146 Collapse!
"Those bastards actually ran away!" The middle-aged woman was completely dumbfounded.
She never expected that just as the base faced its most critical moment, Zhang Tao and the others would flee.
And they even stole vehicles and supplies!
Wasn't this stabbing them in the back?
"Why would they leave?!" Bai Lu'er also found it incomprehensible.
Seeing this scene, Xue Feng inwardly shook his head.
What was so hard to understand about this?
When disaster strikes, everyone flies on their own.
Besides, Zhang Tao and his group were clearly the ones being bullied and suppressed within the base prior to this.
Even though Bai Lu'er had saved their lives, living here was utterly suffocating. Why on earth would they feel any need to keep enduring it?
They had probably been plotting to escape the base with the supplies for days, harboring the idea for a long time.
It was simply the sudden arrival of the zombie horde that forced them to execute their plan ahead of schedule.
Even without the zombie horde, they would have eventually gone out on a run one day and simply never returned.
Moreover, under the circumstances of a zombie outbreak, abandoning the base was actually the best choice.
Xue Feng's own base had plenty of vehicles.
The moment a zombie horde appeared that they couldn't resist, they would immediately evacuate everyone.
They would have even pre-arranged escape routes to ensure they wouldn't get trapped halfway.
"Boss, the barricade is about to collapse! Some zombies are trying to climb over!" Hu Bo shouted anxiously.
"Alright!"
Bai Lu'er nodded heavily, having understood Hu Bo's intention.
She furrowed her brow tightly, staring intently at the approaching horde of zombies.
Suddenly, the front-most row of zombies seemed to be struck by an immense, crushing weight.
All of them collapsed flat onto the ground.
Subsequent zombies entering a certain radius also instantly sprawled forward onto the dirt.
It was exactly the same as when Zhang Tao had been restrained earlier!
However, the fate of these zombies was far more gruesome.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Abruptly, a series of explosive sounds echoed through the air.
It was the sound of the heads of the zombies right in front bursting open.
Just like overripe watermelons shattering, one after another, they exploded.
In the blink of an eye, the heads of several hundred zombies had blown apart.
Xue Feng's eyes widened sharply.
He instantly figured out what Bai Lu'er's superpower was.
Gravity!
Bai Lu'er was likely capable of manipulating gravity to a certain degree.
Gravity crushed the skulls of these zombies, causing them to explode one by one.
What a formidable superpower!
"The Boss is amazing!"
"As expected of the Holy Maiden, she's our savior."
"As long as the Boss is here, those zombies won't get in!"
The people around them cheered in unison.
It was as if they had already secured victory.
"Don't celebrate too early. Just doing this won't be enough, and superpowers can't be used indefinitely..." Xue Feng said slowly.
Though hearing someone call Bai Lu'er a Holy Maiden, Xue Feng felt the title wasn't quite fitting.
Calling her a Saintly Mother would be much more accurate.
Sure enough, a moment later, Bai Lu'er let out a muffled groan of pain.
"Ugh!"
Bai Lu'er clutched her forehead. She had expended far too much of her power.
Right now, her head was throbbing with a splitting headache.
Without her power keeping them suppressed, the zombies whose heads hadn't exploded began to crawl back up from the ground, roaring as they launched another attack.
The zombies in the rear surged forward like a rolling tide.
This was the true terror of a zombie horde!
An endless stream of creatures that harbored no fear of death!
Even when the heads of adjacent zombies blew apart, it failed to have the slightest deterrent effect on the rest.
"We have to fight! Let the Boss rest, let's move in!" Hu Bo had already drawn his pistol, beginning to fire at the zombies swarming the railing.
Not only Hu Bo, but the others also pulled out various weapons, desperately trying to hold the line against the zombies.
Yet, even as many fought frantically, others quietly began to retreat.
With a turn, they vanished from the vicinity of the barricades—including the middle-aged woman.
Hu Bo and the others didn't pay attention, assuming these people had simply gone to continue moving supplies.
However, they never saw them return.
It wasn't until zombies actually breached the railing and entered that someone finally realized something was wrong.
The people behind them were getting fewer and fewer!
"Those bastards all ran away!"
"There's no one guarding this spot anymore!"
"We can't possibly hold off the zombies on our own!"
In an instant, panic rippled through the crowd.
Out of the base's five hundred residents, fewer than two hundred were present here.
Everyone else had vanished.
One by one, people dropped their weapons and turned to run.
With no reinforcements from behind and a growing tide of zombies ahead...
"Why is it like this?" Bai Lu'er clutched her head, finding it hard to believe.
She desperately wanted to activate her ability again.
Yet her head was splitting with agonizing pain.
Taking out several hundred zombies all at once just moments ago had completely drained her strength.
Bai Lu'er had held nothing back.
"When disaster strikes, the rats on the ship are always the first to flee," Xue Feng said indifferently.
At that very moment, zombies had already broken through the perimeter wall and rushed into the park, tackling survivors to the ground and tearing into them frantically.
"Ah!"
The piercing screams of survivors rang out.
Witnessing this gruesome scene, the remaining people realized the base was finished.
No one offered any more resistance; everyone turned and ran for their lives.
In times like this, the most crucial thing was finding a vehicle!
Only four wheels could outrun a zombie.
Or perhaps finding a basement or similar shelter to hide from the pursuit.
Of course, there was one final way to survive.
You just had to run faster than everyone else.
"Boss, let's get out of here quickly!" Seeing the zombies rush in, Hu Bo realized there was nothing left to be done.
His pistol magazine was completely empty.
At this point, the only people left around Bai Lu'er were Hu Bo, a few of his loyal men, and Xue Feng.
Hu Bo and his companions had previously had their lives saved by Bai Lu'er.
In such a life-or-death crisis, they couldn't just watch her get bitten to death by zombies.
"I..." Bai Lu'er watched as a survivor was pinned to the ground and mauled, a look of profound anguish crossing her face.
It was as if she felt the pain herself.
"Stop wasting time, head to the villa district!"
Xue Feng hoisted Bai Lu'er onto his shoulder in one swift motion and sprinted toward the villa area.
"Brother Xue Feng, the villa district? Shouldn't we be looking for a car right now?" Hu Bo chased after him, unable to hold back the question.
"How many cars does your base even have left? Do you think any would be left for you? Find a place to hole up first and wait out the zombie horde," Xue Feng replied.
Hu Bo froze for a second, then realized Xue Feng was right.
If they had fled at the very beginning, they might have stood a chance of finding a vehicle.
But by now, every car would have been snatched up by other fleeing survivors.
Under these circumstances, where were they supposed to find a vehicle?
Their only option was to find a building and fortify it.
"To the property management center! There's plenty of food in there, we can hold out for a long time," Hu Bo immediately came up with a destination.
The property management center was a three-story building, housing the management lobby on the ground floor and a gym above.
It had been retrofitted into a storage depot, holding all the base's emergency supplies.
The perimeter had been reinforced, and most importantly, the main entrance had been upgraded to a heavy iron door.
Inside, they could barricade it with heavy furniture like sofas, meaning they wouldn't have to fear the threat of zombies at all.
It was the ultimate sanctuary of the entire base.