Chapter 304: Chapter 304: Rescue Mission in Qingyuan
However, as Xiaoyun\'s army traveled closer and closer to the city, it was dead silent.
The fog was all over the city, blocking visibility to the point that everyone could only see a hundred feet in front of them.
"Shit... This is not a good sign." .
Despite the signs, Xiaoyun knew he had to continue, as he still had high hopes that Zhen Ren would hold on long enough.
After driving all the way to the entrance of the city, there were already several bodies lying on the floor, with a few zombies on top of the bodies digging inside the flesh.
Without needing Xiaoyun to say anything, several of the soldiers that were on the first bus opened fire and took care of it easily.
Soon, all the vehicles were forced to stop as several abandoned car blocked their entrances.
"It looks like we\'ll need to travel on foot... Actually, Lingang, can you go scout ahead, and I\'ll stay behind to clear these cars?"
"Yes, sir."
As the transmission ended, the army split into two, and Lingang led his brigade ahead.
Ten minutes later...
Just as Xiaoyun\'s army finally moved the abandoned cars to the side, gunshots started appearing in the distance.
Immediately after, Lingang\'s troops emerged from the fog as they began retreating towards Xiaoyun\'s army.
"Lingang, what\'s the situation ahead?" Xiaoyun asked over the transmission.
"The entire street ahead is full of zombies... We might need more firepower."
Hearing the urgency in Lingang\'s voice, Xiaoyun turned the transmission over to Ningjing.
"Ningjing, I need you to assist Lingang from the side."
"Yes, sir."
As Ningjing\'s brigade began separating away from the army, Xiaoyun suddenly had a bad feeling.
"All Majors, be ready to fight zombies from behind——"
Before Xiaoyun could finish his sentence, gunshots started appearing from behind.
"Commander Xiaoyun, we\'re under attack!" One of the majors holding the back transmitted.
"Shit! We\'re surrounded..."
Looking forward in the North and backward in the South, Xiaoyun could hear both gunshots and zombies roaring from both sides.
However, with the East and West being office buildings, there was no other way to go besides picking one of the directions.
With no time to waste, Xiaoyun immediately switches the transmission back to Lingang.
"Lingang, I grant you permission to spearhead the charge with the tanks, effective immediately——"
"Yes, sir!" Lingang excitedly yelled back over the transmission as if he had been waiting for this moment.
With a loud, roaring sound engine running, several of the tanks that were in between the buses and trucks immediately drove to the front.
"Everyone, get back inside your vehicles! Follow behind the tanks!" Xiaoyun issued over the general transmission.
Before Xiaoyun even finished speaking, all the soldiers immediately began rushing back to their buses, not wanting to stay here any longer as more and more zombies began flooding in from all sides.
Three minutes later...
As they approached the training field at Qingyuan, more and more zombies were on the roads, trying to block Xiaoyun\'s army from getting closer.
But the tanks were able to crush them easily, with the ones that made it past it being crushed by the APCs and heavily armored trucks right behind them.
"Why is it so quiet? Where is everyone?" Xiaoyun murmured as they arrived inside the training field.
There was not a single person in sight, and the gate was on the floor, with signs of being overruled by zombies as it had hundreds of scratch marks.
Oddly, there were almost several large bombing marks on the floor, as if someone triggered some massive explosion despite the only explosives that Zhen Ren could get his hands on were propane, grenades, and RPGs.
"Maybe they hid inside the buildings?" Tianci suggested as she sat in the driver\'s seat.
"Maybe... But there\'s no way they don\'t give any signal to us when we already drove all the way here."
Despite saying it out loud, Xiaoyun quickly shook his head as he didn\'t want to believe both Zhen Ren\'s brigade and Zhen Ti\'s troops were all wiped out.
"Everyone, clear the area and set up a defensive parameter. Lingang, you go inside the buildings and look for survivors."
"Yes, sir."
---
As soldiers got off the buses and started clearing all the zombies that followed behind, Lingang\'s brigade began moving inside one of the buildings.
However, much to Lingang\'s disappointment, the only things he found were bodies of fallen comrades.
Some even turned into zombies, which shocked a few of the newer recruits who had never seen such brutal scenes.
However, the veteran soldiers didn\'t hesitate for a second, as their rifles quickly relieved them of their misery.
Just as Lingang thought the whole building was going to be full of bodies, oddly enough, there was not a single sign of people running up the stairs at all.
After every floor was searched, Lingang\'s soldier was only able to find fifty-four bodies, with twenty of them being civilians, all on the first floor with guns still strapped on their bodies.
"Where did they all go? Why did this group of people stay behind here?"
Lingang couldn\'t think of an explanation and decided to head back to the open training field.
"How\'s the building inside?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as the soldiers had finished cleaning up all the zombies that were chasing after them.
"There are a few bodies inside the building, but they didn\'t run up to hide or anything... I\'m not sure where they went."
Hearing Lingang\'s answer, Xiaoyun was a little surprised. He was expecting some of Zhen Ren\'s troop to be at least hiding somewhere, like on the roof.
At the same time, he was relieved as it meant they were able to get away somehow.
"We can put Zhen Ren on hold for now... I need you to find where Zhen Ti and all the civilians in the city went."
Xiaoyun paused for a second to think where to go, then continued.
"Go to the mayor\'s office first, then the area surrounding it... Make sure you bring enough ammo for this."
"Yes, sir!"
As Lingang headed out of the temporary HQ tent, Xiaoyun turned his attention to the Qingyuan map on the table.
"Where could they go if the only exit here is the main gate? There\'s no back entrance, and zombies would have surrounded the whole parameter..."
After staring at the map for almost several minutes, Xiaoyun still couldn\'t come up with any idea.
"Maybe they had some sort of tunnel that connected to the outside? Or like an underground wastewater tunnel?" Tianci suddenly suggested.
"Tunnel? They would have to dig for an entire month to reach somewhere far enough to be out of the zombie range in the city.
And the ones in the city are so small that they can\'t even fit a person inside. The big ones are only in the movie and in the West."
As Xiaoyun explained his reasoning, an idea suddenly popped up in his head.
"Tianci, can you call Ningjing and all the Major to come inside?"
"Yes, sir."
Just as Tianci left the room, an loud aircraft could be heard in the distance.
Xiaoyun immediately went out of the tent to check, only to see a helicopter flying towards them.
"Commander Xiaoyun, should we shoot down the helicopter?" One of the majors asked in the transmission.
"No need... There\'s only one group that has planes down here." Xiaoyun murmured as everyone watched the helicopter descending.
After the helicopter steadily descended to the flat training field, a soldier from the helicopter began climbing down a ladder that the helicopter had dropped.
"Who are you?" Xiaoyun asked out loud as several soldiers immediately surrounded the soldiers that made it to the ground.
"I\'m Lieutenant Chen Jianguo from Shaoguan. You must be Commander Xiaoyun, right?"
"Everyone lower your weapon. It\'s a friendly."
As the soldiers moved to the side, the two moved closer to have a handshake.
"You guys must have saved Zhen Ren\'s troop. I must say thank you."
Xiaoyun bowed down in gratitude, which surprised Jianguo as he didn\'t even say anything yet.
"How do you know that?" Jianguo curiously asked.
"There\'s no one else who could save them besides you guys... Are they safe right now?" Xiaoyun asked with a slight urgency in his voice.
"Well, yeah, they are in our base right now."
Hearing Jianguo\'s answer, Xiaoyun let out a big sigh of relief. But more questions arose in his head as he couldn\'t understand how they would react in time to save them.
Jianguo noticed the confusion on Xiaoyun\'s face and started explaining.
"One of your brave soldiers sneaked past the zombie blockade and made it to our base. Then, after a few discussions, general Yiming decided to send a few tanks and trucks to get everyone out.
We\'re able to get past the blockade and get everyone inside easily... Well, most of them were able to get on, but some of them perished when a bunch of new mutants came out of nowhere."
"New mutants?"