Doomsday: I Build a Space Fleet

Chapter 12 Catching the Tongue

As the sun set and darkness fell, the two men, having confirmed that the survivors on the other side made no further moves, retreated back to the ship. During their night watch, Lorraine glanced at the intelligence system:

[1. There's a warehouse in the middle of the industrial zone; you might find something unexpected there.]

[2. Refresh time: 14 hours and 13 minutes]

[3. Refresh time: 20 hours and 45 minutes]

[4. The blood moon is about to rise, two days, 22 hours and 10 minutes to go]

"It seems we have to catch this 'tongue' (referring to someone who is 'passing through one's throat). The 'unexpected gain' I had before led me to Ouyang Nian, and I can't miss this one either."

The next day, as soon as it was light, Lorraine and Ouyang Nian were fully equipped and ready to go. In order to deal with the enemy's possible heavily armored units, Lorraine also loaded ten armor-piercing slug rounds.

Carefully making their way back to the factory entrance, Lorraine raised her binoculars and peered into the factory building where survivors had been seen the previous day. After some observation, she saw no lookouts. Lorraine called to Ouyang Nian, and the two approached the factory building nimbly and quietly.

Upon reaching the yellow ladder, Lorraine patted Ouyang Nian, signaling her to go up and stand guard first—with Ouyang Nian's close combat skills, she could silently take down the sentries who came out to keep watch.

Ouyang Nian removed the shield and fixed it to his tail, then nimbly climbed the stairs, quietly and quickly reaching the top of the 6-meter-high factory building.

Lorraine glanced around to make sure no one was watching him, then slung his submachine gun behind him and climbed the ladder. Once he reached the top of the factory, he saw Ouyang Nian carefully inspecting each window.

Before he could even communicate with Ouyang Nian, he heard complaints coming from below. Lorraine turned and hung on the ladder, only a gun and his head sticking out, aiming ahead; Ouyang Nian quietly approached the window from which the sounds were coming and hid behind a vent.

Once the lookout was out of the area below the window, Ouyang Nian moved behind him and knocked him unconscious with a shovel.

After placing the unconscious sentry in a spot where he wouldn't slip, the two looked at the open window from different directions. Once they confirmed the room below was empty, Ouyang Nian led the way, and the two went down into the room.

Seeing the dimly lit environment, the two did not choose to wear night vision goggles—when they could see the general surroundings, the blind spots created by night vision goggles would exponentially increase the danger.

In the corridor, Ouyang Nian, holding an entrenching tool, listened to the arguing coming from inside the room. She slowed down her preparation to break down the door and instead pressed her ear against the wall to eavesdrop on the argument. Lorraine, meanwhile, walked past her, raising her gun to guard the area ahead.

"If they hadn't been clamoring to go to the office building to get maps, saying they wanted to go out and gather supplies, we wouldn't be in this situation where zombies are blocking the door!"

"Exactly! We finally found a place with plenty of food and drink, and then they insist on looking for some kind of map, saying that a heavily guarded convoy entered the central part of the industrial zone before..."

"Right, right, right! Who in our group doesn't know that the central region was the first to experience a zombie outbreak? Maybe that convoy was transporting zombies; only that naive guy thought it was something good."

Lorraine vaguely heard words like "convoy" and "central region," and thought that this must be the harvest mentioned by the intelligence system.

Hearing the approaching footsteps, Ouyang Nian decisively broke down the door, kicking it open—the survivor who had just reached the door was knocked unconscious by the rapidly spinning door. The other two picked up the sharpened iron bar from the ground and shouted sharply, "Who's there?"

Ouyang Nian leaped forward with an entrenching tool, parried the iron bar with his shield, and swung the entrenching tool at the faces of the opponents, knocking them all unconscious with a single blow.

After knocking everyone in the room unconscious, Ouyang Nian quickly left the room, and a series of noises came from the two adjacent rooms.

"Bang!" Lorin fired a shot decisively at the open door in front of him. After all, they had already captured the prisoner alive, and he seemed to know quite a bit of information. To ensure his own safety, Lorin chose to strike first.

The sudden gunfire silenced all the survivors, with only the roars of the zombies downstairs.

While the fear from the gunshots was still lingering, Lorraine and Ouyang Nian quickly rushed into the nearest room, wielding rifle butts and entrenching tools to knock out all four unsuspecting survivors inside.

After all, gunshots are enough to attract the attention of zombies. If all the survivors in a room are killed, it will not only continue to provoke the zombies, but also make it much more difficult to persuade them to surrender.

Lorraine retreated into the corridor, taking two steps back to create some distance between herself and the doorway of the room she had just burst into; Ouyang Nian stood at the doorway, ready to strike the survivor who rushed towards him.

After setting up their formation, Lorraine began to persuade the remaining survivors to surrender: "I suggest you lay down your weapons! Your companions have only fainted, they are not dead, and we are just here to ask some questions."

The two conscious male survivors in the room looked at each other and fell into thought.

Seeing the room fall silent, Lorraine said again, "As long as you put down your weapons and come out empty-handed, I promise I won't hurt you."

One of them spoke first: "What makes you think you can guarantee you won't kill us?"

Another chimed in, "Exactly! How can I know if my companion died based solely on your word?"

Hearing the only two voices in the room, Ouyang Nian gestured for Luo Lin to come closer and whispered, "These two seem a bit guilty. Let's use force to coerce them out first. Besides, these idiots don't seem to have noticed that there's another way out of the warehouse besides the main gate."

Lorraine nodded, then raised his voice and shouted sternly, "You can't threaten us! If I'm not mistaken, you don't have any firearms, do you?"

Seeing no further movement from the room, Lorraine continued, "If you don't come out, I won't hesitate to fire armor-piercing rounds through the wall! I don't know if others will lose their lives, but the two of you will!"

The two men inside looked at each other, realizing they were outnumbered, and had no choice but to lay down their weapons and come out.

"Put your hands where I can see them," Lorraine added.

"Is it just the two of you in the house?" Lorraine asked, frowning. "Even if there were losses before, there shouldn't be so few people left."

The two nodded hastily, but blocked the doorway with their bodies, as if there was something unspeakable inside.

Seeing their panicked expressions, Luo Lin gestured for Ouyang Nian to step forward and perform "physical hypnosis" on them.

Ouyang Nian stepped forward carrying the iron chain, gesturing for the two to turn around and put their hands behind their backs. Taking advantage of their relaxed vigilance, he raised his hand and threw two punches, giving the two blocking the doorway a "quality sleep".

Looking at the two people sleeping on the floor, Ouyang Nian turned around and shrugged, indicating that it was easy. Then he opened the door and saw a disgusting scene.

Seeing Ouyang Nian's tail slam heavily onto the ground, Luo Lin was startled and quickly went over to comfort him.

Although he had anticipated the moral decay of the apocalypse, the scene before him still shocked him—in the room, three women with vacant eyes, tattered clothes, and covered in wounds sat against the wall.