"Master Lin..."
Just as Jack and Bai Ru were passionately kissing, about to break through the last barrier with Bai Ru, a very discordant voice suddenly came over. Cao Mei sat up from her sleeping bag in surprise, calling out to him.
"Cao Mei, you..."
Jack and Bai Ru awkwardly turned to look at Cao Mei. Although she could hear every little movement they made clearly, Jack and Bai Ru had no intention of avoiding her. It wasn't that it was unnecessary; rather, both Jack and Bai Ru wanted Cao Mei to give up on her feelings for Jack as soon as possible and to end their somewhat ambiguous and complicated relationship.
"Lin Ye, I really didn't mean to interrupt you, but it seems like there are people across from us!" Cao Mei looked apologetically at Jack and pointed at the glass curtain wall in front of them.
"People?" Jack looked up in surprise, following the direction of Cao Mei's finger. In the distance, in a gray building, there was indeed a light flashing, and it was blinking in a very regular pattern. Jack focused and realized that it seemed to be the light from a flashlight.
"Honey, that building across seems to be part of the service area, right? The service area heading north!" Bai Ru turned around, her face flushed as she leaned beside Jack. She also saw the light and understood that Cao Mei wasn't intentionally causing trouble.
Hearing Bai Ru's quick change in address, Cao Mei's face turned pale as she glanced at Bai Ru. She bit her lower lip and said to Jack, "Lin Ye, do you think someone across has discovered us and is signaling us?"
"It seems like... Morse code!" Jack frowned, getting out of the sleeping bag. He rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a small telescope. He squatted in front of the glass curtain wall, adjusting the telescope's scale while reading, "S... O... S... It's a distress signal!"
"Is there really someone there?" Bai Ru, not caring about being affectionate with Jack anymore, half-covered herself in the sleeping bag while putting on her clothes, and walked over to personally help Jack put on his clothes while holding his shirt.
"Yes, there are several!" Jack put down the binoculars and nodded, as he had clearly seen several figures under the beam of the other party's flashlight. He quickly took out his own powerful flashlight, continuously pressing the button to signal back.
"What's going on? What did they say?" Cao Mei also put on her jeans, discreetly squeezed past Bai Ru, and leaned next to Jack to ask.
"The other party seems to be a novice, not very familiar with Morse code. I can only roughly guess that they are saying they are survivors, eight people, and need rescue!" Jack furrowed his brows and thought for a moment. After the other party flashed their light a few more times, he suddenly said seriously, "One of them is actually a pregnant woman!"
"What? There's even a pregnant woman?" Bai Ru and Cao Mei both looked at the opposite side in shock. It's important to know that the pregnancy rate among women is alarmingly low now.
American women are recognized worldwide for their ability to give birth, but just like in the small gathering place where Cao Mei and the others used to stay, it's unclear what the reason is. So many women can only use the most primitive methods of contraception, and after more than a year, only three or two got pregnant, and none of them could last more than three months before miscarrying. As for Cao Mei and A Xue, they hadn't even gotten pregnant once.
"Honey, do you want to go save them?" Bai Ru turned to look at the pensive Jack and hesitated, saying, "But there are almost all living corpses surrounding that place, at least one or two thousand. It's very dangerous!"
"No matter how dangerous it is, we have to go save them, especially that pregnant woman. The child in her womb represents the hope of humanity!" Jack furrowed his brows tightly. When he turned to look at the opposite side, he found that the people there were vigorously waving something. Jack picked up the binoculars and saw a large whiteboard with two lines written on it: "Help us, the pregnant woman is eight months along!"
"So it's not eight people, but the pregnant woman is eight months along!" Jack shook his head in frustration, realizing that the other party probably knew their Morse code skills were terrible, which is why they switched to using a whiteboard. After pondering for a moment, Jack pressed his flashlight again, and he saw the other party excitedly erasing the words on the whiteboard and briefly writing: "There are many living corpses outside, there's an underground passage between the two floors!"
After Jack confirmed he could see clearly, the other party quickly erased it again and wrote: "Nine adults and one child, trapped on the second floor and can't get down!"
"Lin, you can't be serious about going there, right? That's insane!" Thomas Xu probably heard the commotion and ran over with a spear he made himself, his face pale as he pointed to the other side and said, "Even the zombies know there are living people over there, all gathered around. If you rush in, it would be like asking for death!"
"You have to try to find death. Besides, they said there are underground passages here. Maybe there are very few living corpses." Jack put away his telescope after making a signal. While looking at Thomas Xu, he had already begun to organize his equipment, and then asked with a smile, "Do you dare to go with me?"
"No, no, no, I'm still young..."
...
"Brother Lin, I think I must have drunk too much to come with you. This place is pitch black, no big guy will pop out, right?"
Thomas Xu held a handful of Boss Hu's Bayi Bar and followed Jack with a pale face. They were looking for a passage to the opposite side in the basement of the building. When they got down here, they discovered that the basement was surprisingly large. Even low-pitched conversations could make waves of echo. If there were not many miscellaneous things piled around, the echo would probably be even greater.
"Have you ever been in the military? Are you so timid? I heard you nagging and nagging all the way. Why do you talk more than shit?" Michael, who was following Jack, rolled his eyes disdainfully at Thomas Xu. He was relaxed and relaxed, with no fear at all. He just sniffed his nose and suddenly wondered, "Damn, the smell of corpses is so strong, why don't you see any living corpses?"
"They are two mutilated corpses, not yet completely decomposed." Jack's flashlight shined at a pile of cardboard boxes in the corner. There were two mutilated corpses hugging each other and dying. Judging from the clothes on the mutilated corpses, they should be two female staff members in the service area. Looking at the food packaging bags and excrement they left in the surroundings, they were most likely to starve to death here.
"Let me tell you, the smell of these dead corpses is not much better than that of living corpses. They both stink. Fortunately, there are no flies here." Michael used his paws to fan the stench in front of his nose in disgust, and quickly stayed away from the two female corpses.
"Huh~ The presence of mutilated corpses proves that there are no living corpses, which made me break out in a cold sweat." Only then did Thomas Xu wipe the sweat from his forehead and let out a heavy breath.
"Damn it, you don't have to be so cowardly, right? You haven't even seen a single living corpse, and you're so scared?" Michael glanced at Thomas Xu with disdain again, pouting his big mouth in excitement.
"You are a dog demon, of course you are not afraid of living corpses. If they see it, you will definitely eat us humans first. Who knows if they will eat dogs?" Thomas Xu glared at Michael angrily, but when he saw Michael bared his teeth, as if he wanted to bite him, Thomas Xu hurriedly took a step back, ran behind Jack, and looked at the dog demon he thought was very wary.
After observing the environment here, Jack immediately focused his gaze on a large double iron door on the left. He put away his handgun, walked over, and pried open the simple padlock on the door with his crowbar knife. However, the moment the wooden door was opened, a stronger stench of decay rushed out. Jack adjusted his powerful flashlight to long-range mode, but he helplessly discovered that inside was a very dark and long tunnel. The beam of the flashlight could not reach the end of the tunnel, and there was even a hazy mist floating throughout the tunnel.
"Master, there are quite a few living corpses over there!" Michael stood at Jack's feet with a serious expression. Although he couldn't see them, he could clearly smell them with his nose. Before he could finish speaking, a male living corpse, attracted by the light, suddenly charged out from the mist, roaring and lunging at Jack and the others.