Chapter 43: A Successful Escape
However, it was impossible to evacuate so many people at once without transportation. Although Su Ruizhe’s space held dozens of off-road vehicles, it still couldn’t accommodate eight hundred people. Military trucks were necessary. They had already learned where the vehicles were parked from the earlier interrogation, but seizing them would inevitably cause a major disturbance.
In terms of numbers, they weren’t actually at a serious disadvantage—after all, these were all rigorously trained soldiers. But after being locked in the stifling, sweltering warehouse for an entire day, everyone was in poor condition. On top of that, many had been injured during the survivors’ earlier ambushes, which put them at a real disadvantage.
The top priority was naturally to seize weapons. Just as those survivors had taken advantage of the situation to ambush the armory before, Zhan Yun planned to do the same. Although the survivors had control of the armory, it was impossible for them to arm every single person. At most, only a small number of people would have weapons, so the armory itself would still contain a large stockpile.
Zhan Yun had originally planned to take Su Ruizhe straight to the armory and load all the weapons into his space, but that would undoubtedly expose Su Ruizhe’s ability. With more than eight hundred people around, there were simply too many mouths—if the news leaked out even slightly, it would put Su Ruizhe in grave danger.
Zhan Yun would never risk Su Ruizhe’s safety!
So in the end, Zhan Yun decided to charge the armory directly and seize it by force.
Whether by luck or circumstance, under the cover of darkness—and with the survivors’ defenses extremely lax—they successfully bypassed several guard posts and reached the armory. Located at the center of the camp and surrounded by dormitory buildings, the armory was guarded by eight armed men at the entrance. It was not easy to deal with.
The tactic they had used earlier—the “beauty trap” for those four men—clearly wouldn’t work this time.
“Then I’ll handle it,” Zhan Yun said with a faint smile as his power surged forth.
The guards responsible for watching the armory suddenly saw their torches go out, plunging them into darkness. Before they could react, an overwhelming force slammed them to the ground. They opened their mouths to shout, but the crushing pressure prevented them from making any sound at all.
A strange mist then drifted through the area, obscuring their vision completely. They felt every bone in their bodies trembling, even breathing becoming difficult. Some even suspected they might be crushed to death by this inexplicable, invisible pressure.
They soon lost consciousness entirely. Everyone hurried over and searched their bodies for the armory key.
They didn’t find it—apparently the key was with the two ability users. But that didn’t matter. With Zheng Jiahe around, he could tear off this flimsy lock with brute force alone.
Only then did the soldiers realize that this small group was, for the most part, made up of ability users.
Once the armory door was opened, everyone rushed inside and equipped themselves with every usable weapon they could find.
At that moment, the dormitory area also noticed that the firelight by the armory had gone out. Faintly, they could hear people shouting as they rushed in this direction.
The group immediately charged out, and the two sides were instantly locked in fierce combat.
After everyone had rushed out, Zhan Yun had Su Ruizhe quietly collect the remaining weapons in the armory, leaving nothing behind for the survivors.
Soldiers were soldiers—nothing like the rabble formed by ordinary survivors. Soon, wails filled the air, mixed with screams, gunfire, and cries that echoed through the night.
With the wounded protected in the rear, the others cleared the way and provided cover up front. Fighting as they advanced, they quickly reached the garage, where more than a dozen military trucks were parked.
Unfortunately, there were no keys.
They grabbed someone and interrogated him, only to learn that all the keys were with their bosses.
It seemed that finding those two leaders was unavoidable.
Just as they were thinking this through, a fireball slammed straight into the ground. The explosion forced the soldiers to retreat a considerable distance—it was clearly the fire-type ability user.
The fire ability user stood arrogantly atop a small building, hurling fireballs downward while shouting at the soldiers, “Shooting at civilians—what kind of soldiers are you?!”
“What kind of civilians are you?!” Zhao Bing shot back without hesitation, immediately throwing out a fireball of his own. Seizing a military camp and opening fire on soldiers would have been an extremely serious crime even before the apocalypse. Shooting criminals like these was nothing wrong at all.
“They have a fire-type ability user too!” Panic instantly spread through the survivors’ ranks.
“Hmph! Move!” As the fire ability user’s words fell, a shadow flashed by. One soldier clutched his throat and collapsed—his throat had been slit.
Another soldier rushed forward to press down hard on his comrade’s neck wound, but in the next instant, he too fell.
“Ah—” The soldiers’ formation immediately descended into chaos. An invisible enemy was simply too terrifying.
“Everyone be careful—there’s also a speed-type ability user!” Zhao Bing shouted loudly.
As soon as his words left his mouth, he felt a sharp pain in his back—someone had stabbed him from behind. Zhao Bing grimaced and instinctively tried to turn around, only to see a flash of cold light slashing toward his throat.
He instantly realized what that flash was, but the attacker was far too fast for him to dodge. With a trace of unwillingness, his eyes widened—victory had been so close…
Yet the expected agony never came. Instead, he heard the sound of a heavy body hitting the ground.
Zhao Bing opened his eyes in shock and saw a young man sprawled on the ground before him. It was as if an invisible hand was pinning him there with crushing force. His limbs twitched uncontrollably, and the blood-soaked dagger had already fallen from his grasp.
The man’s face was completely flushed and swollen, blood gradually seeping from the corners of his eyes. The sound of bones breaking could be heard, and in the end a thick stench of blood filled the air. His body was crushed entirely into the ground, his death a truly horrific sight.
The three soldiers whose throats had been slit earlier were already dead, and Zhao Bing had been seriously wounded as well. Enraged, Zhan Yun struck without mercy, using tenfold gravity to crush the man to death. This blow consumed most of his ability, but fortunately he had crystal cores to replenish his power, allowing him to recover quickly.
Because the fire-type ability user was far away and it was night, he couldn’t clearly see what had happened on this side. All he knew was that the soldiers were in chaos, so he assumed his plan had succeeded and became even more brazen in his taunts.
However, without the speed-type ability user, the fire ability user alone had limited destructive power. And without crystal cores to replenish his energy, he soon began to falter. Meanwhile, the survivors quickly ran out of bullets and gradually fell into a passive position.
At that moment, Wu Jing quietly transformed into mist and drifted up onto the small building. She suddenly reappeared behind the fire ability user and shoved him hard.
The fire ability user turned pale with shock and screamed as he fell from the rooftop, dying instantly on impact.
Presumably for convenience in using his ability, the fire ability user had his upper body bare, his clothes discarded nearby. Wu Jing found a small pouch in his clothing pocket, filled with keys. Without bothering to sort them, she grabbed the pouch and leapt straight off the building. Just before hitting the ground, her body dispersed into mist and then re-formed, landing steadily.
Picking up the pouch from the ground, Wu Jing returned to her companions with a smile. Her control over her ability had improved significantly, and she was using it with increasing finesse.
The car keys were all labeled, which made it much easier to quickly find the corresponding vehicles.
The soldiers swiftly located the correct keys and got into the trucks, even loading the bodies of their fallen comrades onto the vehicles as well.
More than a dozen military trucks rammed through the camp gates and charged out. Since those people wanted the camp so badly, they could have it!
Zhan Yun led them toward the villa district. Along the way, they encountered quite a few zombies, all of which were cleanly crushed under their wheels.
When they passed a private gas station, the convoy noticed many zombies inside. That likely meant the station hadn’t been looted yet. They stopped, cleared out the zombies, and checked the pumps—sure enough, there was still plenty of fuel. They filled all the vehicles before leaving.
By the time they reached the villa district, it was already past five in the morning. Dawn was approaching, and they needed to settle everyone quickly.
“This villa area wasn’t put on the market before the apocalypse, so no one ever moved in. There are plenty of empty houses, all with basic renovations and furniture. You can move straight in and get some rest. Our place is the one in the eastern corner. You can house your wounded closer to us—we have a doctor, and we’ve also stocked up on some medicine,” Zhan Yun said to Zhao Bing, who was lying nearby on the military truck.
“Thank you—thank you so much,” Zhao Bing said sincerely. Without Zhan Yun and the others, there was no way they could have successfully rescued all their comrades.
“You’re welcome. It was nothing,” Zhan Yun waved it off and directed the truck toward his own villa. The other trucks dispersed, heading for different empty houses.
But when the truck arrived at the gate of Zhan Yun’s villa, they found the entrance covered in dust and blood. Part of the wall had collapsed, and one of the windows was shattered.
Judging from the crater in the ground, it looked like the aftermath of an explosion. The soldier driving immediately stopped the truck and reported the situation to Zhao Bing.
Clearly, someone had broken into Zhan Yun’s home and triggered the potato mine Su Ruizhe had left behind.
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