Chapter 90 Back from Hell
Katrina's words served as a huge reminder for Zhou Qingfeng: He finally realized that he could choose to go underground to occupy the NYPD headquarters.
In the last century, during the hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union, every major city built themselves special air-raid shelters. Therefore, it was a given that they would have a large number of facilities for the air-defence underground.
The underground area of Manhattan had long been dug up by the people of the United States and there was a variety of intricate tunnels. Therefore, it was also a given that as one of the most important municipal facilities in the city, the NYPD headquarters would have a special underground tunnel.
Zhou Qingfeng searched in his armband computer for information about the underground pipelines in Manhattan and found out that the land beneath the island had been dug numerous times since the 1920s. He might be able to find himself a way to access the NYPD headquarters.
However, he would first need to rescue Katrina and the others. Zhou Qingfeng re-armed himself with a variety of firearms and ammunition. He even brought a SCAR rifle and USP pistol along, but he changed his previous shotgun to a grenade launcher and loaded it with tear-gas bombs.
As for Jenny, leaving her alone would be too dangerous. Zhou Qingfeng could only equip her with a shotgun and brought her with him. After they finished eating breakfast, the two of them carried their backpacks as they began their journey to save their companions.
Over the past few days, Zhou Qingfeng felt that he was still able to live on in the current world. The world appeared peaceful from a distance, but, it did not take too long for him to realize that the world was deteriorating at an unbelievable rate.
Many people were running around in the streets. When they saw Zhou Qingfeng and Jenny carrying big backpacks, they stared at them greedily.
Zhou Qingfeng did not try to leave to avoid getting into trouble when he saw these troublesome people. In order to save the world from deterioration, he shot anyone who dared to stare at him. He treated it like one of his firearms practice sessions.
They reached the subway station near Town Hall by foot. Zhou Qingfeng wondered what kind of people Tony Parker had actually provoked after he saw the collapsed entrance. The entire entrance was blown up and without dedicated construction machinery and professional workers, there was no way they could clear the obstacles blocking the entrance.
Therefore, Zhou Qingfeng could only look for other entrances, for example, the other entrance of the subway that was located just beside them. However, before walking into the subway, a strong smell was coming from the inside. A wave of nausea engulfed Zhou Qingfeng and Jenny even vomited on the spot.
How many people actually died in the subway?
Zhou Qingfeng took out two gas masks. After wearing his own gas mask, he gave the other one to Jenny. He then began to walk into the subway with a flashlight in his hand.
New York's subway was built more than a hundred years ago, hence, its underground network was extremely complicated and old-fashioned. You heard it right, it was old-fashioned! There was no elevator, only escalators; there were no electronic signs, only radio. There were also no convenience stores and WIFI signal in the subway.
It was seventy to eighty years ago when the Americans engaged vigorously in the construction of their infrastructure. They were already running out of money when they wanted to renovate their infrastructure. Thus, one should not be too surprised when he or she traveled to New York and saw their subway!
Zhou Qingfeng felt lucky that he had Jenny Braun by his side when he was planning his rescue operation. The long-time reporter who lived in New York had told him about the route to Town Hall Station clearly. If he were to operate alone in the complex subway, Zhou Qingfeng would be lost for sure.
"This is Cilantro Station, which is just north of the Town Hall Station," Jenny stood in the dark tunnel in the subway. She illuminated the area in front of her with the flashlight and saw corpses and vehicle parts scattered on the ground.
"A train derailed in this area," Zhou Qingfeng shone the flashlight on the ground too and discovered that most of the corpses were crushed by the derailment of the vehicle. He walked along the rails and almost vomited when he saw the scene.
Jenny was frightened. She decided to just close her eyes and follow Zhou Qingfeng by grasping his hand. However, they saw an eight-segment train that was tipped blocking their path when they walked to the end of the subway tunnel. The carriages were in a complete mess and a large number of corpses were mixed within the metal pieces.
Zhou Qingfeng simply turned away when he saw such a large obstacle blocking their way, "We have to gather some powerful tools before we carry on. There's no way I can remove that pile of rubble with just both my hands."
When Zhou Qingfeng and Jenny left the subway and saw the rays of sunlight that reflected on their faces, they felt like they just got back from hell. However, they had to hurry up as their companions were stilling waiting for them in hell.
"I need a chainsaw, where can I get one of those?" asked Zhou Qingfeng.
"We'll have to head to the fire station. I know the nearest one."
As a New Yorker, Jenny was indeed helping Zhou Qingfeng out a lot.
There were over tens of thousands of firefighters in New York. Half of them had disappeared as they were officials of the government. However, their equipment was left behind in a perfect state. Zhou Qingfeng cheered joyfully when he reached a fire station and saw a fire pump and a large number of life-saving types of equipment.
"These things are perfect. They're even more useful than firearms when it comes to crucial moments."
Zhou Qingfeng even found some oxygen cylinders and masks for firefighting. There were also many hydraulic pumps, winches, axes, and ropes in the fire station. He had spent a tremendous effort to move these pieces of equipment back to Cilantro Station.
Zhou Qingfeng waited until the 8th of August before he officially began to remove the obstacles blocking the tunnel. At that moment, although Katrina and the others were still able to endure the situation, Angie, who was the weakest among them, had already fainted several times. As for the rest who got trapped - it was just like what Butcher had described, "There are people dying every minute."
Zhou Qingfeng dismantled the obstacles with his chainsaw and hydraulic pump. He used a small diesel generator as the main driving force and with the winch, he sent all the dismantled parts away from the tunnel, one by one.
During the entire process, Zhou Qingfeng took the responsibility of the demolition in the front, while Jenny took the responsibility of controlling the machine from behind. Jenny got used to the horror scene after vomiting several times. She also stopped crying. She was gradually transforming from a weakling into a strong lady.
The eight-segment train that blocked the tunnel was actually too massive and proved to be too much work for the both of them. Zhou Qingfeng did not even have time to eat and drink due to the workload. After spending days from the eighth to the tenth of August, he finally heard percussion noises from the front.
"Hi, hi, hi! Victor… Victor, is that you? Is that you?" Butcher's voice passed through the crevices of the tunnel. It had been four days. Even the bear-like man had begun to lose his pride. He shouted loudly, full of joy and excitement.
"It's me! It's me! Stop shouting. I'll save you in no time."
They were in the last segment of the eight-segment train. Zhou Qingfeng was exhausted these past four days. Two of the chainsaws he used were broken, four of the hydraulic tongs were scrapped, and the winch had malfunctioned once. It almost cost Jenny's life.
The sizzling sound of the chainsaw remained, but Zhou Qingfeng could clearly hear more and more noise from the other side. It seemed like countless of people were coming together.
Katrina seemed to be yelling loudly to maintain order. She even fired a shot as a sign of warning. The ferocious lady obviously suffered these few days. Her voice seemed hoarse and depressed.
After removing the last piece of the obstacle, he switched off his flashlight. He snapped on a few glow sticks to use as a source of light. He then saw a crowd standing right in front of him. People were standing like they have lost their souls and they looked like sluggish ghosts.
As he watched the people who finally got rescued after being trapped for seven days, Zhou Qingfeng, who almost collapsed as well, laughed bitterly and said, "Ladies and gentlemen! You have now been given a new lease for life. Congratulations on coming back from hell!"
Chapter 91 Shelter
After four days of hard work, they finally got paid!
With the assistance of the light from a glow stick, a tall and strong woman stood out from the crowd of people. She walked forward and put her hands on Zhou Qingfeng's shoulders, then said with a low voice, "Thank you, Victor Hugo. I've never been in such a terrible situation. I owe you my life."
When Zhou Qingfeng heard Katrina Riven's praise, he laughed bitterly and said, "Actually, I nearly gave up, but I thought it'd be unfortunate if a pretty lady like Miss Riven was dead, so I forced myself to do it for your sake."
"It's not funny. But I accept your compliment." Katrina patted Zhou Qingfeng's shoulder and walked away.
It was Butcher's turn next. The heartless Butcher was slightly injured, and his favorite PKM machine gun had disappeared. He walked toward Zhou Qingfeng with his dislocated arm and laughed hoarsely. "It feels so good to be alive. I think you're a reliable teammate now."
The third person who walked forward was a little younger than Butcher, but bigger in size. His face looked like it was carved in stone, yet the way he stared at Zhou Qingfeng was rather friendly. He only said, "We are now friends." The combat engineer, Mox, was a man of few words.
The fourth one that came out was a walking machine. Its size was akin to a cow's, but without a head, with four huge limbs and a simple appearance. It must be the Walker. Two people lay on the platform of the machine. Weakened terribly, Angie stared at Zhou Qingfeng. She opened her mouth, but could not speak.
"It's all right, don't talk. I know you have no energy," Zhou Qingfeng comforted her.
The other person was Tony Parker. He was pretty miserable at that moment as well. He waved his hand as he said, "Hi," then put his hand down straight away.
After that, the people who were stuck came out one by one. They staggered through the tunnel opened up by Zhou Qingfeng. Their eyes brimmed with gratitude as they looked at Zhou Qingfeng. Some of them even cried as they were being saved; they kept on praying to God.
However, some of them could not get out immediately; they had stayed too long underground and might be blinded by the strong light outside. Zhou Qingfeng and Jenny had no choice but to provide them food and drinks in the tunnel.
"How's it going out there?" Katrina drank some water and swallowed the bread softened by water. She recovered a bit of her energy and started to ask Zhou Qingfeng questions.
"I don't know." Zhou Qingfeng had worked on the tunnel for four days. Consequently, he lost connection with the outside world for four days. Other than greeting Lena Fox everyday through the wireless phone, he did not know anything else. "I don't hold any hope of conquering the headquarters anymore. It's probably already overtaken by someone else.
"So, how did you guys manage to survive for so long?" Zhou Qingfeng asked.
"As a habit, we always bring food and drinks with us. We shared them and managed to survive." Katrina glanced at the people who were saved and mumbled, "Some of us weren't that lucky."
The food and drinks Zhou Qingfeng collected a few days ago had basically been completely consumed by hundreds of the survivors. Zhou Qingfeng looked at the people and asked, "I thought you said there were thousands of people? The people here are a lot less than that."
"There were originally around two thousand people who survived through the obstructed subways in the vicinity. We got trapped in the town hall station, then we found them when we got through the tunnel from another direction.
"The time they've been stuck here was even longer than ours. Before you got here, the weak ones died one by one. The people who survived had gone through hardships and had managed to survive. Some of them even ate the corpses to survive."
"Ate the corpses?!"
Zhou Qingfeng became terrified. He looked around and found out, indeed, that the survivors were mostly young and strong men; extremely few were female. He saw Butcher gobbling down a can of spam, his arm injured, and asked, "How did Butcher get hurt?"
Katrina turned to look at Butcher and laughed bitterly. "Angie once shared her food with a kid who was already starving and on the brink of death. It caused a riot and hundreds of people came after us.
"Butcher instantly fired at them. Unfortunately, he only had two hundred bullets. He used his gun to smash the people once his ammo was gone. The people backed off in the end. His machine gun broke and his arm got injured."
Butcher looked at Zhou Qingfeng and cackled as he heard Katrina. "Victor, it's a shame that you weren't there. You have no idea how awesome it felt to rain people with bullets!"
"Eat your stuff! Stop talking nonsense. I think being stuck for four days wasn't enough for you," Zhou Qingfeng said sarcastically.
Zhou Qingfeng led the people he rescued back to the ground as they recovered and adapted to the light. It was already the seventh day since the start of the cataclysm.
It had just been seven days, but the entirety of Manhattan was already gone. Every single building showed the signs of damage. Huge amounts of vehicles and building floors had been destroyed, and smoke billowed everywhere.
Compared to the day before Zhou Qingfeng went into the tunnel, the illegal immigrants and the people from lower society now had started large-scale organizations among themselves. Their fights against one another turned even worse. Hundreds of them fought on the streets just for the authority over a building.
As Zhou Qingfeng led hundreds of people out of the tunnel, the rogues and villains were shocked. They felt even more baffled when they saw how down-and-out the survivors looked.
"Alright, everyone, stop dreaming! Follow me, we need to find a place to take a break at." Zhou Qingfeng brought Katrina and the survivors to the house where he parked his mobile command vehicle.
Hundreds of the survivors hopelessly looked around at the ruined Manhattan, then trailed after Zhou Qingfeng. They could not wait to contact their families and return to their homes. Unfortunately, following Zhou Qingfeng was their only choice at the moment.
In the past four days, Zhou Qingfeng's mobile command vehicle was occupied by a group of gangsters. However, the vehicle was still there and instead, more resources appeared within the vehicle. They were collected by the gangsters from robbing.
They easily got rid of the gangsters in the house with a tear gas grenade, and waiting for them outside was a ruthless rain of bullets from a few cold-blooded men. As Zhou Qingfeng returned to the house, he found a damaged bed and lay on it.
"If you encounter any problems, settle them among yourselves. I haven't slept for four days and I'm freaking tired. I'm gonna take a nap." Zhou Qingfeng did not even change his clothes; he fell asleep very quickly.
That was the best thing about having partners; you could sleep without worry.
After sleeping for a few hours, Zhou Qingfeng suddenly received a message. "Ten days in Wasteland have been completed. You are granted three days of resting time in your original world. You can take with you a limited amount of one gram of loot from this world as a reward."
Zhou Qingfeng was shocked and awakened by the message. He opened his eyes and realized he was still lying on the broken bed. Katrina leaned against a bench as she rested. As she heard Zhou Qingfeng wake up, she opened her eyes and said, "You can continue to sleep for a while. I've arranged everything. Mox and Butcher will take turns to guard us over the night."
"I'm going to the toilet." Zhou Qingfeng quickly went to the washroom and started looking at the message he received.