Chapter 29 The Crisis of Staying Behind
"Maybe we don't need to kill?"
Jiang Qian quickly opened her eyes and looked in the direction of the crowd.
A dozen zombies staggered over from the other side of the bridge. Across the water beneath the bridge, they roared fiercely at the people on this side, causing waves of panic in the crowd.
"What should I do?"
"Are we going to die here?"
"Why are there so many zombies here? The kid's father went to town, so they won't be in danger, right?"
The chaotic and noisy sounds made the zombies on the opposite side obviously more violent, but the panicked crowd was unaware of it due to fear.
"Quiet!"
Zhang Haixia, Jiang Hongbing's wife who was left here to maintain order, shouted loudly, shocking everyone.
"What are you all arguing about?"
Jiang Hongbing has been the village chief for more than 20 years, and his wife Haixia also has a considerable status in the village.
"So what if zombies come? Don't we have weapons? Didn't we learn this in the temple? If they dare to come over, we can just knock them down with a hoe and they'll be fine. Why are you panicking?"
"They haven't even arrived yet, and you're already so frightened, and you're still talking about going into the city to look for the child? You're only so brave, so why not give up this idea right away!"
Zhang Haixia swept the crowd around with a stern gaze before continuing, "Everyone, grab your weapons! If they dare come over, hit them hard. If you don't practice now, do you have to wait until tomorrow to learn in the city?"
Everyone present was shocked by Zhang Haixia's words. They fell silent and quietly took out their weapons from the car. Jiang Weimin and the few men who stayed behind stood in the front row.
But when they were ready, the zombies on the other side of the bridge stopped where they were.
The people in the front row holding weapons looked at each other, their eyes full of confusion, "What's going on?"
It was only about twenty meters away through a bridge hole, but the zombies walked under the bridge and just roared towards this side, not moving forward a single step, but they did not leave either.
Jiang Qian had been staring at the opposite side, looking at the positions of the zombies opposite, and suddenly realized the reason.
“They’re afraid of water.”
"What?"
The sudden words left everyone confused.
Jiang Qian was delighted with her new discovery and explained, "They seem to be afraid of water. Look, they're lined up in a semi-arc along the waterline under the bridge. Although they want to come over, they stay outside the waterline and don't even step foot into the water."
Everyone observed carefully and found that the facts were exactly as Jiang Qian said. They were surprised and said, "It's true, they really didn't touch the water."
Some zombies will even retreat as the water surface fluctuates.
"So are we safe with the water blocking us?"
"That's great. It's really great."
"But don't let your guard down," Jiang Qian said, looking at everyone. "Even though they can't get through, it doesn't mean there's no danger. Don't forget that the people who went to the town haven't returned yet. What if the zombies wandered off to other places and happened to run into them on their way back..."
She didn't finish her words, but everyone understood what the second half meant.
"What should we do?" someone worriedly asked. "Even though we have a lot of people, most of us are elderly, weak, women, and children. We don't have much strength. If we really go to clear out the zombies, we may not be able to kill them all."
Zhang Haixia also fell silent.
Don't think that what she said just now sounded passionate, but it was just to boost morale. If they really wanted to kill the zombies, not only them, but even if all the men in the village were there, they might not succeed.
"Maybe we don't need to kill?"
Jiang Qian's words attracted everyone's attention.
Zhang Haixia looked at her with burning eyes and grabbed her hand. "Good girl, you young people are quick-witted. Tell me what you think is the solution?"
Jiang Qian felt very uncomfortable being stared at by everyone's burning gazes.
"It's not a good idea, and there are certain risks involved."
"It's okay. Just say it. If it doesn't work, I won't blame you." Zhang Haixia turned around and said, "You agree, right?"
Everyone around shouted in unison.
"Yes, just say it."
"Something is better than nothing."
"It just doesn't work, and no one blames you."
…
After everyone had expressed their opinions, Jiang Qian finally spoke.
"Last time in the temple, I discovered that zombies don't actually have intelligence. They act solely on instinct and are easily attracted by sounds and smells. Now that we have water blocking them out, I think we can use it to attract their attention, provided it's safe. As long as they're all attracted here and don't move, then my uncle and the others will be safer when they return from town."
Everyone's eyes lit up.
“Good idea!”
"Isn't this just like when you honked the horn that day?" Someone later heard about what the Jiang family did on the day of the zombie riot and it was easy for them to make the connection.
"I think we can give it a try. Although we are not as strong as men, we are definitely not inferior in terms of voice."
Everyone thought this was a good idea.
Jiang Qian thought for a moment and added, "But except for the person shouting, everyone else had better remain quiet. We don't know what the situation is in other villages. If we attract more zombies here, we will be attacked from both sides."
Everyone opened their mouths, then quickly closed them and nodded vigorously.
"Shouting is quite tiring," Zhang Haixia said as she emerged from the car, holding the familiar gong. "Use this to hit it."
A group of people were separated from the zombies by a body of water. They struck a gong every few minutes to attract the zombies' attention, thus preventing the dozen or so zombies from wandering away.
The sun gradually set, but the people who went out still didn't come back, and the people who were waiting became more and more anxious.
Suddenly, a car rushed out from the opposite road, and behind their car, a large number of dark shadows could be vaguely seen.
The people guarding the barbed wire saw it and exclaimed, "Quick, pull the barbed wire open! They are coming back."
The people who stayed behind were happy at first, but then they were shocked when they saw the hordes of zombies behind them. They watched as the zombies under the bridge were attracted by the movement over there, and the gongs in their hands began to crackle.
The zombies under the bridge, who were originally attracted by the movement over there, heard the sound, gradually turned around, and continued to roar across the water.
Jiang Bin and his men got out of the car, each carrying two large bags, and quickly unloaded everything from the car. After they entered, the people guarding the barbed wire gate quickly closed the wire and blocked it off with wooden planks.
But the zombies that followed were still roaring outside the barbed wire.
They continued to surge forward, and the barbed wire and wooden boards that blocked them gradually began to shake, as if they were about to be broken.
The guards were terrified, staring at the monsters through the wire mesh. They held onto the wooden planks tightly, praying that the wire mesh would be of better quality, and asked, "What should we do now? Where did you attract so many zombies from?"
When Jiang Bin and his group saw this scene, they had no time to rest and picked up hoes and hit the zombies on the head through the barbed wire.
"Don't mention it. Everything was fine before we entered the town. We even found some things in a small supermarket. But after we entered, we found out that the entire town center had fallen. There were not many people alive. Even my aunt's family..."
Jiang Bin's voice darkened as he spoke, "These zombies chased us all the way. If we hadn't gotten in the car in time and managed to break out of the encirclement, we might not have made it back today."
As they hit, the zombies outside the barbed wire fell one by one, but the zombies behind seemed to be endless. They stepped on the corpses of their own kind and tried to climb over the barbed wire.
On the other side of the bridge, the zombies that were originally attracted by the sound were affected by the smell of blood and gradually gathered towards the direction of the railway tracks.
Seeing that the sound had weakened its attraction to the zombies, Jiang Qian picked up the hoe.
"Everyone, go to the barbed wire and poke them all down. Otherwise, when they flip over, it will be even harder to deal with them without the barbed wire."
After that, she took the lead.
The people behind hesitated for a moment, but seeing the barbed wire gradually shaking as if it was about to collapse, they finally followed.
With more people, the barbed wire defense line instantly extended by several meters.
Those with hoes would hit the zombies on the head, while those without would use sticks to push the zombies outwards, preventing them from getting close to the wire fence and overpowering their only defense. This not only bought time for other villagers to attack, but also prevented the fallen zombies from getting too close to the wire fence, allowing the remaining zombies to step over their own corpses and climb over.
Flowers of blood bloomed outside the barbed wire.
With everyone working together, the crisis was finally resolved after more than ten minutes.
The barbed wire still stood firmly, with only corpses piled on the ground outside it.
"What do we do with these things?" Someone poked the fallen zombies, making sure they were all dead, and then asked, "Should we burn them all?"
"Burn it, otherwise the bloody smell will only attract more zombies."
They threw the zombies' bodies into a deep pit next to the railway, set up an isolation belt, and set it on fire.
…
Not far away, Jiang Hongbing and others had just come out of a supermarket when they saw thick black smoke coming out from next to the railway.
Although Jiang Dong knew that he had a bus to save his life, his heart still trembled when he saw the black smoke.
Realizing that something might have happened to their family, the group ignored everything else and hurried back with the things they found in the supermarket.
But when they hurried back to the railway, they saw only blood and unburned bodies on the ground.
When the person guarding the barbed wire saw them coming back, he quickly opened the fence and let them in.
"How is it? How are you guys doing? Are all the people back?"
"Everything is fine." Jiang Hongbing didn't elaborate, but first asked about what he saw. "What's going on outside?"
The gatekeeper told Jiang Hongbing what had happened before, and he only breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that there were no casualties.
After knowing that Jiang Bin and his friends had returned, he found Jiang Bin and his friends and asked about the situation in the town center.
The villagers who were waiting for them to return, after seeing that they were all fine, immediately turned their attention to the things they brought back, and were surprised at the first sight.
No one thought that they would bring back so many things, more than those who drove back like Jiang Hui.
"Where did you find all this rice and flour, as well as all these dried vegetables, vermicelli, and so on?"
Jiang Qian was also looking at the things Jiang Dong brought back and asked in surprise, "Where did you go? Why did you use the supermarket shopping cart?"
"You know what, this thing is really convenient, and it can carry a lot of things." She pushed the cart back and forth, and suddenly something flashed through her mind, and her expression changed instantly. "You guys went to the town center too?"
As far as she knew, the only supermarket chain in town that had shopping carts was a large chain store in the town center.
【Author’s words】
This chapter has been completed. I had originally planned to complete it together with the new chapter tomorrow, but now that I have finished writing it today, I will complete it today.
There are no rankings this week, but we will still update them every other day. Specifically, the updates will be on the 9th, 11th, 13th, and 15th of this month.
My sleep and rest schedule has been a bit irregular these past two days. I stayed up late to catch up on the Olympics, so I wasn't very energetic during the day. Then I had my period, so I didn't write much. But next week should be better, as I've basically finished catching up on all the games I like.
The women's volleyball team was eliminated in the quarterfinals, and I don't want to watch the subsequent matches. The next ranking will still be updated according to the ranking. The missing word count of this chapter will be made up in the next update, which is this Friday.
Thank you for your support. I will continue to work hard.
It's really painful to follow the live broadcast of the Olympic Games across the time difference. I heard that the next one will be in Los Angeles, and there is a time difference. When will the Olympics be held back in Asia?
The previous chapter was Chapter 28. As usual, I will send red envelopes to everyone in the comment section.
I suddenly realized that, as of this chapter, I've already written a million words on Jinjiang. I've heard that writing skills improve after writing a million words, so I wonder if I've improved. I think I have, right? Though probably not much.
To celebrate breaking through one million words, we will still give out red envelopes to everyone in this chapter. Don’t forget to leave a message in the comment section.
Thank you all for your support. I will continue writing and hope that the next million words will come soon.
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