Chapter 282: The Laughing Siege

“Alright everyone, listen to the Boss! Form up! See a madman, open fire! Don’t worry about ammo…”

The Boss was incredibly effective. She’d only just arrived, cursed them out a bit, barked a few orders, and already managed to rally the panicked old drivers.

Shouting instructions, they gathered with the seven or eight people the Boss had brought along.

These men, plus the drivers in the front and rear cabs and Lu Xin, instantly formed a small team of over a dozen.

Guns in hand, they huddled together, backs against the big truck, aiming in different directions.

A rapid burst of gunfire erupted, dropping two madmen. The other four or five scrambled back into the empty houses.

Lu Xin observed quietly.

He didn’t have time to pull out his small notebook, but he diligently tried to summarize his observations mentally:

These madmen… they still seemed capable of fear.

Their wariness of guns and bullets was clear.

But another, far more savage instinct drove them, suppressing their fear of gunfire almost entirely. Coupled with their twisted bodies and enhanced strength, they truly possessed combat abilities far exceeding normal humans.

So, were they madmen… or monsters?

…

“What’s the situation up front?”

Having driven back the madmen, Old Zhou and the others huddled together, feeling a bit braver now, and shouted the question.

“The madmen swarmed us out of nowhere! Lost four or five guys…”

Some of the men who arrived with the Boss yelled back, “Lucky for us, the Boss reacted fast! Took down a few of them and got us together… Damn creepy though. We scouted this road earlier, didn’t see a single one of these things. They just popped up!”

Lu Xin stood among them, gun in hand.

The fighting capability of these old drivers became clear then. While most of their claims of being sharpshooters were probably boasts like Old Zhou’s, once Boss Gao Ting organized them, their fierce side emerged. If a madman dared peek out, a hail of bullets flew its way. Even if they didn’t score a headshot, the sheer volume of fire scared it back into hiding.

“Quick, quick! Get the motorcycles unloaded!”

While a few kept watch, pointing their guns at the surroundings, the others scrambled to unload the motorcycles.

Many of the trucks carried motorcycles; some even had electric bikes.

They were meant for emergencies, and if abandoning the trucks was necessary now, they’d be perfect.

Having a motorcycle stashed for emergencies was common practice for many truckers.

Old Zhou and Little Zhou didn’t have one, much to Little Zhou’s envy. He’d always wanted a motorcycle.

Old Zhou and Little Zhou unloaded the motorcycle from their truck, along with Lu Xin’s. They paired up, two to a bike, and quickly mounted.

*Vroom… Vroom…*

Guns ready, the group accelerated away, quickly rendezvousing with the twenty-odd people the Boss had gathered.

Nearly forty people were now gathered together.

Boss Gao had been dashing back and forth precisely to round everyone up. The situation looked much better now.

Their convoy numbered twenty-three large trucks, each with at least two drivers. Additionally, there were eleven people handling scouting and accounting. Excluding Lu Xin, the entire convoy originally had fifty-seven people.

The initial madmen attack hit the front of the convoy hardest, causing most of the casualties. Old Zhou’s group in the middle only dealt with a few attackers. Those at the rear were safer, suffering almost no losses. That’s why the Boss could just drive through, yell some commands, and quickly rally the survivors from the middle and back.

Even so, their numbers had dwindled significantly. Nearly twenty lives were lost so easily.

…

“Alright, listen up! Our priority is getting out of here alive…”

“Remember: stay calm, stay orderly! Don’t race ahead…”

Boss Gao’s narrow eyes swept across the crowd, her voice fierce, like a mother leopard protecting her cubs.

Despite being grown men holding guns, quite a few had lost their nerve. Now, they followed her orders without question.

Lu Xin watched the Boss with grudging admiration. In some ways, her aura reminded him of Chen Jing.

At the very least, the decisions she’d made so far were clearly aimed at keeping these drivers alive.

Everyone tensed, preparing to make a break for it.

Actually, there hadn’t been that many madmen in the initial attack that threw the convoy into chaos.

A quick count revealed only about twenty.

During the chaotic firefight, at least ten of those madmen were gunned down. The remaining dozen or so, either wounded or frightened by the intense gunfire, had retreated into the hollowed-out buildings nearby, leaving the street looking much clearer.

With over thirty people armed with guns and motorcycles, their chances of breaking through seemed high.

“Hehehe…”

But just at that moment, they suddenly heard laughter.

The laughter was unnervingly clear, starkly contrasting with the surrounding silence and tension.

It sounded like the smug chuckle of someone whose malicious plan was about to succeed.

“Who’s there?!”

Boss Gao Ting yelled instinctively, whipping her gun towards the sound.

Many others followed suit, aiming their guns in the same direction. The same thought raced through everyone’s mind.

Could someone else be here, watching them with ill intent?

But their guns pointed at nothing. Only a dilapidated house stood there, its door missing, leaving a gaping black entrance. Green vines snaked across the walls. There was no sign of anyone; the laughter felt almost like a hallucination.

But clearly, more than one person had heard it.

They exchanged uneasy glances, a prickling sense of dread creeping into their hearts.

“Hehehe…”

Suddenly, from somewhere higher up, that sinister laughter echoed again.

Startled, everyone looked up. They caught a glimpse of a bald head peering down at them with a cold smile before slowly retracting behind cover on the rooftop. Though brief, the image was seared into their minds: a pale, bloated face gazing down sinisterly, cheek muscles pulled back into a grotesque, fixed grin.

“It’s… it’s the madmen… laughing…”

It took a long moment before someone finally choked out the words, their voice trembling.

“Damn it! How can madmen laugh?!”

Someone cursed violently, raising their gun and firing twice towards the rooftop.

*Ping! Ping!* Sparks flew as bullets ricocheted off the wall.

“Hehehe…”

Hidden safely out of the line of fire, the madman let out that low, triumphant laugh again.

The sound sent shivers down their spines, thick with an unnatural, eerie quality.

“What… what the hell is going on?”

Someone’s voice trembled, their legs threatening to buckle.

Even Lu Xin frowned.

His fingers gently adjusted his glasses. He wanted to call his sister out, have her take a look at the rooftop and see what was really going on.

Lu Xin hadn’t encountered many madmen himself, but he’d heard descriptions – they were supposed to be consumed by rage, degenerated into beast-like monsters. He’d never heard of them letting out cold, calculating laughter like this.

Was this some kind of mutation?

If you sent one like this to the Circus, it would probably fetch a higher price…

“Ignore them! Push through!”

Boss Gao Ting roared, jaw clenched tight, twisting the motorcycle’s handlebars sharply.

“Hehehe…”

“Hehehe…”

But just then, more and more cold laughter erupted.

The sounds overlapped, flooding in from all directions, seeming to seep into their very pores.

A primal fear made everyone’s hair stand on end. They frantically looked around.

What they saw plunged them into indescribable panic.

On the surrounding rooftops, through shattered windows, down narrow alleys, behind derelict truck flatbeds – from every cramped and shadowy space, bald heads slowly emerged, glistening with some kind of mucus. Pale, grotesque faces peered out from the darkness, mouths stretched into wide, stiff, wooden smiles, emitting waves of hollow, sinister laughter.

The laughter washed over them like a tidal wave, battering their senses from every direction.

*Clatter…*

It was the sound of someone losing their balance on a motorcycle, nearly crashing.

Moments ago, they thought they’d fought off the first wave. They never imagined they’d been silently surrounded.

Especially with all these madmen emitting that skin-crawling laughter.

…

…

“B-Boss…”

Someone stammered, looking towards Gao Ting with a pleading expression.

“Damn it…”

Boss Gao’s expression turned grim. She scanned the madmen encircling them and made her decision.

“Fall back! Into that supermarket, now!”

Behind them stood an abandoned supermarket.

They could still make out a crooked, half-shattered neon sign. Inside lay toppled shelves choked with thick spiderwebs.

But the supermarket had solid concrete walls, and windows on two sides, though most of the glass was already shattered.

It was, at least, a relatively defensible position.

*Crash! Clatter…*

Everyone scrambled inside. Some smashed out the remaining window panes while others dragged shelves to barricade the entrances.

Panic simmered beneath the surface, but everyone forced themselves to remain calm.

Lu Xin was among them, even helping shove a heavy shelf into place.

But his mind was preoccupied with another question.

As he helped fortify their position, he scanned the growing number of madmen outside.

Counting the bobbing bald heads and gleaming, sinister eyes, he made a rough estimate. *Fifty… eighty… a hundred… There must be over a hundred madmen gathered out there already… And more are still coming?*

He frowned slightly.

The madmen hadn’t charged yet, but their overwhelming numbers were more terrifying than a direct assault.

The earlier, sudden attack had caught everyone off guard, throwing them into disarray and panic.

But now, they were undeniably, completely surrounded.

But why were there so *many* of them?

It didn’t make sense!

Especially with that bizarre, constant laughter… It felt wrong, deeply unsettling…