Armed Train in the Apocalypse

He Jie frowned, ”Which one?”

”Submitted about three days ago, at the time you had disappeared, so you didn’t know.”

”Fuck off!”

The medic tied the bandage into a bow, adjusted its shape while holding both ends, and said sternly, ”Yes!”

”Get back here!”

He Jie cursed in exasperation.

The medic returned with a cheeky grin. He Jie pulled him over, searched him up and down, then fished out half a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pocket, lit one, and took a hard drag, staring at the people reorganizing the train through the smoke.

”Back in Yijin when I saw the armed train, I was thinking, which idiot would drive a train in the apocalypse? But I ended up getting a real beating. That battle was truly frustrating. Even though I was captured, I wasn’t necessarily convinced.”

”But later, that cocky kid Zhang Tie also fell.”

The medic showed a hint of dread in his eyes, ”Losing once might be bad luck, but losing twice leaves no room for luck.”

He Jie flicked the cigarette ash, ”Back then, the conductor said he wanted to convert the train into a mobile fortress. I wasn’t optimistic about this plan, but I thought there was something magical about the guy. It’s hard to describe, just seemed different from us normal people.”

He pointed at the thickly armored carriage walls, ”Driving through a horde of corpses with my wife and kids today, just thinking about it sends shivers down my back, cold sweat all over. Having this thing makes all the difference.”

The medic nodded silently, glancing at the Steel Council engulfed in flames and waves of corpses, he muttered in confusion, ”Who would’ve thought such a big company could collapse just like that?”

He Jie flicked the cigarette butt away, squinting at him, ”We’re facing the real apocalypse now, from now on, I’m sticking with the conductor. A word of advice for you guys, don’t follow Li Tao blindly to the end. His uncle is an executive director, if you leave the armed train, you’re nothing.”

The medic let out a bitter laugh, ”Li Tao’s dead.”

”Huh?”

He Jie stood up abruptly in surprise, paying no mind to the pain in his chest wound, ”Who killed Li Tao?! Li the Secretary knows a lot of things, with his personality...”

”Wasn’t the conductor, it was that kid in the wheelchair.”

”Xiaoba?”

After listening to the medic recount the events, He Jie gasped, Master Eight seemed so friendly, who knew he could be so ruthless?

...

Outside the carriage, all the survivors brought back by Xiaoba had boarded the train.

Some people didn’t even know that the armed train was the cause of this disaster, and thought it was the company’s escape plan; a few in the know remained silent.

The reassembled armed train belched thick smoke, the rumble of the TS-20000 diesel engine at the head shaking the ground.

Yu Jing’s voice boomed through the loudspeaker across the platform, ”All personnel board the train immediately!”

In the engine compartment, Yu Jing was listening to Lao San’s report: ”...in total, we received two hundred forty-seven survivors, including twenty-six injured, suspected of being infected.”

”Notify the crew,” Yu Jing’s almond-shaped eyes narrowed slightly, revealing a sharpness without cause, ”put all twenty-seven at the rear carriage.”

”If signs of mutation... deal with them directly.”

Outside the train window, the first light of day broke through the clouds.

Liang Kuan pushed the lever, and the train slowly started, Xiao Ba was behind him slowly repairing the broken windows.

The boy’s fingertips were as white as spring onions, flickering in and out of the sunlight.

”Take a break.” Liang Kuan handed over a water bottle, ”We’re safe now.”

Xiaoba shook his head, maneuvering his wheelchair towards the survivors’ carriage at the back.

His gaze swept over the faces in the carriage, still in shock.

A little boy in pajamas suddenly exclaimed, ”Brother, I’ve seen you before. How did you climb up that high wall?”

The little boy’s mouth was missing a front tooth, like a sunflower missing seeds before the end, carrying a bright warmth.

Metal shards coalesced in his palm into a small butterfly, flying towards the boy, capturing his attention.

But quickly, the light in his eyes vanished.

Xiaoba looked at the little boy of about five or six in puzzlement, ”Don’t like it?”

The boy looked a bit downcast, ”Mom told me to wait for her on the train, she said she’d be here soon.”

Xiaoba’s eyes trembled, pursed his lips, and looked out the train window.

With the roar of the diesel engine, the fifty-five carriages of the steel dragon started moving slowly.

A dozen or so figures who hadn’t squeezed on the train began frantically chasing, howling to get a bite off the train, but a few crisp gunshots rang out, and they fell headlong to the ground.

The burning Steel Council Headquarters gradually blurred into the background.

”January 8th, the fire”

”The massive corpse wave caused intense turmoil in the Acid Rain Zone, and I played a decisive role.”

...

Three days later, the fire was extinguished.

A layer of gray mist hung over the heavy industrial area at the Steel Council Headquarters, left by the burning of countless zombies.

The once precise and orderly complex now left only ruins and rubble, the charred experimental towers jutted into the sky like the ribs of a monstrous beast.

Wang Yi walked over the charred body of a Tier Two Jumper in her custom high-heeled boots.

She wore a well-tailored black dress, a gold iris flower brooch pinned at the neckline.

”Find something useful.”

She ordered without turning her head, even though the company her father had built from scratch was collapsing before her eyes, it hardly moved her.

Behind her, twenty fully armed elite soldiers immediately spread out.

They moved swiftly and efficiently, their weapons spitting precise tongues of fire, and the remaining zombies were headshot before they could even grunt.

A middle-aged man crouched down, his gloved fingers gently brushing over a scorch mark on the ground.