Chapter 211 — Another Zombie Tide
Even in the basement, Luo Xun and the others did not dare to make too much noise. Everyone worked as gently and cautiously as possible to avoid creating any loud sounds.
In truth, the thickness of the metal walls Yan Fei had constructed was quite exaggerated, providing excellent soundproofing; even if someone pounded on one side of a wall, the sound would not travel to the other. Their ability to hear the pebbles falling while eating in the first-floor kitchen earlier was purely because those stones had landed on the thinner metal plating used to shield the solar panels, which made the sound much clearer.
With careful, quiet movements, they filled the soil, layered the compost, and planted the crops. The seeds they had sprouted a few days ago had already grown into seedlings. As the group worked today, everyone felt somewhat anxious, occasionally glancing upward, and two people took turns going upstairs to check on things at regular intervals.
Although they could monitor the area outside the window through the laptop, they could only truly set their minds at ease by visually inspecting the other rooms to ensure no accidents had occurred.
While everyone was being extra cautious, the children in the household were exceptionally quiet as well. After helping the adults for a while, little Xinran went to the room where the baby’s cradle was kept to practice her writing and drawing by his side. The puppy, of course, followed right on the little girl’s heels, staying inside the room obediently.
Fortunately, the baby had always been very quiet. Whether strapped to Luo Xun’s back or placed in his cradle, he only ever whimpered a few times when he had pooped, peed, was thirsty, or was hungry, and he never threw loud tantrums.
It wasn’t until noon, when everyone paused to rest, that Luo Xun and Yan Fei climbed upstairs together to inspect the outside conditions from the various rooms on the third floor. Yan Fei slightly parted a fraction of the metal walls in a few different directions to observe the zombie tide outside.
As far as the eye could see, there were still all kinds of zombies flying in the sky and running on the ground. Fortunately, these zombies were a fair distance away from their new base and showed no signs of threatening their perimeter. Moreover, they did not swarm to attack just because a few zombies that wandered too close to the farmland were caught by the mutated plants, which made the team feel a few degrees safer.
“Let’s head back down for now. Judging by the looks of it, they’ll probably keep marching for a while longer.” Yan Fei completely resealed the newly opened metal wall and gave Luo Xun’s shoulder a gentle, reassuring pat as he wrapped an arm around him.
Luo Xun nodded slightly, and returned to the first-floor kitchen with Yan Fei to eat lunch.
Previously, because they were worried that the passing zombie tide might accidentally destroy the satellite dish mounted on the roof, they had explicitly encased those electronics in metal. At the moment, to avoid drawing the passing zombies’ attention to the apparatus, they couldn’t strip away the metal shielding just yet and had to wait a while longer.
Just as Yan Fei had anticipated, the zombie tide took a full two days to “pass by” the new base before their tracks gradually vanished from the area.
Once the metal shielding covering the receiving dish was removed, He Qiankun and the guys resumed filtering the newly received data. The photos showed that this wave of zombies had indeed marched all the way to the Southwest Base, and once again, had completely surrounded it.
The Southwest Base had long since predicted that this zombie tide would pass near their territory, and they had made preparations and countermeasures well in advance.
They had issued notices early on, forbidding all members from leaving the base past a certain deadline, and had everyone prepare for defense. They had even coordinated the exact defensive rotation order for the various squads by the time the zombie tide arrived.
Regrettably, when the moment of truth arrived, a multitude of unexpected emergencies still threw the base into a state of minor chaos. For instance, due to a lack of sufficient resources within the base, although they could manufacture some weapons and ammunition, the quantity was far from ample. Consequently, the defense inevitably had to rely heavily on the capabilities of the base’s superpower users.
But the issue was that after the regime change at the beginning of the year, to stabilize the internal situation of the base, the new administration had secretly adopted the methods of the previous leadership—deliberately assigning non-compliant squads to deep city zones packed with high-density zombies, which had eliminated quite a few top-tier combatants.
Furthermore, in order to corral as many superpower users as possible under the military’s direct command and thereby stabilize the internal dynamics, they had increased the completion difficulty for independent squad missions, forcing smaller, non-compliant teams to disband. While a portion of the superpower users from these dissolved teams did join larger factions, a significant number refused to participate in those groups. Consequently, before the zombie siege, when the defense sectors were assigned, the notifications were initially dispatched according to the registered squads. Independent superpower users were left completely out of the loop regarding the specific situation, and once the participation numbers from the squads were tallied, the overall count of available superpower users suddenly appeared drastically lower than expected.
Fortunately, because the notice had been given in advance, the structural data for the primary defense of the walls was quickly tallied, allowing the higher-ups to detect the issue in time. They could only hurriedly blast messages to the ordinary residents of the base, recruiting hands using crystals as compensation—after every zombie tide, the base would first dispatch military personnel to harvest the crystals scattered near the perimeter. Only when the area was completely cleared would ordinary citizens be permitted to head out for missions.
A portion of these harvested crystals would naturally be distributed to the various participating factions as compensation, while the rest was entirely requisitioned by the public funds, to be distributed only when absolutely necessary.
Finally, there were certain dynamics within the base that the newly appointed management had completely failed to anticipate. They had initially assumed that replacing personnel from top to bottom would cause the base to develop exactly according to their expectations. For example, they had overlooked the sheer work-to-rule, passive-aggressive slacking of the staff in the public-facing administrative departments.
Back then, they arrogantly assumed that by driving out that batch of parasites, the newly installed staff would all be diligent and responsible. However, they had neglected a fundamental aspect—domestic society had always been deeply rooted in personal connections and relationships. No matter who it was, once they secured a bit of status and a decent position, they would inevitably, whether actively or passively, help the people around them.
Some instances were driven by personal favors, while others involved people pulling strings and offering gifts. Accepting bribes left them compromised, and since their current employment wasn’t as lucrative as anticipated—combined with the total lack of objective oversight measures from above—it was incredibly easy for these individuals to just go with the flow and blend into the corrupt status quo.
All of these compounding factors meant that the preparations before this zombie siege appeared thoroughly inadequate across all sectors. Had they not been granted a substantial window of time, this defense would have encountered catastrophic failures. Fortunately, their timeline was still sufficient—enough to allow them to detect the danger, identify the flaws, alter their operations, and adjust their strategies.
The moment the first zombie flew over the base’s airspace, the battle of the zombie siege erupted once more.
The satellite photos displayed a dense, teeming mass of dark figures, tightly surrounding a sizeable base—this was the Southwest Base, currently locked in the throes of the zombie tide.
Luo Xun studied the images meticulously. After confirming that no further zombies from the distant perimeter were converging toward the Southwest Base or their own home, he said, “Our side is temporarily safe. Why don’t we observe from inside the base for a few days before heading out?”
The others nodded in succession to voice their support. Although the zombies were currently concentrated around the Southwest Base, heaven only knew if they would suddenly alter their path if the siege reached a prolonged stalemate.
Zhang Su, however, suddenly spoke up. “I think it’s better if we just head out to find supplies over the next few days. We should hit those wholesale markets, warehouses, and transit hubs first. Otherwise, once the zombie tide recedes, the people from the base are bound to swarm out to scavenge resources. Running into them then will just be a hassle.”
The group froze for a second, their eyes lighting up simultaneously as they turned to look at Luo Xun.
Luo Xun caught Zhang Su’s drift. Knitting his brows in deep thought for a moment, he finally made the call. “You have a point. Certain resources are first come, first served. Right now, we have no way of confirming whether those locations still hold the supplies we need anyway. If we don’t exploit these few days to check them out, we’re bound to run into complications if we cross paths with other scavengers later.”
Zhang Su’s analysis was entirely correct. They could evaluate safe and perilous sectors through satellite photos, and the main base could do the exact same thing; moreover, the base possessed far more hands and significantly stronger squad capabilities. Therefore, when they went out to scavenge resources, it was a matter of time before they crossed paths with other survivor teams. If they didn’t seize the current window to complete a sweeping run, heaven only knew if even the crumbs would be left for them by the time their turn came around. There were no fools in this world, only the difference between those who acted fast and those who acted slow.
After discussing the matter, the group decided to head out first thing the next morning. This trip’s destination—a massive cluster of industrial warehouses and transit hubs for commercial enterprises they had located on the map previously. Even better, situated right near that area was one of the primary regional distribution hubs for a major pre-apocalyptic logistics corporation inside City A.
Early the next morning, after checking the satellite photos transmitted back one final time, Luo Xun and the team decided to set out. They might encounter a few straggler zombies along the way, but compared to a full-scale zombie tide, these loose strays were truly insignificant.
The target location was a considerable distance from their new base. Combined with the heavily fractured road surfaces, sitting inside the vehicles felt exactly like being strapped into a thrilling amusement park ride, jolting and bumping from start to finish. Unfortunately, poor little Xinran ended up throwing up midway through from the motion sickness. While they pulled the trucks over to let the child rest, Luo Xun hurriedly checked on the baby’s condition in the back bed. To his surprise, the child was staring with wide eyes like dark grapes, happily babbling and flailing his soft little arms, appearing exceptionally energetic.
Could it be that he actually enjoyed this jolting sensation?
Luo Xun and Yan Fei exchanged a speechless glance, then looked at the cradle he had been sleeping in… Perhaps it was precisely because the baby slept inside a suspended cradle that the vehicle’s severe jolting felt more like being cradled and rocked around playfully in someone’s arms, meaning he didn’t feel a shred of discomfort.
“Are you feeling a bit better?” Song Lingling poured fresh water into a cup and handed it to Xu Mei, who used her fire ability to warm the cup before passing it to little Xinran to rinse her mouth.
The little girl spat twice, her face somewhat pale as she nodded. “I’m okay now.”
But looking at her completely stark white face, the group felt the child was merely putting on a brave front, and they all turned to look at Yan Fei and Luo Xun as they climbed down from the truck holding the exceptionally thrilled baby.
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