Chapter 289: Threat
"Load the rest of this equipment onto the trucks, hurry!"
"Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go! We’re moving out in three minutes!"
Everyone stared blankly.
Watching Zuo Li’s teammates spring into action, they moved like a colony of ants, hauling the large medical equipment that wouldn’t fit into Chen Xiao’s Space onto the trucks.
Truck after truck drove out of Wohua Private Hospital.
Occasionally, a small group of zombies would be drawn over.
Xie Ning and her teammates helped clear out the zombie hordes, her Metal Knife slashing and piercing with clean, powerful strokes.
Zuo Li jogged over to Xie Ning. "Alright, I’m taking them back first. The rest of the mission is up to you."
Xie Ning nodded, giving a little wave, a look on her face that said, ’Don’t let me keep you.’
Zuo Li let out an exasperated laugh. "You’re really not coming with me?"
Xie Ning quickly shook her head, giving Zuo Li a look of utter disgust. "I’m just an ordinary citizen. That... cannon fodder stuff? No way, no way."
She waved her hand dismissively. "Can’t take it, can’t take it. My heart can’t handle it."
Zuo Li rolled her eyes at her three times in a row.
"Don’t worry, I’ll lead them to finish clearing out Zone C. You hurry back and get things arranged. And uh, it’s scorching hot now. You should suggest to your dad that maybe it’s time to fix up the old air-raid shelters."
"You also think we should build underground shelters?" Zuo Li’s eyes lit up.
She had proposed this at a high-level meeting long ago, but unfortunately, no one had taken it seriously yet.
Who knew where the base’s administrative committee got their hearsay, but they kept saying the extreme heat would pass in another ten days to half a month. They argued it was better to thicken the city walls than to build underground shelters.
Xie Ning hesitated for a moment before she couldn’t help but ask, "We’re in a period of extreme heat right now, but has anyone thought about when the extreme cold will arrive?"
"When the extreme cold comes, without enough winter clothes, padded jackets, and quilts... forget the Superpower Users, what will happen to the ordinary people?"
If they can’t endure it, death is the only path.
Xie Ning felt that the ordinary citizens who had gone through hell to reach the base and find a sliver of hope shouldn’t have to die for this reason.
Converting the air-raid shelters into underground bunkers might give the common people a glimmer of hope for survival on the day the extreme cold descends.
"There’s no time. You should hurry back." Xie Ning waved at Zuo Li. She couldn’t say any more; this was just a reminder.
As for what decision would be made, that was for the base’s top brass to decide. It had little to do with a small citizen like her.
Zuo Li sighed helplessly and clapped her hard on the shoulder. "Wait for me to get back."
The monstrous force of the clap nearly knocked Xie Ning right off the stone block she was sitting on.
She looked up just in time to see Zuo Li striding away like a shooting star. While running, Zuo Li waved to the people across from her and roared, "What are you dawdling for? Everyone get on the trucks! Back to the base!"
Heavy tires pressed against the concrete road, leaving two faint white marks.
Xiao Huang Mao poked his head out from behind Xie Ning. "Sis, what did you run into? Why is Captain Zuo in such a mad rush to get back to the base?"
Xie Ning narrowed her eyes, gazing in the direction Zuo Li had left. "We ran into a demon. But I’ve already killed it."
’Slaying demons is our generation’s undeniable duty.’
...
"Yaoyao, what are we going to do if this keeps up? The zombies just keep coming one after another, we..."
"Shut up!" Huang Shi Yao shrieked, clinging to Zhong’s back in terror.
At this point, she couldn’t care less how pathetic she looked.
They had just survived an attack from a small horde of zombies, and even their two extended luxury cars had been clawed and bitten into a pitted, tattered mess.
The team had lost two more Power-type Superpower Users, and the rest had exhausted their superpowers, their faces pale and drained.
"I just said we should have taken shelter in that abandoned high-rise. At least we’d have a place to hide."
"When the hell is the rescue helicopter from the base going to get here?"
"They haven’t abandoned us, have they?" a female Superpower User asked, on the verge of tears, unable to take the blow.
"All of you, shut up!" Zhong roared at the group, an enraged look on his face as he carried Huang Shi Yao. "Are you trying to attract more zombies with all your wailing and crying?"
"Protect the Young Mistress with everything you’ve got. Don’t forget that all your family and friends are still back at Golden City Base! If anything happens to the Young Mistress, not a single one of you or your families will survive."
"Pah." A Superpower User spat, but their captain, Chen Chengchen, forcibly held them back, preventing them from charging forward to attack.
"Bootlicker," he cursed hatefully.
At the same time, the sound of helicopter rotors cutting through the air arrived.
The WHIR-WHIR-WHIR sound invigorated everyone.
"It’s here! The helicopter is here!"
"They’re here to pick us up!"
However, when they realized it was only two small helicopters, the faces of everyone in Special Ability Special Combat Team Three instantly darkened.
"What’s the meaning of this?" the hot-headed young man from before roared furiously. "So the Young Mistress gets to go back, and us cannon fodder get left here to die, is that it?"
Seeing their hostile expressions, Zhong felt a jolt of alarm and quickly tried to placate them. "How could that be? You are the Superpower Users that Chairman Huang went to great lengths to recruit for the team. Chairman Huang wouldn’t abandon you."
"A round trip to the base in a small helicopter only takes a few minutes. Just wait here patiently," Zhong announced loudly to the group. "We’ll send the Young Mistress back first, and they’ll be back for you in no time."
"Back for my ass! A zombie horde is coming!"
Someone bellowed, and when Zhong turned to look, his expression changed drastically.
He saw that trailing the helicopters was a dense, dark mass of at least a hundred zombies.
As if they had spotted some delicious snacks, they were chasing after the helicopters, running straight toward them.
"Protect the Young Mistress!" Zhong roared, not forgetting to add a threat. "Don’t forget the kind of agreement you all signed with the base when you came out here. If anything happens to the Young Mistress, the price you all pay will be far too high!"
Chen Chengchen gritted his teeth and led the remaining members of the Superpower Special Team to desperately fight off the relentless waves of zombies.
When their superpowers ran out, they used guns. When their bullets ran out, they used axes. The scene was pure chaos.
The clamor and the delicious scent of flesh attracted a steady stream of wandering zombies from the vicinity.
"We can’t hold them back!" an Earth Ability User shrieked, watching as his earthen wall was torn down by two zombies. He grabbed an axe and charged forward, howling as he swung.
One of the helicopters had flown near Zhong and Huang Shi Yao, now circling overhead.
Fearing that Huang Shi Yao would abandon her, Meng Lanfang scrambled over and wrapped her arms tightly around Zhong’s waist. "You have to take me with you!"
Zhong howled, trying to shake her off, while Huang Shi Yao relentlessly pummeled the shameless old woman with her fists.
But Meng Lanfang clung to Zhong’s chest as if she had grown there, refusing to let go. The three of them were piled together in a ridiculous, comical heap.
Just then, seven or eight zombies suddenly began to stack on top of each other in a bizarrely human-like way. They formed a teetering chain, like a stack of gourds, and reached up to grab the helicopter’s landing gear.