"Young man! Come take a look! I found something."
I quickly put all the gold and the treasures I found in my storage and headed outside. By the time I got there, Luo Zehn had already gathered every child around. Even though I knew that I was the one who eliminated all the adults,I was a bit shocked to see that there were really no adults left. And to top it all off, the children didn't know where their parents went since we've already cleaned their bodies up through the mass graveyard we dug. They also didn't know that they were eating human meat all along and we decided not to tell them. Luo Zehn and I went with the story that their parents died before we got here and we were too late to rescue them.
Whereas... I was the one who killed all of them. I felt guilty about it but I didn't want to traumatize the children.
"Now's not the time. I found something else in one of the basements." Luo Zehn told me with a grim expression on his face. Somehow, his visage was telling me that something dangerous was in the basement.
"What is it this time? A Stage-3 rabid human? Or is it more dangerous than that?" I asked.
"I have no idea. But whatever's locked in there, it's dangerous all right."
"Then tell me what it i-"
"Just come with me"
Luo Zehn didn't speak another word as he led me to one of the shattered houses. After clearing a few more debris surrounding it, he pointed towards a small crack on the wooden floor. "Down there."
After the pause, Luo Zehn removed the wooden floor and opened a metallic trapdoor underneath it. The moment he did so, a horrid smell came out of it, making me step back and shut my nose tight by pinching it with my fingers. "What's that?!" It sounded like my nose was clogged but I didn't mind it.
"I don't know. However, this is where they presumably kept their stock of food." Luo Zehn said. Judging by his facial expression, I could tell that he was holding back vomit.
The trapdoor led to a flight of stairs and quite frankly, I didn't want to go in there. Not only does it smell like rotten corpses, but it also felt like I would scar my eyes for life if I go. Regardless, Luo Zhen was leading the way and I didn't want to disappoint him. Even though he doesn't know my identity, I'm still his awesome Sect Master. There's no way I'm going to show my bad side to him.
Well, it didn't come as a surprise when the awful scent became worse. However, I have to maintain my front so I descended with Luo Zehn who was surprisingly unfazed by the smell.
"Over there. That metallic door. It's locked pretty tightly so I don't know what they're keeping in there."
At that time, I directed my attention to it. It didn't take long before my heightened senses made me realize what's going on. For a split second, I forgot about the nauseating smell and just barged the door open with sheer strength. I didn't even unlock the locks attached to the wall, I just knocked the door open.
"Young man what are yo-"
Luo Zehn didn't even finish his sentence. In fact, he couldn't even finish it due to the shock that he received. The sight in front of us was enough to stop us in our tracks and it made me question whether the cannibals I killed were justified or not.
Because what we saw was simply inhumane.
There were at least twenty people locked in there and most of them suffered a missing limb or two. They were roughed up and probably waiting for slaughter. And to add to the somber expression on their faces, their eyes looked dead just like dead fish eyes. It's like they lost all of their hope as they await the day that they would die.
Of course, they were shocked when I knocked the door open. They flinched and stared at me with their dead eyes. It was probably because it was a first for them that someone opened the door like that. "Is everyone okay?" I asked, even though I know that they've already fallen into the pit of despair.
"My daughter... please save my daughter. Please! Save my daughter."
One of the men rushed at me. He was the only one who didn't have his eyes filled with hopelessness. "We're here to help. We're from a far shelter and we were just passing by when we heard about what happened here. We've already gotten rid of the... the ones who victimized you."
Somehow, I found it hard to call the cannibals humans. Trapping humans here as food supply is not something a human would do.
"Are we really... free?"
This time, Luo Zehn walked forward and placed a shoulder on the man who kept blabbering that I save his daughter. "Yes, you're free. But if you have nowhere else to go, then we'd like to invite you to Tang Shelter."
"Tang Shelter? The Tang Shelter?!" The man exclaimed.
Even with their dead fish eyes, I sensed a glimmer of hope as the group wore smiles on their faces. I'm just glad that we were able to give them hope amidst everything that they've gone through. "Yes, the Tang Shelter." I clarified.
"No... but I can't go. I have to go save my daughter." The man continued on with his repetitive resolution. "I need to go to the Ziyou Shelter. I have to save my daughter."
"Ziyou Shelter?"
Luo Zehn gave me a perplexed glance as he was lost deep in thought. And then, his mouth opened as if he just realized something. "As far as I can remember, isn't Ziyou Shelter one of the best shelters around? Why do you have to rescue your daughter from a shelter that's basically devoid of zombie attacks?"
"Y-you just don't know... what they're doing i-is... worse." The man muttered. "It's worse than the cannibals that trapped us here and ate us one by one. What they did was... T-they're monsters! They're wolves in sheep's clothing! Argh! AAARHGHH!"
After letting out an ear-piercing scream, the man fell to the floor and vomited.