Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at the group kneeling in a line. Their frailty and cowardice caused deep grief to surge in his heart. When the apocalypse occurred, he brought Yang Ke’er and went all around, without a home or a base that could give them supplies. They had to fight for their lives and run from the grasps of zombies.
He succeeded, with his own bare hands, he established a small base, built up a huge organization a thousand strong from 30 men. What did he rely on? He relied on his unwavering confidence and courage, he believed that the difficult times was only temporary, that humankind with rationality would ultimately wipe out the zombies. He also believed that the fellow countrymen would once again multiply and reproduce on their motherland and continue to thrive and survive.
On this day, he was disappointed, an intense sense of defeat surged in his heart. The people he saved disappointed him and this disappointment made him feel despair towards the future of humankind. He was not the Savior, he was only a mere Otaku from before the apocalypse, he did not possess any professional knowledge and never held a weapon prior to the apocalypse.
The zombies had left the cities and countless zombies were scattered throughout the lands, like packs of wild dogs hunting down every single prey from their scent of life. The existence of humankind was at the brink of destruction and no one could afford to be weak against the zombies, but why were they able to hold their guns against their own kind?
Zhang Xiao Qiang suddenly recalled a saying from the history books and sighed, “If the Chinese had no internal strifes, we would have conquered the entire world.”
When the bureau chief heard the words, his body trembled and the cold perspiration trickled quickly down his back.
“Where did you get your guns?” Zhang Xiao Qiang suddenly asked an unrelated topic.
“They….they are our Forestry Bureau’s guns, meant…meant to protect our staffs, when we have nothing to do…we bring it out to hunt.”
Zhang Xiao Qiang nodded his head, the biggest poachers of the motherland were from the Forestry industry.
“Then, who can tell me. When the thing climbed onto your vehicle and ate your friend, why didn’t you kill it with your guns? Hmm? Why did you have to wait for me to jump over vehicles to kill it?”
No one could answer his question, all their courage had been broken, how could they find the time to use the guns?”
“Then who can tell me, if you guys didn’t dare to kill the monster, why are you guys able to point your guns at your benefactors that saved your lives?”
Still, no one was able to answer him, did it meant that humans were easier to bully than zombies?
Zhang Xiao Qiang continued to stare at the quiet crowd but was no longer bothered to question them. It was in the Chinese blood, if there were no internal strife, they will never know their ancestor’s last name.
“Bang….” Zhang Xiao Qiang blasted the fainted man’s head into pieces. He did not want to take such a toxic person back to his base. He was lacking in manpower, but definitely not in such people.
“There’s no longer a country, don’t pin your hopes on an army. Let me tell you the truth, the entire world have changed exactly like your town, now, you all belong to me. You’re all my possessions, remember this, I am not treating you guys as humans…”
No one refuted Zhang Xiao Qiang, no one dared to. They carried the machine gunner’s corpse up the vehicle and followed Zhang Xiao Qiang’s off-road vehicle back to the base.
Zhang Xiao Qiang sat in the front passenger seat and watched the scenery, while the driver occasionally turned his head and looked at him, as though he had something to say.
“Speak, what is it?”
Receiving the consent, the driver finally asked, “Leader, why did you bring along that insane woman? She’s only going to waste our food, why not kill her?”
“She might be crazy, but her children will not be. As long as she can give birth, why won’t I keep her? Remember, in such times, human resource is the best resource.”
The driver kept quiet upon hearing the explanation and remained fixed on the road while he thought to himself, how many children must she birth to not suffer a loss, but in the end, he was not at the losing end.
The perimeter wall appeared before everyone’s eyes. When they saw the tall and lofty wall that had numerous workers on it, their expressions turned ugly, only the talkative lady started to use a pocket mirror to fix her makeup.
She felt that the base would definitely have leaders more powerful than Zhang Xiao Qiang, whom she assumed was a party leader of five. She wanted to grab hold of that ‘supposed’ man, then what will she do to Zhang Xiao Qiang? Hehe….. The vehicles stopped outside the wall, where Zhang Huai An was coincidentally patrolling. He caught sight of Zhang Xiao Qiang and diligently ran over for a report.
“I don’t have the mood to listen to your bullshit today, go, gather the combat team members…”
Zhang Xiao Qiang and the survivors waited outside the base. The machine gunner’s corpse laid on the ground while Zhang Xiao Qiang looked towards the flower mountain where the tombstones were vaguely visible.
“Tatata….” Uniform footsteps were heard from the inside. Close to a 100 combat team members dressed in military gear and helmets jogged out. By the time they arrived before Zhang Xiao Qiang, they stood in formation. As the formation leaders gave the orders, the members formed two rows and made way.
The two rows were 5 m apart and faced each other, forming a line between them. They wielded rifles with bayonets installed, muzzles pointed to the sky. He Wen Bin appeared, dressed in yellow military uniform as he walked over. He was almost recovered and walked quickly, swaggering with his sleeves flinging every step he took.
Behind him, Old Frank, Three, Lu Ren Yi, and Zhang Huai An carried a coffin over. The black-painted and empty coffin was made out of steel plates, the standardised coffin for combat team members.
A large crowd followed behind and even the workers on the wall stopped what they were doing and came down. They looked at the coffin being carried over and immediately took down their safety helmets and placed them at chest level, they knew that another guard of the base had sacrificed himself, and was the 10th member to have died for the base.
When He Wen Bin appeared, the talkative yet beautiful lady assumed that he was the real leader of the base and started to flaunt herself, occasionally giving him a few winks.
He Wen Bin never even looked at her once, he walked over to Zhang Xiao Qiang, who was covered in blood and lowered his head, “Brother Cockroach, you’re back, the ceremony is ready and we can begin.”
Zhang Xiao Qiang nodded his head. The machine gunner, Hai’zi, was carried to the side and cleaned up before being placed in the coffin.
Not long later, four combat team members carried their rifles on their backs and lifted the coffin towards the mountain while the other members followed along by the sides. Zhang Xiao Qiang then called for Zhang Huai An.
“For the people that I saved today, make arrangements for them, their treatment will be the lowest rung, but their workload must be the highest. As for that lady over there…”
Zhang Xiao Qiang pointed to the talkative lady, who immediately turned pale. Even a pig would know that Zhang Xiao Qiang was the biggest head of the base.
“Watch her well, don’t let her flirt around, and if any members want to chase after her, make it clear to them. Whoever tries to find this woman will have their skin peeled by me personally.”
Zhang Xiao Qiang did not want the disgusting woman to break the unity of the base, at least the few subordinates that had followed him knew what she had said.
“What do you want her to work as?”
Zhang Huai An’s question reminded Zhang Xiao Qiang about the women who were not willing to plant fertilizers in the vegetable garden and infuriated Fat Chef.
“Let her plant manure fertilizer in the vegetable garden.”
With that said, Zhang Xiao Qiang turned and walked towards the mountain, the face of the lady behind turned pale white…