7 It is finally my time to be a Superhero! Or not…

The troops were from Fort Hamilton Military Garrison.

Zhiqiang knew the nearest military base in NYC was only Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. Therefore it was not strange to see them patrolling here.

It turned out the troops had some mission in the United Nations Headquarter. Picking up survivors in the city was just a side mission. Of course, the troops did not say anything about this to the survivors. They only said that they had another important mission in the United Nations Headquarter.

But Zhiqiang doubt if not for this mission, the army would check the city one by one like this seeing the city was in dangerous state. Because he was sure, the army already had enough troubles in handling Brooklyn.

There were almost two millions people living in Manhattan. When the troops arrived in Zhiqiang's district, which was at the south side of Midtown Manhattan, there were already about dozens of survivors following the troops.

After adding the survivors in this district, the total was about a hundred plus. The troops then were divided into two groups, one group would continue to Midtown Manhattan, while the rest were escorting the survivor group toward the base.

Zhiqiang was walking in the middle this survivor group following the troops. He heard from the soldier's talking, this was already the third round's escorting. But if he counted the population of Manhattan, the total of survivors was too low. Though he knew this total was only in surface as he doubted the military was searching all places in the city.

There was only one tank leading the group with about dozens soldier escorting in each side. The city was already full of plants and in half ruins so the road could not be seen anymore. Even though the group was walking through the same route that the tank ran over when they departed from the base, the soldier still had to remove a lot of wild plants that was hindering their route.

In the middle of thick grasses, the tank was grinding all over the thick grasses in front of it as if creating a long trench in the green colored ground.

Zhiqiang watched the group in worry. Such an obvious routing, would it not attract a lot of beasts? Especially with them walking in large group, the beast must be already aware about them. Worst, they were watching the human from hidden places and waiting the best chance to catch their prey.

"Scared?" Dominick's voice suddenly was heard in whispers beside him as if he knew what the younger man was thinking about.

Zhiqiang shook his head and refused to answer the man. But in his mind, he discreetly touched the revolver inside his jacket. Even though there were about dozens of soldier protecting them, Zhiqiang still felt the best security was from his own.

Dominick lifted the corner of his lip and warped his right arm on the black haired man's shoulder. He hugged him from the side and whispered softly on his ear. "Don't worry, doll. I will protect you."

A warm flush immediately painted the black haired man's ear.

"Don't touch me, you pervert!" Zhiqang huffed and pushed the pervert away from him while internally resisting the urge to rub his red ear. Damn it, why he did not know that his ears were this sensitive?! Zhiqiang thought in irritation. This pervert kept teasing his ears even since he found out about it.

Dominick chuckled amusedly but he still released his arms.

Zhiqiang sneered at the man and walked forward to the front of the group. He wanted to ask the soldier some question. Of course, the blond man immediately followed him from behind like a shadow.

After asking a few questions, Zhiqiang knew that they needed to walk at least 12 miles to reach the military base. If this was normal days, they would only need about forty minutes to reach the base with a car. But since they were walking, maybe they would need a twice time longer than that.

But there was something that made Zhiqiang felt uneasy after he talked with the leader of the soldiers. They seemed like avoiding his question, refusing to explain more and only scolding the group of survivor to keep in line and not walk around.

"They are scared, babe." Dominick said to him in low voice.

Zhiqiang looked up at him in question.

Dominick also looked down at him. He then raised his fingers and caressed Zhiqiang's ear gently, knowing exactly that his touching would bother the younger's man a lot. Zhiqiang immediately slapped the salty paw away. But the man only moved his paw to rub the neck area.

Zhiqiang pursed his lips and turned away to ignore him.

After given an inch, of course the man would ask for a miles, so the man immediately moved his arm to hug the black haired man without giving him any chance to refuse. He whispered to the black haired man in low voice.

"Look at them, babe. This world is no longer the same peace world we have before. Dangerous things are everywhere. Even the soldiers are also human. They have a fear. Are they so interesting? I wondered what dangerous things they have met in the road after they departed from the base."

Zhiqiang immediately looked at the man, watching him put a dark smile on his lips as he observed the soldiers with a dark glint in his blue eyes. His expression clearly told that he definitely wanted to be there and played with the solder's fear when the dangerous things appeared.

"Dom!"

Zhiqiang called out unconsciously, feeling uneasy in his heart out all of sudden.

Dominick blinked and looked down at him. The dark expression instantly vanished and a gentle smile was sent to him. Zhiqiang let out a small relief breath, though still feeling uneasy in heart. He turned his head away to hide it and grabbed the man's arm which was on his shoulder in reassurance.

"Ah!"

As soon as he looked to the front, something incredible was seen from afar.

"That is… forest?!"

He whispered in mixed awe and fear.

In front of them was a huge forest, stretching wide filling all his sight. But Zhiqiang knew there was no forest in the Manhattan. However the sight before him was clearly telling him otherwise.

After carefully looking over, Zhiqiang finally realized the forest was former of Roosevelt Park. Although the park was located on the side of road for 1 km length, the wide should only be about one block. But this forest was stretching wide more than 1 km. Tall and huge trees were growing everywhere and covering city building. Seeing there was only looming huge trees anywhere made the place looked so gloomy.

Zhiqiang could not even see the traces of city ruins anymore.

The leader of troops stopped the march in front of the huge forest and called for everyone's attention. "From this road the places will be filled a lot of forest. So I need everyone to keep in line and obey us!! No more talking or making a ruckus! I repeated once more, keep in line and follow us without making any noise! This place is dangerous!" The Leader shouted for a few times to the survivors.

"Why don't we take another route if this place is dangerous?!" one of survivor complained in panic.

"Yeah!! Take another route! I don't want to enter the forest!!"

"There must be a lot of beast in there!!"

"Shut up!!!" The leader shouted in anger. After a few more shouting, the group finally fell into silence.

"There is no another route!!" The leader said in anger. "From this place onward until we reach the Brooklyn was full of forest!! So if you want us to protect you until the base just follow us obediently!!"

"What?!"

The survivors immediately cried out in surprise and fear. They shouted to complain and question, but the leader immediately silenced them the treat of guns. After a few minutes, the group finally fell into silence and entering the forest in tensed fear.

Zhiqiang watched the huge trees in worry as he followed the group in tense, unconsciously gripping Dominick's arm tightly which was still on his shoulder.

To reach Brooklyn, they needed to cross a distance about 2 km plus from this place to Two Bridge at the coastal, which then they needed to cross East River to other side of island.

If what the leader said was true, then the forest should be extended to 2 km long. With a lot of large parks on the Lower Manhattan, Zhiqiang doubt there was still city anymore in there.

He suddenly remembered Central Park in Midtown Manhattan that was more than 5 km in length. That place must be a nightmare right now, especially with a large zoo in the park.

Inside the forest indeed was more frightening than outside. The trees were huge almost blocking the sunlight. It was silence with an occasional sound of insects from the deep of forest. Of course, it was questionable whether the insects were small insects or large mutated insects.

But thankfully the troops seemed remembering the route as they were walking in steady and definite pace without any hesitation.

After walking an half of hour, a high pitch scream suddenly was heard from the back line. Everyone in group immediately tensed in panic, a few even joined in the scream.

"What happened?!"

"Is it monster?!!"

"Kyaa!!"

"No, don't come closer!!"

BANG!!

A loud bang of gun shooting was heard, silencing the ruckus immediately.

"Just what the fuck are you people noisy about?!"

Every line of sight quickly directed to the Leader of the troops who was walking toward the back line with anger expression.

All survivors in the back line immediately moved away to avoid the Leader in fear, leaving a single woman with a red face. Obviously she was the culprit who just screamed just now.

"T-t-that—" The woman stuttered in fear.

"What the hell is it?! Don't you know we need to keep quiet in the forest?!" The leader scolded in anger.

"S-s-so-sorry—b-but the-there is—"

"GYAAAARHH!!!!"

A loud screaming sound abruptly was heard from the front line. This time was followed by a lot of panic screams and shouts as the group quickly ran in disorderly panic and fear. The Leader looked over in shock as the fright this time was real.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A lot of gun shooting was banging in every direction.

Zhiqiang did not even have time to react when Dominick already grabbed his body and rushed to avoid the danger.

A huge mutated beast pounced into the middle of group where Zhiqiang stood just before.

It was a huge shepherd mutated dog, with a size that was a larger than the mutated dog that Zhiqiang first time saw. The beast growled aloud as it chased the human. The soldiers quickly surrounded it with guns. A lot of gun shooting and beast roaring was heard in ruckus.

But as if one beast was not enough, another two was pounced from behind trees to the survivor.

The group was immediately in mess.

Zhiqiang was dragged by Dominick to move away. He quickly scanned the survivors as they ran in disorderly panic. A loud crying voice was caught by him instantly.

Zhiqiang widened his eyes as he saw a little girl fell to the ground and cried in fear. Not far from her was one of the beasts. Because of the crying the girl instantly became its prey.

Zhiqiang without hesitation pulled his hands away from Dominick to rush toward the child. But as he was about to help the child, something was suddenly rushing fast toward the beast and crashed against it in loud bang.

A loud whimpered sound was heard once that something and the beast was trashing on the ground. There was another rushing sound and bang before the beast stopped moving.

Zhiqiang finally could see that something after it stopped moving fast. It was a man. In a flash, the man was rushing toward the girl and picked her up.

Zhiqiang watched in stunned eyes as he saw the speed of the man in running. He quickly turned at Dominick to see him also staring at him.

"Just now…"

Zhiqiang whispered. Even though he did not continue his words, Dominick already knew what he wanted to say.

It was a mutated human.

Dominick nodded at him in confirmation, but a displeasure expression was clearly seen on his face.

Zhiqiang blinked as Dominick pinched his chin roughly and hissed in displeasure. "Doll, what did I said about taking care of your body?!"

Zhiqiang furrowed his eyebrow in confusion as he saw the blue eyes were glaring at him in anger. After a moment he finally understood what the man was angry about. "But the child was in danger! I have to—"

"You think I would care about some useless child?!" Dominick hissed in dangerous voice.

Zhiqiang immediately closed his mouth. He stared at the cold blue eyes in surprise.

Dominick gripped his chin even tighter, ignoring a flinch of pain from the black haired man. He pulled their face until only an inch between them. His silvery blue eyes were glinting in cold anger as he hissed dangerously in warning. "When I said to take care of your body, it means not even a little harm is allowed on your body, even less because of some useless pity for saving other creatures! I will ignore it this time. But next time you do this again, I will kill you and them myself."

Zhiqiang held his breath as he saw the seriousness in the blue eyes. After a few minutes, Dominick finally let go of his chin. He stared at him in cold eyes before he looked down to the red mark he caused on the chin. He rubbed them in gentle caresses, contrasting the icy in his blue eyes.

"Come." The blond man ordered as he pulled Zhiqiang's hand toward the group again.

Zhiqiang let out his breath that he held in fear as he followed the man in daze. His hand was raised unconsciously touching his chin. He did not even realize his hand was trembling as his mind kept recalling in shock what the man said a few minutes ago.

When they joined the group again, the beasts were already taken care off. The soldiers were shouting and ordering the survivor to line up again. But most of them were grouping at the front of line where the speed man was standing.

A lot of survivor must be seeing the ability of the man when he fought the beast as they praised and stared at the man in hidden envy.

"Good job, sir!" The leader of soldiers patted the man's back in loud praise. "This is a blessing from the god! It proved that the god has not forgotten us in this disaster! In fact, there are also some soldiers who have been chosen to receive ability like you in the base!!"

"No, no, I just wanted to protect my daughter heheh…" The man smiled in embarrassment, though a look of pride on his face said otherwise.

"Papa is the best!!" The little girl who was just in danger just now said proudly, beaming in delight as she was staring at her father with starry eyes.

Zhiqiang let out a small smile as he saw the little girl was not hurt. It was not that he wanted to be hero when he went to save the child just now. But he was a doctor. It had become his habit to save people in danger. So when he saw the child in danger, his body instinctively moved to help the child.

But…

Zhiqiang turned his head and stared at the blond man beside him. Dominick immediately turned and stared back at him as if he knew he was staring.

Zhiqiang did not know what the man found in him that was so interesting. But he knew it was not because of a love or some other ridiculous affection. Attraction maybe, on his body, since he always called him a pretty doll. But he knew it was not these things that made the man wanted to keep him like a precious possession.

However, Zhiqiang knew he would not be able get rid of the psychopath anytime soon.

He also did not know whether he wanted to make the man bored of him or not. Because the chance the man would just let go of him after he was bored was almost nil. If he was lucky, maybe he would only receive some beating or being manipulated by the man. But what if he immediately killed him after he was bored of him?!

Zhiqiang could only sigh bitterly for his fate to meet a psychopath in the first day of the disaster.

But he knew he have to at least obey what the man wanted because the seriousness in the man's eyes when he ordered him to take care of his body was real.

Dominick curled his lips at him as if he knew what Zhiqiang was thinking about. The man put his hand on Zhiqiang's nape and rubbed the soft skin in there in gentle caresses.

Zhiqiang pursed his lips and turned away, deciding to ignore the man for now.

The group was then walking again toward the base direction.

A half hour later, Zhiqiang saw something unbelievable appeared in front of his eyes.