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Chapter 258: 217, Why Did They Leave_1
Chapter 258: 217, Why Did They Leave_1
Chapter 258: Chapter 217, Why Did They Leave_1
Another car fleet?
Upon hearing this, the other leaders also looked at the subordinate who just rushed in.
They all nodded, which meant they came in to talk about the same thing.
Ma Zhiyong motioned for everyone to be quiet and asked, “Which shelter did they come from and how many people are there?”
The subordinate replied, “We’re not quite sure, the convoy didn’t come close. It consisted of trucks and business vehicles, quite a lot.”
“How many vehicles?”
“We can’t give an exact number, but at least ten or so.”
Another one behind him added, “There were five to six trucks, interspersed with buses and business vehicles. They all had reinforced steel plates and steel bars, it seems like they came from a large shelter.”
Five or six trucks and so many business vehicles.
If they were only transporting people, there wouldn’t be any need for trucks.
If they encounter zombie herds, they would directly rush into the cargo box.
This kind of grandeur seemed unlikely to be from a small shelter.
But it seemed that no shelter known to them was capable of such a scale.
“Could they be the people from the auto repair shop? They seemed quite interested in this matter yesterday night.” The only woman guessed.
“Not sure.” Ma Zhiyong shook his head, stood up and said, “Let’s go and see who’s coming. No matter which shelter it’s from, it’s a good thing for our operation.”
When he reached the doorway, Ma Zhiyong paused his steps and reminded them, “The booty should be divided equally. It’s good for all of us.”
“Understood.”
The leaders nodded, and they all left the concrete room together.
…
The concrete room was situated in a driving school’s training ground.
The spacious yard was filled with vehicles from several shelters, with many of their members standing on the surrounding walls, peering towards the opposite side.
Ma Zhiyong and his group reached the wall and looked towards the distance along the road.
The first thing that caught their eyes, was a military truck reinforced with steel plates, equipped with a ram at the front and the windshield being a grid of steel bars.
This truck had been heavily modified into a steel beast.
Behind the truck, was a long convoy of buses, business vehicles, and more trucks.
“Oh dear, they must have forcefully passed through the downtown,” exclaimed one of the shelter leaders.
The others immediately understood – the trucks were stained with blood and chunks of rotting flesh, and their tyres left behind clear bloody marks.
Moreover, they probably charged straight through the downtown with this route.
When did such a powerful shelter appear?
The others looked at Ma Zhiyong.
The man assigned as the disaster commander by the broadcasting station was also looking surprised.
It seemed, the strength of this convoy was even greater than that of Flame God Shelter.
At least, they wouldn’t choose such an approach, to charge straight through.
“Did you ever hear of such a shelter?”
“Their goal in coming here is likely the same as ours. They should attract the zombies, we might be able to take over the factory area.”
The female leader gave a cold chuckle, “Do you think they are fools, to just go and attract zombies and let us take advantage? We should pray that they won’t use us as cannon fodder.”
“Regardless, we should stick together. Our numbers are not inferior to theirs.”
The people started whispering and arguing.
Suddenly, someone yelled, “The convoy is turning, all of them are turning, they aren’t coming our way.”
The talking individuals immediately looked up, to see the first vehicle of the convoy, turn around at the intersection and returned the way it came.
Then, it was followed by the remaining vehicles, turning around one by one.
They left.
The area instantly went quiet.
And then it got noisy again.
“Oh dear, why did they leave?”
“Were they just passing by, or did they discover some danger and thus left immediately?”
“They can’t just leave, without them, how are we going to fight?”
Just now, they all agreed that they needed to stick together and get the other group to put in more effort.
But, it seemed this group didn’t plan to cooperate with them at all.
They behaved quite differently from what they had guessed, and left before even coming over.
If they left, wouldn’t they be completely helpless?
Ma Zhiyong immediately said, “Hurry, go chase after them and ask what’s up.”
He added immediately after, “Be polite, don’t provoke them.”
Two individuals nodded, swiftly got into an off-road vehicle.
They sped out of the training ground, chasing after the convoy.
…
Inside the convoy, the interior of a passenger bus.
Li Yahong curiously asked, “Why are we turning back, aren’t we supposed to attack that factory area?”
Wu Heng replied, “They only brought over a hundred people. If we go, we would have to take care of them.”
When the convoy was close, he had asked Xiao Xiao to scout ahead.
There were just so many people in the entire training field, and they certainly lacked the ability to take over that factory area.
If they got involved, they would have to carry them, and there could even be disagreements over dividing the spoils afterwards.
Rather than that, they could turn back first and wait for them to leave.
After that, they could move towards the factory area themselves and occupy it.
“Oh~! They discussed so long and gathered such few people.” Li Yahong said and continued asking, “So are we just going back now?”
“We’ll head back first, once they leave, we’ll then attack the factory area.”
Through the view of the specter, they saw the map on the table.
Combined with a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding buildings, they also found the location of the factory area.
“Oh, alright then.” Li Yahong said.
At this moment, voices came again from the walkie-talkie.
“Sister Hong, they dispatched a vehicle and followed us.”
Li Yahong pressed the walkie-talkie, “What do they want?”
The reply from the walkie-talkie, “They are gesturing continuously, like they have something to say.”
Li Yahong looked at Wu Heng, who was sitting in the co-driver seat, continued to hold the walkie-talkie and said, “Slow down the convoy, ask directly what they want to say. Be careful.”
“Roger!”
The convoy began to slow down, and the window of the rear vehicle was lowered. While maintaining a steady pace, it started to communicate with the following vehicle.
Soon, the walkie-talkie transmitted new information.
“Sister Hong, they asked if we were here to join the factory clearance, and they asked why we were leaving.”
Li Yahong said, “We were just passing by, we don’t know about the factory area.”
“Roger!”
Then, the walkie-talkie sent out a voice again, “We’ve told them, we’ve already left.”
Li Yahong pressed the walkie-talkie again, “Keep moving on, turn right at the intersection up ahead, and then slow down.”
The convoy once again picked up speed, moving away from the area.
…
The driving school.
Off-road vehicles returned, stopping amidst a cloud of dust.
Everyone saw the convoy leave, obviously, negotiations had not been successful.
But despite this, Ma Zhiyong and others walked over and asked, “What did they say?”
The car door opened, but the two men inside didn’t answer, they just sat there dumbfounded.
“What did they say? Why the stunned silence?”
The man in the driver’s seat came back to his senses and said, “They said they were just passing by, that they had other things to do and needed to leave in a hurry. They didn’t know anything about the factory.”
They didn’t know?
Then what would the convoy do over here?
Looking for a new shelter location?
Just as the group leaders were furrowing their brows in thought.
The man in the driver’s seat continued, “They weren’t hauling goods in their truck?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“When we were about to leave, the truck accelerated away. The wind blew open part of the back cover, and we got a glimpse inside, it was full of…” as he spoke, his face took on an even grimmer expression.
Impatient, Ma Zhiyong prompted him, “Full of what, spit it out.”
“It seemed like skeletons. Packed tightly together and dressed in ancient armor, wielding weapons. When the cover was blown open, one of the skeleton heads even turned and looked at us, with blue light gleaming in its eye sockets.”
Everyone frowned at this.
Ma Zhiyong looked at the other man, “You saw it too.”
The man nodded in confirmation.
Skeletons clad in armor, bearing weapons.
But since both men who went with the convoy reported the same thing, obviously, they weren’t hallucinating or seeing things.
In this world, the possibility of skeletons standing up is not unthinkable.
A female leader thought for a moment and said, “I remember the leader of the auto repair shop is called King Yama, right? There was a time when people mentioned skeleton monsters appearing near the repair shop, but there hasn’t been any news about it since.”
Everyone turned to look at her.
“Are you suggesting those people are from the auto repair shop?”
The woman shook her head, “It’s just a suspicion. But they obviously had no intention of cooperating with us. Whether or not they’re from the auto repair shop doesn’t really matter now since they’ve already left.”
Ma Zhiyong helplessly responded, “It seems like we’ve all made a fruitless trip. I’ll continue to assign people to monitor the factory. If the zombies leave or if we find a better solution, I’ll notify everyone.”
“Well, there’s not much else we can do. Next time, let’s just communicate the number of people coming directly, to avoid wasted trips.” Someone suggested.
“Hmm,” came the response.
Although they were frustrated, there was no other feasible solution.
They needed to return to their shelter before nightfall.
With a few more exchanges, the leaders called their people, got into their vehicles, and each went their separate ways.
Pretty soon, the entire driving school was deserted.
…
Half an hour later.
The convoy returned from afar and took a look at the now empty driving school as they drove past.
These people left rather promptly.
The convoy did not slow down, but continued directly towards the factory location on the map.
Soon, word was transmitted from the lead vehicle that they were approaching their destination. Through the bars shielding the windows, the sign of ‘Wanyang Transportation Group’ could even be seen on the factory’s main entrance.
Transportation Group?
That sounded like a road construction company!
The convoy pulled up some distance away. Through the wide-open gate, they could see zombies wandering around the factory premises.
Wu Heng let Xiao Xiao out again and said, “Xiao Xiao, go check out that factory. Look out for any dangers or strange zombies, then come back and tell me.”
“Okay, Uncle!” Xiao Xiao agreed, slipping through the car and disappearing.
About half an hour later.
Xiao Xiao returned, her transparent little hand pointing to the right of the factory, “There are two ugly monsters in that building. One is the crawling kind, and the other one looks a bit like Big Head.”
Then, she pointed at the Scary Claw Monster Skeleton and the Big Head Skeleton in the passenger car.
Two Mutated Zombies?
And one of them was a Big Head?
Xiao Xiao tilted her head in thought, then added, “But it seems a bit different from Big Head.”
Different?
Wu Heng said, “Come here, let me see.”
Xiao Xiao flew into his body, and the image of the factory appeared in his mind.
…
Upon entering the factory gate.
The first thing to greet the eyes was a yellow decorative stone, five or six meters high, with the red characters ‘Wanyang’ written on it.
The factory’s total area was even larger than it had appeared from the outside.
Office buildings, dormitories, workshops, all presented in rows of structures.
On the cement road, there were dozens of different kinds of vehicles.
Trucks, cranes, and even engineering vehicles with extendable ladders.
Looking at the factory, it seemed to be a major local industry.
The number of zombies within the factory was quite substantial.
Roving in groups of three to five, the count was even higher than what they had speculated about at the Flame God Shelter.
Xiao Xiao flew past each building.
Checking the situation inside.
When she flew through an office building.
She saw two Mutated Zombies.
One was a Scary Claw Monster. It had a large body, greyish-white skin, and was quadrupedal. Its fingers were thick and sharp, like beastly claws.
The other was a strange Big Head Zombie.
The defining feature was still its enormous head.
The zombie’s shoulders and chest seemed to have been swallowed up by the pus-filled mass of its head, leaving only its small arms and its torso and lower body.
As it moved, its body shook slightly, but it was no longer clumsy.
The next moment, the Big Head Zombie suddenly turned its head, its closed eyes seeming to gaze at Xiao Xiao’s location. Its body shuddered as if making a roaring sound.
Startled, Xiao Xiao flew through the wall and ran away.
Was it a Level 3 zombie?