Chapter 189 - Preparation (2)
"What's wrong?" Victor asked after seeing how panicked is the guards. It was evident that this guy was running from the walls all the way here to deliver the words of what he had seen.
"Smoke and dust are blowing from the direction to the motorway. Based on the amount that got blown, it must be quite a big group. We should get ready for a fight." said the guard.
"Have you check the direction using the movement-seeking sensor?" Victor asked. During this period, he and Marvin have developed a movement-seeking sensor to ensure that they could increase their accuracy when sensing a disturbance in a particular direction.
This allowed the base to react before it was too late. The duo also redesigned the weaponry catalog and came up with a lower-profile version of Lunacy for ranged shooting purposes. The weapon is still unnamed, but a few prototypes have been printed and are used currently.
"Mmm... Not yet." the guard replied.
"Then go and get the sensor on and check them out. Our leader and the others have been out there for a week. Based on our boss's credibility, he should be on his way back anytime from now..." Victor said. Right when he finished his sentence, another guard was coming over from the defensive wall.
"Reporting to the leader, the sensor noticed a few vehicles coming in our direction. We need your further instructions." the guard reported.
"Moving vehicles? Are you sure?" Victor's eyes immediately shined brightly. From what he knew, moving vehicles was considered the rarest thing in this post-apocalypse right now. Part of the reason was their lack of electricity as fuel. Few spare parts needed to move were highly sought after as the replacement for electricity generating.
This was why Valerian's research on the Atom Battery Pack was significantly valued by Zhang Qin Feng and the other survivors. Was it not because of her contribution, this world would have entered a darkened ice age right now every night.
"I'm sure of it, leader!" the guard nodded.
"Let's get ourselves prepared," Victor said and put a vest around him before following one of the guards over to the defensive wall. "Someone should goes up there and informs Marvin to come down and the others to stay on guard," he added.
"We should start hoping that they'll fire an arrival signal. If these people don't... We'll have to get ready for a battle to defend this base." Victor added. This was the deal between Zhang Qin Feng with those who were left to guard the base.
If they're coming back, he will make sure that they'll fire a flare into the sky before approaching the base.
"Please, fire a flare..." Victor, Marvin, Valerian, Miria, and Miriam hoped a flare would be fired into the sky.
It was a nerve-wracking moment for those insides of the base.
The size of the incoming group of people was significantly lesser than the number of people who departed a week ago. Added with the limited visibility at night, this made their effort to see who the guest was more troublesome.
"How's the report from the Luna Device?" Victor asked.
"Sir, six heavy-duty vehicles, with close to twenty-one living signals. There's no reading of zombies with them, so likely everyone was a survivor." the soldier with the movement-seeking sensor replied after checking at the Luna Device in his hand.
*Whoosh!*
*Bang!*
A glaring red flare was fired into the air to ease their worries.
The other guards with the prototype sniper rifle quickly adjusted their scope. They pointed the crosshair at the one who fired the flare on top of a vehicle.
"It's the boss! It's our boss! He came back!" one of the guards screamed. If he was a woman, he would be seen with some tears around his cheek right now.
"The boss is back?" his scream shifted everyone's attention from worry to joy. Especially those standing guard around the main entrance, their expression was calmer than before the identity of those arriving is detected.
But right now, nothing is more surprising than the fact Zhang Qin Feng came back with six trucks instead of one.
The entrance was opened wide to gloriously received their leader. It seems that only Zhang Qin Feng, Alex, and a small group of soldiers were following them back to the Wind Base on this trip. The others were people that recently joined them.
"Boss!" Victor forced his way through the wall made of flesh until he was standing before Zhang Qin Feng's vehicle was riding.
"Good job, Victor." Zhang Qin Feng put his hand on Victor's shoulder and praised him. "Thank you for taking care of the base when Satella and I were away." Zhang Qin Feng added.
"It was not on my own. The others helped too. Where did you manage to find so many vehicles, boss?" Victor couldn't help but tried to get his curiosity answered. From what he had known, there's no longer a complete, untouched vehicle is left because almost all of them were salvaged and turned into electricity.
Suddenly having six vehicles here was like a surprise to him, an engineering geek.
"You're going to be surprised by my answer. The facility that we've taken control of seems to have hundreds of the parts required to make the vehicles move again. Of course, we only managed to get six of them running because we had difficulties setting the parts correctly."
"But I have you and Marvin here, correct? Inside one of the trucks were the remaining parts that are still unused. I'm sure that by the time we're going back to the new base, we'll have more vehicles than now." Zhang Qin Feng said.
"Hahaha! Leave everything on me, boss! I'll make sure that we can double the number of trucks by the time we arrived at our new base!" Victor smiled.
"Boss!" it seems that the others were down here by the time Zhang Qin Feng finished talking with Victor.
Opening his arm wide to receives them, Miria, Miriam, and Valerian rushed into his embrace. At the same time, Marvin put his shoulder over Victor's. Each of them was smiling as they know that they'll be moving to a new place soon.