On the third floor of a bungalow, a group of more than fifteen people was gathered in silence. Some of them were simply sitting down, others were leaning against the wall, and two of them were crouched by the window with binoculars looking off into the distance.
What was most surprising was that although the group clearly had no special training, there were five of them carrying Type 54 pistols with fifteen rounds of ammunition each.
As for the rest, some had bats, steel pipes, watermelon cutting knives, machetes, and other melee weapons.
"It's been almost fifteen minutes but those guys who went in haven't come out." A bearded, burly man pointed out without taking his eyes off the group of survivors working.
The other man next to him turned the binoculars to the buses and said with a tinge of alarm, "Still, this group is definitely not simple. Those scary-looking snakes were hunted by them and the buses were modified with a material I can't recognize from here."
The bearded man snorted and licked his lips before chuckling: "They may not be simple. But can they survive a bullet? Remember, boss Yang came with us this time... Besides, I haven't touched a beauty for over a week and I'm already getting a little impatient. Aren't you the same, Luo Cheng?"
Luo Cheng hesitated but in the end, remained silent. In fact, it had been a while since he felt the warmth of a woman and all the women in the group who were at the base were not too pretty if compared to the young female students with lithe bodies in the group of survivors a few streets away.
As for the prettier ones, they all belonged to the leaders of the group so little punks like them would never stand a chance with them unless they were willing to die the next second.
Suddenly the door opened and a young man of about 24 years old who dressed like a hooligan entered the room, silencing everyone inside for a moment before they all stood up.
"Boss Yang!"
"Boss Yang!"
...
"Em." Yang Pei casually nodded as he casually chewed on a piece of gum before walking over to the window and roughly grabbing one of the binoculars.
The bearded man, Zhang Hu, dared not show the slightest displeasure and stood silently as he looked at Yang Pei watching in the distance.
After a minute or two, Yang Pei threw the binoculars at the burly man and said with a smile that was not a smile, "I just saw some little beauties over there. After taking the ones I like and leaving others for the other bosses, you guys can have fun."
The small group perked up immediately and everyone's eyes sparkled. Even if the other group had over three hundred people, they hadn't seen any firearms with them so they weren't worried.
A single Type 54 pistol was enough to dissuade dozens of people and five of them were certainly enough to dissuade a few hundred. In addition, the other group was composed of people who had not seen cruelty; this was obvious since they all had bright faces and none seemed to have been through hardship.
Such a group filled with hothouse flowers could never stand against the terror of a storm.
"Remember, shoot as few as possible so as not to waste ammunition! We didn't bring so many bullets or weapons for this mission since we were only supposed to take supplies from these four convenience stores." Yang Pei barked before walking towards the exit and saying, "If anyone moves, goes wild, or doesn't obey, just kill them to warn the others that we're not playing around!"
The fifteen or so men had a glint of madness in their eyes and quickly followed Yang Pei before boarding some 4x4 pickup trucks and off-road jeeps.
* * *
While Bai Zemin and the rest were clearing the hazards inside the truck company blocking the road and looking for a new transport needed for the group, Cai Jingyi and Kang Lan were looking after the survivors who were working hard to move as many supplies as possible towards the entrance.
Even the small cigarette packs were not spared and were moved as well.
Across the street, Fu Xuefeng and Zhong De were checking on the survivors who had not been chosen to work this time or who simply continued to maintain their non-working attitude. To avoid major problems, they simply forbade them to get off the buses and made them wait in their seats with order.
Little by little, cardboard boxes filled to the brim with packages of noodles, rice, bottles of water, salt, sugar, milk, candy, cookies, and many other foods began to pile up one by one next to the four convenience stores.
While it might seem like a lot at first glance, the reality was that considering the sheer number of people all the food they were taking out of the stores could last at most a month before it was completely depleted. After all, properly feeding nearly four hundred people was not a simple task to scoff at.
"Jingyi, how strong do you think Bai Zemin really is?" Kang Lan asked to the girl next to her. Through her glasses, her dark eyes seemed to glint with intelligence as she carefully observed the surroundings.
Cai Jingyi thought for a moment before shaking her head, "I don't know... Even though I've been adding every point in Agility and Stamina each time I level up, I can't catch up to his Agility. Even though I have my dagger that increases my Agility greatly when he fully bursts I can barely see his shadow flashing."
The two girls had become close to each other after deciding to follow in Bai Zemin's footsteps. When they were still in university, they often went out to hunt zombies and some other creatures to level up and improve their strength, creating a strong bond of companionship between them.
Suddenly, the sound of several engines roaring from a distance and rapidly approaching alerted everyone.
Zhong De's face changed slightly and he hurriedly shouted, "Kang Lan, Cai Jingyi! Have the workers hide inside the stores and don't come out!"
Kang Lan's face also changed and she ordered, "Everyone, inside and don't come out until told to do otherwise!"
In the past, she was shy like a turtle that dared not stick its head out of its shell. She was always alone, lost in her own books. However, after half a month of killing hundreds and hundreds of zombies as well as other mutated animals, Kang Lan had gained more self-confidence and her words no longer faltered in moments of gravity.
She was a smart woman and even though they had not yet encountered any more survivors, the case of Qiao Long was still fresh in her memory... No, not only her; everyone remembered it clearly and knew that sometimes, humans were the worst enemy.
Survivors who were moving boxes of food and other supplies turned pale at the sound of the order and the approaching engines. Without hesitation, they all ran into the stores and hid while looking out with terror-filled eyes.