Chapter 15: The Construction Crew

The abandoned man tried to climb onto the carriage but was stopped by Su Huan.

“Where’s your ticket?”

The man, wild as a mad dog, pointed at Su Huan and cursed him fiercely, “You’re in cahoots with them, tricking us onto the train. Damn you—”

“Bang.”

A body collapsed to the ground.

Compressing energy to strike evolved beasts was somewhat taxing, but killing ordinary, unevolved humans was precise and effortless.

Su Huan scratched his ear. “Wasting time. Just get to the point. Next.”

...

“December 18th, early winter, 26°C to 29°C.”

“It seems people have chosen a new leader.”

—“Train Conductor’s Log”

Su Huan jotted down the highest temperature of the day in the log.

Out of 1,201 old passengers, only 624 have returned so far. The rest either died outside or ran off, which was quite normal.

Su Huan never feared them running away.

The train was steadfast, passengers flowing like water. As the old departed, newcomers naturally arrived, like the family that came yesterday.

Including the new group of workers, there were 744 in total.

More might return by nightfall, but today’s count wouldn’t reach a thousand.

The crane operation task was taken by a young man named Gao Zhe, who wouldn’t be back until evening. Su Huan had no intention of wasting time waiting idly.

He glanced at the roster’s new names, then looked up at the terrified-looking workers. “There’s a job. Anyone want to take it?”

The workers hesitated, eyeing the corpse on the ground, unwilling to step forward.

They whispered among themselves.

“Maybe we should just leave.”

“Where to go? The factory’s out of food. I’m so hungry I could eat someone! Only this one train has come in all these days.”

“No other way out either. There are man-eating monsters everywhere…”

“There aren’t many zombies up north; we could try to escape that way.”

“There might be fewer zombies there, but there are those big cocoons everywhere. They look sinister. If you want to go, go ahead. I’m not going.”

Su Huan had been listening calmly, but at that last phrase, his eyes sharpened abruptly.

He pointed at a thin man in the crowd. “What did you say? Big cocoons?”

The man jumped back in fright.

But seeing Su Huan didn’t collapse like others before, he breathed a sigh of relief and shouted from a distance, “They’re cocoons taller than a person, like silkworm chrysalises.”

“How many are there?”

Seeing Su Huan was just asking, the worker braver now stepped forward. “There are plenty. Everywhere — on the roads, inside buildings.”

Su Huan’s expression darkened and flickered.

The “big cocoons” the worker mentioned were an inevitable stage in the zombies’ evolution.

Zombies accumulating enough latent energy, driven by high temperatures, would form special “corpse cocoons.” When they broke free, they would enter the second phase.

Also called first-stage evolved zombies.

Their strength was worlds apart from ordinary zombies. Some with special abilities could even hunt evolved humans with professions.

In his past life, always running for survival, Su Huan had never paid attention to zombie evolution stages. He didn’t expect zombies to start evolving so quickly.

It had only been nine days.

When these cocoons hatched, those without heavy firepower would truly face the apocalypse!

“This information is valuable. Consider it yours.” Su Huan took a deep breath and tossed over the half box of cigarettes he had snatched earlier.

The worker was overjoyed, not caring that Su Huan had thrown them on the ground; he picked them up and shared them with his comrades.

Hearing this, Su Huan lost the patience to coax gently. He said directly, “Who’s your leader? Step forward and speak.”

The workers looked around, and finally a roughly 1.8-meter-tall man stepped up.

Though not very tall, his frame was broad, rivaling Liang Kuan’s. His voice was deep and resonant. “I am. You said there’s work for us, but with the situation as it is, we don’t care about money.”

“Three days’ worth of food…” Su Huan started, then suddenly changed his mind. “You work for one day, I provide two meals. If you don’t work, you get one meal, as long as you stay on the train for a day. This promise applies only to your current group.”

Though his face was honest, the man was sharp and asked, “I saw you checking tickets earlier. So you need a ticket to stay on the train?”

“Of course. No one boards without a ticket.”

This time Su Huan didn’t evade but answered straightforwardly.

Speaking plainly to honest people was often easier than playing tricks.

“We want free tickets.”

“No way. When you work, tickets are free. No work, you still have to earn your ticket.”

Su Huan rejected firmly. With 120 workers, if all were exempt, what would he live on?

Providing meals was already the biggest concession.

Tickets were his leverage over the crowd, even if only nominal. He couldn’t let a bunch of people get special exemptions casually.

The man hesitated a moment, looked at his comrades, and grit his teeth. “Alright, what’s the job? We’re steelworkers, no brainy tasks.”

Su Huan’s expression softened. “You’ll handle steel plates. You’re Wang He, right? From now on, you lead these 120. If there’s anything, I’ll only talk to you. Understand?”

Wang He nodded. “When do we start?”

Su Huan glanced at the sky. The sun was already leaning west, with just over three hours before nightfall.

No one knew if the cocoons would hatch tonight or tomorrow.

Time was short.

He dared not gamble.

Looking Wang He in the eye, Su Huan said gravely, “Now.”

...

The dark red locomotive glistened coldly in the sunset. The 25mm shovel-shaped armor merged with newly added 1.2cm steel plates, forming a fierce ram like an enraged steel rhinoceros.

On the crisscrossing tracks, a group of men in work clothes carried one 1.2cm steel plate after another close to the train. Their blue uniforms were soaked through with sweat.

Fortunately, they didn’t need to weld. They only had to hold the plates in place briefly, and a wheelchair-bound boy inside would “stick” them on.

Someone tried pulling one and found it felt more secure than welding.

The workers grew more respectful toward Su Huan, who managed the train, and worked with greater zeal.

Su Huan tapped the carriage’s outer wall with his fingers. The metallic vibration mingled with heat waves in the air, the heavy steel giving him an unshakable sense of security.

He squinted, eyeing the chalk-cut lines on the window drawn by Yu Jing, which were as smooth as if polished.

The steel plate opening was slightly smaller than the window, perfectly covering the explosion-proof mesh and tempered glass inside, yet still allowing the window to open and close.

Su Huan was very satisfied with this.

Beads of sweat rolled down his throat into his collar, gradually crystallizing into salt in the 29°C heat.

Even licking his lips tasted salty.

“Tell your mother to cook the workers’ meals with more oil and salt.”

“Already on it.” Yu Jing leaned out from the roof, her jeans stained with patches of dirt. “Give me a hand.”