Chapter 47: Chapter 47: Smith’s Attitude
Inside the swimming pool, Smith was talking with a few students.
"No, no, no! You are all still a bunch of kids, you cannot possess weapons yet."
"Listen to me, you’re not adults yet. Since I am in this position, I am your only guardian. The rescue you imagine is impossible. It’s been ten days—have you seen any signs of rescue?"
"Hope is definitely there. Just a few days ago, I was in contact with the consulate in Ice City through radio. I explained the situation here, and they promised me they would send our consulate’s guard team to participate in the rescue. Everyone will be safe by then."
"Alright, alright, all of you go back. I will surely be responsible for you until the end. This is the promise from your dean of discipline."
Smith dismissed a group of students and sat in a chair, pondering.
This crisis came suddenly. The domestic teachers at the school were in a meeting, probably taking notes or something, and then the apocalypse arrived, wiping them out.
As foreign teachers, they didn’t need to learn these things, so many of them survived the catastrophe. Nearly a hundred foreign teachers originally, now almost twenty remain, many of whom were introduced here by Smith, making him naturally the leader.
Smith remained quite composed, immediately organizing people to hide in the swimming pool, and risked going to the nearby police station at the first opportunity.
The police station is right next to the school. It was lunch break time and a few police officers had mutated, but they found many guns.
Thus, the surviving students and a group of foreign teachers used the swimming pool as their base to survive.
As students, it’s natural to listen to the teachers. Moreover, these high school students are just a bunch of kids, with no schemes at all, so they remained under the leadership of Smith and his colleagues.
After observing the situation for a few days, Smith confirmed that the current situation had deteriorated beyond repair.
However, he was still holding on, and the conversation with their consulate was real.
The consulate indeed promised to send people to rescue them, but for several days afterwards, they lost contact with the radio, and Smith wasn’t sure if the rescuers would come.
Moreover, in Smith’s mind, he didn’t find this way of living too bad.
If no rescue came, he would be the highest leader here. He had more than a dozen guns, and his foreign teacher team had around twenty people, not weak in strength.
There were also about three hundred students, evenly divided between boys and girls.
If they stayed here, he could totally turn it into his private kingdom.
Bit by bit, he would clear the zombies around. The school campus would be his territory. The boys would labor, and the girls would work too, though he wouldn’t let the youthful and lively young girls slip away from his grasp.
However, these young students weren’t like the few coquettish ones in society who would throw themselves at foreigners—no one came to him proactively, which made him feel that in the upcoming distribution of food, he should show some girls who’s in charge around here.
Some unruly boys had already been quietly dealt with by Smith. In this zombie-infested world, dealing with a few disobedient kids was extremely easy, but the job wasn’t done discreetly. Some students already knew.
He wasn’t from this country and had no patriotic feelings for it. He didn’t need to consider others’ feelings. For those kids, causing any trouble in front of him while he had weapons was quite difficult.
Currently, what worried him most wasn’t the zombie problem. In his view, zombies lacked intelligence and weren’t that hard to deal with. His worry was Qin Han’s people coming to rescue these students.
He had already killed, so if someone rescued them, he would likely face a bad outcome.
Although the possibility was small, the cautious Smith made many arrangements.
Besides strengthening the guard, his people were always monitoring the students, ready to use them as hostages, as his lifeline, if anyone tried to rescue forcefully.
Ensuring the safety of hundreds of students shouldn’t allow anyone to dare force an attack here, which Smith was confident about.
Smith patted the gun at his waist, feeling satisfied.
If his national consulate sent people, he would be willing to join them. If not, no matter, this way of living wasn’t bad.
Pondering, he began fiddling with a set of broadcasting equipment here, trying to contact their national consulate.
"Hello! This is Smith, calling the consulate..."
"Zzzzz~~~!"
The sound of static echoed, with no response.
Smith cut off the broadcast. Occasionally, he would hear broadcasts from other places here. They were from survivors seeking rescue or people who established bases recruiting others.
But he didn’t care about those; he wasn’t planning to rely on any of Qin Han’s people.
*********
Xu Haoran quietly slid down from the second floor of the gymnasium and sneaked back to Ye Fan.
"Officer, this is the situation I recorded."
Ye Fan waved his hand. He had already understood the general situation through Xu Haoran’s perspective.
The children at the school were now under Smith’s control. Currently, the situation was stable, but Smith wasn’t a good person; he was unfriendly to the students.
The end was still early; the situation hadn’t spiraled out of control. Going at this rate, it wouldn’t take long for Smith to turn this place into his private kingdom.
And Ye Fan found his mission target this time.
Through Xu Haoran’s perspective, he saw his sister Ye Luo among the crowd of girls.
Sixteen-year-old Ye Luo still had a bit of baby fat, with bangs and big eyes, pale skin, and the potential to be a beauty.
Their family had good genes; their father had thick eyebrows and big eyes, very spirited in his youth, and their mother was a gentle and elegant woman.
If his sister grew older, she would definitely be beautiful. As for himself... maybe not bad.
In the crowd now, Ye Luo kept her head down, huddled small and inconspicuous, which made Ye Fan feel a bit heartbroken.
He could still remember playing with his sister all day when they were kids. His sister was a very obedient girl; she shouldn’t be suffering here.
So, no matter what, he had to rescue his sister.
After thinking it through, Ye Fan felt he shouldn’t show up. Smith was somewhat uncontrollable. If he recognized him, his sister might still be in danger.
Forcing an attack was not feasible either. This person was extremely vigilant. Even if they could sneakily kill him, the foreign teachers scattered among the crowd with weapons might pose even greater danger.
Ye Fan certainly didn’t want to turn this mission into a hostage rescue operation while having such powerful armed forces, which would be distasteful.
"That Smith is still trying to contact their consulate; what does that mean...?"
Ye Fan thought for a while, having a vague idea in mind, but still decided to send a few people to probe.
Currently, there were some wounded in his team. Under his company commander level medicine’s 400% special effect, these wounded recovered significantly and could function independently.
He dispatched seven people, three wounded and four Three-Star Army Soldiers, ensuring firepower dominance in case of conflict to avoid losses.
Ye Fan instructed them face-to-face. Under the cover of others, they circled around from the edge of the campus, clearing zombies along the way, and arrived at the side gate of the school.
The side gate was near the swimming pool. They disguised themselves as an escaping team and walked in.
Just entering, they were spotted by foreign teachers patrolling the swimming pool.
The patrol immediately grew wary. Where did these soldiers come from? They looked injured, and it didn’t seem like zombie scratches, as people scratched by zombies would also turn into zombies.
"Halt! What are you doing?"
Army Soldier Luo Fei immediately said, "Ah! There are actually people here, let us rest for a bit. We are surviving soldiers from the military district, originally aiming to rescue survivors, but were wounded by a squad of foreign soldiers."
"Wait a minute; I’ll ask first."
The foreign teacher immediately reported to Smith.
Upon hearing this report, Smith felt a mix of joy and concern.
Joy because he heard of foreign soldiers; could they be sent by his consulate?
Concern because these Qin Han soldiers weren’t easy to deal with. Letting them in might cause the situation to spiral out of control.
"Absolutely cannot let them in. Besides our national soldiers, no one else is allowed!"
Following Smith’s instructions, the foreign teacher came out, crouched on the roof, and loudly said, "This place now serves as a haven for foreign teachers. During this special period, we do not welcome anyone who isn’t from our country. You should find somewhere else."
Luo Fei tried to say something, but the foreign teacher even raised a gun in warning. Knowing they couldn’t let Qin Han soldiers in, his stance was surprisingly firm.
Luo Fei pretended to scold a few words, as having wounded on their side made fighting inconvenient, so they retreated from the side gate to report back to Ye Fan.
Having observed everything, Ye Fan had a good understanding of the situation.
"Only foreigners allowed, racial issues—it’s clear this Old Shi would do this. Seems we’ll have to try that method."