People who have not experienced hunger first-hand cannot imagine what a steamed bun, a bowl of rice, or even a piece of rotten stinky meat means to a hungry person. Hunger can block the brain's thinking, turn the well-mannered gentleman into a demon, and turn the most modest elder into a madman. This is the most primitive and direct desire push in the world, and no one can resist it. You are willing to give anything in exchange for satisfaction.

Zhang Xichen can't remember exactly what he thought at that time. All he knew was that he grabbed the woman by the shoulder and pressed her directly into the fire. The beautiful long hair immediately turned into flames, and the beautiful face was burned black. The woman kept screaming hysterically, and that kind of sound was beyond the scope of a normal person's cry for help. The fire was very strong, and the air soon filled the air with a stench of burnt meat and a very fragrant smell of barbecue. The movement here attracted the attention of many refugees in the surrounding area, and several people stopped to watch, but no one came up to dissuade them. Only an old woman, who was supposed to be too hungry to stand it, staggered over and begged to give her some of the dead woman. Even the least meaty, most unpalatable toes are fine.

Zhang Xichen cut off one of the woman's feet at that time and threw it away. Enraged, he took the burned woman out of the fire, scraped off the burnt part of the woman's head with a bloody knife, sprinkled it with salt, and chewed on the half-cooked human head.

A beautiful woman is not better than others. Although that face is easy to cause primitive reactions in the genitals, because he has applied too much cosmetics in peacetime before, Zhang Xichen always feels that there is an indescribable heavy metal smell in his mouth, and he does not feel fresh and tender at all, but has a sense of effort to chew and not cook the old female pork.

Cannibalism is common in refugee camps outside the base city of New Chengdu. Even refugees think that the guys who dare to kill people and eat people alone are crazy, and naturally no one will come to provoke Zhang Xichen. He ate well that night and slept soundly.

In the middle of the night, Zhang Xichen was awakened by the cry of a baby.

I don't know what Lu Dao is for, for the baby who was just a few days old and still wrapped in swaddling clothes, Zhang Xichen did not have the slightest desire to kill it and eat meat, but had an indescribable bitterness and pity.

Zhang Xichen didn't know how to raise the baby. The only thing he could do was pick up the knife and chop the dead woman into large pieces, picking up a few soft parts and bones that were easy to boil, and making a pot of thick white broth. As for the leftover meat, it is marinated with salt for long-term preservation.

Of course, babies don't know that their mother's body is boiling in the broth. He drank very happily, and when he was full, he smiled "hehehe". That feeling made Zhang Xichen very comfortable and satisfied. Naturally, he began to raise the baby boy as his own son.

The fantasy scene was blown away by a gust of cold wind, and Zhang Xichen returned to reality.

A man who has lived with a child for more than three years. He called him "Daddy" and he called him "Son". Despite being just three years old, the boy has learned how to use a knife, how to catch mice, and how to distinguish some of the most common edible plants. Before he became a "worker bee", there were several times when the boy was targeted by others, and some people offered to exchange biscuits and canned food for Zhang Xichen. He knew very well that it was not his own flesh and blood, but he never agreed, and he also used the most direct and crazy violence to beat away and hack to death the hungry ghost who wanted to hunt the boy.

When he returned home and saw the wedding photos of his wife and himself, Zhang Xichen suddenly realized what a terrible mistake he had made at that time.

He could no longer face the boy.

The boy had asked many times, "Daddy, where is my mother?" ”

This question made Zhang Xichen feel very funny, incredible, and difficult to speak.

Lao Tzu can't tell him: "Your mother was eaten by me, and you kid also have a share." If it weren't for the soup made from your mother's meat, you wouldn't be alive now. ”

Yes, you have your fucking flesh wriggling in your stomach. Instead of giving you milk, she feeds it with pieces of meat and broth. Although she was reluctant to do so, it was the case.

Zhang Xichen regretted returning to the city. If you had stayed in another base city, or a newly built "hive", you would not have seen the photos of your deceased wife, remembered the tragedy of the outbreak of the virus, and would not have a strong sense of guilt.

This kind of thinking cannot be described in words. In the most dangerous moments, you can do anything to save your life. But once safe, there will always be a strong sense of guilt in the intellect and morality. Zhang Xichen finally understood that when he was in school, he watched the protagonist of "The Tragic World", Jean Valjean, and why would he be inspired by the priest's mercy after stealing silverware.

Zhang Xichen spent several days preparing. He had a room full of all the food he could get his hands on. The food ration card inside the "swarm" was also on the table, as well as some of their usual weapons, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, hunting knives, clothes......

Suicide is the best relief. Otherwise, the woman who was eaten will keep appearing in the dream. Of course, there is always something to be done before you die. At the very least, the child who called himself "Daddy" for a long time had to live well.

There is nothing easier than dying. Fifth-order enhancers also have weaknesses that cannot be overcome. They are human beings after all, and lack of oxygen is their greatest threat to death. A strong physique may save life in many situations, but a rope and a bullet can solve life.

Just when Zhang Xichen took out his pistol and aimed the muzzle of the gun at his temple, he suddenly saw the boy who should have been sleeping on the bed ran into the living room and stood in front of him.

Children who grow up in turbulent environments, both mentally and competently, are far more than dolls who are spoiled by their parents in peacetime.

The boy had already noticed that something was not quite right with Zhang Xichen. Although he didn't know what happened between Zhang Xichen and his mother who was killed, the boy always regarded this man as his father.

The children who have stayed in the refugee camps know what a weapon is, and they all know that a pistol can be used to kill people.

With tears streaming down his face, he walked to Zhang Xichen's side, opened his young arms and hugged Zhang Xichen's thighs tightly, crying and shouting: "Dad, don't go, Dad, don't leave me alone, don't!" ”

The voice was very immature, without any noise, and although it was crying, it was like a heavenly sound.

Zhang Xichen only felt a shock all over his body, and the hand holding the gun suddenly became as heavy as a thousand boulders, and he could no longer raise it, so he could only hang down softly.

He couldn't help but think of his daughter who was eaten by zombies, and of the woman who was burned alive by himself in the fire.

Why should I run away at that time? Why did you want to burst out and kill people at that time? Isn't it all about living?

I have a son and I am a dad.

The woman promised to be my wife, and I killed her.

That woman is your mother, and you ate her flesh.

We are all sinners. No matter who takes the initiative in this matter and bears more responsibility, there is a sin that cannot be shirked.

In that case, what psychological guilt do I have that I can't solve?

Zhang Xichen's face was distorted, he slowly squatted down, buried his head deep in the boy's chest, and his thick arms tightly wrapped around the boy's shoulders, as if it was the support he had to rely on. It was a long time before he stopped breathing like a steam train and began to sob, full of pain and remorse.

Outside the window, a crescent moon hung high in the sky, and the clean moonlight entered the room, dyeing everything with a silver glow.

Two men, one older and one young, were hugging each other and crying, they were very sad, but the cries carried relief and relief that could not be relieved in words, flying and drifting back and forth in the empty room.

……

The new marshal's uniform fits perfectly, and the general's badge, which originally had four gold stars on his shoulder, has now been replaced by a shining star, telling everyone who sees it in the most dazzling way that this is what a marshal should be.

In just half a year, Zhao Zhikai completed the promotion from general to general, and then from general to marshal.

Biological warfare led to a general expansion of the military. According to the normal military system, the division commander in charge of the 20,000-strong integrated division should at least have the rank of brigadier general. After all, only a general is qualified to manage and command such a large combat system. When the size of the army exceeds tens of millions, and the entire country is completely placed in a militarized management system, there is naturally no chairman or president, but a marshal or generalissimo who holds military power.

That's what Stalin did. That bearded dictator has always been the target of Zhao Zhikai's greatest admiration. He insisted that democracy was the weakest and most useless system. If it weren't for Stalin's iron fist and dictatorship, the USSR would have been occupied by Hitler the mustache long ago, and there would have been no so-called "Great Patriotic War" at all.

Joke-like thoughts are just a short break for the brain. When his gaze returned to the huge map on the electronic screen, Zhao Zhikai's mind that had just relaxed for a moment became annoyed again.

The situation on the Eastern Front is still not optimistic. The mutated creatures in the abandoned coastal cities have evolved again. The most striking features are the huge creatures. Their skin became thick and hard, and an ordinary 9-mm warhead could not penetrate it. The headache doesn't stop there, the musculature of mutated creatures is getting tighter and tighter, even if it's 12. The 7mm heavy machine gun is not able to deal spinning explosion damage when it is fired into the body. Those monsters seem to have adapted to the lethal effects of human weapons in battle, and used the virus that resides in their bodies to evolve again, which is why they have a targeted protective physique.

Regarding the large-scale mass production of third-order drugs, the Beijing No. 1 Base Research Institute still has no clue. Ordinary soldiers can only maintain the first-order enhancement standard. The casualty rate continues to climb, with the highest number of casualties on record last month. More than 80 percent of the 11th Panzer Corps, which was responsible for garrisoning the new Shanghai base, was killed in battle. Due to the losses too great to be replenished, the 11th Panzer Army had to withdraw from the new Shanghai base as an outpost.

Supplement, damn personnel supplement!

Zhao Zhikai felt more and more irritable. Not only the 11th Armored Army, but also the replenishment of personnel has become the biggest problem in various base cities. The number of refugees who had gathered outside the base city was gradually decreasing. Taking the new Luoyang base as an example, there were more than 210,000 recorded personnel distributing food last month, and less than 160,000 were left at the beginning of this month. Just a year ago, there were as many as 900,000 refugees on the periphery of the new Luoyang base. At that time, the army had not yet distributed food rations to civilians, and the refugees were simply asking to enter the base city.

All base cities are experiencing a declining number of refugees from the periphery. Before the outbreak of the virus, no one had expected this to happen. The main strategy of the military department is to abandon civilians, but who would have thought that the casualty rate of troops in the virus war would be so high that a large number of refugees would have to be recruited as recruits. But now, all those refugees seem to have disappeared overnight?

It's a very cold joke.

In peacetime, there are as many as 1.3 billion inhabitants in the country, and at least 700 million people are still alive based on the basic infection rate of 50 percent of the virus outbreak. Of course, this number must also be removed from the zombies killed during the Great Chaos, starved to death when they fled the city, fought to death by different forces, and recruited by the army.

All in all, roughly calculated, the number of survivors who have survived the outbreak of the virus since the beginning should be around 200 million to 250 million. The actual figure may be slightly lower than estimated, but it will not fluctuate by more than 10 million. This figure is not an unfounded speculation, but is based on the analysis of aerial footage across the country for six months.

About half of the survivors have established new settlements in the wild. These settlements have been placed under the unified jurisdiction of the Ministry of War. Building a new home is not an easy task. There must be a clean water source nearby, land suitable for farming, and adequate transportation links. In fact, there are not many similar places in the country. As a result, the first comers often engage in armed fights with the latecomers. As far as the information is known, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Lianghu Plain, the northeast region, and the surrounding provinces of the Yellow River basin have the largest number of survivor settlements and the largest scale. These areas house an estimated 150 million to 180 million refugees. The rest of the people almost all chose to live on the periphery of the various base cities.

But that's just how weird it is. Refugees outside Base City began to disappear almost in a short time. This is really puzzling.

Zhao Zhikai felt a headache. He suddenly discovered that almost all of the pre-war measures against civilians were wrong. Of course, this cannot be attributed to the lack of vision on the part of the planners. Never before in human history has there been such a thing as a virus outbreak within the boundaries of the world. At that time, the biggest concern was the lack of available resources. Despite receiving the basic design concept of the base city from the Atlanteans, no one could guarantee that there would be no food shortage? Will the underground heavy industry machinery factory be affected by natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions? On the premise of ensuring that sufficient seeds of civilization are left, the civilians have to be abandoned, and they must be abandoned.

Feeding 10 million troops and feeding 100 million civilians are two very different concepts. Even in the face of food shortages, the army can still maintain the most basic combat effectiveness while reducing the proportion of rations. If you compare ten soldiers to ten civilians, both groups will surely complain about the reduction in daily food rations. But it is predictable that the soldiers must have complained much less than the civilians, and they will obey orders even when they are hungry. This is not the case with civilians. They are like a complex of troubles. If you want food, water, a house, and a headache and brain fever, you have to find doctors and medicines...... Of course, such demands from civilians in peacetime must be met. After all, the development of the country is inseparable from the common people, and it also needs to receive tax revenue from the people. But in the face of catastrophe, when all civilized nations on the planet are destroyed, civilians can do nothing but consume resources, let alone bring the slightest benefit to national decision-makers.

It is for these reasons that civilians are completely abandoned in the booking scheme. The military ministry simply does not have any more resources to provide them. Therefore, in the early days of the virus outbreak, refugees in cities were not destined to be rescued. What's more, at that time, the military had not even been able to achieve large-scale mass production of first-order enhancement potions, and soldiers with only ordinary human bodies directly faced the zombie group, which was undoubtedly suicide.

No one would have thought that there would be such a problem as insufficient sources of disease. Zhao Zhikai is a more discerning figure among the members of the military department. It was because of this that he ordered a daily ration of the refugees gathered around the base city. However, this measure has had little or no effect, and has not worked as well as expected.

A young captain walked into the office, saluted respectfully, opened his briefcase, took out a thick stack of papers, and laid his hands on the desk.

He is an adjutant recently promoted by Zhao Zhikai. As people get older, they have more ideas. This rule applies to everyone. Zhao Zhikai is like this, and his former henchmen are no exception. Zhao Zhikai knew that there were many pairs of eyes staring at him, the newly promoted marshal. There are a lot of people who want to pull themselves down from this position and take their place. In the corners that you can't see or hear, there must be a conspiracy against you. It was really hard for him to trust people anymore, so he had to choose his subordinates from among the new young people. They are energetic, energetic, and have unique ideas. Most importantly, they have no power behind them, which means that they must and can only choose to cling to themselves.

Zhao Zhikai has been looking forward to this document for a long time. As for the contents, it is a survey report on the shrinking number of refugees in the vicinity of the base city.

Flipping through the first page of the document, lines of shocking words suddenly caught Zhao Zhikai's eyes. Quite a bit. This rule applies to everyone. Zhao Zhikai is like this, and his former henchmen are no exception. Zhao Zhikai knew that there were many pairs of eyes staring at him, the newly promoted marshal. There are a lot of people who want to pull themselves down from this position and take their place. In the corners that you can't see or hear, there must be a conspiracy against you. It was really hard for him to trust people anymore, so he had to choose his subordinates from among the new young people. They are energetic, energetic, and have unique ideas. Most importantly, they have no power behind them, which means that they must and can only choose to cling to themselves.

Zhao Zhikai has been looking forward to this document for a long time. As for the contents, it is a survey report on the shrinking number of refugees in the vicinity of the base city.

Flipping through the first page of the document, lines of shocking words suddenly caught Zhao Zhikai's eyes.