Chen Wan wiped the blood from her face with the back of her hand, a knot of unease tightening in her chest. If things kept progressing the way they were, she wasn't sure even a Level 3 RV could hold up against zombies with actual intelligence. The moment they were settled somewhere safe, she needed to sit down with Yi Yi and talk seriously about upgrading it.
Back at the Funan City base, another wave of zombies was tightening around the perimeter. These were nothing like the shambling, slow-moving ones from the early days. Level 1 zombies had essentially been slow-moving target practice. Level 2 zombies were a different matter entirely — far more agile, and operating with partial intelligence. They could dodge. They could find angles. The base's outermost machine gun emplacements, which had been devastatingly effective before, were now doing little more than mowing down the front rows while the ones behind adapted and pressed forward.
Significant numbers had already broken through the first defensive line and were pushing against the second, which relied on flamethrowers. The flamethrowers looked fearsome — but their practical kill radius was limited, and only those zombies who came within direct range were stopped. A substantial number vaulted past them and reached the third line, the minefield, which remained the most effective barrier of all. But once zombies were blown apart by the mines, the ones behind them simply clambered over the debris and scaled their way into Zones C and D.
Zones C and D functioned as the base's fourth defensive line. The time they bought was crucial — it gave everyone in Zones B and A a window to reinforce their positions or, if necessary, evacuate.
Outside, the sky was lit orange with fire. In Zone A, the villa residents had begun cracking their doors open, trying to gauge what was happening and, more urgently, to read what the military intended to do. They needed to know whether they were being protected — or whether, when the order came to leave, they would simply be left behind.
In the Commander's office, Major General Yao entered at a brisk pace to deliver her report: "A significant number of zombies have already broken through three of the base's defensive lines. Do you want us to hold Zone A and B at all costs, or begin evacuation immediately? I've already had scouts check the rear gate — it's a quieter access point, and so far there are no large zombie concentrations in that area."
The Commander considered it for only a moment before giving his answer. "Notify all scientific, medical, and specialized technical personnel to assemble at the rear gate immediately. Arrange the best armored vehicles to transport them. As for other dependents and non-essential personnel — don't notify them. There isn't time."
"Understood. I'll have your personal guard escort you to the rear gate now and assign the base's strongest squadron to secure your safety."
"Good. Yao — once everything is in order, come to the rear gate yourself. Don't delay. I know it's hard to leave people behind, but these zombies are something else entirely. Some sacrifice is unavoidable." He was already moving toward the door as he spoke. "Don't let the soldiers holding the line in Zones C and D hear anything about what we're doing. We can't afford unrest."
Major General Yao pressed her jaw tight and answered: "Understood. It will be handled. You have my word."
"Good."
Major General Yao issued her orders quickly — specifying exactly which personnel were to be included in the evacuation, and sending runners to notify them at once. The vehicles at the rear gate would wait exactly fifteen minutes. When that time was up, it didn't matter who you were or what you could offer — the gate would close. Jiang Yanxin and the others were not on the list.
In the Zone A villa, Jiang Yanxin and her family had come down to the living room. Yi Yi waited quietly for news from Chen Wan's end while Jiang Yanxin sat between her parents, doing her best to soothe them through each distant rumble of artillery that made them flinch.
Jiang Wanning held Yang Yang in her arms. The little girl had buried her face against her auntie's chest, both small hands clamped firmly over her own ears to muffle the noise. She had been thinking about her mama and Auntie Qin Ke, whom she hadn't seen all day, and was quietly hoping they hadn't run into anything bad.
In Zones C and D, chaos had already taken hold. Zombies were dropping over the high perimeter walls and descending on the tent rows below. Soldiers fired upward at the walls in a desperate attempt to hold the line, but there was no stopping the flood.
More and more zombies poured into the tent districts. Liu Zi watched from his position and made to charge forward into the fray. Zhao Lei grabbed his arm. "Are you out of your mind? That's suicide."
"Those are civilians in there — they don't have weapons. If we don't go, every one of them is going to die." Liu Zi struggled against the grip, voice tight.
Nearby, the red-eyed squad leader of their twenty-man unit had heard enough. He looked at Liu Zi and made his decision. "You've got guts, kid. Honestly? I'm sick of hiding, too. Better to go down swinging than stand here watching. Anyone who wants to follow us — fall in. Anyone who doesn't — stay in the corridor. No one's forcing you."
"I'm in too!"
"Count me in — let's take these monsters down!"
"All right, lock and load — let's go!" the squad leader bellowed. Every single one of the twenty soldiers under his command fell in without hesitation, and they charged into the narrow tent corridors of Zone D. "Take them down — move!"
"Move!"
The soldiers fought with everything they had. When the rifles ran dry and there was no time to reload, they switched to sidearms. When the sidearms ran empty, they drew their knives and triangular military bayonets.
Twenty soldiers went to war in the cramped aisles of Zone D, eyes red with battle-fury. Three fell in the opening minutes — but the remaining seventeen only grew fiercer with every minute that passed. And something else happened: when the civilians of Zone D saw soldiers charging in to fight for them, many of them stopped running. They pushed back toward the soldiers, tearing legs off tables and chairs in the chaos, gripping them like clubs and swinging at zombie necks with everything they had.
When people stopped fleeing and started fighting, the balance shifted. The zombies still had numbers, but the base's three defensive lines had already thinned their ranks considerably, and Zones C and D were densely populated. Sheer human mass could hold its own against them — the only thing that had been killing people before was the panic, the impulse to run before they'd even caught sight of a zombie.
Watching Liu Zi's squad fight like cornered animals lit a fire in the other units stationed in Zones C and D. One by one, they rolled up their sleeves and threw themselves into the fight. People were still dying — that couldn't be stopped — but the situation was measurably less catastrophic than it had been minutes ago. In Zones B and A, fifty or sixty zombies had managed to break through, but the numbers were small enough that most were cut down quickly, with only a handful slipping through the chaos into the quieter streets beyond.
The screams started close to Yi Yi's villa — close enough to make the air feel different. Yi Yi walked to the living room, picked up one of the chairs, and snapped a leg off with a single clean twist. The break left the end jagged and splintered into uneven points. She handed one leg to Jiang Yanxin, broke off two more, and passed them to Jiang Zhao Yuan and Ye Lan, then kept the last one for herself. Jiang Wanning had Yang Yang in her arms, her hands already full.
"Help me — please, don't bite me — I'll give you anything, please, don't—"
The voice from the neighboring villa cut off mid-scream, replaced by silence. Moments later, the zombies that had finished there turned their attention to Yi Yi's villa and began moving toward it with purpose. Not one zombie — two of them, a male and a female, walking in tandem.
Ye Lan pressed herself against Jiang Zhao Yuan through the floor-to-ceiling glass of the living room, watching the two figures approach outside, her grip on her husband's arm tight enough to whiten her knuckles. Jiang Wanning pulled Yang Yang closer against her chest. It wasn't hard to understand why the sight shook them so badly — Jiang Wanning's family had arrived at the base almost the moment it was established, thanks to already living in Funan City. They'd had the luxury of walls and structure from the very beginning. Most of them had barely seen a zombie in the flesh.
"These are almost certainly Level 2," Yi Yi said, her voice even. "Faster and smarter than what you've seen before. Stay sharp, everyone."
Outside, the two zombies spotted the people through the glass. They lunged.
"Everyone step back." Yi Yi took her position in front of the coffee table, the jagged chair leg raised in both hands.
Jiang Yanxin moved her parents and sister back behind the sofa, then stepped forward to stand beside Yi Yi.
Ye Lan grabbed at her daughter's arm, tears threatening to spill. Jiang Zhao Yuan straightened himself. "Yanxin — stay here. I'll go. I'm an alpha, at least."
Jiang Yanxin shook her head quickly. "I've fought zombies before. Dad, protect the others — that's what I need you to do."
She was already moving forward as she said it, taking her place at Yi Yi's side.
Jiang Wanning watched with her heart hammering, her palms damp. She had no training, no fighting experience — she couldn't help, and she knew it. All she could do was stand there and refuse to let herself look away from the two people standing between her family and whatever was coming through that door.
The zombies hit the front door — two hard impacts — then moved to the floor-length window beside it, and came through the glass.
Yi Yi went first. One kick sent the male zombie crashing backward. The female took a blow from the chair leg that drove it hard into the coffee table, where it crumpled to the floor. Yi Yi turned to deal with the male, while behind her the female zombie was already dragging itself back up, using the edge of the table for leverage.
Jiang Yanxin didn't wait for it to stand. She stepped in close and brought the chair leg down across the female zombie's spine while it was still rising. It collapsed again. She drove the jagged end into its neck, then pulled it free.
Across the room, Yi Yi had brought her chair leg down across the male zombie's spine in a single decisive blow. The zombie's head lolled to the side and it slid to the floor, motionless.
She turned and went back to finish the female. Yi Yi's raw strength was simply in a different category — one strike, and the second zombie's spine cracked beneath the impact. Neither of them moved again.
Without proper weapons, things like chair legs could really only serve as tools of last resort for anyone without exceptional strength — but the zombie numbers in Zone A remained low for the moment, and Yi Yi and Jiang Yanxin could manage what came at them.
While the soldiers in Zones C and D were still fighting to hold the line, a very different scene was unfolding at Zone A's rear gate. A large crowd had already gathered there — people piling into the armored military trucks without ceremony, focused entirely on getting out and making their way to the base in Jing City. Major General Yao was directing soldiers to load the essential supplies for the journey. People who lived near the rear gate had caught wind of the evacuation and come running, and the whole area had descended into barely controlled disorder.
The Commander sat in his private armored car, watching the time. When he judged it sufficient, he turned to his personal guard. "Go tell Major General Yao — it's time. We're not waiting any longer. The longer we stay, the worse this gets. Let's move."
"Yes, sir!" The guard went immediately to notify Major General Yao, and the convoy began to roll — even as more people came sprinting toward the vehicles, shouting, reaching out. The departing trucks ignored all of it.
"Wait — please wait, I'm a satellite technology researcher, just ten more seconds—" But the man's cries went unheard. Others who had grabbed their bags and rushed out found themselves watching military vehicle after military vehicle disappear down the road. A few tried to grab hold of the last trucks — and failed to stop them.
"They left. They actually left us. We're expendable — all of us."
"You think we don't know that? Go find whatever soldiers are left or we're all dead — all of us."
"Right — right, go."
The crowd scattered toward Zone A's main gate, desperate to find whoever was still armed and willing to fight.
Two squads remained at the Zone A gate. Their squad leader looked at the rushing crowd with a furrowed brow. "Why aren't you in your villas? Of all the times to be out here causing trouble—"
"We're not causing trouble — your Commander just evacuated through the rear gate and left us all behind. What do we do now?" The man who spoke wore glasses and had been, before the world ended, a professor of microbiology.
"That's impossible. The Commander would never abandon us. Stop trying to shake morale, or I'll deal with you myself." The squad leader had already reached for his weapon.
"I'm telling the truth. We all saw it." The people around him broke in, all talking over one another, confirming the story.
The squad leader gritted his teeth and fired a single shot into the air. "Anyone who wants to live follows my orders. Everyone back to your villas. If you want to find a way to die, I can't stop you — but I won't be saving you either. Understood?"
"We are Funan City's top specialists — you have to save us, you have to, people like us are the ones who rebuild civilization—"
The soldiers were already stretched to breaking point from fighting zombies, and now this — on top of the news that their own leadership had fled. Whatever patience they'd had for the entitled residents of Zone A had evaporated entirely.
"Why can't you die? People in Zones C and D have been dying by the dozen. In the apocalypse, there is no such thing as someone too important to die. Say one more word, and I won't need the zombies — I'll deal with you myself." The squad leader's voice was flat and cold.
The so-called elite took several collective steps back — but they were smart enough not to actually return to their villas. Instead, they crowded into the villa nearest to the soldiers' position, reasoning that when the moment came to run, they'd be as close as possible.