End of the World: The Doctor 7.5

Pleasing Start-Over Chapter 83: Arc 7 Part 5

Author: 橘子

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Long Ao personally led the team. The convoy included three military grade jeeps and six modified trucks. They all set off at the same time to escort Mu Chen to his family’s old pharmaceutical factory to fetch the equipment. Two years had already passed since the world first ‘ended’. Qiao Chen’s family’s pharmaceutical factory was basically abandoned and rotting.

The general population still needed medicines for basic diseases even though zombie attacks and wounds could only be healed by those with healing abilities. There were too few people with healing abilities after all. They wouldn’t be able to take care of zombie wounds as well as fevers or infections at the same time.

Unfortunately, as time goes on, medicine stock decreased. There were less and less drugs they could give to the sick and needy. There were people dying because they weren’t able to receive proper treatment on time. The base not only needed people who knew how to research and produce drugs, but they also needed to have enough raw materials and equipment. Bases with all three of these were exceedingly rare.

Qiao Chen directed the soldiers to drive the car to the equipment storage unit after they entered the pharmaceutical factory. He looked out the window and estimated the number of zombies outside. A place like this should have a lot of high leveled zombie gathering around. However, there were far less zombies here than he expected. Qiao Chen scanned the deteriorated houses and compared them to the others that had broken into rubble. There seemed to have been a group of people fighting the zombies around here recently.

Long Ao sat next to Qiao Chen the entire time. He noticed Qiao Chen frowning while lost in thought, so he asked, “What are you thinking about?”

“Judging from the remnants left behind there seems to have been people who were here recently. This used to be a very populous city, but it’s been two years already. Everyone who survived would have long moved away already. Who would venture into this zombie infested wasteland for a long abandoned pharmaceutical factory? It’s even more curious since it’s very obvious that there should be a high concentration of high leveled zombies here too…”

Long Ao looked out the window too and quickly surveyed the surrounding environment as he asked, “Who else knew that there was a shipment of new equipment hidden away in your family’s pharmaceutical factory?”

Qiao Chen lowered his head and thought for a while. Then he said, “ I know of a few people who know too, but… Let’s retrieve the equipment first. I’ll talk to you about this matter as thoroughly as you want after we return. I’m very confident in our security measures. Those people wouldn’t be able to obtain the equipment even if they knew about it.”

Qiao Chen figured that it was probably Fang Huailin and them who visited this place. There were other people who worked in the factory before and knew about the new equipment and vault, but he had seen many of those people mutate into zombies or die due to the zombie outbreak. Qiao Chen mentioned the equipment to Fang Huailin before, so it was most likely him who informed his base.

The vault was underground. It was very likely that zombies were littered throughout the passage leading up to it. Therefore, Long Ao asked the soldiers to go ahead and clear out the zombies in the passageway before the entire convoy entered and clogged up the exit.

Over 20 soldiers jumped out of the back of the truck. A large number of zombies immediately surrounded them, so another 20 soldiers quickly exited the other truck and entered the underground passage to assist them.

The underground road was very wide, but it was hidden. If one didn’t know about it in advance, then it’d be quite difficult to find.

“Do you know about puzzle mechanisms?” Qiao Chen asked as they waited in the car.

“Aren’t those things that only existed in ancient times?” Long Ao replied.

“My grandfather liked to study those things. This underground vault has a long history. Its inception was during his time. My grandfather set it up with a mechanical puzzle locks during his era when there wasn’t that much technology to keep things safe. Later on, my father inherited the family business and re-built it with modern technology. However, as a double safety measure he retained the security measures my grandfather created when he renovated it.”

Zhang Gang, the leader of the first team, ran out of the underground passage and stood at the vehicle Long Ao and Qiao Chen were in. He reported, “Captain Long. The interior of the passageway has been cleared out. There weren’t as many zombies as we thought there’d be.”

Long Ao and Qiao Chen exited the car and entered the passage way. They surveyed the fallen zombie corpses in the tunnel and there were indeed far less zombies than expected. The storage vault entrance had five layers to go through: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. If the door was forcibly opened, then the mechanism would be triggered. Qiao Chen looked at the first door that had been forcibly opened. That group was probably caught unprepared. This type of trap mechanism probably caused some internal injuries, so they were less likely to force the second door open.

However, the difficulty of each layer increased the closer you got to the entrance. Furthermore, if the last layer was forced open then the entire vault would self destruct. Everyone and everything inside would be blasted into smithereens.

Only Mu Chen and his father knew how to open this vault. After his father died, Mu Chen was the sole person who knew how to open it. Qiao Chen entered the password and pressed his palm into the scanner. A visual scanner popped out of the wall and scanned Qiao Chen’s face. Every time Qiao Chen entered a set of passwords, a door was opened.

The soldiers stared at the vault filled with various instruments and equipment. ‘No wonder we needed a convoy of five trucks…‘

“There are wheels under these devices, so you can just push them out. However, you need to be careful when you use the jack to lift them into the truck.” Qiao Chen said to the soldiers

“Are we taking all of these away?” Zhang Gang asked as he looked over all the brand new items. These big ticket items were definitely being taken, but there were still a lot of smaller items. They looked fragile, and they wouldn’t be able to drive smoothly if a zombie horde attacked.

“Of course. It shouldn’t be left behind. None of it, even if you think it’s too small to matter. These are all things we can and will use.” Qiao Chen replied.

Qiao Chen led Long Ao to the vault doors. After opening the door with his biometrics, he looked at Long Ao and said, “There are a variety of precious medicinal materials and raw chemical materials. I am positive that I will use them in the future. We need to bring them all back.”

As a matter of fact, medicines weren’t entirely useless against zombie attacks. It’s just that it wasn’t as effective due to there being a new type of virus and bacteria mixing into the wounds. More needed to be researched and developed to specifically to treat zombie based attacks and illnesses.

The soldiers packed the entire contents of the vault into all their trucks. Qiao Chen hesitated on whether or not he should re lock the door. If the doors were closed, then those people would return here again and attempt to force all the doors open. He was quite reluctant to have them come back just to destroy his family storage vault. After thinking about it further, Qiao Chen decided to leave the vault doors open.

As soon as they exited the pharmaceutical factory’s gates, they saw several cars heading their direction. Then the other convoy passed by and headed straight to the vault they left behind. Qiao Chen and the rest of his group knew what the other party was going to do, but the other group was probably quite confused to see them all the way out here.

After their car had driven a certain distance, the cars that just passed them turned back around and caught up. Long Ao’s team had precious equipment, so they didn’t deliberately speed off to their base. The other party came with empty cars, so they were able to catch up quite quickly. They honked their horns and signaled to Long Ao’s team to stop.

Long Ao sat in the front of the car. He had the soldiers drive their cars to a section of road where there were no zombies to stop. The other party’s vehicles also pulled over and parked alongside them. Long Ao saw someone exit the vehicle and make their way towards them. He followed suit and exited his vehicle as well.

“You took our things.” Fang Huailin said. He quickly realized that Long Ao was the leader of the group and spoke to him frankly.

“Your things? Are you the owner of that pharmaceutical factory?” Long Ao asked rhetorically.

“Not only have we spent numerous time and resources to get those things, but many of our soldiers also died in the process. Although I am not the owner of that factory, the owner is from our base anyways. You taking away our things like this it’s just too…”

“What are you talking about? Why doesn’t the beginning of your speech match the ending of it?” Zhang Gang interrupted. “If the owner is from your base, then how would you need to sacrifice so much time and resources for it? Are you even able to get inside to get these things?”

“You may think that my story doesn’t add up, but I’m not lying. The world is in chaos and I know that each base looks to take care of their own. However, before the apocalypse happened, we are all soldiers who served under the same beliefs. We as soldiers can’t have changed just because the world did can we? Isn’t it still bad to steal from others?” Fang Huailin looked at Long Ao and said.

“You’re talking a lot of crap. But the key thing I understand is that if the owner of the factory is from your base, then that means that those things belong to that base. Am I correct?”

“You can interpret that as so.” Fang Huailin replied.

“Then what if I said that the owner of the factory is from our base?”

“Impossible. The owner of the factory is my childhood friend. Our families were even friends with each other. I brought him to our base when the world ended. How could he be from your base? I don’t care about what methods you used to open the vault doors, but I’m still trying to reason with you. You better be able to make it make sense.”

“Really?” Long Ao squinted at Fang Huailin. A sharp glint flashed in his eyes. He seemed to have guessed something with those few words Fang Huailin had said.

Qiao Chen listened to their conversation in the car. He finally opened the door and hopped out.

“Mu Chen?” Fang Huailin widened his eyes in shock. “You’re still alive?”

The soldiers behind Fang Huailin who knew Qiao Chen were also very shocked. Sun Yu’s brother, Sun Bin, was especially shocked. They all thought Mu Chen was dead. He was a person without abilities after all. It was impossible for him to live for long after he left the base on his own.

“Yeah, sorry to disappoint you, but I’m still alive. I’ve come back to my pharmaceutical factory and am retrieving my family’s things. You shouldn’t have an opinion on that right?” Qiao Chen said. He listened in the care for a while and was not going to allow Fang Huailin take his equipment while using his own name.

“Mu Chen… Those things are very important to our base. In order to retrieve those things, we’ve already lost more than 20 of our soldiers. We have to bring those things back.” Fang Huailin resolutely said as he looked at Qiao Chen.

“That’s none of my business. What does any of that have to do with me? Don’t I still have the right to manage the things that belong to me?” Qiao Chen didn’t want to talk nonsense with Fang Huailin any further. He said his piece and returned to the car.

“Wait, wait! Mu Chen!” Fang Huailin quickly stopped Qiao Chen and said, “You lived in our base for nearly two years. Don’t you have any gratitude? And even if you don’t feel grateful for the base that took you in in your time of need, can’t you think about me? We have known each other for so many years now. You can’t tell me that you don’t care at all.”

Qiao Chen sneered, “I would probably have some sort of mental condition if I still felt any gratefulness for your base. I would probably be insane if I still cared about the so called feelings we have because we’ve known each other for so long. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that you used to force me to hand over my family’s scalpel set. How about when I was persecuted while I lived there? Don’t think you can go ahead and guilt me over living at your base for two years. There’s nothing for me to pay back anymore. The amount of medicines that your base took from my hospital and pharmaceutical factory was enough for me to live for another ten years there if I wanted to.”

“I lived at your base, but I would never call that living.” Qiao Chen replied while looking at Sun Bin. Sun Bun was the worst of them all. He constantly pointed and cursed him out over nothing.

“Mu Chen, those were all just misunderstandings. I apologize to you for them. Just come back to the base with is. Our base needs people like you now more than ever. We will definitely give you the best treatment from now on.” Fang Huailin anxiously said.

Long Ao opened the car door and motioned for Qiao Chen to sit in without any speaking any further. He had already understood everything. Not only was his baby Qiao Chen bullied at the previous base, but he was even forced to escape from there without any regard for his own life or safety. Fang Huailin reached out to pull Qiao Chen back, but Long Ao quickly blocked him. Long Ao closed the door. He looked directly at Fang Huailin with a flashing cold glare.

Fang Huailin glared back, unwilling to be outdone by Long Ao. He thought inwardly that he needed to take the equipment back even if he couldn’t bring Mu Chen back with him. They originally thought that medicines only worked on common illnesses and sicknesses. The never realized that medicines could work on wounds caused by zombies. They all figured that after the medicine supply ran out, they could just rely on the people with healing abilities to replace the need for doctors.

However, some other bases did further drug research and found that certain medicines could control the zombie mutation. Even though they didn’t know when they’d be able to produce a cure, they knew that their base would have a considerable advantage over the others if they were able to successfully create a drug. This would mean that other bases would have to look to them for help with medicines too.

However, there weren’t any scientists, doctors, or even people who would study and manufacture drugs in their 3^rd Division Base. Fang Huailin thought about Mu Chen and how he was both a licensed and trained doctor with a master’s degree in pharmacology. He regretted looking the other way when the people in the base oppressed him so much that he fled from the base.

While Fang Huailin was wallowing in his self pity and regret, he remembered that Mu Chen told him about his family’s pharmaceutical factory and how they had barely imported a batch of new equipments. He thought about it more and remembered that Mu Chen’s family stored it in their underground safe.

Fang Huailin immediately reported this to his commander the moment he recalled all the information. Their commander was also worried about their base falling behind the other bases. He commanded Fang Huailin to obtain the equipment at all costs and bring it back the second he learned about Mu Chen’s safe.

They searched the pharmaceutical factory for several days until they finally found the underground vault. Unfortunately, the vault doors were too hard to open. While attempting to open the vault door, they also had to deal with the zombies nearby coming over to attack them. Many of their soldiers lost their lives due to this. He wouldn’t be able to explain it to his commander if he just let them take all the equipment away like this.

Author’s Note:

Thanked 4x people for their support.

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