging of thick metal bullet casings hitting the armored vehicle from above made the two’s hearts tremble.
Old Yuan peered out the car window, bitterness in his mouth, “If we had this firepower back then, so many fewer would have died.”
Wan Hao shook his head, pointing at the soldiers fighting relying on the armored vehicles outside the window, “These are professional soldiers who’ve been on the battlefield. Their military literacy is fiercer than the mercenaries I raised in South Asia. If not for some details off, I’d suspect they’re regular army.”
“Look at their attack rhythm—not just simple alternation, but factoring in different firearm characteristics.”
“Bang——”
The armored personnel carrier’s heavy body shook, as if hit by something heavy.
From above came He Jie’s thunderous roar, “Damn it, daring to counterattack old me? Suppress! Suppress! Full army advance!!”
Wan Hao muttered in a daze, “This train conductor has quite a temper…”
The soldiers in the vehicle opened the car door and charged out. The two thought for a moment, didn’t dare follow, and climbed up through the machine gun hatch on the roof.
Just in time to see He Jie clamping dual guns performing fire suppression on a Tier 1 Skull Crusher in front.
The Skull Crusher wielding dual hammers had its chest directly penetrated by 12.7mm bullets, blasting out deep pits of flesh and blood, roaring as it crashed to the ground.
Armed soldiers on left and right held guns and assaulted, shredding the ordinary zombies around the Skull Crusher.
He Jie tossed the heavy machine gun aside, making a muffled thud on the vehicle roof.
Suddenly hearing proficient sounds of disassembling the gun barrel and reloading beside his ear, he turned his head in surprise, looking at the busy Wan Hao, “You know this too?”
Wan Hao proficiently swapped the heavy machine gun ammunition belt, “Before the apocalypse, running business worldwide in ocean shipping, inevitably contacted some. If the train conductor needs munitions, I know plenty of places to source them.”
He Jie narrowed his eyes, drew a cigarette from his shirt pocket, lit it on the red-hot gun barrel, put it in his mouth, and took a few satisfying puffs, “Train conductor? I’m not the train conductor.”
He pointed at a Tier 1 Night Demon climbing a six-story small building not far away.
Wan Hao and the other followed his finger; the Night Demon shook its head like suffering a heavy blow, then fell limply, directly smashing a small car on the ground into scrap metal.
Wan Hao’s pupils contracted, “Sniper?!”
Subconsciously looking around; there were no buildings taller than that six-story building nearby. The nearest taller one was a skyscraper two kilometers away.
Two kilometers, one shot kill!
What marksmanship!
“That one must be the train conductor?”
He Jie exhaled a smoke ring, sneered, “That little bastard? Back then, got turned into heavy injury by a shot from the train conductor three kilometers away.”
Finished speaking, he picked up the freshly reloaded heavy machine gun and jumped down, finishing off the Tier 1 zombies on the ground.
“Watch for finishing shots, don’t skimp on bullets. Whoever has ammo left when injured, I’ll stuff it up his ass!”
“Rear, prepare to clean the battlefield. Don’t miss a single thing!”
“……”
Leaving the dazed two on the roof.
“We seem to have run into a formidable force.”
Old Yuan glanced sideways at his old brother; the other’s eyes were now filled with a burning zeal.
“Old Yuan, I feel our opportunity has come!”
……
Compared to He Jie’s grand fanfare, Yu Yue’s side was much quieter.
Any wind or grass movement couldn’t escape her ears.
Along the way, various mutated beasts and zombies were all bypassed by them; if unavoidable, they were sniped remotely.
Very smoothly, they arrived at the school.
But negotiations afterward hit a snag; besides workers, the school had teachers and students.
Adding up to over a thousand people.
Unlike He Jie’s thunderous methods, she felt resistant to killing these ordinary people with no real grudge.
But the school had no supplies left either. In exchange, Yu Yue took them to gather some supplies, and the workers voluntarily left with her.
The sunset’s afterglow sprinkled on the rundown school playground, casting long shadows from the rusted basketball hoops.
Yu Yue stood by the temporary supply stacking point, watching the workers silently divide the just-moved-back canned food and rice and flour into two piles: one neatly stacked for the teachers and students, the other sparsely packed into their own woven bags.
“Captain Yu, leave these for the kids.” The lead old worker wiped his face with his chapped palm, “We adults can go hungry a few meals, but the children are growing.”
Behind him, several young workers stuffed the last few packs of biscuits through the classroom window, immediately met with the children’s muffled cheering from inside.
Yu Yue pinched the hem of her clothes; this scene was inexplicably heart-wrenching.
“I’ll take you out, definitely won’t let anything happen to you.”
The old worker smiled slyly, “Daughter, we’ve all seen it—you folks have real ability. Following you offers better odds of survival than holing up in the school fighting kids for food.”
Yu Yue looked at the resolute-faced workers, opened her mouth futilely, not knowing what to say.
In the twilight, the workers silently climbed onto the trucks. Yu Yue saw in the rearview mirror the children quietly standing behind the sealed windows, peering at them through the gaps.
Yu Yue’s knuckles whitened gripping the steering wheel; the wiper quietly swept away the suddenly blurred view.
