You were supposed to hoard supplies, why the heck did you hoard zombies!

Chapter 276 Outpost

"Heh heh."

"Quite so."

"After all, we don't look much different from a bunch of beggars now."

Liu Tao laughed openly, not forgetting to scrape the last few noodles from the food container into his mouth, while his eyes inadvertently revealed a tinge of envy.

Seeing that look on his face, Xu Lin quickly said in a low voice, "If it's hard to talk about, just pretend I didn't ask.

"It's fine."

"It's just a long story."

"But before that, I have a question of my own."

Liu Tao shook his head, his gaze immediately focusing on Xu Lin, who was looking back at him with curiosity.

"How did you all find us?"

"I want the truth."

Xu Lin was momentarily stunned, "Find you? What do you mean, Captain Liu?"

But as soon as he spoke, he realized what was meant.

Before he could even explain, Liu Tao's gaze shifted and swept over the fully armed Combat Department militiamen standing outside, and he said, word by word, "I'm not a fool. Can't I see that you came here specifically for us?"

"After all, every one of your men looks quite healthy."

"They certainly don't look like they're starving."

As the words reached this point, his gaze returned to Xu Lin's slightly surprised and helpless face, and he continued, "You're not lacking in food, you're not lacking in clothing, and I reckon this isn't an area you usually operate in."

"Coming all this way with so many people, surely you're not here for tourism?"

"Now is not the time for that."

"Wouldn't you say?"

Hearing this, Xu Lin's look of surprise gradually turned into one of admiration, and he ended up gently clapping his hands and saying, "Captain Liu truly is a meticulous person."

"So,"

"you're admitting you were tracking us?"

There was a sudden drop in Liu Tao's gaze, and his tone grew heavier as he asked.

But Xu Lin simply shook his head slightly.

"Tracking?"

"You've misunderstood, Captain Liu."

As he spoke, he stood up, glanced at Ding Zhixiong and the others who had just returned, and then said softly, "It's just that our people spotted the traces you left on the viaduct."

Liu Tao still stared at Xu Lin's face, as though trying to discern something from his eyes.

But no matter how hard he looked, Xu Lin didn't seem to be lying.

His gaze remained calm yet sincere.

It even carried a bit of sorrow.

It wasn't only the ordinary survivors who had lost hope in the government.

At least for Xu Lin, even though his heart had considered countless worst-case scenarios, seeing the faith he once had reduced to such a desolate state still inevitably made him feel sad.

There wasn't much need for further explanation.

Liu Tao understood.

He chuckled and a trace of sorrow gradually showed on his face before he slowly began to recount everything the military had gone through in the past six months.

After coming down from the viaduct, the lieutenant led the remaining men to retreat directly to the suburbs.

The omnipresent zombies left them completely exhausted.

Temporary resting places were set up one after another, from the suburbs to the towns outside, until they finally stopped in a village about ten kilometers from the city center.

The supplies had been almost depleted on the road, and the few remaining rounds of ammunition were reserved for emergencies in the face of danger.

In such circumstances, the soldiers could only resort to hand-to-hand combat.

The casualty rate obviously increased dramatically.

The number of men further dwindled.

The team that came off the highway with close to forty people had dwindled to less than thirty by the time they reached the village.

Then came the undead, Mutant Beasts, and the crazed survivors who had lost all sense of order.

The number of people in the team was sharply reduced to just over twenty.

Finally, they relocated to a mine.

Renaming it as an outpost.

"An outpost?"

"Is that the name given by that lieutenant?"

After hearing this, Xu Lin asked with a complex expression.

"Mhm."

Liu Tao nodded.

"He's quite stubborn."

"He still won't admit that something might have already... gone wrong up there."

He said this and raised his hand to point upwards, his facial expression becoming somewhat helpless.

Actually, Liu Tao had wanted to say the word "doomed."

But considering the weight that word held in the hearts of some, he ultimately chose to phrase things differently, yet it was still imbued with a sense of pessimism.

The outpost was just a nickname.

The actual name was Shen Zhou Military Region Combat Department Front Outpost.

In the lieutenant's view, the government and the military would sooner or later reclaim all the cities, so the men under his command were naturally seen as the advanced force of the outpost.

They suffered heavy losses along the way, but it wasn't without gains.

At least the soldiers could now face the undead and those strangely shaped beasts without crumbling at the first touch like at the beginning; otherwise, with only Liu Tao and these few men, it would have been impossible to successfully escape into that low building amidst the besieging hordes of the undead.

Both their combat experience and willpower were vastly improved from before.

At the same time, the lieutenant had taken another action.

That was recruitment.

According to the Shen Zhou wartime regulations, any military force could conscript civilians during a war or in urgent situations that relate to their own survival or the safety of the people.

This was also one of the important reasons this troop could persist until today.

At least one-third of the current members were new recruits.

Most served as guards.

However, the increase in personnel undeniably added to their already heavy supply pressure. Yet considering the dangers in the city, the lieutenant strictly forbade his people from foraging for supplies in the urban districts on their own.

Therefore, this troop could only search for edible food in the villages and fields near the mine.

Fruits from the mountains, wild animals, wild vegetables, and so on. Read exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire

Anything edible had to be brought back.

The conflicts with the survivors in the nearby villages arose from this; faced with life and death, these ordinarily honest farmers turned into stubborn and fierce warriors in an instant.

What nonsense government or military? In their eyes, none of it was as important as a few cobs of corn in their own fields.

Thinking of taking food out of their mouths?

Pure fantasy.

Even though the lieutenant repeated over and over that he was only borrowing and not stealing, these people still refused to agree.

Plus, there were Mutant Beasts that prowled the wilds like ghosts.

The lieutenant eventually had to target the urban areas.

Liu Tao and his group were just one among others.

With the outpost at the mine as the center, there were dozens of villages of various sizes nearby, not all of which had survivors.

In addition, there were numerous towns of different sizes along roads leading to various cities.

Er Long Town was located on the road to the neighboring Datong City.

It was also the mission target for Liu Tao and his group.

Unfortunately, it seemed this operation was doomed to fail, as they not only failed to find supplies to bring back to the outpost but were also captured by a group of survivors coming out of Sanjiang City.