Major General Lin nodded to the side then. A soldier immediately opened the projector. A video appeared on the white screen behind them.
The video showed a wasteland. The camera constantly shook. It seemed to be taken from a treaded vehicle. The camera occasionally switched focus. Since you could see soldiers wearing insulated suits up close, it should be footage taken by one of them on their own device.
Because it was clear what was going to happen next, the entire square seemed to hold their breaths. Everyone, including Yan Bubu and the children next to him, were watching the scene intently.
The treaded vehicle drove over bumpy rubble. Everything looked normal. But at that very moment, the heap next to the vehicle suddenly sank, revealing a hole from which a rope lashed out nimbly wrapped itself around the waist of one of the soldiers inside.
“Ah–” While the soldier cried out in shock, the rope retracted quickly and dragged him into the hole.
Only then did other soldiers react. They jumped out of the vehicle and ran to the hole. The cameraman also followed judging by the shaking. Then the dark hole came into focus.
The hole was very deep. The soldier who got dragged over was grabbing a nearby steel beam for dear life, his body hanging in mid-air.
“Save…me…” He tilted his head back and pleaded for help. Yet the rope around his waist tightened and dragged him downward.
Because the camera distance was close, everyone in the square clearly saw how it was no rope around his waist, but a gnarled and slender tree root, still covered with dirt.
“Hold on!”
Two soldiers on the ground reached over to drag him out, while another drew a dagger and leaned down, trying to cut the roots around his waist.
Yet the roots began to tighten even more, digging into the soldier’s flesh like a wire and out of reach for the dagger. The soldier gushed blood from his waist and mouth, already beyond saving.
Probably taking into account the mental fortitude of some people, the video abruptly cut off there. However, the next one started immediately.
The other videos were similar to the first. Either a group of wild cats about the size of wolf dogs would suddenly emerge from the side of the road and drag a soldier deeper into the ruins, or patches of rose vines would wrap around an entire treaded vehicle, slowly and completely crushing…
Some of the people in the square nearly pissed themselves, shivering and closing their eyes. Others covered their mouths, tears overflowing from their eyes. The row of children sitting on the steel arm of the excavator were all terrified.
Yan Bubu was once chased by a tiger and also encountered killer vines at the Institute, so he was somewhat immune to these videos. He was certainly much calmer than other children.
Even so, he was still scared on the inside.
“Big Brother.” He called out softly.
Feng Chen turned. He didn’t ask why Yan Bubu called for him, he just reached over and brought him close.
The videos eventually stopped and the screen went dark, but the people in the square no longer thought the deaths of those more than 400 soldiers were just a number. They understood the tragic ends more than 400 fellow humans met.
Just like the videos they just saw, those were bloody, brutal ways to go nearly too terrible to bear.
Major General Lin gave the crowd a moment to collect themselves. Several minutes passed before his deep voice came over the loudspeakers again.
“What you just saw were mutated plants and animals that are strongly aggressive towards humans. Don’t ask me how they mutated, because I’m not sure either.”
“All of you have been protected by the Western Union Army in this underground settlement. Day to day, you only had to worry about what would be served for lunch and whether there would be mushroom soup for dinner. There was no intention to make these images public initially. After all, sacrifice and combat are both the duties of a soldier. But now, we are all in a very difficult situation. It has reached a point where we have to disclose this information.”
“Perhaps you always held hope that the capital would send aid, or that you will be able to return to the surface if you hold out just two more months. These reassuring messages were what we were willing to convey to you before.”
Major General Lin’s tone became heavier and heavier, “But now, I must break the illusion everyone is under and make you face the harsh reality. This earthquake has devastated not just Haiyun City, but our entire United States of Einhart and even the entire planet. A calamity for the entirety of humanity. There is no one coming to save us. Only we can save ourselves.”
Although many people were already aware of this, quiet sobs still came from the crowd.
“All our hopes rest on those greenhouses in the developmental zone, in those freshly sprouted corn plants and forming potatoes. But now the Western Union Army is facing a serious problem: we don’t have enough manpower.”
Major General Lin’s gaze gradually became sombre. “More and more of those mutant species are appearing, to the point where we must eradicate them. If we let them grow, there will come a day when we can no longer leave the gates of the settlement. We will end up trapped underground forever. The soldiers can’t grow food and deal with the mutants, so for now the former responsibility falls onto your shoulders.”
Major General Lin’s words weren’t followed by more conversation like before. The whole room fell into a collective silence.
After two minutes of this eerie silence, Major General Lin looked at the soldier beside him, who immediately stepped forward and loudly announced, “No only do we have greenhouse positions, there are many other jobs. Everyone is welcome to come register on a voluntary basis. We will not force you to go. I repeat, everything is on a voluntary basis. Those who are willing to be the first can come directly to registration to sign up.”
He pointed to a small table next to him with a sign saying as much. A soldier sat there.
The murmurs buzzed to life again. Some people began to whisper to the people around them. The surface was so dangerous. Since it’s all voluntary, no one was going to go.
Major General Lin has made it very clear to everyone, but they were even more clear that they only have one life.
The soldier continued, “Because of the food shortage, all credit card balanced have been cleared. This month’s credits will be reissued: 100 credits per person.”
“What? The balances were cleared? Only 100 credits? How is that enough to eat? You want use to starve to death!”
“That’s right. There’s a shortage of food, but didn’t you just say the potatoes are almost ready for harvest? Why should the amount of credits we get be lowered?”
The soldier was obviously prepared for the indignant questions. His tone remained professional: “One hundred credits is only the base amount. If you go to help at the greenhouse or other reconstruction work, you can get another 500 credits per month.”
Feng Chen twitched. It seemed that Major General Lin really had a way about him. He said things like ‘it’s voluntary’ while also reducing the credits everyone got. If they wanted to fill their stomachs, they had to earn it.
“500 credits? That’s not bad, it’ll keep a family from starving to death.”
“Not bad, my ass. Didn’t you see those videos just now? They’re giving 500 credits for your life!”
“But with those 500 credits, plus the 100 credits every person gets, everyone in your family can get to eat.”
“Go if you want, but I’m not touching this. I’m a single guy, so 100 credits can work if I eat one meal a day.”
“It isn’t enough for even one meal a day, ah. At five credits a meal, that’s 150 credits for thirty days, not to mention the rent.”
After listening to everyone, Yan Bubu got the feeling that they would go hungry a lot for the next few days. He asked softly in Feng Chen’s ear, “Big Brother, are we going to starve?”
Feng Chen frowned. He pursed his lips and didn’t answer. Yan Bubu said, “I’m not afraid of being hungry. I’m chubby so I’ll let you have half of my meal. Just don’t let me starve to death.”
In the midst of the chaos, an old woman’s voice suddenly rang out from the crowd, “Major General Lin, I am already 70 years old and my health isn’t good. My daughter-in-law and I are the only ones living together and she can’t work at the greenhouses because she is five months pregnant. How are we supposed to live if we can’t earn credits?”
Others echoed the sentiment, “Yes, we can’t all go, ah. In addition to the elderly and pregnant women, what are children supposed to do?”
“Children have their parents so that’s not a problem.”
“But there are orphans here! Look at those two, aren’t they orphans?”
The eyes of the surrounding people turned to Feng Chen and Yan Bubu.
Yan Bubu shrank his neck in discomfort and buried his face in Feng Chen’s shoulder.
Feng Chen, on the other hand, stared calmly ahead, as if the orphans they were talking about had nothing to do with him.
Major General Lin looked down at the ground without saying a word. That soldier bellowed, “Everyone, be quiet!”
The clamour slowly subsided as the soldier said in a deep voice, “The workload at the greenhouses is not heavy. It’s basically all done by machines, we just need people to operate them. So whether it’s the elderly or pregnant women, they can actually go work there. If you are seriously ill or particularly weak, you can participate in other reconstruction work that is a little easier. For example, in our resettlement site, we need a lot of limestone to keep up with power supply. Although you are stepping on a limestone mine right now, the limestone must be picked out from the mine by hand. For every three pieces, you can earn five credits–”
“Why do we have to do all this? What’s the point of the Western Union Army then?” A piercing voice suddenly rang out from the crowd, interrupting the soldier’s words.
Everyone looked over, including Yan Bubu and Feng Chen.
The man who shouted was a sturdy man with an unruly expression and a muscular body that stretched his T-shirt to the max. He snorted and said, “Hmph. How high and mighty the United States’s Western and Eastern Union Army were back then, ah. Who doesn’t know that you both squander the taxpayers’ money in your internal squabbles. Now that something’s actually happened, one scurried off like a rat while the other’s going one step further and sending us out to die. How do you still have the nerve to talk about a soldier’s duties?”
No one dared to verbalize agreement with his words, but many more or less approved.
“Nonsense!” The soldier bellowed angrily, “The Eastern Union Army aside, how long have we, the Western Union Army, been protecting you? If there was another way, would there be any need to send you to the greenhouses?!”
“You are soldiers. It is your natural duty to protect the people, not to send us to the front lines to die.” The strongman did not budge either.
“You will still be escorted by soldiers to the greenhouses, you just need to tend to the crops.”
“Hehe. Does that mean you can guarantee our safety? An entire vehicle was demolished in the videos just now! What use is your escort?”
Others also became emboldened and loudly echoed. “Yeah! Why sugarcoat sending us out to die?”
“Are you the soldiers or are we the soldiers? If I had known this would happen, I would’ve left back then with the Eastern Union Army.”
“The Eastern Union Army isn’t reliable either. They’re just as corrupt.”
“So we either let ourselves be forced to die on the surface or starve to death down here.”
The soldier was so angry that he flushed crimson. He was about to continue when Major General Lin finally broke his silence and raised a hand to stop him. “No need to argue. It’s pointless.”
Major General Lin slowly looked at the faces of the masses before his gaze finally landed on the strongman. He pointed at him and nodded, calmly ordering, “Bring him up.”
Several soldiers abruptly rushed over and grabbed the strongman, shoving him towards the platform. The strongman struggled desperately. Although he was strong, he wasn’t a match for trained soldiers. His arms were soon pinned behind his back as he was shoved in front of Major General Lin.
Major General Lin reached out to the side and received a leather whip.
Crack!
The whip snapped through the air and landed heavily on the strongman’s back. The sound startled the entire audience and sent a shiver down their spines. The clothes on the strongman’s back instantly ripped, blood welling up from the wound.
“You call yourselves soldiers? Bullshit! You’re just a bunch of assholes high on power. You, a major general? All you can do is show off in front of civilians like us!” Although the pain caused cold sweat to break out on the strongman’s forehead, he stubbornly started cursing loudly instead.
“Gag him.” Major General Lin ordered his men as he began to roll back the sleeves of his military uniform.
The strongman’s mouth was immediately gagged. He whimpered and struggled, but several soldiers pinned him to the ground.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The whip rang out seven or eight times until the strongman finally stopped responding.
Only then did Major General Lin toss the whip aside and say to a nearby soldier, “Get him to Medical. Have the doctor treat him.”
“Understood.”
The whole room was silent, everyone too shocked by this scene to dare make a sound. In Feng Chen’s arms, Yan Bubu shivered every time the whip came down.
After seeing the strongman being carried down with blood and wounds all over his back, he leaned over to Feng Chen’s ear and whispered, “The Western Union Army is so bad, ah. Our Eastern Union Army wouldn’t hit people, right?”
Feng Chen honestly replied, “It’s hard to say.”
Yan Bubu was confused by this answer. He tilted his head before continuing to ask softly, “So the one who got hit today was the bad guy?”
Feng Chen pondered. “No, but in the current situation I support Major General Lin’s approach.”
Yan Bubu was even more confused now, but Major General Lin started to speak again, so he didn’t pursue the matter further.
“The current situation is very serious. The outcome will determine the fate of our Haiyun City. If we can’t come together and only rely on the strength of the few thousand Western Union Army soldiers, not only the Western Union Army, but all of you present now…none of us will survive.”
“The same phrase still applies. No one can be a bystander here. If you want to live, then find your area administrator to register. We won’t force you to participate and you will still be given 100 credits every month. However, there is one thing I cannot abide: dissent. Whoever speaks out again can get the hell out of this settlement.”
Major General Lin left it at that. No one dared to rush him. The whole audience of more than 10,000 people didn’t even cough as they quietly waited for him to continue.
“That was the first topic for tonight. Onto the second. As I’m sure you’re all aware, the Hives have been somewhat unsettled these past few days by several extremely brutal and vicious attacks.”
“I know that you all have various speculations regarding the cause. There’s no point in continuing to hide it at this point, so I have decided to tell you all about it so everyone can be on high alert.”
He nodded slightly to someone behind him. A young medical officer wearing glasses and a white lab coat came up.
The medical officer didn’t take the microphone and just started talking. Everyone saw his mouth move but couldn’t hear what he was saying. A soldier nearby hastily stuffed the microphone into his hand.
“–The unknown virus causes brain lesions. The incubation phase hasn’t been determined yet, but the longest known time is six months, which means that this virus has been infiltrating into the human body before the earthquake. Common initial symptoms in infected individuals resemble a cold, followed by elevated body temperatures which may present as an intermittently low and high fever. However, the shift from the incubation phase to the active phase can be very short, taking only a few seconds. The symptoms of the active phase in infected individuals include a loss of reason, consciousness and sense of pain. They will indiscriminately attack the healthy around them.”
“I-is it zombies??” Someone asked loudly from below.
The medical officer pushed his glasses up. “If you’re asking about the kind in the movies, the symptoms do share similarities. Yes, I suppose you can call these infected individuals zombies for now.”
“Will people bitten by the zombies also turn into zombies?” The man then asked the question on everyone’s mind.
The medical officer said: “Those bitten will display the same physiological condition as the mutant, but they die quickly. There are few effective treatments at this time. However, initially the injured died a few minutes after being bitten. This has now been observed to extend up to several hours. As time passes, it could be possible for the injured person to not die, but also go into a mutant state.”
“So you mean that in the future, the people bitten will not only not die, but also become zombies?”
The medical officer cautiously replied, “We can’t rule out the possibility.”
