83: Chapter 83 Are you their leader?

Everyone turned their heads at the same time, wondering if another person bitten by zombies had been sent over; Head Nurse Shen Ning's light-type Supernatural ability had just been completely exhausted.

If treated immediately after being bitten, it wouldn't consume so much Supernatural ability, but treating an infection consumed it very quickly, making it impossible to maintain an F-level output for half an hour.

Old Qiao and Xu Jingping moved Qin Qingru to a side bed and wheeled her out. "Get her settled in the isolation ward first. You all can watch from outside; I need to get back to work."

The medical center was currently short-staffed. After The Apocalypse was declared, many doctors and nurses in the hospital chose to go home and were unable to return to work in the short term.

Xu Wanning glanced at Qin Qingru in the ward, then looked at Xu Jingping and Xu Yu. "Second Uncle, Xiaoyu, you two stay here to keep Second Aunt company. I'm going back to continue the mission."

"Alright, stay safe." The two didn't try to make her stay; as the team leader, it certainly wouldn't do for her to wait here with them.

Xu Wanning turned and walked out. As she reached the main entrance, she bumped into a patient being wheeled in. The patient's arm was broken; it didn't look like it was caused by a zombie, but rather by someone else.

She didn't linger, went straight outside, got into her SUV, and set off.

By the time she drove back to the entrance of Jiang Heng's residential complex, the air was filled with a pungent, scorched, and fishy stench.

Her stomach churned. She was all too familiar with this smell—the scent of burning zombies. Once you've smelled it, you'll never forget it for the rest of your life.

She pushed open the car door, stored the vehicle in her spatial storage, and walked inside, her boot soles crunching on the ash drifting onto the ground.

In front of Building 5, an incineration point had been set up. Right now, only Xu Jingan, Lu Mingyuan, Ma Yang, and Song Qiang were there.

The incineration point must have been created by Uncle Lu using his Earth-type Ability. There were quite a few zombies inside, and the flames shot up high, orange tongues of fire licking at the corpses within.

Once one layer was burned away, they added another. The others were still clearing out other buildings, and a steady stream of zombies was being sent over.

They were piled up on a patch of open ground not far away, stacked helter-skelter.

Ma Yang and Song Qiang walked over, one grabbing the shoulders and the other the legs, and tossed a corpse into the fire. The flames surged violently, and the sizzling and crackling sounds were actually quite satisfying to hear.

Not far from the incineration point, a crowd of people had gathered, including the eight individuals who had caused trouble earlier. Xu Wanning spotted the Tattooed Man at a glance, hatred surging in her eyes.

Survivors from other buildings were still emerging in a steady stream; even though they shouted for them to go back, they refused to return.

They just stood not far from the incineration point, eyes fixed intently on the flickering flames and the busy members of the Dawn Squad.

Roughly counting, there were about sixty or so people, and the number would only continue to increase in a while.

Xu Jingan was the first to see Xu Wanning. He strode over in a few steps and lowered his voice, "Ningning, how is Second Aunt?"

"She was saved," Xu Wanning replied in a low voice as well. "Head Nurse Shen Ning and Qingqing treated her together. The infection has been controlled, and she is now in isolation for observation at the medical center."

Xu Jingan's shoulders visibly relaxed. He took a deep breath and let it out, covering his mouth as he tilted his chin toward the people on the periphery of the fire.

"Ningning, these people are not easy to deal with. Ever since we started burning the corpses, they've been gathering around."

"At first, they just watched, but then they started chattering and asking questions—asking if we were sent by the government, when the rescue team would arrive, and when supplies would be distributed."

"I told them the self-rescue plan as you instructed, but they wouldn't listen," Xu Jingping said with a look of helplessness.

"They wouldn't listen?" Xu Wanning understood to some extent; it wasn't that they wouldn't listen, it was that they simply didn't want to.

Before the two could finish talking, there was a reaction from the crowd. A middle-aged man standing at the very front took the lead and walked two steps toward Xu Wanning, sizing her up by the firelight.

This man was about 40 years old, wearing a grey jacket with messy, bird's-nest hair. His physique was considered quite good among the survivors; he had some meat on his belly and bulging arms—he looked strong at a glance.

He stood in front of Xu Wanning with his hands on his hips, "Are you their leader?"

His voice was full and resonant, sounding like someone who had once been a minor leader; his speech carried a habitual tone of issuing orders.

Xu Wanning didn't answer. She turned to face him, her right hand hanging naturally at her side, close to the holster on her thigh, her expression calm as she waited for him to continue.

The middle-aged man was slightly thrown off by her silence, but he immediately regained his momentum, pointing at the minibus outside with a voice loud enough for everyone at the incineration point to hear.

"It's a good thing you came to clear the zombies, and we thank you for that, but clearing them isn't enough. What about food? What about water?"

"Look at how many people are here—the old, the young. Several with chronic illnesses have run out of medicine, and the children's formula has been gone for a long time. Since you have the ability, you should take responsibility to the end."

"That's right, you can't just handle the dead and ignore the living!" a woman holding an infant chimed in sharply from the crowd. The baby was squirming in her arms and crying, its wail so thin it was almost inaudible.

"We haven't seen a single pill since the city was locked down," an old woman said, leaning on a cane as she took a trembling step forward.

Her cloudy eyes glistened with tears in the firelight. "Are you sent by the government? The government can't ignore us. Taxpayers' money supports you, so you have to look after our lives."

More people began to shout all at once.

Some said their children had no snacks to eat; some asked why the rescue personnel were only coming now and not bringing food, water, or medicine; others weren't even talking but just shouting, purely using the volume of their voices to prove their own presence.

The voices of dozens of people mixed together, giving one a headache.

Xu Wanning didn't speak immediately. She waited quietly, waiting for the first wave of the noisy crowd to tire themselves out, start panting, and stop before she took a step forward.

Her soles crunched lightly on some branches, but even that small sound made the few people in the front row subconsciously step back.

"I'm going to say three things," her voice wasn't loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears.

"First, we are not sent by the government."

"We are a registered survivor squad. Before The Apocalypse, the authorities already sent you enough supplies and medicine for one month. After The Apocalypse, no one will bring supplies here again, and no one will take care of whether you live or die, except for yourselves."

A buzz erupted in the crowd. The middle-aged man opened his mouth as if to say something, but after being swept by Xu Wanning's gaze, he swallowed his words.

"Second, we came to clear this residential complex because we accepted a bounty from the Mission Hall. Our mission is to clear zombies—only clear zombies. Other matters are not our concern, and whether you live or die has nothing to do with us."

The crowd buzzed again.

"Third," she raised her voice slightly, suppressing the commotion that was beginning to surge again in the crowd.