Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

”Fierce Tiger Squad, seventeen members?”

”You, along with the Swift Leopard Team and the Revitalization Team, make up a group of about a hundred people.”

”Which Revitalization Team?” Li Dawei craned his neck, looking around.

Feng Lijian pointed to a team not far away.

Li Dawei couldn’t help but grin when he saw them. He raised a hand in greeting. ”Hey, Mr. Gao, Zheng! Have you guys seen Xie Ning?”

Zheng Heng walked over with his sister Zheng Feina, Zhuang Xinyi, and the others, his brow slightly furrowed. ”We haven’t seen them. Brother Li, do you know why we were called for an emergency assembly?”

”No idea.” Li Dawei spread his hands. ”Heck, we hadn’t even finished our meal. Someone just knocked on our door and told all the superpower user teams to gather here at the plaza.”

”Same for us,” He Zhi said with a frown, turning to the uniformed Feng Lijian. ”Officer, what exactly is happening?”

”You’ll all be briefed shortly.” Feng Lijian glanced at Li Dawei and his group. ”Since you all know each other, that’s perfect. For now, you’ll be organized into a single team.”

”No, no way!” Li Dawei waved his hands frantically and shouted, ”We have a life-and-death bond with the Starfire Team! You have to put us with the Starfire Team!”

”Yes, yes, the Starfire Team! We strongly demand to be grouped with the Starfire Team!”

”That’s right! We won’t team up with anyone else, only the people from the Starfire Team.”

Feng Lijian gave them a speechless look and started flipping through the register in his hands. ”Who is the Starfire Team?”

”You don’t even know the Starfire Team? Officer, you’re really out of the loop. Xie Ning! Captain Xie is a Gold Ability User from our village! We’re all from the same village!”

”Yes, yes! We’re from the same village, so put us together.”

”We want to team up with the Gold Ability User, Xie Ning!”

”That’s right, Officer! You can’t separate us.”

As Feng Lijian was still flipping through his register, a young man next to him leaned in and muttered, ”Captain, stop looking. Isn’t that Xie Ning they’re talking about... the boss’s girlfriend?”

”Huh?” Feng Lijian’s hand paused. ”Is everyone else assigned?”

”Just about.”

”Then you can all be together!” Feng Lijian snapped the register shut, his expression blank. He shot Li Dawei a look. ”This is the temporary arrangement. All of you, line up! Don’t just stand around sloppily.”

”No, we’re teaming up with the Starfire Team.”

”Yeah, yeah!”

”The Starfire Team you’re talking about isn’t coming today.” ’So damn persistent!’

’Starfire Team this, Starfire Team that. So annoying!’

”What?” Li Dawei and the others immediately grew suspicious.

”Why isn’t Xie Ning coming?”

”She didn’t run off, did she?”

”Then let’s go too!”

”Captain, let’s get out of here! Xie Ning must have run for it!”

Feng Lijian’s face darkened as he stared at the lunatics before him. He couldn’t help but roar, ”Run? What’s there to run from? The Miss Xie you’re talking about probably just went back home. She’ll be here tomorrow. Now all of you, get in line!”

’Why are they so damn noisy?’

Feng Lijian felt like his head was about to explode from them chanting ”Xie Ning, Xie Ning, Xie Ning.”

But Li Dawei’s group looked skeptical. They stared at the departing figures of Feng Lijian and his men, murmuring amongst themselves, ”Something’s definitely wrong.”

”Damn, if we’d known, we would’ve sent someone to keep an eye on Xie Ning’s place.”

Hearing this, Xu Yu sneered, her voice dripping with sarcasm. ”Xie Ning, Xie Ning, Xie Ning. Is Xie Ning your mother? You watch her day and night. What, you can’t survive without her or something?”

”You don’t know shit,” Li Xiang shot back, turning his head to face her. ”If it weren’t for Xie Ning, we would’ve died hundreds of times over by now!”

”Exactly. Don’t talk to us, you idiot.” When it came to comebacks, Uncle Ge Liang was second to none.

”Ningning is the one we all look to for direction. As long as Ningning is here, we can feel at ease!”

Xu Yu scoffed out loud. ”Xie Ning, Xie Ning, all day long. I think you’re all just sick in the head.”

”You’re the one who’s sick in the head! Your whole family is sick!” Uncle Ge Liang cursed, glaring at her before pulling his daughter away, clearly done with the conversation.

Song Xiaolong stood at the back of the group, silent from beginning to end.

”Alright, quiet down, everyone. Someone up front is speaking.”

The crowd stood toward the back of the large plaza, and the voice from the front was faint and somewhat indistinct.

”Everyone standing here today represents all the Superpower User friends currently in our Jingji Base.”

”Although you have all come from far and wide, today, all our families and friends are here in this base.”

”We have gathered for one purpose: to protect our base and prevent the mutated zombies from breaking through our defensive barriers.”

”Right now, only by uniting can we defend against this zombie horde.”

”The first wave of the zombie horde will soon reach the southeastern side of the base. Our current battle plan is...”

Li Xiang quickly scrambled up a nearby tree, his eyes wide as he stared intently toward the southeast of the base.

”Xiang, what’s it look like?”

Li Xiang slid down the tree, his face a mask of shock as he stared at the others. ”So... so many zombies. So, so, so many.”

”No way...” Chen Man’er’s mouth fell open, her voice trembling as she cried out, ”Did they drag us here... to, to make us use our own bodies to fight back this zombie horde?”

The chatter immediately grew louder, and someone in the crowd shouted a question, ”Why don’t we just evacuate the base as quickly as possible?”

Feng Lijian took the microphone, his cold eyes sweeping over the crowd. ”If we leave the base, we will lose our last shred of protection.”

”The mutated zombies can now detect human heat signatures. I ask you, where could we possibly retreat to?”

”Evacuate the base? Abandon it? What do you think will happen if we’re still surrounded by a massive zombie horde out there?”

”Take one step back, and we give up our homes. Take two steps back, and we give up our friends and family. Take three steps back... are we to surrender the lives of all humanity to this mutated world?”

The clamoring crowd gradually fell silent.

’That’s right, where could we run?’

At least here they had a safe place to stay. At least for the people in the base, their families and friends were safe for the time being.

If they ran, they would truly be wandering aimlessly, struggling to survive.

Although the weather had gradually warmed to around negative five or six degrees, there was no guarantee what kind of drastic temperature changes the future might bring.

When that time comes, with nowhere left to run, what would humanity do?

”All of humanity is fighting against the mutated creatures of this world. It’s either they die, or we do!”

”In this battle today, there is no escape and no retreat!”

”Only by uniting as one, with a will of iron, can we overcome the crisis before us!”

Li Dawei wiped his mouth and shouted viciously, ”Son of a bitch! I’ll fight these living dead to the end. I still need to see my kid born, and I’ll be damned if I let this base fall to these living beasts.”