Chapter 244 - 219: In a World Unknown to Us

Chapter 244: Chapter 219: In a World Unknown to Us

"Uncle Cheng, come look at this. What do you make of it?"

Ye Qingniao stood by the armored vehicle, knocked on the window, and gestured to Cheng Qi inside. He immediately threw on a raincoat and climbed out of the top hatch.

"Where’d you get this?"

Cheng Qi jumped down from the vehicle, taking the plastic bag and asking curiously.

"On the bridge. It’s been blown up. The other side is swarming with zombies—thousands upon thousands of them. We found a soldier on this side of the broken bridge..."

As Ye Qingniao spoke, she also handed the rifle hanging around her neck to Cheng Qi for inspection.

"The serial number is from the southern suburbs garrison. Are they from the same unit as the Linjiang University quarantine zone?"

"The southern suburbs garrison?"

Cheng Qi’s eyebrows shot up when he heard that.

He took the heavy rifle and expertly removed the magazine, pulled the bolt, cleared the chamber, dry-fired it, and checked the inscription. The entire sequence was a single, fluid motion, executed with the crisp efficiency of a veteran.

He shook the water from the magazine, reinserted it, and casually placed the rifle on the vehicle.

"The gun’s not broken, still usable... Which unit is at the quarantine zone? I have no idea. You’d have to ask your sister and Hu Chen."

"You..."

Hearing this familiar answer, Ye Qingniao couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

Standing to the side, Lin Fan also shook his head inwardly upon hearing a response so identical to one Ye Qingniao would give. ’These two act like siblings,’ he thought, ’always leaving their brains at home.’

"You know me. I only know a bit of hand-to-hand..."

Cheng Qi said as he tore open the waterproof sealed bag.

SPLASH—

He pulled out the two maps from inside and unceremoniously spread them across the armored vehicle’s front plating. One was a complete map of Linjiang City, the other a map of the Jiehe East District.

Rain instantly slicked the maps’ surfaces, but the droplets merely rolled down the smooth paper without smudging the writing.

This was no ordinary map paper, but some kind of waterproof material. It was covered in various circles and X’s drawn with a red grease pencil, along with some symbols Lin Fan didn’t recognize.

"Er... this, I can actually understand."

Cheng Qi wiped the rain from his face. His finger slid quickly across the map, finally stopping on the thick blue line representing the Jiehe River.

"Brother Lin, look."

He pointed to the location of the Jiehe Bridge on the map. A conspicuous ’X’ had been circled there in red grease pencil, with the designation [D-5] marked beside it.

It wasn’t just the Jiehe Bridge; there were seven or eight other similar markings on the map, each with a different serial number.

"This means it’s a ’cutoff point’."

Cheng Qi’s voice grew serious.

"On a military tactical map, this symbol means ’irreversible.’ If a defensive line collapses or is overrun, these pre-planned demolition points are triggered to protect the rear. They cut off all transportation routes and create a physical quarantine."

To the northeast of the bridge, in the direction of Linjiang University, the map was covered in large swathes of red diagonal lines—the shading that represented a [Combat Zone].

Further northeast of this "combat zone," there was a blue circle with a five-pointed star drawn inside.

"This must be the Linjiang University quarantine zone."

Cheng Qi said, pointing at the five-pointed star.

"If Linjiang University is in this direction, and this whole area is a combat zone, with a massive horde of zombies on the other side of the bridge, then..."

His finger traced along the red diagonal lines, sweeping past several red "cutoff points." Only then did he notice that the edges of the red-slashed area were all bordered by blue lines representing rivers.

"I get it now. These river channels... they funneled this horde... no, it must have been more than just this one. They must have found a way to lure many hordes into this perimeter..."

"Then they blew the bridges to trap them..."

Lin Fan watched the area his hand swept over and the "cutoff points," adding his own guess from the side,

"They turned this entire area into a dead zone in exchange for the safety of the area marked with the five-pointed star."

"Judging by the body’s decomposition, he’s probably been dead for two or three days..."

Ye Qingniao, who had ducked under Lin Fan’s arm like she was hiding from the rain, poked her head out and said,

"This operation must have happened right when the disaster began... This was a huge undertaking, basically a suicide mission. The ones who carried it out must have been elite troops."

Lin Fan nodded, his gaze sweeping past the broken bridge to the hopeless, crimson sea of zombies on the far shore.

Those zombies, trapped on the other side, roaring in fury, were the very spoils of war indicated on this map.

"Perhaps this is the only reason they had the chance to establish the quarantine zone,"

Lin Fan added.

"That’s ruthless."

This red-marked area didn’t just represent a patch of land; it represented countless people who never had the chance to evacuate.

His finger then slid upward on the map, past the red X’s, and finally stopped on the five-pointed star inside the blue circle.

"There’s no way they sent only one person to blow the bridge. Besides, we didn’t see any vehicle wreckage or the bodies of other teammates nearby..."

He stared at the map, organizing his thoughts, then looked up and asked Cheng Qi,

"Since the downstream bridges were also blown, their only escape route would have been to head upstream... Is that right?"

"Exactly. See these black arrows? They represent the planned routes for this operation..."

Cheng Qi explained, pointing to the map again, his tone carrying a hint of admiration for his fellow soldiers.

"Three teams deployed from the quarantine zone... Let’s assume they undertook such a massive operation to resolve some crisis. They must have first acted as bait, luring a portion of the zombies across this river... then blown this bridge to cut off their retreat."

He said, pointing to the red X codenamed [D-1],

"The three squads would split up here. One heads east to blow these two tributary bridges, one heads south to blow this one, and the last one heads west..."