Chapter 171: Kicking a Steel Wall
At dusk, the sky was painted with a red glow.
In a courtyard to the north.
A three-meter-high wall hung with iron mesh, with a black metal gate in the middle.
A few people who had escaped were standing on the wall.
Hidden behind the wall, they cautiously watched the outside.
The long-haired leader took a deep drag from his cigarette, then kicked one of his men, cursing, "Didn't you say they only had one handgun? How the hell do they have a sniper, and such an accurate one?"
The subordinate stumbled from the kick, scrambling to his feet, and explained, "Boss, I swear on my life, all we saw was a handgun! We were right there, how could we lie about something like that?"
A few others chimed in, agreeing that they had only seen one person with a handgun, and the rest only had pipes or something similar.
"Damn! Are you all blind?" the man cursed again but didn't press further.
Chasing after that convoy had clearly brought trouble upon them.
Even in the apocalypse, firearms still held immense power and intimidation.
Even those so-called superhumans on the radio.
They only showed some genetic enhancements, but none could withstand bullets.
Now, they had provoked a group that might be military or government—clearly a steel wall they'd kicked against.
Vroom~!
Suddenly, the sound of car engines echoed from outside the wall.
Simultaneously, one of the sentries on the wall shouted, "B-boss, the convoy is coming. All their cars are here."
The man threw his cigarette to the ground and scrambled up the wall, cautiously poking his head out to look.
The convoy from earlier was now in view.
It stopped in the distance, with no one getting out.
They were likely observing the area as well.
"Shit, this isn't over yet," the man cursed, quickly thinking and then said, "Bring me the loudspeaker."
A loudspeaker usually used for selling vegetables was brought to him.
The man slapped it twice.
He turned on the speaker and shouted, "Friends over there, it was all a misunderstanding. Please give us some face. Once we've sorted out food and supplies, we'll bring generous gifts to apologize."
After shouting, he turned off the speaker.
Then, he ordered his men, "Go check the gate and make sure it's locked tight. Don't let anything else go wrong."
"Got it." His subordinates quickly rushed to the gate, adding two more chains to the lock.
......
On the convoy side.
Everyone in the vehicles heard the shout from the loudspeaker.
Li Yanhong frowned and said, "Why does he sound like he's reciting lines from a movie?"
"Maybe that's just how things go in the underworld," Wu Heng remarked.
"Aren't you going to take notes? You're a leader now too; you might need these lines someday." Li Yanhong teased with a smile.
"You're the leader. You take notes."
"No way, it's too lame."
Wu Heng said, "Alright, let's get serious. Tell them to surrender or face the consequences."
Li Yanhong opened the loudspeaker in the vehicle and shouted, "Listen up inside, surrender now, and you'll have a chance to live. Otherwise, don't blame us for what happens."
Shortly after, the voice from the building came again, "It's just a misunderstanding. Why escalate things like this? It's the apocalypse; humans should be helping each other."
"How shameless can he be?" Li Yanhong turned to Wu Heng.
They were the ones who had chased after them, trying to rob their supplies.
Now, they were talking about mutual help.
It was like saying, "I can hit you, but if you hit me, you're disrupting world peace."
Wu Heng said, "No more talking. Just tell them if they don't want to die, they better open the gate and surrender."
Li Yanhong repeated the message through the loudspeaker.
Still, there was no sign of surrender.
The man inside shouted back, "You think we're scared of you? If you've got the guts, come at us! We've got plenty of weapons to send you straight to hell!"
Li Yanhong was about to respond when Wu Heng shut off the loudspeaker.
He turned to the skeletons behind him and said, "Hunter One, find a sniping position. Big Head, have all the skeletons disembark and prepare for an attack."
Clatter~!
The sound of bones rattling filled the air.
All the skeletons jumped out of the truck bed, holding cleavers and spears, crowding the entire street.
The last rays of the sunset glinted off their hollow white bones.
......
"Shit, boss, their trucks weren't carrying supplies—they were full of skeletons!"
"We're screwed, we've really stirred up trouble now."
"What do we do? Those things aren't human. Maybe we should surrender."
Seeing the vast army of skeletons outside,
Everyone inside the building was thrown into chaos.
It was clear now that the convoy wasn't just a group with lots of supplies. Their trucks were full of hellish creatures.
Before, they hadn't bothered engaging, but now they were serious, and it was bad news for everyone inside.
"Shut up, all of you!" The leader's voice trembled, but he still swore to maintain control.
He was starting to regret listening to his men.
Provoking this group had been a huge mistake.
But at this point, there was no turning back.
While the others might be able to surrender, he couldn't.
If he surrendered, they'd surely kill the leader to prevent future problems.
So, surrender was not an option.
"Boss, this won't work. There's at least tens of thousands of skeletons. We can't beat that," one of his men said.
"Shut the hell up! Can't you count? Tens of thousands? They'd fill the whole village. It's just one street!" The leader took a deep breath, forcing himself to stay calm. "If we go out, we're dead for sure. We have walls and an iron gate; they can't get in. If it can stop zombies, why can't it stop them?"
"D-do you think that'll work?" the man stammered.
"Get the gasoline and the weapons we prepared earlier. We can't win a frontal fight, but we can defend the walls. A couple of fires, and they'll be done for," the leader continued.
After thinking about it, the others agreed and quickly started moving, bringing out the things they had prepared earlier for dealing with zombies.
......
In the bus.
Xiaoxiao flew back, lounging in the air as if lying down, resting her chin on her hands. "They're not planning to surrender. They're getting ready with a lot of bottles that explode into fire when smashed."
"Who's their leader?" Wu Heng asked.
Xiaoxiao thought for a moment, then mimicked pointing at her head, "The long-haired uncle with no shirt who curses a lot."
"Good job, Xiaoxiao."
"Hehe!" Xiaoxiao happily twirled in the air.
Li Yanhong said, "Looks like they've decided not to surrender."
"That's fine. It saves us the trouble of dealing with them later," Wu Heng replied.
Even if they took these people back to base,
They'd probably form their own gangs and be hard to control.
If they wanted to fight to the end, that made things easier.
"Alright, what's the plan? They've got Molotov cocktails."
"It's no problem." Wu Heng thought for a moment, then pulled out an ancient-looking incense burner and some yellowish linen cloth from his spatial ring, handing them to Barson. "Go place this burner near them."
He lit the incense inside with a lighter, and a faint fragrance quickly spread out.
Li Yanhong looked puzzled.
Meanwhile, Barson draped the linen over himself, and his body vanished from sight.
The car door opened.
They could hear the sound of someone getting out, but there was no one in sight.
Li Yanhong's eyes widened, unable to believe what she was seeing.
They had attributed Wu Heng's various special abilities to "superpowers."
After all, that new term could be used to explain anything beyond comprehension.
But draping a cloth and turning invisible was hard to link to superpowers, and that incense burner looked ancient. Its fragrance even made her feel slightly light-headed.
Soon, the door opened and closed again, and Barson reappeared.
He handed the linen back to Wu Heng.
"Tell everyone to stay in the vehicles until it's dark!" Wu Heng ordered.
Li Yanhong nodded and relayed the message to the entire convoy.
Both sides remained in a tense standoff, seemingly frozen in time.
The skeleton army stood motionless on the street.
Everyone inside the building was nervously watching the distance.
......
Time slowly passed.
The sky grew darker and darker.
Clatter~!
Suddenly, one of the sentries on the wall collapsed backward.
The long-haired leader was startled and shouted, "What the hell are you doing?"
Before he could finish his sentence,
More people on the wall and below started collapsing one after another.
It looked like they had all fainted.
The leader finally realized something was wrong and yelled, "Wet your towels! The air is poisoned!"
Even the stronger individuals were feeling dizzy.
Stumbling, they rushed into the building.
They grabbed towels and scarves to cover their mouths and noses.
......
"Uncle, a lot of them have collapsed," Xiaoxiao reported as she flew back.
Wu Heng handed the iPad to Xiaoxiao and ordered the skeletons, "Skeleton bulls, break down the gate."
Outside, the skeleton army parted to make way.
The giant skeleton bulls, as large as elephants, charged forward, their footsteps pounding the ground.
Inside the walls, the remaining people were in chaos.
Someone lit a Molotov cocktail and raised it above their head, ready to throw it.
Bang~!
A gunshot rang out, and the Molotov shattered, engulfing the person and part of the wall in flames.
The sniper.
It was that sniper again.
The others, holding Molotovs and covering their faces, hesitated.
By this time, the skeleton bulls had reached the gate.
With a loud clang, their thick horns smashed into the iron gate, the sound echoing through the area.
Then the second bull, followed by the third, slammed into the gate.
The massive impact weakened the lock.
With a final crash, the iron gate fell to the ground.
The skeletons swarmed into the building, engaging the survivors in a chaotic battle.
Shouts and the sounds of fighting filled the entire area.