Chương 121: The Drone

"Joseph, Raven is fine. She's just completely drained of energy..." Evelyn gave Colonel Joseph a brief nod, her voice calm.

"Where exactly are we?"

"We took a massive detour around the outskirts of Linjiang. We're about to hit the outer ring road. We follow that inward for a few dozen kilometers, and we'll reach Linjiang University..."

"Today," Evelyn said, doing the mental math, "puts us past the projected deadline." Originally, the route from Jishan to the university was a hundred, maybe two hundred kilometers at most. Under normal conditions, it was a few hours' drive. But they had been crawling for three full days just to reach the city limits.

"Deadlines are just numbers. We're still breathing. As long as we're alive, we'll get there." Joseph paused, a self-deprecating edge to his voice.

"It doesn't matter. The payload we're carrying isn't as critical anymore. I'm sure the Quarantine Zone has already discovered people with similar... traits." As Evelyn spoke, she turned and shot a cold glare at the young man who had been smirking earlier. Catching her eye, the man quickly looked away, avoiding her gaze.

"Speaking of which... we owe Raven for last night. Without her, I don't want to think about how many more we would've lost," Joseph said earnestly.

"Raven was just doing her job. Every single one of us needs to pull our own weight." Evelyn clearly didn't want to dwell on the topic. She frowned, her icy stare locking back onto the young man.

"If you think we have too many medical supplies, making a doctor useless, then why don't you join the scavenging team outside? Go find us some food instead of standing in here spewing garbage."

"You..." Hearing Evelyn publicly call him out, the young man scowled, turning to snap back. She might be one of the two highest-ranking officers in the convoy, and her ice-queen demeanor usually made him feel like prey staring down a predator, but that was before. He used to be a nobody civilian. Not anymore!

"Evelyn, Liu isn't military. People say stupid things when their nerves are shot. Let it slide." Seeing the tension spiking, Joseph quickly stepped in to defuse the bomb. He then turned to the young man." Liu, that's on you too. You're a doctor. We've lost a lot of good men. Cut the jokes."

"... Fine. I apologize." Hearing the reprimand, Liu lowered his head and muttered an apology to the tent, though the defiant twist of his lips showed he didn't mean a word of it. No one cared about the petty squabble. They had much bigger problems—namely, surviving long enough to reach the Quarantine Zone.

"Casualties and busted gear aren't even our biggest headaches right now..." Joseph swept his gaze over the tent. Seeing the atmosphere settle, he lowered his voice.

"We lost the tanker. We had to siphon fuel from the APCs and assault vehicles to make firebombs. If we hadn't, we'd still be buried under that horde. But because we did, we are critically low on diesel." He nodded to a middle-aged officer holding a ledger. The man took the cue. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"We've passed two gas stations already. Both were burned to the ground. The closest functional one to our current position is here..." He tapped a red circle on the map. It was the Tianshui Road Station, located just off the ring road, maybe a dozen kilometers away in a straight line.

"Fuel isn't just what makes the tires spin. It's our primary weapon. We can't restock ammo; every bullet fired is gone forever. If we push straight for the QZ without refueling... based on what we've seen so far, our remaining firebombs might punch through one more horde. But the next one? It won't matter if these vehicles were actual tanks. They'll just be steel coffins." Joseph laid out the brutal truth. He looked around the table, seeking input.

"I need options. What do we have?"

"What if we ditch the civilian bus, consolidate the armed escorts, and make a hard push for the station?" one officer suggested.

"What does that actually solve? Does dumping the bus magically make you kill infected faster?" another immediately shot back.

"If you're so eager to drop dead weight, why didn't you dump them while we were pushing through the horde? Would've bought you some great time to run away, right?" a third sneered mockingly.

"Everyone, chill the hell out! Driving in blind is suicide. We have zero intel on the inner ring, and no way to scout it. We should pool the remaining fuel..." A younger officer cut through the bickering.

"... put together a fast-attack element, and hit the station to extract the gas."

"Extract it? How? You gonna suck it out with a straw?" the ledger-holding man scoffed.

"I'll authorize a vehicle right now. You go get it." The young officer glared at him, but knew his own idea was highly risky.

"Shame Qiao is dead," he muttered quietly.

"Our last drone is just a blind piece of plastic now." Ever since the zombie outbreak, the military districts had gone completely dark. It wasn't just the satellites. Broadcast stations and radar arrays were drowned out by a bizarre, blanketing "white noise." After endless testing, they found only fiber-optics, shortwave, and UHF radios were barely functional. The "drone" he mentioned wasn't some commercial toy relying on GPS or GHz signals. It was a wired military drone, tethered by a spool of fiber-optic cable.

The armory had plenty of spare drones and fiber spools. But the relay box connecting the spool to the drone required specialized hardware and software. You couldn't just jury-rig one in the field. In peacetime, they barely kept any in stock. The few they had were leftovers from old field exercises. Worse, the relay units were incredibly fragile. The entire Jishan base had scraped together maybe four or five working sets. As they broke down one by one, the convoy was left with exactly one when they rolled out.

They had guarded it with their lives. Ironically, the drone was perfectly fine, but the pilot had been killed in action. Without him, their most valuable scouting tool was effectively blind. A collective sigh rippled through the tent.

"Fuck me... I haven't fought a war this poor in twenty years." The middle-aged man slammed his ledger onto the table, his voice laced with bitter defeat.

"War runs on logistics. No country's military is built for an apocalypse," Joseph said.

"And besides, this isn't a war anymore. It's raw survival." Seeing the heavy silence in the room, Joseph knew he had to rally them. If morale broke here, the convoy was dead.

"Since no one has a better plan, we do it my way. Two hours of R&R, then the whole column moves out. APC One takes the vanguard, APC Two takes the rear. Zheng, organize the assault vehicles, the supply trucks, and the civvies in the center..." He looked toward Evelyn standing near the back, his eyes complex.

"Evelyn, I was raised under General Ye. This entire task force exists solely to protect you and Raven. Trust me. No matter what happens, I will get you both to the Quarantine Zone."

"The drone might not be completely useless." Before Joseph could finish his speech, Evelyn finally broke her silence, dropping a bombshell.

"What do you mean?" Joseph stopped mid-sentence, immediately pivoting.

"You can't fly that thing without specialized training. We lost one back at the QZ just because the pilot was inexperienced..."

"Raven. Her ability... might be able to interface with it," Evelyn said evenly, completely ignoring the doubt in Joseph's voice.

"Are you sure?" Joseph's eyes lit up. He was confident he could out-tactics anyone in the room, but when it came to these unprecedented, supernatural abilities, the "scientist" in front of him was the absolute authority.

"Sure?" Evelyn frowned.

"Joseph, you've gone soft. Why do I need to be sure? If no one can fly the last drone, it's as good as crashed anyway. You guys flying it is a one hundred percent guarantee of a crash. Raven flying it is a ninety-nine percent chance. You never used to need me to make decisions like that for you."