The worst situation Ethan Zhou imagined finally happened. He stood on the roof of the factory, put down his military binoculars, and looked at the sky thoughtfully.
The autumn sky is vast and the water is as clear as a mirror.
City B in the distance was in ruins, like a huge tomb between heaven and earth.
"The national shortwave was interrupted, the base communication was cut off, and no one responded to the positioning signal sent. A whole week has passed, and the military area of City B must have fallen, but there is no nuclear bomb to clean it up..."
Ethan Zhou murmured: "What is going on?"
There was a sound of climbing up the iron ladder behind me, and someone said calmly: "Perhaps the military regions capable of launching nuclear bombs have all fallen. No matter how strong the fortress is, it cannot resist internal collapse. You know it."
"Lucas Yan," Ethan Zhou said seriously, "If you imitate Oliver Si's tone again, I will beat you up, seriously."
Lucas Yan smiled and handed over a cigarette.
"Oh," Ethan Zhou was a little surprised: "You still have stock?"
"Given by the masses."
"The People's Liberation Army cannot take a single needle or thread from the masses..."
"People's Liberation Army soldiers are standing guard for the masses and moving gas tanks. If you can't afford to smoke a cigarette, I'll whip you."
The autumn wind was bleak, the sky was high and the ground was far away. Ethan Zhou and Lucas Yan stood face to face and smoked for a while. In the front yard of the factory building, the men were working hard to install the wire mesh, while the women were feeding the chickens and planting vegetables, chatting from time to time.
Ethan Zhou flicked off his cigarette ash and said, "After the defense construction is completed in a few days, I will go to Military Region B to check the situation. You wait for my news."
Lucas Yan frowned immediately: "Are you crazy? Do you know how big City B is? Where can you get a helicopter?"
...
"If Military Zone B falls, there will be hundreds of thousands of zombies crammed into the shelter. Do you think you're too old or something?"
Ethan Zhou held a cigarette in one hand and rubbed his chin with the other. After a long while, he finally said, "I think it's a bit strange. How did this virus come from? How will it develop? Why did the well-defended B Military Region fall? I don't believe you if you tell me that the shelter doesn't have a strict epidemic prevention access system. But if every survivor who enters the shelter has been quarantined, then why can the virus still break out from the inside?"
"Unless," Ethan Zhou said solemnly, "the virus mutated and evaded the currently known quarantine methods, just like the nurses in T City who were infected without being bitten."
A chill suddenly rose in Lucas Yan's heart.
Ethan Zhou said: "From a righteous perspective, we are the top, strongest, and most confidential team of the special forces in the entire North China region, and we are also the team closest to City B so far. If even we hesitate, then no one will know what happened in Military Region B."
"From a small perspective, if we don't figure out the direction of the virus's mutation, our small shelter won't be able to survive for long. When the nest is overturned, the eggs will be broken. We are so close to City B, how can we stay safe in a corner?"
... Lucas Yan was silent for a long time, and finally admitted: "You have a point."
Ethan Zhou shrugged gentlemanly and put out his cigarette.
Lucas Yan thought for a while and shook his head: "But you can't go alone, it's too dangerous. We need an action plan..."
"We?" Ethan Zhou laughed, "What? We all go together? What about these thirty-odd people, young and old, plus a pregnant woman? Who will protect them?"
Lucas Yan wanted to say something when suddenly a man carrying a box walked through the backyard not far away and happened to look up at the roof of the factory.
---It’s Oliver Si.
Oliver Si found a researcher's white coat from the fertilizer factory laboratory, put on goggles and gloves, and rolled up the cuffs to his elbows, revealing his long and strong arms.
He was carrying a reagent box on his shoulder, standing in the open space, looking at Ethan Zhou and Lucas Yan from a distance, and smiled slightly after a few seconds.
Then he turned and left without saying anything.
... Ethan Zhou poked Lucas Yan and said in astonishment: "Have you noticed that he has been avoiding us these days?"
There was no answer from the side.
Ethan Zhou looked back and saw Lucas Yan leaping off the roof in a few steps, landing nimbly, and chasing after Oliver Si.
Ethan Zhou put the cigarette B*tt into his mouth, chewed it slowly for a while, and smiled at himself.
He squatted by the eaves in a daze for a while, scratched his hair, and suddenly shouted at the top of his voice: "Grass---!"
Emily's voice came from the chicken coop: "What are you doing---!"
"What are you doing---!"
"Feed the chicken---!"
"Dad will help you feed it!" Ethan Zhou became excited, jumped off the roof, clapped his hands and walked over.
·
"What is this, nitrocellulose?" Lucas Yan asked with a frown while standing in the open space.
Oliver Si spread a piece of cloth on the small open space in front of the back factory building, picked up the wet cotton from the reagent box with tweezers, carefully spread it on the cloth, and replied with an English word: "Dispersoid."
... Lucas Yan asked: "Do you want to say dispersed matter?"
Oliver Si: "?"
The two looked at each other for a few seconds, and Oliver Si asked back: "Isn't what I just said dispersed matter?"
"You meant 'Dispersoid'."
Oliver Si's eyes were blank for a moment, then he reacted and said perfunctorily: "You heard it wrong."
He stood up and moved to the other corner of the plastic sheet and continued to lay the cotton.
Dispersoid is not an everyday English word. If one can say it in a fluent way, it at least means that the person has good English or has some level of knowledge in chemical engineering. Lucas Yan's eyes unconsciously showed some inquiry, but he did not show it. He smiled and asked, "Do you want to make nitroglycerin bombs?"
"Well." Oliver Si said without raising his head, "I'll try. The nitric acid I found so far is not very pure, and I'm afraid the nitrocellulose won't contain enough nitrogen to explode, but it's feasible for making incendiary bombs."
Lucas Yan opened his mouth silently, nodded, and finally couldn't help asking: "What did you do before?"
"What do you think?" Oliver Si asked back.
Lucas Yan thought for a long time and admitted: "I can't guess. You must have received professional training to be so skilled. A senior bodyguard or a public security system? If it's the latter, it's possible that you've come into contact with chemical explosives. But you have to be a middle or senior professional. At your age..."
Lucas Yan looked at Oliver Si and thought he looked quite young, perhaps around 25 or 26, but not out of the question in his early 20s.
At this age, there is only one type of person who can shoot, drive well, and make explosives - terrorists.
Lucas Yan's eyelids began to twitch instantly, and he asked tentatively: "...You don't believe in religion, do you?"
Oliver Si was puzzled: "What religion?"
Oliver Si carefully spread out the last bit of nitrocellulose, allowing the entire piece of plastic sheet to dry naturally away from direct sunlight. He then got up and returned to the back factory building, which was a closed laboratory that he had personally renovated.
Lucas Yan wanted to follow him in, but just as he took a step, Oliver Si seemed to have eyes on the back of his head and ordered: "Stand still."
Lucas Yan had no choice but to pause.
A few minutes later, Oliver Si pushed the door open and put down the cardboard box in his arms. Inside was a dropper, a piece of white paper, a hammer, and the motorcycle leather jacket and helmet he brought from T City. Before Lucas Yan had time to ask for advice, Oliver Si waved his hand, signaling him to stay away.
Oliver Si took off his white coat, removed his goggles, put on his motorcycle jacket and helmet, and zipped up his chin. After wrapping himself tightly, he used a dropper to absorb the solution in the test tube and carefully dropped a drop on the white paper.
Then he put down the white paper, picked up the hammer, and took a deep breath.
At this moment, a rooster at the entrance of the chicken coop in the distance, stimulated by something, flew out with a clucking scream and rushed straight to the open space. Ethan Zhou chased after him and shouted angrily: "Don't run!"
boom!
Oliver Si smashed the white paper with a hammer, causing the nitroglycerin to react violently and an astonishing explosion occurred instantly!
The high explosive speed of 7,500 meters per second produced a blinding flame. Lucas Yan had no time to react. He only felt the force coming towards him and he took several steps back!
Bang! The rooster fell to the ground, blood splattering everywhere.
"Oliver Si!"
Oliver Si fell to the ground and was helped up by Lucas Yan who rushed forward. He saw that the white paper had turned into gray smoke and a bowl-sized pit had appeared under his feet. Fine sand and dust were scattered all over the ground.
Lucas Yan had never seen such a talented person who was willing to sacrifice himself for science. He pointed at the pit and said nothing for a long time. Oliver Si took off his cracked motorcycle helmet and let out a long breath: "You wanted to ask me what religion I believe in?"
... Lucas Yan said: "No, nothing."
"Comrades," Ethan Zhou said sinisterly behind them.
They both turned around at the same time, only to see the yard full of messy chicken feathers, Ethan Zhou's hands covered in blood, and he was holding a large rooster with a crooked neck and staring eyes, which was obviously dead.
"I have no problem with you doing scientific experiments, but considering that this is the only chicken with a penis in the chicken coop..." He shook the chicken's head in front of Oliver Si and Lucas Yan and said coldly: "Congratulations, the chicken breeding plan has officially failed."
Oliver Si covered his nose and asked, "Can I have fried chicken tonight?"
·
There was no fried chicken in the evening, but there was shredded chicken with sauerkraut, and everyone in the shelter was given a small spoonful.
"There's not enough fried chicken to go around." Ethan Zhou explained to Oliver Si, and warned him, "I hope you won't do something like testing nitroglycerin at the door of the chicken coop every day for your own selfish gain. We still need eggs."
He scooped the shredded chicken from his bowl to Oliver Si. On the other side of the round table, Guo Weixiang was picking at the chicken bones in his bowl. He suddenly let out a long sigh: "Oh, how nice it would be to be a rooster in my next life."
Emily asked curiously, "Did you take the wrong medicine, Xiangzi?"
"What do you know? If you were born a rooster, you could at least own 20 hens and watch them fighting for your favor every day. But what if you were born an Alpha?"
Guo Weixiang picked up a chicken rib and stared at it with a supernatural gaze: "According to the current ABO gender ratio, you have to fight with at least twenty Alphas for an Omega. If it's a Beta, it's even more hopeless. It's difficult to find a Beta girl to marry and have children, and Omega is even more impossible. If this continues, it's better to be gay..."
Emily said: "Your idea is a bit dangerous, comrade, don't give up on life so easily, okay?"
"Being gay is not a big deal. If the virus continues, the future of mankind will be gay. But then again, if I were to be gay, I would definitely not choose to be the captain..."
Ethan Zhou: "?"
"Lucas Yan is a good candidate." Guo Weixiang thought about it, and rejected himself: "It's a pity that Lucas Yan is too strong. If he continues to develop like this, he will grow into a King Kong Barbie sooner or later. What if..."
Lucas Yan heard his name and turned around from another round table: "What are you talking about?"
Emily laughed and said, "Xiangzi is discussing the possibility of getting you."
Lucas Yan seemed to have heard a joke, pointing at himself and then at Guo Weixiang: "Who wants to Fcuk who? Let's try it tonight, buddy?"
Guo Weixiang hurriedly raised his hands to beg for mercy, and suddenly saw Oliver Si from the other side of the table, and hurriedly said: "Yes, you can do Oliver Si!"
Oliver Si raised one eye from the edge of the rice bowl and stared at Guo Weixiang coldly.
Comrade Xiangzi laughed loudly and stepped forward to forcefully hook Oliver Si's shoulders, but unfortunately few people at the round table cheered him on. Only Ethan Zhou said with interest: "Xiangzi, don't make a fuss. Our Comrade Oliver Si doesn't think highly of you."
Guo Weixiang said "Huh?" "Really?"
Oliver Si's answer was to move his hand away from his shoulder inch by inch, his movements were unhurried but his strength was irresistible, and he said: "Being a Beta is good, it's better than an Alpha, don't underestimate yourself."
Guo Weixiang smiled and opened his mouth to say something, but Oliver Si said casually:
"If you weren't Beta, I would have regretted taking such a risk to save you in T City."
Guo Weixiang's words "But we are not Beta" were stuck in his throat, and he felt like swallowing a raw egg.
The special forces at the table stared at each other. Oliver Si picked up a piece of potato shreds with chopsticks and suddenly realized that the atmosphere was too quiet: "What's wrong?"
... Ethan Zhou said slowly: "Comrade Xiao Si, did you say something just now? I always thought you were a gender egalitarian..."
Oliver Si laughed and said, "Who believes in gender equality? I never have. I always look down on Alphas."
After a heart-pounding silence, Lucas Yan finally asked a serious question: "Why?"
"You're afraid of trouble." Oliver Si thought for a moment and said calmly, "Many Alphas are very weak now, and we have to devote our energy to protecting them when they are in danger. And the deep-rooted chauvinism of Alphas... Although they are said to be the humans with the best genes, in fact, they are just incomplete animal evolution."
He ate the last mouthful of rice in the bowl, put down his chopsticks and said in surprise: "I'm full, don't you want to eat?"
Under his suspicious gaze, everyone at the table remained silent for a long time, neither making a sound nor making any movement.
After a while, Ethan Zhou finally coughed and explained, "We don't have much appetite today."
Dinner ended in indescribable silence, and even Emily didn't finish her third bowl of rice.
Since setting up camp at the fertilizer factory, two special forces soldiers lead ten men to patrol and keep watch every night, while the others exercise in the courtyard, learn fighting, and check the barbed wire and warning facilities around the factory.
However, for some reason, Captain Zhou and Deputy Captain Yan, who were teaching everyone fighting tonight, were not very energetic. They closed their stalls early at 9:30 and asked people to go back to wash and rest. In the courtyard, groups of men, women, old and young, walked towards the dormitory behind the factory building. A few young men wanted to pester Ethan Zhou to ask something, but suddenly there was a sharp sound of car tires rubbing against the road in the distance.
Ethan Zhou turned around suddenly.
In the night outside the factory, some unnoticed danger is getting closer and closer, bringing with it an atmosphere of restlessness and uneasiness.
Bang!
The door to the rear factory building was pushed open. Oliver Si hurriedly took off his goggles, the hem of his white coat fluttering as he walked. He said in a serious tone, "The entrance to the industrial zone in the north, at one o'clock, 800 meters away."
Ethan Zhou concentrated his mind and calmed down, his perception spreading in all directions, and suddenly his pupils slightly compressed--- "Brother Rong!" Emily slid down from the tree and ran towards him like an arrow: "A container truck overturned on the northern highway, with more than a dozen survivors, extremely attractive to zombies!"
"It is estimated that there are hundreds of zombies nearby, following them here!"
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