In the dimly lit room, the soldiers who had finally shaken off the zombie swarm for the time being let out a violent gasp as they leaned against the wall, exhausted from physical exhaustion, but even though their bodies were close to a state of exhaustion, they had not yet completely relaxed themselves, the guns in their hands had not yet dropped down, ready to face another round of battle.
After Zhong Xu counted the number of men, his sweaty face turned a little white: "Wu Qiang Chen Yao and Zhang Zhilin didn't follow."
The soldiers fell into collective silence, everyone knew what would happen if they didn't follow them in that situation just now.
Third Brother wiped a handful of hot sweat from his head, suppressing the grief in his eyes, then said, "Bring the walkie-talkie over here and I'll have a word with Gu Ning."
The soldiers rummaged around and finally only Luo Long handed one over.
Third Brother took it, turned on the switch and was just about to speak into the walkie-talkie when the red light on the walkie-talkie flashed twice and then went silent.
"What's going on?!"
Luo Long said with a white face, "The power is out."
Once again, there was silence in the room.
Third Brother looked like he wanted to curse, his mouth opened and closed, but in the end he didn't curse and asked, "How many bullets are left?"
"Too much was consumed earlier, there aren't many left, there are about thirty to forty bullets left for each person." Zhong Xu said.
Thinking about the vicious battle that had just taken place, the soldiers in the room were all a little chilled.
Zhong Xu continued, "If we were to break out, I'm afraid we would only be able to rush halfway before we would be swamped by the zombies."
They had been chased by the zombie horde to Eleven Square, which was already downtown, and it had taken a lot of effort to kill their way out and hide in the basement on Eleven Square. The basement was actually a public toilet, which was so shabby that an old man used to live down here.
There was a long "living room" with a table and a few stools, a narrow room for a bedroom, and a crude public toilet next door, which cost 50 cents a visit, plus 50 cents for a tissue. The old man who kept the public toilet was not sure whether he had escaped or had died. There had been another person occupying the place before Sango and the others arrived.
The banging on the door slowly stopped and the soldiers couldn't help but sigh in relief, relaxing their tense muscles a little and immediately a wave of soreness and numbness spread throughout their bodies.
The room was very dimly lit, with only a half-burned candle lit on the table being the only light in the room, which made the faces of the men in the room a little cloudy.
"Is there anything to eat?" A man over there, who despite his wretched clothes still felt very gentle and handsome, suddenly asked, with a slightly astringent smile on his face, "We've been stuck here all day and haven't eaten anything."
There were six of them, three men and three women, and perhaps they had been hungry for a long time and did not look in good spirits. At this moment, when they heard the man's words, all five pairs of eyes immediately forgot about them and looked at the soldiers with hopeful gazes.
The soldiers thought that they were the ones who had opened the door at the moment of crisis, otherwise they might have been blocked to death outside. They reluctantly squeezed their pockets for the supplies they had been born with, and then they all took out small portions and put them on the table. Luo Long took another bottle of mineral water out of his backpack and placed it next to the supplies.
The men shared a little of the not-so-much supplies with each of them, then said gratefully, "Thank you."
He ate a few biscuits to ease his stomach, which had cramped up a little with hunger, and siped his water and handed it to the pretty girl next to him, then looked at Sango and asked tentatively, "I think I heard you guys mention a name just now. Do you guys know Gu Ning?"
Third Brother froze for a moment, shot a glance at the man, then asked with some surprise, "What? You know too?"
If Gu Ning was here, he would have been able to recognise the young man who had spoken, as Lu Jiazi. And the other two men and three women, one was her uncle Jiang Yuezhou, and among the three women were Jiang Yu and that aunt of hers.
Lu Jiazi's gaze flickered slightly, not knowing what kind of thoughts flashed through him in that instant, before a smile appeared on his face and he said, "I know each other. This is her uncle's family."
"Oh?" Third Brother was really taken aback, and after taking a look at Jiang Yuezhou by candlelight, he did look a little similar to Gu Ning.
When they heard that they were Gu Ning's relatives, the soldiers' emotions, which were still a little tense, relaxed a little, and Luo Long even smiled and said, "That's a coincidence. If we still have a chance to get out, you can follow us back to the gathering place. Gu Ning is there with her parents."
At this, Jiang Yuezhou, who had not spoken, became excited, "Sister and brother-in-law are still alive?!"
Luo Long laughed, "Don't worry, they are all quite well."
Suddenly Lin Meifeng interjected in a gloomy voice, "They're fine, but we've been badly hurt by that dead girl Gu Ning."
"Mum!" Jiang Yu gave her a disapproving tug.
The originally cordial atmosphere of the room changed, the soldiers' expressions were all a little strange.
Luo Long and Zhong Xu looked at each other and both felt that something was wrong, so they put away the smiles on their faces and stopped talking.
Third Brother glanced down at his watch, the time read 3.30pm, only an hour left before the time he and Gu Ning had agreed. He was looking forward to Gu Ning's arrival and hoping that she would not come.
He hoped that she would come, naturally, because it would be difficult for the few of them with a few guns to break out of here, and he hoped that she would not come because he was worried about the safety of Gu Ning's group.
Most of the soldiers in the room also thought the same as Third Brother.
It was just that subconsciously, they all thought that Gu Ning and the others would not come, after all, they did not have such a deep bond with each other yet.
Thinking of this, the soldiers' moods were all a bit low.
The soldier who had finished checking the situation above came down the stairs and shook his head at San, "There are too many zombies in the square, several hundred at least. We don't have enough bullets to rush out."
"Take everything out." San said suddenly.
Then the soldiers all pulled out all the crystal cores they had hunted. Although the encounter with the zombie swarm had been costly, the harvest was not small either.
Almost everyone had collected several of them.
But there were only four coloured ones.
They were red, yellow, gold, and blue.
After washing them with water, all the brain pulp on the crystal cores was washed off and they looked very crystal clear.
San cupped up a yellow crystal core and sighed, "It's amazing that something so beautiful can grow out of a zombie brain." After saying this he dropped the crystal core directly into his mouth amidst the soldiers' nervous gazes, and it melted into his mouth almost instantly, turning into a cold stream of water that flowed down his throat. San's expression was a little strange before he said, "Gu Ning said that I would faint after a while if I ate this, so you guys should hold still and watch my reaction, and you can eat it when I wake up. If I turn into a zombie, you guys don't have to be unable to do anything about it." Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, San fell to the ground in a lopsided manner without warning.
He was caught by the quick-eyed Zhong Xu.
Although the soldiers had been prepared for this, the unpredictable fainting caused them to panic and they hurriedly carried San into the small bedroom.
They were all talking in a huddle and their voices were kept low so that Lu Jiazi and the others could not hear them.
At this moment, when Third Brother suddenly collapsed, they were also startled.
"Is he alright?" Lu Jiazi asked with concern.
Luo Long replied curtly, "Yes."
Then there was silence.
Lu Jiazi knew very well that their sudden indifference stemmed from that one sentence, and immediately gave Lin Meifeng a disgruntled look.
Lin Meifeng was rare in not being so rude in front of Lu Jiazi, but her face was only a little sarcastic.
Half an hour had passed.
Zou Ming shone a small torch on Third Brother's face in the darkness and said with some unease, "Third Brother won't turn into a zombie, will he?"
"If it does turn, you'll be the one to do it." Zhong Xu said.
Zou Ming said, "You can't do it can't I do it?"
Fiercely! Third Brother, who was lying on the bed, suddenly sat up straight and upright.
Zou Ming's nerves were shattered and he subconsciously thrust his knife at him.
However, before the knife could stab San's chest, it hit something very hard.
San cursed, "I haven't even turned into a zombie yet, and you've come to stab me!"
"Are you alright, Brother San?" Zou Ming instantly broke out in a cold sweat, and when he shone his small torch, he saw that San was holding a piece of clay brick in his hand, and his stab just now happened to hit this piece of clay brick, so he was surprised and said, "Where did you get that brick, San?"
Before the words left his mouth, the sound came to an abrupt end.
Zou Ming Zhong Xu and the soldiers who had rushed in when they heard the commotion all froze.
Looking at the palm-length earth spike hovering in the air in front of Third Brother, Zhong Xu didn't know whether he was excited or nervous, and his voice couldn't help but tremble slightly: "Third Brother, you, you've succeeded!"
Third Brother nodded his head with a smile.
The soldiers were all excited and speechless at once.
Zou Ming looked at the hovering earth spikes with amazement, "It's like a magic trick!"
"What magic trick, this is supernatural power! Do you know about supernatural power?"
Zhong Xu gave a gesture to the excited third brother, signaling him not to get so excited and to keep a low profile, then carefully went to get the earth spike that was suspended in mid-air, taking it into his hand and feeling its weight and coarse appearance he believed it was something real and was in a very indescribable mood.
"It's quite solid." A soldier curiously poked his finger at the tip of the spike before coming to this conclusion.
"Not only does it stab people, it can also stab people to death."
The smugness implied in Sango's words made the soldiers smile.
Outside the hut, Lu Jiazi and the others saw the soldiers all crowded into that bedroom, not knowing what secret activities they were engaged in, only hearing the occasional tiny sound coming from the room, but how they couldn't really hear it.
This group of people were afraid that they had an unusual relationship with Gu Ning, otherwise they wouldn't have turned cold immediately because Lin Meifeng had said that.
Thinking of this, he frowned slightly and looked at Lin Meifeng for a few moments.
As if sensing his displeasure, Jiang Yu tugged at his clothes and said petulantly, "Come on, Jiazi, my mother didn't mean it either."
Lu Jiazi looked at Jiang Yu's pretty face and, for some reason, suddenly felt a little impatient.
The soldiers spoke excitedly for a while, and then their attention was focused on the next three crystal cores.
"Let's give them to Zhong Xu, Zou Ming, and Luo Long." A soldier took the initiative and suggested, "They've killed the most zombies."
The other soldiers agreed.
Zhong Xu, Zou Ming and Luo Long became embarrassed and said that they had the ability to defend themselves and should give it to the others.
Although the world was now full of corpses and the hearts of people were corrupt, at least the soldiers under his command were not corrupt. What's the hurry? There are so many zombies out there and the ground is full of crystal cores, Zou Ming Zhong Xu Luo Long you three eat them. When you break out, the four of you will bring your desperate energy to bring them out without fail!"
"Yes, Company Commander!"
With these words, Zhong Xu, Zou Ming and Luo Long each took a crystal core after answering, glanced at each other, and then swallowed it under the soldiers' hopeful gazes.
On the other hand, Gu Ning's group had not yet given up looking for traces of Third Brother's group.
There were dozens of corpses lying on the ground, bullet casings everywhere, so it was conceivable that a vicious battle had taken place here, and there were no signs of fire here, so it should be San and his group.
Some of the corpses' heads had been cracked open, apparently someone had scooped up the crystal cores. But because of the rush, there were still a lot of zombie heads intact. Except for Xiang Xu, everyone else turned "ferocious" and dug through one zombie at a time with their pocket knives, sort of picking up the pieces.
"It's Wu Qiang!" Zhang Xiaobai suddenly let out an alarming cry. Then he quickly ran in one direction and flipped Wu Qiang up who was lying there.
Before Zhang Xiaobai could check if Wu Qiang was still alive, he saw Wu Qiang's tightly closed eyes snapping open, with red blood swimming slowly inside - and then grabbed Zhang Xiaobai's head with one hand and opened his mouth towards his face!
Zhang Xiaobai was so shocked that he couldn't dodge for a moment!
Zhang Xiaobai was so shocked that he couldn't dodge for a moment! When he saw that the big mouth was about to touch his flesh, he heard a "poof-" sound, the tip of a knife into his flesh. Gu Ning walked over and pulled the knife out, and immediately there was a stream of grey-black pulp running down his forehead - "You won't be so lucky next time."
When Zhang Xiaobai heard Gu Ning's words, he only felt a shiver run through his body, thinking that if it wasn't for Gu Ning's knife, he would have had the possibility of infection even if he had only been rubbed a little bit of skin, and the thought of it sent chills down his spine, and he hurriedly pushed its corpse away and rolled and crawled to his feet.
The remaining zombie heads were all examined.
Gu Ning looked to Xiang Xu, who gave her a faint shake of his head, indicating that he had found no trace of Sango.
Suddenly! Xiang Xu's face suddenly changed as he turned violently in the direction of the east and said in horror, "Run!"