Apocalypse Survival Guide for a Beta [GB] - Chapter 17

Hearing Zhou Yu’s voice, Song Yan and the others turned their gaze toward Lin Bai. When they saw what she was doing, they all froze.

Song Yan stepped forward, about to speak, but Zhu Liang grabbed her arm.

“You used me as a gun?” Lin Bai’s gun was aimed directly at Lou Tiannan’s forehead. Her voice was calm and emotionless, but the tension in the air suddenly grew unbearable.

“An accident,” Lou Tiannan replied.

It truly was an accident. He and Zhu Liang had sensed something was wrong when they were ambushed near a remote village. Then, that same night, they found a listening device on Zhou Yu, confirming that there was a traitor among them. Based on their usual observations, they identified a few suspects and staged a performance to flush out the mole before they reached the safe zone.

But the traitor was more cautious than expected.

Throughout the entire zombie attack, there was no suspicious movement, until Li Gaoyuan started shouting.

Normally, Zhu Liang or Lou Tiannan could have stepped in and given a warning to resolve the situation. However, Lin Bai had also been on Lou Tiannan’s list of suspects. He wanted to use the opportunity to identify the mole and chose not to intervene immediately. It was only thanks to Lin Bai’s two gunshots that Hu Dingguo exposed himself.

But he had underestimated Lin Bai’s tolerance.

Now, her gun was pointed at him.

Lou Tiannan observed Lin Bai’s calm expression. A strange, indistinct feeling stirred within him.

Because of his profession, he had often faced the barrel of a gun before the apocalypse. The people who pointed weapons at him had looked at him with either fear and hatred or crazed desperation.

This was the first time that the gun aimed at him carried only quiet displeasure.

Lin Bai was like a beast that had long shown its claws in warning. If you ignored it, you would receive an unexpected and ruthless lesson.

Who exactly was she?

Lou Tiannan looked at Lin Bai’s made-up face and felt even more puzzled.

“Lin Bai, this really was an accident. We didn’t mean to use you. But you know what Blood Bone is like. If they aren’t dealt with cleanly, they’ll just keep coming,” Zhou Yu tried to explain. He really didn’t want Captain Lou and Lin Bai to become enemies.

But in the next second, he saw Lin Bai pull the trigger. His mouth fell open, his pupils contracted sharply, and his hair nearly stood on end. He barely had time to shout, “Hey! Don’t—”

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The continuous sound of gunfire echoed.

Empty shell casings clattered onto the ground, ringing sharply in the silence.

Lin Bai and Lou Tiannan were standing very close. Each bullet spiraled at high speed, flying straight for Lou Tiannan’s head.

The instant they left the barrel, time and space seemed to move unnaturally fast, but just before they could strike his face, within less than five centimeters, they suddenly slowed to a near standstill.

At that moment, those deadly metal bullets melted into scorching droplets of molten iron before they could touch him, dripping harmlessly to the ground.

A shell casing landed in the molten iron and was quickly corroded at the edge.

The scent of gunpowder from the ammunition explosion lingered between them.

Click.

The magazine was empty.

The surroundings fell into utter silence.

Lin Bai holstered her gun and said coldly, “You owe me six bullets.”

With that, she turned and walked away.

Zhou Yu glanced at Lin Bai, then at the still-steaming molten iron on the ground. He stretched his neck, swallowed, and clicked his tongue. “Is Lin Bai really a Beta? She’s got more guts than most Alphas…” She shot at someone and actually demanded compensation for her bullets.

“Isn’t she being a bit too much?” Lu Jia was visibly upset. Seeing the captain he admired most being treated this way left him both displeased and confused. They had done all this to ensure everyone’s safe passage to the safe zone. How could Lin Bai be so ungrateful?

Lou Tiannan said nothing. He withdrew his gaze from Lin Bai and gave a firm order, “Pack up. We leave in five minutes.”

The brutal battle had ended, but with corpses covering the ground, it wasn’t safe to linger.

There wasn’t much to clean up. Once everyone was in the vehicles, the convoy immediately set off. Every extra second spent there meant more danger and no one dared to waste time.

The three vehicles drove out of the warehouse’s iron gates one by one.

Unseen by anyone, on the open ground beside the warehouse, among the fallen corpses, Lisa’s blood had changed from bright red to dark crimson, and then finally to black. After a long, long time, her slender fingers twitched slightly…

***

Inside the transport truck, Wen Xiaxia and two other medics were busy tending to the wounded with tense, focused expressions.

Five team members had been stabbed by blades during the battle and the fragments needed to be removed quickly to stop the bleeding.

The vehicle jolted occasionally, but Wen Xiaxia’s hands remained steady.

Blood-soaked gauze used to clean wounds was quickly sealed in airtight bags to minimize the scent of blood and avoid attracting zombies.

Aside from the muffled groans of pain from the injured, the truck was silent.

Everyone sat against the walls of the truck and without discussing it, they all instinctively kept a slight distance from Lin Bai.

In the leading vehicle, driven by Zhu Liang, the atmosphere was just as quiet.

Lou Tiannan sat alone in the backseat with his eyes closed. His body radiated residual heat and after a moment, as his temperature began to drop, his nostrils flared slightly. He glanced at Zhou Yu through the rearview mirror and asked, “Zhou Yu, what’s that smell on you?”

“Smell?” Zhou Yu lifted his arm and sniffed. “Do I smell like something?”

“He’s probably talking about your perfume beads,” Zhu Liang chimed in from the driver’s seat.

“Oh, that!” Zhou Yu suddenly understood. He pulled a small bottle out of his pocket, one that looked very familiar to Lou Tiannan. “Xi Ya just gave me these. They worked great with her fire-based ability earlier. Just throw one and it explodes on impact. The wind spread the flames instantly, so we barely had to do anything. Just aim and hit those Blood Bone guys.”

The perfume beads contained not only fragrance but also a high concentration of flammable ethanol, which made them highly volatile.

Zhou Yu continued, “No wonder Lin Bai wanted to grab perfume beads at the mini-mart earlier!”

Lou Tiannan’s fingers paused slightly. His expression remained unreadable as he let out a quiet, “Oh.”

Zhou Yu noticed Lou Tiannan’s less-than-pleased expression and immediately regretted his words. Considering Lin Bai had just shot at him six times, he realized he had picked the worst possible topic to bring up.

Zhu Liang, on the other hand, chuckled softly. “Tiannan, Lin Bai’s personality is pretty similar to how you were at twenty.”

“Really?” Zhou Yu perked up with curiosity. “Was Captain Lou like this too?”

Lou Tiannan had joined the Federation’s Military Defense Department at eighteen. By twenty, he had earned the Federation’s Second-Class Merit Medal for outstanding performance in military operations against insurgents. His achievements continued to stand out and at twenty-four, he was exceptionally promoted to captain of the Third Squad, making him the youngest captain among the four squads in the Military Defense Department.

Aside from Zhu Liang, Zhou Yu, Song Yan, and the others had only joined the squad after Lou Tiannan became captain. They had heard plenty of legendary stories about him but knew little about his past personality.

Now that Zhu Liang had brought it up, Zhou Yu’s curiosity was fully piqued.

Zhu Liang said, “There are five departments in the Federal Security Bureau. Back when we were just twenty, Tiannan had already made himself known to every single one of them. It wasn’t just because he was young and had earned a Second-Class Merit Medal, but also because of his temper. The worst incident I remember was when our department was working on a joint mission with the Law Enforcement Department. After the mission ended, Tiannan rolled up his sleeves and went straight to pick a fight with the operation commander. It took both department heads stepping in to de-escalate the situation.”

“Huh? Why?”

Zhu Liang kept his eyes on the road, his expression tinged with reminiscence. “It was a long time ago. There was a hostage situation orchestrated by insurgents in a skyscraper in Western District Five. The Law Enforcement Department requested assistance, so Tiannan and I led a team to support the operation.

“During the rescue, Tiannan clashed with the Law Enforcement Department’s mission commander. Tiannan wanted to secure the hostages first, but the commander ordered them to eliminate the criminals first. In the end, they followed the commander’s orders, the criminals were killed, and the hostages were rescued with only minor injuries. It was considered a successful mission. But right after it ended, Tiannan stormed straight into the command room.”

After hearing Zhu Liang’s story, Zhou Yu wasn’t sure who was in the right or wrong, so he casually asked, “Who was the mission commander for that operation?” Who would dare to provoke Captain Lou?

“The Law Enforcement Department’s adjudicator, Elena.”

“!!!” Zhou Yu sucked in a sharp breath. “Elena?!”

Elena Herbert, Captain of the Law Enforcement Department’s First Squad.

Within the Security Bureau, her reputation was on par with Lou Tiannan’s, if not even greater.

Statistics showed that ever since Elena took command of the First Squad, the Federal crime arrest rate had skyrocketed and crime rates in her jurisdiction had plummeted. Thanks to her composed and dependable public image, she had become one of the most popular figures among federal citizens.

Because of the Law Enforcement Department’s close collaboration with the 621 Biopharmaceutical Research Institute, Zhou Yu had occasionally seen Elena from a distance at the Military Defense Department’s District One prison. Initially, he had assumed she was just a highly capable and beautiful Alpha woman.

That was until he witnessed her ruthless, iron-fisted interrogation methods firsthand.

Only then did Zhou Yu realize how naive he had been.

After the apocalypse, with power grids and communication networks destroyed, information between federal regions was completely severed. Half a year into the apocalypse, no one had heard any updates about her.

But even now, just mentioning her name was enough to strike fear into criminals.

Lou Tiannan’s expression remained sour at the mention of Elena’s name, but he said nothing.

Zhou Yu’s respect for Lou Tiannan grew even further. As expected of Captain Lou. He had actually dared to pick a fight with Elena.

With that thought in mind, he mused, “Now that I think about it, Lin Bai really does resemble Captain Lou from back then!”

Lou Tiannan replied flatly, “She’s nothing like me.”

When he had confronted Elena, he had been blinded by anger and defiance, acting on impulse.

But Lin Bai wasn’t reckless. She wasn’t the type to act rashly.

Zhu Liang paused, glancing at Lou Tiannan’s expression through the rearview mirror. After a brief moment of thought, he said, “She’s like you in some ways and not in others.”

With that, the conversation about Lin Bai ended.

The vehicle’s radio crackled with static, followed by Wen Xiaxia’s voice, “Captain Lou, we need to find a place to stop. Li Fan’s thigh wound is infected from the blade fragments. We need to halt immediately for debridement and sutures.”

Zhou Yu picked up the map. Lou Tiannan took a glance at it and quickly pinpointed a temporary stop. He spoke into the radio, “Head for the Tianhai Tower’s parking lot at three o’clock. I’ll lead a team ahead to clear the area.”

After a brief crackle of static, Wen Xiaxia’s voice came through, “Understood.”

As the convoy moved toward Tianhai Tower’s parking lot, less than a hundred miles away, inside a walled city, a wooden table was smashed to pieces with a single palm strike.

A voice, thick with anger and gloom, growled, “Find out where that Lin Bai came from!”