The apocalypse; the West Coast of North America.
The laborers in ragged clothes pushed carts forward as they moved between the steel reinforcements under the order of the supervisor; they delivered the cement and concrete bricks to the hands of the construction workers. The huge construction trucks drove back and forth between the concrete walls, and a giant fortress started to take its shape.
Based on the NAC military government’s plan for this place, this fortress would be the first phase of the colony. The second phase and third phase of the project would center around this fortress and expand out to functional blocks such as residential, commercial, industrial, logistics, distribution centers, ports, and even entertainment.
As the governor of this colony, Zhou Guoping was living in the moment.
When he recalled the conversation with Jiang Chen in Shangjing, he was very grateful for the decision he made at the time. Instead of choosing to return to the prosperous Wanghai for retirement, he came to this undeveloped land. Rather than spending the rest of his life trembling in the shadow of Chu Nan and always worrying about possible revenge, why would he not enjoy his life as the ruler of the distant North America?
The funds allocated by the logistics department and all the credits on him were turned into tools and raw materials for construction. Zhou Guoping took the appointment letter signed by the General himself and took the transport ship built by the NAC shipyard through the safe passage of the Bering Strait. He arrived on the West Coast along with reinforcements.
Not long after he arrived, he quickly implemented NAC’s colonial policy, played to the advantages of localized management, used interests to unite some survivors, and then drove those with vested interests to assist them in enslaving the other survivors.
At present, there were already 20,000 laborers working on the construction site as they worked tirelessly to contribute to the NAC colony. The price they paid was only a hundred boxes of canned food, two truckloads of instant noodles, and tens of thousands of fruit-flavored high-calorie nutrient supplies.
It won’t be long before this place become a paradise envied by North American survivors, and as the governor of this colony, he would also become the one above all. And all this was something he never dared to imagine…
On the outskirt of the construction site, a pair of poorly equipped mercenaries patrolled the area.
Half a month ago, their name was the Blood Axe Mercenaries. Although they kept their name, they were hired by NAC as long-term partners. Their usual tasks were patrolling and occasionally dealt with some issues they didn’t even consider as issues.
As the leader of the mercenaries, Blood Axe was very satisfied with his current life.
He was not only satisfied because of the compensation offered by NAC, but also because he and his boys left their precarious days and now lived a life without worry.
With his brand-new rifle, Blood Axe, as usual, led his boys to patrol the edge of this concrete fortress. He would from time to time look into the distance with his binoculars.
Not far away, dust floated in the air.
After he confirmed that there was a convoy approaching, Blood Axe notified the colony with his radio out of protocol, and then took his boys to stop the vehicles.
“Stop! It’s NAC territory ahead, please explain your intentions!”
The convoy stopped, and the mercenaries on the truck jumped down one after another.
Blood Axe gestured to his boys behind him, opened the safety of the rifle in his hand, and carefully examined the mercenaries with unknown intentions in front of him.
“We are the Black Skulls of Nevada,” a black brawny man walked forward to about ten meters in front of Blood Axe, he signed to the mercenaries behind him to put away their weapons and expressed his harmless intention. He then looked at Blood Axe with a grin, “We have no ill-intentions. We’re just here to discuss business with you.”
Black Skulls.
A frightening name in Nevada.
They relied on their heavy firepower and modified all-terrain assault vehicles that traversed through the endless desert like a gust of wind. Due to their aggressive combat style, they were a nightmare for the merchant fleets between California and Nevada.
In addition to plundering merchants, attacking Double-headed Cattle herds, and occasionally fighting with mutated human tribes, they occasionally engaged in slave trade. Especially in the past few months, the profits of slave trade had become more and more lucrative, and they seemed to have change their business focus and turned slave trade into their main channel of profit.
The growing slave trade was closely connected with the outsiders on the West Coast.
NAC’s large-scale construction work required a lot of labor. Their nonrejection attitude made the slave market in California, which had experienced a continued period of sluggish demand, suddenly spike up.
In the desert of Nevada, there were hundreds of public or private fallout shelters.
The inhabitants of these shelters were the cheapest slaves on the North American wasteland. Not only did they have poor survivability, but they also couldn’t do much heavy work. Few survivors were willing to pay for them. However, after the arrival of this group of outsiders, this situation changed drastically.
The rich yellow men seemed to have a soft spot for such survivors who emerged from the fallout shelter. Especially for engineers or scientists who hold advanced skills certificates in a certain field, NAC even offered a high price of a box of canned fresh meat.
It was canned meat!
In any survivor force, a box of canned meat with the NAC anti-counterfeiting label could be exchanged for bullets of the same weight. And the bullets were high-quality standard bullets, far superior compared to the inferior bullets circulating in the black market!
Even the survivors in the Capital on the East Coast heard of the name NAC. It was not difficult to imagine the shock NAC brought to the North American survivors.
“Five hundred slaves, all from fallout shelters,” the powerful black man pointed to the group of malnourished slaves on the truck, grinned at the NAC officer, and rubbed his hands in eagerness, “Let me take a look at your goods.”
“After we evaluate these people, you will naturally see what belongs to you.” The officer in the kinetic skeleton said blankly, then signaled to the soldiers behind him. Under the escort of two medical staff and four soldiers, they walked to the truck.
The mercenaries around the truck stepped aside as they cleared a path.
As usual, before the transaction, NAC medical staff made a comprehensive assessment of the quality of the slaves. From health status to physical attributes, as well as simple inquiry and assessment of professional knowledge and skills.
After an anxious wait, the black man finally saw his payment – twenty boxes of canned meat, ten tons of rice, and a box of high-quality cigarettes. If he pulled these things to Minutemen-controlled Liberty City a hundred kilometers away, these could easily sell for 400,000 bottle caps. If he brought these goods to the even further Texas, he could sell them for a high price of 600,000 bottle caps.
After he happily ordered his men to load the goods, they climbed back in to the truck and drove away.
From beginning to end, Blood Axe looked blankly at the situation, but deep inside, he was astonished
As a Californian, although his range of activities did not include the eastern desert, any survivor in California would not be unfamiliar with the reputation of Black Skulls.
Whether it was the California National Guard or the militia ” Minutemen”, these gangsters with skull turbans had never respected any organization. But at this moment, in front of NAC, they were acting like honest people doing business.
It felt like the Sun just rose from the west!
Maybe these outsiders could bring real order to the chaotic and lawless California?
With this idea that even he himself found unrealistic, Blood Axe greeted the NAC officer and walked towards the other side of the colony with his boys…
