Apocalypse: the Most Ruthless Person

“What the hell? A hand grenade?”

About four kilometers northwest of Celestial Horse Island, there’s a village called Beita Camp. In one courtyard, over ten people gathered, their faces full of shock as two young men with heavy expressions recounted their experiences from today.

“Ga Wa, did you see it wrong? Was it really a hand grenade? Not a homemade bomb, not a detonator, but a hand grenade?”

A stout man in his forties asked seriously. He had a shotgun slung over his back, the same model that wounded Zhao Dezhu, likely crafted by the same person.

Like other survivor villages, the courtyard’s dozen men weren’t all from Beita Camp; survivors from two other villages were present too, while women, the elderly, and children lived in separate courtyards.

“I didn’t see it wrong, I heard the sound of the pin being pulled, just like on TV. Uncle Jianye, you have to avenge my uncle!”

The young man suddenly knelt down, his head bowed to the people around.

“Ga Wa, get up first…”

A man in a blue down jacket helped the teen up and said to another, “Xiaohu, are you sure they aren’t people from United Village?”

The young man called Xiaohu shook his head, “Definitely not, how could United Village have hand grenades?”

“What’s so hard about it, if I find the equipment, I could make one myself!”

A man squatting under the eaves said dismissively as he smoked.

No one doubted the man’s words; he’d once been jailed for assembling detonators to fish, and hand grenades were just slightly more complex.

This incident drew the attention of everyone from the three villages because the three deceased belonged to different villages, and the group sent to gather supplies served as a mutual supervision team.

“It’s not just the hand grenade!”

Xiaohu clenched his fist and said, “They have two big vehicles, really big, like a bus. One of them I recognize, it’s a Mercedes, very luxurious, at least ten meters long!”

“RV, both of them are RVs!” Ga Wa added.

“Two RVs?”

“Even if United Village can make hand grenades, they wouldn’t have those kinds of vehicles!”

“They have to be survivors from the city, those despicable city people…”

“Why would they get into conflict with survivors from the city… It doesn’t make sense!”

Ga Wa said angrily, “My uncle fought them to protect the things in town, you guys must avenge my uncle!”

“Protect the things in town?”

Someone furrowed their brows in confusion.

“Yes, those people were taking things from the town; they emptied a lot of stores today, took away a lot of steel bars, pipes, and building materials. They’re a bunch of bandits, even more hateful than the people from United Village!”

Ga Wa’s face contorted; the post-apocalyptic life had inflicted irreversible damage on his immature mind.

The oldest man in the crowd said, “Ga Wa, you can’t just say things to make us avenge your uncle. Who started it, do you know?”

Ga Wa and Xiaohu exchanged glances, resolutely saying, “Of course those people started it. They had guns, but they didn’t shoot; they just threw the grenade!”

In the face of hatred, right and wrong became irrelevant; Ga Wa only hoped to incite the villagers to avenge his only relative.

“Xiaohu?”

The older man looked at Xiaohu, who was lowering his head without speaking.

“Huh? I… I don’t know, I didn’t see it. By the time I realized, I heard the grenade, and Uncle Gen was blown out of the window,” Xiaohu said with lingering fear.

“No matter who started it, they killed three of our people. This feud is set, and we have to avenge our brothers!”

An extremist spoke angrily.

“That’s right, those five went out for our village to find supplies. Luckily, Xiaohu and Ga Wa weren’t with the other three; otherwise, we’d be wiped out. We must avenge them!”

“Avenge, avenge, each one talks about revenge, but we don’t even know where they are. How can we avenge them? Even if we knew, they have guns, grenades; how do we fight them? Are we tired of living?”

The oldest man impatiently scolded everyone.

“What’s so hard about it, just lay a mine on the paths they come in and out from and blow them up!”

The man in the corner proposed again.

“Yes, Old Qiu’s idea is excellent!”

“Damn it, blow up those bastards…”

Everyone agreed that the idea was great, requiring little effort, small risk, and offering significant gains.

“I’ll investigate!”

Ga Wa volunteered, raising his hand, “Village Chief Shui, they’re bound to go to town to steal again. I’ll track them, figure out where their base is!”

“This is very dangerous. Are you confident you won’t be discovered?” Village Chief Shui frowned at the not yet eighteen-year-old Ga Wa.

Ga Wa patted his chest, “Don’t worry, Village Chief, I’ll head over early tomorrow morning, hide in the shops, and follow their vehicles to figure out where they’re from!”

“Okay, you go! As long as you figure them out, we’ll avenge your uncle, Xiaogen, and Xiaomin!”

“We can also take down their old lair while we’re at it, leave United Village alone for now, take care of this group of city people and then deal with them!”

“That’s settled then!”

…

A little after four in the afternoon, Zhang Su gathered everyone outside the highest Jingxin Garden guesthouse. Liu Tianji and Wang Xin were adjusting the surveillance cameras and weren’t present, even Zhao Dezhu sat by, with a simple wooden cane beside him.

“This morning when we were distracting the zombies, we noticed a troubling phenomenon. The running speed of the zombies has increased slightly compared to before. Based on the vehicle speed at the time, the zombies’ hundred-meter speed is about sixteen seconds!”

Zhang Su informed everyone of this important discovery.

“Um… Brother Su, don’t zombies usually wander into our camp, too? I didn’t feel like they’re faster?”

Tan Huajun voiced a different opinion.

If someone else had said it, it might not have been very convincing. Tan Huajun, being one of the slower runners in the group, found that the zombies weren’t running faster, which was quite convincing.

Zhang Su frowned, thought for a moment and said, “Now that you mention it, I also feel like not all zombies are running faster. Why the heck is that?”

The group was quite puzzled by this question.

Zheng Xinyu said, “Brother Su, is it possible that only the zombies that got rained on last time got a chance to strengthen?”

This angle of speculation was interesting, and everyone nodded, feeling there might be something to it.

“It’s not impossible, but there should be more open-air zombies than those inside buildings! In any case, some zombies have gotten a slight boost, and we need to be cautious and not take them lightly. Luckily, we now have a safe camp with barricades and other defensive structures we can use. Additionally…”

“I’ve seriously considered it, the use of firearms will be crucial in the future, and many of us are still unfamiliar with shooting, with some issues present. Starting today, besides regular physical training, we’ll add shooting practice. Since we have limited ammo, live fire practice is limited to five rounds per person per day!”

With twenty people, that’s one hundred rounds a day. Using a third of thirty thousand rounds for training will last a hundred days, and even at just five rounds a day, it can help everyone maintain the most basic shooting sensitivity.

“Isn’t that a bit little, Brother Su?” Lu Yubo timidly asked.

“It’s plenty!” Zhao Dezhu, sitting on the ground, said, “New recruits get their chance to train shooting only after three months, and they only have two sessions a week!”

“Oh, that’s pretty good then!”

“Hey, since we have to shoot every day, let’s have some competitions, and offer some rewards for the top three each day, Brother Su, what do you think?”

Zhang Su glanced at Qi Xiaoshuai, who suggested the idea of incentives, and said, “Are you sure this isn’t just giving benefits to Old Tan and Teacher Yu?”

“Uh…”

Everyone was speechless. Hitting the bullseye every time had become Tan Huajun’s personal label, and everyone knew that she never missed. Also, the fact that Teacher Yu was a former professional shooting athlete had come to light. Although there’s a significant difference between archery and rifles, their advantage over ordinary people was substantial.

“Let’s not. Training should be pure training, mixing it with rewards becomes too utilitarian, it’s not good, really not good.”

Qi Xiaoshuai waved his hands repeatedly, causing others to shake their heads.

“Okay, enough with the chatter, training starts today, follow me!”

Zhang Su motioned with his hand, leading everyone into the valley, finding a relatively flat area, and placed a couch cushion fifty meters away to draw a target, with simple conditions, the training started directly.

Starting with basic practices of holding, shouldering, and vigilance posture transitions, after completion moving into live-fire shooting.

Bang, bang, bang…

The continuous gunfire echoed in the valley, obstructed by rocks and trees, couldn’t travel far before dissipating, with no worries about attracting zombies.

Liu Tianji and Wang Xin, busy with the surveillance equipment, didn’t miss out either, taking turns to watch the monitors, they completed the training in sequence.

“Brother Su, these spent shell casings need to be collected!”

After the training ended, Yu Qing picked up the empty shell casings on the ground, having mentioned it once before but seeing that no one paid attention to the casings, she brought it up again.

“We can make bullets out of these when we get materials later.”

“Right, almost forgot!” Zhang Su slapped his thigh and immediately instructed, “Did you hear that? Empty shell casings can be reused, hurry, gather up all the empty casings!”

Watching the people picking up shell casings with heads down, Yuwen laughed, “The old veterans went through this, too, driving out the invaders and achieving victory, we can definitely overcome this disaster!”

“That’s right, we can do it!”

“One day we’ll return to the past…”

These simple words stirred a sense of mission within many.

Soon, about a hundred empty shell casings were collected, and they didn’t waste time on those that were hard to find.

After dinner, Zhang Su saw Jia Shiqin connecting power to the rebar cutter, and said to Yuwen, “Teacher Yu, when you have time tomorrow, cut a batch of rebars one meter long, grind one end slightly, and wrap the other end simply; they’re great for killing zombies with obstacles!”

These past few days, Zhang Su had been using rebar to poke zombies in Niuquanzi Town, as long as there’s something in front of the zombies, one poke and they’d go silent, quite effortless.

Yuwen nodded and noted it down, then patted a finished wooden pike next to him and said, “Mr. Zhang, this is the pike we’ve made, utilizing structural principles, the more forcefully zombies charge forward, the greater the downward pressure. Unless zombies are numerous enough to directly break the logs, they can’t breach the pike!”

Zhang Su simulated a zombie’s action and pushed forward, and as Yuwen said, merely relying on brute force was impossible, but if it were a person, a lift would dismantle it…

“Teacher Yu, here we have to not only defend against zombies but also consider the challenges of other survivors and vehicles, make some spiked strips for contingency.”

“Okay, I noted it down, it’s not hard!”

Yuwen now had greater room for action at the base. His knowledge, although not expert, was sufficient and his hands-on skills weren’t weak. Though this strange knowledge wasn’t applicable when he was a teacher at school, now it all had a use!