Chapter 83: Abnormality

Zhang Zhe hadn't guessed wrong; he had indeed become a machine gunner, and Gao Yuan and his group had really become Zhang Zhe's ammunition handlers.

The first batch of volunteers had essentially been divided into two parts: one part, like Gao Yuan's group, mainly operated machine guns, while the remaining part still focused on close combat.

Serving a machine gun was great, much better than carrying around a shield and wielding a knife every day.

Actually, being an ammunition handler was quite easy because all Gao Yuan and his team needed to do was defend, not attack. Their daily training consisted of how to change ammunition and bringing bullets from the ammo boxes to the machine guns. Once a chain of bullets was finished shooting, they would immediately replace it with another. That was all they had to do.

The anti-aircraft machine gun's tripod could be set very high, allowing the shooter to fire while standing, or it could be set low so that the shooter could fire while sitting or even lying down. The machine gun used by Gao Yuan's team was set up for high-position shooting, with the tripod reinforced with sandbags, essentially eliminating the need to consider mobility.

The presence of an assistant gunner had even lost its value.

Because the targets were zombies, as long as the zombies couldn't breach their defense, the main gunner couldn't be in any danger. But if the zombies did get through, then the main gunner would be finished along with the ammunition handlers.

So, Gao Yuan's training was really quite relaxed. The most practice they had was loading loose bullets onto the chains; there was nothing else for them to practice.

After twenty days of such practice, Gao Yuan and his group had already been assigned to a battle station.

Gao Yuan and his team had their own dedicated machine gun position, located on the west side of the shelter, slightly behind the regular military positions, to form a crossfire that would better utilize their firepower advantage.

Spending a fixed twelve hours each day on the position, Gao Yuan's group alternated with a regular army machine gun squad.

"If you ask me, the efficiency is still low. Actually, it's completely feasible to have one regular soldier with two volunteers on a machine gun position. So just you wait and see, in the future, there will certainly be one regular leading two volunteers. That way we'll have plenty of personnel, and the number of machine gun positions can double immediately," Zhang Zhe began prophesying again, but when it came to the use of machine guns, his predictions were always accurate.

Gao Yuan, however, shook his head and said, "That won't happen."

Zhang Zhe knew how to use machine guns and could identify issues, but Gao Yuan had Xiang Weiguo as a source of information.

"Oh, why do you say that? Why won't it happen?"

By now, Zhang Zhe and the others knew about the special relationship between Gao Yuan and Xiang Weiguo. Since Gao Yuan said it wouldn't happen, he must have received some news.

Gao Yuan looked around; the nearest machine gun position was fifty meters away, but he still lowered his voice and said, "I heard that they're not going to mix regular soldiers with volunteer soldiers, so your idea is definitely good, but it's just not necessary."

"Why isn't it necessary?"

Gao Yuan smiled and replied, "Because for defense purposes, the current regular troops are almost enough."

"What about the cities? Are they going to be abandoned?"

"Do you think they would be abandoned? Naturally, there are people specifically researching how to deal with the large-scale zombie infestations in the cities. Use your brain, maybe in a few days, a major weapon targeting zombies will appear."

The group began to imagine the future because, of course, they all hoped to eliminate the zombies as soon as possible. If there was nothing they could do about the aliens, then so be it, but these zombies were right under their noses.

Just then, three soldiers came over in a regular march; it was time for a shift change.

"Captain, you guys go eat. I won't join you; I'm going to visit a friend."

"Go see your girlfriend!"

"Yeah, I'm going to visit a friend with my girlfriend."

After all, they were volunteers; although under militarized training, their management was still much laxer than that of soldiers. So, Gao Yuan had personal time. As long as it wasn't during training, he could do his own thing, of course within reason, like not staying out of the dormitory all night.

With each day getting warmer than the last and daytime temperatures staying above freezing, Gao Yuan couldn't help but wonder if the meat he had left at camp was beginning to thaw and rot. By the time he returned, it would surely be reeking.

Who would have thought that a simple mission to save Yu Shunzhou would result in staying at this shelter indefinitely?

Amidst the laughter of his peers, Gao Yuan left alone.

But Gao Yuan had just taken a few steps when he heard someone calling him.

"Gao Yuan, Gao Yuan!"

It was Li Xiaodong calling him, Gao Yuan turned around and saw them all looking up at the sky.

And every one of them had a look of panic on their faces.

Without even looking up, Gao Yuan felt a fear emanating from deep within.

Most people had become accustomed to the presence of aliens, as if the aliens came to Earth just to unleash viruses and then quietly hover in the sky.

But everyone knew the aliens hadn't come for a tour, so sooner or later, they'd launch a second offensive, right?

Had that day finally arrived?

Due to this realization, Gao Yuan couldn't suppress his own fear.

Gao Yuan immediately looked up and saw the triangular spaceship in the sky.

The spaceship hadn't moved, there were no abnormalities, it was still the same dark vessel, motionless in the sky.

"Just now, a small UFO came out from inside it!"

The speaker was Li Changfeng, who loved looking up at the spaceship in the sky most of all, as he was most afraid of the ship moving again.

"No way, you must have seen it wrong?"

"You definitely saw it wrong, right? Where is it?"

Pointing at the spaceship, Li Changfeng said in a trembling voice, "A light came out from inside, just there, it suddenly appeared, then disappeared, it flew upwards, it really flew up, I saw it very clearly!"

"A light, my ass!"

Zhang Zhe couldn't help but curse, as in their upward gaze, many lights suddenly appeared near the triangular ship, those lights slowly moving out from the large spaceship, and after moving some distance away, they suddenly vanished.

In his eyes, it seemed there were still lingering trails of light, and Gao Yuan couldn't be sure if those small UFOs had really flown upwards, but his instinct told him they probably had.

There were probably dozens of them.

"Everyone, keep quiet, don't spread the word about this!"

Gao Yuan was the first to speak, lowering his voice, and he also whispered to the three soldiers who had just come on duty, "Don't talk about it, let's report what we've seen to the higher-ups, but do not broadcast it widely to avoid unnecessary panic."

The lights appeared and disappeared so quickly that if you didn't witness it by chance, most likely not many people would have noticed.

After watching for a while longer, there were no new developments.

Zhang Zhe also lowered his head, and said to Gao Yuan, "You go and report this situation to the team, we... we're going to eat!"

Li Changfeng said to Zhang Zhe, "Still going to eat?"

Zhang Zhe tapped Li Changfeng's head gently with his hand and whispered, "Idiot, if we don't eat now, when do we eat?"

"I can't eat..."

"Idiot! Even if you can't eat, you have to eat, are you stupid?"

Zhang Zhe took a deep breath and said, "What if it's our last meal... Damn it, let's go eat!"