Chapter 38: Encountering Wounded Soldiers
The red rain fell for a full day and night, only finally stopping when the sun was hanging high in the sky the next day.
With Su Ruizhe around, they never had to worry about food or drink, and with the homemade ice blocks Song Chengshu made, the room wasn’t unbearably hot. Still, it was nothing compared to lying comfortably on beds in the villa. The lounge was really too small—seven people and a cat crammed together made it feel quite cramped.
Most importantly, the zombies outside seemed as if they’d been pumped full of stimulants, howling nonstop. It was deafening.
At long last, the rain finally stopped. Once the sun went down, they would be able to leave this hellish place.
They slept fitfully. When they woke up, it was already a little past four in the afternoon. In another hour or two, the sun would set. But when they looked out the window, they couldn’t help but feel a chill run down their spines.
The zombies, which had once been extremely afraid of the scorching sunlight, were no longer hiding in the shadows. Not only were they roaming throughout the hospital, even the roads outside were densely packed with wandering zombies…
Although they’d already been mentally prepared after seeing the effects of the strange red rain on the zombies, witnessing it with their own eyes was still shocking.
“How are we supposed to leave later?” Zheng Jiahe looked at the mass of zombies below and felt goosebumps all over. In the past, zombies had at least been somewhat wary of the fierce sun. Once daylight came, they would scatter and hide in dark corners, allowing people to slip out at dusk before the zombies regrouped.
But now, that clearly wasn’t going to work.
“We’ll go the same way we came. There’s always a way to clear a path—what are you worried about?” Su Ruizhe said calmly, pulling a banana out of his space and taking a bite.
Zheng Jiahe’s eyes immediately lit up. How could he forget about Su Ruizhe, their ultimate trump card?
“Little Zhe, make me a bomb?” Zheng Jiahe leaned over and whispered.
Su Ruizhe smiled, slipped his left hand into his pocket, and when he pulled it out again, there was a round, red bomb—one he’d created based on the weapons manual.
Su Ruizhe was just an ordinary civilian. He’d never really seen weapons growing up, so he lacked the imagination to create anything fancy. He could only follow the illustrations in the manual. As for weaponizing plants, he was still in the exploratory stage and could only model them after a game he’d played a few times. Thankfully, with Zheng Jiahe—the hardcore gamer—around, he had plenty of help.
Turning cherries into bombs was different from turning peas into bullets. Bullets were small and didn’t consume much energy, but transforming cherries into bombs took a noticeable amount of power. Fortunately, Su Ruizhe’s wood-type ability was already at level three, and his energy reserves were currently among the highest in the world, so he wasn’t worried about overexertion.
Zheng Jiahe quickly tucked the bomb away like a precious treasure. It might come in handy soon.
“When it’s time to move, throw it with all your strength. Remember to throw it far—draw the zombies’ attention away,” Zhan Yun said, having noticed Zheng Jiahe’s actions.
Hearing that, Zheng Jiahe pouted. He’d just gotten the bomb in his hands, and before it even had time to ‘warm up,’ it was already going to be gone.
No man didn’t love weapons. He’d been eyeing Zhan Yun’s gun for a long time, but hadn’t dared say anything. Getting a bomb was enough to satisfy him—yet he wouldn’t even get to keep it. Still, when he imagined the spectacle of blowing up zombies with it, his mood immediately lifted again.
It was just one bomb, after all. Worst case, he could always ask Little Zhe to make another later.
Finally, the sun set. There were still quite a few zombies lingering downstairs—they could probably sense nearby prey but couldn’t find a way into the building, so they just circled around below. Those farther away had already left the hospital, wandering off along the road to who knows where.
“Zheng Jiahe, get ready!” As Zhan Yun spoke, Zheng Jiahe had just opened the window and was about to hurl the bomb with all his strength when a burst of dense gunfire suddenly rang out, approaching from afar. Most of the zombies below were successfully drawn away.
“Where did that gunfire come from? What’s going on?”
“No idea—could it be government reinforcements?”
“So fast? That seems impossible…”
“It sounds close. Let’s go take a look.”
In a country with extremely strict gun control like Flower Nation, heavy firearms were very rare. Whoever was firing had to be soldiers. No matter what, they needed to check it out.
“Alright.” No one objected.
They opened the door to the lounge and filed out. Yu Dongdong obediently hugged the cat and held Su Ruizhe’s hand as they went downstairs, quiet and well-behaved—adorable to the extreme.
They took the off-road vehicle out of Su Ruizhe’s space. Although it was scratched up from the earlier impact, there was no serious damage—truly worthy of a high-end brand, with solid quality.
Zhang Shuoliang dismantled the earth barrier blocking the hole in the wall. Once everyone was in the car, Zhan Yun drove off at full speed. Most of the zombies had been drawn away by the gunfire, so there weren’t many blocking the road. Zhan Yun simply plowed through what remained.
They’d just reached the main road and were about to turn when a military-green truck sped past them head-on, followed by a huge horde of snarling zombies.
Zhan Yun frowned slightly and glanced at the rearview mirror. Just as they’d guessed, it was a military truck—definitely soldiers. But when he saw where the truck was headed, Zhan Yun suddenly yanked the steering wheel hard, executing a sharp U-turn and chasing after it.
“That’s a military truck? Where are they going?” Song Chengshu had also seen it.
“If I’m not mistaken, they’re heading for the hospital we just left…”
Sure enough, when the military-green truck reached the hospital entrance, it charged straight in, and continuous gunfire rang out again.
Zhan Yun guessed that someone among them was injured and they needed to come to the hospital for medicine or medical equipment. But the number of zombies was simply too great.
The off-road vehicle re-entered the hospital grounds. Zhan Yun used his ability to move the fallen iron gate back into place, wedging it against the wall to barely slow the zombies’ advance.
The crude iron gate wouldn’t hold long against the massive horde, but it could at least buy them some time.
The military truck was already parked at the entrance of the emergency department. More than a dozen soldiers were firing at approaching zombies, while others carried three or four blood-soaked people into the building.
“Platoon leader! Could this place have already been cleared out?” A young soldier with thick eyebrows and big eyes stared worriedly at the gaping hole in the wall.
“No matter what, we have to take a look!” The man called platoon leader was dark-skinned and looked about thirty. His arm was wrapped in bandages, blood seeping through—clearly injured as well.
“Platoon leader! A vehicle’s coming!”
“What kind of people?”
“Not sure… an off-road vehicle. Probably not from that side.”
“Prepare to engage!”
“Yes!”
As soon as Zhan Yun and the others got out of the car, they were met with a group of armed, highly alert… wounded soldiers.
That’s right—wounded soldiers. Almost every one of them was injured. Including the severely wounded people carried down from the truck, there were seventeen in total.
“Who are you?!” Zhao Bing demanded warily, aiming his gaze at Zhan Yun and the others.
“We’re survivors. We happened to see you, so we came over to ask for some information.”
Zhao Bing scanned them for a long while. Though he didn’t think they posed much of a threat, he still didn’t allow them to get close, only saying coldly, “If you’re asking when the government’s rescue forces will arrive, we don’t know either. All communications are down, and we’ve lost contact with our superiors.”
Zhan Yun wasn’t surprised by this. What he really wanted to know was what had happened to these soldiers.
“Can we go inside? The zombies are about to surround us.” The entrance wasn’t a good place to talk. The iron gate Zhan Yun had wedged into the wall was already starting to loosen under the zombies’ relentless impacts.
Zhao Bing hesitated, glanced toward the entrance, and finally agreed to let them inside.
The moment Zhan Yun and the others entered the building, the zombie horde broke through the obstruction at the entrance and surged in.
“A Liang! Earth wall!”
Zhang Shuoliang once again sealed the hole in the wall with an earth barrier, reinforcing it several layers thick. The zombies were a step too late and were shut outside, roaring unwillingly as they slammed into the wall.
“Ability user!” Upon seeing Zhang Shuoliang use his power, the soldiers showed no gratitude at all. Instead, they raised their guns and aimed them in his direction.
“What are you doing?” Zhan Yun frowned slightly. The soldiers’ attitude was truly strange.
The two sides stood in tense opposition for quite some time before Zhao Bing stepped forward and signaled the others to lower their weapons.
“Sorry. We overreacted.”
“What exactly happened?”
Zhao Bing pressed his lips together, seeming unwilling to explain. But a young soldier beside him couldn’t help blurting out, “We risked our lives to save so many people—every single one of them turned out to be ungrateful bastards!”
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