Armored train in the apocalypse

Chapter 232 The Old Man and the Sea
The sound of the waves crashing was no longer crisp, but thick and dull, and each time it rose to its highest point, it was accompanied by a rumbling sound as it crashed down.

The water and sky blended into one, dark and oppressive.

The office buildings of the four industrial parks became the only source of light in the entire world.

The sounds of urgent knocking and the pounding of the wind against the metal roof rose and fell.

One by one, the terrified survivors of the shelter emerged from their rooms, where they were questioned by soldiers and given orders.

I returned to the cramped room filled with fear.

Qu Hang stood on the top metal frame, listening to the whispers of the wind.

The dark green coat fluttered and rattled in the wind.

Not a single drop of rain fell on the sniper rifle he was holding in front of him.

Suddenly, Qu Hang's ears twitched slightly, and he responded in a low voice.

Judging from the degree to which the lips open and close, it should form the character "是" (yes).

Reaching the edge of the steel frame and looking down at the busy armed train, Qu Hang looked away and jumped directly from the steel frame, which was more than ten meters high, to the rooftop.

He asked Lin Jin, who was guarding the tin-roofed house, "Is the train conductor done with his work?"

The latter shook his head. "What is it?"

"Did you receive Yue-jie's message just now?"

"I received it, but I don't know what happened."

"crunch-"

The metal door behind him opened, and Su Huan stepped out and stretched.

"That old man is really stubborn."

After his friendly communication, the Iron Mountain Refuge decided to mobilize everyone to help the armed train find the necessary electronic components, and to contribute all of its heavy firepower and two-thirds of its weapons.

Su Huan generously left some [Coarse Powder Grass] seeds, which could help the Iron Mountain Refuge escape the crisis.

And try to ensure the safety of most people so that they can return here alive.

At first, the old man didn't want to agree, thinking that Su Huan's three conditions were a bit too much.

Refugees and armed trains can engage in some free trade.

Su Huan was puzzled.

Isn't this freedom?
The old man believed this was a triangular trade, and as fellow countrymen, their human rights should be respected.

Su Huan did not back down.

The old man threatened suicide, saying he would jump.

Su Huan told him to jump.

The old man didn't jump.

Su Huan wanted to help him.

The old man said that if he died, the shelter would be in chaos.

Su Huan said that so many people were not needed.

The old man admitted defeat.

Su Huan loosened his grip and gave them the assurance mentioned above.

Hearing the door open, Xiao Dong suddenly darted out from the corner, staring longingly at Su Huan.

Seeing his worried expression, Su Huan stepped aside, and the old man's slightly hunched figure stepped out from the door. Only then did Xiao Dong breathe a sigh of relief.

The old man looked intently at Su Huan, "I hope you will keep your promise."

"I never break my word when it comes to a deal. But you, don't die from a headache or a cold. If more than 5,000 people get into trouble, I'll be in a lot of trouble too."

Su Huan said calmly.

The old man's voice was deep, "You are very powerful now, but you won't go far. Only by uniting can we overcome this natural disaster."

Su Huan sighed softly, and white mist shot out nearly a meter long in the torrential rain.

"That was a bygone era."

"With unity and concerted efforts, any powerful enemy or any difficult environment will surrender to us."

"Don't wait until you've all broken up to think about getting together."

"The organization is gone."

A simple sentence, yet it was like a stone, crashing heavily to the ground.

"But we are still alive. As long as one person is alive, the organization will not perish..."

Are you debating with me about scriptures?

Su Huan calmly countered with a question.

The old man's breath hitched, perhaps because he thought of Su Huan's decision regarding the lives of the five thousand people in their shelter, and he swallowed his words.

A rumbling sound came from downstairs, and Su Huan turned and walked towards the edge.

No one knew better than him what the future held.

That was the collapse after all the powerful order disappeared; technology, culture, education... all the symbols that represented civilization were fading away.

Natural disasters have shattered all the advantages that humanity has accumulated over thousands of years.

As all things evolve, they vie for supremacy once more.

Only by staying at the forefront of evolution can we see the future.

Unity may be a path, but it's not the path he chose.

Everyone has the right to choose.

Su Huanru was like that.

The same applies to the Tieshan Refuge.

Judging from the current outcome, if unity were effective, the Iron Mountain Refuge wouldn't be at his mercy.

But that's a really cool and ruthless statement.

Su Huan was too lazy to rub salt in the wound of an old man who could be buried at any moment.

Let him return to the era of his memories with his perseverance.

Xiao Dong remained where he was, looking at Old Man Tie with guilt and unease in his eyes.

He didn't quite understand what Old Man Tie and Su Huan were arguing about.

But he felt like he had betrayed the sanctuary, a feeling that caused him great pain.

"You must unite."

Xiao Dong breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't hear Grandpa Tieshan scolding him.

He agreed, though he didn't quite understand.

……

With a splash, the mongoose rushed onto the deck, its beastly eyes fixed on the water behind it.

A moment later, a blue crab the size of a suitcase burst out of the water and landed on the surface, baring its teeth and claws.

The meerkat's lips curled up, revealing sharp fangs. "It's taken! Don't let it get away!"

"This is the biggest one!"

The well-prepared logistics team members grabbed several large nets and swarmed forward.

The blue crab felt it had been tricked and angrily used its large pincers to cut the large web on its body, but the web was made of evolutionary materials and it took a long time to cut a small piece.

In just a short while, four or five sheets had already covered his body.

Inside the train, the crew operated a robotic arm to drag a large net, directly catching the first-order blue crab in mid-air.

The meerkat clapped its hands and turned to the staff, "How many are there? Is that enough for research?"

"It would be best to get two more. Director Xu needs three, and other labs may need one or two to do experiments in different directions."

Before he could finish speaking, two more blue crabs jumped from the water onto the deck.

It has the same menacing appearance, just a little smaller.

The meerkat's eyes lit up. "Ha! Here it comes!"

The staff member smiled and said, "We can get this done now."

The meerkat's ears suddenly twitched.

The water surface was repeatedly broken open, like a sieve.

"Clap clap clap..."

One by one, blue crabs jumped out of the water and landed on the deck.

Tens, hundreds, thousands...

The dense swarm of blue crabs froze their smiles on their faces.

A voice with glasses blared over the loudspeaker outside the train: "Emergency notification! An evolved beast has attacked the train. All personnel on deck, please board the train immediately. The transport mission is terminated. Those who cannot board the train in time, please return to the shelter upstairs. Execute immediately upon hearing this!"

"So, should we still make the arrests?"

"Catch a ghost!"

The meerkat grabbed a staff member by the collar and darted toward the nearest door.

……

Upon hearing the noise, Su Huan jumped down from the building.

Seeing the third brother, he asked him in surprise why his nose was gone. The third brother, with a wide welt across his face, insisted that he had hit himself.

On the other side, two burly men were wrestling, and the loud crashes smashed the remaining decorations in the bar to pieces.

A dozen soldiers cornered the Qi Zhenbang and Qi Zhendong brothers.

As for the others, they had disappeared without a trace, leaving only pools of blood that were washed away by the rain and scattered all over the ground. They were then smashed and sent flying by Qi Jianguo, who was covered in scales.

Enraged, Qi Jianguo lay on the ground and roared. He propped himself up with his tail and swung his legs to stand up.

Its tail carved a deep furrow in the ground.

The width and the marks on the third brother's face were similarly fitting.

Without looking at anyone else, he suddenly charged towards Liang Kuan on the other side.

Then, Liang Kuan grabbed his fist expressionlessly, swung it forcefully with both hands, smashing it through a decorative wall and sending it flying into the next room with a loud rumble.

The floor, riddled with holes, groaned under the weight of the weight.

Su Huan's eyelids twitched. "Where are those people?"

The third brother chuckled and threw them all in to feed the fish.

"More than a hundred people?"

"Of course!"

Su Huan remained silent for a moment.

"Butcher!"

"brute!"

The Qi brothers, squatting in the corner, cursed one after another.

He looked like he wanted to devour Su Huan.

Su Huan fell silent.

It's not that I'm mourning for those hundred-plus people.

After all, there were two guys inside who wanted to touch his butt.

He just felt that the third brother had misunderstood his orders.

Just then, the sound of the train's loudspeaker reached the upper floors.

Interspersed with the sound of gunfire like raindrops.

Su Huan walked to the edge of the window and looked down. Densely packed blue crabs jumped out of the water and covered the armed train in layers, quickly obscuring the light from the windows.

Even more outrageous, the blue crabs actually piled up downstairs, like reefs, climbing up layer upon layer.

In such a short time, I've already climbed to the tenth floor.

"Holy crap, where did all these crabs come from?!"

The third brother covered his sunken nose with one hand and grimaced as he spoke.

"It's the Jia disaster." Old Man Tie rushed in, paused when he smelled the blood, and said, "The smell of blood will attract them, quickly clean up the blood here!"

Su Huan looked at the third brother, but the third brother turned his head away.

He muttered to himself, "Who could possibly know..."

Su Huan ignored him and turned to look at Old Man Tie. "What is Jia Zai?"

Old Man Tie's face was serious. "Every now and then, the crabs of Jingchao Lake migrate in large numbers and pass by our shelter. As long as we don't provoke them, we'll be fine. There are many of them, but we only stay on the edge of their range..."

Intense gunfire erupted on the floor where Yu Yue was located, interrupting the crabs' ascent as they had just reached that floor.

Su Huan rubbed his temples. "What if we've already provoked them?"

The old man's face was blank.

Even when Liang Kuan dragged Qi Jianguo over, he didn't even glance at him.

"Gather everyone and protect the shelter."

"How sure are you?"

"I don't know, there are enough blue crabs to overwhelm the entire shelter."

"Then what's the point of guarding it? Yu Yue, notify the train to go around to the back and prepare to receive us for evacuation. Have Qu Hang notify the people on board to retreat."

Su Huan walked outside.

Where will we retreat to?

Su Huan stopped and looked at him. After thinking for a moment, she said honestly, "I haven't decided yet."

"There's simply nowhere for us to settle down, considering there are over five thousand people here."

The old man showed no anger, no sorrow, not even a trace of emotional fluctuation; it was as if he were simply stating an ordinary fact.

Su Huan didn't answer either. Finding another place to stay for more than 5,000 people was indeed very difficult.

Moreover, not everyone in the shelter is an evolved being, so he wasn't sure how many would survive.

The old man walked toward the edge of the broken window, the rain soaking his short, gray hair and beard.

"When I was born, people were so eager to throw all their pots and pans into the blast furnace. The steel produced was piled up into small mountains. So my father named me Qi Tieshan (meaning 'Qi Iron Mountain'), hoping that I would be as useful to the country as those iron mountains."

"Like that pot, even if it only plays a tiny role."

"I served in the army for twenty years, upholding this name, and never retreated a single step."

Everyone says there is an iron mountain in Guanchong.

"Now that you're standing on this land, where do you want Guanchong's Tieshan Mountain to retreat to?"

The old man turned to look at Su Huan, his back straight, like an old gun that, though rusty, could still roar.

Su Huan looked at the stubborn old soldier and said seriously, "But you are not Tieshan. If the mutated beasts come and the flood comes, there will be nothing left here."

The veteran's words were as firm as iron: "If it's gone, we'll rebuild it. We'll build one house after another, as long as I'm alive."

"If I die, my son will continue building; even if my son dies, there will still be..."

Old Man Tie suddenly thought of his good-for-nothing grandson, and an indescribable sense of loss flashed in his eyes.

"And I!"

Xiao Dong stepped forward and said.

The veteran laughed.

"This is the true bloodline of Guanchong, this is the true Iron Mountain of Guanchong!"

Xiao Dong bowed apologetically to Su Huan, his head almost touching the ground. "I'm sorry, brother. I'm from Guanchong. I want to follow Grandpa Tieshan to protect my home."

The blue crab has already crawled into the window.

Yu Yue's questioning voice came from beside me.

Su Huan silently waved his hand, and the soldiers released the Qi brothers and began to withdraw in an orderly manner.

Lin Jin and Lao San hesitated to speak, but Liang Kuan didn't say anything and turned to leave.

Watching them retreat, Qi Jianguo and the others showed no contempt or resentment, only indifference and a solemn determination to face the battle.

The old man picked up the shotgun he had dropped from the ground.

He aimed at the surging blue crabs and pulled the trigger.

……

Su Huan took two steps and then heard the roar of a shotgun behind him.

It's like fighting against a storm.

But guns run out of bullets, and people get tired.

Will he use his last bullet to defend his hometown, or save it for himself?
Will the old man regret it then?

He died here with his son, Xiao Dong, and everyone else.

Everyone will die.

In the end, nothing was left.

His so-called reconstruction was nothing more than a brief boost to morale.

But this brief voice will eventually be drowned out.

Will it?

Liang Kuan noticed that the train conductor's pace had slowed down.

Until it comes to a complete stop.

Without any surprise or doubt, Liang Kuan simply took off his shirt and handed it to the third brother who was covering his nose.

The latter was taken aback for a moment, "What?"

"Let's fight, hold this for me."

Before the third brother could ask who it was, everyone heard a long sigh.

"How much work will they have to do to make up for my losses..."

Eerie blue lightning flashed in the void, spreading rapidly like a divine kingdom of thunder, carried by the wind and rain.

Within a radius of 100 meters, all four buildings were enveloped in a chilling electric light.

It seemed as if a low shout, like a boulder falling into a valley, was heard in everyone's ears.

"Thunder Pool".

(End of this chapter)