Kingdom of Corrosion

D137 days, on the second morning of winter, as the sun rose, the blizzard ceased. Maya discovered something amiss through drone reconnaissance. The damn team’s task seemed like drinking poison to quench thirst; the more zombies killed, the faster their density increased. There were two wicked aspects to the dead dawn: one was the inevitable blizzards after sunset, and the other was the constantly northeast blowing winds. Knowing that the position of the railway bridge was southwest, it was effectively facing the snowstorm.

By observing Lin Wu’s bolt-pulling speed, one could gauge the density. Yesterday he was leisurely sipping red tea and then firing a shot. Today, he was stepping on sandbags with both hands raising the gun, firing every three seconds. The nearest zombie had already reached the bridge, less than eighty meters from the outpost.

Little Sniper, Little Girl, Lin Wu, and Snow Egg formed a group. Lin Wu and Snow Egg left the interior slightly to the NPC, who, besides their trigger fingers and eyes, were tightly wrapped up.

The logistics team placed two toilet-like chairs for the outdoor positions, under the chairs were fire baskets made of bamboo, with a clay pot inside, filled with charcoal. Covered with a layer of ash, it could provide heat for several hours.

Watching this group snipe was a pleasure; almost every shot was a headshot. They belonged to the long day shift team, working from 6 AM to 6 PM.

There were two night shifts, each for six hours. Group A consisted of Nightmare, Blood Meng, and Maya. Group B consisted of Shana, Little Knife, Xiao Zhuan. Each group had three members, positioned inside the train car’s outpost.

Day shift team’s task: kill as many zombies as possible. Night shift team’s task: maintain silence, the searchlight could only illuminate 15 meters during the blizzard night, thus the main weapon for the night shift was the pistol.

Originally, Maya should have swapped with Snow Egg, considering her superior gun skills, but she had a helicopter toy that required daily attention. The helicopter was parked near the Mountain Base, and traveling there took much time, so she went to the night shift.

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D145 days, the number of zombies was increasing without reductions. The workload at the railway bridge was growing, requiring more than sentries and cooks, now also needing people for snow clearing. Communication with Mountain Base was essentially cut off, with Xiaoji residing there due to the helicopter. Only Maya insisted on commuting via skis, a 7-kilometer daily round trip. Without seeing the helicopter, she couldn’t even eat.

Truthfully, not many could eat at all. Xiao Yi found during health checks that most people were losing weight, some showing malnutrition. One reason was the lack of fresh vegetables, eating vegetarian didn’t necessarily mean leaner than eating meat. Another reason was the severe snow accumulation in the woods, making it difficult to catch prey.