Just as Xiaoyun started to head back home, his phone suddenly rang. He quickly took it out, only to see Yiming calling him.
"Hey, Yiming, what's wrong?"
"Someone from the outside wants to talk to you. We are at the training field." Yiming answered with a non-urgent tone.
"Sure, I will be there."
Xiaoyun quickly hung up the phone and started walking toward the training field. When he arrived, Yiming and a mysterious man were standing in the shade.
"This is the person who wants to talk to me?" Xiaoyun asked.
"Yes, this man is from the capital," Yiming answered.
"The capital? That's so far away. Like two thousand kilometers from here..." Xiaoyun murmured.
"Major Yiming is right. I'm from the capital. I just um... landed at one of your training fields." The man replied with a hint of nervousness.
"What? You mean you got an entire plane?" Xiaoyun questioned as his eyes widened in shock.
"Yes, well, technically no... The plane, uh, crashed in the city. I just was able to parachute myself out of the plane and made it here."
"I can be the witness, I saw him slowly descending with a parachute all the way in the open field earlier," Yiming added.
"Well then, Mr.Pilot, can I ask why you want to see me?" Xiaoyun curiously asked, turning his attention fully to the pilot.
"I need you to tell this to the southern theater. The central government has fallen." The man revealed.
"Huh? You serious?"
"No, I'm not joking."
Seeing the man restated with a firm face, it blew Xiaoyun's mind away. He just couldn't believe what the man had said out loud.
"How's that possible? I thought the central command got all the reinforcement from every single theater."
Yiming was the one asking this time. His face looked just as shocked as Xiaoyun's, as if this was the first time he had heard it.
"The central theater did get all the reinforcement from various theaters, but Beijing was just too big a city for us to recapture.
We simply couldn't retake Beijing as the endless zombies kept pouring out. Not to mention the number of mutants that kept attacking us."
The man paused for a second, then continued.
"We managed to build a containment zone at the outskirts and forced a stalemate. Although we can't enter the city, the zombies can't leave the capital either."
"How's that a stalemate? Didn't you say the central government had fallen? How did they even fall?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"The soldier was getting tired of fighting, and morale was at an all-time low, especially with the snowy weather that was increasingly worsening by the day.
It barely hindered the zombies, while people were getting tired of fighting on the front line for almost three months, with no end in sight.
Then some of the soldiers and the commander started asking the general for a temporary retreat as cities nearby fell into the zombies' hands.
But the general had too much pressure to order a retreat as the remaining government officials pressured him to continue the missions.
Eventually, several of the commanders went rogue and left with the soldiers who were also tired of fighting.
This is when the nightmare started. The general was fired for failing to deal with the mutiny and replaced with a new general.
The new general was overly ambitious and wanted to have an all-out assault against the zombies. So he set up a trap to lure as many zombies as possible... by using civilians."
The pilot stopped here. His voice increasingly got quieter and quieter as he couldn't open his lips again.
"Civilians? What do you mean by using civilians? Tell me!"
As Yiming lifted the pilot's collar in anger, Xiaoyun quickly dragged him back before giving him a stern look to force him away.
"Yiming, calm down, he is just a pilot... Please continue."
"The plan worked... Almost a thousand. No, millions of zombies ran out of the city all at once as the new general had predicted.
Then he started indiscriminately bombing the zombies, including the civilians that acted as bait—"
The pilot looked ashamed as he said this part out loud, unable to speak up once again as he looked down at the ground.
"Did zombies at the capital get eradicated?" Xiaoyun questioned as he raised his arm, forcing Yiming to take a step back.
"We initially thought we were done and started going inside the city. Then more appeared to attack us.
The zombies we cleared were only a fraction of them. That was the last straw for most of the soldiers as they became disillusioned with the mission.
All the remaining reinforcement left on their own to either go join the Northern or Eastern theater."
The pilot paused for a second, then continued.
"The new general was fired and replaced. But by that point, it was too late, as the containment zone had collapsed due to a lack of soldiers guarding the line.
In the meantime, some of the soldiers got so fed up that they went on to assassinate the remaining government officials.
This was when all hell broke loose as everyone started fleeing the frontline and all units started fighting for themselves."
As the pilot got to this point, his face suddenly changed a little more positive.
"But luckily, the old general came back. Many were willing to listen as he organized a withdrawal from the city's outskirts completely.
We went to join forces with the northern theater to create a safety zone in the north, with Shandong as a launchpad to recapture Beijing again."
"So you're telling me... Is there no more central government?" Xiaoyun curiously asked, wanting to reaffirm the point earlier.
"All of them died with the plan to capture Beijing. So far, the Western and Eastern theaters had both supported the Northern theater as the successor."
The pilot replied, then pointed towards the pilot badge on his shoulder.
"I was supposed to go to the Southern theater to ask for their support... But as you can see, my plane malfunctioned, and I had to eject early."
"Do you want me to send you a ride to the Southern theater?" Yiming asked as he seemed to have gotten over the anger.
"Not really. I wasn't the only plane that was sent to the Southern theater... I told them they will have to continue the mission, so I'm a free man."
The pilot looked around for a second, then continued.
"Can I just live here? This town is one hundred times better than the military town they had set up in Beijing."
Seeing the pleading look on his face, Xiaoyun couldn't resist it. Especially learning how much information he had about the North.
"Of course, we welcome everyone to join. Can I ask what your name is?" Xiaoyun asked as he stretched for a handshake.
"My name is Man Ge, I'm from Changchun."
"Nice to meet you, Man Ge... Just two more questions, I'm curious about, what is a military town and how is it?"
"Um, every civilian is put to work in the factory, mines, or the farm with no breaks, and the only way up is to join the military.
When you do join the military, it still barely pays... Oh, and you wouldn't want to be a woman in a military town." Man Ge explained.
"What do you mean by that?" Yiming curiously asked.
"Um, you sure you want to know?" Man Ge questioned as his face started to look a little nervous once again.
"Just say it," Xiaoyun asked this time.
"Most women are used as a... Frustration relief for the soldier since women are extremely hard to come by.
Only the ones that are related to higher-ups are excluded. I-I didn't participate in it, I never got lucky with the lottery system.
Wait, wait, I mean, I would never do such a thing even if I got it. I swear I'm an upright pilot who will never violate a person's integrity!"
As Man Ge desperately tried to defend himself, Xiaoyun waved his arm for him to calm down.
"It's fine. I understand. Yiming, can you introduce him around?"
"Sure, I am on break anyway. I haven't had someone from the outside to talk to. Come on, let's go."
Yiming patted Man Ge on the shoulder. His grudge seemed to have disappeared as if he realized Man Ge was just a pilot following orders.
"Military town... what a nightmare product," Xiaoyun mumbled as he started walking back home once again.
"The military is willing to sacrifice civilians and be fine with it... I have to be prepared. The Southern theater is a ticking time bomb."
The thought of Southern theater taking over the town scared Xiaoyun. A sense of urgency to do something about it rapidly expanded.
"Maybe I'm thinking too much. The town can't even deal with a single battalion from the military.
I'll just have to bide my time until something happens. Nothing I can do if the military really does decide to take it over."
Xiaoyun's mind was at ease as he quickly realized he was practically powerless. His defense was practically peanuts compared to the military.
"I need to hide this news away from the public... If the public learns about this, people will start losing faith."
Pulling out his phone, Xiaoyun quickly dialed Yiming.
"Hey, Yiming, is Man Ge next to you right now?"
"Yeah, he's right here."
"Can you tell him to stay silent on the whole thing we just talked about? We can't have this news go out to the public."
"I already warned him about it. He promised he won't say anything and keep everything a secret."
"Okay then."
As Xiaoyun hung up and walked to the porch, he was already back at home. Unlocking the door, he was instantly greeted by Leyan.
"Hey Xiaoyun! What did you do for the afternoon?" Leyan curiously asked as she helped him put his keychain on the coat hanger.
"Just visited the factory and talked to Yiming about something. Anyway, wake me up when dinner is ready. I'm a little sleepy."
Xiaoyun headed upstairs by himself, leaving the five of them who were all sitting in the living room watching a movie.
Back in his room, the dirty bedsheet from the night before had already been changed to the new ones.
Changing into a pair of pajamas, Xiaoyun lay down on the bed as his mind was still full of Man Ge's words.
"Military town, military town... How can I expand faster? The outskirts are almost completely cleared out.
Within a month or two, the entire area would be cleared. Maybe it's time to start sending a rescue mission to clear the city proper?
But do we have the firepower to do it right now? I mean, Guangzhou is two-thirds the size of Beijing.
If the military failed to do it, how can I do it with a military composed of two companies? No, I don't need to capture the city, I'm just rescuing the people inside."
Xiaoyun quickly turned to the side, his mind realized he had almost dug himself into a hole for trying to set the objective way over the ceiling.