"Leader, Leader! ! !"
A terrified voice came from outside the camp. A middle-aged man, still in shock, ran to the entrance of the camp, his hands gripping the doorframe as he gasped for breath.
"Old Zhang, were you chased by wolves?"
The guard recognized the middle-aged man and joked with a smile.
"More… more frightening than wolves! I need to see the leader. Open the gate quickly."
Leaning against the door, the middle-aged man took several deep breaths to catch his breath before pounding on the solid wood door.
"Be quiet, don't attract the zombies again."
The guard retorted impatiently, then quickly opened the small door next to him, pulled him inside, and immediately locked it.
"Old Zhang, tell me honestly, are we going to run this time? If we are, I'll hurry back and tell my wife to pack everything up."
The guard handed the middle-aged man a glass of water before asking.
"… Hard to say. Let your sister-in-law prepare first."
Shaking his head, the middle-aged man was unsure. He touched the camera in his arms, thinking he would believe it was all a dream if not for the photos.
After speaking, he hurried into the depths of the camp.
This camp was not small, accommodating over a thousand people. Five years had passed, the chaos had gradually dissipated, and the camp had regained basic order and some semblance of law.
The reason for choosing this location was the existence of a pre-apocalyptic air-raid shelter. The main area of human activity was underground, while the land above was fenced off for farming, along with some defensive fortifications.
"Quick, I have important news to see the leader."
After entering the air-raid shelter, the middle-aged man went straight to the deepest part, to the leader's office of this human settlement.
Before even reaching the office door, he raised the camera in his hand and began shouting.
There were no other irrelevant people around, so he wasn't worried about being overheard.
The two guards at the door recognized the middle-aged man as the one responsible for scouting intelligence and immediately stepped aside.
Entering the office, the first thing that caught the eye was a lush spider plant, followed by a middle-aged man with a scar on his face sitting on a leather sofa.
This was the leader of this human settlement.
"Old Zhang, what's wrong?"
The leader stood up, personally helping Old Zhang to sit in his seat, and then handed him a chocolate bar to replenish his energy.
This stuff was precious in the apocalypse. He usually couldn't bear to eat it himself, but he never hesitated to share it with his subordinates.
Without standing on ceremony, Old Zhang took the chocolate, tore open the wrapper, and threw it into his mouth. Then, without stopping, he took out the camera and showed the leader what he had just photographed.
Taking the camera, the leader frowned after only a few glances, his right foot tapping the ground uncontrollably, a subconscious sign of his nervousness.
"It's finally here…"
He frowned deeply. He naturally knew about the theory of zombie evolution, but survival had been the only problem before, so he hadn't paid attention. He didn't expect it to appear so soon.
"Go get Old Chen and Little Jiang."
Old Chen's full name was Chen Guo, and he was responsible for the entire camp's security, making him the de facto military leader of this thousand-person human settlement.
Little Jiang's full name was Jiang Heng. Before the apocalypse, he was an intern lawyer at a law firm. After the apocalypse, he was the only one from that firm to escape. After being taken in by the leader, he became responsible for the camp's paperwork and legal framework.
It could be said that these two were the peaks of military and civil affairs in the camp.
The reason the leader only called them over was obvious: to discuss whether to abandon the camp and leave.
Small matters require large meetings, large matters require small meetings. Now was the time for a small meeting.
Soon, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door, and two people, one tall and one short, entered the office one after the other.
After entering, the two didn't speak. They looked around, and after realizing that only the four of them were present, they immediately found a place to sit, waiting for the leader to explain what was happening.
"Take a look, then discuss whether we should run."
The leader handed the photos to the two to look at. After Jiang Heng finished, he passed them to Old Chen, rubbing his temples and remaining silent.
Old Chen looked back and forth for a long time, his face furrowed, before looking up at the middle-aged man, Old Zhang.
"Old Zhang, where did you get these photos?"
Old Zhang subconsciously stood at attention. He was a scout and had been trained under Old Chen before, so he had a natural sense of fear when facing Old Chen.
"Commander Chen, I took them myself!"
His voice subconsciously rose a few decibels.
Putting the photos weakly on the table, Old Chen grabbed his hair irritably.
"Are you saying that the dragon-shaped monster destroyed so many zombies with one blow?"
The photos were a series of several, detailing the cause and effect of the Frost Lord's attack.
"Yes."
Getting Old Zhang's affirmative answer, Old Chen's face became even more unsightly, and he turned to look at the leader.
"We definitely can't beat this. Let's find a way to run."
Old Chen was all too clear about his own strength. Although the camp had previously taken over a technical school and found some usable machine tools and a few lathe masters in the school's training workshop, barely able to make a few guns and bullets, those things were completely different from the monster that could kill tens of thousands of zombies in one blow.
In this situation, don't even think about fighting. Being able to run is a blessing from our ancestors.
"If we run, do we need to inform the people in the other camps?"
Jiang Heng, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly interjected, clearly agreeing to run.
"It's best not to. Let them be our meat shields, so we have a better chance of escaping."
Old Chen said, staring straight at the leader.
"No, there are already so few humans left. If we continue to do this, when will we be able to fulfill our great wish of driving out all the zombies and redeveloping civilization?"
The leader rejected Old Chen's suggestion without even thinking about it.
Of course, this was only the case when there was still a way out. If there was really no other choice, he wouldn't hesitate to let people from other camps cover the retreat of his own camp.
"Alright, Old Chen, go out and organize the team, bring all the equipment. Little Jiang, you go and organize the members to harvest the crops in the field, take away everything that can be eaten."
Directly interrupting Old Chen, who was about to speak, the leader said decisively, clearly having made up his mind.
Seeing this, Old Chen and Little Jiang looked at each other, and finally nodded in agreement and quickly retreated.
… …
"That person should have returned by now, right?"
In the city center, he once again used the same trick to attract many zombies, and then asked the Frost Lord and Qian Er, who was clearing the field, to look at the time, pondering in his heart.
