Free Web NovelChapter 41: The edge of the plains
The high-altitude blizzards finally began to thin as the convoy descended the long, winding foothills of the mountain range.
The endless, blinding white of the snowstorms gradually gave way to a vast, desolate expanse of grey plains, but the shift in geography brought no warmth. The freezing wind here was different—less frantic, but more biting, sweeping across the barren flats and rattling the armored plating of the heavy military trucks.
Every hour driven was a calculated strain on their physical fuel reserves and their mental endurance. The weight of their physical inventory was a constant anchor, forcing the vehicles to rumble forward at a steady, cautious pace across the cracked asphalt and frozen soil.
Inside the trailing military transport, the journey was a living, breathing hell for Li Mei.
Lin Qing’s silent, calculated revenge had been executed with a ruthless precision that left no room for appeal. Under the strict guise of asset management and winter preparation, Lin Qing had personally pulled the extra winter blankets from the baggage truck before they departed the transit depot.
She had calmly explained to Han Zheng that the thick insulation was structurally necessary to wrap around the delicate mechanical parts of the backup generator, preventing the fluid lines from freezing solid in the cold temperatures. Han Zheng, prioritizing the mission’s long-term logistics, had nodded in immediate agreement.
As a result, Lin Qing hadn’t left a single spare blanket for their passenger. Furthermore, Li Mei’s daily food allowance had been stripped of any comfort. It consisted of nothing but blocky, chalk-textured field rations—unseasoned, compressed bricks of caloric paste that tasted like dry plaster and left a bitter, powdery film in the throat.
While the soldiers in the front cabin utilized the aromatic, warming spices from her father’s stash to flavor their hot broths, keeping their operational morale incredibly high, Li Mei sat shivering in the drafty, uninsulated corner of the rear cargo bay.
Her hands were raw and red, her lips chapped to the point of bleeding, and her stomach twisted in a perpetual knot of hunger and misery.
As she clutched her arms around her knees, watching her breath fog heavily in front of her face, the guilt of abandoning her father to the mutated jungle cats completely curdled into a poisonous hatred. She didn’t blame the apocalypse, and she didn’t blame her own cowardice. She blamed the woman sitting comfortably in the heated cabin of the modified SUV.
During a brief stop to check the tire chains on the heavy transport vehicles, Li Mei had seen her chance to break out of her icy prison. Scurrying to the edge of the cargo bay, she had thrown herself at the feet of Old Wang and Zhou Ming as they checked the tie-down straps on the fuel jerrycans.
"Please, you have to help me!" she had cried, instantly playing the victim card with practiced, tearful desperation. She held up her raw, trembling hands, her voice trembling in a high-pitched, pathetic whine. "Look at what she is doing to me! I haven’t had a single blanket since we left the depot. I’m freezing to death back here while the rest of you have warm cabs. She won’t even let me have real food! She’s forcing me to eat these disgusting, dry bricks while she sits on all my father’s spices! My father died so we could have those! It’s malicious, cruel... she’s trying to kill me!"
The soldiers, however, had paused only briefly, their expressions tightening not with sympathy, but with annoyance. These were people who had spent the last two weeks watching the fabric of civilization actively rot; they had seen countless civilians weaponize tears and false grievances to leech off others. Taking along an emotionally unstable civilian was already an operational liability they didn’t want.
Old Wang had simply stared down at her with a cold, unyielding gaze, adjusting his rifle strap. "Lin Qing is managing the inventory under the Commander’s direct orders," he had replied, his voice completely flat. "The generator takes priority over your comfort. If the trucks freeze, we all die. Eat your rations and stay out of the way."
Zhou Ming hadn’t even looked at her, scoffing under his breath as he kicked a block of ice off the wheel well. "You traded those spices for a ride, not a luxury hotel suite. Stop whining."
Realizing the soldiers were entirely deaf to her victimization, Li Mei had crawled back into the dark corner of the cargo bay, the rejection fueling the toxic fire burning in her chest.
It took a grueling, drawn-out day of driving across the desolate plains before the scout in the lead truck finally spotted signs of human life.
Tucked into a jagged depression where the mountain foothills met the plains, a makeshift survivor settlement flickered into view.
It was a sprawling, rough-around-the-edges refugee camp constructed from old shipping containers, sheets of corrugated iron, and chain-link fencing.
It wasn’t a pristine military base, but a struggling sanctuary for ordinary people who had fled the initial chaos of the cities. The emergency floodlights cutting through the grey twilight were dim, powered by a sputtering, overworked generator that coughed thin smoke into the sky.
As the convoy slowed to a halt outside the perimeter, the true nature of the camp became clear. The people standing guard at the iron gates looked exhausted, thin, and worn down by the elements. Their clothes were dirt-stained and patched together, and they held their basic hunting rifles and tools with tired, defensive grips. It was a place of survival, but one that was clearly running dangerously low on food, warmth, and comfort.
Inside the baggage truck, Li Mei looked out the frost-covered window, and a deep dread gripped her heart. To her, this place looked miserable, impoverished, and bleak. Compared to the heated vehicles and heavily armed security of Han Zheng’s elite unit, this camp looked like a recipe for a hard, grueling life of manual labor and meager portions.
When the heavy iron gate groaned open, Han Zheng stepped out of the lead vehicle, his towering silhouette instantly drawing the attention of the camp’s gatekeeper—a tired, middle-aged man in a faded winter coat. The guards looked wary but relieved to see professional soldiers rather than an infected threat.
The rear doors of the baggage truck were thrown open, and Old Wang stepped up to assist Li Mei down onto the frozen earth. "End of the line," the soldier said, his tone firm. "This is a safe zone. Get your things."
Panic exploded in Li Mei’s chest. The reality of being left in this impoverished, struggling hole shattered what little composure she had left. Dropping her small bag, she sprinted toward Han Zheng, her knees hitting the icy mud as she wept hysterically, reaching out to grasp the edge of his combat boots.
"Commander! Please! I beg you, change your mind!" she screamed, her voice cracking as the tears cut fresh tracks through the grime on her skin. "You can’t leave me here! Look at this place—they have nothing! The people are starving and dirty! I’ll do anything if you just let me stay! I’ll wash the clothes, I’ll clean the trucks, I’ll prepare the rations! I won’t eat anything but your scraps! Please, don’t throw me away!"
Han Zheng looked down at her, his expression unyielding but calm. "The deal was passage to the nearest settlement in exchange for the spices," Han Zheng stated, his deep baritone carrying a steady finality. "The transaction is complete. This camp is secure, and you will be safe here. Get up and move toward the gate."
"No! Please!" she sobbed, dragging her feet as Old Wang and Lieutenant Chen stepped forward to firmly escort her toward the camp’s perimeter boundary, ignoring her desperate pleas. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
As she was being marched backward, a dark, thin wisp of shadow crawled imperceptibly across the frozen mud, originating from beneath the passenger tire of Lin Qing’s SUV. Inside the heated cabin, Han Ye’s small eyes were narrowed into thin slits. With a cold, calculated flick of his wrist, he commanded the shadow tendril to whip upward, wrapping tightly around Li Mei’s ankle just as she took a panicked, uncoordinated step backward.
The strike was completely invisible in the dim twilight. With her footing instantly ripped away, Li Mei launched backward and fell incredibly hard, her spine and elbows slamming violently against the frozen, rutted earth with a heavy thud. The breath rushed out of her lungs in a sharp gasp, and she lay there in the mud, dazed and bruised.
Despite the loudness of the fall, the soldiers didn’t stop. Han Zheng didn’t move an inch, and Old Wang merely sighed, assuming she had simply tripped over her own feet in her hysterics. To the elite squad, her clumsy fall was just a pathetic, embarrassing footnote to a dramatic exit.
The tired gatekeeper in the faded coat stepped forward, frowning with pity as he reached down to help her up. "Come on, young lady," the man said gently, trying to pull her toward the shelter of the gates. "We don’t have much here, but we have a warm fire and a roof for you. Let’s get you inside out of the cold."
The firm grip of the guard, combined with the throbbing pain from her hard fall and the absolute rejection by the soldiers, snapped something deep inside Li Mei’s already fragile, entitled psyche. The suffocating weight of her hidden guilt and her absolute terror of living an impoverished life dissolved into a sudden, explosive wave of pure, unadulterated madness.
She twisted her head, her venomous, bloodshot eyes locking onto the SUV idling quietly at the rear of the convoy. Through the clean, glass of the heated windshield, she could clearly see Lin Qing sitting in total comfort, her deadpan face entirely indifferent to her plight.
Losing her mind completely, Li Mei stopped fighting the gatekeeper’s grip. Instead, she threw her head back and screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing like a wild siren across the entire survivor camp, intentionally blowing the convoy’s operational secrecy to hell:
"All of those transport trucks and that SUV are fully stocked! They have crates of high-grade military rations and premium spices that can last for months! They have weapons, ammo, and fuel! They’re swimming in supplies! Look inside the trucks! They’re loaded!"
The frantic, hysterical screech cut through the quiet plains like a knife. Instantly, the atmosphere outside the gates turned violently stagnant. The tired, weary expressions on the faces of the thin, hungry camp guards vanished, replaced by a sudden, razor-sharp glint of desperate greed as a dozen pairs of eyes slowly shifted toward the tightly packed, fully loaded military convoy.
