Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

Zone A-1

Inside the crowded and noisy large compartment, many of the elderly, women, and children huddled in corners, hugging their kids. They watched the troublemakers with desperate eyes.

They wouldn’t dare get involved in such a physical confrontation; just managing to look after their own families was a blessing in itself.

As the commotion in the compartment grew louder, many of the more timid people instinctively began to back away.

”Don’t push each other!”

”Exactly! This won’t solve anything, you know?”

”What’s all the shouting about? Fang Gang, what were you just saying?”

”Didn’t they say the higher-ups agreed to negotiate with us? Why have they backed out now?”

”Fang Gang! Say something! Aren’t you the leader of this whole operation?”

The square-jawed young man, with his thick brows, big eyes, wide mouth, and flat nose, was drenched in sweat. Squeezed in the middle of the crowd, he struggled to keep his footing, shouting repeatedly, ”Everyone, be careful! Don’t push! Give each other some space, just—”

Just then, a loud crash echoed from outside the door. The packed crowd looked up to see armed base personnel, distinguished by their red armbands and wielding clubs, storming in.

Like wolves among sheep, they immediately started swinging, raining down blows with their clubs on anyone they saw.

Many were beaten bloody, crying out in pain.

”Ah! Fang Gang, look! Something’s happening up front!”

”It’s bad! I think the base patrol team is here!”

”Oh my god, the patrol team is hitting people!”

One person screamed, and then a second and a third joined in. The entire Zone A-1 erupted into chaos, like a pot of flailing ducks boiling over, a cacophony of frantic squawks.

”Help! The administrators are beating people!”

”They’re killing people! They’re killing people! Oh, my god!”

People were screaming all sorts of things as they shoved their way back, the crush of bodies making it even harder to move.

”Don’t push!” Fang Gang shouted, his head held high as he was helplessly swept backward by the crowd’s momentum.

”Everyone, stop pushing! Someone fell down!”

”Help them up, quick! Don’t trample anyone!”

”Fuck, are these really base administrators? They’re a bunch of goddamn bandits!”

”They didn’t even say a word after coming in, just started smashing, beating, and looting! Seriously, this is no way to handle things.”

”Yeah, what the hell is going on? Why did they just charge in and start beating us?”

Those stuck near the entrance had the worst of it. They bore the brunt of the assault, pinned to the ground by the men in red armbands, who methodically smashed their hands and feet.

Fang Gang and the others were trapped in the center of the room. Unable to advance and finding it nearly impossible to retreat, they could only sway and stagger along with the moving mass of people.

The commotion outside grew even louder.

Most people had no idea what was really happening; they were just caught up in the crowd’s chaotic energy.

Now, seeing people pinned to the ground and beaten by the administrators in red armbands, they panicked and began to scream in terror.

It was a chain reaction. The panicked people, like ducks flailing in a boiling pot, scrambled to escape.

A mob of people scrambled backward for their lives, and the terrified screams of those being trampled could be heard intermittently.

A few hotheads grabbed whatever was handy—tables, chairs, benches—and hurled them directly at the men in red armbands.

The two sides began to brawl, and the scene descended into total chaos.

Yang Yiling watched the unruly mob with a look of pure fury, a mix of humiliation and rage. ”Arrest all the ringleaders!” he commanded coldly. ”Let’s see who dares to resist then!”

”Where’s that guy named Fang Gang? I heard he’s the one who started this! Drag him out and restrain him! We’ll wait for orders from above on how to deal with him.”

”Captain Yang, isn’t this getting out of hand?” his deputy asked, looking nervously at the escalating chaos.

’Hasn’t this gone too far?’

’If this spirals completely out of control, who’s going to clean up this mess for us?’

Besides, it had now escalated into an all-out brawl. No one who joined the fray would come out unscathed.

Looking at the bloodbath, the deputy felt a pit in his stomach. A muscle in his eye began to twitch uncontrollably.

He had a strong, sinking feeling that this was about to go very, very wrong.

”Then what do you suggest we do?” Yang Yiling’s youthful face was a mask of undisguised rage and arrogant brutality. ”These people won’t listen to reason! Other than force, do you have a better way to control them?”

The deputy had no answer.

’He just knew this was going to end badly. But with the situation so out of control, it seemed there was no turning back.’

”Everyone, let’s team up! These base administrators have gone crazy!”

”W-we have to stick together!”

”They’re holding iron rods! They’re going to beat us all to death! Fight them!”

”Fight them!”

Just then, two reckless youths grit their teeth and lunged forward.

The men in red armbands panicked, swinging their clubs wildly into the crowd.

A few young men took the blows to their arms, the impact sending searing pain through them, but they pushed through it. The agitated crowd surged forward, and a free-for-all erupted.

Some wrestled clubs away to fight back; others used their body weight to pin their opponents to the ground, pummeling them with a blind flurry of fists.

This was the scene of chaos that greeted Gu Chen and Lu Wei when they arrived, hurrying behind Assistant Hu.

That little bastard Yang Yiling was livid, his face practically green with rage. He stood to the side with his arms crossed, shouting, ”Ready your superpowers!”

Gu Chen’s expression turned thunderous.

”Who are you preparing to use superpowers on?”

’This goddamn bastard. As if things weren’t bad enough, he’s actually ordering his team to fight with superpowers?’

’How many people does he want to get killed?’

Assistant Hu, wiping sweat from his brow as he hurried over, tried to placate him. ”Captain Yang, don’t be rash.”

Yang Yiling turned and saw Gu Chen, Lu Wei, and Zhai Ruobai, and his expression soured even further. ”What are you doing here?”

’Damn Gu Chen. He shows up everywhere.’

’The man was his polar opposite; nothing good ever happened when he was around.’

Yang Yiling glared at Gu Chen, his face sullen. When he saw the line of team members standing behind Gu Chen, his expression darkened even more.

’That shameless bastard Gu Chen, he really was a master at poaching people.’

’More than half of the people standing behind him now used to be his own men.’

’Wu, Qiangzi, Kuang Jie, Xiao Gao... which one of them hadn’t been his subordinate in the past?’

’Just because of a few bad decisions he made in the Tongjiang Tunnel a year ago, every last one of them had betrayed him and defected to Team A.’

’It was outrageous.’

’To err is human, after all. Could they guarantee they would never make a mistake themselves?’

’What’s so scary about making a mistake? As long as you can admit it and fix it, isn’t that enough?’

’But no, these guys had to be so dramatic, not giving him a single chance to make things right. They all bailed for Team A in one go, leaving him the commander of a hollowed-out Group B—the biggest joke in the entire organization.’

’The memory of all that past bullshit made a fresh wave of rage well up inside him, threatening to erupt.’