After a few minutes, Luo Yuan had arrived at the military base, atop his lizard.
As their return had long been informed, the surrounding army patrol showed no sign of unease, but from time to time, the soldier would stare towards their direction, keeping vigil.
The lieutenant picked up the walkie-talkie and started to establish contact.
A moment later, two heavy cranes towing an empty container each, appeared from the military base, followed by an SUV. The containers were set down, and behind it were seven to eight engineers donning safety helmets, alighting the SUV. One of them walked towards Luo Yuan.
Luo Yuan pacified the stressed lizard as he dismounted. He briskly walked a few steps forward to greet the engineer.
They shook hands, but the latter’s eyes secretly darted towards the lizard nearby, who was emitting a rather intimidating aura. He could not resist but to gulp, forcibly calming himself and said, “Hello, hello, your beast is too large to fit into our standard containers. We must now measure its size and make the necessary adjustments to our container. Taking into account the beast's temperament, as well as the possibility of danger, we would have to sedate it first."
His demeanor did not bear any authoritative military disposition, but instead behaved meekly, akin to a technical staff of a factory workshop. This must mean he could have only been recently enlisted into the service.
“No problem, sorry to trouble you,” Luo Yuan said politely.
“No, it’s no trouble at all,” the polite man waved it off, while opening a small tool box that was in his hand. Inside, laid a large syringe with a needle, and an electric drill. "This is a specially formulated sedative with a very strong effect. Even a level five mutated beast would normally be sedated for five to six hours. However, if the sedative was used for the second time, the period of its effect would be reduced progressively, after all, a mutated beast's resistance towards drugs is far too strong.”
He passed a syringe needle as thick as an arm to Luo Yuan. Inside the syringe, was a light blue liquid.
As Luo Yuan received the syringe, he took a look at it, and skeptically asked, "Is one needle enough?"
“In general, one shot is enough," the military engineer said confidently. "But it would be difficult to inject the needle through its thick skin. Normally we must use the electric drill to penetrate it with a fresh hole.”
“No, the electric drill is not necessary.” Luo Yuan rejected immediately. He took the syringe needle, and skeptically walked towards the giant lizard. It had a lot of wounds, some of them were fresh, and parts of its body were still oozing with fresh blood. So there was no point in making another open wound.
Luo Yuan was worried that being too near the head would affect the future intelligence of the giant lizard, thus he chose a safer spot near the hip area, and injected without hesitation, gently pushing the liquid into its body.
To the giant lizard, the sensation was akin to just an itch. It only gave a puzzled look at Luo Yuan before ignoring him. But very soon, it began to feel uneasy. Its body was starting to feel numb, and it was gradually losing its strength.
After a minute, its body suddenly became weak and fell heavily onto its knees to the ground.
It wailed incessantly, and struggled to stand up; its eyes looking up at Luo Yuan’s.
The soldier nearby started to retreat slowly, in order to avoid any imminent outburst.
Unable to figure out why, when Luo Yuan looked into the eyes of the giant lizard, he felt uncomfortable. He went over and stroked the giant lizard's head, and continued to pacify it.
Under Luo Yuan's reassurance, the giant lizard's uneasiness gradually died down, and very soon, his eyelids grew heavier and heavier. As minutes passed, it drifted off into a deep sleep.
The group wiped off their cold sweat, and waited until the sedative unleashed its full potential, so that the giant lizard was no longer prone to react dangerously to the external environment. Afterwards, a few men began to measure the size of the lizard meticulously.
After measurements were made, an empty container was cut open with flames, and necessary modifications soon ensued.
Two hours had already passed when everything was ready.
The container was evidently one size larger after the modification, the walls had also become two layers thicker. The container looked extremely solid, obviously with the intent of preventing the giant lizard from causing damages after it awakened.
The unconscious giant lizard was carried by the crane into the container, and was welded shut, leaving a gap the size of a basketball, on the outside.
“Is this for breathing?” Luo Yuan pointed to the hole and asked. He had been observing the scene.
“This is to connect the cooling tube. When the temperature decreases to a certain degree, your battle beast would enter a state of drowsiness as its metabolism rate will decrease to its lowest. The air in the container is more than enough for the beast in its current condition, thus, there is no need to leave any air holes.”
“Don’t worry; the beast viability is much stronger than you think. We are very experienced in this, nothing will go wrong.” a middle-aged military engineer said with an assuring smile, as he sensed Luo Yuan's concern.
After listening to him, Luo Yuan finally calmed down.
The time had just clocked in at 7.30pm when the speaker at the military base suddenly blared, “All the soldiers and survivors, come to the boarding hall immediately, the transport planes are about to take off……”
The survivors had already received the news earlier, and after hearing the orders to assemble, they suddenly poured out of the sleeping quarters, with a look of excitement and ecstasy. Some of them were even shouting like madmen.
Luo Yuan and his company, were already standing by the door.
“Have you remembered to bring everything? Did you leave anything behind?” Luo Yuan asked.
“We have already double-checked a few times,” Huang Jiahui said, her face was filled with excitement.
Not only Huang Jiahui, but all of their faces lit up with excitement, their eyes were shining brightly, the kind of brightness that resonated with hope.
It was at this time that one started to realize how precious life was before the apocalypse. Although the condition in the reconstruction area was not ideal, and may not even have enough for any provisions, but solely for the safety of the environment, it very much won over the other factors.
“Then, let’s move out!” said Luo Yuan.
Luo Yuan and company followed the crowd to the boarding hall; soldiers were already there helping to maintain law and order.
The huge transport planes, as large as the beast were arranged in two columns. Under the light, the dark gray metal was tinted with the colour of the dark, cold light. The runway in front of the boarding hall had long been lit with two rows of lights, extending to a few kilometers away, and was particularly visible under the dark night of the apocalypse.
“In order to ensure the safety of the transport planes, all guns and weapons must be handed over before boarding. Those who are found smuggling arson would be expelled from the military base," a captain officer said sternly.
No one had questioned the order, thus everyone silently handed over their weapons to the soldiers. Several survivors were found to have hidden their weapons, and were caught by the soldiers. With faces full of fear, they repeatedly pleaded; some were even kneeling, begging for mercy. But it was futile to beg the soldiers, as no matter how much they struggled or resisted, one by one, all of them were pushed into the armored vehicles and were escorted out of the military base. One of them even attempted to fight back, but was instead shot dead on the spot and haphazardly tossed outside.
Heavy penalties were deployed during turbulent times, not to mention that this was a military base.
Everyone was shocked by the scenario. For some of the survivors that had ulterior motives, they no longer wanted to push their luck. They readily surrendered all their weapons, and even small pocket-daggers were handed over.
Just when Luo Yuan had considered looking for an acquaintance to assist him, a soldier came over and said, “You and your company, come with me."
“Hey Brother Luo. Here, you will be boarding this one.” Before managing to even take a few steps, Commander Xia was seen walking over and greeted them.