Upon entering the master bedroom and seeing those two skeletons that had been severely gnawed on, Wang Tao felt a surge of nausea.
However, he couldn't help but wonder why the child's parents hadn't turned into zombies after being bitten and completely devoured.
Unless... their luck was just too bad, and the zombie virus had too long an incubation period!
It was said online that the incubation period of the zombie virus ranged from 1 minute to 24 hours.
In most cases, a longer incubation period was better. This was because if you amputated the infected area before the mutation occurred, as long as it wasn't a fatal part, there was still a chance of survival.
But sometimes, a shorter incubation period meant less suffering.
Take this family, for example.
Perhaps, before they died, they had to watch their own child devour them...
Just thinking about that scene was chilling!
"All I can say is, you were just unlucky..."
Shaking his head, Wang Tao hurriedly scavenged through the master bedroom, then dragged the small zombie's body into the room, placing it between the two other corpses.
Then he closed the room door with a loud bang.
A family should be together, complete and orderly.
The food in apartment 101 wasn't plentiful; given Wang Tao's appetite, it might last about ten days. However, there were plenty of snacks to tide him over.
All the items Wang Tao deemed useful or valuable were also packed up.
After he finished scavenging, Wang Tao moved the items up to the fifth floor. Since there wasn't much, he didn't call for Ding Yuqin.
But because he made quite a bit of noise going upstairs, Ding Yuqin, who had been keeping an eye on Wang Tao, naturally noticed.
She quickly opened the door, first asking solicitously whether Wang Tao was injured, then inquiring if she could help with any work.
Wang Tao did indeed have a task for her. He handed Ding Yuqin a bunch of keys.
"Sister-in-law, go collect all the usable glass bottles from those apartments, and see how many you can find. Here are the keys."
Wang Tao had kept the keys to the rooms he had scavenged. Some were the originals left in the rooms; others he had made copies of. After all, it wasn't practical to pick the locks every time.
"Ah? By myself...?"
Ding Yuqin felt the keys in her hand burning hot.
"Scared?"
Wang Tao frowned.
"Um..."
Ding Yuqin nodded honestly.
"There's nothing to be scared of. I've cleared out all the zombies. As long as you don't open the entrance door to the building, it's safe... forget it, I'll ask the uncle downstairs for help."
As he spoke, Wang Tao reached for the keys.
"No! I'll go!"
When Ding Yuqin heard that Wang Tao was going to ask someone else, she quickly clutched the keys tightly.
She was a smart woman and knew that if she couldn't prove her worth, especially in this post-apocalyptic world, there was a possibility of being abandoned.
She didn't dare gamble her life on Wang Tao's benevolence!
Wang Tao gave her a thoughtful look.
"Alright, go ahead."
Although the zombies in Building 4 had been cleared out, the fear they had caused lingered. Not to mention Ding Yuqin, even the locksmith downstairs rarely left his home, staying inside almost constantly, especially with many apartments still having remnants of blood, smell...
Ding Yuqin was ready to face it head-on.
Wang Tao took a pair of binoculars and weapons to the sixth floor, where he used a lock-picking tool to open the door leading to the rooftop.
When the apocalypse broke out, no one had gone up to the rooftop, which aside from some permanently installed clothes racks, had nothing on it.
"Whew—"
Being cooped up in the building all these days had been somewhat oppressive.
Stepping out suddenly and seeing the sunset-drenched orange sky, he felt an indescribable sense of exhilaration.
However, when Wang Tao reached the edge of the rooftop and looked down, that feeling of exhilaration turned instantly into urgency.
Because the street below to the north was filled with zombies!
From this vantage point, he could see many things that were not visible before.
The zombies hidden around the corners and at the base of walls were far more numerous than Wang Tao had imagined.
Still, even though the sight was somewhat horrifying, if he could kill all these zombies... the rewards would be substantial!
"If I throw a Molotov cocktail to burn them to death, I wonder if the kills would count as mine..."
Wang Tao then moved to the south side, where he could essentially get a clear view of all the zombies wandering in the courtyard of the complex.
"1, 2, 3...19, 20!"
He could see a total of 20, and as for those inside the building that were out of sight, he was unsure. But even with just these 20, they were more than he could handle.
The best course of action, he felt, was to lure the zombies to one place and kill them one by one or to set a massive fire and burn them all to death!
But it was too early to be thinking about that now; he had come to the rooftop to figure out how to break out of the complex while surrounded by zombies.
Now that Building 4 had been cleared, Wang Tao's next target was to fetch diesel from the "Big Bite of Meat" restaurant, and also to scavenge some food.
The main gate of the complex was to the west, and directly opposite it was the "Big Bite of Meat" restaurant. One of the glass doors of the small restaurant was open, while the other was shattered, and he saw no zombies inside.
The street was rather narrow and not frequently traveled, so there weren't many zombies around; Wang Tao only spotted a few.
As for how he would get out of the complex...
Wang Tao felt that the main gate was definitely not an option, as that would attract the attention of the 20 zombies.
While zombies generally didn't run fast, and he could probably get through the 20 of them in the complex if he was just focused on escaping—provided his luck wasn't exceptionally bad—there could be no mistakes!
That plan was very risky.
And he was a bit worried; what if the zombies were attracted by him and followed him right into the small restaurant?
So, Wang Tao felt that climbing over the wall was a more reliable option.
The perimeter wall of the complex wasn't thick and was a simple brick wall. By his estimate, it was just over two meters high.
With his ability, scaling this wall would naturally not be a problem.
"First, I'll rush out of the entrance of Building 4, make it to the wall, then climb over it, and dash into the small restaurant! If no zombies follow, that's best. If some do follow, then I'll just close the rolling door of the restaurant! I didn't see any zombies inside the restaurant, and even if there were, at most it would be Boss Li and his wife. I can deal with up to three zombies..."
Wang Tao quickly formulated his action plan.
However, before that, he needed to move.
His home was still too small, and if everything went well on this trip out, he should be able to find quite a few supplies, which wouldn't fit in his home.
Wang Tao was reluctant to throw away those supplies that were temporarily unnecessary so moving to a bigger house was the best choice.
As for where to move, Wang Tao had already decided long ago—it would be Room 602 upstairs.
As he went downstairs, Ding Yuqin happened to be sweating profusely, carrying a box of narrow-necked glass bottles to the front door of Wang Tao's house.
"Wait a moment, sister-in-law, don't put them inside. I'm moving to an upstairs room," he said.
"Ah? Moving?"
Ding Yuqin was taken aback, then seemed to think of something, and her face turned pale.