The gray-white sky looked as if it were mixed with dust, stingily leaking through the gaps in the clouds.
The crisp clatter of pickaxes striking rock, the low thunder of work chants, sharp shouts, and the muffled cracking of wood twisted together, rolling across the clearing with the dry wind.
The eastern main wall of the safety zone was to be erected here.
The foundation hadn’t received a single bit of help from machinery; it was entirely composed of deep trenches chiseled out with pickaxes and dug by hand.
The crowd was divided into groups, taking turns to work.
Shovel blades struck rock fragments, and sparks crackled as they flew.
“Third group, step up! Swap out!” The voice of the supervisor, Engineer Li, was as hoarse as if it had been ground by sandpaper.
Beneath his rolled-up sleeves, the anchor tattoo on his forearm had long since faded to a pale blue.
He had once been a sailor, but now he was the backbone of the wall construction.
“The trench must be dug another 30 centimeters deeper! If you want the wall to be knocked down, then by all means, keep resting!”
There was nowhere to pile the excavated earth and stone, so it all relied on another team to transport it to the construction material area.
Supermarket carts with crooked wheels were loaded to the brim, crookedly nailed wooden boxes were strained by ropes, and several people even worked together to lift broken door panels.
Dirt falling through the cracks in the boards hit their feet, and the rhythm of their chants grew heavier with every trip.
The activity in the material area didn’t stop either.
Women swung sledges thicker than their arms, and half-grown children gripped small chisels, tapping bricks and concrete blocks salvaged from the ruins into neat squares.
Debris piled into small mounds at their feet.
On the other side, several old men leaning on trowels squatted on the ground, teaching young people how to stir mortar in iron buckets.
The mortar on the wooden sticks was thick and solid; they wouldn’t stop until it was mixed with half a bag of lime and fine sand that had been sifted three times.
After all, cement was a precious strategic resource, and every spoonful saved mattered.
The skeleton of the wall relied on hard materials for support.
Thick logs and heavy timber beams dragged from the furniture mall were tightly bound and secured with stiff hemp ropes, stripped old electrical wires, and even old vines pulled from the mountains.
Several people shouted in unison as they hoisted them up, firmly filling them into the foundation trenches.
Next came the filling; crushed stones and bricks were stuffed inside, and spoonfuls of thick mortar were poured in, seeping down through the gaps and gleaming with a cold, hard light under the sun.
The exterior of the wall looked somewhat terrifying.
Several people carried crowbars and pulled thick ropes, piling up scrapped cars, rusted corrugated metal roofs, and twisted security window bars.
They were stacked high in layers, with sharp edges poking outward like a barrier baring its teeth.
It was ugly, but it was solid.
“Take a break. Why build such a thick wall? I’m exhausted!” someone shouted, wiping the sweat from their forehead.
“Sure, give me your share of the work,” the person next to him said, straightening his back with a laugh.
“I’ll save up more points to trade for a bowl of braised pork, while you just sit there and watch.”
“Get lost!”
“If only it would rain,” the person stirring the mortar coughed twice.
“This dust is making my throat feel like it’s on fire.”
“Are you dreaming?” another person chimed in, “Old Wang looked at it. These clouds look heavy, but they’re actually bone dry. Not a drop of rain will come out; it’s all just blowing dust.”
“Stop talking nonsense!” someone shouted from a distance.
“Wooden stakes! Bring two sturdy ones over there! Thick ones! Yes, that one!”
The conversations, urgings, and occasional cursing, wrapped in the sound of pickaxes and chants, actually wove a sense of vitality.
No one failed to complain about being tired, yet the work in their hands never stopped for a second.
The sledges were still swung in wide arcs, the mortar was stirred evenly, and even the half-grown children gripped their small hammers, tapping the broken bricks one after another, afraid of falling half a beat behind.
Outside the safety zone, in front of a large Dead Mall, Lu Dongnuan stopped at the entrance.
Zombies wandered aimlessly around the cars.
Lin Mo had found a small truck for Lu Dongnuan that could fit into most alleys, letting her drive it out to find supplies.
Speaking of which, it was strange.
There were clearly so many people on the map, but inside Ruerke City, all she saw were zombies.
Zombies, zombies, and more zombies.
Although Lu Dongnuan no longer rejected her “good subordinates,” she eventually got bored of looking at them.
So, while Lin Mo wasn’t looking, she would go out and create Mutated Infecteds for fun.
For some reason, the monsters Lu Dongnuan created either looked like the one codenamed Gecko—also known as Master Li Qing—or like the Crab Monster, with big claws swinging and smashing wildly.
Or, they looked like her two recently recruited capable lieutenants, Shuaishuai and Qiqi, who were those two Pseudo-humans.
Regarding Shuaishuai and Qiqi, Lu Dongnuan was truly satisfied.
They were incredibly tough.
Shuaishuai didn’t die after being shot; in fact, he was still lively.
Although they were locked in the basement all day, they were remarkably polite and submissive toward Lu Dongnuan, which greatly satisfied her vanity.
She would occasionally toss some of her blood to the two Pseudo-humans to drink, to the point where they now looked more and more like humans.
Aside from their skin and pupil color, it was almost impossible to distinguish the real person from the fake.
She began to experiment with whether she could attach the Crab Monster’s Big Claws onto Shuaishuai and Qiqi.
Of course, the commotion was a bit loud, and Lin Mo discovered her evil little experiment, giving her a harsh lecture.
Lu Dongnuan squatted in front of the truck’s hood, her fingers picking at the rust holes in the metal, the tips of her ears still slightly warm.
Yesterday, Lin Mo had thrown away the half-piece of zombie bone she had hidden and confiscated her small chisel.
He said if she dared to “play with blocks” outside again, he would lock the truck in the warehouse.
At the time, she had stiffened her neck and shouted, “I know!” but now she was staring blankly at the map on the passenger seat.
Beside the “Super Power Building” circled in red, Lin Mo had written a line in crooked handwriting: “Only move food, don’t look at zombies.”
The engine “thrummed” as it drove into the alley.
Dead vines crawled over the broken walls on both sides, and the wind blew dust and debris through the window.
Lu Dongnuan’s lip twitched.
Lu Dongnuan pushed the glass doors of the mall.
The hinges were rusted stiff, letting out a “creak” that shattered the low growls of the zombies at the alley entrance.
Light leaked from the broken skylight, casting slanted spots on the ground.
A thin layer of reflection floated within those spots.
She squatted down to touch it, and her fingertips came away with a sticky liquid.
It wasn’t the black blood of a zombie; it was pale green, like it was mixed with pus, and smelled like rancid grass.
‘What is this…’ She grit her teeth and stood up, her boot soles clicking on the tiles when she suddenly kicked something hard.
Looking down, she saw half of a human climbing pole.
The tip was bent, and the body of the pole was wrapped in a strand of transparent silk.
It looked like a spiderweb but was thick enough that she could clearly see the fibers.
With a gentle tug, she found a piece of bloody fabric hanging from the silk.
It wasn’t zombie rot; it was fresh, still carrying a hint of residual body heat.
The stairs leading to the second floor had partially collapsed.
She stepped on broken bricks to climb up.
As soon as she poked her head out, she heard a soft “crunch:, like bones being crushed.
The sound came from the children’s clothing area.
She pulled out the short knife hidden in her boot, hunched her back, and circled around.
She saw the shelves had been pushed over in a neat row, leaving a narrow path in the middle.
At the end of the path, the curtain of a fitting room hung limp, with green slime dripping from the gaps.
The items on the shelves—such as cans, cookies, and bottled water—had all been arranged into piles, as if someone had specifically categorized them.
The ring pull on the topmost beef can was open.
It was empty.
There were no jagged zombie bite marks on the rim; instead, there was a ring of neat teeth marks.
They looked human, yet sharper.
“Who’s there?” Lu Dongnuan called out, her voice echoing through the empty mall.
‘Another Mutated Infected?’ She loosened her muscles.
‘Although you guys aren’t very friendly to me, I can still show you… what a real BOSS looks like.’