Living Dead's

Chapter 29 - Dying as a Man

City C Military Base, Emergency communications room.

"The summary report on Shen Yuan has come out! What was reported by the eight squads was confirmed to be valid! A man named Shen Yuan isn't the target we're looking for."

Red emergency lights flashed, projecting the sweaty face of the female military members. As he ran over here, his chest was still going up and down and gasping for breath.

A lever man, with an asterisk adorning his shoulder, drowned his face in his palm. He lifted his head after a few seconds, "I understand."

His authoritative and resolute aura was now covered with fatigue and despair.

He picked up the satellite phone and played the password connecting to the live channel. He waited for a few seconds before connecting, a deep voice asked him, "Major General Zhang, how did it go?"

The old man opened his mouth, but nothing came out of it. Silence falls between the flickering red lights of an emergency sign.

"I understand. So right from the start, the target we were aiming for was wrong." The voice was very low, like holding back all emotions. After a while he continued, "Is there any information from the Snow Leopard special forces squads?"

"I have sent all 8 squads out. 3 squads are confirmed to have perished, 3 squads are unknown where they are, and one squad returned without bringing any results. Squad 8 led by Major Xi Zihe has rescued hundreds of trapped civilians, but after the helicopter that saved them became infected, we also lost contact with them..."

Major General Zhang took a deep breath to calm his emotions, his voice hardened, "I can send the last two squads, but we need more information about this person named Guo Bai! Otherwise, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I don't want to send my men out just to die!"

"Since Guo Bai's research base is in U country, we've been trying to contact him. But the U state government said they were also looking for Guo Bai's whereabouts during these 2 years." The voice sounded very helpless, "It was like it was lost to the earth."

Major General Zhang was furious, "I don't want any speculation! Can the government at least provide details about his identity?! Not even details about the appearance were there!"

The voice on the other end of the phone was silent.

"Sudan many members of my squad lost their lives in search of the wrong target. I don't want to sacrifice any more lives in search of an obscure person like this, I don't want to gamble with human lives. And we don't even know, this guy named Guo Bai could be dead!"

"If he dies," the voice on the phone sounded cold. "There is no hope for mankind. The only person who knows the formula of this virus is him."

There was a restless breath on the other end of the phone. Major General Zhang closed his eyes weakly, he felt ashamed of his men who had sacrificed their lives in vain. He was about to say something, but there was a sound of a collision in the corridor outside the communication room.

Some of the military members inside the room immediately stood up, their expressions turning ghastly. Major General Zhang took a deep breath.

Just get here, he thought.

Bang

The door was broken by something.

"They're here." Major General Zhang said to the person across the phone calmly. He hung up the phone before the person spoke, and pulled out his gun.

In the dead silence, the sound of door buzzing became more distinctly heard.

Everyone's heart pounded fiercely, they stared at the increasingly arched iron door desperately. They could hear the sound of zombie-zombie roars outside the door.

If only there was someone out there immune to this virus...

Major General Zhang lamented in his final moments.

In front of everyone's eyes, the door was finally unable to resist anymore, warping and crumbling with waves of zombies barging in!

***

That night, the special forces squad was divided into 3 teams. Yao Yue and Lu Lin stood guard until midnight, Wen Fan and Li Yan took over and stood guard until 3am, and were last continued by Xi Zihe and Yang Ruisi until dawn.

The seat in the back compartment has been folded. Several members of the special forces were lying on the floor, their snoring so loud that it filled the entire vehicle.

Xi Zihe refrained from putting socks into their mouths one by one.

Xi Zihe sensed someone next to him, it was Shen Yuan with his daughter. Xi Zihe had almost forgotten the existence of the two of them inside this vehicle. Since the bus was already full of people, he finally allowed Shen Yuan to bring his daughter to sleep inside the armored vehicle.

Amidst her struggle to sleep, she felt someone move inside the vehicle. His sneaking movements were extremely sloppy, like a little cat trying to escape after stealing a fish. Then he heard the door opened and closed carefully.

Xi Zihe glanced with the tip of his eyes, he saw Little Feifei come out from inside the vehicle.

Throwing water again? thought Xi Zihe.

He glanced at Shen Yuan next to him, still sleeping. Afraid that he was bitten by a snake while inside the forest, Xi Zihe decided to get out of the vehicle and look for him.

However, unlike his expectations, he saw Feifei sitting on a rock instead of urinating.

Xi Zihe walked over without a sound. He saw Feifei was staring at the bracelet in his hand with a blank look.

Xi Zihe sighed and patted her on the shoulder, "Why don't you sleep?"

Feifei gasped in shock with that clap. He then explained slowly, "So I've been sleeping a long time, so now I'm not sleepy."

Xi Zihe sensed that something was wrong with this little girl, he ended up sitting next to Feifei.

He waited for a few minutes, finally Feifei opened his mouth. "Is uncle not sad?"

Xi Zihe asked cluelessly, "What?"

Feifei repeated, "Are uncles not sad when shooting one's own friend?"

Xi Zihe flinched, he finally realized what was strange about this little girl. From the very beginning when this little girl woke up, she could not see any trace of fear from her eyes as she faced that many waves of zombies. Generally, little ones should cry and scream in fear, but this Xiao Fei was very calm.

Xi Zihe did not answer his question, and turned to ask, "Is that from your friend?" Xi Zihe pointed at the bracelet he had in his hand.

Feifei nodded and told his story as the beginning of the zombie virus outbreak broke out.

Xi Zihe gawked and was speechless after hearing the story from Feifei's mouth. A father's struggle with zombies throughout the school is only to save his daughter, and a desperate princess searches for her best friend amid a wave of zombies and eventually finds her best friend already chewed cleanly by zombies.

Too horrid. Little girls should see things like that. No wonder he was already not surprised to see the many zombies they were facing, because he had already seen even more frightening things.

Xi Zihe paused for a moment, compiling words that a child as small as Feifei could possibly understand.

"So you asked if uncle was sad? Of course sad. But after thinking about him losing his mind and becoming a killer while mutating into a zombie, I think it's better that he died a human, not a bloodthirsty creature."

Xi Zihe patted his head, "Don't you think so too?"

Suddenly seethed in Xi Zihe's head, when Shen Yuan killed his wife, did he also think about this?

Feifei thought for a while, then nodded, agreeing with Xi Zihe's opinion.

They then chatted about something else in a small voice.

Inside the vehicle, Shen Yuan who was supposed to be asleep, opened her eyes in the darkness.