After chopping down the live corpse, the group continued deeper inside and discovered that this area was actually a storage space for cleaning supplies. Various shampoos and combing products were scattered all over the ground. Fortunately, although the lighting was dim, it was still enough to see. However, the originally stocked shelves in the large supermarket were now divided into several not-so-spacious areas by the emergency drop-down shutters. Probably no one had anticipated that these fire doors could not only prevent fires but could also be used to block live corpses today. As long as you stayed close to the fire door, you could immediately hear the familiar low growls of live corpses coming from the next room.
"Let's go left!" Boss Hu urged Thomas, who was holding a frozen meat knife. In this space, there were two locked small fire doors on each side. The sounds of numerous live corpses coming from the right were truly unsettling, while the left side was much quieter, with hardly any noise.
"Okay, let's go left!" Jack nodded. It was clear that there would be no people where there were live corpses, and he certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to rush into a room filled with a large group of them. However, to his surprise, when he turned the handle of the left door, it was unlocked, and there was nothing blocking the way behind it. Just as he pushed the door open in confusion, a cold light came slicing down towards his head, but Jack merely smiled lightly, not even flinching, and firmly grasped the object that was attacking him with his left hand.
"Ah… ah… help!!!"
A girl screamed loudly with a high-pitched voice, one of her hands holding a kitchen knife that Jack had pinched in his grip. Fortunately, Jack released her in time; otherwise, her scream could have ruptured his eardrum.
"Ugh! It stinks so much!" Boss Hu pinched his nose and stood behind Jack, looking around in surprise. He saw a very beautiful girl sitting on the ground in fear, staring at them. Her fair little feet were bare, and her face was dirty, resembling a poor beggar. Behind the girl stood about ten other beautiful women, all with faces full of terror, huddled together like frightened quails, trembling all over. Moreover, the air was filled with an unpleasant odor that could only come from a large amount of excrement.
"Who... who are you?" After seeing that the ones who entered were not zombies but four living people, an older woman cautiously walked over to help the girl on the ground, asking with a strong sense of vigilance.
"We are from the Public Security Bureau, sent by the government to rescue you! Haha..." Boss Hu tugged at his flashy LV belt with a wicked grin on his face.
"Do you think we are three years old? What Public Security Bureau is there now!" The older woman took a few cautious steps back, her face filled with anger.
"Hehe! Then just think of us as from the Shaolin Temple, sent by Buddha to save you!" Boss Hu's wicked humor didn't diminish as he leered at the woman.
"Can you stop talking nonsense? Can't you see they are all scared?" A-Xue couldn't hold back any longer and shot a glare at Boss Hu.
"Tch~ I'm just trying to lighten the mood!" Boss Hu pouted, secretly cursing under his breath. He remembered how she used to kneel in front of him, licking his boots when she was down and out, and now that she had someone backing her, she was acting all high and mighty?
A-Xue ignored the resentment in Boss Hu's eyes and turned to the woman in her thirties, saying, "Sister, don't be afraid. We are survivors just like you. We came up here to see if anyone was here!"
Women communicate better with each other. As soon as A-Xue finished speaking, the dozen or so women across from her all breathed a sigh of relief, and then the oldest woman asked, "So... can you take us out?"
When she said this, all the women behind her had hopeful expressions, though some could not hide their timidity.
"Why escape? The situation outside is worse than here. If I were you, I'd stay here; at least there's food!" A-Xue sighed and shook her head.
"Food?" The woman let out a bitter laugh, pointing at the shelves around her filled with Dexter products, and said, "What food is there? We are in the food area, and if we hadn't eaten all the food, forcing us to risk going out to find more, we would never have moved the things blocking that door, and you wouldn't have been able to get in!"
"Are you pigs? Just a dozen of you and you've eaten all this?" Boss Hu shouted angrily, hands on his hips.
Boss Hu's words made the woman's face flush with embarrassment, and she said, "At first, we all thought we would be rescued, so we didn't control our eating. Who knew we would wait this long? Besides... when we women lose control of our emotions, we tend to eat a bit more!"
"Are there no other people here? Not a single man?" Jack asked with a frown, sensing something was off. How could there be so many women survivors and not a single man?
When it came to men, the women's expressions stiffened, and they almost all lowered their heads, not daring to look at Jack and the others. Only the oldest woman took a deep breath and said, "Actually, there were six men. Four of them went out to find food and never came back, and the remaining two we killed!"
"You killed them?" Boss Hu was taken aback; he never expected these seemingly weak women would dare to kill!
"Yes, what else could we do with those beasts? Let them continue to harm us?" The oldest woman's eyes flashed with hatred, and after a moment, she slowly said, "At first, everyone treated each other with respect, encouraging one another to keep the faith to survive. But after our captain and his three deputies went out for food and never returned, the remaining two strange men showed their true colors. Hmph~ We know all too well the dirty thoughts in your men's hearts. Who wouldn't want to take advantage of being surrounded by a dozen women? They secretly raped two of our sisters, and when we found out, of course, we wouldn't let them succeed. Each sister took a knife and dealt with them. Hmph, don't think we women are cruel; it's all because of what your men forced us into!"
"You can't say that too harshly. At least Brother Lin has been with us for so long and hasn't touched us even once!" A-Xue said somewhat displeased. The women's sweeping condemnation of all men was hard for her to accept.
"That's because you have Brother Lin. What do we have? You can't understand what it's like to be in our situation. If those men pinned you down and tried to insult you, how would you feel? Maybe you would hate those men even more than we do!" The woman suddenly became a bit hysterical, her neck veins bulging as she shouted.
"Hmph~ How do you know our experiences are not worse than yours?" At this, even Cao Mei, who had been silent, spoke up. She pointed at A-Xue and said, "Do you know what she used to do? She was just a senior in college, still a virgin, and when the virus broke out, she escaped to a food processing factory. Do you know how many men were there? I'll tell you, over five hundred! That's a hundred times more than you…"
"...Even for me, although I was once a mistress, I was still well-fed and clothed, and there were always men who loved and pampered me wherever I went. But so what? To survive, I had to sell my body. At my lowest point, just half a pound of rice could make an old and ugly man shove his thing in my mouth. Just yesterday, I still had to wag my tail and plead in front of this disgusting man beside me. But who can we blame? Blame the men? No, without them, we wouldn't be able to survive at all. Hmph~ Compared to us, you all seem to be living in paradise now. I really don't know what you have to complain about?"
Cao Mei's words left the more than ten women across from her speechless, even Hu Laoda beside her was blushing and at a loss for words. It was Jack who glanced at the girls and said lightly, "Alright, living in such a world, everyone has some psychological imbalance. What they say is just a way to vent!"
"…I'm sorry!" The oldest woman across bit her lip and said apologetically, "I apologize for what I just said; those words were indeed extreme. I hope you can forgive me. Let me introduce myself, my name is Thomas Hong, and my sisters all call me Hongjie!"
"That's alright!" Jack waved his hand. He had seen quite a few women like this recently, as their minds had started to twist in some way. In a sense, they were a group of patients with psychological issues, so Jack wouldn't hold it against them. He looked around at the environment and said, "It seems you really have reached a dead end, but our situation may not be much better than yours, so following us out may not be a good idea!"
"Actually, it doesn't matter anymore!" Thomas Hong shrugged and said somewhat dejectedly, "Even if there is still food here, we can't stay any longer. After all, being here is worse than being in prison; at least in prison, you have some time outside. But here, there is nothing—no eating, drinking, or even sleeping outside this room. Every day, we just sleep or stare blankly, with nothing to do. If this continues, even if we don't starve to death, we will definitely go crazy. But if we follow you, at least we can breathe some fresh air before we die!"
"Alright, but I hope you are prepared for the consequences!" Jack nodded. It wasn't that he was being kind-hearted; if this were a group of men, or if there were a few men among them, he wouldn't care at all. But since this was a group of women, he couldn't ignore them. If they turned and left, Jack could guarantee that these women would not survive a week. Sigh, who said women are an indispensable hope in this world? Without them, humanity shouldn't even talk about the next generation.