The Ultimate War Of The Apocalypse
Chapter 341 - 334 Landmine

Chapter 341: Chapter 334 Landmine

The convoy ultimately went west.

Though Iraq was perennially in turmoil and the influence of the Government was virtually nil, the lack of an organized authority signified that even with large numbers, people would be disorganized and essentially rogue combatants. This meant that Gao Yuan and his hundreds-strong convoy were an invincible presence.

The situation with the local Iraqis, on the other hand, was different. First of all, nobody knew the current state of the Iraqis, and secondly, nobody could predict their actions. In a word, they were ’uncontrollable’. With such territories, it was best to keep a respectful distance and avoid them.

So how does one enter Iraq from Persia?

Bypass the Zagros Mountains first, then head west into Iraq from the northern end of the mountain range. The first major city after crossing the border is Diyana and not far past Diyana lies the infamous city of Mosul.

One of the storm eyes of Iraq, Mosul.

There was a reason to take this destined-to-be-far-from-calm route; everyone agreed that it was better to go through Mosul than to traverse Iraq’s Mesopotamian plain.

The Mesopotamian plain, created by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, is the cradle of some of the earliest human civilizations. It is the largest grain-producing region in the entire Middle East and home to the most cities and villages.

If one didn’t want to charge through an overwhelming horde of zombies, then circumventing the Mesopotamian plain was necessary.

As for whether Mosul would have armed militants, that was a secondary concern.

When the convoy passed by the outskirts of Mosul, they often saw Iraqis hiding and spying on the convoy.

Then, Gao Yuan and his convoy circled around Mosul, but in the end, had to take a detour south to find a bridge that could be crossed.

The flow of the Tigris River was quite small, yet it was enough to stop the advance of Gao Yuan’s convoy. Having roads that lead to bridges was something taken for granted in Shenzhou, but in Iraq, a small Tigris River was enough to form a natural moat.

There were four or five bridges inside Mosul city, but fearing that there might be too many zombies in the city, they took a detour. However, this detour meant traveling an extra five hundred kilometers because, between Mosul to the south and Tikrit to the north—a distance of nearly a thousand kilometers—there was only one road bridge passing through Makhmur.

Driving more than five hundred kilometers south of Mosul’s eastern bank, crossing the bridge, and then having to detour north to return to the western bank of Mosul—a mere twenty kilometers’ journey, yet requiring a thousand kilometers of detour and a day and a half of travel time.

And if they didn’t return this way, they would have to travel further and go through even more major cities.

But traveling this route did have a significant advantage: the entire route was almost entirely through the desert, where there were no people, meaning no zombies, and no armed factions.

In this way, the speed of the convoy could be much faster.

At first, Gao Yuan would discuss the route with Andrew and Panxin every day, but later, he simply couldn’t be bothered to even glance at it once because it really didn’t require any technical expertise, nor did it require his attention.

Life passed uneventfully and was dreadfully dull, and aside from the anxiety caused by the decreasing food supplies on the support vehicle, Gao Yuan could hardly muster any interest at all.

That was until a thunderous explosion jolted Gao Yuan from his half-awake daze.

The armored vehicle stopped, and everyone was on edge because of the explosion—it was the first significant disturbance since they had left Afghan 21 days ago, and the tension was palpable.

"What’s going on! What’s happening!"

"The escort vehicle blew up!"

Gao Yuan hadn’t turned on the walkie-talkie because he found it too noisy, but Li Yang had kept his on the whole time.

Having answered Gao Yuan’s question, Li Yang hurriedly said, "Reverse and go back, let’s check the situation!"

"Is anyone in the lead vehicle injured?"

"IED!"

"Alert, alert!"

When Gao Yuan switched on the intercom, he immediately heard a cacophony of noise within. It wasn’t until the armored vehicle he was in had moved back three to four hundred meters, and the members of another Stryker Armored Vehicle had begun assisting their comrades out of the bombed vehicle, that clear and useful information finally started coming through.

"It was an IED explosion, someone in the lead vehicle has a head injury, but no one is critically wounded."

"We must be cautious now, there may be a minefield ahead."

Panxin and Li Yang briefly communicated over the intercom. At this moment, Li Yang said, perplexed, "Where are we? Why is there a minefield? Is it from leftovers? Are they pressure mines, or remotely controlled by someone?"

"It’s still unclear, stay alert!"

Gao Yuan slid open the observation window on the armored vehicle. Outside, the desert was flat and boundless; although he could only see in one direction, this place didn’t seem like it could conceal anyone.

Just then, Panxin, who was on lookout outside, suddenly shouted, "Prepare for battle, there are people!"

Gao Yuan became tense and then hastily said to Li Yang in the same compartment, "Where in the world are we?"

Li Yang hesitated for a moment before shaking his head and saying, "We don’t know either. Remember the detour we took into the desert from Tedmur? After circling around from there, we lost track of which road we were on again. There are no road signs here, we don’t have a detailed map, and there’s no GPS. God knows where this is."

At that moment, Li Jingang, who was manning the machine gun on the top of their vehicle, shouted, "There are people approaching us, their intentions unclear, seven individuals."

Gao Yuan felt slightly relieved; there were only seven people, and they seemed willing to come closer, which probably meant there wouldn’t be an immediate fight to the death.

The other party’s intentions could be anything. They could have buried mines on the road in advance to extort food from the convoy, a likely scenario.

But as long as there is room for negotiation, everything could be discussed.

Gao Yuan went to the other side of the armored vehicle and opened another observation window, which was also a firing port. Looking out, he indeed saw seven people walking over in a line, swaying with exaggerated movements.

"They don’t seem to want a fight, but they’re definitely up to no good."

Gao Yuan let out a sigh of relief and said, "We can handle it, but let’s have Renato talk to them first."

Before Gao Yuan could speak, Renato had already come down from the front armored vehicle. By the time Gao Yuan could see Renato from the observation window, Renato had already walked some distance toward the approaching strangers.

"Renato is pretty proactive this time. Brother Li, shall the two of us follow and take a look?"

Not having a code name was indeed inconvenient during combat. Gao Yuan called to Li Yang, and the two of them opened the rear door of the armored vehicle and jumped down.

By this time, the approaching group could be seen clearly, and as Gao Yuan took only a couple of steps forward, Li Yang said with confusion, "Something’s not right."

"What’s not right?"

Li Yang, with a puzzled expression, said, "Those people coming towards us, by the look of their clothes and their faces, don’t they seem like Russians?"