Chapter 45: Evacuation

On the way to find Dr. Yang Liu, a few zombies occasionally attempted to ambush them, but An Qing simply ignored them, clutching her jacket and walking towards the building across the street. However, these zombies were quickly eliminated by Wang Zhi and his team, so An Qing remained safe along the way.

They passed through the corridor, took a turn, and arrived at a door at the end. An Qing entered a string of codes, and the door opened.

Wang Zhi walked in and saw about ten people lying on the floor—both men and women. His grip on his gun tightened. How could they let just one man and one woman go out to look for food? No wonder An Qing said these people deserved to die. If it were him, he would have killed them under these circumstances, if he had the power. Unfortunately, An Qing was a fragile girl, and she had no ability to kill anyone. Even in a sneak attack, she could only die with the other person.

When the people in the laboratory saw someone coming in, they all propped themselves up. When they saw Wang Zhi and his team, all of them seemed to regain some energy.

“Thank God, we’re finally saved.”

“It’s too late!”

“Please save us!”

At once, the people who had been lying on the ground started begging for help. Wang Zhi coldly scanned the crowd and asked, “Who is Dr. Yang Liu?”

“She’s over there,” a man pointed to a corner.

Wang Zhi followed the man’s gesture and saw a woman in a white lab coat lying there. He immediately ran over, squatted down, and gently helped Dr. Yang Liu sit up, resting her on his leg.

“Sister Ying!”

Wang Zhi quickly called Su Mu Ying over to check on her condition.

Su Mu Ying came over, looked at Dr. Yang Liu, grabbed her wrist to check her pulse, and then took out her adrenal hormone and injected it into Dr. Yang’s waist.

“She’s severely dehydrated and hungry. When she wakes up, we’ll give her some water and food,” Su Mu Ying said.

After the injection, Dr. Yang Liu soon woke up. Wang Zhi quickly brought water to her lips.

When Dr. Yang woke up and saw a stranger next to her, she was startled at first, but soon calmed down. “Who are you?”

“Don’t talk. We’re here to rescue you. You’re very weak; drink the water first,” Wang Zhi said.

Dr. Yang nodded and didn’t speak further, quietly drinking the water Wang Zhi offered.

When the others saw An Qing returning with a large bag of food and water, they immediately shouted, “Xiao Qing, give me some food!”

One man, unable to wait, tried to take some for himself, but An Qing suddenly pulled out a knife and pointed it at him. “This is what Xiao Qi exchanged his life for. Do you think you deserve to eat?”

“We were wrong, Xiao Qing. Please, give us some,” they begged.

An Qing ignored them and went to Dr. Yang Liu, squatting down. “Dr. Yang, please eat something. This is bread that Xiao Qi and I just got from outside.”

Dr. Yang looked up and asked, “Where is Xiao Qi?”

“Xiao Qi was infected when he went out with me to find food. I almost didn’t make it back. It was these four people who saved me,” An Qing choked, her voice trembling.

“Oh, Xiao Qing…” Dr. Yang gently touched An Qing’s cheek.

Since Dr. Yang spoke, An Qing didn’t refuse further. She silently turned around and began distributing food to the others.

“We come from the Dawn Tower. We were sent to rescue you,” Wang Zhi said to Dr. Yang Liu.

“Dawn Tower? What is that place?”

“A shelter. A safe place.”

“That’s great. Thank you,” Dr. Yang said gratefully.

“Old He, tell them to hurry up and eat. We need to leave as soon as possible, or we’ll be in danger,” Wang Zhi said.

Old He responded and went over to help An Qing distribute food.

“Thank you, big brother.”

“Xiao Qing, thank you so much,” the others expressed their gratitude.

After everyone had eaten, Old He urged, “Hurry up and finish. Once we’re done, we need to leave immediately.”

Upon hearing that they were leaving, some of the people became frightened.

Old He glanced at them and said impatiently, “If you’re afraid, just stay here.”

When they heard that they would be left behind, the group immediately stopped complaining.

After a while, Dr. Yang gradually regained her strength and tried to stand up.

“Dr. Yang, how do you feel? Can you move?” Wang Zhi asked, watching as she stood and stretched.

Dr. Yang stretched her body and took a few steps. “Hmm, I’m fine. By the way, I didn’t expect there would be such a young girl in your group.”

Dr. Yang looked incredulously at Jia Li.

“The mountain is not high; it’s the immortal that makes it famous. It’s no big deal. We must hurry and evacuate; the outside is dangerous,” Wang Zhi said.

“Okay, I’ll go get my research samples and backup,” Dr. Yang said before heading to retrieve the hard drive from her computer.

Once Dr. Yang had her research backup, Wang Zhi and the others, along with An Qing and the other eleven people, left the laboratory. Liu Li and Old He led the way, while Wang Zhi and Su Mu Ying protected the group from behind.

Wang Zhi and his team decided to follow the same route they had taken earlier. Though they would still encounter zombies, the numbers were significantly reduced. As they passed by the zombies’ corpses on the road, it was obvious these had been dealt with by Wang Zhi’s team earlier.

The group reached the wall, and Wang Zhi took out a grappling hook. He instructed everyone to use the rope to climb over the wall. While Wang Zhi and his team could climb without help, the others needed assistance.

After climbing over the wall, Wang Zhi needed to stop by the wooden shop again.

“This time, we’re really lucky. It only took a day to find the people,” Su Mu Ying remarked happily.

“Yeah, if An Qing and the others hadn’t come out, who knows how long it would have taken us to find them in such a big research facility,” Wang Zhi agreed.

“Now the question is, with all twelve of us, how do we get out?” Su Mu Ying asked.

Wang Zhi paused. He hadn’t thought about that, but soon he would have to find a vehicle along the way.

“We’ll take three vehicles. We’ll each drive one, and some people will ride with us, while others can drive the last one themselves,” Wang Zhi suggested after thinking for a moment.

Wang Zhi led the group through the forest, eventually arriving at the store they had found earlier. Everyone was surprised to see the vast amount of supplies inside.

“Wow, there’s enough food in here for us to eat for over a month!”

“Shh, what are you thinking? These are their discoveries. Do you want to steal food right under their noses?”

“Yeah, those four people don’t look easy to mess with. Don’t make them angry.”

The group whispered among themselves, while Wang Zhi walked into the store and began a massive shopping spree.

Wang Zhi had the people from the research facility gather all the water, sugar, and small snacks they could carry, using bags to pack everything up.

After finishing the shopping, Wang Zhi was ready to leave. The mission objective had been accomplished, and it was time to head back. Staying outside for too long would only increase the risk of accidents.

“Move quickly. We need to reach the evacuation point before dark,” Wang Zhi urged as he directed everyone to follow the route he had planned.

When the group reached the bridge, only a few zombies were wandering around. Wang Zhi felt relieved. “Stay alert, don’t get ambushed.”

The people from the research facility, seeing the state of the bridge with destroyed cars and bloody corpses, could hardly imagine the battles that had occurred here.

Wang Zhi’s team shot the approaching zombies. With few zombies left, they could be killed with knives to save ammunition. However, to ensure the safety of everyone, Wang Zhi and his team couldn’t leave the group too far behind and kept using their ammunition.

“Don’t be afraid, get up and keep moving forward,” Wang Zhi encouraged the few women who were crouching in fear.

Once across the bridge, Wang Zhi used the radio to tell Old He and Liu Li to take four people to the police car, while he found two cars with keys still inside.

“Who can drive one of the cars?” Wang Zhi asked the group.