Chapter 119 Pulling the Train

When they encountered scattered zombies, Gao Yuan could handle them easily on his own, and if they had to pass through a town on the highway where there might be many zombies, they would simply carry their bicycles and walk past.

Therefore, their speed of progress was still very fast. They set out at eight in the evening, and by three in the morning, they were less than ten kilometers away from the small hill where Xiang Weiguo and his group were hiding.

From here on, the density of zombies suddenly increased, making it unlikely to continue by bicycle.

"Put down the bicycles, we can only get this far by riding. There will be a lot of zombies ahead, and everyone must be cautious," said the captain.

All twelve of them placed their bicycles on the ground, then quickly gathered together.

"Let me put it simply, now that you all have seen the zombies, they are extremely fast and explosive. The method Gao Yuan uses to deal with zombies won't work for us, so we must be exceptionally careful and make no unnecessary noise," he explained.

After the captain finished speaking, he looked at Gao Yuan and said, "We can move forward now, and it's best to arrive before dawn."

As the captain of a special forces team, Zhang Deshuai felt extremely stifled at this moment.

Ordinary people rely on training, and after training for half a lifetime to reach human limits, they still can't compare to a superhuman who recently mutated.

As the finest special forces soldier, he now had to rely on Gao Yuan to lead the way, something that didn't really have a logical explanation.

More people weren't useful, and fewer people, as it seemed now, weren't very useful either.

Gao Yuan alone had broken through to Base No. 12, scouted the situation along the way, then returned to lead Xinghe and the others out.

The sense of defeat was overwhelming.

But though Zhang Deshuai felt stifled, he could only choose to complete the mission in the most advantageous way.

The most advantageous way was to let Gao Yuan lead, scout, and handle a small number of zombies.

A small number of zombies could be dealt with by Gao Yuan alone, and for a large number of zombies, the special forces team would need to follow Gao Yuan's lead to get out. That was pretty much the extent of it—basically, the special forces team had nothing to do.

So stifling, just too stifling.

But who could blame them when the enemy was mindless zombies?

If they were up against more normal enemies, like humans, especially humans with guns, then Zhang Deshuai would be pleased because he could show Gao Yuan what real soldiers were like and demonstrate to him their strong combat abilities.

But the enemy consisted of brainless zombies, who couldn't shoot and posed no threat to Gao Yuan with his superior speed, defense, and attack. So all Zhang Deshuai could do was to watch Gao Yuan's divine power in action from behind.

On foot, Gao Yuan had to slow down to allow the special forces team to keep up. Normally, these special forces soldiers, compared to ordinary people, were as formidable as superhumans. But now, these special forces soldiers had finally resumed their ordinary appearance in front of Gao Yuan.

Leaving the main road and moving swiftly through the fields, Gao Yuan and the special forces team maintained a distance of about one hundred meters.

Gao Yuan came to a halt when he spotted the first standing zombie in the distance. He knelt on one knee, waiting for the special forces team to catch up from behind.

Zhang Deshuai approached Gao Yuan, also kneeling on one knee, and took out a thermal imager to start observing.

"Four hundred and twenty meters away, there's only one zombie, and its surface temperature is low. When observed in infrared mode, the target's imaging color is only half as intense as a normal person. A normal person would show up as red, but this target is just slightly red on a white background," he reported.

After Zhang Deshuai finished observing, he whispered to Gao Yuan, "No mistake, it's definitely a zombie, and there's only one."

The thermal imager could detect zombies over a larger area and more quickly, but when zombies remained still, the search distance could be greatly reduced because the temperature difference between an inactive zombie and the surrounding environment shrinks, thus lowering the search distance.

Only when zombies moved, releasing more heat, could the thermal imager detect them across larger areas from a greater distance.

Gao Yuan whispered, "I'll go first. If I find a large number of zombies, I'll take a detour."

"Okay."

Gao Yuan stood up and, with stick in hand, quickly ran toward the zombie.

This time, Gao Yuan still didn't burst into full speed; his body was fine, but he was worried that his shoes couldn't withstand his explosive power.

Gao Yuan rapidly approached the zombie, its body becoming a swiftly reddening blur in Zhang Deshuai's thermal imaging, growing increasingly distinct.

Gao Yuan and the zombie's path collided; the zombie instantly fell, while Gao Yuan slowed to a stop only after dashing out twenty or thirty meters.

Still concerned about wearing out his shoes, otherwise the high-speed rushing Gao Yuan could have stopped instantly after taking out the zombie.

This time, Gao Yuan didn't stop; after determining his direction, he ran straight toward the hill where Xinghe was.

More zombies started to appear until they became dense and unavoidable, no matter how much one tried to go around.

Gao Yuan stopped again, waiting for Zhang Deshuai and the others to catch up.

"Moving forward, the only option will be to break through forcefully. My plan is to attract the zombies myself and then start to 'pull the train' to lead them all away. After creating a big enough gap, you guys dash through quickly. It's less than two kilometers ahead to reach the mountain; once we're there, we should be able to find them quickly."

Zhang Deshuai whispered, "Do you need to eat something?"

Many people now knew about Gao Yuan's big appetite, including Zhang Deshuai, who was aware that much of the food they carried was mainly for Gao Yuan.

But this time Gao Yuan didn't feel hungry. It seemed that after being completely satisfied for the first time, his body had met its energy needs, just like filling up a car's tank compared to adding just ten dollars' worth of fuel and refueling when it's gone.

"I'm not hungry this time."

"Still, have a bit."

Hesitant, Gao Yuan took the energy bar Zhang Deshuai offered but stopped after eating just two, with no desire to continue.

Fortunately, it seemed his body didn't consume too much energy. The past hunger after running was just due to eating too little.

"I won't eat more. I'm going to draw away the zombies. You find the opportunity to get through. After you're safe, I'll catch up. I'm off."

Gao Yuan started running again, approaching the zombies.

Once the zombies noticed him, Gao Yuan suddenly roared, "Hey! Hey, over here, over here, look this way, look this way, huh!"

Gao Yuan picked up speed, amassing a large group of zombies behind him, with more and more joining. Through the thermal imaging, it looked like a red silhouette followed by a mass of overlapping figures less than three meters away.

"Is this still human..."

An operator by Zhang Deshuai's side couldn't help but let out an exclamation, to which Zhang Deshuai whispered sternly, "No noise! Keep any impressions to yourself until we get back."

Blocked in front and chased by zombies from behind, Gao Yuan evaded one zombie after another, running a circle from east to west then, worried about leaving any behind, he turned around and ran back.

"You can get through now..."

Leading a long procession of zombies, Gao Yuan ran past, his shout carrying from afar.

Zhang Deshuai couldn't help but sigh softly and then waved his hand, whispering, "Full speed ahead!"