Hai Baihe gently touched Muge's forehead to confirm that she didn't have a fever, putting her mind at ease. She found a corner and sat down, saying, "Why don't we take a break for now?"
Ni Xuanxuan asked, "Are we not leaving?" She recalled the sight of the monsters she had just seen, fear evident in her eyes. "Th-those, are they zombies?"
"I don't know, they look like it," Hai Baihe said. "Everything in movies can only be taken as a reference, not a standard for judgment."
Liang Xiao checked the doors and windows, then relaxed and sat down. "When I was on a mission in Africa, I saw many patients infested with parasites. Some had swollen bellies like pregnant women, others had their bodies decayed and oozing pus. You can't say that's a zombie outbreak, right?"
Ni Xuanxuan did a complete 180 with her attitude and timidly said, "But can a person with a broken neck still get up?"
"Perhaps," Liang Xiao pressed his temple. Yesterday, he had been keeping an eye on a suspect on the train and hardly slept all night. Now he had a splitting headache.
Hai Baihe glanced at him. "You should also take care of your injuries. Did both of you get hurt?"
Upon being asked, Ni Xuanxuan and Zhang Qihang discovered several minor wounds on their bodies. They hadn't noticed them while rushing here, but now they suddenly felt the stinging pain.
Hai Baihe brought out some iodine and cotton swabs, handing her phone to Ni Xuanxuan. "Help me with this."
Ni Xuanxuan used her phone to illuminate the area as Hai Baihe crouched down to clean the wounds. Suddenly, she said, "I'm sorry."
This apology came out of the blue, but Hai Baihe knew why she was apologizing. "It's okay."
To put it simply, if we were to delve into the details, it all boiled down to the fact that she was rich, willing to spend money on herself, and didn't care about others' opinions. Over time, people started seeing her as a snobby and wealthy girl who thought highly of herself.
Most girls would feel somewhat resentful towards someone like that. Why should you be dressed in designer brands while the rest of us shop around for skincare products, and you have a dozen shades of lipstick?
Whether it's being too high or too low, as long as one's lifestyle is not on the same level as the majority, they are likely to be marginalized by the group.
That's how humans are, social creatures with their biases.
However, these biases come and go quickly. After all, there's usually no deep hatred between people. After going through hardships together, grudges can be forgotten with a smile.
Liang Xiao raised an eyebrow, his impression of Hai Baihe changing once again. If her previous behavior on the train was only slightly more remarkable than an ordinary girl, now, in such an environment, she managed to remain calm and rational. That was quite remarkable.
She finished tending to Ni Xuanxuan's wounds and sat in a central position. She only had a few cuts from shattered glass, nothing serious.
Zhang Qihang's injuries were also minor. The main reason was that Nie Han, who sat next to him, shielded him from harm. Hai Baihe remembered the bloodstains on Nie Han's temple as she approached him, blood still oozing out.
She took some supplies and crouched down next to Liang Xiao. He had already tended to his own wounds, but he was concerned about her. "Are you
hurt?"
"No, you protected me," Hai Baihe smiled. "Thank you."
"It's nothing."
Hai Baihe unwrapped a sedative in her hand, saying, "Look what I found. Want to give it a try?"
Liang Xiao hesitated. "..." Why is this girl so domineering?
Hai Baihe took out a shawl from her bag, folded it a few times, and tucked it under his head. Shawls were versatile items; they could be used as scarves, shawls, seat cushions, or even pillows. They were essential for traveling.
Ni Xuanxuan and Zhang Qihang followed suit, rummaging through their bags. Ni Xuanxuan found a jacket and suddenly burst into tears. "This is Li Wenheng's."
She had met Li Wenheng in the library. Both of them had reserved and introverted personalities. They couldn't exactly call it love, but they had at least felt a connection. However... it was so easy for them to be separated.
Low sobs filled the room.
Hai Baihe didn't interrupt her. She checked her phone's remaining battery, which was only 40%. Luckily, she had brought two power banks, but even with sufficient power, it would eventually run out.
She closed all unnecessary apps in the background to save battery life, then began searching the room.
The hospital consisted of only two buildings. The current one was the outpatient department with three floors. The first floor had the infusion room and emergency department, the second floor housed the surgery department and pharmacy, and the third floor contained the internal medicine and gynecology departments. The other building had a sign hanging on the staircase that read "Inpatient Department," missing half of the "Hospital" character. The entire hospital was pitifully small.
The pharmacy wasn't large either. There were some patient records left on the external counter, and not even a single computer, only carbon paper.
She flipped through the records and checked the dates. 1997?? Even if she accidentally traveled through time, would the Hu Yang Township of 1997 be in such a ghostly state? Or was this just a place with the same name?
While Hai Baihe was deeply lost in thought, a loud horn resounded, causing her to shudder. "Oh my!"
"What's happening?" Everyone else became nervous too.
Hai Baihe heard footsteps and quickly gestured for silence. She immediately crouched down and peered out of the window, discreetly observing the outside.
This abandoned town had no lights, but the moon tonight was bright, allowing her to clearly see the silhouette outside the window.
A beam of light approached from a distance, and Hai Baihe squinted her eyes. "A truck?" It was an ordinary and mundane truck, its headlights illuminating the hospital clearly. Hai Baihe even noticed several shapeless creatures clinging to the windows of the opposite ward.
Well, let's just call them zombies since they're quite similar.
The zombies seemed attracted by the light, their mouths watering as they stared at the truck. If it weren't for the glass barrier, they would surely have jumped down.
Even though the zombies in the ward couldn't come out, there was a trailing army of staggering zombies behind the truck. There weren't many, maybe around forty or fifty, far from the spectacular hordes of zombies seen in movies.
But this was the real world, and even one was enough to be a pain, so why are there so many?
Liang Xiao observed for a while as he crouched beside Hai Baihe, his expression gradually turning cold. "It's the car that crashed into us. There are people inside."
Of course, there were people inside.
The zombies attracted by the lights and horn had come out of the hospital. The moment the people in the truck hit the accelerator, they crashed through, crushing several of the closest zombies. However, more and more zombies ran out of the hospital and pounced on the truck.
The truck quickly became immobilized.
"Damn it, Monkey, we need to break through," the drug dealer who had fought Muge over the restroom was sitting in the driver's seat.
Monkey, a nimble and thin man, lived up to his nickname. We can easily guess how he got that name. He thrust a steel pipe into the mouth of a zombie trying to squeeze through the window. "Boss Liu, I can't hold on much longer."
Boss Liu clenched his teeth and abruptly turned the steering wheel, stopping the car at the entrance of the inpatient department. It wasn't that he didn't want to drive away, but after being pressed against the steering wheel by a zombie just now, the honking attracted a constant stream of zombies. It was better to temporarily barricade themselves inside the building and close the doors to isolate any latecomers.
Before the car had even come to a complete stop, Boss Liu forcefully kicked open the door, pulled out a gun, and cleared a bloody path.
Monkey and the man sitting in the backseat, Da Xu, immediately jumped out of the car, wielding steel pipes and machetes. They followed Boss Liu and ran into the inpatient department.
On the second-floor pharmacy window, Hai Baihe and the others watched the entire scene.
"They have guns," Ni Xuanxuan nervously grabbed Hai Baihe's wrist. "Are they really drug dealers?"
Hai Baihe looked at the large crowd of zombies gathering downstairs. "Shouldn't we be more concerned... about being unable to leave?"
She had initially thought everyone would rest for a while, recover their energy, and then find a way to leave without attracting the attention of the hospital's zombies.