Rise Of The Wasteland
/ Rise of the Wasteland Chapter 76 - A Crowd
Chapter 76 A Crowd
The cataclysm came with death and hopelessness. Every tall and large building in the cities would become human settlements. As the world out there got more and more cruel, people refused to leave the buildings and they continued to hide. Even though there was no food and drinks in the building, they did not have the courage to go out.
It has only been a day since the cataclysm, status and connections collapsed and people started to separate into groups. The powerful people took charge of the remaining limited resources. The rest could only struggle and beg around.
As an intruder, Zhou Qingfeng could not change anything in this building. Even though he needed more people, the people in front of it told him the truth - people who do not stick together are useless; they are just wasting food.
Therefore, he could only reject Jenny Braun when she begged him. Everyone in the corridor stared at them. If he saved one person, the rest of them would go after him to beg to be rescued and he would not even be able to escape.
“I can’t save you and I don’t want to know anything about you. F*ck off! I’ll kill you if you get any closer. Don’t think that I won’t do it, I have no mercy,” Zhou Qingfeng said with no empathy. He even took off his mask and showed his face to everyone.
Wow! It’s Victor Hugo! It’s the killing maniac who murdered the chief police officer of New York in public!
Through the reports and media, Zhou Qingfeng’s face was already well-known. The crowd of people in the corridor still looked at Jenny Braun to see if she could get some help from Zhou Qingfeng. However, as they now found out that they were facing a genuine thug, they instantly retreated and kept quiet.
Jenny was frightened and her body was weak as she faced Zhou Qingfeng’s ferocious attitude. Victor Hugo was the hottest name on the news and as a reporter, Jenny knew him. She even wrote a special comment about Zhou Qingfeng and now, she was seeing him in person.
As Zhou Qingfeng noticed the shocked crowd, he wanted to leave as he did not want to carry any burden. He just wanted to occupy this building as soon as possible.
Without a doubt, the people who understood the most about what was happening in the building were the security guards who kept the resources. They might just be protecting themselves,but they had occupied a few sturdy rooms and refused to come out to help anyone.
“Hey! To the people who are inside, listen. One of you come out and talk to me. I want to know what’s going on,” Zhou Qingfeng was outside the room, took cover in a corner, and shouted at them through the door.
The security guards inside were extremely irritable and they shouted, “We’re not going to share. Get out of here!”
Zhou Qingfeng immediately shot the windows of the room. After the gunshots, he said, “Listen, idiots. I’m Victor Hugo. One of you come out and talk to me right now. Otherwise, I’ll burn this room. I’m a man of my words.”
Buildings succumb to fire. When Zhou Qingfeng said his name and mentioned that he would burn the building down, the security guards were indeed terrified.
“Hold on, don’t shoot. One of us will come out,” the security guards yelled. Shortly after, sounds of a quarrel could be heard from the inside. They might be fighting about who goes out.
A while later, a slightly old African-American security guard with white hair walked out of the room. He put his hands up and looked at Zhou Qingfeng. He said, “Alright, I’m out. My name is Mobutu. What can I help you with?”
“Tell me, how many gangsters are up there?”
“It could be twenty, or thirty, or forty, or fifty. We’re not too sure. They killed many of us when they broke in, started to take away food and drinks, and occupied every floor above the tenth floor.”
“Occupied every floor above the tenth floor? Aren’t they afraid that you would burn the building from down here?” Zhou Qingfeng thought that the best way to deal with these types of buildings was to burn it down.
“It won’t work. The fire extinguishing devices in this building are independent. Unless there is huge amount of fuel, we can’t burn down the whole building. Burning a few rooms is not going to do the trick,” Mobutu said. “The gangsters took many hostages in the floors above. If the building burned, they would die.”
“Also, they come down every two hours to inspect. They worry that we’d create trouble down here. They promised to give us a small amount of food and drinks to comfort the people in the building. They’re waiting now.”
“They gave us a small amount of food and drinks every day to prevent us from fighting back. But, this could be our chance,” a weak voice spoke behind Zhou Qingfeng.
Zhou Qingfeng turned around and snapped, “Didn’t I tell you not to follow me?”
Jenny Braun was frightened and she stood a few meters away from Zhou Qingfeng. She said with a sad expression, “Mr Hugo, please. You must be here to get rid of those gangsters. It doesn’t matter what your intentions are, I’ll help you. I can be the bait and it’d be easier for you to attack.”
Mobutu heard Jenny’s words and he said, “If you guys are going to do something about it, I’m in. I was in the military. I don’t want to live by robbing innocent people.”
Mobutu was tall and strong. His joints looked tough and huge. He appeared burly and powerful; he could be useful in a fight. However, Zhou Qingfeng thought that there was not enough people. He asked, again, “Could we get more people? I believe your food is running out and you won’t live for long if you don’t fight.”
Mobutu walked back to the room, told the security guards, and very soon, they started to argue. Meanwhile, a few men in the corridor stood up when they heard that Zhou Qingfeng was going to raid the gangsters.
After a few minutes, Zhou Qingfeng gathered around twenty people. There were seven security guards with guns and the rest were ordinary citizens without any weapons. These people were forced by the current situation to stand up to fight for their own lives.
Led by the notorious Zhou Qingfeng, the temporary team was very confident. They climbed the staircase and went up from the fifth floor. They looked powerful and massive as they walked. On the way, hundred people followed.
Zhou Qingfeng did not expect anything from the crowd. At least half of them would run away once the fight starts.
As the lifts failed to work, the only way up was via the emergency staircase. Mobutu, who was a soldier, tried to group them but they were like people in vegetable markets - they had no discipline at all.
He would be daydreaming if he considered attacking the gangsters with these people. Zhou Qingfeng decided to send someone to block the emergency staircase going from the eighth to the ninth floor and to set up obstacles in the corridor of the ninth floor.
“Everyone, we’re on the ninth floor and there’s no way to the eighth floor. None of you can run now. Kill the gangsters to stay alive. Otherwise, you’ll all die.”
The crowd turned silent upon hearing Zhou Qingfeng’s words.
The people around Zhou Qingfeng were mostly speculators. They could not accept having no backup plans. Someone shouted, “Why did you block our escape? What if we fail?”
“If we fail, we’re dead!”
Chapter end
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