Xiao Fan formulated a strategy, and everyone immediately began to take action.
The Lynx vehicle's speed was fast, and it quickly drove to the back window of the gas station and stopped.
Wang Zhan also drove a minibus, bringing everyone to the front door of the gas station.
The minibus drifted, blocking the entire entrance and sealing the door tightly.
The gas station windows had iron bars, so the only way in or out was through the door. With the door blocked, it would be very difficult for the zombies to get in.
Everyone quickly got out of the vehicles and entered the interior of the gas station.
Xu Qiang also parked his car, ran to the front door, got in through the minibus window, and then went out the front door, entering the interior.
"Upstairs!"
At Xiao Fan's command, everyone rushed upstairs together.
Their movements were fast, but the zombies' speed was not slow either. After all, the police station was only this short distance from the gas station, so the horde soon charged over. With so many zombies, those in front arrived at the door, but those behind had no more room and could only spread to the sides and back of the building.
The gas station building was not big, and the second floor had a total of four windows: a bedroom, kitchen, dining room and living room.
"Two people guard each window, open fire!"
The eight quickly divided into groups, and gunfire began to ring out.
Xiao Fan also stood behind the window facing the front door, looking at the dark mass of zombies below.
He had previously thought there were only about a thousand, but now it seemed a bit conservative — it should be around one thousand five hundred.
Guarding the front windows were Xu Qiang, Wang Zhan, Li Long and an unnamed private without rank.
The few of them were now standing at the windows, raising their guns to aim.
At this close range, the chance of hitting a headshot was very high. Xu Qiang and Wang Zhan rarely missed, and even the unranked private could hit eight out of ten shots.
Gunshots kept ringing out, and clusters of blood splattered among the horde.
More and more zombies fell to the ground, and whether dead or not, they were quickly trampled underfoot by their fellows and unable to get up again.
Meanwhile, Xiao Fan was mainly looking for the armored car crew, since one of them might have the keys to the armored truck.
Soon, Xiao Fan spotted one.
Generally, an armored car has four people — a driver, a money handler, and two guards.
The driver's job is just to drive the car, so he can be ignored. The money handler's job is to carry cash and put it in the rear compartment, coming and going to open it.
The guards' job is to carry guns for protection, and they are not responsible for opening doors.
Xiao Fan was mainly looking for that money handler.
He spotted a zombie wearing a bulletproof vest and steel helmet, following the dark horde as it approached the house.
Observing carefully, Xiao Fan also noticed that this person's bulletproof vest had pockets for carrying bullets.
The five-shot riot gun bullets were large with no magazine, needing to be loaded one by one. Usually each guard carried ten bullets, five in the gun and five on their person as spares.
This zombie's bullet pouch still had bullet tails peeking out, slightly yellow.
"This one isn't it, this is just a guard, he wouldn't have the keys on him," Xiao Fan said, and Xu Qiang gave up on the idea of killing this zombie, which wore a steel helmet and wasn't so easy to kill.
Xiao Fan continued searching the horde, and after a while he found a second guard.
This one wasn't it either; he needed to find the money handler.
But no matter how Xiao Fan looked, he couldn't find a third person wearing a bulletproof vest, making him a bit puzzled — according to reason it should have been very easy to spot.
For now unable to find the person, he could only continue shooting, and the fighting grew increasingly intense.
The zombies did not seem to be completely without intelligence. Those surrounding the building who couldn't reach the enemies upstairs began trying to enter the house.
Although the minibus was blocking the entrance, it ultimately couldn't seal like a real door and there were still gaps. So some zombies began attempting to squeeze through the crevices.
After several zombies continuously squeezed into the gap, the minibus loosened a bit.
Xiao Fan immediately ordered Li Long and Zhang Chao to go downstairs and attack the zombies trying to squeeze in with combat knives.
The two, still unable to upgrade their ranks for now, came downstairs and used knives to attack zombies from the left and right gaps.
With them going down, there were two fewer firing positions upstairs, and the rate of killing zombies began to slow.
Fortunately, after a bout of killing, the three unranked privates all upgraded to one-star status, temporarily easing the pressure of the worsening bullet shortage.
But this situation couldn't last. Upstairs ammunition was being consumed faster and faster, and they soon couldn't keep it up much longer.
The minibus gap downstairs was also growing under the zombies' constant siege.
Wang Zhan and Liu DaHua also went downstairs, with four privates trying to block the door.
Just as the situation reached a deadlock, the horde below suddenly became agitated.
Xiao Fan immediately noticed — a relatively tall zombie had appeared in the undead crowd!
"This is... a big zombie? No, not quite, it's even bigger, and it seems an armor layer has appeared on its body!"
Xiao Fan quickly locked onto this zombie through the radar screen.
This zombie had clearly crawled out of the meteorite crater, wearing the tattered remains of a uniform identical to the two guards'.
But this zombie didn't have a bulletproof vest or helmet, so it must have been the armored truck driver.
It was a male zombie over six feet tall, and from its exposed cheeks you could see an armor layer had formed over its body.
This zombie was clearly more aggressive than the others and much stronger too. As it advanced and found other zombies blocking its path, its burly arms swung out, immediately knocking down the ordinary zombies like rolling tumbleweeds.
The other zombies also seemed to have some fear of this one, desperately dodging to either side to let the big zombie through.
The zombie came to the minibus's front, swung a powerful arm, and with a ripping sound, its large hand actually shattered the entire windshield! Spider web cracks appeared before it fell away!
Before Xiao Fan could tell anyone to focus on this big zombie, another special undead appeared!
Wearing a steel helmet and bulletproof vest, slim but athletic, its agile movements — a female zombie.
Xiao Fan took one look and saw this zombie was somewhat similar to the one in a bikini they'd encountered on the beach.
No, this one's evolution was clearly even higher than that bikini zombie!
And the bulletproof vest and steel helmet also indicated her identity — she was precisely the money handler Xiao Fan had been desperately searching for!