Rise of the Wasteland Chapter 80-81

Chapter 80        Korgan's Dream

Ivan's cold face sank as he searched the ninth floor. He finally stopped at the elevator shaft. The door of the elevator was opened by hand. He looked at the dark, deep well and said, "Did that bastard escape?"

The younger brother of the Portaschis, Yakov, who was behind Ivan, said ferociously, "I'll take some men with me and find that bastard."

"Take more men. I think Victor Hugo is strange," Ivan said in a low voice. "The media reported that he killed many of the kidnappers in the downtown hospital kidnapping case. He even killed the chief police officer of New York during his escape. It doesn't make any sense."

"I'll be careful."

Yakov was like his brother - tall and strong and he looked ferocious. With a wave of his hand, more than ten gangsters with guns followed him downstairs via the emergency exit.

As time passed slowly, the sky gradually turned dark.

The gangsters did not manage to find Zhou Qingfeng, but they chased the people who were on the ground floor out of the building and blocked all entrances to the building to prevent other people from coming in and going out.

Meanwhile, Zhou Qingfeng was hiding in the suite and Mobutu, who rested for a few hours, had just woken up from sleep. He was hungry and walked out of the room to find something to eat.

"It's me. Don't shoot," Mobutu opened the door and saw Zhou Qingfeng laid on the couch, resting in the small living room. As soon as Mobutu came out, a USP pistol was pointing at him.

"There are food and drinks in the fridge," Zhou Qingfeng put back his pistol and reminded Mobutu.

"That's a good woman." Mobutu took the food out of the fridge and cracked a joke about Jenny, who was lying in Zhou Qingfeng's arm. The blonde lady who cried for a long time had fallen asleep. Her hands and legs were wrapped around Zhou Qingfeng.

Zhou Qingfeng ignored Mobutu, carried Jenny, and walked towards his room. Mobutu thought Zhou Qingfeng was going to have fun with her. However, Zhou Qingfeng walked out of the room in less than two minutes and said, "Eat faster. It's dark now; we're going out."

"Where are we going?" Mobutu was astonished as he just had a good sleep and was not ready for the brutal life from before.

"We're going to kill. How do you plan on surviving without killing other people? The food in front of you is the only portion we have left. As for drinking water, other than the bottles of wine in the cabinet, there's only the water left in the bathtub. Well, if you're willing to drink Jenny's bath water, I wouldn't mind keeping it for you."

Mobutu was full of energy, but when he heard what Zhou Qingfeng said, his mood instantly fell to the bottom of a cliff. He started to eat and look at what was around him. He ended up looking at a small balcony. Through the French windows, he saw the high-rise buildings in downtown Manhattan. A place that had used to be prosperous and beautiful had died.

Mobutu filled his stomach with dread, and checked his weapons. He only had one pistol with three magazines and one of them was empty. In contrast, the fully-armed Zhou Qingfeng appeared incomparably reliable.

"Could you give me a gun? I see that you have a shotgun on your back," Mobutu asked.

Zhou Qingfeng shook his head, "Later on, we're gonna be killing quietly. Shotguns are going to be useless. Go pick from the dead bodies of gangsters if you really want weapons. Basically, I'll move, and you cover me."

"What do you mean by 'killing quietly'?"

"We'll be killing with a knife instead of a gun, as much as possible."

Mobutu did not really agree with Zhou Qingfeng. He had lost faith because of their defeat in the fight earlier and he had lost contact with his previous mates. He regret that he took the risk. He knew it would end up like this.

"We're going to die anyway, right?" Mobutu said, depressingly. He followed Zhou Qingfeng out of the hidden suite; two of them walked quietly in the corridor of the tenth floor.

"Shut up," Zhou Qingfeng growled, "Are you trying to alert them?"

As Zhou Qingfeng started to move on the tenth floor, Korgan and his men were on the eighteenth floor and were worried about their current situation, "How many days can our food last?"

"Around three or four."

As a core member of the gang, Ivan was very experienced in extortion, robbing, and fighting. But, he had no idea how to budget the team's diet. The 'three or four days' he said was an optimistic estimate. They might even have to stave after one or two days.

New York was the largest city in the United States. Its industry of economics, design, production, and service were incredibly developed. However, now, resources needed to be imported. With the emerge of the cataclysm, failing traffic, and poor communication, the resources New York city could provide were not enough to last for a few days.

An ordinary person with common sense would use all their strength to run away from this city filled with murder and violence.

My chance is here. I'm gonna be a pioneer, someone great! I'm gonna build my own world!

As the head of the gangsters, Korgan was very excited when he found out that the police had disappeared. Immediately, he gathered everyone he had and killed all along his way to Manhattan. He decided to conquer the centre of United States, Manhattan, in order to be the warlord.

One of the reasons was definitely because of Zhou Qingfeng. On the first day when Zhou Qingfeng arrived at New York, he had shot at and nearly killed Korgan's son, Cooper.

On the night when the cataclysm arrived, Cooper was receiving treatment in one of the hospitals in Manhattan. Korgan was trying to conquer Manhattan and save his son. If Zhou Qingfeng knew about it, he would say, "You messed up." According to the plot in the movie, Korgan's target area to achieve his dreams was not Manhattan; it should be Queens.

However, it was a fat dream and reality was bony.

During the cataclysm, not only did ordinary people encounter problems, gangsters did, too. Korgan was thinking about conquering the New York police headquarters and to use the large amount of weapons in there to expand his forces. However, a bunch of people had the same idea as him. Those people fought for the entire night near the headquarters and none of them got it.

As a result, no one could get into the police headquarters. The people who lost a lot during the fight had to leave without choice. All of them took over the buildings around the police headquarters and made them their bases. Korgan and his men took over the immigration building.

However, it had only been one day since they came into the building and there was a problem right in front of them - food and water for him and his men. A leader of a gang must be able to take care of his men. Otherwise, no one would work for you without any benefit.

Korgan was not good at these trivial stuff! It was not just Korgan, every gangster in the team was brave and tough, and good at fighting and killing. When they were faced with the problem of food and water, they only knew one way out - robbery!

However, there was no place for them to rob. The shops were closed, supermarkets went out of business, the entire New York city was slowly falling into the abyss of death!

Chapter 81        Silent Death

The problem Korgan faced was not just the shortage of food, but also the low morale of his men. After all, no one had experienced a cataclysm before. They did not have a good start yesterday, and that day, they were trapped by Zhou Qingfeng again. Therefore, Korgan decided to give them a speech.

"Wake up, you bunch of idiots. The government is gone, the police have disappeared, the law doesn't work anymore. Is there anything better than this? You used to be poor, but now you can simply rob from anyone in New York. People looked down on you, but now you can kill those who look down on you any time. What are you guys unhappy about?"

"I know what you guys are worried about that eighteen-year-old kid Victor Hugo. The media exaggerated and said he was the most dangerous terrorist after '911'. That's bullshit!

"I know that Victor Hugo; he's not even a terrorist nor a maniac murderer—he's just a brat. He's nothing in my eyes.

"Look at me. I'm Korgan, the leader of the largest underground gang in Queens, and I'll be the leader of New York in the future. If I want him to bend, he'd bend; if I want him to die, he'd die.

"Do you know why he escaped? Because he found out that I was here. He got scared away by me. A man who doesn't even dare face me; how scary could he be?

"So don't you worry, continue to search this building and look for more food and drinks. Very soon we'll be stronger, strong enough to conquer the entirety of New York. As for Victor Hugo? He'll either be killed by me, or he'll hide somewhere like mouse."

The gangsters liked those heroic utterances. All of them became motivated and started to scream excitedly. Korgan waved his hands too to increase their morale. He jumped down from the table where he gave the speech and asked Ivan beside him, "Are you sure that brat had escaped?"

"He should be down there since he escaped through the elevator shaft. I've sent my brother to kill him, but he might have already escaped from this building." Ivan felt very confident in his judgment.

"Hmm…" Korgan replied, "it'd be good if you can get his corpse. I wanna let everyone know that people who go against me will find themselves in a bad situation."

As Korgan was giving his speech, Zhou Qingfeng had started his assassination on the tenth floor. Even if it was already dark, the building was not completely quiet. Occasionally, there echoed sounds of searching and things falling. It seemed like a few people were searching through all rooms and corners in the building.

There are a variety of separate offices and work areas in the immigration office building, with tables and cabinets in each area. The gangsters who were asked to search the building looked for valuable things with their torches.

Zhou Qingfeng held a blade in his left hand and a gun in his right. As he walked into an office area, he saw that the floor was littered with tipped over furniture and debris. Nearly everything was thrown on the floor, and Zhou Qingfeng spied someone searching through things a short distance away from him.

Mobutu felt nervous as soon as he saw the gangster. Zhou Qingfeng looked around and walked with light feet toward him. He ran on his toes, his movements brisk yet silent, as if he were a panther hunting for food.

When Zhou Qingfeng neared the back of the gangster, he moved even faster. He rushed toward the gangster and stabbed him at the back. The blade tore through his ribs and directly pierced his heart and lung. In the process, Zhou Qingfeng made sure to cover the mouth of gangster with his hand, so even when the gangster's blood spilled over his mouth, he could not make any noise.

It's a silent death! Brutal yet poignant.

Mobutu's job was to cover Zhou Qingfeng and observe any movements around them. However, when Mobutu saw Zhou Qingfeng kill someone with such speed and skill, he was shocked and covered with cold sweat.

The stabbed gangster fell to the ground. He was not completely dead; his body was still twitching, and the blood coming from his mouth showed that his heart was still beating. Zhou Qingfeng extracted the blade and picked up the torch on the floor. He saw a few big garbage bags beside the gangster and opened them.

They were the resources collected by the gangster throughout the day. Food, drinks, some tools and supplies were sorted into separate bags. There was even a bag with a few pistols, magazines and bullets. Those things must have been found by the gangster within the building.

Zhou Qingfeng carried the bags and walked back to Mobutu. He waved at him and whispered, "Let's go to our next target."

Meanwhile, Mobutu was still in a horrified state. His mouth was dry and his heart rate had increased. He subconsciously raised a question, "Mr Hugo, I remember from the news that you're eighteen years old. It that true?"

"Yeah, theoretically," Zhou Qingfeng replied.

"Were you under harsh training since you were a kid?" Mobutu asked again.

"Huh…?" Zhou Qingfeng looked at the nervous Mobutu and instantly understood that Mobutu was shocked by his agility when he killed the gangster. He then bluffed, "Yeah, Chinese know Kung Yu. We trained from childhood."

In fact, it was the result of Zhou Qingfeng's ability 'Naturally Gifted'. He became talented in everything and learned things very quickly. Even his terrible aiming skill greatly improved. In the future, he would definitely be a killing machine in the chaotic last phase.

There were only four gangsters searching for goods on the tenth floor. As soon as Zhou Qingfeng found the last one, he did not kill him on spot. He pressed his blade on the gangster's neck and started to interrogate him.

"When I ask, you answer. If I find out that you're trying to hide something, I'll give you a stab in return, got it?" Zhou Qingfeng's voice resembled the growl of a horrible monster prowling in the dark. He imitated the phrases used by a great villain in a gangster film he watched in the past. As expected, it worked well.

"Who's your boss?"

"Korgan, Mr Korgan."

"Who're with him?"

"There are the Portaschi brothers, there are...."

Zhou Qingfeng asked a few questions that he knew the answers to, before he continued to interrogate the gangster.

"How many people do you have?"

"I'm not too sure. Some died yesterday. Should be around seventy or eighty."

"Who were you all fighting with last night?"

"I don't know, maybe the underground gang from other territories. Everyone was messed up anyway; we shot any and all unfamiliar faces."

"Did you meet anyone you're familiar with? Like, a guy called David Lawrence?"

"No, I didn't see David Lawrence."

Zhou Qingfeng frowned, and killed him anyway.

As Mobutu saw the scene, he made made the sign of the cross as if he were repenting to God, praying for forgiveness for his and Zhou Qingfeng's sins.

"Mobutu, don't worry about praying to God for me."

"Why?"

"Because I don't believe in that b*stard."

"What…?!"

Chapter end