Luo Xun rubbed his eyes as he entered the kitchen with an opened bag of noodles in hand – these were bought during his pre-end shopping spree. He had almost forgotten about them after the apocalypse.

  It was not until the zombie birds struck that he remembered these items since they needed quick and convenient grains. These food items were left for a while and they were trying to use them as to make room for other things.

  It was the middle of the night, almost one or two o’clock. Luo Xun and Yan Fei both came back at noon. Although they slept in a car the night before, how could it be comfortable? So the two came home and caught up on sleep until now.

  Although day and night were reversed, the two managed to rest just fine. Luo Xun boiled a pot of noodles and brought the food over to Yan Fei standing on the balcony.

  "What’s the situation outside?" Luo Xun asked as they shared the meal.

  "Nothing, haven’t seen any movement." Yan Fei responded and the couple ate while looking out from the balcony.

  It was to be expected, these past few days had been too crazy. It would not be impossible for the zombies to suddenly launch a night raid with their bizarre attack patterns.

  The two people casually ate while on watch. A few days ago the land was covered in white snow, now it was muddied because of the zombie birds. The mottled snow piled up where no one passed, waiting for warm weather to be melted into water.

  But the two of them were well aware that they could not wait for the weather to melt the snow – it was a prime place for zombie birds and rats to hide. The snow and ice would have to be cleared sooner or later to avoid surprise attacks later.

  The two men ate up all the noodles and were about to grab more from the table when suddenly the sky lit up.

  "What was that?!" Luo Xun and Yan Fei quickly turned to look in the direction of the light.

  The red ball of light flew upwards, higher and higher until it extinguished in the sky……

  "Fireball from an ability user?" Luo Xun was familiar with the light but he frowned as he spoke to Yan Fei.

  Yan Fei’s brow was furrowed, "It’s an ability user, but that direction and distance……"

  Very close, nowhere near the wall. There were no other lights or strange sounds.

  "……Why does it seem more like a flare than someone playing around?" Luo Xun said uncertainly shared looks with Yan Fei. "Could it be what Captain Guo mentioned before……"

  In the middle of the night, the bustling meal hall was silent. Blood was spilled by the large number of zombies scattered around.

  But there were some suited people in the room laughing even during this situation. But these people were at the doorway surrounded by armed soldiers and ability users.

  "Report, the room has been cleared, please proceed."

  "Have the people in the dormitory area start to move. Be careful not to alarm people outside so once the barracks are cleared, the special operations team and get all the target families under control. One hour to resolve the situation."

  "Yes!"

  The loud voice echoed in the room. The ones who had not been involved in the operation stood on the sidelines in surprise and looked with fear at the people who orchestrated the operation……most were relatively fresh faced compared to those who always controlled real power.

  Captain Guo sat on his dorm bed with half a cigarette butt in his mouth while looking out the small dormitory window. It was facing the inner part of base so he saw the light when he got up in the middle of the night for a drink of water.

  As his mind wandered, he heard footsteps from outside. It was quiet, but the sound was obvious to a man not asleep in the middle of the night.

  Captain Guo did not look outside the door but stared forward. After a while, he heard the sound of a door open before quiet resumed. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and shoved it in a cupboard. There was still half of it left.

  He pulled up his covers and murmured while other members snored away, "Hah, so fast……did I say too much?"

  As always, the sun slowly rose over the horizon and shined its light over the entire base.

  The soldiers who held on through the night were feeling fortunate – the zombies did not come back in the night for another fight.

  The base survivors also greeted the morning sun with a yawn – fortunately the scattered zombie birds and rats did not touch their homes in the middle of the night.

  The situation in the barracks and new town was strange, the two locations were still quiet – maybe the people slept in? It was not until 10 o’clock until the barracks opened and some vehicles headed towards the wall – the same as usual.

  The couple went to bed for a nap after having something to eat. They got up this morning and said hello to Li Tie and the others. The day passed and there did not seem to be any major changes. They could only silently see if the military had any announcements.

  The military notice came but it had nothing to with what they wanted to know. It was normal to ask residents to take part in cleaning snow and dealing with zombie rats hidden throughout the base.

  The news was widely publicized through text messages. It was more cost effective then getting a team to do it over the course of a month due to taxes and other things.

  The team got together and chose to sweep the street for their glorious cause……actually it was because otherwise they had to kill a certain number of rats, who knew if they could actually find some? They were not cats!

  Of course, perhaps while sweeping the street, they might encounter some zombie rats and other things, but it would be to luck.

  They went to the mission hall to register for the task. After they cleaned up the designated area. They could take care it again tomorrow morning in order to add a layer of insurance to their lives.

  Yan Fei brought all the unused metal in order to create some armor. Its role was mainly to protect against zombies and sharp objects, not impact damage. That is to say, if someone tried to stab them, they would not wounded but it would painful. If they got punched by a strong zombie, they could still break bones and other internal injuries.

  But it was now the apocalypse, the most important thing was not getting bitten by a zombie and infected by the virus. As for other possible conditions……they would pray for blessings.

  "Brother Yan, this is great! You thought of something like this." Li Tie looked with sparkling eyes like a primary school student at Yan Fei while the latter’s mouth twitched.

  Zhang Yi and Xu Mei were also excited. "Good job – try and resist our attacks."

  Luo Xun quickly raised his hand. "This thing can only prevent cuts and scratches, cannot stop ability users!"

  "We know, but we want to try out our attacks." Xu Mei waved her hand not minding in the least.

  Song Lingling suddenly asked. "This thing is made of metal right? Wouldn’t it conduct electricity from lightning users?"

  Luo Xun nodded and said, "There’s no other way. We have to be careful, we can take it off it is not appropriate to wear."

  Yan Fei’s current finesse with his metal ability allowed him to make the metal clothes relatively light. After Zhang Yi and Xu Mei’s experiments, the item had decent resistance against general wind and fire but not against the more powerful attacks. Although with fire it got very warm, it would serve as enough protection.

  With its lightness, it would be good to have an inner layer for their cotton clothing.

  The group discussed if they should line their cotton socks to prevent a situation if their shoes got bitten or something.

  As they were talking, a mobile phone rang from one of the coat pockets hanging at the door.

  "Its your phone." Luo Xun heard the tone and watched as Yan Fei grabbed his mobile phone.

  Luo Xun could not help but raise an eyebrow upon seeing the caller name. "……It’s Captain Guo."