Chapter 1131 - 1119: Old Xu Rescue Plan (17)

Chapter 1131: Chapter 1119: Old Xu Rescue Plan (17)

Staring at the "unlucky bastard" on the ground with half a leg missing, Old Xu knit his brows tight.

That beast was already mangled to this state, yet it still bared its teeth at him, showing off its "bravery."

Old Xu didn’t waste words. He raised the longsword in his hand and drove it straight down into the thing’s skull.

On impact, a handful of blood spilled smoothly down through the hole the blade had opened, quickly winding into a little "creek" across the dust-caked floor.

"Move!" Calling the squad forward again, Old Xu leapt over the dead Zombies and continued heading down.

The next few floors went smoothly for him; he didn’t run into any new danger.

At the bottom level, both Old Xu and Lei Tong stopped, because through the door they could clearly hear shuffling footsteps in the lobby.

They didn’t need to confirm what those footsteps were.

With their experience in the apocalypse, they could say with a hundred percent certainty: no way in hell those were living people!

"What now, Captain? We cut our way out together!?" Flicking his hand to pull the kid behind him, Lei Tong raised his blade and stepped up.

No doubt, Lei Tong’s proposal was the most efficient option; after all, the way ahead was a path they couldn’t avoid.

"Hold up!" Old Xu raised a hand to stop Lei Tong, then lowered his head, thinking hard.

The situation with the Zombies outside was still unclear. If they forced their way out now and ran into heavy resistance, they’d be in trouble.

The first priority was to confirm where the rescue team was. If they were already on the perimeter, then they could consider a hard breakout.

That way, even if a frontal breakout failed, the brothers outside could pinch from the flanks, and the inside-outside coordination would see them out alive.

If that didn’t work, they could avoid direct combat and slip away, using the Pacers’ slow, unsteady movement to dodge past them.

But no matter which tactic, the prerequisite was that the rescue team had to already be outside the door.

Thinking of this, Old Xu hurriedly fished out his phone from his pocket and quickly typed out a text message to send.

"Hey, Old—Old Xu, it’s a message from Old Xu!" The device trembling in his hand, Duan Chengwu blurted nervously.

Hearing this, Tang Xiaoquan’s heartstrings tightened. He wondered if something had gone wrong inside the building.

He shifted the binoculars to scan the view as he spoke, immediately asking, "What’s it say? What did Old Xu’s message say?"

"He’s asking where the pickup vehicles are right now?"

"Hoo—" Tang Xiaoquan let out a breath. Now that he understood what it was about and not the worst he’d imagined, he replied, "Tell Old Xu the vehicles haven’t moved yet. Ask him where they are at the moment."

"Swish, swish, swish," typing, sending.

Moments later, Duan Chengwu continued, "Old Xu says they’ve already reached the ground floor, but there are strange noises in the lobby. They don’t know how many Zombies there are, so they didn’t dare rush it!"

After reading it out, Duan Chengwu sprang up from the stool, then strode quickly to the window. "What’s going on! What’s the lobby situation right now!?"

Tang Xiaoquan observed in silence. After ten seconds or so, he frowned and shook his head. "I can only see a bit of the lobby perimeter. That area’s clear. Here’s what we’ll do: tell Old Xu to stay in the safe stairwell for now. I’ll send Hu over right away."

"Qiangzi! Pass orders to Hu, get them moving. And tell them there might be Zombies in the lobby. If necessary, have someone draw the Zombies from outside to help Old Xu and Lei get out!"

Command after command went out, and once again Tang Xiaoquan showed a composure beyond his years.

Was he tense? Of course he was.

Was he scared? Right now, there was probably no one in the whole group more afraid and anxious than him.

But the more desperate the situation, the more some people could force out their own potential.

If this were the old days, if the apocalypse had never happened, Tang Xiaoquan probably never would have realized he had a talent for overall command.

That’s why they say the times make heroes, and heroes have always risen from the young.

Age is a basic metric for a person, but it’s far from an absolute one.

Some people spend a lifetime achieving nothing, while others shine bright at a very young age.

Tang Xiaoquan might not be that so-called prodigy, but there’s no denying that the strategic talent he showed was already recognized by old hands like Old Xu and Old Zhao.

The orders he gave were passed on accurately and turned into action on the ground.

Hu Xiaodong received the message and moved out at once.

Although the contents of Duan Chengwu’s text sounded flat, in Hu Xiaodong’s eyes it was a hair-on-fire emergency.

If Hu Xiaodong felt that way, then there was no need to mention Hua Biao beside him.

"Go, go, go! Move it!" He was just short of getting out to push the car himself. Hua Biao kept urging while pounding the back of the driver’s seat, making it bang "pap pap."

"Captain, Chengwu just replied."

"What’d he say?" "He said to wait for orders. Hu is already on his way with a team. Once they reach the spot, we’ll coordinate from inside and out."

"Good!" Just as he’d expected, Xu Renjie drew in a deep breath and refocused all his attention on the door in front of him.

"Everything’s been relayed, right?" Without moving his body, Tang Xiaoquan spoke while holding the binoculars to his eyes.

"All relayed!"

"Chengwu, what about you?"

"Yeah, done!"

"Good! You two go get your gear together and wait in the vehicle."

As members of the emergency squad, at this critical moment they indeed should be in the vehicle on standby.

"What about you, Quan?" Wang Qiang wasn’t too comfortable leaving his brother.

Tang Xiaoquan turned his head at the question, met Wang Qiang’s eyes, and gave a faint smile. "I have to stay here and watch the street situation, so I can adjust the orders in real time."

As the "eyes" for this operation, Tang Xiaoquan knew the weight of the responsibility on him.

And right now, when they were at the most critical stage of action, he absolutely couldn’t walk away from his post.

"Then I’ll stay here with you!" Hearing that Tang Xiaoquan wasn’t going, Wang Qiang dragged over a stool and sat down.

At this, a trace of bitterness flashed across Tang Xiaoquan’s face. In his heart he thought, Brother, not now. Please don’t start digging your heels in with me at a time like this.

Tang Xiaoquan and Wang Qiang had been friends for over a decade. Even if Wang Qiang’s personality had changed a lot lately after the breakup,

that didn’t mean he’d forgotten their past "battle records" as brothers.

Thinking of all the clashes that had blown up from their arguments, Tang Xiaoquan couldn’t help feeling his head double in size.

"Uh... Qiangzi, we already agreed on all this before we stepped up, remember? You and Chengwu are the emergency team. You also heard Old Xu’s report just now: the number of Zombies in the lobby of their building is unknown. The moment something blows up, you and Chengwu have to go up and help. As for me, I’ll be up here, far from the combat zone, so there won’t be much danger. Instead of wasting time staying with me, it’s obviously more appropriate for you to go down and stand by. Don’t you think so?"

He laid out every argument he could think of, and now all Tang Xiaoquan wanted was for his brother not to dig in his heels.

Besides, he really didn’t have time to get hung up on this.

The rescue curtain had already gone up; two sets of action orders had already gone out to Old Xu and Hu Xiaodong.

From here on out, Tang Xiaoquan had to put a hundred percent of his focus into the op. He had zero bandwidth left to sit here and go back and forth with Wang Qiang.