Stock Up For Natural Disasters And Cubs Survive – CH76

Chapter 76

At three in the morning, the mountain wind and the chorus of insects rose together.

Wei Cheng shot upright.

In the forest five hundred meters from the base, ten flashing red dots had appeared.

In the blink of an eye, dense clusters of red dots began moving slowly toward the base from all directions…

A total of fifty-three people!

Ever since the base fortifications had been completed, life at the farm had changed drastically.

The adults took turns patrolling the watchtower at night. The children, meanwhile, were required to be asleep by six in the evening. That was because nighttime was the best time for the enemy to launch a surprise attack. If the children did not get enough sleep, they were more likely to become emotional and make mistakes.

They were also afraid of alerting the enemy too soon, so the newly installed searchlights on the tower had remained off the whole time, waiting to deliver a fatal blow.

Wei Cheng’s mind was steady and mature, but his body was still that of a nine-year-old child. Like Guanguan and the others, he went to bed early, but from midnight to six in the morning, he would wake ahead of time to inspect the farm and the map of the surrounding area. If nothing happened, he would make up for the lost sleep with a few hours of extra rest the next day.

Everyone knew that such an irregular schedule was unhealthy, but the enemy was hidden while they were exposed. To survive, they had no choice but to endure it for a while.

Guardwatch Community had arrived!

He quickly put on the bulletproof vest and helmet set beside his bed, but kept his movements very light.

He was afraid of waking Guanguan, who was sleeping soundly with his little floral quilt in his arms.

Wei Cheng carried the child into the safe house. When he came back out, the two dogs in the kennel at the door had already poked their heads out alertly.

Gray Cub darted out from Black Dog’s embrace and ran to his feet.

Wei Cheng scooped him up gently. “Protect yourself, and protect Guanguan too.”

Gray Cub gave two soft whimpers, sounding anxious himself.

Without another word, Wei Cheng sent Gray Cub into the safe house. Just as he bent to pick up Xing Xing, the big black dog flattened himself to the ground and clamped his teeth onto Wei Cheng’s pant leg.

He reached out with one paw, tilted his head, and let out a low sound. His dark canine eyes were filled with an unmistakable firmness.

Wei Cheng looked at the black wolfdog. Though only a little over a year old, he was already nearly full-grown. His ears stood sharply upright, his muzzle was narrow and handsome, he stood a full meter at the shoulder, and weighed around one hundred and thirty jin. From a distance, he looked like a small black hill, imposing enough to make anyone’s heart skip.

Had Wei Cheng not raised him himself, the sight of such a huge, powerful dog would have been intimidating.

At that moment, Xing Xing’s thick paws hooked tightly around his shoe, and there was something uncannily human in those dark eyes—worry, even anxiety.

Guanguan and Gray Cub were in the safest place in the world.

But… who was going to protect their brother?

Of course, Wei Cheng had no idea what the dog was thinking. He only knew there was no time to waste. He pulled out the canine bulletproof vest and riot helmet he had bought long ago for Xing Xing and put them on him.

Before he could even speak his instructions, the black dog was already charging toward the bottom of the watchtower, a vicious, ready-to-fight look all over him.

Wei Cheng said nothing. He simply went to knock on each cabin door in turn.

Old people always said that if someone knocked three times at night, it was a person. If it was four, it was a ghost.

Four knocks meant the “ghosts” had come.

Hearing movement inside, Wei Cheng broke into a run toward the watchtower. The others quietly opened their doors and moved into position, silent and swift, exactly as they had been trained.

Shen Zheng, who was on watch duty in the tower, heard movement on the ladder and instantly knew something was wrong. But even with his night-vision binoculars, no matter how hard he stared, he could not make out the enemy’s position.

Wei Cheng pushed open the hatch and climbed up, speaking softly to Uncle Shen. “They’re using very professional tactics, and they’ve camouflaged themselves. Right now they’re in the forest five hundred meters from the wall. There are fifty-three of them in total.”

Then he quickly added, “The tower is mine. Uncle Shen, go support the farm. These fifty-odd men are very likely just the first wave.”

Shen Zheng pulled down the night-vision binoculars and cursed through gritted teeth. “Those bastards!”

Then he hurried down the tower and ran toward the farm.

Wei Cheng stood alone atop the dark tower. Every red dot in his sight was slowly approaching. He switched on the walkie-talkie and said calmly, “Everyone, follow my command…”

Meanwhile, halfway up the southeastern slope of Mount Wuqing, dozens of tents had been set up as a temporary camp.

Wu Qiang, captain of Guardwatch Community’s Third Squad, spoke into his radio. “I’ll repeat the battle plan one last time. Wang Hang, you lead your men and set a fire at the main gate to create chaos. Li Xi, your team will be the main assault. You and Ma San will feint in one direction and strike from another, then use grappling hooks to scale the steel wall. Leave one alive if possible. The deputy leader wants to use him to honor his son’s spirit.”

Two loud responses crackled back at him. “Yes, Captain!”

One of the men behind him stepped forward. “Captain, what about us? What are we doing?”

Wu Qiang lit a cigarette and drawled lazily, “What are we doing? Waiting for their good news, of course.”

Then he sneered. “These newcomers are all dreaming of making a name for themselves in one leap now that it’s the apocalypse. Since they want merit, I’ll let them have it.”

The twenty-some men behind him all cheered, “Yes, Captain!”

But the men closest to Wu Qiang knew what he really meant. Let the newcomers have the credit? More like let the newcomers exhaust the enemy’s strength and ammunition first. Their own squad was the true main force.

Blowing out a stream of smoke, Wu Qiang said leisurely, “In twenty minutes, we go down and slaughter the sheep.”

At the farm, time ticked by second by second. Everyone held their breath, waiting for the signal to strike.

“Move!”

Wang Hang’s thirty men split into two smaller groups and ran low toward the section of wall nearest the slope. Li Xi’s twenty men were hidden in the woods on both sides of the road near the farm’s main gate, waiting for Wang Hang’s group to create chaos so they could scale the wall and get inside.

Watching his men draw closer and closer to the farm swallowed in darkness and silence, Wang Hang could not help feeling excited—and careless. He imagined the people inside still sleeping soundly, only to have their heads blown apart by bullets moments later.

He yanked off his grass camouflage cloak and hat, gripped his rifle, and strode toward the farm. Then suddenly he stopped.

The man behind him almost crashed into his back and whispered urgently, “Brother Wang, what is it?”

Wang Hang dropped his gun with a clatter and slowly raised both hands.

The man behind him stared, horrified. “Brother Wang, there’s a red… red…”

A shot rang out, and Wang Hang’s brains and blood splattered all over that man’s face.

His ears instantly filled with a shrill ringing. Before he could recover from the shock, he felt a blade-like force cut toward his forehead—

Those two sudden gunshots threw Guardwatch Community’s entire plan into chaos. None of them even knew who had fired first.

The thirty men assigned to the feint scattered like ants on a hot pan. The wall was too high for them to force their way over immediately, so they turned to retreat, exposing their positions and silhouettes.

At that very moment, gunfire erupted behind them. One after another, their comrades were hit and dropped.

“Run! There’s an ambush on the wall!”

But it was too late. Shen Zheng and Yi Qi, wearing helmets, night-vision goggles, and top-grade bulletproof vests, stood on the ladders with their bodies hidden behind the wall, their rifles blazing as they sprayed bullets into the men below.

The stench of blood filled the air.

Yi Qi wiped the sweat off his face and cursed gleefully as he fired, “This feels amazing!”

Li Xi, lurking by the main gate, had naturally heard the shots. He gritted his teeth. “Charge!”

Around twenty men rushed toward the steel walls to the left and right of the gate. They swung their grappling claws upward, tossing them at the wall. Some failed to catch, but several hooked onto the steel.

Men kept falling, while others scrambled upward like they did not care if they died.

Li Xi was short and wiry, and desperate to make a name for himself. He climbed quickly, and just as he was about to reach the top, a wave of scorching heat slammed into his face.

“Ahhh!”

The men from Guardwatch Community watched in horror as several fireballs tumbled screaming down from the top of the wall.

The raging flames engulfed them almost instantly, burning them alive until they were beyond recognition.

The others turned to flee, but there was nowhere to run. Gunshots cracked in rapid succession, cutting off every path to survival.

Sun Dali finally straightened up from behind the wall and raised the flamethrower, spraying fire toward the attackers. “Come on then! Come at me!”

Some tried to lift their guns, only for a torrent of flame to sweep across them from the side. Screaming, they flailed and lost control of their weapons, sending bullets flying into their own allies…

Director Wang and Su Min fired from both flanks to cover them.

The ground became a hell of flames and bodies. Men fell one after another, while others turned white with terror and made a mad dash for the forest.

Su Min stared through her scope, tense, and bit down hard as she squeezed the trigger. The bullet shot out—

The fleeing man pitched forward and slammed face-first into the ground.

Su Min swallowed hard in excitement. Beside her, Director Wang nodded with a smile. “Good girl. Nicely done.”

Flushing a little, Su Min pressed her lips together, but her small single-lidded eyes gleamed.

Just then, Chengcheng’s voice came over the walkie-talkie. “This wave of hunters is all dead. Another wave is approaching from the rear wall. Everyone fall back under cover and protect yourselves.”

The mention of another enemy force tightened every chest again just as they had begun to relax.

Twenty minutes had passed, and Wu Qiang still had not heard anything from Li Xi or Wang Hang.

Just as he had expected, they had become stepping stones.

Another twenty minutes later, he led his own men into position behind the farm.

His most trusted subordinate came running back from the side of the farm and the direction of the main gate.

Panting hard and visibly shaken, the man said, “Wang Hang’s people are all dead. There are a lot of burnt corpses at the front gate.”

Wu Qiang’s face twitched. “You’re telling me all fifty-some of them died before they even reached the wall?”

“That’s right!”

Wu Qiang ground his teeth. “The people on that farm have been on alert the whole time. Something’s wrong. Very wrong. They’ve got something strange going on. We pull back first—”

He had not even finished speaking when two dazzling searchlights swung toward them.

In an instant, half the sky seemed to light up.

Wu Qiang’s eyelid twitched violently. “Down!”

But again, it was too late. A stream of death screamed toward them.

The flames, the force, the sound like Death itself roaring across the night—

One flaming heavy-caliber round punched through Wu Qiang’s left eye. With his final breath, he ground out the words, “A heavy machine gun… they actually have a heavy machine gun…”

No one could dodge bullets from a heavy machine gun, bullets with a caliber ten times larger than ordinary rifle rounds.

One round did not even hit the man beside him directly. It only grazed his arm, yet half his upper arm exploded away in a spray of blood. He saw his severed hand land on the body of a comrade whose head was half gone…

Dismembered limbs flew. Blood flowed like a river.

The entire battle lasted less than ten minutes before it was over.

Wei Cheng glanced at his bleeding fingers and said softly into the walkie-talkie, “It’s over.”

From inside the farm came the loud laughter and cheers of the uncles.

“Brother?”

Wei Cheng’s ears twitched. He quickly opened the system panel and saw Guanguan standing at the window in his little floral quilt, barefoot, with Gray Cub in his arms.

“Brother…”

On the screen, the chubby child had tears hanging on his face. His cheeks were so round the tears could not even fall properly. He wiped them with Gray Cub and whispered, “Where’s… Baby’s brother…?”

Wei Cheng switched on the system’s audio and smiled. “Brother is right here.”

The moment he heard him, Guanguan dropped Gray Cub, who had been serving as a handkerchief, and looked up sharply, raising both hands high. “Brother, Guanguan will help you beat the bad guys!”

Wing Chun, asked by Guanguan.

Wei Cheng reached out and touched the screen lightly. “The bad guys were beaten away. From now on, we’re living good days. Wait for Brother. Brother will come back and find you right away.”

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