The dull atmosphere at this moment with the smoke filled, and the scene of snatching cigarettes and a little more angry, the middle-aged policeman An saw that I was stunned, thinking that I was frightened, so he apologized: "Young man, I'm sorry, these people haven't smoked for a few days, so don't worry about any collision." ”

I came back to my senses and shook my head, indicating that I didn't care.

"Haven't smoked in a few days?" I looked at him, and he probably meant that they had been smoking cigarettes before that.

"Yes, when the people looking for food come back, if you're lucky, you should be able to get a cigarette or two." He took a hard breath of smoke and exhaled it slowly, burying his slightly yellow face in the smoke, his tone a little low.

"What? Is it bad to smoke a cigarette? I asked.

"Not really." He shook his head, his expression was a little complicated: "It's just that every time I go out to find food, many people will die, and I feel uneasy when I smoke like this." ”

"Dead people?!" My eyelids jumped.

He nodded, and his tone was not full of pity: "Every time I go out to find food, there are hundreds of people, but every time I come back, the number of people will decrease a lot, either because I encountered those man-eating monsters, or because of the competition for supplies, none of them can all come back alive." ”

"By the way, by the way, are they really here to take us out? In the past, some people tried to leave here, but most of them returned halfway, and it is said that now even domestic animals are eating people, which makes people panic, and no one thinks about leaving the county again. He glanced at Lin Shaoquan's people, his eyes flashed with hope, but he was a little worried: "Are they just some people?" Can you get us out? ”

"Maybe, they seem to be in the vanguard, and the big army is still behind."

I couldn't help but want to tell him the truth, but I didn't want to brutally extinguish his hope, so I could only deal with deceiving him, and his hopeful eyes made me feel conflicted and complicated guilt. Please forgive me for not being able to tell the truth, just because the truth is too cruel, I apologize in my heart.

After saying that, I remembered what he said earlier, and glanced at him to ask for a gun at his waist, so I asked him, "Anyway, don't you have guns?" Isn't there anyone leading the way when you go out to find something to eat? Isn't there a weapon for self-defense? ”

"Guns are limited."

He shook his head and sighed, but I felt that he was a little insincere.

He glanced at me, as if he had guessed my thoughts, secretly glanced around, then leaned his head over and whispered: "Actually, there are people who are unwilling to waste police and ammunition, and if this is the case, everyone's personal safety in the compound will be guaranteed." ”

As soon as I heard this, the round figure of Deputy County Magistrate Zheng suddenly flashed in my mind, and suddenly an inexplicable anger surged out of my chest, but I still suppressed my anger: "Doesn't the personal safety of those who go out to find supplies need to be guaranteed!?" ”

He shook his head: "Those who were sent out to find supplies are all survivors who have fled and joined in, and if they don't obey, they will be kicked out, and in this case, they will not be able to live even more." ”

"I seem to have heard that there are other forces, can't I join them?" I took a hard breath of smoke, but tears choking on the smoke came out, and I coughed repeatedly.

He looked at me and smiled stiffly: "Heh, there are enough people under Butcher Chen, now he only accepts women, if you have a wife or daughter to give him, he will accept you, and even if you go, you will only be cannon fodder." Boss Huang in the field only accepts young people who are strong and powerful, and women are his rewarding items, and they are the same wherever they go, but they are just small things. ”

I blocked my throat in one breath, my face was flushed, and I suddenly lost my voice.

I never realized, it turned out, that the real catastrophe was not an alien invasion, nor a mutated nuclear virus outbreak, but the human heart.

And the catastrophe is only the timely removal of the fig leaf that hides the ugly roots of human nature, making it naked. Naked and unscrupulous, it appears in front of the eyes of the world, and it swells more and more. This is more terrible than the virus, it can also be contagious, without the constraints of the law, like a catalyst, this ugliness will be magnified infinitely, it will make everyone's heart become dark and selfish, even more powerful, when they have the power to control the lives of others, the ugliness in their hearts will expand more and more, and finally lose themselves.

He patted me on the shoulder, snuffed out his cigarette, and walked away.

I held the bowl and looked at the still bubbling hot soup, and I felt a little uncomfortable, maybe I was too sentimental.

While I was immersed in my thoughts, I suddenly heard a commotion outside the auditorium, and I came to my senses and looked at the people who were just as dazed as I was, and they didn't seem to know what was happening.

I was tapped on the shoulder, it was Jiang Dong, and he pointed outside: "Are you done drinking?" After we finished drinking, we went out to have a look. ”

I nodded, threw the cigarette under my feet and stepped on it, and drank the soup in the bowl, no different from drinking warm water, but I tasted a trace of bitterness, a kind of moldy and spoiled bitterness, which I could not accept, but in order to feed and wear, I had to pour it into my stomach.

Putting the bowl on the table, I went out with everyone.

Outside the auditorium stood a group of people, about three or four hundred people, old and young, men and women, but most of them were scorched and their cheeks were thin. They stood together, staring at us with restless anticipation.

At a glance, I saw the round-faced and small-eyed deputy county magistrate Zheng, as well as Commander Zhang and Lin Shaoquan beside him.

Deputy County Magistrate Zheng grimaced at the crowd: "What are you doing here? Everyone has something to eat, and what else do you don't want to do. ”

"We just want to come and ask if it's true that the soldiers of the Liberation Army came to save us?!"

A middle-aged man with a thin physique, but a straight body, glasses, and gray hair stood up and asked. It seems that they heard something, so they organized a crowd to gather here. Their eyes all had a look of hope, and I didn't dare to look at them because I felt guilty.

I turned my gaze to her, wondering what she would say. She seemed to be about to speak, but Deputy County Magistrate Zheng on the side was very discerning, raised his hand and pressed down, signaling everyone to stop the noise.

"We are the liberation army of the South China Military Region, but we are only the advance troops, we need time to rectify here and bring you out of here to join the large army, so please wait with peace of mind."

Her crisp voice echoed in her ears, and her serious expression made people believe what she said, and the crowd was stunned for a moment, with a look of disbelief in their eyes, and the slightly noisy atmosphere froze suddenly, as if a person who was praying for God's blessing suddenly heard God speak

"It's true! It's true! Can we live!? ”

"Thank God, thank you to the Public Industry Party!"

"Long live the Liberation Army!"

Immediately afterwards, they cheered, their scorched faces were a little red from the exciting news, and they looked a little more popular, they were really a bunch of stupid people, they easily believed the woman's words, but they were the simplest people, they believed her words without reservation, I don't know what to say, I just want to know how this woman will end up after she has spoken her words. Because I can tell that the phrase 'it takes time to rectify' is obviously a pretext or

A question suddenly occurred to me, this woman didn't seem to care about the passage of time, nor was she in a hurry, as if she intended to stay here, did she really intend to do this?

The crowd was dismissed, listening to the words of Deputy County Magistrate Zheng, it seemed that they still had work to do, alas, it was really the exploitation of Chiguoguo.

I counted the people on my side, and it seemed that there were two less, so I asked Jiang Dong: "Brother Dong, where are the other two of us?" "Because Jiang Dong is three years older than me, I have the best relationship with him here, so I call him Brother Dong.

"The materials in our car have to be guarded, so as not to be stolen by someone, what kind of Captain Yan just now called to check our car, but Team Zhang didn't let it." Jiang Dong pointed to the armed policemen who were patrolling around, and one of the armed policemen was scolding a few people wearing police uniforms, Jiang Dong said: "The forest team said that these people are not good at stubble, and they are guarding against us." ”

I thought to myself, people are not stupid, you must be on guard, who knows if you are a real solution army or a fake solution army? There are only a dozen people, and anyone will be suspicious.

I was a little tired from driving all the way, and the bed was already made, so I said hello to Jiang Dong, put my coat on my body, and went to sleep.

In the afternoon, I woke up from a nightmare of eating cannibalism by the pathogen, and the hideous faces stained with blood and flesh scraps lingered in my mind, in which I became the hapless survivor I had seen when I came, chased by the pathogen, then falling, and finally becoming their meal.

I wiped the fine sweat from my forehead, wrapped my coat around my body, and glanced at the sleeping warrior, one of whom was standing guard at the door of the auditorium, and I greeted him as I went out, though he was ignored.

The compound was a little too quiet, so I could hear the roar coming from the backyard, like the sound of a generator, but mixed with a noise similar to cutting.

This made me a little curious, so I decided to go over and have a look, and I passed an office building on my way through the flower bed from the auditorium, and I noticed this scene:

The door of a room on the first floor opened, and a woman came out inside, she tidied up her slightly messy clothes, held a pack of instant noodles in her hand, and then left in a hurry

I just thought this scene was a little weird, but I didn't want to remember him, but I encountered another scene that surprised me: an armed police officer kicked down a man, scolded a woman next to him, and snatched a bottle of milk and a bag of bread from the hand of the man who was lying on the ground with his stomach in his hands, the man quickly got up, hugged the armed police officer's thigh, and looked a little far away with a pleading expression, I didn't hear what he said.