Chapter 7

By the seventh day, Hope Base had finally completed most of its construction—Hope was the name Zhu Haitao had given it, and the meaning was self-evident!

Walls, gates, watchtowers, and dormitory buildings were almost finished. Watching the base gradually take shape, the survivors in the mountain village finally settled down.

Although none of the buildings looked particularly attractive, they were at least solid. The overall appearance at least resembled a base. The outermost perimeter, constructed mainly of vehicles mixed with metal plates and concrete, was studded with sharp metal and broken wine bottles, looking like a hedgehog.

Normally, such a wall would be heavily criticized for its ugliness, completely lacking in aesthetics. It wasn't painted in any color and was an eyesore. But in the apocalypse, such a wall gave people a considerable sense of security.

In addition, after a week of working together, the leadership team under Zhu Haitao had gradually adapted to the apocalypse and managed the base in an orderly manner. The previous chaos was completely gone.

The entire base was like a small city. All the survivors still adhered to the laws from before the apocalypse. This was only because these survivors were brought out by a high-ranking official like Zhu Haitao. Anyone else wouldn't have achieved the same effect.

For example, the bases that Li Chenzhou had previously built with Gray Bear Duan Lei. Those bases were initially forcibly suppressed by Duan Lei's ruthless methods. Duan Lei had killed many people for this.

On the other hand, there was Qingluan's mountain village base, which focused solely on appeasement. As a result, a large group of lazy and extremely greedy people appeared. Fortunately, Lin Qiang appeared and cleared out all these opportunists.

But here with Zhu Haitao, without using any forceful methods, the order of the entire base was surprisingly good. It had to be said that Zhu Haitao was quite excellent, at least in governing the base!

That night, Zhu Haitao gathered all the base's leaders and asked a middle-aged man of about fifty, "Director Gao, how is it? Have you scouted everything clearly?"

This middle-aged man was the director of the Jin City Police Department. He hadn't come out with Zhu Haitao. When the apocalypse happened, he was at the police station and immediately organized the police officers to start clearing zombies without even asking his superiors!

Director Gao wasn't a fan of apocalyptic movies, but he had seen them. As soon as he saw those people who looked like zombies, he immediately issued orders, showing extreme decisiveness!

However, Director Gao didn't immediately break out with his men. Instead, he used the police station as the center and continued to spread out in all directions, rescuing survivors.

Fortunately, the police station wasn't in the central area. Therefore, Director Gao's actions not only didn't put them in a deadly situation, but he actually saved many people.

The rescued survivors all gathered in the police station courtyard. There were so many police officers and guns there. In the apocalypse, was there a safer place?

Later, the search team sent by Zhu Haitao discovered that there were a large group of survivors in the police station. So they contacted Director Gao. It happened that the leader of this search team was a member of Zhu Haitao's leadership team and knew Director Gao.

So, he told Director Gao about their situation. As soon as he heard that the mayor had established a base outside the city and had taken tens of thousands of people out, Director Gao didn't hesitate. He directly organized the survivors he had rescued to leave the city together and come to the base!

It was precisely because of his arrival that the base's population instantly reached 100,000. Compared to the entire Jin City, it didn't seem like much, but as a base, it was already quite formidable.

Subsequently, Director Gao also began to lead teams. He took his police officers, took weapons from the base, and entered the city to rescue people. And Zhu Haitao, who was preparing to rescue his wife and children, naturally also needed to ask for his help.

At this time, hearing Zhu Haitao's question, Director Gao nodded slightly, frowned, and looked at Zhu Haitao, "The zombie horde in the city center has now expanded to about ten kilometers in diameter. There are countless zombies. If you want to enter the Canghai residential area where you live, you have to go about four kilometers deep into the zombie horde. To be honest, I'm not optimistic about this operation."

"Four kilometers?"

Zhu Haitao was stunned. He didn't expect the zombie horde to expand so quickly.

Before, his home was less than two kilometers from the edge of the zombie horde. Now it had doubled. The number of zombies was more than just doubled. The further out the radius of a circle expands, the larger the area becomes!

The distance of two kilometers had already made him despair. Now it had become four kilometers. Although their numbers had also increased, Zhu Haitao couldn't possibly take those ordinary civilians to their deaths!

"Mayor, I understand your feelings, but I personally think that if we really want to rescue them, with our current strength, I'm afraid we can't do it!"

Director Gao continued, "Moreover, we have discovered that among the zombies, in addition to the zombies we saw before, some special zombies have also appeared. These special zombies are more powerful than ordinary zombies.

They are either extremely fast, or their bodies are strong and incredibly powerful. We encountered a large zombie before. Its skin could even block our bullets!

And the further you go into the zombie horde, the more of these zombies there are. Moreover, they seem to have the ability to command ordinary zombies!"

"What?"

Hearing this, Zhu Haitao's expression changed. Ordinary zombies were already so difficult to deal with. Now, there were even stronger zombies? And they could command ordinary zombies?

Zhu Haitao, who had watched countless zombie movies, was very clear about how terrifying a zombie horde with a commander would be!

"Then I have to go and see! My wife and children are waiting for me. I told them to hold on, but I can't not show up!"

"Alright! I will take a team of people and go with you. After you see the situation there with your own eyes... make your own decision!!!"

Director Gao sighed.

"Don't worry, if it's impossible, I won't force it!"

Zhu Haitao said, then he looked at the others, "Everyone knows that my family is trapped in the zombie horde. Before, because our base hadn't been settled yet, I couldn't leave so many people behind to risk it myself, so I came here!

Now, the base has basically taken shape, and everyone is familiar with how to manage it. Next, even without me, you will be able to maintain the normal operation here. So, I should go and fulfill my promise to my wife and children! Take care, everyone!"

With that, Zhu Haitao cupped his fist towards everyone and turned to walk out...