BC Chapter 25

Wang Dong and Mei Ting were discovered and brought before the bald man by the man wielding a fire axe.

“Boss, found two living people.”

“Oh? Two more ‘chickens’? Alright, state your names, ages, and occupations.” The bald man, called “Boss,” was named Zhang Biao, the manager of a small loan company in Qingshui City. However, that was just the identity they presented to outsiders. In reality, their company engaged in high-interest lending, specifically targeting those in urgent need of money with limited social experience or low intelligence to swindle. The dozen or so men under Zhang Biao were responsible for running errands, collecting debts, and enforcing payments. Because they were always showing off, causing trouble, or resorting to violence, these men were quite skilled.

On the day the zombie virus broke out, it happened to be when Zhang Biao’s boss and several friends were gambling in the office of their company’s peripheral store. Zhang Biao and his men had just returned from collecting some interest and were getting out of the car when two of them were attacked by crazed pedestrians running down the street. One had his arm bitten, and the other had a chunk of flesh torn off his cheek near his jaw, bleeding profusely.

Although they eventually managed to subdue the frenzied and terrifying pedestrians, four or five of their brothers were injured while helping to pull them off and attack them.

After everyone retreated back to the company’s office, the four people injured by the pedestrians died after experiencing full-body convulsions.

Now the situation was serious. Zhang Biao had to go upstairs to ask his boss whether they should immediately call the police.

But while he was upstairs looking for his boss, the four people who had just died seemed to have a sudden resurgence of energy, taking a breath and slowly standing up from the ground in strange postures.

Then came another round of indiscriminate attacks.

Finally, when the six uninjured men inside managed to push all the crazed people out of the store, they realized they had also separated the other five brothers outside. When the men outside, wounded and having desperately dealt with the four resurrected, tried to return to the store, they found that the guys who used to call them brothers had locked the door from the inside.

“Wang Kun, you bastard, open the door for me!” Shi Quan, outside, clenched his fists, gritting his teeth as he pounded on the store’s tempered glass door, glaring at Wang Kun, who was standing at the door inside, looking out with panicked eyes.

“I can’t open it, you’re injured too.” Wang Kun stared at the obvious red scratch on Shi Quan’s rolled-up sleeve, nervously swallowing, his voice trembling slightly.

“Damn it, I just accidentally scraped it on the corner of the table! I’m usually so good to you, treat you like my own brother, and this is how you treat me when something really happens? Fine! You’re really something.” Shi Quan’s eyes were bloodshot from agitation, flashing a terrifying red.

The others behind him also crowded to the store door, banging on the glass and shouting for the people inside to open the door, but the people inside turned their heads and stopped looking outside. Shi Quan finally stepped away from the door, letting the others continue to shout, and began to assess the situation on the street. Only after the truly injured men in front of the store successively fell did Shi Quan cast one last resentful glance at the remaining people inside the store and ran off in the direction of the quieter streets.

“Shi Quan’s really okay…” Fang Jun, who had witnessed the others outside falling and then saw Shi Quan running away, went to the door, staring at Shi Quan’s departing figure, and said softly.

Hearing his words, Wang Kun, whose tightly clenched fists had already begun to tremble, suddenly clutched his head with both hands, pulling at his hair, looking very regretful.

Later, Zhang Biao, along with Wang Kun, Fang Jun, and the other six, plus the five bosses upstairs, including their boss Meng Qinghua, formed a formidable force of twelve after the zombie outbreak. They had quite a few weapons hidden in their car for their usual business, so arming everyone was easy.

However, although these people looked presentable on the surface, they were not good people at heart, and might not even be considered normal. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have done those shameful things.

So, from the second day of the severe virus outbreak, they formed a sweeping team, going out to collect food and occasionally rescuing some lucky survivors. However, they mostly chose to rescue young women and men who didn’t appear to be very threatening. After bringing them back, they first searched their bodies thoroughly, confiscating all the food from the rescued and waiting for redistribution. Then, the men were responsible for running errands, and the women were responsible for the hygiene and meals of the temporary gathering place.

At this time, the appearance of Wang Dong and Mei Ting was exactly within their scope of selecting rescue targets, meeting their conditions, so Zhang Biao did not show much disgust, just asked the two to briefly explain according to the rules.

“Wang Dong, 24 years old, unemployed.”

“Mei Ting, 26 years old, cashier.” The two looked at the four ferocious men beside them, still holding weapons, and honestly answered Zhang Biao’s questions.

Zhang Biao raised his eyes and scanned Mei Ting up and down, seemingly unintentionally, thinking that this woman looked quite ordinary, and the bosses probably wouldn’t like her. Then tonight, he and a few of his brothers would get lucky. Thinking this, he subconsciously licked his dry lips, a sinister smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

The word “chicken” that he had subconsciously said earlier was actually underworld slang in their line of work, originally used to refer to those who were about to be tricked into bankruptcy by them. Later, they began to call the people they rescued the same thing. After all, now it was truly a chaotic world, and all the laws and public power had become mere decorations. For them, the current state of zombie rampage was actually more like their world. And these guys they rescued were mostly in groups of two or three and had no ability to resist, weren’t they just like ‘chickens’ raised by farmers for meat, to be manipulated as they pleased?

Only, Wang Dong and Mei Ting couldn’t have imagined what would happen next, and even if they had, they couldn’t escape at this moment. Because they were physically weak, had no weapons, and the difference in numbers and size between the two sides was also very large, so what those men and women called ‘chickens’ had experienced, they were destined to not escape tonight either.

“Okay, Wang Kun and Li Yan, you guys take them to our newly changed base first. Fang Jun and I will go back and arrange for the others to evacuate the old base. We have to evacuate everyone before those undead guys come back here.” Zhang Biao arranged the five people’s destinations, and then took the remaining Fang Hui and two others and turned back in the direction they had come from.