Chapter 313: Despair
A crowd of five million people can lead a city to glory, and a riot of five million people can also make a city slide into the abyss.
Three seconds after the box fell into the hole, a visible sound wave swept over all the zombies present.
The Tier 2 Zombie chasing the Black Kite Special Operations personnel instantly stopped in place, its scarlet gaze flickering. Moments later, it let out a shrill howl, followed by hundreds and thousands of Tier 1 Zombies, the sound spreading layer by layer, and finally hundreds of thousands to millions of ordinary zombies.
Like a massive flesh horn composed of five million sound sources.
The entire Zhijin City trembled in the corpse roar!
The boiling zombie horde crashed through buildings like waves, scattering in all directions.
Suddenly, a Tier 2 Butcher over six meters tall in the horde raised its head, a trace of surprise on its fat face. A little thing not even as thick as its finger was flying straight at its head.
The Butcher instinctively grabbed the copper statue in its hand and swung it through the air like hitting a baseball.
“Boom——”
The moment the two made contact, a massive explosion occurred.
A figure with a Golden Kite pinned to the collar discarded the rocket launcher and fled at high speed.
The explosion drew the attention of the entire zombie tide, and the direction the figure fled was precisely the Zhinnán District where the Four Greats were located.
……
“What’s the situation?”
Jinfeng President looked at the frenzied corpse roar from across the bridge, his heart skipping a beat. “Could it be that some force has attacked over?”
Old Xie was busy beyond measure. His Earth Wolf had been injured while besieging a Tier 2 Night Demon and kept whimpering lowly. The remaining three Earth Wolves were also on edge from the calls, howling incessantly. While comforting the uneasy Earth Wolves, he denied it.
“Impossible. Fuyuan and Tiejian City are both pushovers; they haven’t even reached the bridge yet. Black Star is indeed a dark horse, but their progress is about the same as ours in Jinfeng. They only reached the bridge today, and the surrounding residential communities haven’t been cleared. How would they dare—”
Halfway through the words, both thought of a possibility at the same time and said in unison.
“Black Kite!”
Old Xie’s expression was grave. “It’s indeed possible. Black Kite’s strength is much greater than ours. If they want to seize dominance, they might have crossed the bridge by now. We need to speed up our progress too.”
Jinfeng President listened to the boiling corpse roar from across, feeling something was off. “We can’t rush. We’ve been fighting for over ten days too; we must be cautious when people and mounts are exhausted. Let Black Kite test the waters first. We’ll try crossing tomorrow.”
“Just as you say.” Old Xie shouted to his subordinate, “Set up two more heavy machine guns here, aimed at the bridge to prevent zombies from rushing the checkpoint at night!”
Just as they were setting up the heavy machine gun, a fast-running figure suddenly appeared from across the bridge.
Wearing a quick-dry shirt covered in large patches of blackened stains, with a sports watch on the wrist, dry and falling hair revealing scalp bulging with veins. The forearm had turned into a blade-like tissue structure, standing upright when extending forward and turning sideways for greater air resistance when pulling back, like swim fins.
On the sturdy thighs, powerful muscle fibers were exposed, while the calves were slender enough to see the leg bone shape.
Scarlet eyes looked at the two like seeing the finish line, sprinting madly.
“It’s a Hunter! Get ready to fire!”
“No!”
Old Xie keenly noticed the vibration underfoot was wrong. A single Tier 1 Hunter couldn’t cause such a commotion.
Before he could find high ground, more zombie heads crested the highest point of the bridge surface, like marathon runners following the pacesetter, sprinting madly toward the bridge edge.
“Zombie tide!”
Old Xie’s eyes were grave. “Call another two hundred people here. I’ll hold this; you go check on Black Kite…”
Both had built such large forces in the apocalypse and seen plenty of big and small scenes, so they wouldn’t be scared by a zombie tide. But the boiling corpse roar ahead made them suspect there was something more to it.
“No need. I’ve already arranged people to watch Black Kite. If something happens, they should be back by now.”
Just as Jinfeng President finished speaking, the heavy machine gun opened fire. A person ran quickly to them from the rear, panting, “President, Black Kite has run!”
Old Xie’s pupils shrank. Before he could speak, his old partner’s roar came from beside him.
“Retreat! Everyone retreat!”
But the order was given too late.
By the time he shouted, densely packed heads had emerged on the river surface, pairs of scarlet eyes greedily staring at the Jinfeng Convoy on the shore.
“Bang!”
A Jumper descended from the sky, smashing a large pit into an abandoned vehicle nearby.
Before it could get up, it was killed by the prepared crowd, but more Jumpers were already descending from the sky.
Night Demons had climbed all over the bridge structure. Everywhere the eye could see was zombies: thousands of ordinary zombies, hundreds to thousands of Tier 1 Zombies, and across the shore, those terrifying figures like small mountains.
Numbers greater than their bullets!
How to fight this?
“Fire! Fire!”
“Don’t run!”
Jinfeng President held his gun and roared angrily at the several machine gunners who were fleeing in panic.
But fear instantly crushed their reason. The instinct to flee had overcome everything; even if shot on the spot, the terror deep in their souls remained in their eyes.
Once fear blinded their minds, collapse was instantaneous.
The vanguard convoy of over a thousand instantly descended into chaos. They even forgot they held guns.
Some desperately tried to burrow into vehicles, but the street was already narrow due to abandoned vehicles. Moreover, Jinfeng had arranged dozens of vehicles here as temporary barriers. Several SUVs blocked each other and squeezed into a mess.
Old Xie grabbed his old partner and threw him onto a wolf’s back, then mounted a Tier 1 Earth Wolf himself, leaping across vehicle roofs to escape.
“Rumble…”
A large group of zombies jumped into the river, the water level surging instantly and flooding the shore.
From high altitude, in just a few breaths, the entire shore was engulfed by the deep gray zombie tide.
Jinfeng Chamber of Commerce retreated frantically along the street, but the roar of motorcycles seemed so powerless amid the zombies’ shrieks. Before they could even despair, they were dragged from vehicles under fear’s shock and torn into parts.
At the forefront of the convoy were three madly running Earth Wolves, carrying the ashen-faced Old Xie and Jinfeng President.
……
On the other side, Fuyuan Convoy hadn’t split into front, middle, and rear like Jinfeng Chamber of Commerce. Instead, over three thousand people huddled together on the bridge surface. When the zombie tide surged, they steeled themselves for a decisive battle.
Powerful modern firepower allowed them to hold until large numbers of Tier 2 Zombies entered the fray before perishing.
Half an hour, four Tier 1 Evolvers and over three thousand people all wiped out, killing around thirteen thousand ordinary zombies.
Buying precious evacuation time for Black Star Convoy.
The Four Greats guarded four bridges respectively, while Black Star, as a second-tier force, could choose freely.
Since Fuyuan Convoy’s strength was similar to theirs, even slightly weaker in high-end combatants, and even if friction arose they wouldn’t worry about losing, Li Xinlong’s fifteen hundred followed behind Fuyuan Convoy with that in mind.
The other five hundred were at the stadium protecting the temporary base.
But after half an hour of escape, Black Star Convoy was also severely depleted: engineering vehicles and large carriers basically all lost, only a dozen motorcycle riders left, over five hundred members lost.
That was a quarter of his entire convoy!
“Shan Bro, block it!”
Pang Ke lay on the off-road vehicle roof, heavy sniper rifle blasting a Jumper descending from the sky.
Two reverse-jointed thighs and headless torso splattered to the ground.
“Too fast, no time!”
Chen Shan stood on a modified bus, raising both hands toward the ground behind.
The cement ground cracked instantly, a twenty-centimeter-thick earth wall rising swiftly, toppling pursuing zombies to six or seven meters high, briefly blocking the zombie tide.
“Roar——”
“Bang!”
An abandoned sedan spun sideways through the air, shattering the earth wall and smashing into the rear of the modified bus, nearly shaking the exhausted Chen Shan off. Fortunately, Li Xinlong who jumped up grabbed him.
Chen Shan’s eyes showed anxiety. “Master Rong…”
Li Xinlong stuffed him a General Energy Crystal. “Get inside the vehicle to recover.”
He then raised his assault rifle for a three-round burst, air-killing a Night Demon pouncing from a side building.
With a “bang.”
The already crumbling earth wall was thoroughly smashed by a muscle-bound figure, collapsing earth and stone covering the Skull Crusher’s face.
Slightly adjusting direction, the Skull Crusher charged the convoy with dual hammers like a wild bull, followed by a tidal wave of ordinary zombies and the slowest-running Butcher whose small eyes spun anxiously.
Two modified buses trailed at the convoy’s end. Though slow, dozens of guns firing together created a crisp rain of bullet casings hitting the ground amid acrid gunsmoke.
Delaying Black Star Convoy’s engulfment by the zombie tide.
But because Black Star Convoy hadn’t cleared thoroughly, zombies from surrounding residential communities ran out hearing the tide’s roars.
Zombies in residential areas and office buildings on both sides frantically battered tempered glass, terrifying the convoy below.
The convoy had rushed halfway down the street when a large wave of zombies charged from the corner ahead, led by a Tier 1 Butcher. With a crash from its head, two Night Demons crawled down the glass curtain wall. A group of ordinary zombies smashed onto an SUV roof like dumplings.
With a “bang,” the vehicle lost control and crashed into a nearby clothing store.
Trailing zombies flooded into the clothing store, soon followed by shrill screams from inside.
But no one dared look back or rescue. The convoy crushed ground zombies and continued fleeing forward.
Shooters on the vehicles madly sprayed the two Night Demons.
Clear bullet holes flashed on the glass curtain wall and cement wall, but all dodged by the agile Night Demons.
Arms spread, eighteen scarlet pupils under the armpits gleamed with greedy drool.
“Bang!”
With the gunshot, a Night Demon’s gaunt upper body exploded.
Pang Ke pulled the bolt and roared, “One more, watch out!”
The other Night Demon jumped onto an off-road vehicle in the convoy, sharp claws piercing the sunroof. Next moment, a spinning fire axe embedded in its head, smashing it off the vehicle.
“Yin Yinan, that’s seizing the moment! I fucking want to do you ahh!!”
Blood-soaked Wei Tian screamed madly at the purple-haired woman on another vehicle.
Yin Yinan pulled the bolt, standing on the vehicle roof to blast a pouncing zombie, cursing without looking back, “Don’t make me blast you! If you have the guts, clear the group ahead too!”
Only about a hundred ordinary zombies ahead—a horde this size would normally be three minutes of gunfire.
But in this life-or-death flight, it decided Black Star Convoy’s survival.
“The front is mine, ignore it!”
Old Yang looked at the zombie group, his eyes instantly turning pitch black.
Sticky, skin-disease-like patches on several zombies spread instantly across their bodies. Muscles eroded, bones stretched; the zombies collapsed, bodies bloating like furry bread.
But other zombies couldn’t comprehend their companions’ anomaly and trampled right over.
Old Yang’s neck veins bulged as he roared, “Explode for me!”
“Bang bang bang!”
Fallen corpses swelled instantly then detonated, sharp bones like grenade shrapnel sweeping outward, sticky blood and flesh splattering streets and buildings like paint.
The slightly intelligent Tier 1 Butcher blankly wiped its face, looking at the huge gash on its belly and fallen ordinary zombies with a puzzled low roar.
Then Pang Ke blasted its head.
“Fuck him! Old Yang is awesome!”
“Fuck fuck fuck!”
“Charge!”
Under life-or-death pressure, everyone was like ignited gunpowder barrels, madly venting suppressed emotions upon finding a chance at survival.
The convoy crushed corpses, jolting out of the street.
But the scene ahead abruptly silenced Black Star Convoy’s howls; even Black Star Five Tigers lost their roaring courage.
Li Xinlong tossed his red-hot-barreled assault rifle and jumped over, demanding sharply, “Why stop?”
Chen Shan turned, despairing, “Master Rong, we… can’t go.”
As the vehicle moved forward, Li Xinlong’s pupils shrank sharply.
Perhaps to let them see this final life scenery clearly, the Storm Zone showed mercy; the black storm howling for over ten days finally stopped.
Chenxi Plaza had become a hellscape. Burning modified vehicles were buried under layers of zombies, emitting thick black smoke without air, mixed with oil and protein stench.
Surging zombies piled densely on the plaza into over a dozen small mountains, fighting over flesh. Fresh red blood flowed from the mountains, attracting low-level zombies to lick.
Faint tidal corpse roars came from ahead on Zhijin South Road.
Logos and firearms scattered on wrecked modified vehicles told them what happened here.
“Tiejian City people…”
Pang Ke’s voice sank everyone’s hearts again.
Tiejian City people chased here could only mean one thing.
The zombie tide had already surged over the fourth bridge, directly blocking Black Star Convoy’s last escape route.
Front zombies spotted the fresh Black Star Convoy. Small mountains collapsed; from building shadows and street ends, densely packed zombies surged, instantly blocking the plaza. Rear came the Skull Crusher’s heavy footsteps, beast-like heavy panting like hammers on hearts.
One thousand against twenty thousand zombies.
More precisely, over eight hundred against the five million zombies spreading across all of Zhinnán District.
Suffocation and despair spread through the entire convoy.
