Rise of the Wasteland Chapter 57 - Am I Someone Who You Could Easily Provoke?

Chapter 57        Am I Someone Who You Could Easily Provoke?

As Lena Fox listened to Zhou Qingfeng, she was astonished for a few seconds before she laughed bitterly and said, “I’m sorry. I just can’t accept the fact that I’m supposed to be dead.” She lowered her head, had a moment of silence, and changed the topic, “I think the one who brought you here isn’t the so-called ‘God’.”

“Oh?” Zhou Qingfeng was surprised by her point of view. He had never thought of that.

“‘God’ exists beyond our consciousness. He’s kind and merciful. He’s everywhere but He’s not ‘someone’. If what you said was true, I think there’s someone with superpowers who used the name of God to get you here,” as a Caucasian, Lena Fox clearly had better understanding of God.

“It doesn’t matter whether he’s God or not; I can’t fight him.” Zhou Qingfeng shrugged his shoulders and said, “Right. Now I understand why you didn’t disappear. It was because you were supposed to die, but I saved you. You’ve received a new life.”

“Right. I’ve received a new life,” Lena felt better and smiled. She heaved a sigh of relief and said joyfully, “Alright, I should be happy about it. Let’s think about what we’re gonna do next.”

“Even though David Lawrence saved New York, he failed in the end. I reckon his failure was inevitable, as he was a modern man: independent, hot-blooded, and a little selfish.”

“David Lawrence could only be a hero, but he couldn’t be a leader. However, if you want to be able to live in the final phase, you have to gather a big group of people. You could survive if there were people around to share the workload and to help each other out.”

Lena Fox paused before saying, “Although I have the ability and the experience to manage the foundation, I lack assistance. The highly-experienced managers and business assistants who were under my command disappeared. I can’t pass my ideas to anyone.”

Zhou Qingfeng continued, “It would be much worse than you could ever imagine. Everyone would start to panic and insanely pile up any kind of resource that they can find. Once the government is gone, the currency will lose its credibility, businesses will collapse, and the link between societies will start to break.”

“The service industries will start to collapse one after the other in three days. This includes banks, communication systems, transport, and energy and water supplying companies. Even the cleaners would have to worry about their lives.”

“Supposedly, after a huge amount of deaths in the next three months, there’ll be all sorts of ugly systems raised from different powers appearing in the cities. Society will recover and rebuild the government, the police, the military, and foundations.”

“But, if it were the hellish ending from my memory, the nuclear weapons will destroy all hope of mankind. The huge amount of deaths would dismantle the structure of society.”

Lena Fox got the point after listening to Zhou Qingfeng’s description of the miserable future. She asked, “So, we have to lead a large amount of people out of New York, then to a place where the nuclear weapons wouldn't reach.”

“We can’t bring too many of them; it’ll be hard to manage and feed them. There can’t be too little people as well; it’ll be hard to defend ourselves against the other groups. I think that three to five hundred people is the optimum amount. Eighty-percent of them should be young and twenty-percent of them should belong to the armed forces. Also, there has to be an equal amount of men and women.”

That was Zhou Qingfeng’s thoughts and he said happily, “I think that we can get enough people from Columbia University. There should be a bunch of young and high-quality people.”

Lena Fox heard what he said and laughed, “Hahaha, that’s the reason you were encouraging those students. But, I have to tell you. Your plan has failed. Do you know why I’m here looking for you? It’s because your mobile command vehicle was being robbed.”

“What?”

Zhou Qingfeng stood up when he heard what Lena said. That vehicle was really important to him. New York spent a huge amount of money on it. An ordinary person would never have the chance to attain it. He frowned and asked angrily, “Who robbed my car?”

“You thought that the people in the university were smart and indeed, they were. A few law students stood up and questioned your identity after you left. They formed their own group and gained power. I tried to warn them but they chased me away.”

Lena Fox shrugged her shoulders, indicating that she’s tried her best.

Zhou Qingfeng waved to DogMeat and said with a sunken face, “Stupid dog, let’s go! We’ve got work to do.”

“They have quite a few people and they took guns from the vehicle. If you went by yourself…” Lena Fox did not finish her sentence as Zhou Qingfeng’s murderous look told her that he would not listen.

The campus of Columbia University was really small. The mobile command vehicle was in the middle of the road leading to the campus. Zhou Qingfeng had just came out of the engineering and applied sciences department building when he heard a speech about planning in teamwork and development.

There were over thousands of students gathered in front of the mobile command vehicle. There was a young man with a loudspeaker standing on the roof the vehicle and he was yelling at the students. Around the vehicle, there were several proud students holding firearms. They were encouraging the other students to join them.

Zhou Qingfeng’s clothes stood out too much. His appearance distracted the people who were listening to the speech. Many of them gave way and allowed him to get through to the mobile command vehicle.

Zhou Qingfeng’s appearance attracted the attention of the person who was giving the speech. That man snapped, “Look, the fake police is here again. As a professional law student from Sherman Stirling LLP, I’m going to take off your mask and debunk you.”

“Please trust me, I’m a professional. I will definitely discuss this problem with a strong sense of justice. His uniform, badge, and even the weapons that he’s using all show his counterfeit identity.”

“You’re a con; your trick ends here. Your funny words can’t disguise you. If you leave our university quietly, I might even consider leaving you alone. Otherwise, you could take off your helmet and show us who you are. As a sign of mercy, you could perhaps even join my team.”

The man on the roof of the vehicle used very sharp words and spoke eloquently. He got everyone to look at Zhou Qingfeng.

As Zhou Qingfeng walked closer, he took off his helmet and mask to show his face. The moment he showed his face, everyone fell silent and felt nervous. Some of the timid girls even covered their mouths with their hands as they were afraid that they might say something to trigger the murderer in front of them.

Victor Hugo. He was not the French writer who died more than a hundred years ago. This was a young man.

The news was reported consecutively for three days and it made Zhou Qingfeng’s Asian face easily recognised by the people in New York. He was violent, fearless, and brutal; he was truly a devil. This was made worse especially after he killed the chief police officer of New York - it was the first in history.

As his face was as powerful as his name, the man on the roof of the vehicle started to stammer and had no idea what to do after Zhou Qingfeng took off his mask. He was shocked to silence and after a while, he compromised, “Alright. You showed your face. I approve that you are one of us now.”

Zhou Qingfeng did not bother. He glared at the man coldly. He waved his hand and said to DogMeat, which was next to him, “Silly dog, go! Kill those who are holding weapons.”

Chapter end