The thunderstorm had begun to show slight signs of weakening.
The thunder was no longer as dense, and the night sky no longer lit up like daylight from time to time. This gave everyone a renewed sense of hope.
After prolonged heavy rain, mountain roads had turned into rushing streams. Vehicles moving uphill felt less like climbing a slope and more like wading through a shallow river.
Fast travel in sand, slow travel in water—combined with uphill terrain, scattered landslides, and fallen trees along the way—the rescue route through this rainy night was extremely difficult.
There were many vehicles, but fortunately there were no major road collapses, and the road remained passable.
After more than half an hour, the rescue convoy reached a flat area about one kilometer from the village office.
Li Qingfeng was sitting in the front passenger seat of the lead vehicle, with Captain He and Deputy Secretary Wang in the back.
At this moment, Li Qingfeng signaled the driver to stop.
“Captain He, this is where we previously launched the drone. The vehicles here did not alert the infected inside.”
Li Qingfeng pointed ahead to the spot where the drone had crashed. On the cement road, fragments of the damaged drone were still visible.
The broken drone had been thrown into the trunk earlier. Out of sight, out of mind—and no one in the town knew how to repair such equipment anyway.
This time, everyone had learned their lesson: drones could not be flown during thunderstorms, and additional lightning safety measures were necessary.
Such as insulated raincoats, waterproof covers for gun barrels, dispersing personnel into smaller groups, prohibiting metal equipment from standing upright, increasing distance between vehicles, driving slowly without high beams, and constantly checking whether hair was standing on end.
If body hair and hair stood upright, it was a sign of being targeted by a lightning field.
Fortunately, they had the luck among misfortune—no landslides, and no lightning strikes.
Captain He and Deputy Secretary Wang got out of the car. One wore full special police riot gear, the other wore police station-issued protective equipment. Their heights were similar, their stances alike; both scanned the surroundings in the same way, assessing the tactical environment.
Chief Jiang of the police station, who had been riding in the rear vehicle, quickly ran up, also scanning the area as he moved, instinctively evaluating safety.
He had been assigned to the rear for two reasons: first, in case of sudden changes, he could take over as lead vehicle to guide a detour or retreat; second, having combat personnel in the rear helped guard against ambushes from behind—after all, the special police had previously encountered infected individuals in the forest and had considered the possibility of rear pursuit attacks.
This was a mountain hollow where three ridges met, with a small flat basin. There were no obstructions on all sides, allowing visibility toward the nearby settlement, making it relatively safe.
“Deputy Secretary Wang, should we begin relocating nearby residents now, or wait until we’ve assessed the situation?” Captain He asked.
Deputy Secretary Wang thought for two seconds and quickly made a decision:
“There’s only the village office as a concentrated settlement nearby; the rest are scattered households. Once we go out, we’ll have to split up anyway. The situation is unclear and people are uneasy—let’s wait until you’ve assessed it. Chief Jiang, what do you think?”
Chief Jiang was essentially a lone commander at this point—the rest of the station staff were either handling emergency calls or still en route.
While he was concerned about civilians, he was even more worried about his own officers and whether they had been infected.
So he agreed:
“Let’s first look at the situation. If our officers can be rescued, that’s also more manpower.”
With consensus reached, they began discussing tactics.
On the way here, Captain He had already simulated no fewer than ten operational plans. Now, upon reaching the area near the village office, he quickly selected one and briefed Deputy Secretary Wang and Chief Jiang.
“Based on earlier video footage from the villagers, the mayor likely led most of the infected away. I suspect he intended to lure them back to the village office, possibly to restrict their movement.”
“I plan to send a ten-person advance team equipped with handheld thermal imaging devices to scout the village office first.”
Nearby special police were adjusting equipment, attempting Bluetooth connections. Unfortunately, the network was down; otherwise, they could have linked directly to phones or tablets to transmit live feeds.
Deputy Secretary Wang and the police chief both nodded in agreement.
Captain He then looked directly at Li Qingfeng.
“Comrade Qingfeng, would you be willing to join the advance team and lead others to scout the situation?”
At this moment, Li Qingfeng’s equipment looked mixed but highly professional.
He wore militia-issued camouflage fatigues, a rigid anti-stab vest from the police station, cut-resistant gloves, a high-strength baton at his waist, and outdoor tools and various tactical attachments from the town’s emergency supply depot. With polarized glasses covering his eyes, he looked every bit like an elite operator.
At a glance, trained personnel could recognize each other’s level.
Captain He thought to himself: Li Qingfeng should not be stuck in a township job—he was clearly wasted here.
Li Qingfeng snapped a crisp military salute, one he hadn’t used in a long time.
Since he had come, his answer was simple:
“I am willing.”
Deputy Secretary Wang respected Captain He’s command authority. He nodded first, then returned a salute to Li Qingfeng.
“Stay safe.”
Captain He selected nine others from the team, including a deputy squad leader.
“Deputy Squad Leader Miao, you lead.”
Miao nodded.
The first group: ten people split into two sub-teams.
Team 1: five people advancing forward—three carrying thermal imaging devices for cross-verification, with one guard on each flank.
Team 2: five people behind them in a semicircle formation, ensuring no blind spots to the rear.
The second group: thirty people split into two sub-teams.
Team 2-1: twenty people, including one carrying a tablet connected via Bluetooth to the thermal imaging system, advancing about 100 meters behind Team 1 for support.
Team 2-2: ten people covering rear and lateral security and acting as backup communications personnel.
The police chief voluntarily joined Group 2. He wanted to find his subordinates as soon as possible.
The remaining personnel formed Group 3 and followed the advance.
Under the still-light rain, Teams 1 and 2 moved forward in an orderly manner.
They were the most composed personnel from the hospital confrontation with the infected, specifically selected by Captain He to avoid panic under sudden attack.
Thunder was now much weaker, fortunately still masking their footsteps in puddles. The rain also concealed their body heat. They advanced under flashes of lightning, avoiding flashlights as much as possible.
The settlement was already without electricity.
On the left flank of Team 1, Li Qingfeng remembered that many farmhouses had been lit when they came earlier.
Now, everything was pitch black. Light was gone.
The thermal imaging display showed strange blue-red-purple shapes. Rain interference and concrete walls affected detection.
They advanced cautiously to the edge of the settlement, scanning in a triangular formation to eliminate blind spots. After confirming no active infected individuals, they continued forward slowly.
Communication was entirely through hand signals; Li Qingfeng adapted seamlessly.
The outermost houses belonged to three families who had fled earlier to the town government. They passed through without incident.
The village road was uneven, with vegetable plots on both sides and gaps between houses. The road was empty except for flowing rainwater.
Li Qingfeng held steady, gripping a Type 79 submachine gun issued by Captain He—lightweight, 20 rounds, fast-firing, ideal for close-quarters clearing, a standard weapon for county-level special police.
Everyone expected infected individuals to suddenly rush out from somewhere.
Screeeech—!
Li Qingfeng’s heart jumped. Another officer immediately swung his weapon toward the sound.
On the thermal image, a faint red dot flashed past.
Just then, lightning split the sky. In the flash, everyone saw it clearly—a large rat running across the road, squeaking as it fled.
Their hearts were pounding, but it was only a false alarm.
They continued forward.
Winding village roads stretched ahead, flanked by scattered houses, mostly two-story, some single-story. Some doors were open naturally, others had been smashed, revealing ominous darkness.
They turned a corner past a destroyed garden embankment—and the village office came into full view.
A shocking scene unfolded before them.
The team stopped in silence.
Under flickering lightning, the image briefly became clear, etched into their pupils, impossible to erase even as darkness returned.
In the rain: broken flowerbeds, snapped branches, scattered human limbs, and several animal corpses.
Further ahead, more than a hundred infected individuals were trapped inside the village office. Those still retaining basic instincts stood under eaves, while four disheveled, distorted figures stood in the rain facing away from the iron gate.
All of them were in a static state.
As Team 1 advanced, the infected inside the village office—about two to three hundred meters ahead—began to show slight movement.
It seemed they had heard faint sounds, or perhaps, through the layered rain, had smelled the scent of living, warm blood.
Team 1 observed while slowly advancing. Since the infected inside the village office were showing signs of waking, the infected in the nearby houses were likely waking as well.
As they moved forward, they passed three dog heads with bullet holes in them, and a cat cut cleanly in half at the waist by a sharp weapon, its skull smashed to pieces.
On the right, a special police officer spotted a body not far ahead, lying beneath a yellow-tiled building opposite the village office. The body was wearing a police uniform.
There was no movement at all. The officer judged it to be dead.
Because it was wearing a police uniform, he paid it extra attention but did not approach, only observing carefully from a distance.
Li Qingfeng was not guarding the right side; his full attention was on the left.
The entire team gradually shifted left, and he remained responsible for his assigned sector.
As they advanced, the special police could clearly see the body lying face-up: eyes wide open, pupils tinged red, flesh near the mouth, and a bullet hole in the forehead.
On Li Qingfeng’s side, he also clearly saw the clothing and body shapes of the four people standing near the village office on the left.
For some reason, those four had not joined the other infected under shelter. They were closer to Li Qingfeng. At the same time, all four suddenly twitched and stiffly turned toward them.
Three special police carrying infrared thermal imagers issued a warning—they saw humanoid figures gradually emerging in the thermal overlay, like ghosts materializing, with body temperatures rapidly rising.
Li Qingfeng already knew that the mayor’s group had stayed behind, and he had seen in videos that they had retreated and returned—but videos and hearsay were always distorted.
Seeing it in person was a shock that struck directly at the soul.
The faces of all four people had been partially eaten away. They bared their teeth, emitting low, threatening growls.
Behind them, more infected began to stir. The low growls merged into roars, rippling through the air like shockwaves.
For a brief moment, Li Qingfeng forgot to breathe.
Those who had been talking and laughing not long ago were now standing there, bodies mutilated and rigid. A sharp buzzing filled his ears.
Mayor Deng, driver Old Li, Comrade Meng from the Land Resources Office, Sister Ding from Civil Affairs.
These were the comrades they had left behind during evacuation.
They had left then… they had left their comrades behind…
Maybe only a second passed. Maybe much longer. In the deafening roars, seven or eight infected suddenly rushed out from nearby houses, screaming as they charged forward.
Teams 1 and 2 quickly tightened formation. Seven people formed a circle, placing the three special police in the center. Without hesitation—they opened fire.
Captain He had said: being bitten is worse than death, because you will automatically join the enemy. It is equivalent to defecting.
If you need to shoot, shoot.
Bullets cut through the rain, striking the limbs and torsos of the screaming infected.
The village road was narrow, only slightly wider than an alley. The houses were reinforced concrete structures. They used handgun rounds in their submachine guns, but still fired cautiously to avoid ricochets. Even though they wore bulletproof vests, a stray ricochet at the wrong angle could still injure their own people.
As Captain He and Deputy Secretary Wang had said, the infected felt no pain. Even after being shot, they kept charging forward.
With the road only three to four meters wide, and houses on both sides, the infected could close the distance in just a few steps.
The officer on the right side remembered the police corpse on the ground—it showed clear signs of infection, but a bullet to the forehead had killed it completely.
The charging infected had ferocious faces and glowing red eyes, no longer human.
The special police were used to playing various horror games. When someone shouted, “Headshots are effective!” their trained reflexes under pressure led them to the optimal response.
Team 2 stayed about a hundred meters behind, either lying prone or taking cover behind obstacles, afraid of stray bullets.
The deputy squad leader did not even have time to return the thermal imager before drawing his weapon—the first wave of combat had already ended.
Firearms were always faster and more efficient than melee weapons.
He gestured, and one member from Team 2 came forward to take over the thermal imaging device.
Team 1 continued advancing while Team 2 stayed behind, watching the infected crowd that had gone berserk and was now slamming into the iron gates of the village office.
They could no longer shoot, because the infected were currently confined.
The iron gate creaked under the pressure, clearly not designed to withstand the impact of over a hundred people for long.
The deputy squad leader immediately ordered personnel to collect materials from nearby farmhouses. They had to block the iron gate immediately and seal off the entire perimeter of the village office.
Some officers ran back to relay the message; the rear teams were not far away and were also advancing in sync.
At the same moment, survivors inside a yellow-tiled building awakened by the gunfire turned on a powerful flashlight on the second floor.
Auxiliary police officer Wang Song shouted at the top of his lungs:
“Retreat to the high ground!! Hurry!!”