Armed Train in the Apocalypse-Chapter 369 - 249: Escape and Hunt

Half an hour later, the wind and rain subsided slightly.

Over three hundred armed soldiers were divided into two parts, with over two hundred staying in the vehicles to guard the survivors.

The rest were split into a dozen five-man squads, landing on the eastern side of Tide Watching Island and advancing inward.

Each team was about a hundred meters apart, with the route determined by the leading officer.

However, due to the limited number of Armed Corps officers, soldiers from the combat groups substituted. Although they weren’t as versatile as Mountain Goat and Pang Tu, their combat prowess was worlds apart compared to those who had only trained for a few days.

In the southeast direction, a five-man squad advanced in a single file. Pang Tu followed at the rear, one hand on the shoulder of the soldier in front, the other pressing the gun stock against his shoulder, vigilantly observing the right-front.

The trees on Tide Watching Island were mostly artificially planted, initially not difficult to traverse, but post-apocalyptic mutations had made it much more challenging. Additionally, many pits were water-filled, and a moment’s negligence could lead to stepping into a deep pit hidden by vines.

Drowning was unlikely, but being entangled by mutated plants was quite troublesome.

The soldier in the first position wielded a makeshift machete crafted from a wooden stick, cutting a path and observing the ground.

The soldier in the second position, a "Defender" with enhanced vision, focused on the furthest point in sight.

The soldier in the third position monitored above for aerial threats.

The fourth position was responsible for the left-front.

During the underwater and cultivation capsule construction period, the armed soldiers couldn’t do much physical training. So He Jie and several officers held tactical classes for the soldiers in shifts every day.

The Steel Council was cultivating them as officer seeds, ensuring each person was versatile in multiple combat roles. Although He Jie often appeared as a brute wielding two heavy machine guns, he could skillfully perform battlefield driving, precision shooting, and mine laying and clearing.

Among these seventy-plus combat skills, his most outstanding were advanced battlefield command and machine gunning.

His sniping wasn’t precise when compared to Qu Hang, and his medical skills were lacking compared to Pang Tu.

Even if thrown into the air force, he’d be an excellent paratrooper.

Only in the presence of Su Huan, who seemed to have the cheat of the Prophet, did these soldiers appear clumsy and foolish.

No matter how much they knew about tactics, they couldn’t utilize them in that special place in the armory.

After being reinforced by these elite soldiers, the armed soldiers somewhat shaped up.

But with sparse training, they’d still falter in tactics when compared to elites.

The advantage was that each person had a unique evolutionary ability and was blooded, with no psychological issues.

Suddenly, the sound of something breaking through the air rang out abruptly.

Pang Tu felt a sting on his left cheek, and in an instant, like a rabbit, he leaped to the nearby tree trunk, shouting "Contact left front" while sweeping a burst of bullets toward the attack source.

The soldiers, reacting belatedly, found cover and began to return fire.

The underbrush, as if meeting a lawnmower, splattered sap under five muzzles.

Only when Pang Tu saw a figure collapse did he raise his fist.

But the soldiers below kept clicking empty guns, frustrating him into kicking one down, pressing him to the ground, and giving him a solid blow on the head.

"Don’t you understand ceasefire?!"

But considering it was a battlefield, there was no time to educate him, so he could only command the others to conceal themselves, planning to educate them afterward.

After a while, probing shots revealed no issues, and Pang Tu finally shouted to clean up the battlefield.

Squatting behind a tree, he drew a dagger and used its side to reflect his face.

Seeing a black needle stuck there, with clear swelling around it, he felt a numb anger.

"Captain, are you okay?"

Several soldiers, after confirming the target was dead, gathered with concern, looking at the ten centimeter long black needle on his face.

Pang Tu, while taking out a first aid kit, pointed at the fourth soldier with resentment, "When we get back, you’ll scrub the toilets with a toothbrush for a month!"

Due to the swelling on his cheeks, Pang Tu’s voice was somewhat distorted.

The toxicity was evidently strong.

A Tier One Evolver ended up like this; an ordinary person would likely have died on the spot!

Pang Tu poured some alcohol over the dagger. "Someone pull the needle out of my face."

The soldier in the second position was about to reach out, only to be kicked away by the infuriated Pang Tu.

"Idiot! Didn’t you see it’s a poisonous needle?!"

"Wear gloves!"

Once the needle was removed, the swelling on Pang Tu’s face had risen to a fist’s height. His once rugged facial lines now looked like a plump doughy bun.

The attacker carried no antidote, perhaps never intending to prepare one.

Pang Tu could only accept his bad luck, cutting a cross on his face, squeezing out pus and blood, then using his Tier One "Doctor" profession, he applied a hemostatic and anti-inflammatory ointment made from evolutionary plants he carried.

"Where’s the body?"

"Up ahead, I’ll drag it over."

"I’ll drag you..."

Pang Tu cursed with his unclear speech for a full minute, finally standing up against the tree.

He wasn’t out of words; he was just dizzy.

But now wasn’t the time to rest.

With these idiots, even if he went back now, there’s no guarantee he’d make it back to the vehicle alive.

He had to find support from his team members.

Authentic team members with tactical knowledge, unlike these half-baked individuals.

Approaching the body, he cautiously checked for reflective objects, trap mines, explosives, and other hidden threats before stepping forward to shoot the body twice, then turned the body face-up.

The corpse wore modified jeans and a shirt, marked with stains, reeking of grass juice. The face was painted in gaudy colors, holding a PVC pipe, a leather bag slung at the waist filled with densely packed black needles and plenty of dark green-black powder.