Armored train in the apocalypse

Chapter 174 A way to survive
Three precise shots landed right in front of his feet.

Sparks flew from the steel plates on the ground.

Wan Hao staggered back a step and saw a nimble young man grab a rope and leap up in two steps.

Xiao Ma let out an excited growl, "Brother Xiao, we've caught a big fish!"

The worker following behind Lao Yuan and his companion stepped forward, his muscles bulging beneath his blue uniform. He suddenly threw a punch at Xiao Ma, but Xiao Ma dodged it. However, Xiao Ma underestimated his strength and was slammed headfirst into the wall beside him.

The second grappling hook flew up.

Lu Xiao held an assault rifle in one hand and climbed with the other.

He rushed forward in a few quick movements, swinging his assault rifle forward in mid-air.

Two crisp collisions echoed in the air.

Two white marks appeared on the gun.

Another worker tried the same trick and charged at Lu Xiao, but Lu Xiao was no less experienced than Xiao Ma. He threw his assault rifle behind him and took down the worker in two close-range moves, while also rescuing Xiao Ma.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lao Yuan and Wan Hao continued running forward.

Just then, the covered bridge in front of the two was suddenly twisted into a pretzel by a great force.

With a metallic creaking sound, the unfinished car bodies and the metal on the surrounding walls were fused together to form a ramp.

A boy in a wheelchair slowly drove up the slope.

With her sleeves rolled up, wisps of hair just past her eyebrows framing her forehead.

With a hint of seriousness in his eyes, he said, "I won't hurt you. Don't run forward. There's a sniper outside. He doesn't know the situation inside. You'll die if you go out."

(Xiao Ba)
Old Yuan and Wan Hao exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with a hint of fear.

The sense of threat posed by the boy with the childlike appearance in front of them was even stronger than that burly man behind them!

"Oh!"

Liang Kuan stepped off a half-finished vehicle hanging on the production line, then leaped onto the platform. With a single tug, accompanied by a teeth-grinding sizzle, the shield was pulled from the wall.

A faint heat emanated from his bulging muscles, and his voice was steady, "Do you still want to fight?"

Old Yuan turned his gaze to Wan Hao, who shook his head with a wry smile.

We are inferior in firepower, military skills, and even our level of technological advancement.

One person could recklessly charge into the lair of hundreds of people and kill his way in and out seven times.

beat?
What a fart!
The hundreds of workers below had already been subdued by the soldiers, and now the leader was grinning maliciously at them, holding two heavy machine guns.

He knew very well what those two things would do when they hit a person.

Without hesitation, he said.

"We surrender."

……

Before He Jie could even take stock of the battlefield, a sentry reported that the battle had attracted a group of zombies.

He could only leave the rest to the flight attendant, Hu Shuo, and Lu Xiao's team.

Hu Shuo was not a combatant, but rather someone who assisted in the surrender recruitment and also recorded combat achievements during this mission.

He and Xiao Ba led a group of soldiers back outside the building to block the zombies.

Hu Shuo expertly shook out the roster and announced loudly, "We are an armed train and need some skilled workers. Now, one of you who is in charge, come forward and coordinate with me."

After a moment's hesitation, everyone subconsciously looked at Wan Hao and Lao Yuan, who were blocked up there.

Wan Hao stared blankly at the man in the navy blue linen shirt below, and tentatively asked, "Translator Hu?"

Hearing the voice, Hu looked up in surprise and unexpectedly saw a familiar face.

As a translator, he frequently attends high-end events and has a wide network of connections.

But he's just a high-level employee. He can't compare to even the wealthy tycoon in front of him, let alone a real financial magnate.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have been unknowingly dragged into the apocalypse.

But the person in front of me, if I remember correctly, has a core business of shipping, so running inland routes is out of the question.

Why did you come to an obscure auto repair and manufacturing plant?

Although Hu Shuo had doubts in his heart, he had little time and could only suppress his doubts and get on with the important business.

With acquaintances around, things became much easier.

Wan Hao and Lao Yuan were completely honest with each other. The entire car manufacturing plant had more than 3,000 workers. After the apocalypse, some of them went home, and the other half had conflicts with them and went out to make a living on their own.

There were more than 800 people left in total, plus their families, totaling more than 2,100, but most of them lived in the residential area behind the factory.

More than 800 workers were scattered in several different factory buildings.

Avoid gathering together to avoid attracting zombies and monsters.

In addition, there were three submachine guns and six tactical pistols, all of which they had looted from a nearby law enforcement agency.

Including the two of them, there are a total of 210 evolved beings.

According to Su Huan's orders, all two thousand-plus people were to be packed up and taken away.

A normal bus can carry about fifty people, and under special circumstances, it can easily squeeze in around eighty.

But with more than two thousand people, it would take at least twenty-seven buses.

The factory only has ten buses, and there is a shortage of seventeen. Fortunately, this is a car manufacturing plant, so it has plenty of cars.

They managed to gather dozens of small cars and a dozen or so freight trucks, creating a large fleet.

The workers, completely bewildered, began moving.

Lao Yuan, Wan Hao, and Hu Shuo stood a little further away.

Hu Shuo finally had a chance to ask his question, "President Wan, what brings you here?"

Wan Hao sighed and tugged at Lao Yuan beside him. "I won't say much more. This is my college classmate, we've known each other for decades. This factory belongs to him. Now we're your prisoners. Considering our past friendship, can you give me a clear answer? I'll accept whatever fate comes my way."

Hu Shuo's shrewd gaze swept over the two of them, and he roughly understood what was going on.

He said after careful consideration, "We definitely won't hurt you. What we need are skilled workers in the factory. As long as you cooperate with us, we'll give you some benefits after the job is done."

Are you planning to build something?

Hu Shuo shook his head. "You'll know when you get there. The train conductor didn't give any instructions on this, so I can't just say anything."

Upon hearing the words "train conductor," Wan Hao's eyes lit up slightly. "You now belong to the armed train, is that an official organization?"

"No, the Armed Train is a force, a very complex force."

Old Yuan, standing to the side, frowned. It was as if he hadn't said anything at all.

However, one thing is certain: the official organization has indeed disappeared.

I wonder how much good this "armed train" actually has, and the name itself is quite intriguing.

The two were unsure if it was the "train" they had imagined.

Wan Hao pointed with his chin at Lu Xiao, who was maintaining order in the distance. He had been deeply impressed by Lu Xiao's clean and efficient capture of two strong workers earlier. "What is the status of such an elite soldier on the train?" Hu Shuo's gaze was subtle. "Captain Lu, if you are talking about status, he is alright, about the same level as me. If you are talking about combat strength, he is about the same as those ordinary armed soldiers."

Wan Hao's eyelids twitched, "That translator Hu..."

“I am the chief purser of the armed train. There are four chief purser like me and three captains like Captain Lu. We usually only perform auxiliary combat tasks and daily management, which is equivalent to the middle level. The real combat missions are completed by the core members. The two who just captured you are the core members.”

Hu Shuo explained with a smile.

This kind of institutional information is not classified intelligence and is supposed to be explained to ordinary passengers anyway.

Wan Hao's throat went dry as he thought of that burly man who looked like a monster.

Even without those armed soldiers, this one person alone could wipe out all of their evolved beings, completely overwhelming them in terms of strength and speed.

There was absolutely no chance of fighting back.

The other boy was even more outrageous; metal in his hands was like clay. In that instant, Wan Hao felt that the whole world was under the boy's control.

That feeling is so hopeless.

If the core members are this powerful, how strong must the train conductor be, who carries two guns?

However, Wan Hao quickly composed himself and began to think about how to demonstrate his value.

With the cooperation of more than 2,000 people, all kinds of important equipment were loaded onto trucks, and all personnel boarded the vehicles.

However, it was far fewer than the initial prediction of twenty-odd buses.

A large convoy of over a hundred vehicles began heading towards the high-speed train manufacturing base.

Lao Yuan and Wan Hao were in the same car as He Jie, serving as the lead vehicle.

On the way back, they encountered a small horde of three Tier 1 Skullbreakers and four Tier 1 Night Demons. Wan Hao witnessed He Jie's excellent command skills.

The lead troop carriers formed a temporary defensive line at the crossroads, with metal barriers rising from the ground to connect the troop carriers.

The heavy machine guns unleashed a fierce barrage that annihilated the terrifying Tier 1 zombies on the spot.

The clanging sound of the large metal shell casings hitting the armored vehicle overhead sent shivers down their spines.

Old Yuan peered out the car window, a bitter taste in his mouth, "If we had this firepower, so many people wouldn't have died back then."

Wan Hao shook his head and pointed to the soldiers fighting outside the car window, who were using armored vehicles as cover. He said, "These are all professional soldiers who have been on the battlefield. Their military skills are even more formidable than the mercenaries I trained in South Asia. If it weren't for some details that were off, I would have suspected that they were regular soldiers."

“Look at their attack rhythm; it’s not just a simple alternation, but takes into account the characteristics of different firearms.”

"boom--"

The heavy armored personnel carrier shuddered, as if something heavy had struck it.

A thunderous roar came from above, "Damn it, you dare to fight back against me? Press forward! Press forward! All troops, press forward!!"

Wan Hao murmured in a daze, "This train conductor has a bit of a temper..."

The soldiers inside the vehicle opened the door and rushed out. The two men hesitated for a moment, then decided not to follow and crawled up through the machine gunner's port on the roof.

Just then, they saw He Jie using two guns to suppress a Tier 1 Skullbreaker in front of him.

The skullcutter, wielding two hammers, had his chest pierced by 12.7mm bullets, creating deep craters of flesh and blood. He roared as he collapsed to the ground.

Armed soldiers on both sides charged forward, slaughtering the ordinary zombies that followed the skullcutter.

He Jie tossed the heavy machine gun aside, and it slammed onto the roof of the vehicle with a dull thud.

Suddenly, she heard the sounds of skillfully disassembling a gun barrel and reloading. She turned her head in surprise and looked at Wan Hao, who was busy at work. "You know how to do this?"

Wan Hao skillfully changed the heavy machine gun ammunition belt. "Before the apocalypse, I traveled all over the world. As someone in the shipping business, I inevitably came into contact with some of them. If the train conductor needs weapons, I know quite a few places where I can get them."

He Jie narrowed his eyes, took out a cigarette from his shirt pocket, wiped it on the red-hot barrel of the gun, and took a few deep drags. "Train conductor? I'm not a train conductor."

As he spoke, he pointed to a first-tier Night Demon climbing atop a six-story building not far away.

Wan Hao and the other man followed his finger and looked over. The Night Demon seemed to have been hit hard. Its head swayed, and then its limbs went weak and it fell down, smashing a small car on the ground into scrap metal.

Wan Hao's pupils narrowed. "A sniper?!"

I subconsciously turned my head to look around, but there were no buildings taller than that six-story building. The taller buildings nearby were skyscrapers two kilometers away.

Two kilometers, one shot and he's dead!
What kind of marksmanship is this?
"Could that be the train conductor?"

He Jie exhaled a smoke ring and sneered, "That little brat was seriously injured by the train conductor when he was three kilometers away."

After saying that, he picked up the heavy machine gun that had just been reloaded and jumped down to finish off the level one zombies on the ground.

"Be careful to finish off any wounded enemies. Don't be stingy with your bullets. If anyone gets wounded and still has bullets left, I'll shove them down their ass!"

"Now prepare to clean up the battlefield, make sure nothing is left behind!"

"..."

The two people on the roof of the car were left bewildered.

"It seems we've encountered a formidable force."

Old Yuan glanced at his old brother, whose eyes were now filled with a burning passion.

"Old Yuan, I feel like our opportunity has arrived!"

……

Compared to He Jie's grand gesture, Yu Yue's side was much quieter.

Nothing, no matter how small, escapes her ears.

Along the way, they bypassed all sorts of evolved beasts and zombies, and if they couldn't get around them, they would snipe them from a distance.

I arrived at the school very smoothly.

However, the subsequent negotiations encountered some difficulties, as the school contained not only workers but also teachers and students.

There are more than a thousand people in total.

Unlike He Jie's ruthless methods, she felt a strong aversion to killing ordinary people with whom she had no grudges.

However, the school was out of supplies. In exchange, Yu Yue led them to obtain some supplies, and the workers voluntarily left with her.

The afterglow of the setting sun spilled onto the dilapidated school playground, casting long shadows of the rusty basketball hoops.

Yu Yue stood beside the makeshift material storage point, watching the workers silently divide the canned goods, rice, and flour they had just brought back into two piles. One pile was neatly stacked and left for the teachers and students, while the other pile was sparsely packed into their own woven bags.

"Captain Yu, leave these for the children." The leading old worker wiped his face with his chapped hands. "It doesn't matter if we adults go hungry for a few meals, but the children are growing."

Behind him, several young workers were stuffing the last few packets of biscuits through the classroom window, and immediately, the children inside cheered in hushed tones.

Yu Yue pinched the hem of her clothes; the scene was inexplicably heartbreaking.

"I'll take you out, and I promise I won't let anything happen to you."

The old worker smiled slyly. "Girl, we've all seen it. You're capable people. Following you will give us a better chance to make a living. It's much better than staying at school and fighting with the kids for food."

Yu Yue looked at the resolute-faced workers, opened her mouth in vain, and didn't know what to say.

As dusk fell, the workers silently climbed onto the truck. Yu Yue saw in the rearview mirror that the children were standing quietly behind the sealed windows, watching them through the cracks.

Yu Yue's knuckles on the steering wheel turned slightly white as the windshield wipers quietly cleared her suddenly blurred vision.

(End of this chapter)