Chapter 182: Children = Hope
The man who was the first to approach Zhang Xiao Qiang for negotiation had returned, all the conditions Zhang Xiao Qiang had laid out for him was that everyone had to surrender unconditionally, otherwise Zhang Xiao Qiang would have people to set the camp on fire, destroy their water source, kill their leaders…..5 minutes….10 minutes….20 minutes….there were not many movements in the camp except for the man that Zhang Xiao Qiang talked to who was moving around and speaking. The crowd below did not have any reaction to his words, some of them carried their bags and crawled towards the hill as though they would be able to avoid Zhang Xiao Qiang’s wrath. With a few taking the lead, many more followed after, all of them carried bags and headed towards the small hill. The one at the front was still shouting for the people behind, as though he was encouraging them. The envoy of the group was preventing others from running by pointing at Zhang Xiao Qiang and engaging them. But these people completely ignored him and continued heading up the hill…..Zhang Xiao Qiang threw the cigarette on the floor and stomped on it. Some people just won’t listen until they see the coffin, he pointed a finger to the machine gunner, who dropped his aim from the captives on the floor and aimed at the camp. “tututututu…..” The rhythmic sound of gunfire sounded out from above the jeep, hot empty bullet shells dropped all over the floor. The temporary homes in the distance were all destroyed by the bullets as more screams and chaos came out from within. After a portion of the base was given a round of bullets, the machine gunner saw that the remaining people no longer wanted their homes and ran after those who had started climbing the hill with everything they had. Even at Zhang Xiao Qiang’s position, one could faintly hear the sobbings and screamings.
The heavy machine gunner saw that his show of force yielded results and felt extremely proud. He shouted to the driver of the jeep, who started up the jeep and drove to the side of the camp. He turned his muzzle and aimed at the hill and fired once more, the whistling bullets flying into the ground in front of the leading man, inciting a cloud of dust in his face. The man’s legs immediately turned soft as he fell to the ground and started rolling down the hill. The bags that he carried all fell and rolled until the contents dropped all around. Seeing that the leading man had fallen and was rolling downwards, all the people behind thought that he was shot, so they all turned tail and ran downwards.
Right after that, someone stood in an open space and waved a yellow paper. Zhang Xiao Qiang gestured for a stop, and all guns ceased firing.
People started walking over with their luggages and bags. It started off with one or two, then three to fives. Slowly, over a 100 people gathered in front of Zhang Xiao Qiang. There were old and young, the old were around Zhang Huai An’s age, then the young? Zhang Xiao Qiang saw a 4 to a 5-year-old girl being carried over, she had not learned what fear was, and was constantly looking around with her big eyes. The young and innocent face that had no knowledge of the apocalypse was slightly empty, her skin was dirty and she held onto what seemed like a grain pancake made of bran which had a slightly small bite-off. It was Zhang Xiao Qiang’s first time seeing a little child in the apocalypse, all the survivors he had encountered were all strong and mature adults or growing adolescents like Yang Ke’er who could run and jump.
The little girl looked at Zhang Xiao Qiang as he looked at her, then displayed a cheeky face and revealed her teeth at him, then placed the biscuit into her mouth. The biscuit was hard and could not be instantly bitten off with her young teeth. She slowly nibbled on the edge of the biscuit and when she felt that it was loosened enough, she used her tongue and spun the biscuit pieces into a ball then focused on nibbling it. She had a serious expression as she frowned slightly, the biscuit was truly too tough.
Zhang Xiao Qiang walked over to the little girl who was carried by a 30-year-old lady. Upon closing in, Zhang Xiao Qiang immediately caught a whiff of a gross stench from the lady, it was the same smell from when he saved the women at the granary, the smell of being done in by many men and not bathing. The woman was very dirty, her face and hair had white stains all over as she cowered in fear upon seeing Zhang Xiao Qiang walk over. Her hands around the young girl became tighter and tighter as her body trembled. She did not dare to move as all of the Combat Team Members had rifles or machine guns. The Desert Eagle on Zhang Xiao Qiang’s waist had become the symbol of his identity, the lady immediately knew that Zhang Xiao Qiang held a powerful position, thus she dare not move.
Zhang Xiao Qiang extended his hand to the little girl, thinking of taking the biscuit to have a look at it, but the little girl was unwilling to let go. She maintained her stare at Zhang Xiao Qiang thinking to scare off the person trying to steal her biscuit away. Zhang Xiao Qiang did not know whether to laugh or cry at the rage of the little child.
“Where’s her father?” Zhang Xiao Qiang rubbed his nose and asked the lady, he was not accustomed to the taste at all.
“Dead!” The woman did not dare to even look at Zhang Xiao Qiang and answered him with her head still tilted downwards.
Zhang Xiao Qiang took out a piece of chocolate from his bag, tore off the wrapper and placed it in front of the little girl. She looked at the chocolate and her nose twitched slightly. She then turned to her mother, her intent to seek approval from her but her head quickly turned back to the chocolate that Zhang Xiao Qiang kept on moving about. Zhang Xiao Qiang felt extremely awkward at that moment, why does it feel like I’m those internet pedophiles trying to cheat little girls?
Her mother nodded her head slightly. The little girl immediately turned her body over and Zhang Xiao Qiang felt his fingers holding onto thin air. The piece of chocolate was already in the little girl’s hand, she smiled at him sweetly, then bit on the chocolate and started sucking on it. After that, she turned and placed the chocolate in her mother’s mouth.
At this point, Zhang Xiao Qiang turned and walked towards another direction, feeling extremely elated in his heart. With children, there’ll be hope, isn’t it?
The man who was knocked unconscious by Yang Ke’er was already carried up a vehicle, the young lady in red followed beside him closely. This person was someone that Zhang Xiao Qiang wanted, aside from Wang Le, this was the second man that Zhang Xiao Qiang wanted by his side. His physique was good and his tenacity was something that shocked even Zhang Xiao Qiang, especially in his intuition and senses in fighting. Zhang Xiao Qiang’s Triangular Spikes were not something any person could deflect against, at the very least it was Zhang Xiao Qiang’s first miscalculation. Furthermore, the man was scary, he was able to grasp all the opportunities to harm his opponent, where Zhang Xiao Qiang’s skin wound on his face was still hurting, but his foresight was not that great, firstly he thought that he could kill Zhang Xiao Qiang only to realize that he was toyed with by the latter. After that, he tried to go against Yang Ke’er, and was played by her to the point of fainting. Seeing how he was, Zhang Xiao Qiang could only think of one name for him, which was “Cannon Fodder”.
Zhang Xiao Qiang’s subordinates finally went through all the captives. Excluding the children, there were a total of 247 adults, out of which 37 of them were women and 210 of them were men. All of them were extremely dirty and were dispirited. Seeing the Combat Team Members walking by their sides with their rifles and seeing the black muzzles aimed at them, none of them dared to utter a sound. All of them waited quietly for Zhang Xiao Qiang’s arrangements, awaiting their unknown future.