Chapter 219: Choosing sides!
Chapter 219: Choosing sides!
At this moment, what Gu Manzi and Tong Xiaoyun were feeling for Yue Zhong could not be considered as love. They wanted to possess him, purely for the sake of living a better life in this cruel, post-apocalyptic world. Love was considered a luxury that only the strong possessed the right to enjoy. The weak could only focus on surviving, much less talk about love.
The fact that Yue Zhong could win Zhuo Yatong’s heart was purely by chance. As for the relationship between him and the other 2 girls, there was no prior interaction- to suddenly develop feelings for each other would be considered a fantasy.
Under the eyes of the various people present, Yue Zhong walked up directly to Xiong Zheng, holding a .54 Handgun to his head as he coldly said,
“Who are you people? I only want the truth, if you say any lies, I will instantly blow apart your head!”
Seeing how aggressive Yue Zhong was, the survivors looked at one another and their fear towards him in their hearts increased by yet another notch. They knew that he was heavy-handed and could kill without blinking, but this sort of fierceness really made them feel cold in their hearts.
“Don’t shoot!! I’ll say!! I’ll say whatever you want to know, as long as I know, I will tell you!!”
Xiong Zheng broke out in cold sweat the moment he felt the gun pointing at his head. From the very start, he hadn’t been some heroic warrior who did not fear death: being threatened by Yue Zhong thus caused him to panic.
One of the militants suddenly called out loudly. “Xiong Zheng!! Our boss has not neglected you, yet you still dare to betray him!! Don’t tell me you’re not afraid that he will kill you and your woman!!”
Yue Zhong did not even let him say another word before changing his aim towards that militant’s head and pulling the trigger.
With a ‘bang’, the militant’s head exploded. Bits and pieces of his skull, brain and blood splattered everywhere, causing the timid survivors to let out screams of horror.
Wang Jian and the other policemen frowned. They could not bring themselves to totally agree with Yue Zhong’s methods as they had a strong sense of justice. However, while they were righteous, they were not pedantic or overscrupulous. Prior to the apocalypse, they had already known the dirty side of society.
There were even instances where as long as their threshold was not crossed, they would obey orders to carry out certain orders that might go against their moral code. If they had been too concerned with minor things and proceeded to lodge complaints, they might already have lost their rice bowls.
(TN: Basically, even if a mission crosses their bottom line, they still had to earn their keep)
Seeing the death of that militant who had suddenly spoken out, the rest of the militants became fearful and did not make any further sounds.
Yue Zhong coldly let his gaze linger around the militants, saying,
“Those who still want to be loyal to their benefactor, just come out now. I will give you a chance and send you on your way to be loyal to him.”
All the militants immediately shrank back in silence.
Yue Zhong then moved his gun back to Xiong Zheng’s head, saying coldly,
“You can speak now! Tell me all that you know!”
“Yes! Yes! I’ll speak!! I’ll Speak!!” Xiong Zheng was also thoroughly frightened by Yue Zhong’s killing without hesitation. He spoke like a jar of spilled beans, giving out all the information on the militants that he knew.
Xiong Zheng and the rest were from a gang called the Clear Wind Camp. After the apocalypse had occurred, there were simply too many zombies and also evolved zombies. The evolved zombies didn’t fear bullets and were extremely difficult to deal with as well. Mutant beasts were also a huge problem, ferocious beyond belief and aggressive in nature. Compared to zombies and mutant beasts, normal humans were the weakest.
The Clear Wind Camp gang members were constantly on the lookout for small villages and after clearing the zombies, they would search for supplies. On the other hand, they would also make their move against other human survivors, absorbing the human survivors into their ranks and also taking possession of their food and other supplies.
The Clear Wind Camp’s boss was called Lie Tianyang! He was an incredibly strong evolver. Under his leadership, the gang had been constantly absorbing various smaller groups and grew in number to about over 2600 people, with over 400 able-bodied fighters.
After the apocalypse, food sources had become scarce. Most of the seeds sown before Z-day had been unable to germinate; under these conditions, even though the gang had rounded up many survivors from different villages, they had barely managed to gather a small amount of food. In order to alleviate the situation, Lie Tianyang had actually ordered the massacre of some of the human survivors to be used as food to solve the food shortage problem.
Upon listening to Xiong Zheng’s words, Wang Jian and the other survivors turned pale: if Yue Zhong had not acted against these militants, they would have been caught and dragged to the Clear Wind Camp to become food for their own species.
There was a total of over 100 survivors now- it used to be over 200, but some had escaped. By now, most of them had already witnessed the cruelty of the apocalypse world, with the frequent rapes, murders, robbery and other acts of debauchery. However, the very thought of cannibalism was something that definitely went way past the threshold of the many people present, and it was something they had yet to come across.
Yue Zhong’s expression turned livid as he coldly asked Xiong Zheng, “Amongst you people, who has consumed human flesh?”
Xiong Zheng hesitated for a while, as he had already understood the underlying meaning of Yue Zhong’s words. He did not want to betray his comrades who had gone through many battles with him.
Yue Zhong cocked the gun at Xiong Zheng’s head as his killing intent rose, and he shouted,
“Say it! If you don’t, I will still interrogate the others one by one!”
Xiong Zheng shuddered as he hastily pointed out a few of the militants.
“Him! Him! …….and him! These people have all consumed human flesh before!”
“Xiong Zheng! F*** your mother!”
“Xiong Zheng! You deserve death, you piece of trash!!”
“……”
Those who were pointed out by Xiong Zheng immediately turned pale as they loudly cursed at him.
Yue Zhong glanced at those militants before ordering the 5 policemen,
“Bring them away! Question them separately! Wang Jian, they are under your control now! Whatever you do, make sure you get the information quickly and inform me!”
“Understood!” Wang Jian was swept along with Yue Zhong’s fury and impulse as he answered resolutely, before dragging the militants away and beginning to interrogate them.
Without any limitation to the interrogation techniques, the 5 policemen quickly got the information they wanted and proved that everything Xiong Zheng had said was true.
The militants were quickly brought back and those who were confirmed to have consumed human flesh had expressions the colour of ash, whilst those who did not were similarly petrified, unsure of how Yue Zhong would deal with them.
Yue Zhong separated the militants into 2 camps, one consisting of those who had committed cannibalism and the other camp consisting of those who had not. He handed a Replica Tang Sword to Xiong Zheng, then pointed to one of the militants who had eaten human flesh and said,
“I need subordinates! Cut off his head, and from then on you will be under me! If you can’t, then I will deem you to still be on his side!”
“What a vicious method! He is forcing us to choose sides!!”
Xiong Zheng received the Replica Tang Sword and his body shuddered involuntarily; he was aware of Yue Zhong’s intentions to make use of him. If he could kill his old comrades, it meant that he was willing to cut off ties with the Clear Wind Camp gang, whereas if he couldn’t, he was choosing death together with his comrades.
He gripped the Replica Tang Sword in his hands tightly and a ruthlessness arose in his heart, as he walked over to his comrade of days past. Xiong Zheng slashed down ferociously and decapitated his ex-comrade. Fresh blood sprayed out and dyed his entire body red, giving him the appearance of an evil spirit.
Xiong Zheng had killed his own comrade. He put the Replica Tang Sword to one side, before kneeling down in front of Yue Zhong and loudly proclaiming his allegiance:
”Xiong Zheng is willing to swear fealty to Your Lordship and will fight for you. Lord, please accept this subordinate!”
Yue Zhong looked at Xiong Zheng approvingly:
“Very good! From now on, you are the captain of my 2nd Team! Get up!”
Xiong Zheng stood up and respectfully returned the Replica Tang Sword in his hands to Yue Zhong.
Yue Zhong immediately gave a .81 Rifle and 2 grenades to Xiong Zheng. At such a close distance, Yue Zhong could take care of him easily, so he wasn’t worried about Xiong Zheng revolting.
Yue Zhong once again handed the Replica Tang Sword to another militant who had not touched human flesh, saying coldly,
“It’s your turn! Do you want to kill him or die with him?”
The militant’s heart went cold and in the end, he accepted the Replica Tang Sword. He gritted his teeth, stepped forward and swung it down, decapitating his former comrade, then knelt down in front of Yue Zhong to swear fealty.
In a cycle like this, the militants began defecting to Yue Zhong one by one. With one fell swoop, Yue Zhong obtained the submission of 15 militants, and the price of the exchange was the 18 heads of the other militants rolling on the floor.
Watching the slaughter of the militants, many of the survivors could not take it and walked back to the buses. Some had even wet themselves upon witnessing the scene, while others immediately vomited. Wang Jian and his team were also shocked, not knowing how to react.
After those militants had submitted to Yue Zhong, he returned their guns to them and split them up into 3 teams. Each team had 5 members and the captains of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Teams were Liu Erhei, Xiong Zheng and another ex-militant named Zhang Niujiang respectively.
Originally, the 15 team members would have only formed a single team, but for further convenience and easier micromanagement, Yue Zhong had split them up the way he did.
After settling the issue of the teams, Yue Zhong started obtaining detailed information about Clear Wind Camp’s situation, including the amount of fighters, firepower and intelligence they had.
With the current strength of Clear Wind Camp and the threat they posed, if it were in Qing Yuan County, Yue Zhong would simply pull out one of his main teams to easily crush them. However, he was on his own right now and could not afford to be careless.
Yue Zhong had just finished the meeting when Wang Jian hurriedly ran up to him and asked,
”Yue Zhong! No matter how frugal we are, our current supplies for the vehicle fleet can only last for the next 3 days at most. Are you able to think of a solution?”
Initially, the rations could have lasted another 10 days or so, but amidst the disarray of the fleet earlier, most of the rations had been taken away by the survivors who had fled. Subsequently, regardless of how frugal Wang Jian was, the amount left could only last for 3 days.