Before the war, the Ming Empire had constructed various expressways and maglev train tracks, which once saw countless vehicles, but now they have become overgrown, abandoned sections.
In the Doomsday, the weather in April had begun to warm up, but the temperature only rose to minus seven or eight degrees Celsius during the day; at night, a biting cold wind would howl from the northwest, causing the temperature to plummet to minus fifteen degrees Celsius.
However, for the Doomsday, the current environment was already much better.
Just bear with it a little longer, and after May, the daytime temperature will exceed zero degrees Celsius.
Guo Tianxiong, despite the cold, ghostly weather, was drenched in sweat; every step he took, his Power Armor would emit a harsh metallic grinding sound.
This was the sound of rusted metal parts.
His helmet was long gone, so Guo Tianxiong had welded two steel plates to the sides of his neck and the back of his head to serve as armor, protecting his head from being twisted off during struggles with zombies and Mutants.
A zombie suddenly burst out of the grass and lunged at Guo Tianxiong; he struggled to swing the right arm of his Power Armor, and the Electromagnetic Combat Blade in his hand severed the zombie’s head—this was the thirty-fifth zombie he had killed today.
To his immediate right, a Power Armor similar in form to his own had just smashed the heads of two zombies with a breaching hammer, and its pilot also lacked a helmet.
That person turned around, waved at Guo Tianxiong, and said, “Big Brother, check the map, did we take a wrong turn? Why are there more and more zombies here?”
The person spoke fluent Mandarin, and by voice alone, one might have thought he was just a survivor from Shangqing City, but upon seeing his face, you would realize he was a genuine Black person.
Deep brown skin, spiraled curly hair, a wide and flat nose, a broad jaw, and full lips—all indicated that this was a pure-blooded Black person.
Guo Tianxiong also sensed that something was amiss; their five-person squad was responsible for clearing the path for the caravan ahead.
Originally, according to the map, continuing along this abandoned road would bring them closer to a human settlement called Huaicheng District, but as they advanced, the number of zombies encountered on the road increased, which was contrary to expectations, as the closer one got to a human settlement, the fewer zombies there should be.
Watching the zombies continuously gather from all directions, Guo Tianxiong frowned.
He waved his hand backward and said, “Guo Tianzhu, send a message to retreat.”
This Black person’s name was Guo Tianzhu, considered Guo Tianxiong’s sworn brother; the two had experienced life-and-death situations together many times, so their bond was naturally strong.
The Black person, referred to as Guo Tianzhu, responded and immediately pursed his thick lips, blowing a whistle.
Immediately after the whistle sounded, three Power Armors converged on the two of them; they were the vanguard squad responsible for clearing the path for the caravan.
Besides Guo Tianxiong and the Black person Guo Tianzhu, there were three others, including a bearded White man in addition to Guo Tianzhu.
After questioning the other three, Guo Tianxiong received feedback that the number of zombies was slowly increasing, so he immediately led his squad to retreat, and before long, the few of them rendezvoused with the caravan that had been slowly advancing behind them.
This was a caravan that appeared to be about a hundred people strong, consisting of dozens of dilapidated vehicles, lined up and moving along an abandoned highway; their destination was Huaicheng District, the largest human base near Shangqing City.
In fact, rather than a caravan, it was more like a temporary convoy formed by merchants, scavengers, and wandering groups.
The relationships within were complex, with seven or eight large and small groups.
However, the true leadership was held by a group called the Wanderer Caravan, which had the most people and armed forces; the other smaller groups were just people who had met along the way and decided to travel together.
At the very front of the convoy was a heavy eight-wheeled armored vehicle, which served as the lead vehicle for the vanguard caravan.
Before the war, the vehicle was used to transport armored soldiers, possessing impressive carrying capacity and space; now, it had undergone various modifications, with heavy laser guns, ramming blades, and fences added for combating zombies.
A blond man sitting in the front of the vehicle was leisurely smoking a pipe, leaning against a machine gun; he was startled when he saw Guo Tianxiong and the others rushing back, almost dropping his pipe.
“Al—alert! Alert!” The blond man stammered, immediately stopping Guo Tianxiong and asking, “You—you suddenly came back, did you encounter something up ahead?”
The armored vehicle immediately stopped, bringing the entire convoy behind it to a sudden halt.
The blond man’s voice was loud, and the surrounding soldiers, hearing the alert, immediately raised their guns and prepared for battle.
A considerable commotion instantly arose within the caravan.
Guo Tianxiong glared at the blond man; this lazy glutton, though he stammered, had a loud voice.
“There’s nothing ahead, but the number of zombies is gradually increasing.
We think we might have taken a wrong turn, so we came back to ask.”
The blond man’s eyes widened upon hearing this, and he immediately said, “Wrong what, no—impossible to be wrong.
You—you guys hurry up and clear the way, it’s your turn today, don’t—don’t think about being lazy.”
“You blond man, we just want you to look at the map, or if not, send out a UAV to scout.”
Guo Tianzhu was a bit agitated, stepping forward and speaking.
Because his lips were quite thick, saliva flew as he spoke, essentially giving the blond man a face wash.
The blond man’s eyes widened, about to say something, but the top hatch of the armored vehicle behind him opened.
A man wearing a gas mask emerged from inside; he was Chen Dong, the captain of the Wanderer Caravan, who usually liked to wear a gas mask and rarely took it off.
“What’s all the noise about, why did we stop?” Chen Dong said.
The blond man saw his boss come out and immediately opened his mouth to complain, but Guo Tianxiong instantly covered his mouth and preemptively stated their discovery.
Chen Dong, wearing his gas mask, remained silent.
After listening to Guo Tianxiong, he simply said, “I know,” and then returned inside the armored vehicle.
The blond man struggled free from Guo Tianxiong’s hand, then glared at the two of them, held his gun, and returned to the armored vehicle.
“I’ll go stand over there, away from them,” Guo Tianzhu said.
Guo Tianxiong nodded, and then Guo Tianzhu walked aside with the bearded White man.
This caravan contained all sorts of people, including White people and Black people, but free White people were very few, and Guo Tianzhu was the only free Black person.
Although many Soviet Slavs, American Anglo-Saxons, and Black people remained within the Ming Empire due to the war, because of historical reasons and the Ming Empire’s centuries-old racial theories before the war, these foreign races did not fare well within the Ming Empire.