Chapter 79 Solving Problems

A small farmhouse courtyard, with two zombies inside. Team Two had thoroughly searched the place and confirmed there was no third one.

It was time to relax for a moment.

Gao Yuan turned his head to look at the two zombie corpses. He hadn't felt anything moments before, but now, with just one glance, his legs went soft.

Gao Yuan felt queasy, but he didn't vomit because he had encountered scenes of corpses strewn about before.

Li Xiaodong turned his head away with a grunt and then, pulling down his mask, he ran to the side, retching as he went.

Stop, vomit, run a few steps, stop again, vomit.

Gao Yuan had been fine until he saw Li Xiaodong vomit, and then he immediately ran to one side, lifting his mask and throwing up as well.

Then all five of them were vomiting.

Zhang Zhe carefully took off his mask, which had blood on it, but once he removed the mask, his face underneath was clean.

"Don't take off your goggles! Wash them before you remove them!"

Gao Yuan was still reminding Zhang Zhe.

"Get some water! Fetch water!"

Gao Yuan felt a slimy stickiness on his hands, the blood of the zombies that had gotten onto the handle of his knife. He glanced at it and really wanted to throw the knife away, but ultimately, he didn't.

Soldiers from Da Hong Third Company were on guard behind them, all with guns at the ready, but they hadn't been able to shoot because the humans were mixed up with the zombies. Now at last, they could come closer.

"I have water, don't move yet."

In the countryside, almost every household has a well. After a slight delay, water was brought up, and then at the side, Gao Yuan said to Sun Wang carrying the water bucket, "Don't splash water on your face, Captain, keep your head down and don't open your mouth!"

Water was poured down over Zhang Zhe's head, and after a brief washing of the blood on his head and goggles, Zhang Zhe stood up.

You know why nuclear and biochemical weapons are troublesome, not just because of their direct lethality, but also because their clean-up is extremely complicated.

This virus wasn't going to disappear just by washing a few times with cold water.

However, since they were engaged in close combat with cold weapons, they were of course prepared for this.

After washing with two buckets of water, Zhang Zhe looked up. He took off his protective cap, then his goggles, and finally, he removed his neck wrap.

The protective cap was made from plastic bags, the goggles were crafted from ordinary glass cut into two discs and fitted with the inner tube of a bicycle tire, and the neck wrap, too, was made from plastic bags.

Humans are intelligent; as long as a problem is anticipated in advance, prevention is quite simple.

They would definitely need to disinfect when they returned, but for now, Zhang Zhe basically didn't have to worry about getting infected, unless he had a wound on his body that had been contaminated by zombie blood.

"Li Changfeng! I swear, your mother..."

The first thing Zhang Zhe did after disinfecting was to dash up to Li Changfeng and give him a fierce kick.

"You son of a bitch! You nearly got us all killed!"

Zhang Zhe was furious, and Gao Yuan grabbed him to calm him down, but at that moment, soldiers hurried over from behind. After looking around, someone called out loud, "Is everything okay?"

Zhang Zhe said irritably, "We're fine, two zombies have been taken care of. We need to wait a while before we can continue fighting; we've been contaminated, keep your distance."

Da Hong Third Company's soldiers were definitely supposed to follow the volunteers into the village. They had seen what had happened here, but they couldn't fire directly because the humans and zombies were intertwined.

Looking at Zhang Zhe covered in blood, a squad leader stepped back and said, "There aren't many zombies left in the village; since you guys are contaminated, don't continue fighting. Clean yourselves off here first, and remember to report and isolate yourselves when rejoining the squad. All right, we're leaving."

The soldiers left, and at that moment Li Changfeng, with his head lowered, muttered, "I'm sorry..."

"Did you learn all that stuff just to feed it to the dogs? If it wasn't for Gao Yuan, we'd all be finished!"

Zhang Zhe's anger hadn't subsided, and although the others didn't speak, they looked at Li Changfeng with accusing eyes.

With a sigh, Sun Wang said, "Captain, let's drop it, this was the first time, and the situation was sudden. It's normal for Li Changfeng to be nervous."

After taking several deep breaths, Zhang Zhe shouted, "Fine, let's leave it at this, Li Changfeng, but you better remember this lesson well. A single mistake can kill people. If you encounter too many zombies and can't beat them, that's just bad luck, but you absolutely cannot freeze up because you're scared!"

Li Changfeng was mortified. Zhang Zhe waved his hand dismissively and said, "Just think about it yourself, I won't say more."

Gao Yuan raised his knife and said, "I need to modify the knife."

This was an experimental team engaged in an experimental combat situation – problems were normal, not having problems would be abnormal.

So, compared to Zhang Zhe, Gao Yuan was more concerned about the weapon in his hand, because he had identified a problem.

Still in a bad mood after scolding Li Changfeng, Zhang Zhe snorted, "What's wrong with the knife?"

"The iron pipe handle is too round – it gets slippery when covered with blood. When I swung down for the second time, the angle of the blade shifted slightly. That's even with tape wrapped around it. Without the tape, it would definitely be even more slippery."

Ma Zihang rotated the knife handle in his hand and said, "It's pretty slippery. What do we do then, switch the handle?"

"No need, just flatten the pipe a bit."

The problem was easy to solve. Gao Yuan said to Li Changfeng, "Give me the axe, I'll flatten it now."

Just a matter of evenly hammering the iron stick, avoiding it being too smooth – the modification was convenient, a matter of a few minutes.

As Gao Yuan hammered at the axe's handle, Zhang Zhe shivered from the cold and said, "I can't take this, I have to stay inside, I'm freezing to death."

It was past the coldest time of the year, but the temperature was still below zero. Having just washed his hair with cold water, Zhang Zhe was of course cold.

Picking up the shield and glancing at Li Changfeng, Zhang Zhe sighed and said to him, "Don't take what I said earlier to heart, you shouldn't take the scolding personally, ah. But the parts you need to remember, you must remember. I was indeed anxious, but every one of us plays a part that affects everyone else's lives, wouldn't you agree?"

Li Changfeng said urgently, "It will absolutely not happen again!"

Zhang Zhe was about to speak again when several people approached and then stopped at a distance.

It was Xiang Weiguo and Zhou Shaoqiang. Xiang Weiguo stood about ten meters away from Gao Yuan and others and shouted, "How are things?"

Gao Yuan didn't respond, but Zhang Zhe immediately stood at attention and shouted, "Report, Captain, all resolved."

If the battle hadn't ended, Xiang Weiguo would not have come over. He nodded and said, "The fight is completely over. Found a total of seven zombies, but only two were from your location."

Zhang Zhe muttered under his breath, "This luck..."

Xiang Weiguo smiled, "Heard there were some troubles over here?"

"Report, Captain, there was a bit of panic when we first encountered the zombies, but no issues, it doesn't count as a real trouble," Zhang Zhe said.

Xiang Weiguo nodded, then he said to Zhang Zhe, "Write a report on your combat experience for me and note down your findings. If there are issues, resolve them promptly and don't avoid them."

Zhang Zhe immediately said, "Captain, Gao Yuan did find some issues. Gao Yuan, tell him."

Gao Yuan nodded, then he said to Xiang Weiguo, "Xiang Captain, our knife handles are too round; they need to be changed."

Xiang Weiguo nodded, then he asked Zhang Zhe, "No other problems?"

Zhang Zhe scratched his ear and said, "As for other problems... well, we need to improve coordination, but that can be solved with more training. Eh, maybe seeing a zombie makes us nervous, but I guarantee, if we have to do it again, our team will definitely handle it well. After all, it's our first time getting up close and personal with zombies, it's natural to be nervous."

Xiang Weiguo smiled, "Alright then, you guys isolate yourselves for a bit. During isolation, think carefully about how you're going to write that report. Like I said, resolve issues, don't avoid them. That's all."