"You're clearly toying with Commander Sun," a male voice emerged from behind cover. Lu Heng quickly pinpointed the speaker's location and used his vines to swiftly drag the person forward.
"Ah! Ahhh! What's grabbing my limbs?" The person pulled out was wearing a military uniform. They struggled on the ground before Lu Heng, trying to break free from the vine's restraint.
"Wang Jun!" the hoarse voice spoke again. "Let him go!"
"He talks too much. Who's in charge here?"
"I am. You let him go first!" The command was issued with an unquestionable tone.
"Hmm, sounds like someone who gives orders. But that doesn't mean I'll let him go. If you make him quiet down, I might loosen my grip a bit."
"Wang Jun, you quiet down first," Commander Sun ordered the young man who was still struggling and cursing.
"But, Commander Sun, these things are like steel bars, I..."
"Shut up!"
"..."
See, in critical moments, it's the old leader who can control these people.
"Alright, I've loosened him up, but he still needs to lie here and be quiet for a while."
"Then can you tell me about the situation outside now? I hope you'll tell me the truth," Commander Sun stood perfectly straight, showing no intention of finding a place to sit and talk.
"You tell me first, what happened when you sealed this base? Then I can continue telling you what's next," Lu Heng leisurely took out a bag of potato chips from his spatial storage and began crunching on them.
The air here was quite good, without any smell of decay. It seemed the ventilation system was still well-preserved.
There was a moment of hesitation, or rather, Commander Sun seemed to be contemplating the events of that day.
"On the morning of April 1st, 2041, around six in the morning, something terrible happened in our base. Some soldiers seemed to have been possessed by something evil. Their expressions suddenly became stiff, and their limbs gradually stiffened as well, but they didn't die.
Initially, we thought those people were dead. They indeed had no body temperature and no breath.
They started attacking others. Comrades who were scratched by those living dead would also die. They were frenzied, and they were eating their comrades' flesh and blood, gnawing at it bite by bite.
We later realized something was wrong and started shooting those living dead, but they were not easy to kill at first.
By chance, we discovered that if their heads were destroyed, they would stop attacking others.
We also found that people scratched by those individuals also turned into living dead, so we killed all the injured comrades.
Those who were injured were not killed by us voluntarily; they begged us to do so. They didn't want to become living dead that harmed their comrades.
Those living dead were monsters. Yes, monsters."
A few seconds of silence passed. Lu Heng watched as the other person seemed to fall into thought again.
"We later killed all the injured people, then buried them and their comrades who had turned into monsters in the mountains. After that, we retreated and hid here.
We sent a message to our superiors, but we received no reply for a long time. We've been waiting.
We are soldiers. Even if only one person remains, we will defend this place."
"Is there anything important here?"
"This is a missile launch base for the country."
"Oh. How far does the radiation reach?"
Lu Heng took out his phone to check some downloaded materials, quickly cramming this knowledge.
"That's not convenient to disclose to you, as you are not part of the military."
"Who says I'm not part of the military?"
"Which unit are you from? What's your unit's designation?"
"Um... designation? I don't know."
"Commander Sun, you see..."
A wad of cloth blocked the person's mouth from continuing, leaving only low whimpers.
"I'm telling the truth. I really don't know the designation. However, I did incorporate a regiment's worth of soldiers. Well, that just happened a couple of days ago. I'll ask their former leaders about it later."
"How can any unit be incorporated by you? Our country absolutely does not permit such a thing..."
"You've seen monsters, so what else can't happen? By the way, the monsters you're talking about, people now have a unified name for them: zombies."
"Zombies?"
"Yes, don't television programs always have this kind of theme? Ahhhhrrrgh ahhhhrrrgh ahhhhrrrgh..."
Lu Heng sat there, raising his hands and imitating zombies with strange roars.
"Just like that. You call them zombies? Are there many such monsters outside?"
"Yes, the whole world is like this. Every corner has them. Ah, I made a mistake, it seems you don't have them here.
Let me correct that. Wherever there are humans, there are zombies. Oh, that's not right either, there are humans here too.
It's just that most places are filled with these zombie creatures. Your location is quite special, not being completely assimilated by zombies."
"Wuwuwuwu..."
"If you make another sound, I don't mind knocking you out first."
"..."
"The humans outside are not as fortunate as you. Ordinary civilians don't have guns, and moreover, they're afraid to kill a chicken on weekdays. When the zombie outbreak occurred, they could do nothing but flee.
But at that time, humans were no match for zombies. Encountering them meant death, or rather, assimilation into the zombie horde.
So, the outside is now overrun with countless zombies. The remaining humans, we collectively call them survivors. Most of these survivors have some courage and dare to come out and fight zombies, which is why a small number of people have survived. For example, me."
Lu Heng spread his arms to the sides, then casually leaned back on the sofa.
"So, the world outside is in chaos, and that's why we never received a reply from above."
"Correct."
"How... how could this happen? Troops are equipped with firearms, and some people are still alive here. My comrades outside couldn't all be dead!"
"They're not dead. Ordinary people are alive, and of course, military personnel have a higher survival rate."
"Then why aren't they contacting us? We've been trapped here waiting for orders from above..."
"Initially, they were busy rescuing civilians in their respective areas, so they might not have had the energy to contact you at that time, or perhaps the person who could contact you happened to be dead.
Don't worry, listen to me.
Later, these people started building artificial defense bases everywhere to protect civilians and resist zombie attacks."
"That's indeed what should be done. As soldiers, protecting civilians is our duty."
"Oh, alright. Your awareness is indeed good. Those people outside are indeed doing the same."