Underground Parking Garage
The entrance to the parking garage was shrouded in darkness without any electrical lighting. Sunlight created a stark boundary between light and shadow at the entrance. Lin An led the way, followed by Zhang Tie, who was fully armed.
"Clang—Clang—"
A series of rhythmic metal clanging noises echoed from deep within the parking garage. The sounds were distant and muffled. The passage, cloaked in darkness, resembled the entrance to hell.
"Lin Team, did you hear that?"
Zhang Tie, wearing two large, heavy cotton jackets and the largest welding helmet, spoke in a low, cautious voice. His large frame made it difficult to find suitable armor that would fit him even after he transformed, making him wobble as he walked, resembling his transformed state.
"I feel like something's not right," he continued. "When I escaped last time, this place was full of zombies."
His tone was serious and cautious as he looked around. The ramp leading into the parking garage had a few wrecked cars but no zombies. Given that the apocalypse had only just begun, there should have been a large number of zombies at this entrance near the hospital. It was unusual for them to disappear in just one day.
Lin An's expression remained calm, and he nodded in acknowledgment.
When something unusual happens, there's usually more to it. They had initially prepared to fight their way from the parking garage into the hospital.
"No need to lower your voice; you can use the team's voice chat," Lin An said through the team channel. "Be careful. Something might have changed last night."
Zhang Tie was momentarily taken aback, then gave an awkward smile.
"Still getting used to it," he admitted, his loud voice filling the team channel.
Lin An glanced at him with a hint of helplessness.
"Let's go."
They proceeded cautiously, their footsteps echoing through the garage. As they walked down the ramp, they saw numerous overturned and wrecked cars. The car windows were stained with dried blood, and the bodies of the cars bore handprints, signs of the desperate struggle of the people who had been inside. A rough count revealed at least two hundred vehicles. Strangely, there were no corpses in sight.
"Clang—Clang"
The eerie clanging continued, but Lin An couldn't pinpoint its source. It seemed to come from deeper within the garage.
"Lin Team! There are drag marks here," Zhang Tie pointed to a wide, dark red bloodstain on the ground that extended to the second level of the garage. The vehicles nearby were overturned, and there was a roughly five-meter-wide clear path where the vehicles had been pushed aside.
"I see it. There's another one on the left."
Another blood trail went over the crushed roof of an SUV.
Lin An's expression grew serious. These trails were too large to be from a single corpse. Using his powerful mental abilities, he quickly reconstructed a possible scenario in his mind.
A large creature, or possibly two, had dragged a massive pile of bodies to the second level of the garage. One of these creatures had stepped on and crushed a medium-sized SUV.
Could it be a mutant? Lin An wondered. That didn't seem right; he hadn't heard of any mutants appearing in the hospital in his previous life.
"What should we do now, Lin Team?" Zhang Tie asked uneasily, feeling as though something was watching them from the darkness. The air was cold and chilling. Although his perception wasn't as keen as Lin An's, his beast transformation talent gave him animalistic instincts.
"Forget about it for now. Let's head straight for the elevator shaft."
There was a freight elevator in the parking garage that led directly to the emergency center. Even without power, they could climb the elevator shaft.
"Okay."
Their footsteps echoed as they walked through the darkness. It was eerily silent. The air was thick with a damp, metallic smell mixed with the scent of blood.
"Lin Team, this is it."
Zhang Tie halted and pointed toward a dark spot not far away. Both of them, being Awakened, could see through the darkness as if it were daylight with just a faint bit of light. The metal sign labeled "Freight Elevator" was weathered, and the elevator door was tightly shut, covered in countless bloody handprints.
"Let's go in—"
"Hiss!"
In the silence, a sharp, hoarse sound echoed.
"Bang!"
Reacting on instinct, Zhang Tie kicked at the shadow lunging out of the darkness. The shadow exploded into a mass of fragments.
"What the hell is this?"
Zhang Tie was startled, turning to look at the pile of flesh on the ground. It was a head without limbs, with a bare, white spine trailing like a tail from it.
Zhang Tie's face turned a bit pale. It was disgusting.
Lin An also took a closer look, his expression becoming serious.
"This is a corpse snake," he explained. "Usually, they're created when infected individuals are heavily eaten by zombies before dying. The high concentration of zombie virus in their bodies causes their spines to become significantly strengthened. With their limbs gone, these creatures pull themselves out of their remaining flesh and move like snakes using their spines."
Lin An picked up the long spine from the ground, shaking off the remnants of the exploded head. He swung it a couple of times, and it made a sharp, cracking sound like a whip.
"These things make for pretty good weapons," he said. "They're hard and flexible."
Unfazed by Zhang Tie's pale face, Lin An handed him the spine. "Take it. You don't have a weapon right now. Fire axes aren't durable enough; this is much better."
In the early stages of the apocalypse game, when weapons and equipment were scarce, the spine of a corpse snake was highly favored by players, considered the best early weapon.
"Lin Team…" Zhang Tie said, his face twisted in reluctance, as he instinctively stepped back. The towering man of over 1.9 meters couldn't help but retreat a few steps. "This thing is just too disgusting."
Though Zhang Tie was quite brave, the apocalypse had only begun two days ago. In his thirty-plus years of life, the most gruesome thing he had seen was a street fight. He wasn't yet accustomed to this level of gore.
Lin An frowned. "Take it and get used to it quickly. You'll be seeing a lot more of this from now on. Can being disgusted help you survive?"
Zhang Tie hesitated, then gritted his teeth and took the spine of the corpse snake. Somehow, despite Lin An being younger, his words carried a weight that Zhang Tie found convincing, as if Lin An had experienced many things.
"Boom!"
Lin An kicked at the closed elevator door, and the massive sound echoed. The metal door dented, revealing a small gap.
"Pull it open."
Lin An reversed his grip on his Nepalese curved knife, readying himself for combat. The top of the elevator shaft led directly to the emergency center, and the shaft was likely filled with zombies.
"Cre-e-eak."
Metal groaned as Zhang Tie, his face turning red, struggled to pull the door open. He suddenly realized something, his pupils narrowing. With his current strength, it should have been easy to open the door by hand. Unless...
The elevator was filled with a lot of "things" pressing against the door.
"Power burst!"
Lin An also realized this. Golden psychic energy flowed into his body, unlocking his full strength. With a low shout, he helped Zhang Tie pull the door open.
"Roar!"
As if disturbed, countless zombies let out a chorus of roars. Inside the elevator shaft, a dense mass of zombies clogged the entire space. As the door opened, the zombies poured out like a flood bursting through a dam.