Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

"I-I did get the memo... But I can't read." Ni Ping replied nervously.

"You didn't ask people near you? None of them know how to read?" Xiaoyun looked in disbelief at Ni Ping.

"Um... none of my friends or unit know how to read... All of us are construction workers from the countryside. We dropped out right before we got to high school." Ni Ping awkwardly scratched his head.

"Whatever... Just ask next time if you don't know what's happened."

Ni Ping bowed down in gratitude as Xiaoyun dropped the charges against him.

As the two walked to the other side of the building, an idea suddenly appeared in his head.

"Wuli, how many of the soldiers are illiterate?" Xiaoyun asked curiously.

"I think around half of my units are illiterate."

"Really?" Xiaoyun asked to make sure he heard it right.

"Yeah, really. Most of them were just construction workers or factory workers in the past." Wuli explained.

"Hm... Maybe I should ask Yuqi to open a night school... They need to be able to read military orders, at the very least."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea... But I doubt many will actually join." Wuli commented.

"Why not?" Xiaoyun asked.

"If they wanted to learn, they would have done it long before the apocalypse. You need to give them some incentive to learn."

"Hm... I'll think about it," Xiaoyun replied as he put it on the backburner.

Back in the office building.

The building was finally having a moment of peace as all the zombies had been shot, with almost an entire mountain built up at the entrance full of bodies.

"2nd and 3rd company, you may take a break. 1st and 4th, move these to the side and make sure they are all dead."

As Han Bang directed the soldiers, Li Chen came downstairs.

"How's the ammo situation looking like?" Li Chen asked.

"Still plenty of ammo in the back, but those guns can't be used for a while." Han Bang pointed at the MG-42 mounted on the back.

"I see..."

As Lli Chen turned around to go back upstairs, he turned back again.

"Oh, I almost forgot. What do you think we should do with the zombie bodies?" Li Chen asked curiously.

"Try to burn them... I just hope these zombies don't have too much moisture in them."

"Okay. I'll go do that right now."

With Li Chen gone, Han Bang went back to directing the soldiers.

---

"What's that large smoke in the distance?" Tianci asked curiously.

"They are probably burning up all the bodies," Xiaoyun replied.

As the four stood outside, Xiaoyun's walkie-talkie suddenly received a transmission.

"Han Bang, are you ready to deal with the zombies again?" One of the Majors on luring duty asked.

"Give us an hour." Han Bang replied.

"We can only give you thirty minutes. That's the best we can do."

"Fine, how many are there?"

"Um... A lot more than what we had when we first baited them away." The voice replied nervously.

"You what? How's that possible? Are your soldiers in the buses not firing?" Han Bang questioned.

"No, they are all firing... But when we were driving in the city, we coincidently ran into an even bigger horde."

"Whatever, just bring them here... Everyone get ready!"

The transmission ended.

"That doesn't sound good..." Wuli started to have a bad feeling.

"Yeah... We just have to hope that the other three don't have the same thing happening to them."

Fortunately, the other three units were able to dwindle the size of the zombies as they traveled back to the office block.

After a long fight, it was finally over for the 2nd and 3rd regiments as all the zombies were defeated.

"Thank god there was only one mutant this time." Han Bang mumbled as the soldiers started cleaning up again.

Seeing the ashes on the other side of the building from earlier, Han Bang didn't hesitate and ordered another round of zombie burning again.

"Everyone, after we are done with this, we can finally go home." Han Bang threw in an extra motivation for the soldiers.

Han Bang could immediately see the effect as the soldiers began working twice as fast as earlier.

After everything was reduced to ashes, Han Bang took out his walkie-talkie.

"Commander Xiaoyun, everything is clear now."

"Good. 1st regiments you may transport 2nd and 3rd regiment back. Everyone else, you can start heading back home. Over."

After hearing Xiaoyun's order, all the soldiers let out a sigh of relief as they were getting a little worried that Xiaoyun was going to continue.

---

When everybody got back to the base, it was already five o'clock.

"Congratulations, everyone! You should be proud of what you have done today." Xiaoyun applauded the soldiers as he stood at the podium.

"We're able to eliminate almost over one hundred thousand zombies today... If we keep this up, we'll be able to reclaim the city within a year. Yes, you heard me right.

In a year, we'll finally be able to live in peace without needing to worry about zombies knocking on our doors. Some might think it's long, but remember, Guangzhou has almost over fifteen million people.

"This is going to be a long war, but much shorter than the original plan. Everyone, are you ready for tomorrow?" Xiaoyun asked out loud as he turned off the mic.

"Yes, sir!"

All of the soldiers yelled out energetically, except for Han Bang's and Li Chen's regiments, who seemed to have almost no energy at all.

But Xiaoyun didn't mind, as he understood they were just extremely tired.

"Everyone, you are dismissed. And for the Majors that participated in today's plan, please go to the command center."

With that, all the soldiers began leaving the training field to the locker room to drop off their equipment before going home.

"How was it?" Yezi asked as Xiaoyun walked to the backstage.

"The plan worked... But it was a little riskier than I like it to be." Xiaoyun replied as they walked towards the command center together.

"Risk is normal. There is no perfect plan, after all..."

As the two walked toward the command center, Yezi asked another question.

"By the way, is that one hundred thousand zombies claim really true? You guys actually counted it?"

"Nope, but who's going to prove it wrong? Besides, I'm pretty sure they have at least burned that much bullet." Xiaoyun commented as he opened the door.

All eight Majors were already inside as the two got to their seats.

"Ahem, good job everyone. I hope everyone is satisfied with the result today and with the plan...

You might be wondering why I'm asking you all to stay behind. Well, I want to bring up a few things."

Xiaoyun pulled out a marker as he drew several outlines.

"Does anyone have any feedback on what we should change? Is there anything that was off or can be improved upon?" Xiaoyun asked.

Han Bang immediately raised his hand.

"We need more MG-42 and more ammo stockpile inside the building we use. We almost ran out of ammo near the end."

"Okay, I'll make that a priority."

Xiaoyun wrote it on the whiteboard and then looked back for more suggestions.

Lingang raised his hand next.

"Can we be assigned to be in the building next?" Lingang requested.

"No, your unit isn't fit for this. You know your units are meant for more open terrain fights." Xiaoyun dismissed Lingang's request.

"Any other request or concern?"

Li Chen raised his hand next.

"I think my unit and Han Bang's unit need a day break. All of the soldiers are too tired to fight again."

Lingang's hope reignited again until Xiaoyun put it right back down again.

"Granted. I'll assign another unit to replace you two. Make sure to get as good of a break as you can."

Xiaoyun wrote down the 11th regiment and 12th regiments to replace the 4th and 5th regiments as a lure, as the 4th and 5th would be on duty to defend the office building next.

"Anything else?"

A major sitting in the corner raised his hand.

"Driving in the city is too dangerous. I feel like we need a better route to drag the zombies away from the building."

"You're the one that got too many zombies, right?" Xiaoyun asked as he recognized the voice.

"Y-Yes." The major replied nervously.

"As much as I want to change it, it's the best route possible. All the other roads are either deadends or blocked off by traffic." Xiaoyun explained.

Han Bang suddenly raised his hand again.

"I want to report that there are much fewer mutants we have encountered."

"Really?" Xiaoyun looked surprised.

"Yes. We were only able to find five mutants in the corpses. Besides the one tank that we had to fight, the other four were jockeys that were killed before they could get close."

"I see... That's good to hear. But we must not have our guard down still... It might just be that the mutants are further inside the city."

Seeing no one else raising their hands, Xiaoyun wrapped up the meeting and sent everyone back home.