Chapter 167 - Waving A White Flag Part1
A few men dressed in military attire from top to bottom marched into one of the huge halls of the water purification facility on the ground floor. They stood erect holding various types of firearms in their hands.
As soon as they entered, the hundred other people gathered in the hall immediately quieted down and stopped whatever they were doing. There was now pin-drop silence in the hall as everyone paid attention only to these few military men.
Their eyes were glued onto them as their very survival relied on them. Even though they didn't say anything or move, they continued watching them attentively.
And finally, a few seconds later, another man walked in. The crowd now became stiffer and no one even dared to breathe loudly or sneeze.
Seeing this, Zemin nodded in satisfaction. As an experienced army person, he was well aware that half the battle was maintaining order among the men.
He might be portraying a strong and stable picture to these people, but on the inside, his thoughts were definitely jumbled up and he was just as nervous as any one of them. Nevertheless, his gaze did not waver and he addressed everyone in a calm manner.
His commanding voice rang loudly in the silent room. "Anyone and everyone who can pick up a knife and fight, step forward."
Huh? Hearing his words, the crowd that had been calm and silent up until now suddenly fell into a loud uproar. Everyone was shocked and they started murmuring and whispering among themselves.
"Did something happen?"
"Are the beasts attacking us?"
"Oh, God! What is going on? Are we all going to get killed?"
Zemin sighed at this state of chaos. He had only uttered a few words and that was enough for everyone to be rattled. These kinds of people would probably not even survive for a minute in the outside world!
He sneered at the pathetic state of the cowards and weaklings in front of him. It was too bad that things had come to this. Otherwise, why would he have approached this bunch of weaklings?
While most of the crowd panicked in fear and anticipated the worst, a few men quickly stepped to the front and stood in a line with discipline. These few people had been waiting for a while for a chance to advance to the next level.
They also wanted to fight and enlist in the main team so that they could live a better life, but unfortunately, they were given only normal housekeeping jobs like cleaning and cooking, and maintenance.
Only people who had special abilities and were already a part of the military were allowed to join the main fighting troops. But now, because of whatever happened, this condition had suddenly changed! So this was their chance!
About twenty to thirty young men and teenagers quickly sprung up to stand at the front. There were even a couple of women in the group.
Zemin calmly walked from left to right observing this set of people. "Weak. Weak. Weak. Pathetic. Weak…" He loudly muttered examining each and every single person.
"You guys are too weak. You won't even remain alive for an hour outside. But it is good that you still had the courage to step forward. This is a step in the right direction."
"Don't worry we will help you and after today, you will become a new person. You will be strong, more powerful than your friends and neighbors."
"All these cowards who didn't dare to step forward will look up to you and beg for your kindness. They will secretly wish that they had grabbed this opportunity today which probably will not come once again."
Zemin's words were sharp and he was not holding back at all. He neither chastised anyone for not stepping forward and answering his command nor did he praise the people who did so. He simply stated everything like a fact.
This had a much stronger impact and more people began to waver in their decision. They genuinely started to believe that they would come to regret their decision if they hesitated today.
After a few more seconds of hesitation, another twenty men stood up and joined the line of new recruits.
Zemin nodded and after speaking a few words of appreciation, he then walked out of the hall. He didn't plan on wasting any more time here. They didn't have a lot of time, to begin with.
The staunch military man then began to head upstairs to the hall on the second floor to recruit more people.
In all these days, they had managed to gather several people from the H city, so the total number of survivors in the camp ranged from a thousand to about two thousand.
This number was also growing every day and the water purification facility was no longer sufficient to house everyone. Because of this certain development plans were well underway for the expansion of the base.
But before these things could be accomplished, suddenly everything had fallen apart and now the whole camp was in jeopardy without the main Commander.
Combing through the entire city for the leader was not a small task, so Zemin decided to enlist another group of soldiers. He knew that he was putting their lives at risk as these people absolutely had no combat experience whatsoever but dire times called for dire measures.
He walked over to the second floor of the building and repeated the same set of words he had uttered on the previous floor. This time as well a group of forty to fifty men stepped forward, only the women and elderly people not budging from their place.
"Not bad. At this rate, we will have impressive manpower to defend against anything that might come." Zemin muttered under his breath and began walking out.
However, before he could go to the next floor to recruit more men, a couple of civilians got up and rushed towards him.
"General. General! Please we need to talk." Fang Yuan shouted and Geming closely followed behind him.
Zemin paused and turned around to meet them. "What are you both doing here? Sitting along with the civilians and slacking off?" He angrily gritted his teeth.
"Ah…" Fang Yuan was caught off guard as the man had already started chewing out his head before he even gave him the bad news. This was why he always hated these sorts of men in authority.
"Sir, I have something important to tell." He gulped and continued. "Is the group back? What happened in the fight?"
Zemin looked at the shabbily dressed chap up and down and snorted. "Didn't you say that you had something to tell? Why are you unnecessarily asking about these things?"
This guy! Fang Yuan was dumbfounded. "Sir, you need to tell me what happened. Otherwise…"
"Otherwise what?" Zemin took a step forward challenging him. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the young man in front of him sternly. "Don't bother with things that have nothing to do with you. Hmph."
Fang Yuan was absolutely speechless. Should I just let these idiots rot?
But he remembered the hundreds of other people who would be affected and even lose their lives because of this one mistake and quickly swallowed his pride.
"Sir, please listen to me. I have already encountered the enemy with whom we are currently fighting. I might know something that could be of great help. this is why I am asking for more details."
"Please try to understand." He patiently explained without getting intimidated. He stared directly into the man's gaze without moving back and told him everything face to face.
And thankfully… this time his words finally managed to get the man's attention.
"Huh? You already know them? What do you know? Quick tell me everything." Zemin held his shoulders and shook him.
"Yes. Yes. I will tell you everything, but first can you please tell me what happened tonight. If I can know this, I can explain everything better. Even Geming here can attest to my words."
Zemin looked to the other guy standing beside Fang Yuan. Unlike him, the other party was neatly dressed and was in tip-top shape from top to bottom. He seemed more trustworthy.
He glanced at the two and then after a few seconds, solemnly nodded. "Alright, follow me. Let's not talk here."
"And you. Go ahead and finish the recruiting process. Assemble all the men near the front gate. Don't hold back and distribute whatever firearms we have left."
After instructing one of his subordinates standing nearby, Zemin walked back to the armory along with Fang Yuan and Geming. "You guys better not be wasting my time." He muttered and gave them another stern glare.
"No. No. Of course not." Fang Yuan sighed.
From everything that was going on, he, in fact, could already guess what might have happened… He only hoped that it was not too late to talk some sense into these people.