Chapter 42

Boarding finished a little after four. Each company had hundreds to thousands of vehicles; with so many lined up across the wide clearing the sight was a dark, impressive mass. Fortunately the west side had plenty of open space, otherwise there wouldn’t have been room to park all those vehicles.
Some trucks had a little light; flashlights bobbed as people hurried between convoys, their scattered voices lost to the wind. Some vehicles were parked haphazardly, the sounds of engines reversing under guidance audible.
And from the surroundings came occasional gunfire, the sound of strikes against the zombies.
Overall the atmosphere was solemn. People inside the vehicles either rested or sat tense and anxious awaiting departure, but the time to leave kept being postponed.
They waited from four to five, and from five until dawn.
Lin Tantan climbed out of the truck, rubbed her eyes and yawned, then clambered onto the roof to watch the soldiers and survivor groups in the distance.
Compared to the ten orderly convoys here, the far side looked chaotic and noisy; their lines still hadn’t been organized.
Lin Tantan saw people shouting, pleading, jostling and clamoring to board the dark‑green tarped military trucks, but the trucks were limited and only a small portion could get on.
Jiang Xiaotian also got out, crunching on potato chips, and told Lin Tantan, “I heard those who get on those trucks aren’t ordinary people.”
“How so?”
“Like former officials, or people with skills the base needs now, or those with connections in the military, or wealthy donors who gave a lot of supplies, and also families with psionics who joined the army and submit to military command. In any case, ordinary people shouldn’t expect to get on the military vehicles.” Jiang Xiaotian said, shaking his head.
“If you get on a military truck, are you guaranteed protection?”
“More or less. The army numbers less than twenty thousand, but there are many survivors... maybe a couple hundred thousand. Either they manage groups like ours, or they can only prioritize protecting a small fraction.”
Lin Tantan watched one of the big trucks filled with people drive off to the side; its cargo bed faced her. She could vaguely see that the passengers were all well dressed, men and women, old and young. They sat tranquilly in the bed, looking back at the chaotic lines, some with pity on their faces, some smiling smugly, and others laughing and joking.
Those who couldn't get on the vehicles watched the people aboard with bitter resentment; some turned to look at the ten large convoys over here, their expressions complicated and unreadable.
Lin Tantan rested her chin on her hand. The spectacle of human nature, she thought.
She glanced at the dozen or so imposing armored vehicles among the troops, like beasts of steel, once someone ducked inside, no zombie could break in. The most important people were surely sheltering within them.
At that moment Ye Xiao was standing beside one of the armored cars, talking with Major General Xing.
They talked for a long time and finally seemed to reach a decision. Ye Xiao said something into his radio, and two men stepped out of the convoy; an armored vehicle had been released from the army's custody and driven back over here.
Lin Tantan's eyes widened a little. They asked for an armored vehicle? And Xing Guoliang agreed?
The armored vehicle stopped not far off. Ye Xiao climbed down, walked to the front of the Fifth Battalion and said something to Xu Qin. Xu Qin nodded, went over to the armored car, climbed in, and it drove off toward the First Battalion.
Hey, that's the commander of the Fifth Battalion! Where's he going?
Ye Xiao came over toward Lin Tantan. She jumped down from the vehicle and looked at him. "What's going on? Where's Xu Qin headed?"
Ye Xiao said, "I had him take the First Battalion."
"Huh? Weren't you supposed to lead it?"
"We thought the army would go first and we'd follow behind, but they're taking too long to sort things out. We're going to lead the way instead, which means I need to take a separate squad to scout ahead."
"What? We're going to the front?" Jiang Xiaotian cut in. "The detector's range isn't enough, I'll see about improving it."
He said that and dove into the vehicle.
The detector he meant was a device that could sense zombies or animal-zombies; he'd tinkered it together not long ago. There weren't many of them and their range was limited, only two or three hundred meters. Mounted on nimble little vehicles they served as a kind of early-warning system, but in truth they were only marginally useful. With a range of a few hundred meters, having them or not didn't make a huge difference.
But since they were going to scout ahead of the main column, expanding the detector's range suddenly became urgent.
Ye Xiao turned to Cheng Qinan on the vehicle. "Qinan, you seem to have an instinct about zombies. Come with me."
Cheng Qinan said nothing, climbed down and answered, "Okay."
Ye Xiao then said to Lin Tantan, "The Fifth Battalion doesn't have a commander right now. How about you take the post?"
Lin Tantan jumped. "Me? I can't!"
A battalion was over fifteen thousand people, and the Fourth and Fifth Battalions were responsible for transporting most of the supplies, so there were even more vehicles, a long chain of them. She didn't think she could manage it.
Ye Xiao nodded. "True, you'd also have to handle medical duties and take part in fights; that would be too exhausting. Would you accept being deputy commander instead?"
"...Is there really much difference?"
"I'm pretty confident in Jiang Zhongyi. He was deputy already; I plan to make him commander and have you assist him, people tend to trust you," Ye Xiao said.
Jiang Zhongyi was a college student who'd been hardened a lot over the past ten days on the west side of the city. He'd originally led a dozen burly students, and now the surviving university students who could fight, along with some younger people, looked to him as their leader.
But he was still young and running a convoy was a different matter. With Lin Tantan helping, it would be another story; among the survivors on the west side, her standing was unusual.
Lin Tantan also knew they'd worked hard to assemble ten battalion commanders. With a vacancy now open, they wouldn't find a suitable replacement quickly, so she could only nod.
She really just wanted to keep her head down, and she was a doctor, she belonged with the logistics!
Ye Xiao saw her frown and smiled. "It's not that hard. Bai Cheng is with the Fourth Battalion, he'll keep an eye on this side. Most of the time he can just rest in your big vehicle."
Ye Xiao looked into the trailer: a silver truck with the cabin connected to the cargo area, filled with many of Jiang Xiaotian's tools. Xiaotian was bent over tinkering with something, and Mei Baisheng sat in the corner frowning as he worked through his ability, blackness appearing and disappearing on his hands.
Lin Tantan sighed. "That doesn't sound very restful either."
Ye Xiao said, "Yeah, you can't expect to loaf around anymore."
Lin Tantan gave Ye Xiao a suspicious look. Was he jealous that she had it easy and trying to give her work?
Ye Xiao cleared his throat. It really wasn't intentional, it was an emergency and they were short-handed. He turned and called "Meimei." Mei Baisheng looked up, puzzled, and Ye Xiao asked seriously, "How's the research on your ability going?"
"Still not quite there," Mei Baisheng said sourly. "This power is so strange. I don't even know how to use it right."
"If you don't have any leads, set it aside for now. I'll give you something to do."
Mei Baisheng's face changed in an instant. "No, no, it'll be soon, really. Give me a little more time." Then he immediately bent back over his work.
Lin Tantan still felt something was off.
Just as she was about to speak, Ye Xiao's radio crackled and Bai Cheng's calm voice came through: "Everyone, be ready. Depart in vehicle-number order."
Lin Tantan looked up. A few imposing bulldozers at the front of the First Battalion rolled out first to clear obstacles, followed by armored vehicles, then trucks, buses, vans and cars, a motley procession carrying people and supplies.
Ye Xiao said, "Come with me. I'll tell you what to watch out for."
And so the newly appointed deputy commander Lin Tantan, the reluctant commander Jiang Zhongyi, and several other captains were pulled in for a crash course.
To ensure the safety of every convoy, each battalion and squad had its own guard, made up of those with special abilities, the fully trained, and the semi-trained. Each small convoy numbered about 1,500 people, with a corresponding guard of roughly fifty; a full battalion thus had around 500 of these bona fide combat personnel, plus some non-combat staff to help the guards manage and restrain people.
Lin Tantan barely managed to get the principal faces familiar. Ten minutes later Ye Xiao left to act as his pathfinder. Lin Tantan and Jiang Zhongyi exchanged a glance, both feeling overwhelmed, but compared with Lin, Jiang was visibly eager: "Sis, you have to back me on this."
"Alright, alright, go for it. You've got my moral support, my muscle, and my authority," Lin Tantan sighed.
"With you saying that I'm relieved!"
By then the first battalion had already set off, followed by the second and third.
Lin Tantan returned to her Fifth squad. The squad leader, who had walked with her, gave an embarrassed smile, then pulled out a megaphone and shouted, "All members of YS0505 squad, accounted for, get on board, get on board! Keep an eye on things and be ready to depart."
Well, everyone was certainly full of drive.
Then Lin Tantan realized their big truck seemed to be without a driver: Cheng Qinan had been taken away, Mei Baisheng was racing against the clock, and Jiang Xiaotian had his own tasks. They used to rotate driving duty; the trio who could have passed the time playing cards now had no chance, another driver had to be found.
Lin Tantan thought for a moment and ran to the vehicle behind them, a dark, coal-gray Jiangling Yuhu pickup. The bed was packed to the brim, covered with a tarp and tightly lashed with rope.
Two people sat in the cab, a man and a woman. The man was the driver Lin Tantan had hired, named Qian Kai, a student from Peking University's campus, recommended by Jiang Zhongyi. He had no other notable skills, he'd been a rich kid who raced cars like a pro, so driving was second nature.
The woman had earlier helped Lin Tantan negotiate treatment fees with patients' families, handled collections, and managed supplies. Her name was Qian Feifei; she was an accountant Bai Cheng had found. Once a formidable white-collar professional, Lin felt it was a bit of a waste to have her merely looking after supplies.
Lin asked Qian Feifei, "Feifei, you can drive too, right?"
"Yes," Qian Feifei said.
So Lin assigned Qian Kai to drive the big truck and put Qian Feifei in charge of the pickup, telling them they'd find replacements for their shifts later and loading them up with a pile of food.
Then Lin's radio crackled; Jiang Zhongyi's booming voice came through: "YS04 battalion up front is clearing out, that means it's our turn. Attention! YS0501 squad, move out! …YS0502 squad, follow! …YS0505 squad, move, move, move!"