Chapter 129: Proposal
Zhang Xiao Qiang made a decision. He would drive his own dump truck here and fill it up with rice. Where to store it? It can wait till later. Brother Long was still dizzy with the rice, and Zhang Xiao Qiang walked out, displeased.
When he exited the garage door, he noted that Yang Ke’er and the rest weren’t there. He saw the Hummer parked a hundred meters away. The women had just started a fire and were preparing to cook. There were too many zombie corpses near the garage, and the smell was overwhelming. It was already noon, hence, they started preparing their meals.
The vehicle and zombies piled at the entrance were pulled outside of the garage. There was no sign of Vulture or the rest. It seemed as though they went to search for other survivors. Zhang Xiao Qiang was about to head over to Yang Ke’er.
All of a sudden, a huge thick black smoke rose from one of the old houses. There were sounds of people screaming and crying. Zhang Xiao Qiang’s chest tightened, he prayed that it had better be nothing. The sounds came from the place where the survivors were reported to have hidden previously. He wielded his Beast Horn Spear and walked towards the alleyway.
Both sides were old walls, and from outside, it looked alright. The closer he got, the amount of moisture and moss on the walls could be seen. In fact, the type of moss that was growing seemed to have different colors. The innermost wall even had a layer of white stuff like salt. As he passed through the alleyway, he came across a small clearing. There were 2 rows of old-fashioned houses, each of them with their windows and doors sealed shut. Facing the alley, there was a huge iron door full of rust. It seemed to be an iron-wrought gate, extremely sturdy. It was hard to see such a gate outside nowadays. There were signs of impact on the gate, and multiple blows of varying sizes. It seemed that even the D-types were helpless against it.
Behind the old houses on the left were the granaries. The huge thick wall was the only thing separating them, and it was no wonder the zombies had known whether there were people or not in the granary. It was too close.
The iron-wrought gate had been opened slightly, behind it, there were a few large stones scattered about. They must have been used to block the gate. Black smoke came billowing out from one of the houses. The thick smoke caused Zhang Xiao Qiang to cough and he found a towel, pouring some water on it, before tying it around his face and he walked into the room where the source of the commotion was.
There was a small garden behind that gate, and it was only a few square meters big. Other than the corners, there was a small well and a bucket beside it. There were still some traces of burning on the ground, it must have Vulture and the rest throwing a few makeshift Molotov and throwing them in because they couldn’t open the gates. With nowhere to go, the people hiding inside must have relented.
Zhang Xiao Qiang routed around the burning flames and came to a row of black brick houses. The thickness of the walls was definitely thicker than outside. The windows were all sealed tight with thick iron bars. The doors were all made of iron. One of them was open, and as Zhang Xiao Qiang approached, the men that had come with Zhang Xiao Qiang came out, pulling out a survivor with them.
The man was in a number of tattered clothes, and he hugged his head as he crouched down by the wall. The henchmen of Vulture continued to flush out some survivors, and the kneeling captives began to increase in number. One of the men came over to greet Zhang Xiao Qiang.
Zhang Xiao Qiang recognized him, he was one of the 2 Common-Faces that he had saved. When this Common-Face saw Zhang Xiao Qiang looking around, he immediately spoke: “Brother Cockroach! The women are all in the house, without Brother Long’s permission, no one will dare to touch them.”
At that moment, Vulture came out, and he grinned towards Zhang Xiao Qiang. However, he seldom smiled, and now seeing him smile, it was better to have not seen it.
Vulture opened his mouth, his low and raspy voice sounded: “Brother Cockroach, want to take a look? There are a few decent women. Based on Brother Cockroach’s merits, this girl is sure to belong to you!”
When Zhang Xiao Qiang heard it, he was interested, he walked into the dark house, and immediately caught the scent of a weird smell. It was dark and cold inside, and there was straw scattered everywhere. Some old articles of clothing and dried planks laid about. These must be the bed of those survivors?
4 or 5 women who were naked were huddled together sitting beneath the window, looking at Zhang Xiao Qiang and the rest fearfully. Zhang Xiao Qiang looked towards Vulture, who thought Zhang Xiao Qiang was questioning him and quickly replied: “They were like this when we came, we have not touched them.”
In fact, Zhang Xiao Qiang just wanted to ask why they didn’t give them some clothes. He walked forwards and assessed the women. They were of different ages, the oldest being about 30, the youngest about 16. Every one of them wore expressions of fear, and their hair, faces, mouth, breasts, abdomen and even their legs were all covered with white stuff. There was a fishy smell on their bodies, causing him to feel nauseous. There was no need to say anything, he had already guessed their fate being among those men.
He had no mood to continue looking, he would not want them. Regardless of how good-looking they were. He had a little psychological issue with them. It was not that they weren’t virgins, but he wasn’t willing to ‘use a pillow that had been slept on by countless people, a pair of lips that had been kissed countless times’.
He could not tolerate their smell and walked out. The survivors were all lined up obediently, some of them eyeing their captors and noticed that they didn’t seem like any good people, and began to tremble.
Zhang Xiao Qiang assessed them, losing interest quickly. What guts would a bunch of guys who only knew to vent their sexual urges on a bunch of helpless women have? He walked out, intending to join Yang Ke’er and the rest, lunch must be ready soon.
“Ah~~~~” At that moment, a scream shocked them all. He immediately turned around and dashed towards the source of the commotion, pushing those blocking the door away. Vulture followed shortly after.
There was a cabinet of files against a wall, with two office desks under the windows. A few bags of rice were placed on the table, as well as some other bags on the ground.
At one corner, there was a huge pit that had been dug out, the soil by the side about as high as a person. A few digging tools were thrown to the side, as one of Vulcan’s aides was sitting on the mound of dirt, moaning, his hand clutching his other shoulder which was bleeding.
One of Vulture’s men stepped forward to help him dress his wound. Vulture asked with a dark look: “Speak, what happened?”
The man’s face turned pale, as he stammered….
It turned out, at the beginning, when he saw this hole, he had no courage to go down himself. Thus, he called for some help to go down with him. At the bottom of the hole, there was a tunnel. They continued to crawl through the tunnel, all the way till they came across another hole. His partner had gone in then. After a while, where there was still no sign nor sound, he became wary, and slowly crawled up the hole. His head had just popped through when he saw a dark shadow slashing towards him. In his panic, he had slid down, but the speed of the shadow was fast. His shoulder was slashed. He did not dare to stay there any longer and hurried back through the tunnel. When he saw his arm bleeding, he had screamed out in alarm, calling for backup.
Vulture looked towards Zhang Xiao Qiang with a questioning gaze. It was obvious he wanted Zhang Xiao Qiang’s opinion. Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at him and said: “My agreement with Brother Long has ended, I have nothing to do with all this. You can deal with it however you like, I won’t help nor step in.
Vulture did not say anything as well. He continued to question that injured personnel. He decided that it had been a person on the other side, and must have used the spear that the subordinate went in with. As long as it was a person, things were easier. He got his subordinates to start a fire, throwing all sorts of items to feed the flames, fanning the smoke deeper into the hole.
There was no commotion from the hole when suddenly, there were people shouting outside. As they walked outside, they noticed one of the granary’s vent had started to smoke.
It was the one on the right closest to them, and Vulture’s men immediately opened up the granary to charge in. Soon after, a burly man with a vicious face and an enchanting woman were captured and dragged out. A few men lifted a corpse out, his neck twisted at a weird angle.
The faces of the man and woman were covered in soot. The woman had a good figure, her waist slim like a snake, her hips round and curvy. As she walked, the constant sway could captivate any man.
Brother Long and Chen Yi walked over and took a look at the body. Their expressions were ugly, they had not suffered any casualties to the zombies, yet one of his men was killed and the other injured by the very survivors they rescued. Brother Long’s men looked at him, waiting to see how he would take care of these 2 that had killed one of their brothers. Brother Long assessed their expressions and did not hesitate, waving his hand. 2 men stepped forward to hold down the burly man, dragging him towards the carpark.
The rest of the survivors and women stood there and watched him. He realized something was not right and began to shout out loud, pleading for his life. No one said anything, the rest of the survivors continued to bow their heads. Brother Long’s subordinates gloated, with the injured one grinning the widest. Those women who were rescued stared hatefully at the burly man, their eyes filled with a sense of satisfaction. The youngest was even whispering something under her breath. Seemed like this man wasn’t any good person.
One man stepped forward, carrying a blade that resembled a Tang Blade, standing behind him. Another stepped forward to grab his hair and pull forward to reveal his neck. The man’s screams became more urgent and pitiful, as he struggled, shaking his head trying to shake off the man who had grabbed his hair. A puddle of water pooled beneath his butt.