Attack the Gas Station

Xiao Fan let the Lin sisters stay in the hotel while he went out to check on the status of supplies collection.

In the heavy truck's carriage, about one-fifth of the space had already been occupied by supplies, mainly food.

There was not only staple food, but also quite a lot of things like eggs, sausages, cured meat etc., and even a small amount of vegetables and fruits.

Vegetables and fruits were very hard to find now. It had been almost a week since the apocalypse began and many vegetables and fruits had already rotten. The ones they found were the only remaining edible ones.

Xiao Fan pondered to himself that perhaps he should find a generator and connect it to freezers and the like to better preserve the food.

"Commander, the surrounding hotels have collected most of their supplies. With this food we can last two months."

"Good. Leave some space for fuel."

Xiao Fan left the Lynx vehicle parked there and took his men from the hotel to the gas station.

Soon, Xiao Fan met up with Xu Qiang.

"Commander, look."

Xiao Fan climbed onto the abandoned vehicle flow and looked at the zombie horde about 40 meters away downwind.

They couldn't smell the humans' scent from here so the zombies didn't notice their existence. Xiao Fan could safely observe them.

At this distance he could see things his naked eyes couldn't through the radar screen.

Soon Xiao Fan noticed something strange.

He realized the zombie dots on the radar were different colors.

Most zombies showed up as light red dots.

What was strange was that at the center of this horde there were two darker red dots.

"The crater is at the center right?"

"Yes commander. The zombies are standing around the crater edge but haven't entered it. From this angle I can't see what's inside."

Xiao Fan stroked his chin. "There are stronger zombies inside the crater."

Xiao Fan thought of the large zombie he met at the hospital and the female zombie on the beach. He was now quite sure zombies could evolve.

But how did they evolve? What would they evolve into? He had no idea and had to find out.

His gaze turned back to the gas station as he spotted something he wanted - the armored truck.

The truck was parked near the gas station's tanks with its doors wide open. The crew were nowhere to be seen, having likely joined the zombie horde.

He turned to Xu Qiang. "Are you skilled at lock picking?"

"Yes commander. It's a basic scout skill but armored truck combination locks are tricky. I can crack the code but we need the special key. Without it we'd have to use explosives or a power saw."

Lacking either explosive or saw, Xiao Fan looked back at the zombie horde.

"The truck crew should have been wearing helmets and bulletproof vests. The key should be on one of their bodies if we can find them in the horde."

"From ground level it'd be hard. We should get elevation to snipe them and scout more easily."

Xiao Fan considered the gas station roof about 7 meters up before abandoning the idea.

That left heading upstairs indoors.

With the horde 20 some meters away they could sprint up if fast enough.

"Bring the Lynx around back out of sight and park. Get a bus or container truck to barricade the doors once we're inside. We'll defend the second floor."

"Yes commander!"

Xu Qiang parked the Lynx then found a bus.

"Everyone gather!"

The soldiers assembled around Xiao Fan.

"Full ammo?"

"Checked supplies at noon commander, all full."

Xiao Fan did a quick count. Seven privates with 360 bullets each for the four 1-stars, 90 each for the three no-stars.

Xu Qiang had 60 bullets between rifle and pistol. 60 more including Xiao Fan's 6 bullets meant barely over 500 total.

The Lynx machine gun had 1,000 but spraying inaccurate fire would be lucky to drop 300 zombies.

With over 1,000 zombies their ammo was clearly insufficient.

Upgrading could significantly improve their firepower though.

The truck might have gold bars and fuel to loot but wiping out this horde could net a small fortune in jewelry from the nearly 50% female zombie portion alone.

Xiao Fan gave his orders.

"Charge on my signal. Xu Qiang, park the Lynx out back. The rest barricade us inside with the bus. Fight defensive on the 2nd floor. Priority shoot any zombies in helmets and body armor - those should have the keys. Understood?"

"Yes commander!"

Xiao Fan checked his watch. 4:30 PM.

"Let's end this by 7. Move out!"

The Lynx roared to life and wove through the abandoned vehicles straight toward the gas station.

The sudden noise stirred the horde. Blood red eyes turned upward from around the crater rim like ghosts emerged from hell!