Chapter 26: The Gymnasium and Falling into Darkness
The gymnasium Zhong Jing referred to was located in the western part of Sector 02A.
It consisted of an open-air standard football field and several indoor basketball courts.
In addition, there were many other facilities for fitness.
In terms of area, it was definitely not small.
In Zhong Jing's dream: during the preparations for the battle against the Witch, this gymnasium was the supply drop point for the Chu Sheng City helicopter transport.
It was also the only supply drop point in the entire Sector 02A.
Armed personnel active in Sector 02A, including Zhong Jing's squad, obtained their supplies here.
It was precisely because of this that Zhong Jing was quite familiar with the layout of this gymnasium.
Upon hearing Han Nianling's request, she immediately thought of this place.
Under Zhong Jing's direction, the team immediately moved towards the gymnasium.
The gymnasium was not far from their current location.
Although it deviated from their original route, the most urgent matter at hand was to deal with these relentlessly pursuing Tier 1 Swift Walkers.
While repelling the attacking Swift Walkers with bullets and moving quickly, the fire cover among the team members became increasingly skilled.
The process of battle was also a process of adapting to each other.
But the increasing number of Swift Walkers also doubled their pressure, especially their individual ammunition reserves.
Continuing to consume ammunition at this rate was definitely not feasible.
“I see it! The gymnasium!”
Xiao Liu’s joyful voice ignited confidence in everyone.
Not far ahead of them, behind a large expanse of lawn, was the location of the gymnasium.
The metal roof had collapsed by more than half, but the building walls, apart from some cracks, were still intact.
The lawn, originally used for greening in the pre-war world, was now overgrown with weeds as tall as a person.
The area within a few hundred meters of the gymnasium was occupied by these weeds.
If not for the surrounding concrete buildings as a backdrop, one might have mistaken it for some unknown desolate wilderness at first glance.
A giant tree, sprouted by mutation, emerged from the asphalt road in front of the gymnasium.
Its sprawling canopy almost covered half the gymnasium.
This was definitely the largest mutated tree everyone had seen so far.
The reason for its enormous size could also be deduced: in such a vast area, there was only this one tree.
There were no other trees competing for nutrients and sunlight, nor were there any concrete buildings obstructing its growth.
Such a huge scale was understandable.
In the open area, without buildings as cover, the leaping Swift Walkers seemed to have sensed the team's intentions.
They all stopped dodging, gave up on flanking, and directly launched an attack on the team.
“Taste this!”
Uncle Lin lowered his gun barrel and reached into the pouch at his waist.
An egg-sized, oval-shaped hand grenade appeared in his hand.
He skillfully pulled the fuze ring and threw it forcefully.
The hand grenade traced a parabola in the air before landing on the road in front of the Swift Walkers.
“Boom!”
A loud explosion accompanied by a huge flash of fire and dust erupted.
A nearby Swift Walker was instantly torn to pieces by the explosion.
A surrounding walker also suffered heavy damage.
Flying shrapnel tore off its skullcap and shattered its thigh.
Although it didn't stop moving, it could only limp and roar, unable to maintain such high-speed movement, thus losing its threat to them.
Following Uncle Lin's lead, Si Ling and Crow also took out their own throwable grenades.
At such close range, this was their last effective means of resistance, using successive explosions to repel these Swift Walkers that were almost upon them.
Following the asphalt road where no weeds grew, they successfully ran to the main entrance of the gymnasium.
Si Ling, who arrived at the entrance first, used his gun butt to smash the remaining glass on the door frame and opened fire to provide cover for the team members arriving behind him to retreat into the gymnasium.
This was an indoor basketball hall.
Deflated and flattened basketballs were scattered everywhere.
A total of four basketball courts were arranged in a '田' (field) pattern.
The tranquil environment was broken by the arrival of the few people.
The first things to change from static to dynamic were the flying dust particles.
No other monsters were present; it seemed the deterrent effect of the corpse tide was stronger than imagined.
After a cursory observation, everyone quickly rushed in.
Seeing them successfully enter the gymnasium, the Swift Walkers' attacks became even more ferocious.
The dilapidated gymnasium had more than one entrance, especially for Swift Walkers, who were adept at climbing various terrains.
“Others provide fire cover, Uncle Lin, you place about twenty grams of new plastic explosive on this wall, spread it horizontally, as long as you can, two-minute delay!”
After quickly glancing around, Han Nianling immediately pointed to a wall beside her and shouted.
“And that load-bearing pillar! Ten grams, one minute thirty seconds delay! Zhong… Stone, lead us to the back door to transfer!”
More than ten, up to more than twenty Swift Walkers continuously approached from the gymnasium's broken windows, gaps in the walls, and even holes in the ceiling.
The team members could only maintain suppressive fire.
After successively killing three Swift Walkers, they briefly stopped their attack, seemingly reassessing the combat effectiveness of these six humans.
This gave the team members a moment to catch their breath.
Zhong Jing looked worriedly at the smoking muzzle of her gun.
This battle had caused extreme wear and tear on the gun barrel.
The malfunction rate had probably risen to a very dangerous level.
If it suddenly jammed at an inopportune moment, it would be fatal.
“Twenty grams! Fifty-seven seconds!”
“Ten grams! Forty seconds!”
To speed things up, Han Nianling had simplified her words to this extent.
Uncle Lin also used all his strength, always managing to keep up with Han Nianling's arrangements.
The urgency in Han Nianling's words infected the others.
A brief respite didn't mean they were truly out of danger.
Moreover, the explosive delay was already set to half a minute.
Such a tight timeframe made everyone's heart pound wildly in this solemn and grim atmosphere.
“Roar roar roar roar!!!”
Behind them, the roars of Swift Walkers came again.
It turned out they hadn't simply stopped attacking, but had used the gap to circle around to their rear, intending to completely surround and kill them here.
“Quick, evacuate here! Move while they haven’t completed the encirclement! Uncle Lin, put all your remaining explosives here! Twenty seconds!” At this point, Han Nianling practically roared.
It wasn't the roar Zhong Jing usually saw from old soldiers towards new recruits in the training camp, but rather a shout that still maintained personal dignity.
Although the latter didn't have the exaggerated, distorted facial expressions and louder decibels of the former, when displayed by Han Nianling, it inspired even more fear.
“Roar roar roar roar!!!”
The Swift Walkers let out another series of roars.
Perhaps such a long chase had exhausted the Commander’s patience, or perhaps this distance was the limit of its command range.
Regardless, seeing these humans move to the edge of this basketball hall, it seemed even more urgent.
Whether the encirclement was formed or not, the general offensive had already begun!
Swift Walkers, both in the open and hidden in the dark, launched their attacks at the same time.
At this point, the nature of the attack by the corpse tide under the Commander's control was no longer simple predation, but retaliation against these six humans for provoking its dignity.
“Retreat!!!”
While issuing this command, Han Nianling took the last flashbang from her belt.
She didn't throw it forcefully, but casually tossed it at her feet, then turned and ran without looking back.
Bang!
In the flash, they fled the gymnasium.
No one stopped; instead, they continuously accelerated forward.
Upon hearing Han Nianling shout that one word, Zhong Jing couldn't help but start counting down the time in her mind.
Starting from the twenty-second delay Uncle Lin had set last, a brief twenty seconds, each passing moment was death pressing closer to their lives.
No one had the mind to launch a counterattack behind them.
The only thing they could do was to keep running forward, constantly putting distance between themselves and the danger.
“Boom boom boom!!!!”
When the countdown in their minds reached zero, the explosions behind them also sounded at that moment.
Everyone momentarily gave up running.
Regardless of how far they had run, they all threw themselves to the ground, pressing their entire bodies tightly against it.
And in the next second, a huge piece of concrete, thrown up by the blast wave, flew over their heads and smashed heavily not far in front of them, flattening an abandoned car at the landing point.
More rubble flew out from the explosion site, spreading destruction around.
Zhong Jing was fortunate not to be hit.
Only after the blast wave had passed did Zhong Jing carefully turn her head.
What she saw was the gymnasium collapsing at a steady pace.
Beneath it, between the continuously crushed and destroyed building structure and the ground, thick dust and debris floated irregularly into the air.
Although the explosives Uncle Lin had placed weren't many, the important thing was that they detonated simultaneously, destroying key locations.
This basketball hall, over ten meters high, sank bit by bit as if submerged in seawater, until it turned into a pile of ruins.
And those Swift Walkers also seemed to sense the danger.
They could no longer be bothered with hunting humans, but scattered and fled, not wanting to be caught in the unfolding disaster.
Suc… successful?
Zhong Jing stared wide-eyed at the direction of the gradually disappearing gymnasium.
The surrounding Swift Walkers scattered and fled, seemingly forgetting the existence of these few humans.
Judging from the current situation, they seemed to have successfully escaped danger, drawing a conclusion to the intense chase.
It’s over, is it all over?
Zhong Jing breathed a sigh of relief.
However, just as she was about to retract her gaze and get up, she found that things didn't seem to end so simply: although the gymnasium had completed its collapse and turned into final ruins, why hadn't the ground stopped trembling?
The continuous tremors grew more intense, as if the entire earth was gradually awakening.
Just as this thought popped into Zhong Jing's mind, a series of cracking sounds made her whole body tremble.
Standing up, she had just noticed the cracks appearing on the ground beneath her feet and spreading into the distance, when a sudden feeling of weightlessness plunged her into endless darkness…
The ground… collapsed?
Before her thoughts completely stopped, this was her last thought.