103 The walls collapse (1/2)

the north of town were already in a state of disarray. Before the group left with Wang Fugui, Ren Xiaosu jumped atop a roof and looked north. He was shocked to see a dense, dark cloud of bugs were currently overwhelming the town.

That sight made it look like the town had suddenly been dyed black with an inkpot. The originally colorful town was getting taken over by the invading swarm of insects.

The wild animals were further out and running over. Ren Xiaosu did not spot the wolf pack or the Experimentals, so the face bugs were probably the first wave of creatures to reach the town. But he thought that it wouldn't take too long before an even greater danger arrived.

The refugees were all fleeing to the stronghold's gate and crying as they begged outside the walls for those in the stronghold to save them.

”Open the gate, quick!”

”Please, open the gate and save us! Don't you all see those bugs?!”

”Please, just let my child in!”

The refugees outside the walls were all begging on their knees, but the private troops guarding the walls only gave some token fire with their automatic rifles at the dense cloud of bugs. At no time did they ever think of opening the gate to let the refugees through.

Besides, their action of firing at the bugs was no different from trying to put out a forest fire with a bucket of water.

Seeing that the bugs were about to arrive and the gate was still firmly shut, some of the refugees started cursing. But before they could swear much, they were forced to leave. Otherwise, the bugs would be here!

Ren Xiaosu had never had expectations of anyone, so his initial reaction was not to go to the stronghold to bargain but to leave immediately.

He didn't care if other people lived or died. All he wanted was to take care of Yan Liuyuan and the others first.

At the beginning, Ren Xiaosu was worried that Wang Fugui would bring along many cumbersome items. But then he discovered that Wang Fugui and Wang Dalong were only carrying one backpack each. Although Wang Dalong looked a little stupid, he was very strong. He did not look careless at all carrying his belongings.

There was even a moment when Ren Xiaosu wondered if Wang Dalong was a supernatural being himself. Ren Xiaosu opened Wang Dalong's backpack and took a look inside. He found it was filled with hardtack that had circulated from the stronghold, while Wang Fugui's backpack was filled with medicinal supplies.

The medicinal supplies had been taken out of their packaging and stored into plastic bottles according to their function to make them easy to carry around.

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked Wang Fugui as he led everyone in their escape to the southwest, ”I thought you would bring gold or something similar.”

”I would have liked to, but I don't have the strength to carry them. If my stamina doesn't last, I'll end up dead,” Wang Fugui said with a bitter expression. ”But I did bring quite a bit of money with me. However, they're all issued by the Qing Consortium. When we get to Stronghold 109 and exchange them for the Li Consortium's currency, they're probably going to be devalued by half.”

Wang Fugui was panting as he ran. As he usually didn't exercise, he ended up being the most tired as they were making their escape.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. ”Quit complaining. The medicine you've brought with you is valuable stuff. Those thousands of anti-inflammatory pills you have are worth 200 yuan each.”

There was also another thing. Now that they were escaping, money was useless when compared to medicine.

Zhang Jinglin had once said that gold was a hard currency. However, he didn't mention another hard currency, medicine.

In fact, Wang Fugui had made the smartest decision this time.

…

Not every refugee in town was foolish enough to cry for help at the stronghold walls. Some also understood the important people in the stronghold did not care about the lives of the refugees. As such, they decided to escape straight into the wilderness.

When Ren Xiaosu and company left, they could still hear the cries of the refugees who stayed behind and gunshots fired from the top of the walls. Soon after, an even more thunderous sound rang out. Ren Xiaosu turned back to look and saw that the private troops atop the wall had started throwing grenades and bombs down!