Chapter 20: Sealing Off the Park

This intersection was a large crossroads. They had blocked it for more than half an hour, then Li Fengyi gave a wave of his hand and led his group to retreat. The patrol and cleanup team had already piled the supplies at the boundary, and rescued nineteen survivors—thirteen men and six women. Over forty zombies had been killed.

A group of people crouched and made their way back to the alley entrance.

“The people we just rescued should rest in the alley. The rest, follow me,” Li Fengyi ordered, leading his team toward the gate of Courtyard No. 5. He intended to seal off the eastern entrance of Courtyard No. 5 and turn this area into a model security zone.

Running, his mind raced. “The east entrance is complicated,” Li Fengyi thought with frustration. “The park’s opening is too wide, and there are no cars.”

Passing Courtyard No. 5, the residents inside watched him from behind the iron gate, not daring to speak, but waving at him. On the rooftop, people waved as well.

Reaching the east entrance, Li Fengyi glanced at the park on the west side of Metro Line 13. Zombies were numerous there; it was a miracle he’d managed to run back that day. The park stretched all the way to Guangximen Station, with several large residential complexes. Night was falling; it would be impossible to seal the area completely. On the park’s west side, there was a restaurant. The zombies there had all been lured under the metro bridge by soldiers and cleared out, but the park kept replenishing its zombie population.

The survivors rescued today from Qingnian Gou Road and Hepingli North Street stared at the tank in astonishment; they all felt that things had gotten serious, since even the military tanks couldn’t handle the zombies.

“We have enough people. Let’s carry a car to block the park exit,” Li Qiang quietly led Team Two over, seeing Li Fengyi lost in thought while staring at the park.

“Alright, let’s do it. First, seal under the bridge.” Li Fengyi gritted his teeth. Whatever—cars weren’t that heavy. Let’s get it done!

Immediately, Team One rushed under the bridge, Team Two guarded the park exit, six people cleared zombies, four pushed cars to block the northern sidewalk under the bridge.

The tanks had crushed all the cars on the road into sheets of metal; it took considerable effort to block it up again.

Each group arrived one after another. The survivors looked at the tank in amazement, except for the repair shop owner, who was drooling—his demeanor made Li Qiang quite satisfied.

Returning to the park, Teams One through Six lined up horizontally, thirty people forming a solid blockade.

Li Fengyi anxiously glanced at the zombie horde on the south side of the street, worried they might become agitated. Though the street was twenty meters wide, plus the sidewalk nearly fifty meters, theoretically neither sound nor scent should reach the zombies. Still, having faced large zombie hordes before, Li Fengyi worried.

People on the rooftop of Courtyard No. 5 realized their plan and threw the remaining cement tiles behind the park zombies to attract their attention.

Teams Seven through Eleven, each with a car, quietly called out their numbers as they moved vehicles onto the park. The zombies on the cars swayed back and forth, seemingly delighted. Team Twelve handled road patrol and rear security.

The cars weren’t heavy, but carrying even one was exhausting. Li Qiang organized everyone to take turns, and the cars were arranged to form a defensive line.

It took over an hour to move twenty-six cars up, creating a double-layered barricade. It was already after six; darkness was falling.

Li Fengyi didn’t dare let everyone rest in place. He quickly led them back, collected supplies at the alley entrance, and took the group back to Courtyard No. 5.

The rest was routine work. Wang Shujuan took stock of personnel and supplies. With no gas left, they split wooden furniture from each household to fuel the cooking.

“Why am I only getting one bowl of porridge?” Jiang Qian, who hadn’t been scared to death by the zombie in the Mercedes earlier, was brought back again. After starving all afternoon, he had completely forgotten his actions and was furious.

“If you don’t want it, don’t eat!” Chu Zhen, agitated, brandished her spoon at him. “Do you know how many people you’ve killed? This food was won with our lives!”

Everyone knew many people from Courtyard No. 5 had died because of Jiang Qian, but after so many years of peace, the survivor team hadn’t faced any major crisis, and didn’t know how to vent their anger. They simply refused to speak to him or give him sufficient food.

Li Fengyi and Li Qiang discussed the matter and appointed two more proactive and brave original residents of Courtyard No. 5 as new team leaders, planning to assign them members the next day after regrouping.

At 7:00 p.m., the survivors in Courtyard No. 5 held their routine meeting. There were eighteen team leaders, filling the room.

“Let’s organize the teams,” Li Fengyi announced, following the plan he and Li Qiang had discussed earlier. “From now on, teams will be called squads. Every three squads form a platoon—six platoons in total. Every three platoons form a company—two companies overall. Squads one to three are first platoon, four to six are second platoon, and so on. We’ll also establish a mechanical platoon, logistics platoon, and training platoon. Platoon leaders will be Liu Feng, Tian Ming, Sun Feigang, Huang Shunyi, Wu Tianxiong, and Jing Hetian. Sun Xiaoshan will be company commander for the first company, Wei Yong for the second. I will serve as battalion commander, Li Qiang as deputy.”

Li Fengyi found tank commander Li Qiang very capable, always assigning him as his deputy. Of course, he’d prefer it if Li Qiang didn’t keep asking when the tank would be repaired.

“Our drinking water and food situation is even worse,” Wang Shujuan’s report interrupted everyone’s excitement about promotions. She immediately relayed the bad news. “We’ve brought back fifty bags of rice and flour, ninety-eight barrels of drinking water. Sun Xiaoshan says the grocery still has a hundred bags of rice and flour, fifty barrels of water. Including yesterday’s supplies, we have two hundred fifteen bags of rice and flour, and a hundred sixty-eight barrels of water. But now we have one hundred seventy-five people. If each gets three pounds of food per day, it’ll last twenty days; two pounds per day means thirty days. Everyone’s fighting zombies every day—too little food and their bodies won’t hold up. Each barrel holds nineteen pounds—enough for one person to drink for nineteen days. Cooking also consumes water, so we don’t even have enough for twenty days.”

“Damn, we might as well not have rescued anyone!” Everyone at the meeting—all Courtyard No. 5 survivors—felt the same. Tian Ming’s words didn’t break their unity. “It’s like drinking poison to quench our thirst!”

“There are still supermarkets and a few restaurants we haven’t cleared,” Li Fengyi hadn’t expected that after a whole day’s work, this would be the result. For a moment, he was stunned, but quickly thought of a solution.

“People in the city only shop on weekends. Supermarkets and restaurants usually only stock enough food for a week or so,” Sun Xiaoshan said with a bitter smile.

“That’s about a week’s worth of stock,” Li Fengyi replied methodically. “But more than eighty percent of consumers have turned into zombies! Many have been eaten by zombies. Less than ten percent of the people remain. Food keeps well, so there’s about ten weeks’ worth left.”