A day later, the Kata Desert.

A small convoy was driving across the endless desert, and in one of the Humvees, at the back of the convoy, sat Mr. Bender, whom we had lurked into.

At this time, he had already shaved off his beard, and even a greasy "hair" was cut to a thin layer.

Before joining the convoy, Bender had cleaned his body stained with dirt, alcohol, and the smell of smoke and fire - no one should have connected this sharp-eyed, calm-faced middle-aged man with the old drunkard who couldn't even walk steadily—even though someone might have guessed Bender's true identity, but for various personal reasons, no one ran to report him.

There are standards for rough people. In their minds, Bender is probably a quixotic hero.

The wind-swept yellow sand mixed with small gravel slapped against the barbed wire-protected windows with a dense, crackling sound — a bit like popping beans, but everyone in the car had forgotten what the beans tasted like.

And even though it was noon, the light coming through the bulletproof glass was a dirty yellow.

The view from the window is also nothing to see. Aside from the occasional huge, jagged stone pillar, most of the scenery is the undulating sand dunes, so many people choose to take a nap in a bumpy car, or simply close their eyes to protect their dry eyeballs from the ugliness of the desert.

The air in the car was a little dull, and Bender stroked a pump-activated shotgun with his rough fingers.

The pump-action shotgun is an ancient firearm with a high lethal power but a short effective range.

The shotgun had all sorts of scratches and minor injuries on its body, and it and his owner might have had many thrilling adventures, but it was getting old - fortunately, Bender at least remembered to refuel it once in a while, so it was well maintained.

Although you can choke on a large battlefield, it is still easy to collapse a few blind zombies or humans a few meters away.

And sitting next to Bender happened to be our sweet little red riding hood lady - this guy had so much to say that Bender sometimes wanted to take the butt of his gun and smack her head.

Little Red Riding Hood has been chattering in Bender's ear since he got into the car, which is an important reason why Bender didn't choose to take a nap and rest for a while like everyone else.

"Ben—" Little Red Riding Hood, who had been slow for a few minutes, wanted to talk to Bender again, but she quickly realized some of her mistakes, so she hurriedly changed her words: "Bandelier, well, yes, Bandelier, do you remember the huge pillar of light that illuminated the entire gathering place two weeks ago?" And those incessant artillery fires, do you think it has something to do with our mysterious neighbors? ”

Bender first looked around nervously to make sure that no one had realized that a wanted fugitive in the city was fleeing in the car because of Little Red Riding Hood's carelessness, and finally glared at Little Red Riding Hood and replied impatiently, "I don't know." ”

"Humph——!" She knew that she was at a loss, so she didn't bother with Bender's unfriendly tone, "Then do you know why there are so many people together in this transaction?" ”

"Maybe it's too dangerous on the road." Bender closed his eyes with his baby pump-and-shot shotgun, but he knew he was just fooling himself - just look at the equipment of the other people in the car, except for another mercenary who was a temporary conscription like himself and Little Red Riding Hood, the rest of them were holding neat, polished military assault rifles - while Bender only had a pump-action shotgun, and Little Red Riding Hood's was her rapid-fire automatic pistol "Nail", The only thing left to be unlucky was an old revolver pinned to his waist and I don't know if it would fall apart when firing.

What's more, these guys are also wearing enviable body armor and bulletproof helmets - although the helmets are simple steel helmets produced by the gathering place itself, they are better than the three of them with their bare heads.

The deal may not seem as simple as it seems, and Bender only wants to keep himself and Little Red Riding Hood in front of him when he does get into a fight - it is obvious that he will send them to death without any armor, and he just wants to find a chance to sneak away when the convoy reaches its destination.

The world is so big, there will always be places where zombies and bandits can't reach. Perhaps, after a long journey, he will be able to find a refuge that is willing to accept his kindness.

After two days of non-stop, and after passing through three deserts of total size, a small miniature oasis of less than a square kilometer, and two cities that had been completely reduced to ruins and slowly annihilated and collapsed in the midst of a sandstorm, they finally reached the fringe colony on a vast plain.

And under the threat of the neighbor's countless towering turrets, Bender and Little Red Riding Hood had to turn in their firearms like everyone else - although Little Red Riding Hood was really reluctant to part with her "nail" to the point of tears when handing it over to the old knife - oh, of course, this is an exaggeration.

In the middle of the long line into the fringe colony, Bender barely took his eyes off the massive turrets that lined the periphery. After all, he had never seen a real turret before.

In fact, Bender had always thought that AI, computers, turrets, and ships were all lies that only existed in science fiction and unverifiable legends — but for now, at least, he has been eye-opening.

In addition to the earth-shaking sound of the turret when the turret was raised, it was terrifying and could not calm down for a long time, the most incredible thing was that in the process of the convoy slowly entering the protective walls of the base, there would always be zombies trying to get close to die inexplicably - either the head was shattered, the brains splashed out several meters away, or the body was torn in two, and large pieces of flesh and blood were atomized into pink gas. It seems that instead of the fierce and difficult zombies, it seems that the hit is a clump of soft, cute pudding - but no one will like this pudding, right?

Everyone in the convoy was dumbfounded by the magical spectacle, no one knew what could have caused such a powerful force, but at least they knew in their hearts that it could not have been caused by traditional guns - because the most puzzling thing was that there had been no firing of fire in this empty plain since they handed in their guns, only zombies that kept turning into clouds of blood mist.

Little Red Riding Hood was shocked and choked out of his mouth: "Wow, it's cool!" ”

Some of the crooked minds in the convoy put away their immature thoughts for the time being - no one wanted to turn into a fragile pudding that exploded and dissipated after a breeze swung in - that was miserable, right?!

Fortunately, they were greeted by a cleanly dressed, steady and elegant young lady with long black and beautiful hair - in fact, combined with what he had seen before, even if it was a strange-looking, blue-skinned alien who came out of behind the solid wall, Bender felt that he could grudgingly accept it.

In addition to the twelve armed men in the convoy, including himself, Little Red Riding Hood and the "unlucky guy", there were nine drivers, workers and team leaders.

A group of twenty-one people followed behind Mosilaire, and upon entering the main body of the base, all could clearly see that a machine-gun turret at the top of the gate would briefly illuminate and aim with a blinding red light as everyone passed, until a slight buzz was allowed to pass.

When it was Bender's turn, he had been worried that the turret would suddenly lose control and fire him into a fine sieve, but fortunately, this terrible scene did not happen, and Little Red Riding Hood behind him was even more excited to take the initiative to step forward to cooperate with the inspection of the machine gun turret - Bender really couldn't understand how this guy could be so bold, hadn't she read a science fiction novel about the rebellion of artificial intelligence? What if she was the unlucky one who was chosen to announce the start of the war between man and machine?

The three workers were led by the old knife to unload the goods, and Mosilaire and the remaining eighteen guests from the gathering place began to visit the vast marginal colony.

Mosilaire first took them to visit the main body of the base - the main body of the base is divided into two parts, east and west, the west part from the entrance to the end of the direction is a single room, a multi-person room, a food refrigerator, a kitchen and a dining room, and the east side is a barn, a security room, an electrical control room, a communication room, a recreation room, a warehouse and a processing point.

At the end of the corridor, of course, is the geothermal vent and a huge indoor greenhouse behind it.

Although most of these rooms are still in a state of abandonment, the extremely thick walls and bulletproof glass alone are breathtaking, and a few sections of energy-saving lighting that emit a soft glow remind many people of the days before the zombies appeared - it was also bitter at that time, but not as bitter as it is now, at least you can fill your stomach by working hard every day, and you can save some money to marry a wife - there was still fairness at that time, the wicked would also be punished by the law, and no woman would worry about being abducted while walking on the road during the day.

And now? They don't have enough to eat or electricity – since the loss of the power plant, the public grid in the agglomeration has barely been supported by a few diesel generators and a hydro-generator, but that meagre amount of electricity is enough for a few powerful people to squander.

As for the poor, even if most of them were rich domestic servants, they could not light a single light bulb in their homes.

While they were still reminiscing about the past, the mild-mannered lady who walked ahead had already led them through the communications command room and into the security room.

The security room was just over twenty square meters, and it was still a little cramped when it was full of nineteen people standing on the ground - but it soon became more crowded - although the number of people did not change.

Because that lovely young lady activated a table-sized weapon console, the deep black and gold display suddenly lit up, and all kinds of beautiful patterns and words were clearly displayed on the huge screen!

And this young lady's control method is not to use various buttons and switches, but to complete the command by directly swiping on the screen with her finger!

Oh my God, what a principle!