Chapter 40: The Special Committee (7)

Li Fengyi, Li Qiang, and Commander Liu Jun discussed the situation and decided to assign a garrison force to the base, primarily composed of female soldiers. Since Commander Liu Jun was stationed at the base, the force would be under his command. Each department was to provide a list of required locations, and then personnel would be coordinated and dispatched accordingly. Given the military's current strain, the garrison would mainly consist of soldiers rotating off frontline duty for rest.

Thus, following these directives, the third Special Committee document was issued. Li Fengyi noticed the numbering system was somewhat disordered—he could identify the Special Committee's code but not those of the individual departments—so he revised the numbering. The Ministry of Civil Affairs’ document received the code: mt20150609003-mz001. However, numbers on already-issued documents were not changed. Later generations would never dispute the third Special Committee document or the first from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, but those involved, looking back amidst the chaos of the apocalypse, remembered little clearly, leaving a small regret behind.

So the second day of heavy rain passed in this way.

"June 10th, 2015. No fixed wind direction, wind speed 3 to 4 meters per second, torrential rain, rainfall 120 milliliters per hour, temperature at 6 a.m. is 20 degrees."

Upon waking, Li Fengyi saw a weather report issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Unable to determine the precise meteorological terminology, they simply used numbers to describe the conditions.

"Take a washbasin, put it in the courtyard," Sun Xiaoshan said, "let it collect rain for one hour, then pour it into a measuring cup—that’s how we know it’s 120 milliliters. As for wind speed, two people stand in the breezy shed: one throws a scrap of paper, the other stands downwind and times how long it takes to reach him. Do it several times and average it out."

This was the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s morning meeting. Sun Xiaoshan handled routine tasks with established methods, and where methods were lacking, he improvised, planning to improve them when possible. The lack of tools in the apocalypse hindered all activities, especially wind direction observation, which was directly related to the zombies’ olfactory range—a matter of universal concern. Thus, he tried to revive weather forecasting.

He then assigned a female survivor to observe the weather daily, allowing her to enlist anyone nearby to help throw paper scraps as needed.

"Yesterday, the soldiers reported that steel pipes get slippery over time," Sun Xiaoshan said, picking up a steel pipe. "When it rains or when you sweat, it's hard to grip. Today’s task is to roughen the handle area of the pipes, and if possible, add something like a tassel to the end, like on a red-tasseled spear. After all, when you kill enough zombies, brain matter and blood will make the handle slick and hard to hold."

"Our job is to inventory all supplies and be mindful of moisture protection," Ma Huaibo added. "Make sure all manhole covers are weighted down, assign a few more people to Director Dong’s group, and push forward with the cultivation and sewing work." Ma Huaibo, ever willing to correct his mistakes, appointed Li Fengyi’s elderly mother as head of the agriculture and handicrafts group and assigned her a team. He pretended not to notice the young girl’s resentful glance. "If you need anything, just let me know directly."

"Let’s make some masks and distribute them to everyone," Ma Huaibo continued. "Spray them with white liquor or something—the stench of corpses is overpowering, and it’ll be even worse when the weather clears."

"The inspection team must ensure proper isolation and our own protection," Ma Huaibo said. "There will inevitably be injuries during cleanup. The Health Ministry has started assigning on-call doctors, but we should all learn some basic first aid to avoid accidents."

Minister of Public Security Chu Xiongfei walked with firm steps. There weren’t many raincoats to go around; most city dwellers used umbrellas when going out. But he managed to requisition a military raincoat from the cadre rest center under the pretense of work needs. Outside his military coat, he wore a web belt, with a meter-and-a-half-long steel pipe slanting from his waist and tapping against his hip. From today, they would take turns on duty. He patrolled between Courtyard No. 5 and Mary Hospital, not daring to venture into the alleys or Youth Valley Road—those areas hadn’t been completely cleared, and, though army units guarded them, he felt they weren’t under his department’s jurisdiction.

He regularly checked manhole covers, kicking at the weights atop them and adjusting any that seemed unstable.

Each patrol round took more than half an hour. Returning to the office, he saw no messages on the "Out on patrol—leave a note or call if needed" sign by the door, so after a short rest, he set off again.

The Ministry of Armed Forces continued training the soldiers. Ginger tea was handed out constantly these days; the Ministry of Civil Affairs even set up a stove by the training ground, with a dedicated person brewing ginger tea. Ma Huaibo, ever considerate, assigned a pretty girl to the task, which greatly boosted the soldiers’ spirits—much to the chagrin of the women in the army.

The Ministry of Armed Forces ultimately established four tactical operations: blocking intersections, clearing the ground, clearing basements, and clearing large zombie groups. Because of the power outage, clearing basements was particularly challenging. They used full-body shields to secure a foothold, then set fires—taking care not to start an uncontrollable blaze, and making sure the fire could be advanced with the line. Eventually, the Ministry of Industry solved the problem by modifying supermarket shopping carts into fire wagons, which could be pushed ahead of the frontline during cleanup.

The fire wagons reminded the soldiers of Red Boy from "Journey to the West." Soon, everyone was calling out, "Child, I am your Uncle Sun!" Their voices were plaintive, tinged with exasperation.

"I’m your aunt!" a robust young woman shouted, "Take this blow!" Irritated by the young men ogling the ginger tea girl, she swung a two-meter steel pipe, wind whistling, straight at the young man playing the zombie...

"The rain just won’t stop," Li Fengyi said, frowning at Li Qiang and Commander Liu. "The Ministry of Civil Affairs is under tremendous pressure to supply food. If it keeps raining a few more days, we’ll have to go out and clear the area anyway, rain or no rain."

For reasons unknown, an extraordinary downpour had begun, severely reducing visibility. Although this impaired the zombies’ vision, smell, and hearing, it also hindered humans—arguably more so. After all, any encounter was a fight to the death; the slightest lapse meant doom. It was nothing like the relative safety of organizing tactics in clear weather.

"Let’s use these days to improve our internal organization," Commander Liu said optimistically. "With proper training, we’ll achieve even greater victories on the battlefield."

"Life is even harder for the survivors now," Li Qiang recalled being trapped in a tank, gnawed at by zombies all night. "Food is scarce, but it’s the psychological strain that’s the worst. Every day’s delay in rescue means more deaths."

"I don’t understand how zombies’ sense of smell works," Li Fengyi brought up Minister Ou’s latest report. "Why are they so fixated on humans? Smearing ourselves with mud or zombie fluid does nothing. They’re surrounded by animals made of flesh and blood, but they’re obsessed with people. I never knew any species could be so enamored with humanity...like mice craving rice."