Chapter 57: Chapter 50 Cleanup
“What’s going on?”
“Gunshots!”
“What situation?”
“Kid, open the door.”
“…”
Through the crack of the door, one could see the flickering shadows of flashlights outside, it wasn’t a time to turn on the lights.
Tao Yu had also opened his door just in time to see Tommy, who was holding a flashlight, about to knock.
“There were gunshots nearby, what’s the situation?”
Tommy first shone his flashlight into Tao Yu’s room, making sure of the window, and then he spoke in a grave tone,
“Don’t know, let’s break in and check.”
Tao Yu knew that Tommy and the others actually took turns to keep a lookout in the hallway at night.
It was meant to guard against zombies and other troubles, but also to watch over Tao Yu himself and Cao Shaolin.
In this apocalyptic environment, it was certain there would be Night Watchers, so it wasn’t surprising that Tao Yu, who had “awakened from deep sleep,” was slower to emerge than the watch personnel.
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Bang~
The door was forced open, several flashlight beams shone in, revealing the messy scene inside and the broken wooden window.
With the door open, the night wind blew in, sending chills down one’s spine, vaguely carrying with it the scent of zombies from the streets.
“What’s the situation? Was it the three people who disappeared during the day?”
Having encountered even more bizarre events, Tommy’s first thought was naturally this.
He had already roughly inspected Tao Yu’s room and, although it couldn’t completely eliminate suspicion, it had moved down the list of priorities.
At that moment, Jack had also arrived and, looking at the situation in the room, headed over to the window to look down on his own.
“Bring the flashlight over here.”
He reached out and took the flashlight passed to him from the side and shone it directly below.
Without much effort, he found Cao Shaolin’s body on the ground.
The key issue was that a group of zombies had already followed the noise to the corpse and were crouched down feasting on it.
Beyond that, there were no other clues.
Tommy had also come over and whispered a few words into Jack’s ear, leading Jack to nod and then turn back to Tao Yu, saying,
“Brother, sorry, but we need to have a look inside your room.”
“Sure.”
Jack didn’t stand on ceremony and walked straight into Tao Yu’s room, feeling the rough wooden boards at the window with his hand and shining the flashlight at the area where the nails were driven in. After finding no traces of prying, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But then his expression turned solemn again,
“Today has been very strange, first, three people vanish into thin air, then Shaolin is brutally attacked. From now on, we must stay together as much as possible at night.”
“Damn, we have no idea how they’re doing it.”
Tommy was equally somber at the moment.
This was the apocalypse; high-tech investigative tools for gathering clues were not available, and Tao Yu was just playing along temporarily to avoid some misunderstandings and troubles.
“We can only defend passively, or perhaps, move to another place…”
A sigh was heard; relocating was easier said than done. Seven months in, this was one of the places they had chosen.
Not to mention anything else, just the zombies on the migration route were a huge headache, inevitably meaning death and injury.
The adult men might still cope, but the elderly, frail, and sick would likely find it very difficult to hold on.
“Brother Zhang Wei, what are the chances that the company’s gathering place is for real?”
Jack raised the question again.
The gathering place Tao Yu had spoken of was taken as just talk by the others; it could only be taken as gathering information, and they certainly wouldn’t trust Tao Yu’s word just because of his unsubstantiated claims.
Even if they truly believed what Tao Yu said, they definitely wouldn’t consider abandoning this relatively safe base in the short term.
But the events of today weighed heavily on Jack’s mind.
Three able-bodied people disappeared into thin air, and then Cao Shaolin was killed in the dead of night!
If they had to live continuously in such tense spirits, worrying about zombies, food, as well as nighttime raids, they really couldn’t last long.
“A settlement will inevitably be built, but I’m not certain it can be built near here. It’s not something I can influence alone. However, I can promise to tell you the location. The new gathering place will surely be in need of people.”
Tao Yu roughly understood Jack’s thoughts and didn’t deceive him.
“Okay, we will set out first thing tomorrow morning.”
Jack nodded with his eyes closed as if he had made up his mind.
Although he had a scar on his face which made him look somewhat fierce, it had to be said that this guy was really willing to take risks for others.
Perhaps he also entertained the idea of using the Meteorite as a merit to exchange for sheltering these people…
Early the next morning, Tao Yu and Jack had already made simple preparations.
Since both of them were very capable of moving around, it was not a big problem for them to find food for themselves, so they didn’t bring much. Instead, Jack was incessantly reminding Tommy about things to be careful of.
Apart from Tommy and Senke, the rest of the people at the gathering place didn’t pay much attention to Jack’s departure, seeming more concerned about what they would eat today.
“Boss, why don’t we go with you? Senke and I won’t hold you back.”
Tommy was somewhat worried, though his bald head was tattooed and his face was full of muscle, he was quite convinced by Jack.
“No need. After what happened yesterday, we need to be extra careful in the next few days and focus on safety.”
Jack didn’t waver in his decision to stay and investigate what had happened before leaving. If they didn’t find out, were they supposed to never leave and just sit around until the food ran out?
Act decisively when you must!
“Boss, come and take a look. I went downstairs earlier to take care of Cao Shaolin’s body, but I discovered that his corpse hadn’t been eaten.”
They were just about to leave, but the words from Senke, the black man, made both Jack and Tao Yu hesitate.
They quickly descended the stairs. Although the hotel’s stairwell was somewhat messy and dim, and the handrails were covered with dust, which could be headache-inducing for someone with rhinitis, the zombies inside the hotel had been dealt with, and the supplies had been looted long ago, so going downstairs was uneventful.
Once they reached the lobby at the bottom of the stairs, they were a bit more cautious, proceeding silently without making any noise.
The hotel’s doors had been blocked off; various sofas, cabinets, chairs from the lobby, and some nailed wooden boards made it airtight.
There was only one small door for convenient access inside.
On the other side of the hotel, a bell was installed that could be rung with a pull of a string. Every time someone wanted to leave through this door, they would pull the bell to attract the zombies to the side.
Beyond that, there was a small garden with railings and a back door that was used as an alternative safe passage.
At this moment, Cao Shaolin’s corpse had been dragged in by Senke and was laid out in that small garden, seemingly in preparation for burial. It was evident from the several small mounds in the garden that this was not the first time.
Cao Shaolin’s one eye had turned into a dark red bloody hole, and his other eye was wide open in death. The blood scabs on his head were tangled with his hair and had clumped together.
But the key point was that his clothes had been almost completely torn by zombies, his body covered in bite marks; yet, astonishingly, it was mostly intact!
They could even see several teeth embedded in his flesh!
“This is…”
Jack was shocked. He took off his gloves and pressed against Cao Shaolin’s stiff corpse, then took out his dagger. After bringing his hands together in apology, he began to cut into Cao Shaolin’s body.
It felt tougher to cut through than cowhide, requiring force to make an incision!
Tao Yu was also secretly alarmed. This creature’s explosive power and vitality from yesterday were already frightening, but he hadn’t expected the body to remain so tough after death.
He relied on Deification in bear form, using “Five Forms as One” to boost his localized defense, which at best was slightly better than this. Yet this guy’s passive body had reached such a state!
Thankfully, he had many tactics at his disposal and his injuries didn’t affect his condition, otherwise, if he had not managed to overwhelm the opponent last night and had given him a chance to fight back, the situation would have been dire.
In comparison, it was not surprising that the zombies’ teeth and biting could not shred his body.
“Incredible, Shaolin was this strong?”
There hadn’t been time for a thorough check last night, but now that Jack had looked closer and found bullet fragments lodged in the skull, he was even more shocked.
The bullets hadn’t completely penetrated?
Even though Jack himself had started on the path of getting stronger by killing zombies, the comparison still showed he was far behind.
It immediately occurred to him that Cao Shaolin might have been able to kill zombies to get stronger!
But why be so low-key if he was that strong?
It made no sense, and he couldn’t understand it.
And how could someone with such an inhuman physique have actually died!
“For these few days while I’m out, try not to look for supplies. Stay on full alert. On the way, I’ll also keep an eye out for a new suitable place for us to settle.”
Jack began to suspect that Cao Shaolin might have had other motives, but in the end, he decided to focus on the safety of the people at the gathering place. He then turned to Tao Yu and said,
“Brother Zhang, let’s set out. We have a modified vehicle, follow me.”