Chapter 177: At the Other Site
Zhang Xiao Qiang turned and saw Yang Ke'er giggling and felt depressed. I was just taking a dump, how did I turn into a zombie? Even if I'm not the best looking chap or an outstanding person, I still look good, how can you treat me as a zombie? What kind of eyes do you guys have, I shouldn't have fired off the warning shot and just fired at their heads.
"How much further?"
"Once you turn around that mountain and drive another 2km, you'll reach." Zhang Xiao Qiang sat in the Rover that was in the lead, in front of him in the front passenger seat was a 20 years old young man who reported and navigated the journey, Yang Ke'er sat beside Zhang Xiao Qiang, asleep and Shangguan Qiao Yun sat on the other side. Behind them were three other off-road vehicles all filled with fully armed Combat Team Members. At the last was a six-wheel dump truck filled with rice and clothes. When Zhang Xiao Qiang found out about the 200 odd people living near him, he immediately thought of bringing them under him. He had guns and mortars, rice and water, so he did not think much about them not submitting to him.
Zhang Xiao Qiang coveted the construction workers, they were all young and strong labor. They had struggled for half a year in the apocalypse and had sharpened their courage and staunchness to look for food and kill zombies in the wilderness. They had taken the initiative to kill Zhang Xiao Qiang in the previous night which proved that they were qualified soldiers. Zhang Xiao Qiang's own combat team still had lingering fears in their hearts against the walking corpses despite holding bayonets and rifles, but these men held onto ugly and sharpened reinforced steel bars and were willing to risk their lives. To him, they were definitely far stronger than Brother Long's subordinates. At that time, when Brother Long talked about risking their lives, it was in fact merely stealing chicken and seeing that the situation was unfavorable, they turned tail and ran. They would never fight to the death, thus there was such a person as the unfortunate man who was shot to death by Zhang Xiao Qiang.
What Zhang Xiao Qiang required the most of them was not their fighting capabilities but their techniques. They were lacking in materials and manpower was starting to become deficient, that was why Old Frank had a change in personality. What was worse was that no one knew techniques for construction and engineering, only a few of them had laid bricks to make walls before for ordinary housing courtyard perimeters. With them as the backbone, the perimeter wall built was completely based on imitation. To suddenly have men with the techniques and skills required, handing the task over to them would produce a far stronger work than their current handlers.
After going around the mountain, they saw a cluster of messy temporary shelters built roughly a kilometer ahead of them. All of these temporary shelters were at the foot of a small hill with the vegetation chopped down cleanly. A few sections of the land had pits all around, most probably tree roots dug up for firewood. Following downwards, they could see a narrow split at the lower part of the mountain which gradually expanded where at the end, small vehicles could move in and out. All of the temporary shelters were built around the opening at the foot of the mountain. From a distance, they could see that two men held onto pikes and guarded the opening through binoculars. Not any person holding onto utensils or water could enter, everyone had to give something to the guards to enter the place.
Zhang Xiao Qiang lowered his binoculars and waved his hands. The few off-road vehicles overtook his Land Rover, one of them was a Beijing Jeep that had no roof. Instead, it was equipped with a heavy machine gun above. The long body of the weapon was wrapped with glistening gold bullets loaded on a bandolier, the muzzle of the weapon pointed to the front as though it could spew flames of death at any time.
Before the small team of vehicles soaring with killing intent had advanced a kilometer, the temporary shelter beneath the mountain erupted like a pail of cold water dowsing a bucket of hot oil, the men howled and shouted out loud and the women screamed as countless of figures moved all over the camp. The sound of metal pounding came out and as it intensified, the people became even more chaotic. Many of them were like headless flies running onto the temporary shelters by the side of the roads, some falling along with the shelters. There were some shelters that had fires for cooking that had not been put out and because of the owner's panic, the flames dropped onto combustible items and set the entire temporary shelter ablaze. Dense black smoke brought the chaos to a new high…..Zhang Xiao Qiang saw the unrest through the binoculars, his men had not even reached the camp and wandered around 200m away and maintained deterrence, but the people from the camp were like the ordinary citizens in history movies that fled when their cities were destroyed. What's going on, my men have not even released a fart, much less fired a bullet, why are the people so afraid to that degree?
The young man seated in front saw Zhang Xiao Qiang questioning himself doubtfully. The composition and groups of the people in the camp were already very complicated. After the big fire, everyone started to huddle in their own groups, but not one powerful figure came out to gather the entire camp. Even the foragers huddled together with the other foragers, much less being able to do something together….Zhang Xiao Qiang's Land Rover gradually got closer to the camp. The off-road vehicles that were patrolling around the camp cautiously started to gather back behind the Land Rover. The Jeep with the heavy machine gun mounted at its top drove beside the Land Rover, the machine gunner constantly aiming the black muzzle at the camp as though he would fire at any slight problems. By his side, a lady dressed in military uniform, equipped with a leather belt, holster, and M1 Helmet sat at the front passenger seat with her legs on an ammunition trunk. Her face was filled with disdain, seeing the chaotic people inside the camp, her eyes were filled with ridicule. Including her, the other two ladies were handpicked by Zhang Xiao Qiang to join the Combat Team, adding the previous two policewomen, Zhang Xiao Qiang's Combat Team now comprised of 5 women. The three of them were the machine gunner assistants from the battle against the D2, their performances gained Zhang Xiao Qiang's recognition and were converted from temporary members to true members of Zhang Xiao Qiang's team. Zhang Xiao Qiang had equipped them with the standard equipment the Combat Team had, just that their M1 Garand Rifles were swapped for Type 77 pistols, the three machine gun teams and two mortar team members were all equipped with Type 77 pistols, which were considered unique equipment for Zhang Xiao Qiang's main force.
Zhang Xiao Qiang did not rashly drive the vehicle in, he allowed the young captive to go ahead and negotiate with the camp people while he sat inside the car and smoked leisurely. Yang Ke'er disliked the smell and got off the car, Shangguan Qiao Yun had become Yang Ke'er's aide-de-camp and followed her everywhere she went, which to her was a small revenge towards Zhang Xiao Qiang for ignoring her. "You want to ignore me? Then I'll ignore you, humph!"
Following Yang Ke'er's action, the other people got off their vehicles. Some smoked at the side while some stood with their companions, looking and pointing at the chaos in the camp and laughed away. Some even leaned against the vehicles and suntanned with their weapons. Zhang Xiao Qiang carefully sized up the situation and quickly realized that everyone was looking towards a single direction of the camp, yet no one cared about their backs. None of them had even turned to look at their rear direction. "AMATEURS…..they are a fucking bunch of amateurs!" Zhang Xiao Qiang was furious, but he knew that none of them had served the army before. He himself never served the army, so the military ranks and procession were completely out of his mind. Zhang Xiao Qiang's team were far from elites, the only amazing thing about them was that they were a group of bandits unafraid of death. Upon thinking that he was the head of the bandits, Zhang Xiao Qiang felt slightly depressed. He had three bodyguards that had served the army before, but he did not wish to promote them so easily, their base was not stable yet, he did not wish to have an increase in uncertain elements.