"Ka la la …"
The metal bridge that once carried the hopes of 100,000 people had been corroded, and the deformed metal bridge could no longer bear the weight of the bridge. It broke apart and fell into the river that was littered with corpses. There were still people screaming and screaming at the side of the river. The mournful cries reached the ears of the people on the riverbank, but no one moved. They all looked at Zhang Xiao Qiang who was sitting in the military vehicle.
Zhang Xiaoqiang first looked at the zombies on the other side of the river, and after a while, he came back to his senses. He saw that everyone was looking at him, and he could also hear the screams of the people below. Zhang Xiaoqiang hesitated for a while, and finally said, "Help them …."
There were quite a number of people crying for help, most of them had broken legs, and some of them were lucky enough to be uninjured. Both sides were a natural barrier, and they hoped to get help. They thought that they would die for sure, but who knew that Zhang Xiaoqiang would kill the Z2, and the road to survival was opened up. These people who wanted to die finally had a chance to live, but they did not have that chance.
They held onto that one in a million chance, and hoped that the people crossing the river would be able to save them. In the midst of their hoarse cries, there were finally heads on the other side of the river. Seeing the heads, they screamed even louder, until an arrow pierced through their chest.
The screams from the river became more and more depressing, and the zombies on the other side of the river started to rush towards the bridge. Seeing the dense horde of zombies rushing towards the bridge, Zhang Xiaoqiang turned his head and said to Huang Quan, "Let's go …."
They had finally escaped from the nightmarish gathering place, and everyone was glad that they were able to live and move towards a new beginning. Only Zhang Xiaoqiang knew that this was just the beginning.
Behind them, countless zombies were attracted by the smell of blood, and rushed into the river. Countless zombies were washed away by the current, and countless zombies fell on the riverbank, and were crushed to death by the zombies that fell from behind. A small number of zombies only managed to get their first bite of fresh meat, and were buried by their comrades.
There were a few Z2 Embryonic Z-Types with their D2 bodyguards waiting quietly in the center of the base. Behind them, the zombies were like ants marching towards the base. Occasionally, one could see a Z-Type riding a D2 zombie. The endless horde stretched towards WH City ….
The long team was moving forward with difficulty on the concrete road before the apocalypse. From time to time, some people would leave the team and run into the nearby forests, fields, and houses to look for food. Some people never returned, while others would return with enough food to exchange for a new identity and become an official member of the team.
The convoy accepted all the food offered by the poor people, regardless of whether the food had gone bad or not, or whether the food was still stained with blood.
No one knew how many people had left the team and disappeared in the wilderness. No one knew how many people had left the team to find their own way of survival. No one knew how many starving corpses were burned by the corpse collection team at the back every day.
To this, everyone chose to ignore it. They just moved forward, forward, and forward. If they could not endure it, they would fall to the side of the road and become a corpse.
As for the corpses on the side of the road, Zhang Xiaoqiang no longer cared about them. After counting, Zhang Xiaoqiang's hands were stained with the blood of tens of thousands of people. Those who were beheaded, those who betrayed the base, those who were killed by him by the lake, those who were shot by Li Zhi in the small village, all of them were on his head.
Zhang Xiaoqiang had never thought of being a hero, nor did he think that after saving the lives of tens of thousands of people, he would become a butcher who had killed tens of thousands of people. In the past, although his subordinates were not close to him, they were not afraid of him. But now, whenever he appeared, many people would be scared to the point of not daring to breathe. This made Zhang Xiaoqiang very helpless. He also realized that for some reason, his body seemed to be filled with a faint smell of blood. He did not know if it was a psychological reason, but sometimes with just a slight frown, it could make the soldiers beside him tremble in fear.
It was already the afternoon of the second day. It had already been 24 hours since they had escaped from the base. However, the speed of the convoy was not fast. The number of people killed by Zhang Xiaoqiang in the base was more than ten thousand. This included those who had betrayed the base and those who had attacked the pier, as well as those who had been killed when they had entered the base.
After two long-distance migrations, including the survivors who had been transferred to the island, there were about twenty thousand people. About thirteen thousand people had died in the base or had been captured by the zombies after fleeing. About ten thousand people had died under the bridge or had been killed by Li Zhi. There were also those who had sought other ways of survival, and those who had died in the wilderness. Based on the current situation, the size of the convoy was about seventy thousand people, which was exactly half of the population when they had entered the base.
In other words, during this retreat, the base had lost around fifty thousand people. Moreover, it was not just that. It must be known that Zhang Xiaoqiang had brought back thousands of people from the Tian Xing Continent.
Seventy thousand people was only half of the total population. However, migrating over a distance of two to three hundred kilometers was a disaster for a group of survivors who did not have the tools to hand over. The distance between the front and back of the convoy had reached tens of kilometers. The vanguard had already reached the edge of the small town that Huang Quan had recovered, while the rear guard troops were only less than twenty kilometers away from the base.
To be precise, if they had not obtained the natural moat that was more than ten meters in depth and height, they would have only been four hours away from the vanguard of the zombies.
According to the report of the reconnaissance troops, at the exit of the base, the sea of zombies had temporarily stopped after using tens of thousands of zombies to fill the river. This was good news for them. However, some people saw that the zombies seemed to have begun to regroup in the base. More and more scattered zombies had been gathered, and more zombies had entered the base through the walls.
This made Zhang Xiaoqiang understand that the zombies' retreat was only temporary. Once the zombies had once again formed a large scale, the Z-Type zombies would lead the sea of zombies to cross the bridge and pounce towards them. At that time, unless they crossed the river, they would forever be followed by the zombies.
There were two paths, one was to cross the river and use the entire river as a natural moat. The other path was to escape on land and lead the zombies to another place.
The second path was a supplement to the first one. It must be known that there were not many boats along the river. Even if they tried their best, they would not be able to send seventy thousand people across the river in a few days. The zombies were just behind them, so they were back to square one. Time.
There was not enough time to send people across the river. The rest of the people would become the zombies' bait. The zombies were still a huge mountain pressing on their heads. Although they had paid a huge price to rush out of the base, the road ahead was still unpredictable. Moreover, they had to carry the burden of tens of thousands of survivors.
Not knowing if it was intentional or not, Zhang Xiaoqiang subconsciously lightened the burden on his shoulders. Those temporarily worthless poor people were the burden that he slowly lightened.
The long and arduous journey was an elimination competition for the poor people. Zhang Xiaoqiang did not replenish the food for the poor people. At most, he would provide the women and children mixed in with the poor people with the worst food. They could only eat it clean in front of them.
And this was done secretly by Zhang Huai An behind Zhang Xiaoqiang's back. Of course, Zhang Xiaoqiang knew what Zhang Huai An did. He just turned a blind eye and pretended that he did not know.
After a day, they found more than two hundred corpses on the roadside. Most of them were men who had been starved for too long in the base. Of course, there were also women and children.
In this regard, Zhang Xiaoqiang still pretended that he did not know. Food was scarce. They could not feed tens of thousands of people. There was still a long journey to the base. The consumption of food was even more massive. Even if they reached the base, after a month, the base would not be able to provide enough food to feed tens of thousands of people.
Zhang Xiao Qiang had a bottom line. Before crossing the river, there would be an elimination round. Only after everyone had crossed the river would they be treated equally. This was because there was a huge lake on the other side of the river that was filled with resources. Before that, other than the commoners and soldiers, the poor could not be bothered.
Another reason was that Zhang Xiaoqiang was forcing them. People were always afraid of the unknown. They were used to maintaining their current lifestyle. If Zhang Xiaoqiang did not force them, they would never have the courage to go to the wild to find food.
Although the arrival of the apocalypse had caused a lot of plants to wither due to lack of water, it did not mean that there was no food in the wild. There were a lot of cold weapons in the convoy. The poor people could use the supplies they found as collateral to rent.
This place was close to Wuhan City. It was an economically developed area with a relatively high population density. After several searches by the search team, 90% of the scattered zombies had been killed. Although they could not find large amounts of food, there were a lot of small supplies that the search team did not want. As long as they dared to fight those scattered zombies, they would definitely be able to find food.
Zhang Xiaoqiang was right. In this vast area, there were all kinds of supplies. Moldy food, feed from farms, leather shoes, leather bags, as long as it was leather, they could eat it. In the fields, there was rat food in the holes of field mice. In the wet areas, there were also mutated insects and small mutated beasts that did not have strong attack power.
Most people just hadn't experienced it, but once they fought for survival, then the power they would erupt with would be terrifying. The hunger of the hungry was limitless. After they erupted with their greatest desire and action, everything that could be eaten within a three kilometer radius would be plundered by the people who had gone mad with hunger.
In the beginning, some people were scared stiff and were eaten by zombies. Some people found food and were killed by their companions. Some people found food and brought others to find another way to survive. After a whole day of division and integration, they were surprised to find that the food they could find was beyond their imagination.
Although most of the food was coarse and could only be used as daily necessities, in the apocalypse, as long as they could fill their stomachs, nothing was unacceptable.
There was too much food. They could not finish it and could not bring it with them. Some people used food to plead with the convoy, hoping to get an official status. In the convoy, an official status was the same as a militia. It was the new status of the remaining 28,000 close combat soldiers. They had already been recognized by Zhang Xiaoqiang. In the future, they would be included in the reserve system to form the second line of the army.