Chapter 171: Beneath the flyover
Beneath the bridge were many reinforced steel bars embedded into the ground in groups of sevens, eights, or tens into circles. These bars were embedded halfway into the ground with the remaining half extending out of the ground towards the sky, resembling sharp spears that pierced through many of the zombies that fell downwards. A few of them were instantly killed upon impact without being able to move their hands or twitch.
A few of the zombies were stabbed through by multiple bars, the dissipated force caused them to be lifted in midair as their pitch black blood flowed down their bodies onto the reinforced steel bars, dyeing the bars a black color. Some of the bars were placed perfectly as consecutive zombies were pierced through by the same bars, there were some that killed up to 7 to 8 bodies like a mutton skewer, but of course, it was a zombie skewer.
The ground beneath the bridge was not level with a hideous mess of beams erected all around, cement mold constructions and various steel beam frames. Some of the zombies unexpectedly fell straight onto the beams like cannon fodder soldiers of j.a.panese Manga, they were left hanging at the top of the beams with their hands and legs dangling gently. These that had their spines penetrated through by the beams were considered the more fortunate ones. The more unlucky zombies had their heads ripped off by the beams, “SHRREAAAK….” the upper half of their heads were sliced and flung into the air, their brains spinning along while the rest of their bodies dropped downwards with brain fluid. After the bodies fell to the ground, their decapitated skulls would fall and roll far away.
There were some that fell in awkward positions, resulting in their chins falling straight onto these beams. Now, that became unbearable to watch. The power of the impact did not immediately remove the head off, but half of the ugly faces of these zombies were completely ripped off from the chin to the top of their heads, leaving only the other half intact and revealing their white bones that were dyed with black blood. The chin bone and lower jaws were removed from the impact and had become an empty spot.
It was unknown as to how many zombies were above on the flyover, but they only saw the zombies stand there, then fall down like different sized beads falling onto a plate. At long last, the bottom part formed a mountain of zombie corpses with even more zombies above still dropping downwards. Zhang Xiao Qiang did not know how many zombies there were inside the mountain of corpses but he knew that the number was not less than the total number of zombies he had burnt in the small town.
Everyone stopped what they were doing. Three led the security team to watch the ground beneath the bridge. The few men all had the same expressions, on tiptoes with their straightened bodies, extended necks and eyes that were opened wide. Their eyeb.a.l.l.s looked upwards as their mouths opened wide with drool flowing out from the corner of their mouths.
Old Frank and the two girls by the side no longer bundled the reinforced steel bars, they squatted down to the side of the road and turned their necks, staying motionless as they watched the scene before them. Old Frank subconsciously brought his fingers to his mouth as he started to chew on his fingernails. The fingernails that were covered with rust gave off a strange smell but he remained oblivious to it, the brown rust turned his mouth red. He continued to bite while watching the zombies fall from the bridge.
The elder sister hugged her sister’s head into her bosom while her other hand reached out for Old Frank’s st.u.r.dy waist as consolation and a.s.surance. Inside her sister’s embrace, the younger girl sneakily extended her head out and looked at the various mutilated zombies. Seeing the dead zombies, her eyes sparkled with light. Her red little tongue kept on licking her dried lips, her fists were clenched tightly while her body trembled in excitement. Her sister thought that she was afraid, and hugged her even tighter.
Everyone except Zhang Xiao Qiang was stunned. They quietly stared at the mountain of zombies beneath the bridge. No one was able to absolve themselves from the shock. The first to react was the fat Chef, he was startled awake by the burning smell of his wok. When he saw how his dish was charring and the wok turning red, he shouted for his helpers to grab water over. He was afraid that the wok base would be burnt through.
The chef’s tone-deaf screams jolted the others awake. w.a.n.g Chong looked at the mountain of zombies in the distance and trembled. He then looked at the small cut on his hand, it was not deep at all and had faint signs of healing, the blood that leaked out were already dry and the wound was closed, he looked at Zhang Xiao Qiang and asked “This….that….I….did that?”
Zhang Xiao Qiang patted his shoulder without saying anything. What do you want me to say? That I’m afraid of hurting myself, so I cut him instead? He signaled for the Combat Team and the machine gun team to gather. Many zombies that fell had died, but there were a couple that was alive as well. All of these lucky zombies fell on top of the pile of dead zombies which acted as a cushion for the ones above. These fortunate zombies did not even drop a hair and started to tangle with the other zombies. Zhang Xiao Qiang took the opportunity before the zombies could even stand to kill them.
Three sets of machine guns were placed on the hillside with trunks after trunks of ammunition arranged neatly on a canvas. All of the Combat Team members inspected their M1 Garands while Three opened up the ammunition box and indicated for the front members to come forward as he gave out bullets. Zhang Xiao Qiang stood nearby and observed them with Shangguan Qiao Yun beside him with her handgun in hand, her gaze filled with killing intent towards the zombies.
Zhang Xiao Qiang’s firing position was not far from the zombies at around a 100 meters. Everyone had their eyes towards the pile of zombies, where some of them had struggled out of the mountain and were staggering towards the scent of the blood. One, two, three….all of them walked towards the survivors until they were only 10 meters apart. Some of the survivors were already pale in complexion, they were able to clearly see every detail on the zombies’ faces. The ladies by the machine guns were trembling in fear, all of the ugly things were extremely close to them as though a pounce from them would be able to reach for their throats and rip off their flesh. But upon seeing that Zhang Xiao Qiang standing behind them, they did not dare do anything. The scenes of how people were devoured by the zombies remained fresh in their minds, the bandoliers in their hands clanking as their hands trembled incessantly.
The gunners held onto their guns tightly, seeing the zombies so close, their fingers started to freeze. “FIRE…..” Upon hearing Zhang Xiao Qiang’s roar, their hands tightened up. The heavy machine guns vibrated violently as bullets sprayed out with flames being unleashed from the muzzle. “TU TU TU TU TU TU….” Bullets flew out from the machine guns as the M1 Garand shots followed up from behind.
Aside from the difference in speed of firing between the heavy machine guns and rifles. The bullet holes produced by the rifles were small but the holes produced by the machine guns are extremely large, especially for the zombies right at the front who took the direct shots of the machine guns. All the gunners were newbies and had only tested over a 100 bullets as a trial run, naturally, they were unable to control the rhythm of the heavy machine gun, the released bullets had no fixed target and shot all over the ground, leaving behind many bullet holes. Occasionally, a few walking zombies would be shot in their legs and would fall to the ground, where their bodies would then be shot. One of the zombies had a bullet shot straight between its eyebrows, its head instantly exploded like a watermelon with a “bang!”. After it fell, another zombie crawled out from behind it, it was an S-Type. The rifles were useless against it despite it not having an protection. Every single Combat Team Member skill in the M1 Garand rifles was superficial, they were unable to lock onto a moving target. One lucky shooter had his bullet shot straight into the zombie’s arm, the powerful impact of the bullet broke the zombie’s arm off and the force caused the zombie to spin one round. This momentarily pause allowed three heavy machine guns to aim at it and unleash countless of bullets. In an instant, its entire body exploded and the various body parts flew in all direction….