mchenry-crisis.org Chapter 308 I Want to Eat Too
Chapter 308 I Want to Eat Too
"My God..."
As he gazed at the distant scene, Victor's hand, holding the binoculars, trembled involuntarily.
He never imagined that those raised outlines would actually be people.
Each one had no facial features, no face, no expression. They were just human-shaped, protruding, grayish-white membranes.
"What exactly is that thing?"
The fat man, Richie, standing to the side, asked in a trembling voice.
Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, Victor slowly lowered the binoculars.
"It should be... some kind of defensive fortification..."
At this moment, he wasn't sure what it was either.
But his intuition, honed from twenty years in the military, told him that the wall was not a decoration, and those human-shaped protrusions were not mere ornaments.
"Victor."
Just then, he heard a question from the school bus driver behind him.
"Um... is that thing on the wall watching us?"
Victor did not answer.
Because he had just seen quite a few humanoid protrusions of "heads" facing the direction of their convoy.
"Should we continue?"
No one in the convoy spoke.
At this moment, Victor somewhat understood what these people were thinking.
At this moment, any normal person, upon seeing a giant wall tens of meters high covered with moving humanoid monsters, would not immediately think of continuing forward.
But now... they have no other choice.
The fuel gauge on the armored truck had completely flattened out.
Sparks were already visible on the left front wheel rim of the school bus.
Should we turn back and walk back?
But that road was full of mutated monsters.
"Enter."
After hesitating for a while, Victor's expression came to a conclusion.
After saying that, he turned around and got into the armored truck without hesitation.
But before the armored truck could start moving, two vehicles appeared on the road ahead.
Two military jeeps painted in dark green.
Soon, the two jeeps arrived in front of them and stopped about twenty meters away.
The car door opened.
Five fully armed men came down.
Leading the way was a man of Asian appearance. He wasn't tall, but he was sturdy. His facial expression was calm, and his pace was neither hurried nor slow.
……
Zhao Lei walked up to the redneck pickup truck at the very front.
At this moment, the two stunned rednecks also came to their senses and subconsciously looked at Zhao Lei.
Hey buddy.
The bearded man spoke first, his tone casual, "Is this Raccoon City?"
"Yes." Zhao Lei nodded. "Where are you from?"
"South."
The bearded man gestured with his chin toward what was behind him.
"Dude, we've been on the road for two days, hurry up and get us in."
"Shall I take you inside?"
Zhao Lei scrutinized the two of them. "First, tell me where you got this information from."
"What else could it be but radio waves?"
Hearing this answer, Zhao Lei nodded, then glanced at Victor and the others' car behind them: "You guys came together?"
"No, just the two of us."
"Are you carrying weapons?"
The bearded man hesitated for a second.
But the guy next to him, wearing a baseball cap, chimed in, "Why should we tell you what weapons we have?"
Zhao Lei glanced at him.
"This is the registration process for entering the city."
Zhao Lei said calmly, "All outsiders must hand over their weapons for registration. They will be resettled after entering the city."
"Hand it over?"
Upon hearing this, the man in the baseball cap reacted as if he'd heard a joke, "Brother, you need to understand, this is America, and it's my right to carry a gun."
Zhao Lei didn't speak, but his eyes gradually turned cold.
What I mean is...
He spread his hands while wearing a baseball cap.
"You can't expect us to go into a strange place empty-handed, can you?"
What if you're part of some cult? I need to be able to protect myself, right? That's a basic human right—"
"human rights?"
Before he could finish speaking, Zhao Lei interrupted him.
"I'll say it again. Weapons must be handed over. Personnel must be registered. If you don't accept this, you can return the way you came."
Seeing Zhao Lei's cold expression, the man with the thick beard tugged at the arm of the baseball cap and whispered:
"Forget it, let's not cause trouble—"
But the baseball cap shook off his hand.
"return?"
At this moment, the baseball cap's expression changed, from a playful smile to dissatisfaction.
"We've come all this way, and you want us to turn back? Who do you think you are? You, a Chinese person, are trying to talk to me about rules on American soil?"
Upon hearing this, Zhao Lei's expression remained unchanged, and he repeated:
"Then surrender your weapons."
The baseball cap stared at Zhao Lei, his hand slowly reaching towards his lower back, clearly indicating his unwillingness to follow orders.
But to Zhao Lei and the others, this action was like a signal.
Before the baseball cap could even touch the gun, the guns of the four armed men next to Zhao Lei were already pointed at the two of them.
Seeing this, the baseball cap user quickened his movements and instantly touched the gun handle.
"Bang bang bang bang——"
There was absolutely no need for Zhao Lei to give the order.
The four rifles fired almost simultaneously.
A barrage of bullets covered the two men in less than a second. The man in the baseball cap was pulled backward as if by invisible ropes, several bullet holes exploding in his chest and abdomen.
Before the bearded man could even open his mouth, a bullet pierced the side of his head.
The two men collapsed next to the pickup truck.
It twitched twice and then stopped moving.
From the moment Zhao Lei spoke until the end of the shooting, the entire process took no more than ten seconds.
Victor and the others, who hadn't even started the car yet, watched all of this unfold.
When they saw Zhao Lei and his men shoot two rednecks without hesitation, they were all dumbfounded.
They never expected that this group of seemingly amiable Asian faces would be so decisive.
Victor, in particular, was more shocked than anyone else at what he was seeing.
There was no hesitation. There was no warning shot. There was no signal firing.
Both of them were killed simply because one of them showed signs of aggression.
This is not the behavior of a mob.
Only a disciplined team can possess such execution capabilities.
Victor took a deep breath.
He turned to look at the other people inside the armored truck.
At this moment, everyone's faces turned pale.
At the same time, several people reached for their weapons...
"Don't move."
Victor, noticing the group's actions, quickly warned them in a low voice.
The others looked at him with some confusion.
"Don't do anything sneaky, keep your hands where the other person can see them."
Victor said without question,
"Everyone, put your weapons on your seats. Don't hide them. And don't touch them. When they come over, answer their questions honestly."
"But--"
The thin young man inside the car wanted to say something, but Victor coldly said,
"Do you want to become one of those two outside?"
Upon hearing this, the thin young man shut his mouth.
He slowly moved his hands from his waist and placed them on his knees.
Victor picked up the walkie-talkie, reminding the others:
"Attention all vehicles, cooperate with the inspection. No weapons allowed, and no unnecessary movements. Do you understand? Anyone who makes a stupid move, I'll shoot them first."
"Received," Danny replied in a muffled voice.
"Received." Monica's voice wasn't very pleasant either.
Victor put down the walkie-talkie.
At this moment, Zhao Lei had already walked over here.
Two armed men dragged the two bodies into the roadside bushes.
After the body was placed at the edge of the grass, the grass that had been still suddenly came to life.
Several vines, as thick as an arm, emerged from under the bushes, coiled around the corpse like snakes, and then quickly dragged it into the depths of the grass.
It took less than three seconds.
The two bodies simply vanished.
Even the bloodstains were swept away by the vines.
Victor, noticing this, had his pupils contract for a moment, then regained their composure.
Zhao Lei walked to the driver's side window of the armored truck and glanced at the people inside.
"Where are you from?"
"We came from New York."
Victor didn't dare to hesitate and quickly recounted the situation of the convoy.
"We heard your radio broadcast on the road..."
"From New York?" Zhao Lei raised an eyebrow slightly. "What's the situation there?"
"That's all."
"They're all gone. We ran all the way out. We encountered mutated animals along the way, and many of us were killed."
Zhao Lei looked Victor up and down.
"You served in the military?"
"Retired sergeant."
Zhao Lei nodded slightly.
His gaze swept across the interior of the armored truck, landing on the pale-faced, ragged survivors in the back.
How many weapons are there?
"Three pistols, one shotgun, and we're running low on ammo." Victor paused. "I can hand them over."
"Put them on the seats first, we'll collect them all later," Zhao Lei said. "And those two cars behind—"
"A school bus and a pickup truck. Eleven people on the school bus, six children. Three people in the pickup truck. They don't have many weapons left."
Zhao Lei looked at him for a while.
"Okay, get in the car. Come with us."
"Where to?"
"Of course we're going into the city. What, don't you want to go in?"
Without waiting for Victor's reply, Zhao Lei turned and left on his own, then his voice drifted back softly.
"Don't be nervous. If you cooperate, no one will make things difficult for you."
Hearing this, Victor hesitated for a moment before starting the car. He then relayed Zhao Lei's words to the two cars behind him.
The convoy followed Zhao Lei's jeep and slowly approached the huge wall.
As the crowd gradually approached the giant wall.
The human-shaped protrusions on it are clearly visible.
As Victor passed by one of them, the "head" of the humanoid mycelium slowly turned around, its faceless surface facing him.
The humanoid figure clearly had no eyes, yet somehow Victor felt a cold sweat break out on his back.
But soon, his attention was drawn to something else.
There's a gap in the wall there...
No, it's not a gap.
It is a door.
As the mycelium on both sides of the gap actively retreated to the sides, a channel about four meters wide was revealed.
The passageway has a normal asphalt surface.
At this moment, Zhao Lei leaned out of the vehicle in front and shouted at them:
"Stay with me, don't wander off, or no one will save you if you die."
Victor and the others didn't dare say anything more and slowly drove through the passage.
The mycelial wall is about two meters thick.
On the walls on both sides of the passage, countless mycelia were wriggling slightly, making an extremely faint rustling sound, like thousands of insects crawling.
A dozen seconds later, they exited the passage.
The next moment, what appeared before their eyes was...
It turned out to be a city.
Yes, it's a city.
It wasn't a ruined city, nor did it resemble any settlements or camps they had encountered before.
It is a city that is in operation.
The streets were cleaned spotless.
There were no abandoned vehicles or litter on the road.
Although the buildings on both sides showed signs of the apocalypse, the windows had been repaired, and some even had new wooden planks installed.
And there were people walking around on the street.
There were armed patrolmen, workers carrying supplies, and even a few people pushing handcarts to distribute something.
Victor's gaze swept across the entire field of vision, and his throat bobbed.
"Oh shit."
Richie, in the passenger seat, blurted out those two words uncontrollably.
At that moment, Amy, who was peering curiously out the school bus window, looked at the driver Monica with an eager expression, as if she had discovered something new:
Monica.
"Um?"
"That person is eating bread."
Monica didn't say anything.
Amy then said, "I want to too..."