Chapter 656: Fengkai County
"Where are we now?"
A soldier asked, walking down a road with a Major-ranked officer right next to him. His face looked a little sleepy despite it only being seven o’clock.
"Just thirty minutes away before we reach our next stop... You need me to carry your backpack for you?"
"I’m good, sir. Thank you for asking."
As the two of them continued hiking down the road, there were around a thousand people, or a single regiment, walking along with them.
Although they didn’t look as sleepy as the soldier next to the major, they all looked a little tired as they had been walking since four o’clock in the morning.
"Everyone, we’re going to take an early break now before we reach Longsheng temple!"
The moment the senior officer yelled it out loud, all of the soldiers immediately dispersed into the nearby trees to avoid the hot sun above them.
"Major Lan, why are we stopping so early this time? We should walk as much as possible before the sun is fully out."
As a soldier with the rank of Captain confronted the Major, he took out his water canteen before taking a small sip first.
"We might need to fight when we get to the temple. Better rest up a little before assaulting the temple head-first." The major argued.
The captain didn’t argue any further, but his face was clearly not happy. His opinion wasn’t just alone either.
Looking around, the Major could feel the soldier was not just tired. But they were starting to get sick of how much they had walked for the past few days.
The endless marching. Not even fighting anything. They had been marching nonstop, going from village to village to clear empty buildings.
They haven’t even encountered any humans alive. Nor had they encountered any zombies since the beginning of the trip to the countryside.
The only living thing they encountered was mosquitoes at night, and the wildlife in the forest along the highway on which they were currently standing.
"Hey, Major, how much you want to bet this temple is going to be empty?" A soldier nearby suddenly asked.
"I’m not betting anything. Go back to chatting with your unit, Chen Wang."
As the soldier walked off in disappointment, Major Lan quickly took out a small map before laying it flat onto a stone nearby.
Looking down, he could see various points they had crossed out in red. They were all the villages they had visited, with nothing there.
Only a few of the city-towns in a few of the county centers had a few green circles, ones that they cleared before Yiming assigned them to the countryside.
"Where is everyone in Zhaoqing?" Major Lan wondered as he couldn’t understand how the countryside could be so empty.
It just didn’t make sense to him. He could vividly remember how many people fled to the countryside back in Guangzhou.
Everyone was fleeing to the countryside, including himself. If it weren’t for Xiaoyun’s troop bringing him to Luoping, he would have never been in the army.
Going back to the topic at hand, Major Lan’s army had only managed to find a few hundred people near the rural area closer to Zhaoqing’s city proper.
Based on other majors’ experiences, their whole adventure in Zhaoqing alone had only managed to find a few thousand people alive in the entire administrative district.
It almost felt as if people in cities just stayed put, as he thought back to the number of zombies they had to fight initially at Zhaoqing city proper.
"Major Lan, it’s been ten minutes now... We should start going soon." A soldier with the rank of Corporal murmured.
"Everyone, get up your lazy ass!"
---
"Commander, nothing inside the temples other than a well."
As the entire squad came out of the temple’s entrance, Major Lan’s face was immediately disappointed.
"Not again."
A soldier with the rank of Captain complained, followed by more soldiers who stood outside next to him, who looked just as disappointed as the Major.
"Better than fighting zombies. Everyone, go set up camp... Corporal, bring me to the wells."
"Yes, sir!"
As Major Lan and the soldiers began entering the temple, everyone was a little awed by the decoration inside.
There was a whole statue right in the middle of the temple, with a very small courtyard in the middle leading up to it.
On the sides were just abandoned storage rooms. Further behind the statue was where the well was located.
"This is the well we found... It seems to be good. But we can’t be sure how long it has been since someone used it last time."
As the Major looked into the well, he could barely see the water inside as the tunnel looked much deeper than he had imagined.
"Why does this place look so familiar?" A soldier with the rank of Captain murmured as he looked around himself
"You’re probably mixing it up with the other temple we went to... Chen Wang! Bring out your testing kit and check if the water is drinkable."
"Okay!"
As a soldier arrived at the well, Major Lan headed back outside before taking a look at his surroundings.
Looking down the road, he could see a small town in the distance. It was their final destination of the entire journey, Fengkai County.
A few hours walk away from here—a small town right on the border between Gaungzdong province and Guangxi province.
Wanting to see up close, Major Lan took out his binoculars. But unforunately, the dense fog from the river nearby blocked him from Fengkai itself.
"Major Lan! The well water is safe!"
"Everyone, put down your gears. We’re going to set up a small military base here before we go to Fengkai town!"
The soldiers immediately dropped down their backpacks, with more soldiers already taking out their axes and going to the nearby forests.
Everyone had their own job to attend to, other than the Major himself, as he sat on a bench near the temple’s entrance.
His eyes were laser-focused on the map itself, which showed a road that had many twists and turns before leading up to the town ahead.
"This might be a little too big for us."
Major Lan murmured to himself as he measured the size of the town with his compass over and over again.
"Should we call for reinforcement then?" A different captain asked this time as he approached him.
"No need. Just send a radio message telling them where we are... And tell them we’re going to arrive at Fengkai by the evening."
"Yes, sir."
---
As the sun went from the east all the way down to the west, the troops were all beyond exhausted as they arrived at the outskirts of Fengkai County.
They were now just a five-minute walk from the administrative building, or three minutes away from a real estate mansion meant for rich people before the outbreak.
"Major Lan, what was that plane above us earlier?" A soldier curiously asked the question on everyone’s mind.
"I got as much clue as you do... It’s none of our worries. We need to get to those buildings before it gets dark."
After walking for a few more minutes, they finally arrived at the doorstep of the first mansion.
Everyone could see some human activity further down the road—a small bit of smoke coming from within one of the mansions.
"Each squad, go to each of the mansions. Everyone else, follow me. We’re going straight to the administrative building."
Soldiers began detaching from the main army as they all went their separate ways, leaving only around two hundred people walking down the main road.
"Sir, we aren’t going to check out that mansion with the smoke first?" A soldier with the rank of captain curiously asked.
"We can ask the squad assigned to that building later... I want to set up a radio base to ask for reinforcement."
As they continued walking down the main road, Major Lan’s worries had only gotten worse as more and more buildings could be seen in the distance.
There were hundreds, if not thousands, of buildings that could house well over one hundred thousand zombies in the worst-case scenario.
They were nowhere near ready to capture the whole town. At the very best, they were just aiming to capture a small beachhead at this point.
"Bzzz, Bzzz."
As Major Lin picked up his walkie-talkie, he finally heard a message that made him smile since the start of the trip.
"12th Squad here, we found a survivor in Mansion number 1012. Requesting guidance. Over."
"Bring them to the administrative building. Over."
All of the soldiers were at ease upon hearing the news, as the empty road they were walking on felt almost like another ghost town.
"You two squads go guard the northern direction, and you two squads go guard the eastern direction.
You three squads, bust through the southern entrance in 3 minutes. Everyone else, get ready to breach in through the windows."
The soldiers immediately split up again, heading towards their assigned area as Major Lan turned on the walkie-talkie and stood right outside.