They finally arrived at Yanqing Industrial Park. Although Feng Jun had rushed at his fastest speed, dusk had already fallen. Furthermore, the main force led by Song Zhan would not arrive for another two hours. There was no way to launch an operation to occupy the industrial park today, so Feng Jun could only find a suitable place to set up camp and wait for the main force to arrive.
Before the sky completely darkened, Feng Jun chose a high slope in the eastern part of the industrial park as their temporary camp for the night. Although there were no buildings to provide cover on this high slope, its advantage was its commanding view, allowing them to almost overlook the entire industrial park.
However, when Feng Jun arrived at the high slope, he found that it had already been occupied. A group of scavengers had already set up camp at the top of the hill. When Feng Jun led his men up the slope, these people were making a fire to cook. The appearance of four Crab Generals made this group of scavengers very nervous, especially after Yan Xin led a group of soldiers wearing mechanical exoskeletons out of the vehicle cabins. The scavengers became extremely tense, and a few women and elderly people even began packing their belongings, preparing to flee.
Feng Jun surveyed the scavengers, a total of about fifty people. Besides most of them being young men and women, there were also some old, weak, and sick individuals in the camp. Their weapons were all old kinetic weapons. The four or five people standing at the front wore tattered mechanical exoskeletons, clearly salvaged from a junkyard. The armor plates on them weren't even welded on but were tied with wire. There wasn't a single piece of Power Armor among them.
"Boss, should we drive these scavengers away?" Zhong Chen asked Feng Jun. Since this area had been designated as their temporary camp, it naturally couldn't accommodate other survivors setting up camp here.
By this time, dusk was gradually falling. Feng Jun looked around and shook his head. These scavengers couldn't even put together a few decent guns, and it was almost dark. Driving them away now would be tantamount to sending them to their deaths.
"Let them stay here. They'll leave on their own tomorrow morning without us having to drive them away. Don't worry too much about it."
Afterward, Feng Jun stood on the hillside, observing the distant industrial park with binoculars. This was his first close-up observation of a Blood Nest, a biological aggregate. Although it was almost dark, he could still clearly observe the Blood Nest in the industrial park using military binoculars from the Doomsday.
An industrial park that produced aerospace parts could be considered half a military factory. Therefore, after the bombing, most of the buildings in the park maintained a relatively high degree of integrity. Another reason was that radiation bombs are weapons that cause casualties and destruction through radiation, similar to dirty bombs in the current world. They have a huge lethality against living organisms but do not cause much damage to buildings. However, these buildings have now become objects that the Blood Nest attaches itself to.
Feng Jun roughly estimated that at least three-quarters of the existing buildings in Yanqing Industrial Park had been infected and covered by the Blood Nest. A carpet of flesh and blood was spread directly on the streets of the industrial park, and even heart-like organs could be seen growing on the walls. Hordes of zombies walked within the industrial park, and from time to time, zombies would hatch from the fleshy walls of the Blood Nest.
The Blood Nest is the continuous source of zombies in this world. This special flesh-and-blood structure only appears in places with high radiation concentrations and large piles of corpses, and it is extremely difficult to completely eradicate.
The World Government, established after the war, once mobilized a large number of troops to try to completely eliminate the Blood Nest. At that time, zombies had not yet evolved particularly powerful individuals, but the vitality displayed by the Blood Nest exceeded everyone's expectations. Even using incendiary bombs and chemical weapons to clear the area could not eradicate the Blood Nest. As long as humans ceased fire, these flesh-and-blood structures would reappear in the nuclear bomb craters. Moreover, the Blood Nests that grew back would undergo a certain degree of evolution, and the zombies hatched from them would be stronger. The Blood Nest in the center of Shangqing City, which can directly hatch high-level Mutants, evolved under continuous human attacks.
The Blood Nest in Yanqing City is quite special. It was not directly ravaged by nuclear bombs but had a large amount of radiation. The Blood Nest formed later and therefore did not suffer attacks from the former Government Army, so it had basically not undergone evolution. In addition, the number of corpses in the industrial park was relatively small, so this Blood Nest was like a congenital underdevelopment; it could only hatch low-level zombies and could not condense a horde to sweep the surroundings. However, these low-level zombies are still zombies that can form helium crystals. Coupled with the fact that the Blood Nest here cannot breed Mutants, some survivors choose to come here to kill zombies and earn helium crystal points. Although the harvest is small, it is much safer than going to the Shangqing City Wasteland.
That group of scavengers was also one of the small groups that hunted zombies here, but Feng Jun had already planned to occupy this place. At that time, this group of scavengers would have to find another place to go.
Feng Jun turned his head to look at the scavenger camp. That group of scavengers had already started eating dinner. Originally, after seeing Feng Jun's team, this group of scavengers had been ready to pack up and leave, but then they realized that these soldiers were not interested in them at all. Looking at the other side's armored vehicles and brand new mechanical exoskeletons, their own equipment was simply no match for Feng Jun's group. Moreover, running around aimlessly in the wasteland after dark was a very dangerous thing. After dark, in addition to zombies becoming enraged, some mutated insects and small animals would also come out to forage.
The scavengers had formed a circle with corrugated iron and old cars, setting up tents inside. A fire was lit in the middle of the camp. Due to the radiation bombs, the trees near the industrial park had long since withered. This group of scavengers lit some tires and zombie bones as fuel, and placed a large pot on the fire to cook food.
Although Feng Jun had lived in the wasteland for some time, this was his first time seeing how survivors lived in the wasteland. A female survivor continuously stirred the pot with an iron shovel, while several other women helped, cutting some mutated beast meat into small pieces and pouring them into the pot. Finally, they carefully took out a large bundle from a tent, opened it, and took out a few pieces of flatbread from inside.
These flatbreads were one of the main foods Feng Jun sold in Longmen Town, made from coarse flour mixed with some usable plants from the Doomsday. The price was two helium crystal points for five catties. In the wasteland, it could be said to be relatively cheap food, and it provided a strong feeling of fullness after eating, with no radiation at all, making it quite popular among commoners. In fact, the most important thing was that Feng Jun had his subordinates add a small amount of salt during the production process. After the nuclear war, the sea was also severely contaminated with nuclear radiation, and almost all salt fields on the coast were abandoned. Although Shangqing City is near the sea, salt here is still a rare commodity.
Several women took out a few pieces of flatbread from the package, broke them into small pieces, and put them into the pot, being extremely careful throughout, as if afraid of missing any crumbs. They even licked the crumbs off their hands.
Feng Jun looked at these scavengers with some emotion. They were just a small microcosm of the wasteland. One couldn't say they were lucky or unlucky, because simply being born in this wasteland was a torment.
The food in the pot was cooked quickly. Except for a few scavengers who were still standing guard, everyone gathered around the campfire. They lined up in an orderly fashion, each holding a bowl, and received food according to the order of the queue. Feng Jun noticed that they also had a set of rules when serving food: when serving adult males, they would give them as much as possible, while older people and women who couldn't fight would receive less. However, some strong women carrying weapons received the same amount as the men. There were also some disabled people in the line, but when it was their turn, they also received a full bowl of food. Everyone lined up in an orderly manner, and finally, two pregnant women with big bellies came out of the tent and each received a portion of food.
It seemed that this scavenger team was very united and had its own set of order, with orderly division of labor and mutual respect. This was very rare in the wasteland. Not to mention the few disabled people, it was very rare for small groups living in the wasteland to have elderly people and pregnant women. Some survivor groups would even abandon and kill the old, weak, and sick in their team.
Meanwhile, in the scavenger camp, a few scavengers on guard duty noticed Feng Jun observing their camp. The few men immediately became nervous. Although they had over fifty people, if a fight really broke out, they probably wouldn't even be enough to fill the other side's teeth.
A man wearing a makeshift mechanical exoskeleton immediately became nervous, beginning to calculate what he should do if the other party made certain demands.
"De Chao, I've brought you food," a pregnant woman said, approaching him with two bowls of food.
The man called De Chao immediately turned around and took the bowls the woman handed him.
"Li Xin, why are you here? Go back to the tent quickly," De Chao said.
"I just came to see you. I heard you haven't eaten yet. You've been leading everyone to kill zombies all day. How can that be? I can't eat much of my bowl, so you eat some of mine," Ah Xin said.
De Chao took the bowl and immediately lifted his head, swallowing in large gulps. The thick food looked very difficult to swallow, yet he gulped it down in a few mouthfuls.
De Chao said, "When we've saved enough helium crystal points, I'll take you and everyone to move into Longmen Town. It's just a shame that a group of bandit soldiers came a few days ago. Not only did they occupy our original camp, but we also have to hand over 50% of our daily harvest to them."
Li Xin gave half of the food in her bowl to De Chao, and as she walked back to the tent, she said, "What can we do about it? It's already a luxury for us to survive in peace."