Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

"Hey, how am I supposed to know that thing could go through hazmat suits? I thought the soldiers would be fine if they covered their skin from the fog."

"Wait, you said going through hazmat suits?" Tianci asked, interrupting him from rambling on.

"Yeah, isn't that what you're implying?"

"Living particle in the fog shouldn't be able to go through a hazmat suit... How could your troops be affected by it?"

"What?"

Xiaoyun looked a little puzzled by Tianci's answer, as he expected her to say the complete opposite.

"Can you show me how your soldiers went inside? Or like just give me an example of what the hazmat suit looks like?"

"Um... Sure. Let's go to the tent over there. Han Bang, can you wait over here for a second?"

---

As the two of them entered the tent, Xiaoyun quickly cloned the same hazmat suit he had given to the soldiers.

"Here... Could this go against the fog?"

Tianci quickly examined the front and the back, only to find it to be perfectly sealed with every possible corner.

Everything seemed to be fine until she looked up at the head cover and noticed the air filter system.

"Xiaoyun, the hazmat suit doesn't have its own SCBA? Only an"

"What's SCBA?"

"Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus... Like an air canister that supplies its own air rather than just filtering the air."

"The fog can't be filtered?" Xiaoyun questioned, his mind starting to realize what went wrong as well.

"It could be filtered in theory. But in most cases, a small fraction of it still goes through, which is more than enough to cause the prolonged exposure effect."

"Fuck. I need to go back to Luoping to get one with a whole air can. This is going to take way too long."

"Why don't you send a message to Houqin? She can have someone deliver it here instead of needing you to go back and forth."

"You're right. I'll be right back."

As Xiaoyun ran straight out of the tent, Han Bang was left a little confused as he saw Tianci standing there with a hazmat suit.

"Did Commander figure out what the issue is?" Han Bang curiously asked.

"I think so... Ahem, Han Bang, can you bring me to Li Qing? My lab needs a few more samples for tests."

"Sure."

---

Back over an open table near the HQ tent.

"What did Houqin say?" Xiaoyun urgently asked as the radio operator took off his headphones.

"She said the supplies are on their way. It will arrive in an hour or so, assuming nothing bad interrupts them."

"Good... Wait, how many pairs did she send?"

"Do you want me to ask her again?" The radio operator asked, getting ready to put his headphones back on.

"Never mind. It's fine. Thank you for your work."

As Xiaoyun left the radio operator alone, his mind was overjoyed. There was still hope for him to salvage the situation.

All he had to do now was wait. Just waiting and waiting until the new hazmat suit arrives.

An hour later...

"Commander Chen! The supplies are here!" A soldier reported out loud as he rushed into the HQ tent.

"Thank god. Finally."

"Remember what I said earlier," Yiming warned before Xiaoyun and Han Bang could leave the tent.

"I know."

As the two of them exited the HQ tent, they quickly followed the soldier out towards the military base entrance.

The moment Xiaoyun saw the semi-truck parked in the distance, they were a little surprised when they saw five people coming out of it.

All of them were already wearing the new hazmat suits, and they walked over to the two of them with a rifle in hand.

"Miss Houqin thought it would be faster if she had soldiers coming here with the hazmat suit already on."

The hazmat suit soldier in the front replied, seemingly to be the leader of the five-man squad.

"That's fine... Follow me, I need to show you guys the path you need to take to get over to this rescue mission."

As the five hazmat-suited soldiers followed the two of them towards the HQ tent, Xiaoyun suddenly felt the voice sound a little familiar.

It reminded him of someone. But he couldn't pinpoint it exactly, as the hazmat suit heavily distorted the voice.

"These are the new hazmat suits?" Yiming questioned as he watched the seven of them enter the HQ tent.

"Yeah. It has its own air system. This should be practically fog-proof... Okay, you guys can see this map here, right?"

All five of the hamzat soldier nodded, their head tilting slightly forward to see through the narrow head cover.

"This will be your entrance point to the fog... All you have to do is keep walking forward down this road.

Then, when you see a park, turn north and keep walking down... Around this outdoor mall should be where Lingang and his men are located."

All five of the soldiers nodded again before Yiming walked over to the cabinet nearby.

"Here's a map in case you guys get lost... Just walk towards any direction after you guys find the trapped soldiers, all the exits we have people guarding there."

The five of them nodded again as Xiaoyun asked his last question.

"One last thing. How long can your air canister work for?"

"Thirty to forty minutes." A different hazmat soldier answered this time.

"That's definitely enough. Okay, you all can hop back on the truck. I'll personally drive you guys there."

A few minutes later...

As Xiaoyun parked the semi-truck right outside the fog, the soldiers in hazmat suits quickly exited before checking their equipment one last time.

"Remember, all you need to do is rescue Lingang and his men. You don't need to do anything else other than that.

If you guys can't find them, just retreat immediately. Your own survival is still the highest priority."

"Yes, sir!"

With a salute towards them, the soldier saluted back before reaching down to some sort of valve next to their sides.

"Hopefully nothing goes wrong this time..." Han Bang murmured as he watched from the passenger seat.

"Yeah."

Xiaoyun quickly hopped back into the semitruck, starting up the engine before driving back to the base.

----

As groups of hazmat-suited soldiers with heavy backpacks walk down the streets, they are all immediately stunned by the surroundings.

The sheer amount of reddness and the disturbing piles of flesh from the buildings to the ground felt extremely uncomfortable.

It almost felt like they were entering hell, with the only thing missing being some devils with horns attacking them.

"Major Wu, how did you convince Miss Houqin to let you go on this trip?" A soldier suddenly asked through his muffled voice.

"I was assigned, and that's the end of the story... Why are you asking that?" The lead soldier answered.

"Never mind."

After walking for a bit, the five of them soon arrived at the park that had a little fountain right in the middle.

"Hm, how weird... Does anyone see any trace of fighting or anything? Or any traces of human activity?"

All four of them shook their head, as they hadn't seen anything that could remotely resemble normal the entire trip.

"Let's continue then... Yecheng, can you tell where the north is?"

As the soldier, 2nd in charge, took out a compass, he soon found it to be broken as it spun in a random direction nonstop.

"The compass isn't working."

"Crap... Actually, it's fine. We came from the southern entrance. We just have to head towards the opposite of where we came from."

The person in the front quickly made their decision as they led everyone forward, walking down the path once again.

"What are those tentacles?"

The soldier in the back commented as she could feel a little uncomfortable watching it moving left and right in the air.

"Don't mess with it. They are not a part of our mission... No more talking, I don't want to attract any unwanted attention."

Everyone instantly fell into silence, leaving only their footsteps as the only sound as it echoed down the empty streets.

"Major Wu! Something is in the distance." A soldier suddenly reported after seeing through the fog for a second.

"Everyone, get ready to fight."

As the lead soldier raised their rifle, the other four all raised it as well, as they could all see the shadow at this point.

Slowly, they began approaching it closer and closer, walking in silence as their footstep completely vanished.

"What the... fuck?"

The soldier who saw the shadow first was stunned in place, soon followed by the other four as they all got close enough to see the shadowy object.

It was a massive sphere made out of flesh, stretching from one side of the street to the other, blocking the entire road.

Endless lines of flesh were seemingly connected to it, with even redder fog being released from various holes around the sphere.