Rotting Land: Survive

Chapter 562 - 552: Juli Sports Arena (Part 4)

Old Lin glanced at the time on the car, it was already 4:30 PM. Under normal circumstances, it would take about 6 hours to drive from the residence to JZ County.

But due to the outbreak of the apocalyptic crisis, randomly parked vehicles and various collapsed obstacles have severely worsened road conditions everywhere.

As a result, most of the time, Old Lin had to reduce the speed and drive cautiously to avoid possible accidents.

This increased the travel time significantly, coupled with unexpected navigational errors, causing the originally 6-hour drive to take them a full 9 hours to complete.

It seems that returning today is impossible. Based on the current time, Old Lin knew that wishing to make it back to the villa before nightfall was simply a fool's dream.

It's well-known that nights in the apocalypse are fraught with danger, with zombies having a unique ability to locate sounds, allowing them to thrive in the dark.

Thus, survivors who have lived through the apocalypse understand a simple truth: avoid outdoor activities at night as much as possible, because you can never predict when the creatures lurking in the shadows will end your life.

Therefore, the survivors unanimously decided to find a safe place to spend the night first.

After driving for some time, the survivors finally settled on an old office building as their overnight location.

This building was evidently open for rent, but the sparse storefront signs hanging outside indicated that business here wasn't very prosperous, otherwise there wouldn't be just a few advertisers.

However, upon investigation, the survivors soon discovered the reason for its business slump: directly facing the office building along the street were small shops handling funeral services.

And from a feng-shui perspective, unless someone had a screw loose, no shop owner would want to set up their business in a place so heavily infused with yin energy.

Yet, despite its ominous reputation, this spot avoided by the public was nevertheless a rare resting place for Old Lin and the others tonight.

Sparse human presence, secluded location, all suggesting fewer infected individuals, which would greatly save them from the hassle of clearing out zombies.

After parking the car, Old Lin immediately led a group of brothers, each holding their weapons, into the building.

You wouldn't believe it, although the building appeared somewhat worn from the outside, its interior decor was quite decent.

Especially, the sanitary conditions exceeded everyone's expectations as it didn't have the chaotic disorder typical of most urban old buildings, possibly due to the operators of the building compensating for their poor geographical location with superior property services to attract tenants.

The office building has 4 floors, but Old Lin and the team only planned to clear the first floor as their overnight spot.

To be safe, Old Lin held the hand crossbow to guard the rear while the other three advanced in a triangle formation into the building.

The clearing operation was fairly smooth; of the 23 offices on the first floor, only 3 were actually in business, the remaining 20 were all locked, showing no signage suggesting occupancy, likely indicating they were not leased yet.

"Damn! No way, just two zombies in this whole big building!" Wang Qiang shook his long spear, referring to the two zombies they had just dispatched.

Seeing his nonchalant "exclamation," Hu Xiaodong quickly ran over, gestured downstairs, and warned Wang Qiang not to be noisy: "Shh, keep it down, don't provoke those beasts upstairs."

Indeed, although only two zombies were discovered on the first floor, this doesn't mean the second, third, and fourth floors are the same.

Moreover, with zombies, even if their numbers are few, as long as they scratch in the right spot, you'd be doomed without cure.

So it's best to avoid facing any more zombies than necessary and not bother oneself unnecessarily.

Surprisingly, Wang Qiang didn't argue, scratching his head in slight embarrassment before quietly agreeing: "Okay, got it, Brother Hu!"

The three business rooms were all the same size, so the team chose the one with relatively fewer furnishings as their resting spot for the night.

After settling on a location, Old Lin immediately gave orders:

"Xiao Tang, come outside with me to get the stuff! Xiao Hu, Qiang, you two keep an eye on the situation inside the building!"

After issuing instructions, Old Lin hurriedly led Tang Xiaoquan to haul in the necessary supplies for their night's stay.

These things were usually prepared by Wei Yang, but this time, unlike Old Xu and the others' previous outings, the provisions were noticeably richer.

Of course, this was due to the supplies Old Xu brought back last time, and Wei Yang consistently felt that each time the field team ventured out, they faced immense danger. Although she couldn't accompany them, she aimed to provide complete support within her capabilities.

Therefore, she not only prepared essential food and drink supplies for the team, but also considered the increasingly cold weather, and packed 4 sleeping bags to prevent the team members from freezing.

"Bang!" Old Lin shut the door tight. Before doing so, he specifically scattered some collected and cut aluminum can fragments outside the door, a precaution taught by Xu Renjie. This way, any disturbance outside the door at night would alert those inside immediately, enabling them to prepare a defense.

With defenses set up, darkness gradually fell, and the road-weary survivors felt a pang of hunger.

Hu Xiaodong took on the task of cooking. First, he retrieved the survival pot from the pile of packages on the table, then pulled out the "feast" Wei Yang had prepared.

Anticipating that the team might be too busy to cook, Wei Yang specially prepared white bread rolls and two large lunchboxes filled with scallion beef fried rice.

In addition, she thoughtfully included several tasty side dishes. All the food merely required Hu Xiaodong to heat them with the survival pot for immediate consumption, greatly lightening Hu Xiaodong's burden.

Once everything was arranged, Tang Xiaoquan curled up alone in a corner, his hands tightly covering his face, just sitting there silently with his head down.

The desolate figure was heartbreaking, and in response, the remaining trio of Old Lin all let out helpless sighs, fully aware that today's visit yielded unsatisfactory results, and knowing that Tang Xiaoquan was undoubtedly feeling stressed and troubled.

Yet reality is reality, it doesn't and won't shift based on human will.

As humans, you have two choices: either accept it! Or fight against it! (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to vote for it at Qidian (qidian.com), your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please read at m.qidian.com.)