Chapter Sixty-Seven: Entrance to the Forbidden Zone

The thunderous explosions roared like a massive tidal wave, sweeping across the cargo yard and echoing with the high-decibel sound reminiscent of a fighter jet flying low overhead. Xie Han felt his scalp go numb; the piercing intensity of the noise sent a jolt through his entire body, leaving him momentarily dazed and robbed of his senses. When his faculties finally returned, he realized that he could hear nothing at all, as if he had entered a world of absolute silence.

"Damn, that sound was insane..." Several minutes passed before Xie Han's hearing gradually recovered, prompting him to curse under his breath. Xu Qiang had it even worse—he still hadn't regained his senses, yet managed to speak, "Brother Chen, couldn’t you have warned us ahead of time? If it had been any louder, I think our ears would’ve been blown out."

Chen Liu, despite plugging his ears, hadn’t fared much better; he still felt dizzy, with stars swimming before his eyes. “Hell, I had no idea it would be this fierce. I just told the kid to tweak it, make the sound louder, but who knew it’d turn out like this?” He remembered the shrill, almost supernatural sound, which could probably be heard across half the city. Such commotion was bound to attract tens of thousands of zombies.

Their convoy wasn’t heading back to the Skyward Base, but rather to a military testing zone more than two hundred kilometers from Skyward City. Fortunately, the outbreak of the XR virus hadn’t destroyed the roads or infrastructure; most were merely a bit worn. The cargo yard had always been located on the outskirts, so the convoy didn’t have to worry about swarms of zombies suddenly appearing. Once on the elevated highway toward the southern station, the wide-open road allowed their convoy to naturally accelerate to a speed of one hundred fifty kilometers per hour.

The southern side of Skyward City differed from the east, west, and north; here, the population density was extremely low. This was partly due to the presence of the military testing area, but also related to the terrain, which was mostly fragmented sand and rock, covering hundreds of kilometers. Yet this was only surface level—Xie Han, equipped with satellite maps, knew that at the very heart of the testing zone, hundreds of square kilometers had arable land. What surprised him even more was the presence of a sizable lake connected to a small river that flowed southward.

After half an hour on the road, the convoy arrived at the junction where the military restricted zone met the highway. The entrance to the restricted zone resembled a large toll station, but with two eight-meter-tall sentry towers and a barracks capable of housing a platoon. The rumbling engines of their convoy had already alerted the zombie soldiers here; they shuffled out from the barracks and the checkpoint, gathering swiftly into a crowd of over a hundred.

Chen Liu brought the lead vehicle to a halt. Xu Qiang, manning the eight-barrel heavy machine gun, had already trained its sights on the advancing zombie soldiers. Despite his hardened demeanor, Xu Qiang felt a complicated mix of emotions as he looked at their tattered camouflage uniforms and the rusted rifles dragged by rotting hands. Three and a half years ago, these men had been proud soldiers of their homeland. Now, they were no longer soldiers, but mindless zombies.

If these were truly a hundred living soldiers, their entire convoy would have to pay dearly, perhaps losing more than half their numbers, to defeat them. But now, these hundred soldiers were mere husks, stripped of their skills and abilities, attacking only with claws and teeth like any other zombie. The threat they posed was negligible.

Xu Qiang lowered the eight-barrel heavy machine gun slightly. When the mass of zombie soldiers approached within twenty meters, he let out a furious cry and pulled the trigger without hesitation. Eight tongues of flame converged into a torrential metal storm, raining down upon the zombie soldiers. The powerful explosive rounds shredded them easily, casting a black rain of gore across the ground. In less than a minute, not a single zombie remained whole; all had been blasted to fragments, leaving nothing but heaps of sludge on the pavement.

The spinning barrels of the heavy machine gun gradually slowed to a halt, but Xu Qiang’s roar kept echoing. Xie Han noticed a few sparkling tears on Xu Qiang’s rugged face. Even in the face of zombie soldiers, Xu Qiang, a true man of steel, struggled to let go.

"Why did it have to come to this?" Xu Qiang shouted bitterly into the empty barracks after his rage had subsided.

Xie Han rose from the passenger seat and walked over to Xu Qiang, giving him a comforting pat. Calmly, he said, "Qiangzi, in the apocalypse, there are no whys. Since disaster has struck, all we can do is face it bravely." He gestured at the remains of the zombie soldiers, now little more than heaps of muck. "They were once fearless warriors, too, but an unstoppable catastrophe turned them into mindless zombies. What you did was simply release them. Isn’t it said among soldiers that twenty years later, you’ll be a hero again? Perhaps in twenty years, they’ll return as honorable soldiers."

Xu Qiang nodded, and earnestly replied, "Thank you. I just lost control for a moment—they reminded me of comrades I’ve already lost." His expression slowly returned to its usual stoic coldness. "But rest assured, Captain. Something like this will never happen to me again. I promise."

Xie Han smiled, hopping back into the passenger seat. "I consider you a brother—if I can’t trust you, who can I trust? If it were me, I’d need to vent some feelings too."

Seeing that the zombies at the entrance had been dealt with, Chen Liu was about to command the convoy forward when Xu Qiang called out, "Brother Chen, wait!" "Qiangzi, what is it?" Chen Liu asked. Xu Qiang smiled and pointed to the two eight-meter-tall sentry towers. "When I was on missions before, I encountered towers like these. Besides five soldiers inside, their firepower is controlled by an intelligent system. If we approach recklessly and cross the warning line, the scanners on the towers will detect any firearms in the convoy, and the system will immediately open fire."

Chen Liu was startled. Although he was head of security, he had only served in the armed police and wasn’t familiar with true military protocols. Without Xu Qiang’s warning, if the convoy had driven straight in, the heavy machine guns mounted on those towers could inflict devastating losses in a single sweep. "How can we neutralize the towers?"

Xu Qiang grinned. "It’s difficult to take out the towers quietly, but a direct assault is simple." He gestured to the entrance. "Look, the intelligent system’s range was set long ago. As long as we don’t enter that range, they’re just scrap metal. Our machine guns’ firing distance can reach them from here. If we concentrate several guns and fire at once, we can bring them down together—the system can’t expand the firing zone of the tower guns in an instant."

Chen Liu immediately understood. "That’s straightforward. No matter how advanced the system, without human oversight, its effectiveness is limited." He signaled for two armored vehicles to move up. Chen Liu’s intent was clear: to use the laser cannons to blast the sentry towers apart in one decisive strike.