Chapter 0297 – Tough Crossing
Translated by: Kun
Edited by: Ulamog, Dedition
[Book 2: The Sea of Zombies]
The autumn rain was extremely chilly, and the heavy downpour beating down on the survivors caused their bodies to tremble uncontrollably. The Type 2 Meat was not a wonder drug after all. In that cold harsh rain, the weaker survivors fell amidst the downpour, never to get up again.
Amongst those who fell, there were children, women, and men, but regardless of who it was, no one would help to support them. The people behind continued to push the human sea forward while trampling on the dead, and the people forward had no choice but to continue moving or join the ones on the ground.
Even when the soldiers under Yue Zhong saw this happening, they could only harden their hearts and ignored it. They had to get the survivors across the bridge as soon as possible. Every minute they delayed, the soldiers fighting at the frontlines would have to stay put a little longer.
Under the 1st Battalion’s watchful gaze, the survivors lined up obediently, crossing the bridge according to the given order. Nonetheless, the speed was at its maximum and could not be quickened.
The bridge was 500 m long, and the number of people that could cross per hour was at most 12,000 people. This was under the condition that there was no blockade, and was the fastest speed they could muster.
After 7 hours, approximately 80,000 survivors had crossed the bridge, at the same time, 400 had collapsed on the way. The heavy downpour not only claimed the lives of the weaker survivors, it had impeded the actions of Tai Yiyan and the rest of the group. No one wanted to be drenched in the rain as well.
After 7 hours, the warriors on the frontline together with Yue Zhong saw the sea of zombies approaching from the distance.
The moment the horde appeared, all sorts of firepower was rained upon the horde.
Facing the assault of the heavy weaponry, the zombies in the front were like wheat that was reaped, falling down line by line. Very soon, the zombies behind shambled forward to fill the gaps. At the same time, there were other zombies laying around that got up slowly and started to push towards SY City as well.
Those steel barbed wires, barricades and various other blockades exhibited their effectiveness, as those ordinary zombies that only knew how to advance were caught and fell to the ground. Same as the humans the fallen zombies were being trampled by the zombies behind, turning them into piles of meat mush.
The cones and sharp fortifications caused countless other zombies to be impeded and killed even. However, the moment those L2s that towered above 2m appeared on the battlefield, they used their monstrous strength to forcefully crush those fortifications.
The zombies relied on their numbers and lack of fear for death, carving a path out for themselves in their steady advance.
The sea of zombies was an extremely simple yet terrifying tactic. Just relying on their endless numbers and their disregard for death, they could go on forever.
Yue Zhong and Shen Hongyang’s troops had joined together and were killing the zombies constantly, but could feel the taxing nature of having to deal with such a tactic. Regardless of how many zombies they killed, there would be more from behind to replenish the ranks. They lost position after position, as they retreated at each juncture.
“Guo Quan, what’s the status report on the bridge crossing? Hurry, check and reply back to me!” On the frontlines, Yue Zhong was wielding a .05 submachine gun and firing wildly at the horde, while he was shouting into the walkie talkie with the other hand.
Facing the hundreds of thousands of zombies, even if Yue Zhong was a dual-attribute Evolver, he was practically useless. He had stood at the forefront, because he wanted to use his own power to lessen the pressure on the other soldiers.
Guo Quan swiftly replied: “91,000 survivors have crossed!”
Flames of fury arose in Yue Zhong’s heart, as he was gunning down tens of zombies, he shouted into the walkie-talkie, enraged: “What the fuck are you doing? How come there are only 91,000 of them across?”
The 800,000 zombies was moving towards them like tidal waves of the sea. Yue Zhong’s warriors were forced to abandon their posts as they retreated bit by bit.
It was a critical situation, all the soldiers were feeling the fatigue. They had been engaged in long hours of warfare, and had not gotten the necessary rest. They were humans, not robots, and could not withstand such long intense battles. If it wasn’t for Yue Zhong standing like a general in front of them, igniting their morale and fighting spirit like a fighting god, they would have collapsed long ago.
Regardless of how much Yue Zhong inspired the troops, the fact was that the soldiers were exhausted. If the intense battle was to go on for too long, they would not be able to hold up. The assault of the sea of zombies was simply too ferocious, even in the cold rain, many of the barrels were overheating and became useless. Numerous soldiers had swollen shoulders because of the recoil, and they were relying on their fighting breaths and will to hang on.
As long as the leader was not useless, the soldiers of China were soldiers that could fight on with a strong fighting spirit*.
Although Yue Zhong had his shortcomings, he was the one who always fought in front. Perhaps he was tyrannical at times but he treated his soldiers fairly, and he always led his troops into victory after victory, creating myriad miracles. This type of leader was a commander soldiers were willing to fight to the death with!
[TN: Actual raws says that China soldiers are the best, they can fight, they have the best fighting spirit. I will refrain from commenting, and although I understand patriotism is admirable, the tone in this particular sentence does suggest the author has some bias. I think more will come in future chapters. I know that many readers are from various parts of the world, so I wanted to leave the sentence as close to its original meaning without getting on anybody’s nerves. In the future, if I see future sentences like this I will directly translate it to something similar without explaining, so I hope those readers who know what the raws say understand where I’m coming from.]
On the other side, Guo Quan laughed bitterly: “There are some who aren’t willing to leave their homes!”
People are known to love their homeland, and aren’t willing to desert if they could. Especially in this type of weather, the survivors were all the more unwilling to move.
Yue Zhong’s eyes flashed with killing intent and lashed out: “Let them die! Damn it! Tell them about the zombies encroaching on SY City. If they don’t want to leave, I won’t force them, let them be buried with SY City for good! Bunch of assholes!! Guo Quan, I’m giving you 2 more hours! Whoever can be moved within these 2 hours will be my limit! After that, clear the road and leave a space for our troops to retreat! Whoever blocks our way, kill them regardless of who they are! No discussion!!”
To Yue Zhong, his soldiers were more important than the survivors of SY County. They trusted him wholeheartedly and were loyal, that’s why they had chosen to fight till the end with him. Every single one of them were exhausted, and hanging on for another 2 hours was most likely their limit.
Within SY City, the remaining 50,000 survivors could not compare to his loyal subordinates.
“I understand, Commander Yue!! I promise to fulfill the responsibilities!!” Guo Quan gritted his teeth, as a resolute look appear on his face.
The news of the zombie horde attacking SY City soon spread like wildfire, and upon hearing the news, all those who were hiding at home and not willing to be soaked in the rain felt shock and trepidation, and finally understood the severity of the situation.
Those survivors took their raincoats, and rations and various other items in bags and rushed to the bridge. The sudden influx of the survivors led to chaos, and were jostling amongst themselves to be first, trying to find ways to cross the bridge. No one dared to stay in SY City longer than necessary, as the zombies would attack them in the next moment.
In the resulting chaos, many people who knocked to the ground, and trampled by the others, becoming more of the runny meat paste as the rain continued to fall.
Xu Yang looked at the messy and chaotic crowd and shouted: “All of you better line up in rows, whoever dares to cut the queue, you will be executed on the spot!!”
As these people were all fighting to be in front to cross the bridge, it had caused a blockade in front of the bridge, and no one could move.
No one paid attention to Xu Yang’s shouts. The law would not punish the masses, this truth was imbedded deeply in their hearts, since there were people squeezing everywhere, they all thought that they would not be punished.
“Open fire!!” Xu Yang looked at the survivors squeezing, his face turned grim as he finally shouted the command.
The soldiers that were guarding the bridge used their machine guns and started firing into the crowd.
Under that sweeping fire, over a hundred of the survivors were shredded and fell down in pools of blood and gore. That terrifying scene shocked the remaining survivors, and they became obedient, looking towards Xu Yang in fear.
Xu Yang called out loudly: “If you want to cross the bridge, you better separate yourselves into 3 groups now. Children on this side! Women this side, and finally the men this side. The elderly, please wait at this side. For those who don’t want to cross the bridge, scram far away! Don’t fucking block my way here!”
Under Xu Yang’s orders, the survivors quickly segregated themselves into 3 groups of people.
Following which, under the 3rd Battalion’s watchful gazes, the children left the place first, crossing the bridge towards the other side.
As the survivors were being organized and moved, more than a dozen well-dressed men and women came in front of Xu Yang. The leader was a chubby-faced, fat middle-aged man with a protruding tummy. He smiled at Xu Yang, handing a bag to Xu Yang and said: “Hello Officer! I am SY City’s Secretary for Commerce and Industry, Qu Bufan. You have worked hard, this is a small token, please accept it if you don’t mind.”
Xu Yang opened the bag, only to discover various diamonds that were twinkling inside. If it was prior to the apocalypse, these diamonds were easily worth several millions of Renminbi.
Xu Yang coldly asked: “What’s the meaning of this?”
Qu Bufan pointed to a slender and fair-skinned beauty beside him as he laughed at Xu Yang: “I hope that this Officer can allow us to go over first. As long as you do that, this woman is yours!!”
The lady also fluttered her eyelashes at Xu Yang. Becoming the woman of an officer was not a bad thing. In this post-apocalyptic world, she wasn’t the first to sell her body, nor would she be the last.
Xu Yang looked at Qu Bufan and laughed coldly: “Men! Lock these useless people up. Send the men to the scum battalion, the women into the women’s battalion.”
A few soldiers stepped out swiftly, and captured Qu Bufan and his group.
“Sir!! Sir!!” Qu Bufan had a look of shock and fear as he squealed out like a pig in distress.
“Don’t be getting any funny ideas! Otherwise, you will face the same consequences as them!” Xu Yang scanned the survivors like a cheetah as he spoke out coldly, the survivors all looked down, not daring to meet his gaze.
