ocean-life Chapter 76 New Members
Chapter 76 New Members
After reading the briefing, he turned off his phone and left the room.
The corridor has become lively.
Gao Yuan stood at the entrance to the fire escape, holding a well-worn notebook, assigning tasks to several logistics staff for the morning: who would help Sun Xiulan move the gas cylinders, who would collect the dirty clothes from each floor for washing, and who would check the rooftop to see if the red cloth had been ruffled by last night's wind.
Everyone responded to the task and then quickly walked to their respective posts without dawdling.
Lu Chen went over and asked about the progress of breakfast.
Gao Yuan closed his notebook and told him that Sister Sun and the kitchen staff had gotten up around 5 a.m. and had been busy for over an hour. They had already steamed several trays of buns, were frying dough sticks, and were boiling soy milk. It would probably be all ready in about half an hour.
Lu Chen glanced at his watch. Although it was just past 7 o'clock and still early, he had too many things to do today and didn't want to waste even this half hour.
He called Ning Tieshan over and asked him to notify all field personnel to assemble immediately.
Ning Tieshan turned and left, and less than two minutes later, a flurry of footsteps echoed at the end of the corridor.
The first to arrive were Ning Tieshan, Zhao Yongqiang, Wei Dong, Shi Rui, and Liu Mingyuan, the five earliest members of the field team.
Having experienced the battle against elite zombies and cleared out zombies from several buildings, the initial trepidation they felt when they first joined had long since faded, replaced by a calm and composed demeanor.
As per Gao Yuan's arrangement last night, these core members all lived on the 5th floor, the same floor as Lu Chen, making it convenient for them to come and go and respond immediately if anything happened.
Immediately afterward, the five new field team members selected by Lu Chen yesterday also arrived. They ran up from other floors, their steps still a little hurried, their faces showing both anticipation and nervousness.
Among these five new faces, there was one person Lu Chen felt somewhat familiar with... Cheng Qihang.
Yesterday morning, Cheng Qihang was the first to wave a red cloth and shout for help.
It was his initiative to call for help that reminded Lu Chen, prompting all the survivors who wanted to be rescued to hang red cloths on their windows, which led to the efficient and concentrated rescue operation that afternoon before the military liaison team arrived.
Cheng Qihang is now standing at the very edge of the new members' group. He is not very tall and is rather thin, but he stands straight and has bright eyes.
Lu Chen looked at the 10 people in front of him and got straight to the point: "Before we have breakfast, we have another task... to clear out all the zombies in Buildings 1 and 7, so that the entire community is free from the threat of zombies."
He paused, his gaze falling on the faces of the five new members: "While I'm clearing out the zombies, what you need to do is drag the zombie corpses out of the rooms and pile them up in the stairwell so that the logistics personnel can move them to the square to burn them."
"The gloves have been issued. When carrying them, be careful to avoid the zombies' fangs and claws to prevent cuts. Any questions?"
"No problem!" Cheng Qihang was the first to answer loudly. His voice was bright and stood out in the quiet corridor.
The new members next to him were startled by his shout and quickly echoed, "No problem," "No problem," several times.
Zhao Yongqiang watched the group of newcomers from behind, and couldn't help but smile, probably because he remembered that he looked the same way yesterday morning.
"Very good." Lu Chen glanced at Shen Qingci, who had already changed her clothes and walked over from room 506.
Shen Qingci wore a dark sports jacket today, and her hair was tied into a neat ponytail. She nodded to Lu Chen to indicate that she was ready.
"Then let's hurry up and get going, so we don't miss breakfast." After saying that, Lu Chen led the group downstairs in a grand procession.
On his way downstairs, he casually picked up 10 zombies from the guards on each floor.
Led by an elite zombie, Tie Zhu, Er Zhu, and San Zhu each led two strong zombies, forming a 10-zombie extermination team.
The clearing process was quite boring and tedious, with no dramatic surprises occurring.
Shen Qingci had already surveyed Buildings 1 and 7 yesterday when she led the rescue team, so she knew the condition of all the rooms.
She reported the findings to Lu Chen in advance, and Lu Chen then simultaneously controlled three groups of zombies to enter different rooms, break down doors, kill, and exit—a smooth and efficient process.
The five new members initially followed behind the zombies, and were somewhat nervous when they dragged the corpses into the house, fearing that it might suddenly spring up.
But after dragging three or four corpses, they discovered that even when going out on field missions, it was actually quite safe. There were fully armed zombies blocking the way, and the zombies in each room were all dealt with before they even entered.
All they had to do was bend down, grab their hands, and drag them away; there was no danger whatsoever.
Cheng Qihang adapted to the pace the fastest. By the time he dragged the third corpse, he was able to grab the zombie by the ankle with one hand and drag it out, while using his other hand to help his companion steady the tilted door.
The entire building was cleared in less than 20 minutes.
The situation in Building 7 was similar, and it took everyone 20 minutes to clean it up as well.
At this point, all the zombies in the entire Xiangyang residential area have been completely cleared away.
Lu Chen glanced at his watch; it was 7:50. The group had even made it back to Building 3 before 8:00.
Breakfast was already prepared in the lobby on the first floor.
Sun Xiulan and the kitchen staff brought out pot after pot of steamed buns, fried dough sticks, and boiled soy milk.
The buns come in both meat and vegetarian versions. Since there's no fresh meat left, the meat filling is made by mincing luncheon meat and mixing it with chopped scallions and ginger. The taste is not as good as fresh meat, but on the fifth day of the apocalypse, being able to eat buns with meat filling is really not something to complain about.
The fried dough sticks were golden and crispy, and the soy milk was freshly ground, steaming hot with white smoke. Sun Xiulan got up before 6 o'clock to prepare all of this with her team... kneading dough, proofing dough, chopping filling, wrapping buns, frying dough sticks, the kitchen helpers had clear division of labor, and managed to prepare breakfast for 130 people in an hour and a half.
Lu Chen led the field team to the first-floor restroom to quickly wash the bloodstains off their hands and shoes.
After drying his hands with a towel, he led the 10 field staff to sit at the main table, which was their designated spot. The table was slightly larger than the other tables, and there was an extra tray of steamed buns on it.
The pre-meal thanksgiving ceremony was the same as before. Gao Yuan stood up, cleared his throat, picked up his enamel mug, and everyone else followed suit, standing up, raising their mugs, and bowing slightly.
Gao Yuan's speech this morning was much shorter than last night's; he simply repeated what he had said last night from a different angle.
Then everyone said in unison, "Thank you, Commander Lu Chen." Lu Chen held his cup, looked around, felt the surging warmth on his wrist, and nodded with a smile.
After everyone expressed their gratitude, they began to eat steamed buns and fried dough sticks and drink soy milk, except for one person.
Ma Jianbo sat at the table in the far corner of the lobby, with a large bowl of white rice in front of him. He could only shovel his rice into his mouth.
However, there was still enough white rice. Gao Yuan specifically told Sun Xiulan not to stop Ma Jianbo when he came to add more rice, because he couldn't handle the heavy physical labor without being full.
Moreover, eating only plain rice without oil or salt is not good, so we prepared a bottle of soy sauce for him, which was his only consolation.