Chapter 637: Stagnation and Changes
After just walking for five minutes, the fog stopped retreating completely, right near where a park was located.
The same one that Wuli and her soldiers had entered in the past, as the street signs and the landmark told them everything they needed.
"Major Wu, should we go inside the fog?"
Wuli held onto the walkie-talkie for a whole minute in silence. She had heard the soldier’s question, but she couldn’t make the decision.
Her mind told her something was off, especially given how dense the fog looked. They could barely see five steps ahead of themselves.
But backing down now meant they had to wait for the next supply drive. Wait for the next hazmat suit to arrive for who knows how long.
"2nd, 3rd, and 4th, 5th squad, you may continue advancing in the fog. 6th, 7th, and 9th squads, stay near the outskirts until Yiming sends reinforcements. Over."
With the order given, Wuli advanced, leading her own squad into the fog. The moment she set foot inside, she felt an even heavier pressure on her hazmat suit.
It was almost as if she were swimming underwater, with the red particles completely blocking the hamzat suit’s window.
"Fuck! Everyone, walk back."
As Wuli stepped back out from the fog, the red particle vanished from the windows within seconds.
She could finally see and breathe again, as the physical force pressing down on her earlier felt like a hundred pounds.
"What the hell..."
---
When the soldiers from further back finally caught up to where the line of engagement, everyone could tell that something about the fog had changed.
It was no longer just a grey color from the outside appearance. A blood-red fog that matched the same appearance as when stepping foot inside.
"General Yiming, we can’t go in any further... The fog is way too dense to see anything inside."
Wuli reported as Yiming stepped out of his car, with a white hair lady wearing a lab suit and sunglasses following right behind him.
"That’s fine... Any news on the main task?"
"No, sir."
Yiming’s face looked a little disappointed, but he didn’t ask about it any further as he turned his attention back to the fog itself.
"Your soldiers can go take a break. I’ll send a few attachments to reinforce the area you had captured here."
"Yes, sir."
As Wuli and her soldiers walked off into the distance, Yiming turned around before looking over to the white hair lady.
"Tianci, can you tell me what changed about the fog?"
Right in front of Yiming and all of the soldiers, the white hair lady sticks her arm in before pulling it back out.
"Highly pressurized space inside... The living particles seem to be all gathered in this small area."
As she looked around the fog, it was mostly contained within four blocks, or just tall four-office buildings in each corner, with the park right in the middle.
"Is there any way for us to go inside and try to destroy whatever is in there?" Yiming questioned.
"It’s going to be extremely hard... They’re going to need something that can hold on its own and something that can help them see through the fog."
"So a diving suit?"
"Yeah, that would most likely work. But it has to be one for diving deep into the oceans. Like at least 400 meters deep."
"There’s no way Houqin would ever find something like that in the stockpile."
"That’s not my problem."
Seeing Tianci falling into silence, Yiming turned back to the fog as he stared at it for a whole minute.
After some time, an idea suddenly popped up.
"What if I bomb the shit out of it? Surely whatever is inside would collapse, right? It’s just a few buildings I need to flatten."
"You can certainly try. But I’m not sure if that’s going to be effective."
"Not like I have any other options... Can any of you come up with a better idea?"
As Yiming turned to the back, all three Colonels who had been standing there quickly shook their heads.
"Then bombing it is."
---
When the endless shelling ran through the entirety of the afternoon, everyone could hear the sounds of buildings collapsing along with smoke floating up into the sky.
However, the red particles remained in place. It had somehow gotten even stronger, as any attempt to stick anything inside was instantly pushed out.
Soon, the shells that landed inside didn’t even make any sound. It was unforunately a stalemate once again.
Putting the shelling on a pause, Yiming directed the entirety of the 3rd Army Corps in an attempt to find potential ’zombies’ within the rest of Shenzhen.
Although the directive said zombie, he was really trying to look for Xiaoyun’s whereabouts, dead or alive.
As days continued to go by, the hope of his being alive was ironically getting higher and higher.
There was no skeleton of him, unlike the other soldiers who had died in the fog. Yet, the concern remained in their mind.
The army had found zero. Not a single zombie throughout what was previously in the fog area.
Not in the buildings, not in the subways, not in any of the streets they had entered.
It was almost as if the fog had actually helped them, not needing to face any mutants that would have bogged down the speed into the city.
---
"What day is today?"
Yiming asked as he sat in the HQ tent, his face looking a little exhausted. Right by the entrance was a soldier who had been standing guard.
"The 16th, sir." Yan Lin replied, standing right next to him as the only other person in the tent.
"16th already?"
Looking over to the open tent flap, soldiers were dismantling their tent. Some of them are already lining up to go inside the long-haul buses.
Turning back to the table was a letter—one with the word urgent on the cover. Houqin had once again sent a letter reminding him of the supply limitation.
Shenzhen was just too far from Luoping. Too far for them to supply two full army corps in a single direction.
The 3rd Army Corps had to go back to Guangzhou and resume guarding the rear against Zhongshan’s increasingly high zombie activity.
At the same time, more and more zombies were starting to come towards Shenzhen itself in the rural countryside.
Multiple reports from Li Miao indicated a renewed zombie activity from the south in Hong Kong and in the east in Huizhou city.
On top of all these, a massive zombie outburst in Heyuan city in the north forced Li Qing to recall her troops back to Dongguan.
"Yan Lin, has Wuli and Han Bang gone back yet?"
"No, sir. She wasn’t a part of the troops that are heading back... Houqin had temporarily installed Han Bang as the 3rd army corps commander."
Turning his attention back to the sandbox, Yiming could see his army stretched out thin, with a single Division in Shenzhen.
Although Tianci had reassured him that the death zone isn’t the same one in the north that produces zombies, he didn’t feel comfortable with it.
He barely had enough to cover the grounds he had recovered in Shenzhen, let alone having some reserve soldiers in case of an emergency.
"How’s the city search so far? Has every inch of the city been looked through?" Yiming asked.
"The troops have searched through forty percent of the buildings in the city... It’s going to take three more days to clear the city fully."
Hearing the answer, Yiming let out a small sigh as every day that went by was starting to become harder to hide the truth.
Although the troops in Shenzhen had all brought the idea of their commander-in-chief heading back to Luoping, Houqin had seen right through it.
The letter itself had a hard deadline. One that required him to report Xiaoyun’s whereabouts by the end of the week.
She was only willing to cooperate with him out of stability, but when the soldier’s rotation resumed, it was only a matter of time before the lie exposed itself.
"Yan Lin, what if I told you Xiaoyun is missing?" Yiming suddenly asked.
"Missing? Why would he be missing? Is there something wrong, General?" Yan Lin questioned.
"Never mind. Just ignore what I just said... Tell me when you find anything alive. I want to be certain that it has no zombies in Shenzhen."
"Yes, sir!"
"You can go now."
As Yan Lin exited the tent, Yiming sat there in silence. His mind was starting to think of the worst-case scenario.
"Maybe I should just be honest with Houqin... I can’t hide this any further."
Taking out his pen and paper, he started writing down letters. Inside, he stated himself as the sole person responsible for the loss of the commander-in-chief.
There was no one else to blame but himself, acknowledging his mistake and his resignation after the whole affair in Shenzhen was finished.
With the signature written right at the bottom, he walked over to his cabinet to take a small envelope.
Just as he was about to put the letter inside the envelope, a soldier suddenly rushed into the HQ tent.
"General Yiming! S-Someone found a person calling themsleve Commander in Chief!"