“The willows flutter in the March breeze.”
It was March of 2026.
At Da Zhangshu Base.
The willow catkins by the lake began to fly.
The lake had long since thawed.
The temperature rose quickly; after entering March, it had already reached over ten degrees Celsius.
One could look up and see spring.
Old trees sprouted new buds, and branches grew.
Li Yu poled a black-awning boat, drifting on the calm lake.
The lake and mountains were picturesque, and the water was clear, reflecting the slowly recovering vitality of the forests.
Li Yu held the bamboo pole, plunged it into the water, and pushed back with force.
Ripples spread across the calm surface, extending outwards in circles.
The air carried a faint, clean scent, a fresh smell after mountain rain, and also the scent of spring.
Amidst the beautiful scenery, Li Yu’s brows were tightly furrowed, and Yu Tong, seeing his constant frown, softly asked, “Yu Ge, is something on your mind?”
Li Yu slowly sat down, and only after settling onto the bamboo stool did he say, “I don’t know, I just feel restless, an uneasy feeling that something bad is about to happen.
But I don’t know what it is. Sigh, never mind, I’ve been thinking about it for a long time.
Let’s just row.”
After Li Yu finished speaking, he stopped thinking and poled the boat towards the shore.
Outside Da Zhangshu Base.
Li Hang, Li Tie, and others drove out in two vehicles.
Because the quarry was not far from the base, only a few kilometers in a straight line.
They quickly drove over, and when they arrived at the location, they found the quarry in a mess.
The surrounding trees were all down, and some lighter objects were blown everywhere.
Everyone searched through the sand and gravel.
Finally, Da Pao suddenly let out an exclamation, drawing everyone’s attention. When they went over, they discovered that a small half of the giant loader was buried in sand and gravel, no wonder they had searched for a long time without finding it.
This giant loader had been parked next to the quarry pile.
It was probably the recent heavy rains that caused the sand and gravel mountain behind it to bury it.
But this did not stump Li Hang and his team.
They always kept some shovels and the like in their vehicles; they were originally kept as spares for shoveling snow during the previous heavy snow.
Now, they came in handy again, for shoveling sand and gravel.
Li Hang and the others looked at the seven-to-eight-meter-high giant loader submerged in sand and gravel, and couldn’t help but smile wryly.
They certainly had their work cut out for them now.
Everyone took shovels and started digging, only needing to clear the sand and gravel from the vehicle’s entrance, but this was also a huge project.
Without further ado, everyone began to shovel away the gravel.
Hua Chuanlong and others, who came from Safe City, drove at high speed.
On both sides of the road, some green grass had grown, and the road they were on had not undergone any maintenance or repairs since the apocalypse.
There were some bumpy places on the road, and also some greenery.
The vehicles inevitably rattled and clunked while driving.
However, after the weather warmed up, there was no longer any standing water on the roads, so vehicles didn't have to worry about skidding.
In the car, Hua Chuanlong drove at a rapid speed.
His subordinate next to him looked at the rearview mirror and couldn't help but remind him:
“Boss, are we going a bit too fast? They’re lagging far behind us. Should we wait for them?”
Hua Chuanlong was a bit impatient. Nearly 600 kilometers, he wanted to reach there today, otherwise, there would be more complications the longer they waited.
He wanted to arrive as soon as possible and figure out the situation as quickly as possible.
He still didn't know what his brother's situation was, and he was very worried.
So Hua Chuanlong said:
“At this slow speed, tell the people behind to speed up. If we don’t reach Xin City by dark, we’ll have to spend the night in the wilderness. If we spend the night in the wilderness and zombies come out, we’ll be in trouble.”
After speaking, he ignored them, stepped on the accelerator, and the vehicle maintained a speed of nearly one hundred kilometers per hour.
The subordinate next to him, hearing Hua Chuanlong say this, was at a loss for words for a moment, but sitting in the boss’s car, he felt a bit apprehensive.
The armored defense vehicle Hua Chuanlong was driving had been reinforced at the front, sides, and rear.
Even at the very front, some anti-collision iron plates had been welded on.
And Hua Chuanlong drove, always crashing straight through on the road; even if he encountered some abandoned cars on the road, he would directly ram through them.
Five minutes later, Hua Chuanlong looked back and saw only two vehicles following him; the other vehicles were nowhere to be seen.
Their current location was just under a mountain overpass. Hua Chuanlong thought for a moment, then pulled the car over.
Then he opened the car door. The two cars behind him also belonged to his men, but there were still several cars with brothers who hadn't caught up.
After getting out of the car, Hua Chuanlong looked around.
The sun was shining brightly, and there were only their three cars on the road.
It was quiet.
There wasn't even a breath of wind.
Hua Chuanlong took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, tapped it upside down, shook out a cigarette, and while looking at the road behind to see if the others had caught up.
He took out a lighter and lit the cigarette.
As white smoke rose, the people in the two cars behind saw their boss get out.
They quickly ran over and asked, “Boss, why did you stop?”
Hua Chuanlong pointed to the road behind and said, “What else? I don’t know what’s wrong with the people behind, they’re so slow. Let’s have a smoke and wait for them.”
As he spoke, he pulled a cigarette from the pack and handed it to his subordinate: “Here, have a smoke and wait for them. Damn, they’re so slow.”
Everyone from the three cars got out, stretched their arms, and stretched their backs, taking a moment to relax.
But just at this moment, suddenly three zombies emerged from inside the concrete pipes in the ditches on both sides of the road.
The three zombies were discovered by Hua Chuanlong and his men as soon as they appeared.
The subordinate next to him looked behind the zombies, saw no more zombies appearing, and said to Hua Chuanlong, “Boss, we’ll deal with them.”
These three zombies also saw Hua Chuanlong and his group at this moment, and immediately became excited, rushing towards them.
Hua Chuanlong waved his hand and said, “Go ahead.”
They were just three zombies, a small case for them.
The subordinate who had been standing next to him took two men and walked towards those few zombies.
Just as the subordinate was about to raise his gun to shoot, Hua Chuanlong quickly said, “You idiots, bullets are so scarce now, and you need to use guns to kill three zombies?
Didn’t I tell you last time to conserve bullets? Use cold weapons to deal with them.”
Hearing their boss say this, the three subordinates put away their guns, instead drawing out long spears or long knives, and charged towards the three zombies.
The three zombies ran at a decent speed, and within a few seconds, both sides began to engage in close combat.
As expected of people who had survived until now, these three cooperated perfectly. After the zombies charged up, they slightly raised their long spears.
They aimed at the chests of these zombies and thrust, and the zombies' charge immediately stalled.
They used their arm strength, then pulled out the long spears, and then accurately and fiercely stabbed into the zombies' heads.
Their movements were clean and precise.
