Chapter 135 - 103: Moving In

Chapter 135: Chapter 103: Moving In

The infantry fighting vehicle once again departed from the magnificent Steel Barrier of the Jiang City Shelter, heading toward the Red Star Industrial Zone along a road repeatedly flattened by heavy treads. Inside the vehicle, the few fortress guards, including Xu Mo, remained silent. Only the roar of the engine and the metallic clang of the tracks grinding against the road surface echoed in their ears.

At first, Xu Mo didn’t feel anything was different from the day before. But after the convoy passed Forward Base Four, a strange atmosphere began to set in.

Through the firing port, Xu Mo keenly observed that in the staging area outside Base Four, there were far more buses parked than usual. Large groups of survivors were gathered there, boarding the vehicles in an orderly yet hurried manner under the direction of military officers. Most of these survivors were equipped with standard-issue rifles, their faces a mixture of nervousness, confusion, and a hint of eagerness to prove themselves.

What put Xu Mo on even higher alert was that their IFV didn’t just roar past as it usually did. Instead, it slowed to a stop at the head of the convoy. As the IFV halted, the buses packed with survivors started their engines. They formed a mixed convoy, led by the IFV and followed by a long line of buses, and advanced into the depths of the Red Star Industrial Zone.

’Reinforcements?’ Xu Mo was confused. ’If they’re planning to pull all the equipment out of the Red Star Industrial Zone, why send in more people now?’

Besides, those survivors weren’t well-trained combatants; they looked more like hastily conscripted or mobilized armed personnel.

The convoy pressed on. The closer they got to the core of the Red Star Industrial Zone, the stronger Xu Mo’s sense of unease grew. He looked through the window and saw numerous survivor teams active in the once-quiet outer areas along the road. They moved in tighter formations, patrolling and searching among the ruins and dilapidated factory buildings. The sound of gunfire was also more frequent and sporadic than when he had left.

This scene, combined with the convoy of reinforcements he’d seen earlier, gave Xu Mo a very bad feeling.

The source of the zombies in the Red Star Industrial Zone was clearly concentrated in those strange, heavily guarded ruins in the core area. The fact that zombie activity in the outer zones had now noticeably increased could only mean one thing—the pressure on the core defensive line was immense. There might have even been a breach, allowing some zombies to slip through.

’Something happened to the defensive line?’ Xu Mo’s expression turned grim. He thought of the heavily wounded Superpower User team; perhaps this was a chain reaction from their failed mission.

After arriving at the outskirts of the industrial zone, the buses broke off from the formation and headed toward different assembly points, obviously to reinforce the outer patrol and cleanup lines. The IFV carrying Xu Mo, however, drove straight toward the temporary base in the core area.

Stepping onto the scorched earth once more, the smell of gunpowder and rot in the air seemed even thicker. Xu Mo left his heavy gear bag on the IFV for the time being and immediately strode toward the rest area.

The rest area was still packed with people, a cacophony of snoring, coughing, and low whispers filling the air. Xu Mo’s gaze swept quickly across the room, and he soon spotted Feng Dayong’s familiar figure in a corner, wrapped in a blanket and sound asleep.

Seeing Feng Dayong safe and sound, Xu Mo silently breathed a sigh of relief. On this precarious battlefield, where survival was never certain, seeing a familiar, living face was always a comfort.

After confirming Feng Dayong was safe, Xu Mo turned and walked toward the fortress construction area. He had been gone for just over thirty hours, but the construction progress was astonishingly fast. Where there had once been only a deep pit and foundation, a cylindrical structure now stood about seven meters tall. It had a distinct inverted conical shape, wider at the top than the bottom, though it was not yet complete.

The gray-black reinforced concrete shells were rough and sturdy, without any fancy decorations. They stood there in silence, exuding a reassuring sense of solidity and undeniable defensive strength.

As Xu Mo was carefully observing these fortresses that would soon become their "home" for the next two months, he suddenly sensed something and realized a gaze had fallen upon him. He whipped his head around and saw that Feng Dayong had woken up at some point. He was standing at the entrance to the rest area, watching him with a complicated look in his eyes.

Xu Mo waved a greeting. Feng Dayong hurried over, his face still showing some drowsiness from just waking up, but his eyes were wide awake. He leaned close to Xu Mo and lowered his voice, a hint of lingering fear in his tone. "Xu, you’re finally back. While you were gone yesterday, something big happened up front. The defensive line almost collapsed."

"Oh?" Xu Mo’s gaze sharpened, and he motioned for Feng Dayong to continue.

Feng Dayong glanced around and lowered his voice even further. "Starting yesterday afternoon, I don’t know what happened, but it was like a floodgate opened over at the ruins. A black tide of countless zombies poured out, more than we’ve ever seen before. There were a ton of those fast-moving agile ones, too. The firepower on the line almost couldn’t hold them back. Luckily, those landmines the drones dropped earlier were a huge help and blew up a lot of them. Otherwise, we really might have been overrun."

He took a shaky breath, a look of fear on his face. "This morning, when we were rotated out, we heard it wasn’t just our section. Several other positions were breached at one point last night. Some zombies broke through the lines and ran into the outer areas. I’m guessing those zombies we ran into in the outskirts before were probably ones that slipped out even earlier."