Yezi's First Stop to the Casino

Back in the city...

"Yezi, are you sure we are driving the right way?" Jixi asked as he drove the car toward a dark alley.

"Trust me, I know the in and out of the city outskirts. We are just taking a safer route." Yezi replied as he directed Jixi on the passenger seat

Almost ten minutes later, Yezi finally signaled Jixi to stop the car.

"We are here."

As the six of them got out of the car, all of the soldiers, including Jixi, looked a little confused as Yezi continued walking forward.

"I thought we were just scouting the paths," Jixi said first, stopping the soldiers as they waited for Yezi's response.

After a short silence, Yezi finally turned back around to face the five of them.

"Yeah, it still is a scouting mission. We aren't going inside the casino... Trust me, I'm not that crazy."

The soldier hesitated for a second, but seeing Jixi stepping up, the rest quickly joined in.

"Isn't this a little too quiet? There were no zombies on the street on our entire way through," One of the soldiers pointed out quietly as they walked into another dark ally.

"Maybe they all left to the rural side or inside the city... Usually, nobody comes here since it's mostly a Demolition zone that hasn't been enforced yet."

Yezi explained as he suddenly stopped by a small hotel with zero signs of life inside the building itself.

"Isn't this just a hotel?" Jixi curiously asked as they walked inside.

"Yeah, it is just a hotel. But do you think they would have a casino in plain sight? Just for everyone to see?"

Hearing Yezi's argument, they all nodded in agreement, as none of them knew where the casino was located.

But they all assumed it to be some sketchy place, which kind of matched up to the place Yezi was bringing them towards.

"Everyone be quiet."

All of the soldiers fell dead silent as Yezi led the five of them past the main entrance, which was completely abandoned inside.

Next, they stopped right at the staircase. As Yezi tried to turn the doorknob, they all heard a sharp clunk sound, indicating it was locked.

"What's wrong?" Jixi quietly asked.

"The door is locked, and they probably stacked furniture behind it to block it."

Yezi quickly started looking around, only to find an elevator at the other side of the entrance.

Without any hesitation, Yezi pressed the elevator button, which somehow lit up as it began coming up.

"How the hell is there still power here?" Jixi murmured the same question that all of the soldiers had.

But Yezi doesn't explain it. Instead, he started warning them what not to do.

"When we go inside, don't use guns down there. It will attract way too much attention. Use the bat on your back."

The five of them quickly switched their rifles to the bat, patiently waiting for the elevator as they stood behind Yezi.

After a few seconds, the elevator opened.

The six of them entered the elevator as Yezi pressed the basement floor. As the elevator moved down, the four soldiers started to get a little nervous.

But Jixi and Yezi had zero signs of fear, not flinching a single bit despite the grim atmosphere caused by the barely lit elevator.

Finally, the elevator opened. Several zombies stood outside in the distance, wandering without a goal in mind.

"Only use a gun as a last resort," Yezi warned again as he stepped out of the elevator with the bat.

The rest of the soldiers quickly stepped out, making quick work of the zombies before catching back up with Yezi.

"What are we looking for here?" Jixi curiously asked as Yezi stood by the pay booth of the basement parking lot.

"A remote... Here it is."

As soon as Yezi pressed the remote, the wall next to the elevator from earlier suddenly started to slide open.

"If I remember correctly, this is the emergency escape to the casino," Yezi explained as they began heading toward it.

"How do you know all this?" One of the soldiers asked as he got a little curious.

"You all probably know I used to be an arms smuggler... But I used to have a partner who got out of the Middle East at the same time as me.

He started a casino business to make a living while I retired and started having a habit of drinking at bars... Enough question, everyone quiet."

The six of them began walking down the dark tunnel that was opened, with Yezi's flashlight lighting the path ahead of them.

After walking just for a few steps, several bodies were on the floor, all with stab wounds in the neck.

"What the hell happened here?" One of the soldiers murmured.

"They probably died from the infighting with the current boss and old boss... If I remember correctly." Yezi replied as he thought back to the interrogation.

After walking for five minutes, they finally reached the end of the tunnel.

However, it was another metal gate door with a body lying in front of it—a man wearing a suit with a bullet wound on it's head.

The blood had dried a long time ago, but the body hadn't decomposed too badly, as the tunnel barely had any oxygen flowing.

Just as the soldiers were about to ask what they were doing next, Yezi suddenly collapsed on top of the corpse as tears began to flow out.

"I am sorry, old friend... I should have been there. Fuck! This is all my fault."

As Yezi drowns in sorrow, all of the soldiers immediately realize the corpse Yezi held was the partner he was talking about earlier.

"Don't worry... I will get revenge for you."

Yezi slowly closed his friend's eyes before gently grabbing the keycard and turning his attention back to the gate in front of them.

"He's the boss?" Jixi asked.

"Yes, he's the old boss..."

Just as Yezi was about to scan the card, Jixi immediately pushed him away from it and tried to snatch the key away from him.

But Yezi resisted, moving his hand as far away from Jixi as possible as the two started to fight over it.

"This is a scouting mission, not an attack mission. Yezi, I know what you're trying to do," Jixi warned as he finally snatched the keycard away from him, putting it in his pocket.

All of the soldiers immediately realized what was happening, but none of them stepped up, as the two of them were their superiors.

"You guys can turn back. I'm going in no matter what. Give me the damn key." Yezi demanded as he lifted his rifle and aimed it right at Jixi.

"Yezi? Are you really pointing a gun at me?"

Jixi looked a little shocked, and all the soldiers looked just as shocked, seeing how the situation had escalated.

"Give. Me. The. Key." Yezi warned again as he clicked the safety off.

"Yezi? Why do you want to go inside now so badly? I know you want revenge against your friend, but we can plan this.

Let's all go back and do surveillance on the surrounding area first before going in." Jixi pleaded as he adamantly refused to hand over the keycard.

"I know what I'm doing is irrational. But you don't know anything about us. You're just a bunch of soldiers who've never been into real combat."

Jixi fell into silence, knowing that Yezi's statement was partially true.

Comparing his military training in relative safety to Yezi's active warzone in the Middle East was never equivalent.

But he refuses to hand over the keycard, as doing so would only lead to an outcome that nobody wants.

"What do you think Xiaoyun would say about this?" Jixi pointed out as he desperately searched for a way to convince Yezi in his head.

"It doesn't matter. Quit stalling."

Seeing Yezi give his final warning as he puts his finger on the trigger, Jixi finally gives up. But not before he gives his final message.

"Fine, but I hope you realize that if you die here, Huayi is going to kill herself if she hears about your death... If that's what you wanted."

Jixi threw the keycard over to Yezi, turning back around as the rest of the soldiers hesitated for a second before joining him.

After a long silence with quieter and quieter footsteps, Yezi didn't put the keycard up in the end.

As he headed back to the other side of the tunnel and pressed the button, Jixi, and the four soldiers were standing outside waiting.

"You changed your mind?" Jixi asked.

"Fuck. You are right... I need to be responsible for her. Let go back." Yezi murmured as he finally calmed down and came back to his senses.

---

The six of them got back to the car and drove out of the alleyway before stopping at an empty street outside.

"Where are we going now?" Jixi asked as the two switched seat positions, letting Yezi drive this time.

"Scouting mission, as you said earlier. We are going to scout the main entrance of the casino." Yezi replied, his voice still sounding a little grumpy.

After driving for three minutes, an entire horde of zombies were right around the corner as they looked to the side.

"Holy shit."

Yezi immediately made a U-turn before driving in a random direction, trying to get as far away from the horde as possible.

But the horde quickly chased after them, and they could feel the ground tumbling a little from the amount of zombies behind the car.

"Fuck, there's the zombies that you guys are talking about," Yezi commented as he floored the gas pedal.

"Thank God the road is all empty," one of the soldiers commented, as he expected the road to be filled with car wrecks.

"Yeah..." Jixi murmured, seeming to have some flashbacks.

After driving around the block for twenty minutes, they finally lost the zombies behind them.

"Shit, did I just drive inside the city?" Yezi asked as he looked around, only to see skyscrapers surrounding them.

"I think so..." Jixi replied.

"Any of you know how to drive back?"

"I know. I have lived in the city for several years now. If you take a right turn and keep driving forward for a few minutes, then take another left turn.

We will be back on the city's outskirts... Then we can go back to where we were earlier," one of the soldiers replied confidently.

"Okay, tell me when I need to turn again."

One hour later...

After driving nonstop, avoiding all the different hordes that kept chasing behind them, they were finally back on the city outskirts.

"Holy shit, I'm never going in the city again. What was that fucking zombie? It just shot some green thing at the car?

And that giant zombie is throwing a rock at us." Yezi commented in excitement, with the other soldiers looking frightened.

"Um... sir, the car's back window is melted." One of the soldiers sitting in the back reported.

"Fuck." Yezi murmured after checking the rear mirror and realizing it was indeed melted.

"So that's how our helicopter got shot down..." Jixi murmured as he began to realize what had happened back then.

"Anyway, let's go back to our mission."

Yezi started driving toward the main casino again. But this time, he stopped right a street away from the hotel that was next to three shops, as the captive described it.

He drove to the other hotel across from the casino, behind the building, just far enough that people on the other side couldn't see them.

"Why are we stopping here?" Jixi curiously asked.

"What the hell do you even learn in the military? We are 'scouting,' so obviously, we can't let them notice us.

The casino is by the roof of all ten floors below it. Normal customers can only go up to the tenth floor, which is the only middle of the hotel." Yezi explained as he pointed at the hotel across the street.

"So, are we going to this hotel building to see what's happening in the other hotel building?" One soldier asked.

"Bingo! It looks like we have some smart fella here. What's your name?" Yezi asked as they exited the car.

"My name is Han Bang." The soldier replied.

"Good job, Han Bang." Yezi patted him on the back before entering the hotel, which had several zombies.

After clearing the lobby with their bats, the group headed straight up to the highest floor of this building, clearing the zombies along the stairways leading up to it.

As they arrived at the top floor, there was only one room on the fourteenth floor. A fancy presidential suite that was locked.

But it was easily kicked open, as the six of them quickly scouted the entire room before finding it to be empty.

"Well, we're going to stay here for a week. You guys go down again to get the food and equipment up here."

As four soldiers headed downstairs, Yezi took out a binocular, looking across to the other side of the hotel tower.

"What do you see?" Jixi curiously asked.

"Many of the balconies on the regular floor held SOS signs, probably when the outbreak had just happened, and the hope of rescue still existed," Yezi explained as he continued to look up.

When his binoculars were on the twelfth floor, the curtains blocked all of the windows. But the light inside showed that they had power and people living there.

"Jixi, write this down: the enemy is on the twelve floors. They have light, power, and several shattered windows."

"Okay, write it down. Anything else?"

"Not yet. We will have to wait until they send people outside..." Yezi put down the binoculars as it couldn't see anything higher due to the angle.

"What if they don't send anyone out?" Jixi asked.

"They will... they already don't have enough food. Or else they wouldn't be trading people for food."

The four soldiers were backed with boxes of food. More importantly, it had a whole detachable telescope.

"Now we got professional equipment... Let go to the roof."

After arriving at the roof entrance, Jixi simply kicked the door open, allowing them to start setting up the telescope.

"Okay, let's see what they have."

---

As Yezi took a peek with the telescope, he quickly readjusted it back to the twelve floors before starting to look up again.

Finally, the thirteenth floor did not have a curtain like the twelfth floor. Instead, several people were inside playing cards, each with a pistol or knife next to them.

After seeing nothing interesting, Yezi moved up to the fourteenth floor.

This time, several women were surrounded by a bunch of men, all naked as they lay on the sofa.

"I'm going to need eye bleach after this," Yezi murmured as he moved onto the fifteenth floor.

This floor only had one person on it. He was sitting in an office chair, seemingly thinking about something.

"That's the new boss I'm going to kill with my hand," Yezi murmured as he continued checking the floor.

To Yezi's surprise, he could see several crates of some unknown chemical, all in a different language.

"Anyone chemist or graduated college?" Yezi asked as he turned to five of them.

"I graduated college." Han Bang raised his hand.

"Perfect. Can you tell me what those chemicals are for?" Yezi pointed for Han Bang to look in the telescope.

"Um... those are to make TNT, if I remember correctly." Han Bang replied.

"How the hell did they get that in there..."

Yezi's face was in complete shock as the amount of crates he saw up there was more than enough to blow up an entire skyscraper.

"I don't know... perhaps they had some connection," Jixi replied.

"Okay, let me continue checking."

Yezi pushed Han Bang aside as he moved to the sixteenth floor, only to see almost twenty people tied up and three people standing there as guards.

The next two floors afterward were only to be covered in a curtain, with the roof way too high to see from their position.

"Write it down: they have hostages on the sixteenth floor. They only have pistols and knives and TNT."

Jixi nodded as he noted everything Yezi explained.

"Okay, we are done here. It's time to go back down."

Yezi and the six walked back down to the presidential suite, and time quickly passed as the moon started to rise in the distance.

"Now we just need to scout them from here. We need to note when they are driving out from the garage over there.

You guys are going to take turns checking it, okay?" Yezi pointed at the entrance of the hotel across the street.

"Yes, sir!" The four soldiers replied as they began making a schedule among themselves.