"I didn't expect that even with soldiers stationed here, they couldn't defend it. Looking at this disarrayed scene, there must have been quite a few living corpses at that time!" Bai Ru said as she strapped the riot shield to her arm, following behind Jack.
"That's not necessarily true!" Jack slowed his pace, turned to look at Bai Ru, and said lightly, "The strongest fortresses are often breached from within. Just like this plague, the truly terrifying aspect isn't those living corpses, but the contagious nature of the plague. Perhaps a small scratch could turn a well-trained soldier into a corpse. The soldiers stationed here might have had their officers or comrades sent over because they were injured. Maybe the living corpses outside hadn't rushed in yet, but the comrades inside who had turned into corpses cost them their lives!"
"Sometimes I really feel that in this world, perhaps being alive is the greatest tragedy!" Bai Ru paused her steps, her beautiful willow-like brows deeply furrowed.
"Humans are born to survive. Never give up easily until the last moment. Experience death more, even if it is painful, it is always better than a cowardly suicide!"
Jack smiled numbly and, after stepping up two steps, kicked the wooden door of the first room. To his surprise, the door had decayed to such an extent that not only did he fail to kick it open, but he also got his leg stuck inside. He retracted his foot in silence and chose to kick the door lock instead, but the entire wooden door fell down with a loud crash, kicking up a cloud of choking dust.
"What... what terrible quality?" Jack stared in shock at the door that had shattered into five or six pieces. He hadn't even dared to kick it too hard, yet this was the result. He quickly turned his head to look around, relieved to find that no living corpses had been attracted by the noise, and he let out a slight sigh of relief.
"This seems to be a debridement room; the medicine shouldn't be in here!" Jack frowned as he surveyed the environment in the small room, which only contained two sinks and a wooden cabinet. On top of the cabinet were only some disinfectants like dried alcohol or iodine, just as Jack had imagined. The place was poorly maintained, lacking even a decent piece of electronic equipment!
"Lin Ye! The medicine is here, but there are living corpses!" Bai Ru stood outside the door of another room not far away, waving her hand to quietly remind Jack. In the room she was looking at, which had a sign for an infusion room, three living corpses were aimlessly wandering around inside. Since the double wooden doors were closed, the dazed living corpses seemed unaware of their arrival. However, on a glass window in the infusion room, the words "Medicine Pickup Window" were clearly written in green.
Jack walked out of the debridement room with several rolls of gauze and stuffed them into the backpack behind Bai Ru. He observed the inside for a while through the glass window in the corridor and then said to Bai Ru beside him, "You take care of the one at the entrance of the medicine room; the other two are mine!"
"Okay!" Bai Ru nodded without hesitation, stepping to the right side of the main door, positioning her shield in front of her, and casting a glance at Jack. Jack immediately walked up, intending to kick the door open, but he stopped just in time. Under Bai Ru's puzzled gaze, he awkwardly smiled and gently pushed the door open with his hand.
"Roar~"
As soon as they caught the scent of fresh human presence, the three living corpses in the hall immediately erupted with enthusiasm, charging towards Jack like excited stallions. Jack took a few steps forward, standing there leisurely to wait for the living corpses to approach, and the three living corpses seemed to have made a plan, with two going for Jack and one targeting the beautiful Bai Ru!
Jack easily dealt with the two tall living corpses with a raised hand, and soon they lay dead at his feet. Bai Ru also seemed to be getting more familiar with fighting the living corpses, not even using her shield to block, and cleanly severed the head of a living corpse.
Bai Ru let out a slight breath. Just as she turned her head to seek a look of praise from Jack, she found Jack squatting in front of a well-dressed corpse, deeply furrowing his brows.
"What's wrong, Mr. Lin?" Bai Ru walked over and stood beside Jack, looking at the living corpse with confusion.
"Don't you think something is off?" Jack pointed at the living corpse on the ground, which was wearing a washed blue denim jacket, and glanced at Bai Ru.
"Something off?" Bai Ru was taken aback, carefully examining the incomplete corpse that was missing its head. After a moment of hesitation, she said, "These living corpses seem quite clean, and the decay isn't severe. Could it be... that they were just infected not long ago?"
"You're absolutely right! These living corpses have been infected for no more than twenty days!" Jack stood up and gave Bai Ru an approving look.
"Is that really the case?" Bai Ru didn't seem pleased and furrowed her brows deeply, saying suspiciously, "But what are these three survivors doing in this hospital? There wouldn't be a lot of food here, would there? Could it be...?"
"Hmm! They must be looking for medicine, just like us!" Jack picked up on Bai Ru's words and squatted down again to feel the bulging pockets of the living corpse's jacket. Sure enough, he pulled out a dozen packages of anti-inflammatory medicine. Jack clapped his hands together, stood up, and put the medicine into the backpack behind Bai Ru. After zipping it up, he said, "It seems there must be a gathering place for survivors nearby; otherwise, they wouldn't risk coming here for medicine!"
"Is there a gathering place?" Bai Ru murmured, but there wasn't much excitement on her face. She looked around and pointed at a few knives and iron rods on the ground, saying, "These should be their weapons, right? But what could have hurt them? The ten or so corpses on the ground must have died a brutal death long ago!"
"The answer should be inside there!" Jack finished checking the pockets of the three incomplete corpses for medicine, then raised his head, his gaze sweeping towards a green security door marked with a sign that said 'No Entry for Unauthorized Personnel.' To its left was a drug window blocked off by a fence.
Jack picked up a knife and slowly walked over, carefully using the long knife in his hand to lift the blue curtain in the arched window. Suddenly, with a "whoosh," a living corpse with its eyeball hanging off its face squeezed out from behind the curtain, pressing its hands against the tempered glass of the window. Its tattered head desperately tried to push through the arched opening, and its remaining eye excitedly looked at Jack, as if it believed it could squeeze through the two-hand-width arch.
"Pfft..."
Jack's cutting knife was thrust into the living corpse's eye socket without hesitation, and then he easily twisted the knife handle without using much strength. The living corpse immediately jerked all over, like a robot that had its battery unplugged, and slowly stopped.
"Are they the companions of the three living corpses?" Bai Ru walked up and looked at the living corpse that had stuck itself in the window with an expressionless face.
Jack pulled out the knife from the eye socket of the living corpse, opened the curtain covering the neck of the living corpse, looked inside, shook his head and said, "No, this should be an armed policeman."
Jack wiped the knife in his hand on the curtain and saw the key inserted in the security door at a glance. He walked over and twisted it gently. With a "click", the security door was opened.
Jack opened a crack in the door and looked inside. It was not dark inside. The midday sun shone through the glass window and illuminated the inside extremely brightly. He saw three rows of white wooden medicine cabinets arranged in a "mountain" shape in the small room. Several of them collapsed to the ground for unknown reasons. The bottles and cans inside were scattered all over the floor. A living corpse with half of its neck cut off was pressed under the cabinet.