A convoy of ten motorcycles set out from the wholesale market in Chishui County.
There were nineteen people in total, with two people per bike except for the first one.
All the motorcycles were lightweight off-road bikes, which were often more useful than cars during the apocalypse, at least when navigating alleys and lanes.
The man in front wore a black jacket, was bald, had big sunglasses, and had a sharp chopper around his waist. He carried a semi-automatic riot shotgun on his back.
This man was called Li Nanfeng. He used to be the security chief at the wholesale market.
To be able to manage such a big wholesale market required some ruthlessness. Li Nanfeng was a well-known figure in Chishui County.
After the apocalypse, he killed his mutated wife and children with his own hands. Since then, he had become even more unscrupulous.
Although he followed Lu Wang, he was still relatively independent. Even if Lu Wang asked him to do something, he would demand compensation.
If it wasn't for not wanting to deal with miscellaneous matters, he might have become the boss of the wholesale market instead.
Li Nanfeng had accepted a mission this time to take care of a young man called Xiao Fan in Yanshan Town.
Lu Wang had given him a file. Xiao Fan also had over a dozen men, supposedly some veterans.
Veterans were nothing to boast about. Li Nanfeng also had veterans under him. Without planes and artillery, they were just ordinary people. He had seen plenty of them before.
The dozen or so men who came out with him this time had all killed before during the apocalypse. Their marksmanship was decent too. Li Nanfeng could pat his chest and say that dealing with a dozen or even thirty men would be no problem.
The main reason he was willing to take on the mission was for the rewards.
He had heard Yanshan Town had hundreds of survivors. After taking care of Xiao Fan and his men, the women among the survivors would be his. The rest of the supplies and resources could be hauled back in a big truck without needing to be handed over.
At the August 15th trade fair, he could trade those supplies for guns, women, or anything he wanted.
What Li Nanfeng wanted most was something to make him stronger.
He already knew of the existence of certain things, he just didn't know if they would appear at the trade fair.
The motorcycle convoy advanced along the highway. They avoided zombies from afar. If there were only a small number of zombies, they would take them out directly.
Chishui County was seventy kilometers from Yanshan Town. After traveling about halfway, they stopped at an abandoned house to rest.
Li Nanfeng let his men scrounge up some food. They also found some baijiu liquor in the house. Sitting there eating and drinking, Li Nanfeng said,
"We'll rest here tonight and set off tomorrow morning. We'll reach Yanshan Town by noon."
"Boss Li, when we get there, you eat the good meat first. Can you leave us brothers a sip of soup?" one of his men ingratiated.
Li Nanfeng glanced at the fawning underling and sneered coldly, "Is that all you amount to, just knowing how to play with women?"
"Hehe, there's not much proper work left to do in this world. If not playing with women, then what?"
"Alright, as long as there's no particularly good stuff, you guys can have your way. But let me warn you first, Xiao Fan's people are probably not to be underestimated either. I heard they have two military vehicles and some standard issue weapons."
"Got it Boss Li, leave it to us. Don't worry just because Xiao Fan has two military vehicles. We've got explosives too. As long as we sneak them over, those soldiers will go straight to heaven."
Looking at the two packs of explosives his underling had brought, Li Nanfeng felt even more assured.
He had prepared fully this time. There was no way he could fail.
*******
The next morning, after another feast of mutated beast meat, Xiao Fan and his people were full of energy and spirit.
Xiao Fan stretched his arms and legs. He could feel his strength and physique improving again.
Checking the time, it was 10 AM.
The zoo was now basically clear of danger, except for some mutated beasts still trapped in the enclosures.
Xiao Fan had also obtained his new vehicle, an impressive Dongfeng Warrior.
The truck had a retractable soft top and a 7.62mm machine gun mounted inside.
But they were still in the zoo right now. Once they crossed the street full of abandoned vehicles, the truck would not be suitable to drive.
Leaving the truck parked for now, Xiao Fan swaggered through the zoo with his people and came to the main entrance.
After crossing the wide street on the other side, they would reach the campus of Chishui No. 1 Middle School.
The big street was no different from the others, filled with abandoned vehicles and zombies shambling around them.
"Don't open fire. Go straight through. Use your bayonets on any zombies."
The guard dogs Jiatian and Laohu led the way. The soldiers streamed through in single file.
Getting through the vehicles was not difficult at all. They passed through smoothly in ten minutes.
They continued until reaching the back gate of the school. Engineer Ai Yin went over with metal cutters from his toolkit and snipped open the iron bars.
Stepping into this familiar alma mater, Xiao Fan felt somewhat sentimental.
He had graduated from here and entered university six years ago.
The campus had not changed much. He could still clearly remember the classroom buildings and dorms he had lived in.
But the brown blood stains on the ground and the lingering stench in the air constantly reminded him this was a place crawling with zombies.
Chishui No. 1 Middle School was the biggest high school in the county, with over 30,000 students.
The outbreak had peaked in the morning when students were in class. With the crowded classrooms, one could imagine the hellish scenes that unfolded.
Xiao Fan had no idea if his sister was even still alive, but either way, he had to search here.
Turning on the radar, the campus was indeed covered in red dots.
However, the distribution of zombies seemed somewhat orderly. Though there were zombies everywhere, they did not seem to move completely erratically but were relatively clustered.
With 30,000 zombies scattered around the campus, it was a terrifying number. Xiao Fan did not act rashly but observed carefully.
As Xiao Fan observed, Engineer Ai Yin also scrutinized the situation closely.
First inspecting the horde, Ai Yin's expression became grave as he said to Xiao Fan, "Commander, be careful. There may be advanced zombies here."
Xiao Fan nodded slightly. He was mentally prepared. When they had left Shenhai, the zombies were already showing signs of mutation. After almost a month, some zombies were likely even more evolved now.
If any place had evolved zombies, schools like this would definitely rank at the top.
After surveying the scene further, Engineer Ai Yin pointed in one direction.
"Commander, there should be survivors over there."
Xiao Fan looked up to see a tall white building across the sports field, past another school building.
It was the school's activity center!