stop fighting

"Once upon a time?" Lu Ze's voice was condensed: "What do you mean?"

"Literally." Ghost turned to face him, raised his hand to support the mask on his face, "Do you remember those 'herds' you met last night, I told you that they are at the bottom of the food chain in the entire old city Creatures. In contrast, the ones at the top of the food chain are the infected bodies you just saw. Here they call themselves 'diaspora'."

Lu Ze was stunned for a second before he realized what he meant: "You mean...these people are also infected, but they still retain their own consciousness?"

"To be precise, they not only retain their sense of autonomy, but also have a certain degree of immunity to the polluted environment of the old city."

Lu Ze was startled, and instantly understood many of the joints.

When the virus first broke out, it did cause devastating damage to the human brain function. However, only a few months later, the situation changed dramatically—whether it was the mutation of the virus or the defense mechanism of human evolution, which gave birth to this kind of disease. A creature between a human and a living corpse.The infected bodies shown on the infrared sensor images previously received by the base are most likely not entirely living corpses, but these things.

"The situation in the old city was really chaotic in the first few months. Whether 'herd' or 'diaspora', they were called later. In the beginning, everyone fought together, and many people thought they were dead. , but opened his eyes again the next day. At that time, the army had evacuated with ordinary people, leaving only a small number of elite troops doing the final cleansing work. Some people tried to escape, trying to keep up with the final evacuation A large force, but no one can cross the cordon they set up 40 kilometers away from the radiation zone."

Ghost's narration was flat, without any extra emotion in his voice, as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him.

Lu Ze stopped unknowingly. He lowered his eyes silently, and his eyes fell on his palms.

He still remembers.

At that time, as the head of the fourth regiment under a certain special warfare brigade in the Southern Military Region, he was tasked with guarding the outer line of defense in the radiation-infected area, ensuring the safe evacuation of the last group of survivors escorted by the third regiment, and at the same time, launching a mission for the nearest α satellite city. Clean the missiles for final preparations.

It was already the third day after the evacuation order was issued. In order to prevent accidents, the evacuation route was kept secret internally, and even they did not know where the final destination was.The soldiers under his hands were scattered at the entrances and exits of the four main urban areas to set up checkpoints, and he himself led the team to guard the exits of the city going south.

Generally speaking, their tasks are not complicated. The monsters in the city are already walking corpses. In a short period of time, they are more wandering around the main city, attacking their own kind, and eating corpses.Occasionally, a sporadic one or two appeared outside the security zone, and they were quickly dealt with by the snipers on the checkpoint.

The accident happened on the morning of the fifth day.To be precise, early morning.

It was late winter in the old city at the end of December, the air was cold and dry, and the sky was always gray clouds, which added a bit of chill to the already desolate land.

Lu Ze stayed on guard the night before, and was about to go back to the temporary command center to have a cup of hot tea, and then go back to the camp to rest—the alarm bell on the desk rang sharply.

He frowned and picked up the walkie-talkie: "What's going on?"

After a burst of buzzing noises, Chen Xin's voice came from the other end: "There seems to be something wrong in the direction of 12 o'clock northeast of the checkpoint."

Chen Xin was his vice-regiment at the time, and his card was right in front of the command center just after the shift change time.Lu Ze could hear the seriousness in his tone, and simply said "I'm coming", grabbed the coat on the back of the chair and walked out.

It was cold outside, and their temporary checkpoint was very simple, with air leaks from all sides. Chen Xin was wearing a mask, and his exposed eyes were a little anxious.

"what happened?"

"Northeast at 12 o'clock, the number of living corpses is wrong." Chen Xin said and handed over a pair of binoculars.

Lu Ze narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction he said: It's really wrong.

From somewhere in the originally empty street, a huge team poured out. From a rough look, there were probably hundreds of people, and the number was still increasing slowly. They were walking towards their warning belt.

Through the telescope, Lu Ze's eyes slowly narrowed.After a while, he said in a very deep voice: "The visual conditions are too poor. These don't look like living corpses. Tell all machine gunners to be on alert. I'll go back to the control room to check the situation at other checkpoints."

When walking back to the control room, Lu Ze probably had a vague premonition in his heart, and sure enough——

Almost at the same time as he stepped into the door of the command room, the sirens at the other three checkpoints all sounded sharply.

As expected, a large number of living corpse-like organisms appeared at all checkpoint intersections.The strange thing is that they didn't punch the card, and stopped 500 meters away from the warning zone, and there was silence where the wind passed.

All the machine gunners were already in position behind the isolation zone, and Lu Ze was standing behind them with a telescope, without giving the order to shoot for a long time.

The sky slowly lit up amidst such a silent confrontation. Through the lens, Lu Ze's eyes slowly locked onto a man in the front on the left.

He was about half a head taller than the people around him, with a solid figure, and the T-shirt on his upper body was a little tattered, exposing the knotted muscles in his arms.A somewhat dirty bandage was tied on his face from the left forehead to the right ear, covering one of his eyes, but what attracted Lu Ze was the look in the exposed eye.

He seemed to know that Lu Ze was observing them, and his eyes passed the row of machine gunners without hesitation, and fell straight behind.A cluster of small flames burned in the dark pupils, blazing, with a hint of inexplicable hope, like a leopard dormant in the jungle.

Lu Ze's eyes fixed on him for a few seconds, he seemed to sense something, his eyes moved, and he took a step forward.

One of Lu Ze's machine gunners lost control for a moment and dunked his fingers inward. A row of bullets whizzed and hit the man a few meters in front of him, splashing a row of cement debris.

Lu Ze was taken aback by him, and when he came back to his senses, he roared, "What are you doing?! Who told you to shoot?!"

The machine gunner also knew that he was impulsive, and he was a little speechless.

Lu Ze was furious: "Everyone stay put! No shooting without my order!"

When he raised his head and looked in the direction of the man, he realized that the man took half a step back slightly. There was a small noise from the crowd behind him, which was stopped by his raising his hand.

Lu Ze narrowed his eyes.All these years of mission experience told him that something was wrong with the group of people in front of him, they didn't look like simple survivors.In the past week, he has seen too many people like that, and he is very familiar with that look - the infinite desire for life, as long as he can live, he can give everything.

But this group of people in front of him was different, they were not only orderly, but from their eyes, Lu Ze couldn't see that kind of desperate desire, on the contrary, it was more of temptation and vague expectation.It's like a child who did something wrong when he was a child, confessed in front of his mother, knew that he was wrong, but expected his mother to understand and forgive him.

"Lieutenant Colonel, a communication request has been sent from Alpha Satellite City." A communication soldier trotted from the second floor to behind Lu Ze.

Lu Ze pondered for a second, and said, "All machine gunners are on standby, and no one is allowed to act without authorization."

On the opposite side of the communication signal is the colleague of the α Satellite City missile launcher, in order to confirm the final launch time with them.

Lu Ze's eyes crossed the protective barrier ten meters below, and he didn't speak for a long time.

"Lieutenant Colonel? Are you listening? It has been less than an hour since we received the launch time, and I need to confirm that your team has evacuated to a safe area outside the radiation range of the missile."

"Something unexpected happened on my side, and I need to contact Colonel Shen."

After a burst of buzzing noises, the other party's voice was somewhat apologetic: "Sorry, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel Shen and his party have left Alpha Satellite City yesterday, and we cannot contact him now. The body is controlled within the missile range of the old city to the greatest extent."

Lu Ze closed his eyes: "If I say, there are still survivors in the old city?"

"Lieutenant Colonel, can you be sure those are uninfected survivors?"

"I... can't be sure."

The other party was silent.

1 minute was stretched infinitely, and when the other side spoke again, the voice was difficult: "We have received orders to protect the safety of the existing human beings at all costs. According to the information received, the current evacuation vanguard has approached The base satellite city along the coast, if we can't complete the task, even if only one infected body gets into the evacuation team, the consequences will be devastating. Your Excellency, Lieutenant Colonel, before you make a decision, you must judge clearly. In front of you, is it a trap or a real survivor."

Lu Ze pursed his lips.

Outside the window, the clouds that have been pressing overhead since dawn seem to be thicker, and the north wind is bitter.

The implication of the other party is clear enough, at this time, the judgment has lost any meaning.

I would rather kill by mistake than let it go.

"I see. You can launch the missiles at the scheduled time. My men will watch until the end to make sure there are no accidents."

There was silence for a second, and a hasty "received" was said.

Hearing the busy tone from the receiver, Lu Zechui clenched his fist with his left hand by his side.

After a long while, he turned to the adjutant at the side: "Order all the checkpoints to retreat three kilometers back, build a bunker nearby, and launch the missile in an hour."

He did not evacuate with the others.

When the missile landed, there was a dazzling flash of light, followed by thick smoke and a deafening explosion.

There was a commotion behind the crowd in front of him, the shock wave of the explosion spread layer by layer, high-rise buildings collapsed, the ground trembled, and people fled in all directions. Among the scattered people, he keenly caught several festering and blackened skin.

There is no wrong choice.

He closed his eyes.

The bandaged man didn't seek cover nearby. He half-kneeled on the ground, holding a limp and thin body in his arms.Against the background of the scattered crowd behind him, he was like a silent and cold sword.

From a distance of hundreds of meters, Lu Ze could feel the gaze in his eyes. The small fire intensified, and eventually developed into a prairie fire, completely burning out the last ray of hope remaining in his eyes.

The explosion finally died down.

There was a bloody smell mixed with iron and fire in the air, and thick smoke billowed above the whole city. Lu Ze felt as if the lingering sound of the explosion was still echoing in his ears, mixed with distant and faint crying.

He walked down the ground step by step until he reached the end of the isolation zone built by cement piles.

The man was still there, with the burning tall building behind him, and beside him was a struggling figure rolling on the ground, and everywhere he went was covered with large swathes of purple-black blood.

Layers upon layers of wailing came closer.

The man put down the body in his arms, walked a few steps to the side, bent down and half knelt on the ground, held down the struggling figure, lowered his head and seemed to say something in his ear, and then took a sharp gravel at hand , pierced the man's head neatly.

Afterwards, he slowly stood up and met Lu Ze's eyes.Under the blood-colored flame, his pupils burned with a layer of pure black anger.

After a while, he turned around abruptly, bent down to pick up the soft and thin body from the ground, and walked towards the burning fire in the depths of the old city without looking back.

The sky did not know when the fine snowflakes fell, which seemed to be dyed red under the reflection of the fire.

Not long after, the desolate land was covered with a layer of pale white.

The author has something to say:

Gageng~ See you on Monday