Armed Train in the Apocalypse

Chapter 543 - 333: Scorched Earth Sweep

Armed train, new recruits barracks.The chaos was first spotted by the sentry on duty, who quickly reported it.

Although the new recruits were exhausted from the day’s training, the vigilance ingrained by the apocalypse woke them instantly. They rushed out of their rooms and into the corridor.

"Damn it, have the zombies entered the city?"

Bomb bounced up from his bed, ran to the window with his pants still in hand, looked outside, and saw people rushing downstairs, shouting for Xiao Hong and Big Goose as they hurried out.

Xiao Hong was also woken up by the commotion, but he didn’t rush out immediately. Instead, he instinctively looked towards the first bed.

A seventeen-year-old boy lay quietly on the bed.

His breathing was steady, and he showed no intention of opening his eyes despite the chaos outside.

He was personally brought in by Lao Er, wearing an Armed Corps uniformed trench coat when he arrived, with his gun still hanging at the bedside.

Xiao Hong tentatively asked, "Something seems to be happening outside, shouldn’t we go out?"

Liu Zi, with his eyes closed, asked, "Has the assembly whistle been blown?"

Big Goose, who was putting on his shoes to follow the others, slowed down and said suspiciously, "Well, no, but with the chaos outside, shouldn’t we..."

"What are the three rules about sleeping we were taught today?"

"23:30 lights out, except for special training, combat standby, all soldiers must sleep."

"Assemble fully equipped within three minutes of hearing the assembly call."

"You must fall asleep."

Since there were only three rules every day, Xiao Hong recited them clearly.

Hearing this, he began to vaguely understand something.

But Big Goose was still confused, "I know these are military rules, but it’s the apocalypse, what if the zombies really come in, are we just supposed to lie here and get eaten?"

"That’s for the officers to worry about, you’re a soldier, don’t overthink it."

Liu Zi snorted lightly.

Just then, the wailing sounds from outside came through.

Bomb’s loud curses were the most piercing, then turned into muffled thuds one after another.

The angry shout of the chief instructor of the new recruits barracks, Lao Er, echoed in the corridor.

"Who the hell told you to move without orders?"

"Don’t feel like sleeping, huh?"

"Note down everyone who went out without permission, extra training tonight!"

"If more than three from a dorm went out, the whole class will get extra training!"

Hearing this, Big Goose asked no more questions, scrambled back to his bed, feeling secretly relieved that there were only four people in their dorm, meaning no extra training tomorrow.

Not long after they lay down, the door was pushed open.

Xiao Hong squinted, scanning the corridor with peripheral vision; rows of new recruits squatted in the hall, with instructors wielding rubber batons patrolling, and Lao Er walked directly into their dorm.

Seeing the three lying neatly on the beds, Lao Er walked to Liu Zi’s bed, tapped it with a short stick, and suddenly showed a sly smile on his tense face, "You’ve practiced the rules the longest, but you remember them the best, huh?"

Liu Zi remained silent, pretending not to hear.

Lao Er sternly said, "Stop pretending, get up and do something for me."

Liu Zi helplessly opened his eyes, "Chief instructor, I’m a new recruit now."

Lao Er’s face turned cold, and he tapped his short stick on his palm, the implication clear.

The rubber baton in my hand is for hitting new recruits!

Liu Zi had no choice but to sit up, smirking, "What do you need, Er Ge?"

Lao Er nodded in satisfaction, "Most of the instructors in the camp are on the train. There are two hundred veterans, but they lack experience. I have to manage the new recruits here, later you’ll lead the veterans to set up defenses for me."

Liu Zi glanced out the window, not seeing the blue light of the rail gun, nor hearing any anti-aircraft fire.

Seems like there’s no big issue, just routine alertness to prevent the recruits from rioting.

There are over two thousand new recruits who passed the initial screening recently, and they’ve only received basic class training, not long-term training, chaos would spell trouble.

"Yes!"

Liu Zi lightly pounded his left shoulder in salute.

After Lao Er left, he got up to put on his gear, thankfully sleeping in his clothes, so it wasn’t taking long.

Big Goose on the bed asked, "What about us..."

"You? Learn how to sleep well first, you’ll appreciate this skill later."

Xiao Hong squinted slightly, under the corridor light, only seeing Liu Zi’s trench coat cut a sharp silhouette.

A seventeen-year-old boy, exuding a murderous aura.

...

Most of the Armed Corps forces were deployed on the surrounding Iron Wall, monitoring the northern zombie tide and those Night Demons and Jumpers climbing up now and then.

Compared to the underground beetles, these zombies were the real deadly threat.

Senior officer teams had to have at least two groups rotating shifts to ensure that when a Tier Two zombie appeared, it would be dealt with quickly and the defense line wouldn’t be easily breached.

Today’s garrison included the teams of Qu Hang and Tong Zizhan.

Lu Xiao and another lieutenant-level officer team were on standby, ready to support the two teams on the front line.

The combat group’s task was to guard the train, these men were not to be moved.

So He Jie only temporarily dispatched five sergeant teams to head to the square.

...

Chenxi Square, City Hall.

Li Xinlong, who was burning the midnight oil handling government affairs, suddenly heard a loud boom, jumped to his feet, and only realized he wasn’t the leader of a small convoy anymore when he saw the panicked looks thrown his way.

So he sat back down, calmly arranged for personnel to contact the administrators of the three bureaus and two institutes and deployed the City Guard Army according to emergency plans.

Meanwhile, he instructed Pang Ke to take two trusted men to gather intelligence.

He himself forced down his inner anxiety to handle governmental affairs within the city hall, only heading towards the incident site not far from him once everyone who could come, had arrived.

...

The sound of heavy breathing came through the sand and wind.

The tense sentinel immediately swung his gun around, only relaxing his expression when he heard the shouted password from the opposite side.