Chapter 479: Black Tide
In the last three days, the Phantom Team members were busy helping Shen Jinzhe’s family clean up the storefront and the warehouse they had bought from the base.
Since this was a joint business between the team and Shen Jinzhe’s family, the members decided to use the team’s funds to buy the storefront and warehouse. This way, they did not have to worry about being driven out when the business flourished.
As for Jiao Lizhi, she went to the reservoir area and the base’s farmland every day to supply water and improve her water-type ability.
Today was the fourth day since Xun Che’s team and Jin Xuyan discovered the zombie rats at the border of Lin’an City.
When the sun rose over the horizon, Jin Xuyan, Qin Luzi, Yin Yusheng, Fu Guai, and the Eagle Team were on their way to check the location around the border.
Sitting in the passenger seat inside the armored vehicle, Yin Yusheng said, "Captain, this will be the last location we need to check. When we are done, our team’s store should be ready for business, too. Will we take another mission?"
Jin Xuyan thought for a moment and replied, "We might need to stay in the base for a while until we are sure there are no more threats."
Hearing this, Qin Luzi asked, "Captain, are you worried that there is another threat besides the zombie rats?"
Jin Xuyan nodded and explained, "Although our team and the guards always burn the zombies’ corpses, it does not mean that others do the same. These zombie rats appeared because they ate zombie corpses, not because of natural mutation."
"Besides rats, cockroaches and other small animals might also eat the corpses due to the limited food supplies. So, the chance of other zombified animals appearing is not zero."
When they heard his words, Qin Luzi and Yin Yusheng felt their scalps tingle just imagining the situation if zombie cockroaches attacked the base. With their small size, tough shells, and agility, it would be hard to kill them all.
It would take a lot of effort to eliminate them, while humans could be infected by the zombie virus with even a small wound caused by the zombie cockroaches. By then, the whole base might be destroyed in less than a day.
Noticing their expressions, Jin Xuyan added, "So, we need to eliminate all possibilities for that to happen."
While Qin Luzi and Yin Yusheng nodded, Fu Guai was lost in thought. After he regained his consciousness, he slowly regained his memories regarding the facility.
From the memories he had recently recovered, there seemed to be several people called Elders, who made decisions in the facility. Unfortunately, he could not recall more information about these Elders. Otherwise, he would have started investigating them.
Two hours later, they finally reached the border area. Qin Luzi checked the map in his mind and looked around. Besides the empty, abandoned houses, there was nothing in sight.
"Captain, there might be zombie rats in this area," he said.
The red dots on his map were so dense that it looked like his map had been dyed red. But with no zombies in the area, the possibility of zombie rats was very high.
Hearing his words, Jin Xuyan took out his walkie-talkie and said, "Old Wei, be careful. This area might be infested with zombie rats."
"Okay," Wei Ying’s voice replied a moment later.
After they parked their cars, the Eagle Team joined Jin Xuyan’s team and took out their guns. While the guns were not as effective as their abilities, they were still useful in an emergency.
"Jin Xuyan, should we go inside and check the situation?" Wei Ying asked.
Recalling the situation when he and Xun Che’s team encountered the zombie rats for the first time, Jin Xuyan shook his head and said, "It is too dangerous. Let us place the bait and wait."
"Okay," Wei Ying nodded.
After they found an open field, one of the Eagle Team’s members took out several buckets of blood and placed them at the center of the field.
Seeing this, Jin Xuyan asked, "Old Wei, where did you get this blood?"
"It is provided by Xun Che. Those are the mutant snake’s blood."
Hearing this, Jin Xuyan said nothing. After they dug a one-meter-deep ditch around the blood, they retreated to a building located one hundred meters away. Standing on the rooftop, they could see the situation clearly.
Fifteen minutes later, they heard the sound of chirping and squeaking coming from the distance. Not long after, the ground shook, and a hole appeared not far from the buckets of snake blood.
Seeing this, Qin Luzi said, "It is the zombie rats."
Everyone stared at the open field and saw the dense swarm of rats rushing over like a black tide.
Witnessing the scene, they felt their scalps tingle, and goosebumps rose on their arms. Even as soldiers, they still felt disgusted and unsettled when they saw the number of zombie rats.
Ten minutes later, the entire open field was almost filled with black waves. Seeing this, Wei Ying asked, "Are all of the zombie rats here?"
Qin Luzi checked his map and shook his head. "It is only one-third of the total number of zombie rats in the area. The rest are still trapped underground."
The moment he said this, everyone was taken aback. Judging by the rough amount, the number of zombie rats should be more than thirty thousand. If it was only one-third of the total, then the zombie rats in this area would be almost one hundred thousand.
"Captain, what should we do now?" Yin Yusheng asked.
"We cannot wait any longer. The scent of the snake’s blood will only last for three hours at most. Before that, we have to clean up the zombie rats," Jin Xuyan said.
After thinking for a moment, he said, "Old Qin, I need to borrow your wind."
As soon as he heard this, Qin Luzi could guess his Captain’s intention and said, "Captain, the number of zombie rats is too many. It will be too dangerous for you to go there."
"Do not worry, I know what I am doing," Jin Xuyan replied.