Chapter 21: Battle Scars

The team leaders all agreed it made sense—ten weeks, over three months—things could change by then, and surely the country wouldn’t abandon them. At last, calm was restored. No one feared killing zombies anymore; today alone, they’d slain at least two thousand. Steel pipes rose and fell, and the satisfaction was immense.

“We need to get our weapons in order. All mechanical personnel will be concentrated in the Mechanics Squad. Sun Xiaoshan will double as chief engineer, and the repair shop owner will lead the squad,” Li Fengyi continued, “Logistics will be headed by Wang Shujuan. Anyone unfit for combat will be assigned to Logistics to provide support and care for the children.”

“I absolutely don’t want someone like Jiang Qian,” Wang Shujuan said bitterly, full of hatred for the man who’d caused so many deaths. “He ate the meal I made, and then got everyone killed!”

“We need to discuss how to handle similar situations in the future,” Li Qiang interjected. “On the battlefield, that’s desertion; the penalty is death on the spot because he could get more people killed!”

The team leaders felt a chill run down their spines. It wasn’t that they had any sympathy for Jiang Qian, whose actions had led to so many deaths; these were people who could kill zombies without batting an eye. But to kill a living person—that was something else entirely.

“Let’s spare his miserable life for now,” Li Qiang said. “Many soldiers falter their first time in battle, but once they get through it, some become heroes. However”—he gritted his teeth—“from now on, if squad or team leaders encounter this again in an emergency, execute deserters immediately! If it’s not urgent, send them to the Training Squad for processing.”

The new Training Squad would still be led by Li Fengyi, with Li Qiang as deputy. All newcomers would first join the Training Squad for instruction before being assigned elsewhere.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted downstairs. The city was crawling with zombies, so everyone had been moving quietly, never daring to make much noise. The disturbance was alarming; people hurried out from Unit 6 to find a crowd wielding steel rods and pipes, forming a circle. Inside it, Jiang Qian was leaping and shouting, “Kill them! Kill them!”

Wei Yong kicked Jiang Qian hard. “What are you yelling for? If you attract zombies, will you take responsibility?!”

Jiang Qian stumbled into the crowd, then began to wail, “Mom! Mom! The zombies are going to eat me!” He crawled out on all fours, the onlookers silent, parting to let Li Fengyi and the others through.

In the center of the crowd lay three unconscious figures. Sun Xiaoshan saw the dark red blood trickling from their nostrils and heard their violent coughing. He was horrified. “What? Zombies?”

These three had been rescued earlier by the youth group. In the afternoon, there hadn’t been enough weapons, so each had only been given a pipe, not a steel rod. During the zombie clearing, they’d been bitten. In the chaos, no one noticed, and they themselves, panicked and clinging to a thread of hope, kept silent. When the incubation period passed, the symptoms erupted.

Li Fengyi sighed softly. “Everyone, be careful. Give them a swift end. Move them to Unit 1. All those who went out today, split into two groups by gender—men to Unit 2, women to Unit 3. The logistics team will check the women; I’ll check the men.”

He clenched his jaw, his muscles taut. “Light the torches, make it bright. Strip down, and let’s check carefully!”

The apartment building had six floors, seven units per floor; one unit could comfortably house over a hundred people, let alone a few hundred survivors. The group split, men and women entering Units 2 and 3. The inspection station was set up in the lobby—a table at the entrance, where each person undressed for examination. Torches made of bundled wood were held up, their flames illuminating every inch.

In total, fifteen people with injuries were found. Fortunately, all were scratches—no new bite victims. The uninjured retreated as far as they could, unwilling to approach. The atmosphere was thick with tension.

Jiang Qian shrieked, egging the crowd on. “Kill them! They’ll turn into zombies and eat us!” His eyes were wild, reflecting the torchlight in mad flashes behind his glasses.

Li Qiang, furious, knocked Jiang Qian to the ground with a punch. “You damned clown! Bark like a dog one more time and I’ll cut you down myself!”

Jiang Qian muttered sullenly, “So the deputy leader can just hit anyone?” He slunk to the back of the crowd, holding his face. Injured or not, everyone felt a wave of relief.

“Don’t panic, everyone. The national broadcast says infection only spreads through bites, not scratches,” Li Fengyi announced, relieved to see the tension ease, though he remained wary.

“To all those who were bitten, I’m sorry, but please stay in room 303 of Unit 2 tonight. Logistics will bring you food,” he told the fifteen wounded. “We fought side by side through hell—your injuries pain me as if I’d been cut myself. Please forgive me.”

The wounded shuffled into 303. The security door closed without a sound...

Late at night, the logistics team, organized by squad, arranged everyone’s rest in various units and took over the night watch, so those who had endured so much could finally rest.

“That man is bound to be trouble,” Li Qiang said to Li Fengyi. “How can someone be such a clown? He has no sense of shame left.”

The Training Squad stayed in Unit 6; Li Fengyi and Li Qiang shared room 607. Wang Shujuan boiled water over a wood fire and poured them each a cup of hot tea—a rare luxury.

Now, even the original survivors of Building 5 weren’t living in their own homes. Everyone was assigned to units according to their squads.

Li Fengyi felt lost. The first time Jiang Qian deserted and caused so many deaths, it had been hard to execute him. The second time, it was even harder. If, as Li Qiang said, a deserter’s actions led to disaster, executing him during the crisis would win everyone’s support. But to do so after the danger had passed would not only be ineffective, but would chill everyone’s hearts and waste precious resources. After all, most people clung to life; the first time survivors killed zombies, their legs had trembled.

“Exactly. Not only is he useless, we have to assign someone to watch him, in case he causes more trouble,” Li Fengyi said, his pride wounded. To think Jiang Qian was once an electronics engineer—his character was a disgrace to all technical professionals. Luckily, Li Fengyi didn’t know him personally, and he felt secretly relieved.

“If we had two more like him, I’d rather feed them to the zombies,” Li Qiang said in frustration. That such a clown could unsettle even a tank commander who had driven through dozens of kilometers and faced hundreds of zombies without flinching was hard to believe. “His face is thicker than a tank’s armor.”

He lifted the crystal-clear glass to his nose, inhaling the aroma of the tea. “Smells wonderful.”