novel
| ← Ch.175 | Ch.177 → |
"In short, we can only wait until tomorrow morning." Luo Xun saw that the little bun had fallen asleep, the fire light making his pale face more rosy.
The day the child was born, he and Yan Fei saw the rosy face become purple and he nearly lost his life. But now, as some people said, the redder a newborn, the paler he will be. The baby had improved through consumption of the milk fruit. Although still small and thin, his complexion was clean and lovingly tender.
Today, during their rushed escape, Luo Xun and Yan Fei could only quickly feed him twice and barely changed his diaper. But he was able to happily sleep undisturbed for the most part.
The team of people gathered in the small space, with past experience, Yan Fei designed the metal house with Zhang Yi to ensure proper air flow. All night, everyone listened to the hideous roars of the zombies outside, whipping vines and the crackling fire. They took turns keeping watch and somehow managed to rest.
The next morning, the howling and rumbling zombies could still be heard. Luo Xun and the others woke up, washed their faces and drank some hot soup. Luo Xun carefully climbed Yan Fei's makeshift ladder and safely observed from the roof.
The white snow, the shadow of monsters...
"The zombies don't seem to be surrounding us." Luo Xun held his telescope and relayed his findings to the team.
"What's going on?"
There was only one ladder and the observation platform was only big enough for one person. The team could only ask Luo Xun about the situation outside.
Luo Xun looked around and climbed down the ladder while breathing a sigh of relief.
"There are a lot of zombies out there, but it seems that apart from a portion, the rest of them are passing by..." Luo Xun said cautiously, "Most of the zombies are passing on the road, but some of them are approaching due to the smell of people nearby. There aren't actually that many zombies attacking the devil vines."
He saw the team's excited looks and then hurriedly added, "The number is not much compared to that zombie horde, but it's more than what we encountered in the past."
It was also fortunate that there were only a few pieces of farmland near the mutant devil vines. But there was still at least six to seven acres of land in the vicinity which entangled the zombies. Otherwise with the number of zombies, they would end up stepping on each other to pass through!
Looking outside and confirming that there were no flying zombies around and the other zombies were unlikely to break through the plants. Everyone packed up again, grabbed their weapons and armor with helmets. With their gloves in hand, they waited carefully in front of the gate to see the situation in the largest building.
Judging from Luo Xun's observation, they were definitely back at the test fields they saw before, in the middle area where they had tried to enter previously but failed. Last night's chaos accidentally had them run in so they carefully probed around.
Yan Fei opened the door, the team quietly entered in order to not attract any attention from the zombies outside and run through the middle doorway.
They were few and wearing thicker clothes, even if the smell of human got out, those devil vines were so powerful and would entrap the zombies. It saved them from being eaten, but how would they escape the net?
They arrived at the gate and opened the lock. A quick scan confirmed there was no movement before going inside.
One floor after another.
The test building seemed to have been isolated from the world. After the apocalypse began, it had not been disturbed, just quietly sitting and waiting for people to visit.
The team examined the first floor, then the second and the third...
On the first floor there was a large canteen with rows of seats, partially damaged but still intact. Ignoring the kitchen at the back where all the ingredients had not rotten. It was gratifying to find two large 50 kg gas canisters, which were unused. There were also several barrels of cooking oil that had yet to be opened in the back.
Everyone was delighted at the find and collected it all, ready to take with them upon a chance to escape.
After checking the first floor, everyone went to the second where there were several laboratories and classrooms. Apparently for teaching students how to do experiments. The third floor had the professor's offices and a small meeting room.
After checking all three floors, the team returned to the first floor stairwell.
"There's a basement down here, a total of two sub-floors." Luo Xun looked at the elevator, which had 5 floors total marked. The door was large and was clearly the kind that could transport large items. But now since there was no power supply, the lights were all extinguished.
Everyone turned sparkling eyes to Luo Xun. They had checked the building and found some stuff that they did not know how to use. Since there was no electricity they could not access any information in the computer. But from what they could tell from earlier - they had yet to find the existence of advanced equipment.
Was that stuff placed in the basement? Definitely possible. Of course there were some bungalows outside as well. They had not checked those yet and did not know if there was anything useful inside.
The squad members checked their weapons again, carefully lined up and slowly down the stairs... There was a metal door blocking the way that looked quite sturdy. Luo Xun alone would have taken a long time but with Yan Fei, it was a simple matter to bypass.
Opened the door and walked through some hallways. No one was holding a flashlight as they cautiously descended underground.
"There shouldn't be anything..." Zhang Yi used his power to scout first and report.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at the declaration before turning on their flashlights. The range was limited but they soon found something.
"Luo Xun! What is that? Lights?" Wu Xin's sharp eyes picked out something nearby.
"... Backup power supply? Even now there's electricity?!" Luo Xun was astonished and looked at the flashing red light hung on the wall. How long had it been since the end of the world? There was a backup supply that actually still had energy?!
After making sure there was nothing nearby, they cautiously walked forward, the lights flashed and something opened!
After the staircase there was a hallway with closed rooms on each side. In front was a room blocked by huge glass windows that stretched from floor to ceiling.
Obviously the backup power supply only powered this room and the surrounding area. Luo Xun used his flashlight to shine inside and found it was a room for planting?!
"Wait before going in, first take a look at these two rooms." Luo Xun said to the group.
The planting room looked to be full of plants, who knew if a mutant one would pop up? It would be dangerous to rush in.
First they opened the left room - it was a place to change clothes with numbered lockers with work clothing. There was nothing special inside. The room on the right had just been opened when the group pinched their noses. There were two bodies in a chair and the corner of the room; who knew how long they had been dead.
The two bodies were dead but did not have signs of mutating into a zombie.
Song Lingling immediately pulled Yu Xinran away from the room. Luo Xun checked the body before looking at the room. Zhang Yi, as a doctor was able to do a simple examination regardless of his major.
"There are no injuries, I suspect death from starvation or fear." Zhang Yi borrowed some glaves and stood up with a pinched face.
"Starved, or scared to death?" Luo Xun was puzzled... how could that have happened?
"Who knows?" Zhang Yi shrugged."There wasn't much left in the kitchen but there are so many plants in the next room, it would be impossible to starve to death. So they were frightened to death." He explained more, "One man in his early 20s, the other 50-60 years old, likely to be students and professors studying here."
The two bodies were not rotten, even Luo Xun could glean some information. Zhang Yi was correct, these two people did not have injuries or signs of poison. They must have hid here in fear but then starved to death...
"Let's check the next room and downstairs." Luo Xun said to the team. After they nodded, they walked out and shut the door.
| ← Ch. 175 | Ch. 177 → |