"Commander! Our Northern flank ran out of zombies!"
As the door barged opened, two of the officers inside were relieved by the young soldier's new. But the oldest officer didn't seem relieved.
He maintained a frown as he signalled the officer on the right to check. After walking over to the window and checking it, the officer on the returned with a nod.
"Thank gods. Finally so good news... Quick, Pinli, can you go tell the northern flank to head to the south?"
"Yes sir!"
As Pinli ran out of the room, the senior officer noticed sothing was a little off about the young soldier who had reported the news.
"You there. What's your na and rank?" The senior officer questioned.
"My na is Chen Bo, and I am a private under Sergant Li."
The young soldier replied, his face full of excitent, not noticing the senior officer's weird look.
"How old are you?"
This ti, the young soldier fell into silence, almost as it was sothing that he couldn't answer.
"I'm eighteen sir."
"You don't look eighteen... You must have been malnurished for a long ti, haven't you?"
The young soldier imdiately nodded, trying to hide his nervousness as the senior officer looked over to the other officer.
"After this fight Gangzhen, we need to add more food to the soldier's nu, " the senior officer ordered.
"Yes sir."
"Ahem, you can go now."
The young soldier quickly ran out of the room, not turning back a single bit as the door remain open.
"Commander Wen Pi, that kid is nowhere near eighteen." Gangzhen pointed out.
"War is rough... Better have them know how to fight than die in their mom's arm."
As the senior officer walked over to the window himself, he could see the northern entrance only had dead body of zombies.
"Gangzhen, what do you think of the people on the calls earlier?" Wen Pi asked as they began heading over to the other side of the room.
"I don't trust them... They feel suspicious to "
"What make you think that?"
Gangzhen paused for a second, thinking of an answer as they both looked out to the eastern entrance.
"They demanded for our missiles. I don't feel safe letting them get that."
Wen Pi didn't say anything else, as the two of them stared outside in silence. Zombies were still flooding endlessly through the three of the four entrances.
Gunshots and explosive from downstairs could be heard, traveling all the way to the eight floor the two of them stood on.
"We got no other options... Colonel Zhongxiong's troop is all tied up with their zombie attacks in the rual area."
"Still... Can we really not retreat from here and co back later? Why do we have to stay here like sitting ducks?"
"I already told you. I can't retreat."
"But you demanded Zhong Pan for us to retreat over the radio——"
"Are you suggesting that I disobey a superior's order?"
Wen Pi's serious face made Gangzhen imdiately back down, falling into silence as they thought of what to say.
"Sorry commander... I didn't ant to say that."
"Gangzhen, how long have you been with ?" Wen Pi suddenly asked as they headed over to the table.
"Since the outbreak sir."
The two fell into silence again as Wen Pi hesitated. He was a little conflicted about whether he should really ask the question.
But after a short consideration, he finally gave in.
"I want to ask for your opinion Gangzhen... And the other soldiers as well... Do you guys want to fight on or just retreat to the countryside?"
"Of course we want to continue fighting sir. There's no question about that." Gangzhen instantly replied.
"But you wanted to retreat, right?"
"Sir... The troops want to retreat for tactical reason. It doesn't an we're never coming back."
Wen Pi opened his lips, but no words ca out of his mouth as he reconsidered the words he wanted to say.
"I'm afraid we'll never get the chance to co back if we retreat from here," Wen Pi replied, letting out a small sigh.
"What? Why would we never co back? We still have hundreds of thousands of soldier willing to fight for our cause."
"You don't understand... If we retreated, those conservative back in the base will——"
Before Wen Pi could finish talking, the door suddenly got a little knock.
"Co in."
After a short silence, the door remained close, seemingly as if soone just did so sort of ding-dong ditch.
"I'll open the door."
As Wen Pi reached for his pistol, Gangzhen had already grabbed his rifle from the table and aid it right at the door.
"Anyone outside?"
Hearing no answer, Wen Pi quickly went to the other side of the door and pulled it wide open.
"Huh..."
Both n were a little confused as no one was outside at all. Not even a single bit of wind or dust had moved in the hallway.
"You heard the door being knocked, right?" Wen Pi asked.
"Yeah... No footsteps was running away from the door either."
The two started to have weird feelings, but reality pointed to them being too sensitive, to the point that their ears started making up noise.
"Maybe I'm just too paranoid..."
"Ahem, commander, what do you an earlier by back in the base?"
"You know Zhongxiong had recruited a lot of civilians into the army, right?"
Gangzhen nodded, his mind having a little mory troops as a smile appeared on his face.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"A lot of them had suggested to pause attacking on Changsha——"
"That's not true. Everyone wanted to go back ho more than ever. No one would ever suggest any of that defeatist talk."
Gangzhen's interuption made Wen Pi sigh as he puts his pistol away before closing the door.
"Gangzhen, you don't understand... Not everyone is from Changsha."
Wen Pi's answer made Gangzhen unable to argue back, knowing many of the fresh faces were from different places in Hunan province.
"A few of my colleagues had been noticing the uptick of being satisfied with living in the rural countryside.
Now, you tell , do you understand why Zhong Pan didn't let us retreat, Second lieutentant Gnagzhen?"
"Yes commander..."
As the two stared at the table in silence, a question suddenly popped into Gangzhen's mind.
"Commander, can I ask sothing?"
"What is it?"
"Do you personally want to continue this fight?"
"Of course I want to continue this fight. I'm born and raised in this city for half of my life——"
Before Gangzhen finished talking, the walkie-talkie on the table suddenly started getting a transmission.
"Major Wen Pi, my troops are at the Western entrances. I'm going to trying to clear a path for you guys."
As Lingang's voice appeared, Wen Pi quickly picked up the walkie-talkie before turning on its mic.
"Wait. Can you guys help us clear the zombies in the streets? We don't need you guys to help us leaving."
The other side fell into radio silence, making both of the officers in the room a little nervous as they waited for the response.
"I'll try my best. But if we run out of ammo as well, then we'll need to retreat." Lingang responded.
"Perfect. I'll order my troops to began pushing out."
Just as Wen Pi ended the mic, soone suddenly knocked on the door again, with zero footsteps coming from the outside.
"What the hell?"
"Wait commander. Let open the door this ti."
As Gangzhen reached over to the door and swung it wide open, the two were once again disappointed to find nothing in the hallway.
"Is this door broken or sothing?" Gangzhen murmured as he started examining the door itself.
"No way. It wasn't making these noises when we first ca in here yesterday... Wait, did you feel a little breeze?"
The two imdiately reached for their weapon, waiting for sothing to pop up in their surronding.
But in the end, nothing popped up. Not even a single thing in the room moved an inch beside the door slowly creeking towards closure.
"Shit, I should of brought an thermal detector." Wen Pi murmured as started looking for traces of soone inside the building.
"I think we're just over-reacting... If it is an invisible zombie, we would have been attacked already."
"I guess you're right..."
As the two lowered their guard, an idea suddenly popped up in Gangzhen's mind.
"Hey commander, do you think maybe there's ghost in this building?"
"What? Ghost? Do you not know I'm a firm believer of materialism? There is no ghost in this world."
Despite Wen Pi's answer, his voice didn't sound off any sort of confidence at all.
"Let's go direct the troops oursleve." Gangzhen offered.
"Sure. Let's do that."
The two quickly gathered their weapon, heading out of the room before closing the door behind them.
With the room isolated, two opaque figures suddenly erged out of thin air, standing in the corner of the room.
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