Late at night, Qingyun Town, on the edge of the Blue Zone, at a gas station with half of its wall blasted away.
The night was like a heavy black cloth, tightly enveloping this deathly silent town. The air was filled with a lingering, sickly sweet smell—a mixture of gunpowder, scorched earth, and highly decomposed flesh. In this so-called "Blue Zone," safety was only relative; in the shadows untouched by searchlights, twisted creatures might still be lurking, peeking out from the gutters.
In the open space of the gas station, several soldiers belonging to the Marine Corps sat around a campfire. The flames were not bright because they were burning mahogany furniture chopped from nearby houses, occasionally mixed with tattered clothing stained with dried blood. Sparks danced in the cold wind, reflecting their faces, which were as cold and hard as granite, etched with gunpowder and exhaustion.
Above them, a long-range searchlight mounted on top of an armored vehicle regularly swept across the street. The snowy white beam of light was like a sharp scalpel, cutting through the darkness and exposing the charred corpses and twisted metal wreckage strewn across the street.
"Hey, this reminds me of my days in Manhattan," a soldier said, spitting out the flavorless tobacco in his mouth and poking the fire with a red-hot iron rod, making it crackle.
Sitting across from him was a veteran. He was looking down, wiping the assault rifle in his hand, the firelight reflecting an eerie red glow on his goggles.
"Yeah, back then, kid, I was the one who pulled you back from around the Hive, otherwise you would've been chewed up like a snack by those damn 'Hunters'," the veteran let out a low, raspy laugh, but there was no mirth in his eyes, only a cold indifference that had seen through life and death.
The soldier stopped what he was doing, looked up toward the pitch-black Red Zone boundary in the distance, and spoke with a hollow voice: "Fortunately, the infected here aren't as crazy as the ones in Manhattan. Back then in New York, the Hive pulsed like a tumor, and the flesh carpet on the ground felt like stepping on rotting internal organs. Compared to that, this place is practically a vacation."
He paused, seemingly recalling some extremely bloody images, a morbid curve appearing at the corners of his mouth: "I remember back then, our orders were to 'clear everything'. Whether it was zombies or civilians crying for help, as long as they appeared in the Red Zone, we'd give them a full magazine. There were so many shell casings back then they could pave the road. Human lives back then... heh, weren't even worth a can of luncheon meat."
"You were just cannon fodder there, don't think too much about it. Hurry up and get some shut-eye," the veteran interrupted his sentimentality, his tone carrying a hint of warning. "Don't think it's truly safe here. Although the Mutants here seem stupid, those things called 'Self-Exploders' almost wiped out D Squad. Reminiscing about the past in a place like this will only get you killed faster."
From deep within the distant Red Zone, a shrill howl that didn't sound human suddenly rang out, followed by a few sporadic gunshots. The searchlight immediately locked onto that direction, but it found nothing except dancing dust and broken buildings.
"Hey, brother, what kind of person do you think Commander Lin Xuan is?" the soldier lowered his voice, his expression showing a hint of awe and curiosity. "I heard he can conjure tanks and soldiers out of thin air. Are we really transferred from headquarters? Sometimes I feel like there are gaps in my memory, as if a segment of a non-existent tank track was forcibly shoved in."
The veteran glanced at him coldly, his hand gripping the iron rod tightening slightly: "Curiosity is the second biggest cause of death after 'infection'. As long as he can provide us with enough ammunition, fresh supplies, and the right to survive in this hell, he is God. As for where we came from... who cares? In this world, as long as the gun in your hand can still fire, you are real."
He stood up and walked to the edge of the gas station, looking at the simple work sheds enclosed by barbed wire. The survivors cleared out today were held there, and the muffled sounds of crying and moaning could be heard faintly.
"Look at those dregs," the veteran pointed toward the sheds, his voice full of disgust. "They used to be teachers, merchants, and white-collar workers here. And now? They're just resources that can breathe. If the monsters from the Red Zone rush over tomorrow, they'll be the first meat shields standing in front of us. This is the apocalypse. There's no morality here, no law, only efficiency and survival."
The veteran fell silent for a moment, slung his rifle back on, and closed his eyes while leaning against the tire of the armored vehicle.
"But I've been having a very strange dream lately. In the dream, my name is 'Chen Wenbin', not Jamie. In the dream, there's a huge pillar of light shining on everyone in the 'Base'... zzz..."
The campfire gradually weakened, leaving only a few glowing embers flickering in the wind. Outside the gas station, the Marine Corps soldiers stood like silent tombstones, guarding this territory that had just been seized by violence. In the darkness beyond their sight, more Mutants were writhing and multiplying in the shadows, waiting for the final wave of madness before dawn.
Dawn had just broken.
"All units, continue Hammer Heart Acupoint Strike operation. Artillery positions, conduct three rounds of saturated coverage strikes on Red Zones 4 and 5. Repeat, saturated coverage!"
Commander Viper's cold voice was transmitted to every combat unit through the encrypted channel.
The next second, twelve 120mm heavy mortars mounted on the high ground of the Blue Zone roared simultaneously. The shells tore through the sky with sharp whistles, like a flock of vultures released from hell, accurately diving toward the red area representing the infected.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of earth-shattering explosions erupted in the northern and eastern parts of Qingyun Town. Huge fireballs soared into the sky, illuminating the sky that had just begun to turn pale as if it were broad daylight. The shockwaves, carrying dust and building debris, spread madly in all directions. The low-rent apartment buildings and hospital annexes that were originally standing collapsed like building blocks in the violent tremors, instantly burying hundreds of wandering zombies.
"Holy shit, these soldiers are crazy, run!" The other survivors in the distance were instantly scared out of their wits, screaming in panic. However, unfortunately, some of them didn't even have time to react before being swept away by this sudden disaster.
"Tanks, advance. Armored vehicle convoys, flank on both sides. Infantry follow up, crush everything in the way."
Before the smoke from the shelling had dissipated, the assault force that had assembled overnight poured into the Red Zone like a floodgate opening. Leading the charge were three main battle tanks, their seventy-ton bodies rampaging through the streets. Their 120mm smoothbore guns let out a low growl from time to time, blasting the zombies that crawled out of the ruins—those lucky enough not to have died—along with the walls behind them into smithereens.
The offensive was several times more intense than yesterday. The troops were attempting to turn the map of Qingyun Town completely blue before sunset.
However, when the vanguard of the assault force was less than five hundred meters away from that massive cylindrical granary, they encountered unprecedented resistance.
"Report! A large number of high-mobility infected have appeared ahead! They... they're climbing the walls! They're very fast!"
On the high concrete outer walls of the buildings surrounding the granary, hundreds of figures appeared, climbing rapidly like spiders. They were "Mutants," a type of zombie with extremely elongated limbs and evolved sharp claws on their fingertips. Ignoring gravity, they moved on vertical walls as if on level ground, evading the ground troops' fire and launching diving attacks on the armored convoys from above.
"Armored vehicles! Shoot those monkeys down for me!"
The 25mm autocannons of the infantry fighting vehicles immediately raised their muzzles, spitting out dense chains of fire, turning the leaping Climbers into blood mist in mid-air. But there were too many of them, and some always managed to slip through, slamming onto the roofs of the armored vehicles and frantically tearing at the hatches and antennas with their sharp claws.
"Boom—!"
Just as the troops were pinned down by the Climbers, the heavy steel doors of the granary were violently smashed open from the inside by a massive force. A Giant Zombie, the size of a small truck and covered in a shell of bone hyperplasia, roared as it charged out.
"Special infected spotted!"
Every step it took made the ground tremble. With a swing of its thick arms, it threw an abandoned car from the roadside toward a main battle tank, creating a series of blinding sparks.
"Main gun, load depleted uranium armor-piercing shells! Blast that big guy to pieces!"
The shell fired by the tank sped like a meteor toward the Giant Zombie. When the shell collided head-on with the Giant Zombie's incredibly hard chest, an earth-shattering explosion and a dazzling flash of light erupted in an instant, and that massive body also blew apart.
The battle reached a fever pitch at this moment. The roar of heavy artillery, the rattling of machine guns, the shrieks of Mutants, the shouts of soldiers, and the sound of flesh being torn and scorched, together composed a symphony of death in the apocalypse.
Time flew by in the baptism of blood and fire.
3:00 PM.
When the smoke and dust from the explosions cleared, a flag was forcefully planted into the flagpole base in the center of the square.
"Report to the Commander! Red Zone 5 has been cleared! Qingyun Town... is under our control!"
The squad leader's weary voice came through the communicator.
Viper stood on the top floor of the Postal Building, coldly watching the black flag fluttering in the wind through his binoculars. There was no joy on his face, only the calmness of a completed mission.
"Casualty count," he asked briefly.
"Twelve killed in action, thirty-seven seriously wounded. Three armored vehicles need to be sent back to the factory for major repairs," reported the adjutant, Ghost.
"Within acceptable limits," Viper put down his binoculars. "Order all units to cease offensive operations and transition to full defense. The Reinforced Battalion will be responsible for the outer perimeter blockade, and the clearing units will be responsible for internal patrols. Engineers are to immediately begin laying minefields and defensive fortifications. I want this place turned into a fortress within forty-eight hours."
As the orders were issued, the once-noisy Qingyun Town gradually quieted down. Soldiers began to clear the corpses from the streets, piling the twisted remains of Mutants together and incinerating them with flamethrowers. Survivors were driven out of the work sheds and forced at bayonet point to transport supplies and dig trenches.
The afterglow of the setting sun dyed the entire town in a layer of blood-red.
Qingyun Town, once a home for civilians, welcomed a rebirth after enduring the chaos of the apocalypse and the bloody baptism of the Marine Corps.