Chapter 102 Ready to Roll
In the world of Wasteland where the quality of life had collapsed, a few sweet oranges were enough to comfort people. Even though nearly half of Zhou Qingfeng’s oranges were ‘robbed’, he was happy to see his teammates’ low morale revitalized.
“Alright, everyone, I think we should think about what to do next.” Zhou Qingfeng gathered his teammates in the mobile command vehicle. They ate oranges while holding their meeting. “Katrina, can you tell me how many people were saved from the subway?”
“There were a total of six hundred seventy-four people. But around a hundred left as they insisted on looking for their family. The people who stayed are mostly weak and have low morale, including the people who lost their hope because of the current situation.”
After they found a place to stay at, Katrina took charge in arranging the survivors. However, the situation looked bad. Butcher said, “We have too many people. They need to feed themselves. We can’t take this burden.”
In the brutal world of Wasteland, they could not feed a bunch of useless people. Zhou Qingfeng nodded his head and said, “Form a search team, give them firearms and ammo. It’d be fine even if only half of them go.”
“Wicked thugs roam everywhere in Manhattan at the moment. If we leave them to search for resources, I’m afraid less than half will come back.” Katrina was not optimistic about it.
Zhou Qingfeng looked at Katrina, turned to Butcher and Mox, then said, “We’ll give them a period of time to adapt and recover. Arrange someone to lead them. Four of us could do it. Who wants to lead the search team?”
Katrina was going to volunteer herself. However, as soon as she raised her hand, Zhou Qingfeng vetoed her, “Not you, you need to follow me to take over the headquarters. The idea of getting there from underground was pretty interesting.”
Only two options were left: Butcher and Mox. Mox was a man of little words and not suitable to be a leader, whereas Butcher was an experienced soldier and therefore a good option.
As everyone looked at Butcher, he accepted the task readily. However, he would not accept without any reward. “I want a bag of oranges. I never thought that an orange will be that delicious. It was like a gift from God.”
Zhou Qingfeng could only roll his eyes at him.
As Butcher led a team to search for resources, Zhou Qingfeng, Katrina and Mox discussed how to get into the NYPD Headquarters. “We can’t get in through the entrances. A lot of snipers have camped around the building. Even though they are very bad, there are quite of them.”
A virtual screen popped out from his armband computer and showed the infrastructure of the buildings around the NYPD Headquarters. All the buildings around had become deadly traps; anyone who got in would be killed.
Zhou Qingfeng swiped and changed the tab to the underground piping network. “According to my data, there’s a massive dugout underneath the headquarters. It was made in the sixties last century and was built to resist the nuclear attack from Russia. The dugout’s strong and sturdy.
“However, the military controlled the facility, so I can’t get the details with public access. The only thing I know is that there’s a massive space underground, and around it was the huge interlacing piping and tunnel system.
“There are sewers, gas pipes, subway tunnels, and so on. Those things are really complicated and I haven’t figured out which direction is the right way. I don’t want to open a tunnel that had fuel gas and kill everyone.”
“I can do it,” the quiet Mox volunteered. “May I borrow your computer?”
Zhou Qingfeng took off his armband computer and gave it to Mox. He asked, “How many days do you need?”
“Twenty-four hours is enough. I’m a combat engineer; this is what I do,” Mox finished talking and started looking at the complicated tunnel system.
“We need some construction equipment.” Zhou Qingfeng turned to Katrina. “Follow me to a fire station nearby. A lot of good stuff is waiting for us.”
Driller, rope, oxygen tanks… all sorts of emergency equipment used in fire brigades were stored in the fire station. Zhou Qingfeng used them for the subway rescue, and he decided to get more things out from it. For instance, the high-pressure water gun could easily cut a metal plate and cement walls. It was handier than a grenade. Other uses like cutting, expanding, and breaking were even more important.
“Oh, right, I need borrow the Walker from Tony Parker.” Zhou Qingfeng had a bad thought.
The Walker was a transportation tool designed by the U.S. military. It was not as intellectual as DogMeat, but it possessed a high loading capacity. It could carry half a ton of resources and follow the class combat team to travel in a complicated war environment.
The Walker can even be armed and equipped with a lightweight cannon. It could run thirty kilometers per hour on the battlefield.
“We’re going to bring a huge amount of equipment underground. We can’t carry all of them. The Walker will be able to help us.” Zhou Qingfeng was thinking of taking and not bothering to return. That would be awesome.
The lucky star Tony Parker was still lying on the bed. There was no any doctor or nurse to look after him, so he could only rely on himself. He would not recover for at least half a week. Hence, whether or not Tony Parker was willing to lend him the Walker, Zhou Qingfeng took it anyway.
As they confirmed their plans, they all began to work. Katrina followed Zhou Qingfeng to the fire station. Both of them were fully armed, covering each other while running across the streets.
“Victor, you’ve changed a lot.” Katrina took the initiative to talk to Zhou Qingfeng as they ran.
The streets of Manhattan were blocked with various trash. Occasionally, they could even see cars burning on the streets. The insurgents in the U.S. liked to play with fire. They liked to burn everything in sight.
Zhou Qingfeng squatted behind a car. He looked around vigilantly and said, “I accidentally took a drug called NTZ-49. It changed me.” He blamed all his changes on the drug.
“NTZ-49?” Katrina stayed silent and listened to Zhou Qingfeng’s story involving the hospital downtown. As she heard that the magical drug gave both positive and negative side effects, she frowned and asked, “If professor Kelvin can’t make the drugs for you in a month, you’ll go crazy?”
“That’s right,” Zhou Qingfeng admitted. “But before I go crazy, I’ll kill Professor Kelvin and his assistants.”