paranoianovel Chapter 59 Burning the Corpse
Chapter 59 Burning the Corpse
Lu Chen was naturally unaware of what had happened at the Huawei Biological Research Institute. After returning downstairs, he began to get busy.
The first thing to do is deal with the zombie corpses. Nobody wants to live in a stinking house.
If the corpses are not dealt with in time, the entire building will be permeated with the smell of decay in less than two days, attracting not only zombies, but also various mutated creatures drawn by the rotting flesh.
At this moment, dozens of zombie corpses were piled up at the entrance of the lobby on the first floor of Building 3.
These were the bodies that Ning Tieshan and his men dragged down from each floor after the battles in the morning and at noon... The bodies were piled up haphazardly on the open ground at the entrance.
Previously, because the contact team was coming, Gao Yuan was worried that the bodies piled up at the entrance would look bad if they were photographed by the drone, so he had them dragged to the passageway on the side of the lobby first.
The liaison team has already left; these bodies cannot be left behind for even a moment longer.
After Lu Chen went downstairs, the first thing he arranged was this: he directly ordered people to drag all the corpses piled up at the entrance to the center of the community square and burn them all.
Because the flames and smoke from the fire could attract zombies, this task could only be done with Lu Chen present.
As soon as the order was given, Gao Yuan immediately began making arrangements.
Ning Tieshan, Zhao Yongqiang, Wei Dong, and other field staff were quickly summoned to the entrance of Building 3.
Ning Tieshan carried an iron bar on his shoulder, Zhao Yongqiang tucked a crowbar back into his waistband, and Wei Dong carried several pairs of thick rubber gloves, which they had found in a house that morning and would come in handy when moving the body.
Not only them, but nearly 30 male survivors were also called over.
These are all people who want to join the field operations team.
Field teams enjoy high benefits, contributing 3 to 5 times more points per day than logistics personnel, receiving the best food rations, and facing relatively low risks.
With Lu Chen's zombies blocking the way, the field crews didn't need to fight the zombies at all.
Their work mainly involved moving supplies, relaying messages, and assisting survivors in relocation; the physical effort involved far outweighed the risk of their lives.
Therefore, many of the survivors who were rescued in the later batches expressed their willingness to join the field team.
However, Lu Chen does not plan to recruit too many people at once.
The reason is simple... with zombies around, there's no need for so many people to go out.
These people are mainly responsible for auxiliary work such as communication, persuasion, and moving supplies; about 10 people are enough.
However, Lu Chen did not directly reject the 30 people's willingness to sign up. He planned to use this task of moving corpses as an assessment.
Moving corpses sounds simple, but there are many things to be careful about in practice... If you are accidentally scratched by the teeth or claws of a zombie during this process, you may also be infected with the virus.
Even if the zombie is dead, the virus can still survive on the corpse for a period of time.
Therefore, protective equipment must be worn when moving the equipment, and the movements must be steady and not hasty. It is also a test of one's mentality.
Gao Yuan had the thick rubber gloves, aprons, and masks that he had collected from each floor distributed to the 30 people.
Ning Tieshan and Zhao Yongqiang each led a team to demonstrate to the newly recruited novice: when carrying, two people should work together, one lifting the head and the other lifting the feet, avoiding the zombie's mouth and claws, and after lifting, the body should lean back slightly to avoid the clothes rubbing against the zombie's wounds.
Soon, the dozens of corpses piled up on the first to fifth floors were moved to the center of the square.
Then there are the piles of zombie corpses at the entrances of buildings 2 and 4... The zombie corpses left over from the afternoon's clearing haven't been dealt with yet. They're lying haphazardly at the entrances of each building, some at the unit entrances, some stuck in the fire escape routes, and they have to be dragged out one by one.
Gao Yuan also arranged for people to extract gasoline from the cars and motorcycles parked downstairs.
Several field staff members, armed with wrenches and plastic buckets, pried open the fuel tank caps of cars and used hoses to suck out the gasoline.
There are at least dozens of cars parked in the community. Although most of them are not full of gas, the sheer number of cars means that several buckets of fuel have been pumped out from just the dozen or so cars parked downstairs in Buildings 1 and 2.
Gasoline was poured onto the mountain of zombie corpses, and the pungent smell of gasoline temporarily masked the stench of rotting flesh.
Ning Tieshan struck a match and threw it up.
A huge fire roared up!
The firelight was still blinding in the afternoon sun, and the orange-red flames shot up from the bottom of the pile of corpses, quickly engulfing the top layer of bodies.
Thick black smoke billowed up, coalescing into a thick column in the air, standing out starkly against the backdrop of blue sky and white clouds.
Now, not only the nearby streets, but probably everything within a radius of several kilometers can be seen clearly.
This also includes several nearby residential communities.
This is actually a signal that Lu Chen is sending!
The drone's broadcast was an audio signal, which made everyone hear that this was an official outpost.
Burning corpses now is a way of demonstrating strength; it lets people know that this stronghold has the ability to clear this area.
Combined with the previous broadcast from the military drone, this should make it even more convincing.
As thick smoke rose, the zombies on the surrounding streets, as expected, gathered around the commotion.
The first to appear outside the gate of the residential area were a small group of ordinary zombies, about seven or eight, who had wandered over from the direction of Cuizhu Garden. Stimulated by the firelight and thick smoke, they were extremely excited and roared as they squeezed outside the iron gate and desperately rammed against it.
However, Lu Chen had already prepared for this.
He immediately possessed the elite zombie, took 15 zombies with him and rushed out of the community gate, leaving the remaining 13 zombies to guard the area.
He dared to do this not only because the horde of zombies under his command was powerful enough, but also because he could control the zombies at a distance of 600 meters.
A control radius of 600 meters is sufficient to cover the entire Xiangyang residential area, and can even extend outwards for a distance.
He could stand in the center of the community square and have elite zombies lead a team to intercept the horde of zombies at the entrance of Cuizhu Garden, without even having to leave the community gate himself.
Even if unexpected situations arise on the battlefield, such as a second wave of zombies suddenly appearing from a certain direction, or a zombie being seriously injured in battle, he can immediately dispatch a replacement zombie from the rear to provide support.
Roar!
The elite zombie took the lead and crashed into a small horde of zombies that was surging from the direction of Cuizhu Garden. The horde consisted of about ten zombies that had just been stimulated by the firelight and thick smoke and rushed out from the street corner. Before they could even move towards the gate of the residential area, the elite zombie smashed through them from the side.
The elite zombie, over 2 meters tall, is like an out-of-control heavy truck in a pile of ordinary zombies. When it swings its claws, the zombies are swept away like pieces of paper.
Behind it, the Iron Pillar, the Second Pillar, and the Third Pillar stood in a row, their cleavers flashing three cold lights in the afternoon sun, each cleaver cutting melons and vegetables with ease.
The burly zombies followed at the back, finishing off the remaining zombies one by one as they lay twitching on the ground.
The elite zombies' combat power was completely overwhelming.
Even when encountering a slightly larger horde of zombies, such as the one that gathered at the entrance of Sunshine Garden, which numbered more than twenty, it did not stop and directly manipulated the elite zombies to break through the middle of the horde.
After breaking through, the elite zombie turned around behind the horde and formed a pincer attack with the Iron Pillar-level zombies that were pressing forward from the front, killing them all within a minute.