Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

”Yiming first led us to a military base owned by the Southern theater. But on the way, we met up with a military unit that was out on a scouting mission.

When they brought us to the commander, instead of a promotion or a warm welcome, General Yiming was instantly sentenced to desertion, even though they were the ones who abandoned us.

If it weren’t for our entire unit protesting, General Yiming, I mean Major Yiming, would have been executed on the spot.”

”General? He promoted?” Yezi interrupted Gantian as he asked his question.

”Yes, he’s currently the general since all of the higher ranks died. Since he was the highest commanding officer, he is now the general.” Gantian explained.

”Wait, can you go back to earlier?” Xiaoyun tapped Yezi so as not to interrupt.

”Okay, so as I was saying, since our unit protested, they backed down and retired Major Yiming. And that’s when all of us started having doubts about whether we should have come back at all.

But before we could decide, our unit was assigned to be the lead unit to Shaoguan out of nowhere. The only reason they gave us being near Guangzhou was simply too dangerous.”

”Seem about right... who would have thought they’d rather save themselves...”

Yezi cynical outlook was cut short as Xiaoyun tapped him again.

”We lost so many brothers on the way, as the general back then was way too careless and had no combat experience at all...

By the time we got there, almost half of our units were gone. And we weren’t the only ones that suffered the heavy losses. So many soldiers died trying to clear Shaoguan.

But eventually, we’re able to secure the city completely *Cough* And that’s when the trouble really began.”

Gantian paused for a second as he reached out his bag for his water canteen, but Xiaoyun created a cup of water and handed it to him before he could get his canteen.

After a sip, Gantian continued.

”We were able to rescue many civilians and civilians that left along with us back in the military bases. It was causing a food shortage as the food within the city began running dry.

The general started sending out units to loot other cities and required all nearby settlements to pay for food and protection, which was fine until the general gave up trying to save anybody at all.

He quit attending meetings and opted to spend time with all the women he had in his luxury apartment. All the soldiers were still working their asses off, trying to make ends meet and saving as many civilians as possible.

Everybody was getting sick of him, and eventually, one of the units had enough and executed him... It was full-blown chaos as nobody knew who was leading.

Several units claimed to be the general successor, but since they were all of equal ranks, they couldn’t agree on anything at all. The situation somehow got worse than when the general was still alive.

Eventually... the first one pulled the trigger and assassinated one of the unit’s commanders. That’s when all goes ballistic as assassination began going wild...

Even Jixi, who got promoted to take the place of Major Yiming, was almost killed. If it weren’t for me who decided to take a piss in the middle of the night, neither of us would be alive.”

”Damn... That went south quickly... What happened next?” Xiaoyun curiously asked.

”Eventually, the one remaining decided to set up a council system, which addresses practically nothing. But at least nobody was dying anymore... Until one of them tried to assassinate everyone on the council at once.”

”Let me guess, the assassination resumed?” Yezi asked.

”Yep. Eventually, one of them finally won out after Jixi decided to back one of them. However, one of the soldiers who was still loyal to their old commander, whom he killed, decided to go rogue and kill that commander.

Jixi was now the only one left as the highest commanding officer. But none of the other units consider him to be general since he was promoted less than a few months ago...

Luckily, we’re able to convince Major Yiming out of retirement.

It was where everything finally clicked, as all the soldiers respected his character and combat experience.

Not to mention, Major Yiming had massive support from the civilians since he founded a self-defense militia after the old general died and the council took over.”

Gantian paused for a second as he took another sip of water.

”But as you might have already know... The Northern Theater has mandated all soldiers to head north, which included us.”

”Wait, are you guys really heading north?” Xiaoyun interrupted Gantian before he answered it.

”Well, what do you think? We wouldn’t be in Shaoguan if we accepted the order...”

”Right...”

Xiaoyun quickly realized Gantian was making a very obvious point and let him continue.

”So General Yiming rejected the order and stated that he was staying to protect the civilians living in the south.”

”Knew that man wouldn’t be that stubborn...” Yezi murmured as his face let out a sigh of relief.

”Is there any drawback to rejecting the order?” Xiaoyun curiously asked as he was still a little alerted by the bulk of the military in the north.

”Not really. They can’t enforce it, and since they don’t want to lose face, all they could do was eat it up... I’m sure we aren’t the only ones who rejected that order.”

As Gantian finished, the wind and the soldier training nearby filled the space, and the three fell into silence until Xiaoyun spoke up.

”So... why did Yiming send you here today?”

Gantian thought for a second, then turned around as he dug inside his backpack.

”None of us are good at running a city full of civilians. We’re only soldiers, and we were already in a food shortage... We simply can’t support this many people.”

”Why not? Shaoguan is a pretty big city, no?”

Xiaoyun thought back to the map, which showed Shaoguan was a major city at the crossroads.

”Yes, but a lot of food has gone bad since the outbreak, which has been for two years now.

All the food we were able to preserve was a small quantity of canned food, and there were over one hundred thousand civilians... This is why General Yiming thought of asking for food from you...

But he knows he can’t just get food for free, which is why he told me that if you can solve our food supply issue, we can join you guys.”

Seeing Gantian look back at Xiaoyun with high hopes, Xiaoyun didn’t instantly reply as he thought of the drawbacks and gains.

”You know... One hundred thousand is a lot of people. I’m going to be honest with you, Gantian, this town just recently hit one hundred thousand people.

And this town is already barely breaking even with the food supply when half of us are serving in the military. As much as I want guys to join us, there’s no way I can meet up with your demand.”

Gantian looked a little disappointed, but he didn’t look discouraged as if he expected Xiaoyun’s answer.

”General Yiming told me that was what you were going to say. He just needs enough food to supply ten thousand people, and he’ll be able to send out more search campaigns looking for food.”

”Sure, I can do that... But I can’t just do it for free.”

”Is us joining you not enough?”

Gantian looked a little surprised by Xiaoyun’s response as he expected Xiaoyun to say yes with no other request.

”When you say joining, can Yiming convince all your units to follow my command? Or do what I sent them to?”

As Xiaoyun argued, Gantian fell into silence as all of Xiaoyun’s assumptions were true.

”I have to be responsible for our city now. I can’t just support you guys for free... But I could take some of those people here to reduce your food demand.”

Gantian thought for a second, then nodded in agreement as he couldn’t find any issue with it.

”I’ll also send several of my administrators to help you run the city along with some food for ten thousand people for a month.”

Gantian instantly bowed down in gratitude as he couldn’t believe how generous Xiaoyun was.

”Wait, wait, I haven’t finished yet... I need you guys to help me clear Foshan and Guangzhou completely.”

”Isn’t that just a death sentence? Why would you try to clear those two cities?”

Gantian looked confused as he still remembered the number of zombies there was beyond manageable, even for the military. MVLeMpYr-novel-source

”Guangzhou is actually mostly cleared now... We were actually able to defeat most of them. It’s just clean-up and free looting at this point.

Now, I’m planning to clear Foshan next since they are right next door to Guangzhou... And after that, I’ll finally have no zombie in the neighboring area.”

Xiaoyun explained as he looked back at Gantian with a proud face.

”There’s no way you killed that many zombies. We would run out of bullets before we could clear half of the zombies in Guangzhou, even if they stood still.” Gantian argued as he still didn’t believe Xiaoyun’s answer.

”How would you believe me? Do you want me to give you a ride to Guangzhou to see it for yourself?”