Chapter 122 - 121: Drone
"Chaoxian, Cyan Bird is fine. She’s just exhausted..."
Ye Qingzhou greeted Colonel Zhou and calmly asked,
"Where are we?"
"We’ve circled around the outskirts of Linjiang. We’re about to enter the outer ring road. We’ll follow that further in. Another few dozen kilometers and we’ll reach Linjiang University..."
"Today," Ye Qingzhou calculated the time, "we’re already past our deadline..."
The trip from Jishan to Linjiang University was one or two hundred kilometers at most. It should have only taken a few hours, but they had been on the road for three whole days and had only just reached the edge of the city.
"The deadline is rigid, but we’re still kicking. As long as we stay alive, we’ll get there eventually."
Zhou Chaoxian fell silent for a moment, then spoke with a self-deprecating laugh.
"It doesn’t matter. What we’re carrying isn’t that important anymore, anyway. I’m sure the people at the quarantine zone have already found others like her..."
As Ye Qingzhou spoke, she turned and glanced at the young man who had just been laughing. When the man saw her looking, he turned his head away slightly, avoiding her gaze.
"Speaking of which... we have Cyan Bird to thank for last night. If it weren’t for her, who knows how many more people would have died..."
Zhou Chaoxian looked at Ye Qingzhou and said seriously.
"Cyan Bird was just doing her duty. We all have to carry out our own duties..."
Ye Qingzhou, seeming to want to change the subject, simply frowned and looked coldly at the young man.
"If you think we have too many medical supplies, then a doctor is useless, too. Why don’t you go with the supply team to gather some food instead of standing here spouting this pointless nonsense..."
"You..."
Hearing Ye Qingzhou call him out, the young man turned to face her, frowning, ready to retort.
This woman was one of the two highest-ranking people in the convoy. Every time he saw her, cold as ice, it was like facing a natural predator, and he felt a knot of fear in his stomach. ’But I was an ordinary person before,’ he thought. ’Not anymore!’
"Qingzhou, Xiaoliu isn’t a soldier, after all. It’s understandable that he might unconsciously say something inappropriate when he’s tense."
Seeing the tension rising between them, Zhou Chaoxian quickly stepped in to mediate. He then turned to the young man.
"Xiaoliu, I have to criticize you, too. You’re a doctor. We’ve lost so many people. Don’t make jokes like that again."
"...Okay. I’m sorry."
Hearing Zhou Chaoxian’s words, the young man called Xiaoliu silently lowered his head and apologized to the others in the room. But the defiance on his face still betrayed his inner resentment.
No one paid much attention to this little incident. Everyone was clearly more concerned with how to get to the quarantine zone alive.
"Casualties, equipment damage... none of that is the worst part..."
Zhou Chaoxian scanned the room, and once the atmosphere had calmed, he spoke in a low voice.
"The fuel tanker is gone. We siphoned the fuel from the armored and assault vehicles to make firebombs. If we hadn’t, we never would have made it out of the horde. But now... we don’t have enough fuel..."
He nodded at another middle-aged man who was holding a register.
The man understood and continued:
"We’ve already passed two gas stations, but they were both burned down... The closest one to our current position is this one..."
He said, pointing to a red circle on the map. "The Tianshui Road gas station. It’s not far from the outer ring road, only about a dozen kilometers as the crow flies."
"Fuel isn’t just for powering the vehicles. It’s a weapon and an incendiary.
We can’t resupply ammunition. Every shot we take is one less we have.
If we don’t get any more fuel and just head straight for the quarantine zone...
Then, based on our experience getting here, the firebombs we have left might get us through one more horde. But after that, these vehicles, even if they were all tanks, would just become iron coffins, one by one!"
Zhou Chaoxian spoke with conviction, then scanned the faces of those present, asking for their opinions. "What are your thoughts?"
"What if we abandon the civilian bus, consolidate our armed personnel, and make a full-speed run for the gas station?"
one person suggested.
"What’s the point of that? Will abandoning the bus help you kill zombies faster?"
another immediately retorted.
"If you were going to abandon them, why didn’t you do it while we were going through the horde? That would have bought you time to escape, wouldn’t it?"
a third person added with cutting sarcasm.
"Everyone, calm down!
Going there directly is too risky. We have no idea what the situation is like inside the ring road, and we have no way to scout it right now. Why don’t we pool our fuel..."
A young man standing to the side stopped the three from arguing and continued, as if to himself,
"...form a strike team with a few vehicles and head to the gas station to get fuel..."
"Get fuel? How? Are you going to siphon it with your mouth?"
The middle-aged man with the register was the first to object.
"I’ll authorize a vehicle for you right now. Go on, go get it..."
The young man shot him a glare but knew his proposal was indeed the riskier option. He muttered under his breath,
"It’s a shame Qiao Rui died. Now our only remaining drone is blind..."
Ever since the zombie crisis began, all contact between military districts had been completely lost. Not just satellites, but even radio stations and radar had been gradually overwhelmed by a kind of white "noise." After numerous tests, only fiber optics, shortwave radio, and the UHF band on walkie-talkies were barely functional.
The drone he mentioned wasn’t like the civilian ones that rely on satellite GPS and GHz signals. It was a "wired" model that used fiber-optic communications.
The military had stockpiles of drones and spools of fiber-optic cable, but the relay box that connected the fiber to the drone—its integrated hardware and software—wasn’t something you could just whip up from scratch. In peacetime, they had never prepared many. The few they had were leftovers from previous military exercises.
Besides, the things were extremely fragile. The entire Jishan garrison could only scrape together four or five working sets.
As they were gradually damaged or destroyed, by the time this convoy left, only this one remained.
They had been protecting it carefully, but unfortunately, while the last drone was still intact, its pilot was dead. The precious thing was now blind.
A wave of sighs swept through the tent.
"Damn it... Haven’t fought such a poorly supplied war in twenty years..."
The middle-aged man with the register slammed the book onto the table, his words laced with a hint of helplessness.
"Wars are won with logistics. No country’s military is equipped for this kind of situation. Besides, what we’re facing now isn’t a war... it’s survival."
Zhou Chaoxian watched as everyone fell silent. ’The more their morale sinks,’ he thought, ’the more I have to rally them, or this team is finished.’
"Since no one has any other ideas, you’ll follow my orders. Rest for two hours, then the entire convoy moves out. Armored Vehicle One will take the lead, with Number Two behind it. Zheng Xin, you’ll arrange the positions for the assault vehicles, trucks, and civilians..."
He said this while looking at Ye Qingzhou, who was standing furthest away, his expression complicated.
"Qingzhou, I grew up under General Ye. This unit exists for you and Cyan Bird. Rest assured, no matter what, I will get you both to the quarantine zone..."
"The drone might not be unusable..."
Before Zhou Chaoxian could finish, Ye Qingzhou finally broke her silence with a startling statement.
"What do you mean?"
As soon as he heard Ye Qingzhou speak, he stopped what he was saying and immediately pressed on.
"That drone is impossible to operate without professional training. We already lost one at the quarantine zone because of an inexperienced pilot who crashed it..."
"Cyan Bird. Her ability might just work..."
Ye Qingzhou seemed not to notice the doubt in Zhou Chaoxian’s voice, continuing at her own pace.
"Are you sure?"
Zhou Chaoxian’s eyes lit up. When it came to tactics and military deployment, he was confident he was better than anyone else here. But when faced with a supernatural ability he had never seen before, this "scientist" before him was clearly more convincing.
"Sure?"
Ye Qingzhou’s brow furrowed at his question.
"Chaoxian, you’ve grown soft...
Why do I need to be sure?
What’s the difference between this last drone being inoperable and it being crashed? If one of you operates it, there’s a one-hundred-percent chance it crashes. If Cyan Bird operates it, there’s a ninety-nine-percent chance...
You never needed me to make this kind of decision for you before..."