Chapter Four

"Warning! Militants below, cease movement immediately! Place your hands where I can see you! Ultimatum: Seven! Six!"

The special forces soldier's voice grew increasingly urgent, the red dot of his infrared sight landing on my tactical vest.

I ripped open the tactical tarpaulin in the trunk with one hand and pulled out a man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS).

I looked up and firmly placed the sight over the heat source of the Black Hawk helicopter's turboshaft engine high in the sky.

"Beep—"

The infrared seeker emitted a rapid buzzing sound, followed by a sharp, long screech.

With just a slight pull of the trigger, this missile would destroy everything in two seconds .

I switched the frequency to the encrypted tactical channel again.

"Captain Reynolds," I said coldly into the wind, "If I were you, I wouldn't gamble your armor on whether my infrared seeker will malfunction."

The countdown in the sky abruptly stopped.

The helicopter visibly swayed tactically.

"Who are you?! How did you get on the encrypted channel?" Captain Reynolds' voice betrayed undisguised shock.

"I'm the one who can keep you alive. Captain Reynolds, your loyalty is admirable, but half an hour ago, 'Air Force One' took your political superiors to the deep-sea doomsday base in Hawaii. You've been abandoned, unwanted pawns."

"That's impossible! You're lying!" another special forces soldier roared into the walkie-talkie.

"Whether you're lying or not, just look at your fuel gauges." I interrupted him coldly. "This is the East Coast. All aviation fuel depots across the US have been shut down and are locked down. You have less than twenty minutes of fuel left. Go back? You can't even find a safe airbase with refueling facilities. What awaits you is either running out of fuel and crashing into a horde of zombies, or starving to death on the rooftop of some tall building after landing."

A deathly silence fell over the headset.

I knew this elite group, handpicked from the best, was experiencing the despair of a collapsing faith.

“Now, I’m giving you two choices.”

My index finger was still on the trigger of the Stinger missile. “First, we both perish in two seconds, becoming a luxurious barbecue feast for those homeless mutants down below.”

“Second, land. Swear allegiance to me. I have the best temperature-controlled storage supplies in the entire United States, and I have a super fortress behind me strong enough to withstand a nuclear strike. Follow me, and you’ll not only get to eat Kobe beef rolls and fine cigars, but more importantly—you, and your families in the safe zone, will survive.”

I paused, exhaling a puff of smoke. “You have five seconds to consider, Captain Reynolds. Five…”

“Four.”

“Three…”

“Searchlights off! Weapon safety off!” Captain Reynolds’ voice was terribly hoarse on the walkie-talkie, as if he had aged ten years in an instant, but it was filled with a desperate will to survive. “We’re landing. Sir… I hope what you’re saying is true.” The

blinding lights overhead went out instantly.

The Black Hawk helicopter began to descend slowly, finally landing smoothly on the open ground. The cabin door opened, and Captain Reynolds jumped off the plane with six special forces soldiers. They didn't draw their weapons; instead, they uniformly tossed their M4 carbines to the ground and bowed their heads to me.

A well-equipped active-duty special operations team had been trampled under my feet without a fight.

"Pick up your guns. I don't need unarmed trash." I walked up to Reynolds . " From this moment on, you no longer belong to the Stars and Stripes; you belong only to me."

"Yes, sir!"

My convoy, escorting thousands of tons of top-tier supplies, embarked on the deadly highway westward.

After a day and night of extreme driving, we fought our way through torrential rain and a horde of zombies spreading across America. Finally, at dusk the following day, we reached the deepest part of the Grand Canyon.

Gale-force winds whipped through the canyon, carrying red dust, and the convoy stopped before a sheer, crimson cliff hundreds of meters high.

There seemed to be nothing but rock.

"Boss… have we taken the wrong road?" Viktor leaned out of the truck, his voice trembling. Not only him, but even Reynolds in the helicopter looked down in confusion.

In that moment of hesitation, dozens of extremely concealed armored firing ports suddenly slid open on the cliff face ahead without warning. Hidden in the rock were large-caliber close-in weapon systems (CIWS).

"My God…" Viktor was so frightened he fell out of the driver's seat.

I ignored their panic and simply patted the leather seat in the passenger seat.

“Zeus, go open the door.”

Zeus leaped off the SUV, walked gracefully to a rock in front of the cliff, placed his two front paws on it, and peered into a hidden scanner.

“Beep—”

“Iris confirmed. Gene sequence confirmed. Physical key Alpha permission, authentication successful.”

The next second, the entire mountain began to shake violently. The crimson cliff slowly cracked open, revealing the titanium alloy nuclear explosion door inside.

“ Welcome home, Supreme Commander. The ‘Lone Star’ system is fully operational.”

I stepped on the gas and was the first to drive into this steel throne that belonged to me.

Hours later.

I had washed away the smoke and blood , and, holding a glass of whiskey, I comfortably sank into my executive chair.

At my feet, Zeus was munching on an A5 Wagyu beef he had brought from the cold storage. Through the one-way glass, I could see the vertical farm below radiating green vitality, and the miniature nuclear fission reactor emitting a steady, low-frequency hum. This was the Garden of Eden of the apocalypse, and I was the only god.

"Beep beep—Unidentified creature detected approaching from the outer perimeter radar." The main control AI's notification suddenly sounded.

I raised an eyebrow, put down my wine glass, and pressed the holographic control panel in front of me.

The huge screen instantly lit up, switching to night-vision surveillance footage from three kilometers outside the bunker.

I couldn't help but let out a pleasant chuckle.

The two figures in the footage, crawling like wild dogs towards the canyon, were truly a "surprise."

It was Max and my dear wife, Nicole.

This day and night of escape had clearly come at a terrible price. Max's left hand was severed at the elbow, the wound hastily bandaged with only a dirty rag. As for Nicole, her once proud and meticulously maintained face was covered in bloodstains from thorns and gravel, and both of them were covered in foul-smelling mud, rolling and crawling in the muddy water.

Even in this state of destitution, their faces still displayed a morbid, extremely excited ecstasy.

Max clutched the mud-covered "fake ring" tightly, stumbling forward and frantically shouting something at Nicole. Nicole, meanwhile, was both crying and laughing at the same time.

"We're here... Nicole! We're here alive!"

Max released Nicole, stumbling and collapsing before the titanium alloy gate. He recklessly pressed the stump of his severed arm against the cold metal, letting out a wildly arrogant, almost manic laugh:

"Hahahaha! That idiot Arthur! That war-mongering moron! His invincible fortress, built for a hundred billion, is now mine! I am the king of the new world!"