A month and a half later, Tang Songfa finally fully recovered—still weak but fit for travel. The time had come for A-Qiang, Ting-Ting, and their team to depart.
We took them to Carrefour. It had been a while, and food supplies were dwindling. Clearly, we'd need to find a new large supermarket for future provisions.
A-Qiang's team stocked up on supplies, then bid us farewell.
Having spent so much time together, Ting-Ting and I had grown close. She earnestly invited my family of five to join them—in her eyes, our compound wasn't entirely safe, and she wanted us under their heavily armed protection.
But I declined with a smile. The compound was my home, with so many companions—I couldn't leave. Reluctantly, Ting-Ting secretly gave me their destination so I'd know where to find them if I changed my mind.
On the day they left, snowflakes drifted down—another blizzard was coming.
Goodbyes were always hard, especially sending off such formidable friends. Watching their convoy disappear, I felt a sudden insecurity. Remembering the zombie siege, I realized our compound wasn't as impregnable as we'd thought!
Worse, communications were cut off again—mobile phones, landlines, all without signal. We were completely isolated.
Now, walkie-talkies were our only means of connection.
Food reserves were running low. A-Qiang's team's stay had consumed a third of our stock, and Carrefour had little left. Only the children's formula and baby food remained plentiful.
After a meeting, we devised several plans:
Reinforce the compound's security. The incident of the two mothers carelessly taking children downstairs to play in the snow, accidentally attracting zombies, couldn't happen again. Another occurrence might overwhelm us.
Search for ammunition at military bases. The ammunition we'd retrieved earlier was nearly exhausted.
Send a team to a distant RT-Mart for supplies. We'd haul back as much as possible. With ten empty buildings, we couldn't fill all rooms, but we'd stockpile every bit of food found to minimize future trips.
Gather as much gasoline as possible for reserves.
Install solar panels on rooftops for emergencies. We didn't know when power plants would fall but had to prepare for outages.
Unseal the deep well in the compound's underground garage. If water supplies were cut, we'd need our own source.
Reinforcing the compound required everyone's effort and was most urgent, so we prioritized it.
We moved ordinary vehicles from the underground garage to the surface, forming a steel fortress of cars around the three main exits and the garage entrance, about 50 meters out. One layer wasn't enough—we scavenged abandoned cars with keys from the streets, wrapping each gate in three concentric circles. Zombies were isolated outside with no gaps to squeeze through. The outermost layer was buses—tall and thick, blocking zombies' view entirely.
We considered digging trap pits but winter's frozen ground made excavation difficult. Instead, we settled for ground obstacles—four robust circles of steel guardians.
After securing the exits, we drove over a hundred buses from the bus depot to encircle the compound's outer walls, preventing zombies from even approaching. Though the walls were three meters high, keeping zombies at bay was safer.
Zombies outside Gate 1 were increasing, but they retreated when faced with cold, hard cars—losing interest in the compound, exactly as we wanted.
While scavenging for buses, we spotted ten behemoths in the sanitation bureau's yard: massive snowplows modified from large tractors!
Northerners would recognize these giants—recent innovations resembling road rollers. With a high tractor body, front-mounted steel gears, snow-crushing mechanisms, and four huge tires, they were iron titans zombies couldn't climb or topple. The one-person cockpit let the driver command imposing authority!
We unanimously approved requisitioning these snowplows! A-Ze led a team into the office building to find keys, ransacking drawers until they retrieved ten large keys.
Testing confirmed they worked. Checking fuel levels, we found them low, but a gas station across the street allowed us to refuel fully.
A grand snowplow convoy advanced toward the compound, other vehicles trailing like underlings following a gang leader!
Zombies encountered en route became test subjects. Those caught in the steel gears were torn apart, bones crushed into fragments, then pulverized by secondary brushes. The snowplows left no remains—zombies were ground into the black snow, forming crimson mist on either side.
Zombies attacking from the sides were flattened under massive wheels, then shredded by following plows.
We gleefully drove these ten mighty iron titans back to the compound, parking them by the underground garage. If large hordes attacked again, we'd deploy the shredder fleet for a thorough cleanse!
The giants had two weaknesses: high fuel consumption (solved by the nearby gas station) and slow speed (but zombies still couldn't climb them). We shortened the ladders to the cockpits, requiring human cooperation to board—something zombies couldn't manage. Our advantage lay in teamwork.
With temporary security assured, we focused on food replenishment. Previous stockpiles were rapidly consumed. Without production, only consumption, our safety felt precarious. We had to hoard relentlessly—until nothing remained!
Our first target was RT-Mart. Unfortunately, we were too late. Located in a residential area, it had been looted by other survivors!
Next, we aimed for Walmart in the development zone. Remote, primarily a commercial area, it saw fewer shoppers on Sundays—mostly car owners living nearby.
It was far from our compound, so we'd never ventured there.
Land Rovers couldn't haul much, so we commandeered a Mercedes freight truck from a logistics company. Keys were easily found in the administrative office.
Specialization matters, regardless of era or circumstances!
A massive freight truck could carry tons of goods, dwarfing SUVs' capacity. Its sturdy body and weight also prevented zombie toppling.
Walmart's supplies were plentiful! Its distance from residential areas likely deterred other survivors from venturing far unless local food ran out.
But Walmart also teemed with zombies—mostly employees, identifiable by uniforms. Chaos had reigned on outbreak day, goods scattered everywhere, zombies wandering hungrily between shelves. Sneaking in, we realized the cleanup would be immense!
Without firearms, we relied on sharp blades. We deployed the entire Action Team—just over thirty people, vastly outnumbered by zombies!
Our only advantage: the food section was on the first floor, with fewer zombies. Scouting the second floor revealed most concentrated in household goods. If we swiftly cleared the first floor, we might secure enough time to finish.
Each of us targeted a zombie, stealthily advancing under shelf cover. The sluggish zombies didn't notice our approach.
Thud, thud, thud…Like a team of assassins, we swiftly head-shot the scattered first-floor zombies. It went almost suspiciously smoothly!