Chapter 107 — Troubles Within and Without
Because the incident happened far away from the Southwest Base, and the military used special roads when mobilizing troops, most people inside the base did not notice anything unusual—many were completely unaware of the event. It was only the next day, when Luo Xun and the others arrived at the military camp, that they received definite news.
Captain Guo looked unusually serious as he spoke to them.
“Today we’re temporarily reassigned to the outer wall. The higher-ups have ordered us to deepen the metal foundation as much as possible.”
He then explained, “Last night we received news that something happened at the Eastern Base. It’s said the base there has already been breached.”
Because of this, the higher authorities had urgently redeployed metal-type ability users to strengthen the foundations of the outer walls. After all, if zombie animals like the burrowing zombie rats appeared again, the outer base walls might be in serious danger.
Everyone’s expressions became solemn. No one spoke further as they hurriedly climbed onto the trucks with the rest of the team and headed toward the outer wall.
Inside the truck bed, someone finally asked Captain Guo about the situation.
“Captain, what’s happening at the Eastern Base now?”
Captain Guo shook his head.
“The situation isn’t good. I heard the main gate of the base has already been broken… Early this morning several helicopters were dispatched there. How many people they can rescue will depend on the circumstances.”
Even he did not know the exact details. What he did know was that the outer wall of the Eastern Base had already become useless. In addition, people inside the base had suddenly begun turning into zombies. With enemies both inside and outside, all the surviving forces had been forced into the final defensive fortifications.
Looking at it this way, having a fortress-like military camp inside the base was indeed absolutely necessary.
Before long, the trucks arrived near the outer wall, and Yan Fei and the others began their work for the day.
Their task was to deepen the metal walls directly. As before, Yan Fei first explored and figured out the method and technique. Then the four metal-type ability users began working.
A crane followed nearby, lifting a large pile of metal materials and waiting on standby. Luo Xun and the others were responsible for protecting the ability users, preventing possible attacks from below the wall.
However, that possibility had now become even smaller.
Outside the tall wall lay a newly dug moat about five meters wide. Beyond the moat stood a newly constructed earthen wall. Outside that were fences hastily built overnight using wooden spikes and bamboo poles, forming the first defensive barrier.
Although the outermost fence would not actually stop zombies, it could delay them for a short time and give the defending soldiers time to react.
The huge iron gate faced a drawbridge over the moat. In an emergency, the bridge could be raised immediately, completely isolating the base from the outside world.
At the moment, the two watchtowers connected to the base by drawbridges on the opposite side of the moat were carefully monitoring the surroundings.
Ordinary soldiers and survivors did not know it, but the leaders of the base were very aware of one fact.
During the previous large-scale purge of zombies in the city, there had already been an aircraft accident. If the situation had not been so urgent this time, they would never have deployed the few remaining helicopters in the base.
And if these helicopters were lost as well…
Then there would be no retreat left—they would have no choice but to fight to the death.
After lunch, under the increasingly scorching sun, Yan Fei and the others climbed the wall again and continued working.
The foundation of the outer wall had originally been about three meters deep. For safety reasons, they now needed to increase it to five meters.
If time allowed, ten meters would naturally be even better. But that would interfere with systems such as water supply and sewage lines. They had to wait for the base’s construction experts to provide a solution before making further changes.
At around two in the afternoon, Luo Xun suddenly narrowed his eyes and pointed into the distance.
“An airplane?” he asked uncertainly.
In the northeastern sky, several small black dots were flying toward them. Everyone who had been working stopped and looked up.
Soon the rumbling sound of engines became clearer. The dots grew larger.
Helicopters.
“They’re coming from the Eastern Base, right?” Luo Xun said, not entirely sure.
In his previous life, when the Eastern Base fell, he had happened to be on a mission inside the city with another team. Later he heard that helicopters had been sent out and some people were rescued, but he did not know the details.
Under everyone’s gaze, the helicopters flew directly over the wall and entered the base. People still inside the base during the daytime also noticed them and stopped their work, pointing and discussing excitedly.
The Eastern Base was different from the smaller bases that had fallen before. In many ways, it was just like the Southwest Base—a landmark stronghold since the apocalypse and one of the few places survivors believed to be absolutely safe.
If people learned that the Eastern Base had been destroyed, no one could predict what kind of reaction it would cause.
If a base began to collapse internally—if panic spread among its people—how could it possibly endure? Under such pressure, some people might even do dangerous things.
However, the base overlooked one important possibility.
Before this, rumors had already circulated about a coming zombie siege and the possible fall of the Eastern Base.
When people saw the helicopters landing at the military camp’s helipad, those who remembered the rumor and could count the dates quickly brought it up again.
As a result, even before the military made any official announcement, news of the Eastern Base’s fall had already spread throughout the entire base.
Many people began desperately contacting their relatives and friends. Some who had planned to leave the base for missions canceled their plans. Others kept sending messages to loved ones outside, hoping to call them back.
Still more people started reinforcing their doors and windows, afraid someone might take advantage of the chaos to rob their homes.
When Luo Xun and the others finished work that afternoon and headed home, they saw several people on the roadside arguing fiercely over a broken wooden plank. Their eyes were bloodshot, and none of them were willing to give way.
Elsewhere, some people even fought violently over a few sturdy metal plates, beating each other until their heads bled without backing down.
Early the next morning, the news of the Eastern Base’s fall was officially announced.
Not long afterward, several trucks carrying survivors slowly arrived at the gate, and helicopters returned again.
After that, private vehicles gradually appeared at the base entrance. These belonged to survivors who had forced their way out of the Eastern Base on their own. The people rescued earlier by helicopter and military trucks were mostly leaders, technical personnel, and military staff from the Eastern Base.
The Southwest Base became extremely tense once again.
Everyone feared that zombies might be following those survivors and could appear at any moment.
Inside the fortress-like military camp of the Southwest Base, a meeting was being held.
They were discussing with the refugees from the Eastern Base—
How exactly had the Eastern Base fallen?
The leaders of the Eastern Base looked miserable and exhausted. When asked this question, they themselves seemed completely confused.
Their expressions were as ugly as possible.
“From the moment the incident started until now, we still don’t understand what happened!” one of them said bitterly. “First we suddenly heard reports that many people inside the base had turned into zombies and were killing people in the streets. Then almost immediately afterward, we heard that zombies had appeared at the city gate and were already attacking people there! They didn’t even have time to close the gate!”
The people from the Southwest Base exchanged surprised looks. One of them asked, “Were there any witnesses at the scene?”
A leader from the Eastern Base slammed the table angrily. “Everyone at the scene died on the spot! By the time we received the news, the zombies had already reached the gates of the command center!”
“If we don’t figure out the cause, sooner or later the same thing will happen here! Where would we run then? Even if we wanted to flee to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, we’d need enough gasoline—and we’d have to survive long enough to escape!”
As one side pounded the table, the leaders from the Southwest Base also began slamming theirs in response.
In terms of official rank, the Eastern Base leaders were generally more than one level higher than those of the Southwest Base. Fortunately, before the apocalypse, the two sides belonged to entirely different systems and rarely interacted beyond nodding acquaintances. That was why, after the apocalypse, they had each managed their own affairs independently while still sharing information when necessary.
But now that they were face to face, if the Eastern Base leaders tried to use their former status to suppress others, the Southwest Base leaders were not afraid. In times like these, who feared whom? Slamming tables? They had plenty of strength too.
“You! This is outrageous!” the Eastern leaders snapped.
They knew very well that they were now on someone else’s territory. Before the apocalypse, how would anyone have dared interrogate them like suspects? But times had changed. Their own base had already fallen.
After the apocalypse, due to broken transportation, communication disruptions, and heavy casualties, large and small bases were like independent warlords or feudal states, each ruling itself. Previously, the Eastern Base had led both itself and the Southwest Base in major decisions. But now, a fallen phoenix was worse than a chicken. They had no choice but to swallow their pride for the time being.
The meeting dragged on for most of the day without any conclusion. The Southwest Base staff questioned nearly every refugee from the Eastern Base but still failed to identify the cause. They could only continue strengthening and tightly controlling all potential weak points.
This tense standoff lasted more than ten days.
Just when people in the Southwest Base began to wonder whether the zombies had eaten enough survivors in the Eastern Base and temporarily had no appetite left for them—just when they started to believe the zombies might not come after all—a red-marked urgent lab report was placed on the leaders’ desks.
“The water source… the virus concentration in the water has suddenly increased?!”
The leaders’ expressions changed immediately; their eyes widened in shock.
“What’s going on?”
“How could it suddenly rise?”
“Was anything found in the water?!”
The lab technician shook his head gloomily. “The contamination increased suddenly. As soon as we discovered the issue, we cut off the water supply. But how should we handle it now? If we can’t resolve the water contamination quickly, survivors who have consumed the polluted water may suddenly mutate into zombies…”
“Suddenly turn into zombies?!”
“The Eastern Base! The Eastern Base!!”
Since the previous incident when survivors inside the base had mutated into zombies due to food safety problems, the Southwest Base had strictly controlled water safety. Only one pipeline from the original municipal water system remained connected to the base.
To strengthen management, the military had built a purification pool. All incoming water underwent secondary disinfection, sedimentation, and inspection before being allowed into the base.
As a result, water pressure inside the city had decreased, but outages had been rare.
But now…
“Immediately suspend the entire city’s water supply until the problem is identified. Mobilize all water-type ability users previously recruited and have them replenish the backup reservoirs!” one leader ordered at once.
Another stood up. “I’ll go ask the people from the Eastern Base whether they experienced similar problems before zombies appeared inside their city.”
The answer was chilling.
The Eastern Base had never experienced survivor mutations due to improperly treated drinking water before. Therefore, they had never invested the effort to build a comprehensive purification system like the Southwest Base—even though the Southwest Base had previously warned them about the possibility. They had dismissed it as unnecessary trouble.
The high-ranking officials who managed to escape had always used specially supplied water—since the twice-treated tap water had an unpleasant taste, they preferred water provided by ability users. To this day, they didn’t even know whether the drinking water inside the Eastern Base had been contaminated before the city fell.
Most survivors never went through the full purification process of letting water settle, adding purification tablets, and even distilling it. The procedure was too troublesome. Only a handful of people persisted in completing all the steps before drinking.
Most households simply boiled the water a little longer—sometimes even boiling it two or three times—and considered that sufficient. If such water entered the base’s supply system, the consequences were obvious.
Now, the main cause of the Eastern Base’s destruction had been identified.
External threats were not the most frightening. What was truly terrifying was when internal problems erupted at the same time as outside danger.
“Quick! Lock down the gates! No one is to be admitted without thorough investigation! Everyone must undergo inspection before entering the city. Only when a certain number of people have gathered can the gate be opened at once!”
They suddenly recalled how the Eastern Base had fallen—while survivors inside were mutating on a large scale, chaos had erupted at the gate almost simultaneously.
Once the news spread, the entire city went into lockdown.
Those preparing to leave for missions were forcibly stopped. The gates were completely shut. Entry regulations were revised: instead of registering and entering first for inspection, people now had to be inspected before being allowed inside. Only when enough people accumulated would the small gate open once.
Vehicle inspections also became far more detailed.
The metal wall construction team had nearly completed the deepening of the foundation. They had circled the entire base and returned near the main gate, with only a final section remaining.
Hearing noisy commotion from inside the gate, members of the team glanced over curiously. It appeared that people waiting to form teams for missions were arguing with military personnel.
“What’s happening?” Luo Xun muttered, stretching his neck to look.
Captain Guo, bored at the moment, adjusted his cap. “I’ll go take a look. You keep working! We’re almost finished!” He jogged down from the wall.
Luo Xun silently mocked him for being so curious and continued stacking metal beside Yan Fei.
Before long, the wall project finally reached completion. Just before Captain Guo returned, cheers erupted from atop the wall.
Finished at last!
Captain Guo ran back up, smiling. “All done?”
“Of course. Much faster than last time.”
Though no one could see the deepened foundation underground, it was still quicker than previous major projects.
“Captain, what happened at the gate?” a soldier asked.
“That?” Captain Guo glanced toward the gate, where the noise had subsided though no one had left. “The city’s under lockdown.”
“Lockdown?! Did something happen?!” Everyone was startled.
“It’s not clear yet. We only know the water supply has been temporarily suspended, and the gate is closed. For now, entry is allowed but exit is forbidden. Even those entering must undergo inspection first, and the gate will open only after enough people gather.”
They exchanged uneasy glances. Some quick-thinking members had already turned pale. They were all thinking the same thing—the crisis that had destroyed the Eastern Base might soon unfold here as well.
Since there were no further instructions, the team finished early and returned to the base.
Before dismissing them, Captain Guo told Luo Xun and Yan Fei specifically, “Keep your phones on and stay reachable. If anything happens, the military will send messages. I’ll contact you too.”
They nodded and headed to their vehicle. Luo Xun quickly sent messages to Li Tie and the others.
Soon a reply came. Their information was similar—water had been cut off and the gate sealed. However, their superiors had hinted that the Southwest Base might indeed be facing a serious crisis.
With no additional details, Luo Xun and Yan Fei returned home.
Xu Mei and Song Lingling told them, “The broadcast just announced there’s a problem with the water supply system. Water will be suspended temporarily. Households with water-type ability users should rely on them for now. The base is also summoning water-type ability users.”
Luo Xun glanced at Song Lingling.
She immediately shook her head. “I’m not going. With all of us here and these crops to manage, I’m barely managing as it is. If I go out to provide water for others, my mental energy won’t hold up.”
Their household water depended partly on Luo Xun’s distillation equipment and partly on Song Lingling’s ability to generate clean water. The base’s water pressure had already been low for some time. Distilled water alone could not support both floors of their building. Now, they would rely entirely on Song Lingling.
Luo Xun knew that after the apocalypse, water and power outages were common. In his previous life, such problems had occurred frequently. That was why he had prepared so many containers before the apocalypse.
But now their expanded planting area consumed water faster than they could store it.
“Once we’ve secured enough drinking water, everyone should use it sparingly. The priority is ensuring the vegetables and grain don’t dry out,” Luo Xun instructed. “Over the next few days, keep listening to the radio. Be extra cautious when going outside.”
The zombie siege might arrive within days.
At the city gate, as late August approached, night fell very late. In the dusk, soldiers standing guard in the watchtowers outside the moat vigilantly observed the surroundings.
For safety reasons, all buildings close to the base had already been demolished. The land facing away from the city had been leveled and organized, intended to be used as farmland.
Although crops grown outside the base would have a much higher mutation rate, the land inside the base could never possibly support the entire population. Even if zombies occasionally wandered into the fields and contaminated the harvest, it was still better than having no food at all.
Of course, for safety reasons the farmland was located in the direction opposite the city to reduce the chance of zombies passing through.
“What’s that over there?” one soldier suddenly raised his hand and pointed toward a certain direction. On a distant road, several vague black shapes had appeared.
Another soldier quickly lifted his binoculars and looked carefully. “They’re wearing hats—I can’t see clearly… wait, something’s wrong with the way they’re walking.”
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