Before I even had the chance to ask about Xiao Hu's situation after that young man finished speaking, the tightly shut door suddenly boomed open with a heavy kick.
Immediately, several T-squad members armed with submachine guns rushed inside.
Not long after, the man in the white coat entered along with Sister T, with Zhang Hongsheng trailing behind them, head lowered, his expression unreadable.
Once inside, Sister T quickly scanned the room.
She signaled two men to check whether every fallen walker was truly dead, then turned to us and asked, "You did all this?"
I didn't answer her question.
Instead, I pointed to a few corpses in the corner that I had forgotten about and told them to make sure the skulls were smashed.
Before those two men could react, Sister T had already drawn her dagger, walked over to the bodies, and dispatched them cleanly with swift stabs.
Then she calmly returned to stand beside the man in the white coat.
From the moment he entered, the man in the white coat had been staring fixedly at Xiao Hu lying on the ground.
He leaned toward Sister T and whispered something.
I couldn't hear what was said, but after seeing her nod a few times, she waved her hand.
At once, a T-squad member wearing gloves stepped forward and carried Xiao Hu out.
"Hey! Where are you taking him?" Han Xue asked worriedly.
At her words, the man in the white coat finally withdrew his gaze from Xiao Hu and smiled at us. "We're taking him somewhere safe."
"You're putting him in quarantine?" the boy in the corner still clutching the stool asked.
That one question instantly drew the white coat's attention.
He stared at the two of them for a moment, then exchanged a look with Sister T.
Moments later, armed soldiers stepped forward and escorted the two young men out as well.
Watching them being led away, the man in the white coat casually remarked to Sister T, almost as if thinking out loud: "The fact that all three of them weren't infected… that's quite interesting."
At his words, I frowned deeply.
Something was wrong with what he said.
Xiao Hu's injury wasn't strange—but those two looked completely normal.
So why lump them in with infection?
Everything that happened in this room was seen only by us; they outside knew nothing at all.
As I thought about it, I narrowed my eyes at the man in the white coat.
From the moment they entered and saw the corpses scattered everywhere, not a flicker of surprise or shock crossed their faces.
That was unnatural.
Normally, anyone catching sight of such carnage would have been astonished.
But the man in the white coat only smiled.
A bold suspicion began to take shape in my mind…
Perhaps everything that happened today was inevitably connected to these people standing before us.
The moment that speculation formed in my mind, it gave me a vicious fright.
My eyes were fixed on the man in the white coat and Sister T without blinking.
If my guess wasn't wrong, then… the situation we were in right now would be far worse than anything we'd faced before.
"Why did you just shut the door? Holding guns in your hands yet not coming in to help—we almost died, do you realize that?" Han Xue, being as straightforward as ever, immediately shouted when she saw their weapons.
During this, Shen Feng, Xu Shu, Uncle Gazi, and Yangyang all exchanged quick glances with me, intentionally or not.
Everyone sensed something was wrong, though I wasn't sure if they had noticed the same issue I had just discovered.
Hearing Han Xue's words, the man in the white coat put away his smile and glanced at her twice, then swept his gaze across all of us.
Before he could speak, Han Xue went on: "If Suo Tian were here, he definitely wouldn't have done what you just did—hiding outside with weapons. Even if he were alone, he'd fight at the front to protect everyone. No wonder he's the leader, he's far more impressive than you in that regard."
At those words, the white coat's face instantly darkened.
He sized Han Xue up from head to toe for quite a while before finally speaking slowly: "Something abnormal has happened here. Sorry, but you'll all have to come with us for quarantine and observation."
Right after he spoke, Sister T's expression stiffened slightly.
She looked hesitant as she addressed him: "Doc… doctor?"
The white coat didn't give her the chance to continue.
Waving his hand impatiently, he cut her off: "Take them away, take them away. Don't say useless things. If there's suspicion, there must be inspection. That's headquarters' directive. Even if Suo Tian comes back, he has to comply."
"We have no problems at all. We didn't even get close to those people," Yangyang said sternly.
The white coat chuckled softly: "The cause of the infection isn't even confirmed yet. You've been stuck in this house for so long—who can guarantee airborne molecules won't cause transmission? In any case, everything here is already out of control. All of you must be quarantined."
"Hmph, so in other words, no matter what, we're going to be locked up," Xu Shu sneered.
"Quarantining suspicious individuals is headquarters' order. We're just a small outpost, of course we have to follow it."
I glanced at the white coat a few times and spoke: "Doctor, you still haven't answered Han Xue's question. Since you had guns, why didn't you come in earlier? Taking them down should've been effortless for you, right?"
I deliberately avoided pointing out that those people only mutated after the door was shut, figuring the white coat himself hadn't even realized he'd made that tiny but fundamental mistake.
Sure enough, after thinking for a moment, the white coat replied: "We didn't understand the specifics of the situation and couldn't act rashly."
"Weren't you worried those walkers would tear us apart?"
"Aren't you all still perfectly fine?"
The white coat was a very clever man.
Engaging him in verbal sparring would never put me at an advantage.
After thinking for a moment, I gave up on pointless words and asked directly: "How long will the quarantine observation last?"
"That's not certain. If research can't determine a definite result, then safety can never be guaranteed. Of course, if results are confirmed quickly and prove you're uninfected, you'll be released immediately."
Shen Feng shot me a quick glance, his brows slightly furrowed.
He too caught the meaning in the white coat's words.
Put bluntly, what he really wanted to tell us was: Once you go in, it won't be so easy to come back out.
Right after, the white coat seemed to lose interest in continuing the exchange.
He waved toward the door, and a few others in white coats carrying medical kits immediately walked in.
I even recognized one of them—back when we first arrived here, he had warmly greeted Suo Tian, acting all chummy.
If I remembered right, his name was something like Bruno.
As soon as he entered, that man noticed me too.
While the white coat wasn't looking, he gave me a quick wink.
I didn't quite understand what he meant, but it was obvious there was no malice in it.
Not wanting to draw attention, I didn't respond, just shifted my gaze away naturally.
Once inside, one of them first pulled out a strange device and scanned us up and down.
After that, they set down their medical kits, opened them, and all drew out syringes of the same size.
The moment I laid eyes on those syringes, my scalp tingled.
Instinctively, I clasped my hands behind my back and took a few unconscious steps backward.
"What are you doing?" Shen Feng asked.
"Blood tests. Standard procedure before quarantine. Just cooperate—it won't hurt much," Bruno replied gently, in his usual good-natured manner.
At his words, we all hesitated, glancing around at each other.
After a long moment of deadlock, seeing no one willing to move, I gritted my teeth, rolled up my sleeve, and stepped up to Bruno with a glare. "Go on then, do it!"
Given the circumstances, refusal wasn't really an option.
Better to cooperate now than make a scene and have the white coat order his men to force us.
At least this way, maybe the needle would go in a little lighter.
With me taking the lead, Shen Feng, Xu Shu, and the others slowly followed, reluctantly allowing their blood to be drawn.
Bruno was skilled—when it was my turn, I barely felt a thing before it was done.
They drew only a tiny amount of blood, even less than what we'd usually have taken during school health checks.
Once finished, Bruno and his team packed up their kits and left.
Immediately after, two armed men "politely" took up positions to watch over us and urged us to follow.
As we stepped out the door, I caught sight of two bodies sprawled on the ground outside, their heads blown apart.
Unlike the walkers in the house, the blood flowing from them was bright red and thick with the stench of iron.
The walkers' blood had carried only a foul, rotten reek.
It was obvious these two had died as humans.
They must have been the ones who'd bolted from the house just before the door closed.
As for how they ended up brutally executed out here—well, it didn't take much imagination to figure out who was responsible.
From the very first moment I laid eyes on that man in the white coat, I felt something strange and unsettling.
His entire presence carried a stifling, lifeless aura.
Last night, when Suo Tian killed that brute right in front of him and embarrassed him, I noticed the white coat's expression—and a faint sense of unease began gnawing at me…
I can't shake the feeling that what happened today is definitely connected to what happened last night.
And if my suspicions are right… heh, then it's laughable, really.
To be remembered with resentment by such a petty, narrow-minded man means life is definitely not going to be easy.
As we headed toward the second row, my mind was racing to sort through the questions I needed to consider:
How did all those people suddenly die so quickly? What was the cause?
Why wasn't Xiao Hu infected even after being bitten? That boy holding the stool mentioned earlier this wasn't even the first time Xiao Hu had been bitten. What was it that kept him from turning?
Is all of this… the work of the white coat alone?
And then there's Zhang Hongsheng, who's been keeping his head down and hasn't spoken a word…
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