Da Zhangshu Base.
The snow melted, and the lake surface of the mountain pond also began to gradually thaw.
The sky was blue, the lake was still, and the cold wind was invigorating.
There was a fresh scent in the air; although it was a bit cold, it was even more refreshing.
Everyone stepped outdoors, breathing in the fresh air.
On the other side.
The stadium was still under construction; these days, the base and He Chao and others outside had successively exchanged many building materials.
This saved them a lot of effort in searching for building materials.
Li Yu stood on the wall, looking at everything in the base, feeling an indescribable sense of accomplishment in his heart.
In recent days, He Chao and his group had come twice more, both times bringing things to exchange, and Li Yu also kept his promise, exchanging some food with them according to the original agreement.
A certain level of trust had also been established between them.
Through He Chao, Li Yu gathered some information from him: currently, in the entire Xin City, or within the city, there were basically no large-scale survivor forces left.
Most of them, like them, were groups of a few, a dozen, or dozens, moving around in various places.
They had no fixed place of residence.
For them, no one could stay in one place for too long because zombies were mobile, and they needed to constantly avoid them.
Moreover, they also needed to continuously search for food.
Some people even traveled all the way South, to more distant places, while others were unwilling to leave their hometowns, simply struggling to survive in their residential areas.
Having traded twice in a row, He Chao now had nearly 10 jin of rice; if eaten sparingly, this rice would be enough to keep him and his daughter alive for a month.
He Chao was very fortunate to have finally found Li Yu and his group.
Although they used many things to exchange for a little bit of food, it was precisely this food that kept them alive.
They couldn't eat their fill, but they could survive; that was enough.
No one wanted to die.
But precisely because he could exchange for food, he had always been unwilling to share this news with others; once there were too many people, if the food ran out, he wouldn't be able to exchange anymore.
Long-distance travel was a very dangerous thing in this apocalypse.
This was also true for Captain Tao and others who came from hundreds of kilometers to the East.
Along the way, they didn't have many bullets to begin with, and they were already exhausted before even reaching Xin City.
Furthermore, many personnel were lost; previously, 5 people were lost on the highway, and later, in a zombie encirclement, another 7 people were lost.
They started with 28 people, and now only 16 remained.
This dealt a heavy blow to their hopeful hearts, making them clearly see the tragic reality.
At a place 150 kilometers from Xin City.
A group of people were engaged in a heated argument.
Hua Chuanxiong pulled Mr. Wang, whose hands were tied, down and slapped him:
"It's all because of you, damn it! I lost three brothers, and we've been walking for three days and still haven't arrived!"
Captain Tao and others quickly pulled him away. Captain Tao was also very frustrated; in the past two days, he had also lost two of his subordinates.
They hadn't even reached Xin City yet, and they had already lost almost half of their manpower.
But there was nothing he could do. Looking at Hua Chuanxiong, who was in a fit of rage, he couldn't help but complain: 'Damn, he's even more impatient than me, just thinking about going back.'
Captain Tao said:
"Since we've already come this far, and we've lost so many people, if we don't go, we'd truly be wasting our time. Besides, if we go back now, how will we explain it to them?"
Hua Chuanxiong, with anger in his eyes, said furiously, "How did we survive these past few days? We haven't even encountered a zombie horde yet. If it rains and we encounter a zombie horde, all of us will be finished here.
You said to let my brother and Elder Wu send more people. You saw those zombies yesterday; do you think having more people can solve the problem?
More people will just feed the zombies! While we still can, let's go straight back; perhaps we can still return safely.
Our bullets are already exhausted; what can you even do if you go?
Moreover, this Mr. Wang might be deceiving us."
Captain Tao glanced at Mr. Wang. This Mr. Wang was also a stubborn old man; no matter how they questioned him or how they beat him, he maintained the same stubbornness.
Hearing Hua Chuanxiong's words, the others all looked thoughtful. Indeed, the journey had been too difficult.
The previous snow was too thick, and even now, there was still some melted snow that had turned into ice on the road.
If they sped up, the tires could easily skid.
Furthermore, the zombies they encountered now were extremely frantic, chasing wildly after seeing people. The group of zombies they encountered yesterday chased them for six kilometers.
Captain Tao saw that everyone was a bit discouraged. In fact, he also wanted to go back; this trip felt too worthless.
Just imagine, if all the people from Safe City came over, such a large scale would definitely attract zombies.
But Captain Tao had a change of heart; before departing, he had guaranteed Elder Wu that he would definitely complete the mission and ascertain the strength of the people Mr. Wang mentioned in Xin City.
And also how much food they had.
This was the most crucial factor in deciding whether Safe City should come.
Thinking of this, Captain Tao took off his black down cap and said earnestly, "We've already come so far; we'll be there in two or three days. Don't you think it would be a pity to give up now?
Besides, when we go there, we don't need to risk fighting them. We just need to find out where they are and how much food they have.
Then we can all give a good account back home."
As he spoke, he snatched Mr. Wang from Hua Chuanxiong's hand and then pushed Mr. Wang into the car.
Hua Chuanxiong didn't stop him, allowing Mr. Wang to get into the car. He also knew very well that they had already come this far; if they didn't go to Xin City to see, he wouldn't be able to report back.
His brother would beat him to death.
But after this argument, with everyone having different thoughts, they returned to the car and continued towards Xin City.
Only, each person was thinking different things in their heart, and Mr. Wang was also very anxious at this time.
Through the contact of the past two days, he hadn't expected that the people from Safe City, although they had guns, had very few bullets. In the past few days, they had only encountered two waves of zombies, and their bullets were already used up.
Isn't this a trap?
This disappointed him greatly, plus this group of people was divided into four factions, with such severe internal strife.
He estimated that they would be in a terrible state even before encountering that group of people.
Alas, Mr. Wang sighed.
Sitting opposite him was Captain Tao, who was even more worried. According to what Wang Xiansheng had said these past few days, the people in Xin City only had a few guns.
But they had already used them up when they encountered zombies before. If they ran into them now, what would they do?
What worried him even more was that these past few days, Old Sun and his group were a bit angry because they hadn't saved their people before.
These days, they were somewhat unwilling to follow orders.
They also didn't communicate much with them; their car just kept following behind.
The team was hard to lead.
