Rise of the Wasteland Chapter 136 - Chaos and Misery

Arc Two - Chaos and Misery

Chapter 136        Chaos and Misery

The NYPD headquarters was a relatively large building and they had gotten themselves something more than mere vehicles. Zhou Qingfeng ordered a few men to guard every entrance of the building. Then, they proceeded with their search operation.

As soon as the cataclysm occurred, more than a dozen of people had rushed to the NYPD headquarters. However, due to the violence that occurred after, no one dared to enter the building anymore. The entire building was empty.

There were twenty to thirty departments in the NYPD headquarters. Zhou Qingfeng first found a large number of police equipment, pistols, rifles, shotguns, stun guns, digital walkie-talkies, handcuffs, pepper sprays, night vision devices, mini-drones and many other items from the various safe deposit boxes. Besides that, they also found a large number of cops’ personal items, including a lot of good stuff among them.

There were thousands of high-power digital walkie-talkies among the cops’ personal items. For Zhou Qingfeng and the others, these walkie-talkies were more useful than guns - they could connect the entire New York City and were the only reliable and convenient communication tool after the failure of mobile phones.

“Take all of these items to the truck.”

Zhou Qingfeng grouped his search team members into different groups. There were four group leaders, including him. Each led around ten men and continued their search operation. In the end, they realized that there were simply too many items in the NYPD headquarters. Therefore, they could only pick the most useful ones and take them along with them.

“Ah…… Look at what I’ve found!” Zhou Qingfeng shrieked at a box of ammo. He had already selected an MRAP armored vehicle as his mount. The heavy-duty armor allowed him to basically ignore any obstacle. He was planning to put the M249 machine gun on the machine gun tower to fire at his enemies. Now with a box of .223 caliber bullets provided to him, he would be able to fire his shots continuously.

Meanwhile, during the search in the NYPD headquarters, a large number of people had been gathering once again in the town hall square, which was not far away from the NYPD headquarters. The corpses from yesterday had been cleaned up thoroughly, but the blood on the floor was still ghastly to look at. Nieto was standing in the middle of the crowd, terrified.

The scene where Zetas got attacked by a backhoe loader was still fresh in their memory. Most of the people who joined Zetas with Nieto were dead. Every time he thought about it, he felt extremely lucky.

However, Nieto should not be terrified if he was truly lucky. He should have escaped yesterday, but he was one step out of time. His legs sank under him when he got yelled by Guzman. As a result, he remained standing in the town hall square on the next day as he prepared for the founding ceremony of the Republic of New York.

“What a damn the Republic of New York is. It’s a complete joke. Can’t they just give up after losing so many people?” Nieto looked outside the square and discovered that a huge crowd was flooding towards Brooklyn area. However, it was different this time around. Zetas was much more cautious regarding recruitment and it seemed that they had increased their recruitment standards.

Zetas had only recruited about three hundred people this time based on their physical fitness, appearance, and ability. This had caused the other tens of thousands of people who could not join a great deal of frustration. These people began to wander around Manhattan like they were a plague of locusts.

Yes, it’s another tens of thousands. Tens of thousands of people departed yesterday, but another ten of thousands of people arrived today. Nieto felt that the days to come will only get harder and harder

“Nieto,” someone was yelling at him from behind.

Nieto was shocked. He turned around and saw the bearded Guzman slowly approaching him. “Get over here. From now onwards, you’ll be the leader of our seventh subgroup. These ten men will be under your command. Take them to dinner and arrange some accommodations for them too. Remember, if anyone dares to revolt against your order, you have the license to kill.”

Guzman pat Nieto’s back heavily to remind him that he was still carrying a rifle and a pistol. On the other hand, Nieto did not understand why he had been selected as a leader; he could not even use a gun. He was only a nineteen-year-old farmer from Mexico.

But, now…...

Nieto held his head high as he tried to learn Guzman's fierce expression. He then strode towards his own men. He first scolded them then he kicked them. When someone could no longer bear with him and tried to resist, Nieto turned his rifle around and slammed his opponent to the ground.

Nieto only allowed them to eat dinner when all of them were terrified. However, when they walked past Guzman, the real cold-blooded man laughed and said, “You’re learning quite fast. But, you’re still not good enough. I would directly shoot that guy who tried to resist if I were you.”

Nieto did not even dare to look Guzman in the eyes when he stood in front of him. For the past two days, when he closed his eyes, he kept recalling the scene where he and the others flew across the battlefield In those dreams, it was actually Guzman who fired at them from the back using a pistol.

The so-called ‘receipt for food’ was merely allocating some biscuits and dry bread to each person. They were not even provided with water and they must figure things out themselves. However, the treatment they received was considered a luxury. Everyone who joined Zetas was starving so, they were very grateful when they actually received some food.

While receiving the food, Nieto secretly drew a few bullets out from his pocket and said to the person who delivered the food, "How about a bullet for a piece of bread?"

"Two 9x19mm Luger or a .223 caliber bullet for a piece of bread if you really want it." A big, fat man distributed the food. He was recruited by Zetas only because he had cooking skills.

“We agreed on a pistol bullet for a piece of bread yesterday, don’t you remember?” Nieto wanted to negotiate with him.

“You too know that we agreed on it yesterday, right? Are you still going to eat if you’ve eaten yesterday?” The fat chef held his ground, “So, do you still want to exchange with me or not? Get the f*ck out of here if you don’t want to. But I need to remind you that our food will only get lesser and lesser.”

Nieto had no other choice but to exchange the bullets in his hand for two extra pieces of bread. His subordinates watched him silently. They tried to secretly note down the location and the prices on the black market.

After he finished receiving the food, Nieto took his men to a building near town hall. He allocated them to a house before returning back to his own room. He knocked on the door and said, "Hailey, Sofia, open the door. It's me. I’m back."

The sound of a heavy object being moved can be heard behind the door followed by the creak an opening hinge. The women inside threw a few glances from inside with a pistol in their hands and they only opened the door after finally confirming that the man was indeed Nieto.

Two women were given to him as a reward yesterday. Hailey was a young, black girl in her teens while Sofia was a Mexican woman of over thirty.

“I’ve brought you guys some food. But, there’s no water.”

Nieto took out the bread which he exchanged for bullets.

The women in Zetas did not have rights to receive food and the men who owned them had the responsibility to feed them. Thus, the current states for women were worse.

Nieto was fairly kind. He had a crazy night with the two women last night, but he liked the young and beautiful Hailey more. Hence, he gave her some extra food.

The older Sofia did not revolt even though she was faced with the injustice. Instead, she even handed half of her own share of food to Nieto and said, “You should eat more. I’ve collected some water and it should be enough for us for at least two days.”

In just the blink of an eye, Hailey had already finished eating her serves of bread. She even stared at the bread which Sofia handed to Nieto. After throwing a glance at her, Nieto said, “You can eat it, Hailey. I’m full anyway.”

Hailey literally threw herself at the food as she grabbed the bread from Sofia’s hand. She was able to finish the other half of the bread within a mere three to five bites. She then began to nibble Nieto’s neck. After a few minutes of foreplay, she successfully stimulated Nieto to have sex with her.

Various types of weird noises could be heard from the room. Sofia finished eating her bread quietly before she sat in the living room and stared blankly into space.

Chapter end