The wound on my forehead tingled as the carriage jolted, and it took me a long time to get used to it. Outside the window, the messy branches and leaves kept scraping by, and I tried my best to keep steady in the shaking, but I still bumped into Liao Zhuojun next to me from time to time. The big man sitting across from us kept staring at my face, and after a few seconds of staring at each other, my spine couldn't help but feel cold.

The big man with a full face could probably break my neck without much effort, his thick hands clutching the worn-out rifle tightly, and a mountain knife suited in brown leather on his waist, glaring at me viciously like a hero from the Water Margin. Since I woke up, the carriage was surprisingly quiet, and I didn't dare to look back at Xie Tao, Ban Zhiyu and Wei Liqin sitting in the back, and there was a Jiang Shangren sitting in the machine gunner seat between our two rows, I think he was also staring at Xie Tao and them vigilantly. Cao Lige in the cab and the driver of the river man occasionally whispered a few words, but I couldn't hear what they were saying.

I don't know how long we walked in the forest, but judging by the sky outside the car window, it should have been three or four o'clock in the afternoon, and the van slowly stopped. The people on the river were talking in Guiliu dialect mixed with foul language; The Chinese I have spoken since I was a child is only Mandarin, so I can't understand it, but Liao Zhuojun next to me seems to know what they are talking about, and she looks nervously left and right, trying to see the situation outside the car as soon as possible. The big man in charge of monitoring us in front of us was talking to the Jiangshang man sitting behind us, and I took the opportunity to whisper about Liao Zhuojun's condition.

"Did something happen?"

"We should have arrived at the rendezvous point of the armed bus." Liao Zhuojun cautiously watched the guard in front of us, for fear that he would hear it, so he lowered his voice and continued, "They said that the people of Wanxiang City have all been controlled. ”

"'Control' means they're all alive, right?"

"I don't know ...... either"

"Hey!" As soon as the big man in front of him drank, Liao Zhuojun and I suddenly straightened up like two frightened deer, "Do you want to be beaten again?" ”

The big man shook the rifle in his hand menacingly, and a reflex of fever and pain came from my forehead. While my attention was focused on the one-meter-nine man who could break me at any time, the sliding door near Liao Zhuojun's side suddenly opened.

"Get out of the car." As soon as we opened the door, Cao Lige asked us to get out of the car with a commanding tone, but he was not as triumphant as before.

Perhaps affected by the oppressive feeling brought by the dense foliage around him, large beads of sweat kept appearing on his face; Actually, it's not just him, almost everyone around me is sweating like him. After getting out of the car, I took a closer look, and if it was really the case, whether it was Cao Lige or his Jiangshang people, or Liao Zhuojun and Xie Tao, it seemed that except for me, everyone was sweating profusely like they were in a sauna, and Xie Tao's collar was soaked with sweat on his neck.

Although I am a little concerned, it is obviously not the time to worry about this. Not far from us was the armed bus of Wanxiang City, and a makeshift tent camp was set up around the bus. A few people from the camp were waving to us, but I was sure they weren't here to welcome us.

Cao Lige waved to his companion and turned to ask us to move forward. A few of us were driven to the armed bus like prisoners, or prisoners. In front of the camp lay two men with four or five muzzles on them, presumably those who failed to resist at first.

We were greeted by two Jiangshang men, one of whom looked a little older, his greasy middle hair was blowing in the wind, and he could vaguely see that the bald middle-aged man had a cigarette in his mouth, and as soon as he met Cao Lige, he handed him a cigarette and said with a smile: "It seems that you have achieved a lot of results." ”

"It's okay, it didn't take much effort." Cao Lige lit a cigarette and glanced back at us as if he was showing his prey, "I heard that you captured a few alive." ”

"Of course, someone like the old wolf may die for the boss in the future."

"How many are left?"

"I don't remember." The middle-aged man shook his head contemptuously and pointed to the corpse on the side of the road with his chin, "That's all there is to it." ”

It seems that these people do not care about other people's lives at all, and look at other people's lives like insects, such an abhorrent attitude.

When the middle-aged man saw me, he stopped greeting each other. "Is this the little imp with a big life?"

"That's right. In addition, this woman is a botanical expert in universal direction, and it is useful to keep it. Cao Lige said.

"Then it's good if everyone else is left in the forest." The middle-aged man's careless decision immediately stimulated every nerve in my body, but the big man next to me stopped me from ramming the middle-aged man, pulling me back to him like a pet dog. This made the middle-aged man even more proud, and he walked up to me and squinted at me. "Little ghost, you're full of energy, it's completely different from your lifeless appearance."

"If you ......"

"So what? Are you going to beat me? The middle-aged man shrugged me off my threats and pushed me into the bus with a crooked smirk, "Let's stay in there!" ”

I quickly adjusted my pace and stumbled two steps at the stairs, but fortunately I didn't fall. My hands were tied, so I had to hold on to a railing at the same time. Liao Zhuojun followed me, and when she saw this, she supported me, and I was thrown into the bus in embarrassment. The people of the river who were in charge of guarding me were not surprised by my appearance when they saw me, as if they had prepared to see a living dead man who was still sane.

The guard clasped his hands around his chest, and wore a weapon at his waist that looked like it should have been welded up and down with half of gardening scissors and a cement saw. Well, while it doesn't look as lethal as other weapons, I certainly don't want this thing to come at me.

"Du Yuheng?" I looked in the direction of the sound and found that Chen Mo, Huang Weizheng and Zhang Xiaoying were all tied back to back, and behind them there was the guy named Old Wolf and the two scavenger mercenaries who were also tied to death like Huang Weizheng. The surprise on Chen Mo's face, I think I'm afraid it's not just because we met at this time, but also because of my real and miserable face.

"Chen ......" As soon as I opened my mouth, I was pushed by the Jiangshang people again, and this time I almost didn't fall down next to the seat by the door...... Mo? Are you all alright? ”

"It's fine." Chen Mo curled her body like a frightened kitten, looked at me and nodded movingly, "What about you?" ”

"It's all okay......"

With my answer, Xie Tao and the others also entered the carriage, and our group of friends finally reunited at this bad moment. Naturally, a big rock fell in my heart, no matter how unoptimistic things happened next, we are at least alive; Or rather, they are at least "alive".

"Okay, okay, I've seen everything I should see." Cao Lige walked in with the middle-aged man who looked like he should be the head just now, and Cao Lige pulled me in front of them with a bow, and said, "You also saw that your friends are still alive." So we can continue to work together happily. ”

Cao Lige's words didn't sound like a discussion with me, more like a joke. I didn't answer him, looking at me biting my lip, he understood why I was like this. So he continued to talk to himself: "Brother Dong was just joking with you just now. But I think you can also guess what will happen to them if you don't cooperate honestly. ”

Brother Dong in Cao Lige's mouth should be the bald middle-aged man, I think they probably discussed it before coming in, after all, if I don't cooperate, they don't dare to guarantee that I will cause more trouble, plus I, as the key to researching the antidote, compared to Jiang Shangren's boss Wei Jiahui also told me to ensure my safety, so they spent so much effort to deal with us.

"What do you want?"

"I told you, you and Miss Liao Zhuojun...... Oh, there's an old wolf now, let's go back to the Ranger together, and then we'll release your friends. Of course, before you can do that, you have to help Miss Liu Zhuojun with her work today. Cao Lige was very confident in the chips in his hand, and he decided that I would not refuse his proposal, and the slightly raised corners of his mouth had already revealed his mood at the moment.

"What's the use of talking so much nonsense with this little ghost?" The person who was called Brother Dong by Cao Lige suddenly interjected and stepped forward, took out a police pistol and pointed it at Xie Tao, who was being handwritten by Jiang Shangren and tied up with Ban Zhiyu and Wei Liqin, "Listen, either do what we say honestly, or I'll send these guys to the West Heaven first." ”

This bastard can pull the trigger at any time, and I'm sure he doesn't hesitate at all. As soon as he finished speaking, I picked up and shouted, "I'll do it!" Just listen to you! ”

"That's right." The bald guy put down his gun in satisfaction, "Hurry up if you want to do it, I don't want to spend the night in this hellish place." ”

As soon as the bald head left, the right to speak was returned to Cao Lige, and they were as hypocritical as singing a black-and-white face stage play. "Okay, I reminded you to cooperate well."

I didn't know what to do next, Cao Lige was still talking about those undoubted big truths to satirize my ignorance of current affairs, while I was observing and analyzing the current form. Huang Weizheng: There is basically no way for them to escape, and Xie Tao and others have also been tied up next to them one after another, and the entire rear carriage is locked up with our people, and in the carriage, in addition to the man who is busy handcuffing Xie Tao and his party to the crossbar on the side of the aisle of the car, there is also the tall man of 1.9 meters standing behind me and Liao Zhuojun. Since the armed bus is not very spacious, if I am not mistaken, there should have been only two or three people in charge of guarding our captives, and it is likely that there are only these two people now. But even so, there is no way for me to reverse the situation, after all, I am estimated to be in my early seventies before I can jump up and be slapped to the ground by the strong man behind me.

I looked at my poor companions leaning together and being tied hand and foot in a daze, when the bald Dong brother outside the car yelled again: "Don't hurry up!" Do you want me to kill another one so that you can rest assured? ”

Cao Lige glanced at me towards the door. I glanced at my friends who were already prisoners, they all had different degrees of scars on their faces and bodies, the old wolf and the two scavengers I didn't know were particularly serious, followed by Huang Weizheng, Zhang Xiaoying's right shoulder also had traces of knife wounds, and Chen Mo had a large bruise on the corner of his mouth, although I don't know what happened to them before this, but I believe that these are the result of their stubborn resistance.

The bald man outside the car had already hurriedly stood at the door of the car and scolded me, so in order not to make any extraneous branches, I had to follow what he said, and had no choice but to get out of the car. In fact, this kind of forced separation is not the first time in our last days, but I didn't realize this time that each of us did not have the same reluctance and anxiety as in the past, without firm commitment or caring encouragement, and without even saying a word, we hurriedly glanced away. I don't know if it's because we believe that we will meet each other safely or because we are estranged and have no intention of caring about it, no matter what, anyone may die in the next second, and no amount of worry will help. Before getting out of the car, I inadvertently glanced at Huang Weizheng, but he didn't look at me for too long, but lowered his head as if he was tabooing my gaze; Chen Mo, who was beside him, watched me leave with tears in his eyes.

"Alright, you two will do whatever you had planned later." Cao Lige walked ahead of us, and while instructing his companions to get ready, he said to me and Liao Zhuojun, "But don't use your brains, there will be two of our people following you." ”

Walking in front of a rusty modified jeep, Cao Lige stopped. Next to the jeep, two young people, who were not much older than us, were staring at us and whispering. They were like delinquent teenagers on the streets, one had dyed red hair that had almost faded, the other was wearing a leather jacket with iron nails, and the vest inside was full of oil and blood, and their weapons were similar to those of other Jiang Shangshang, each with a modified melee knife, but the red-haired guy was holding a knife that was a little special, and the large thick blade was also equipped with a serrated chain, and he threw the knife into the jeep before I could see it clearly, and in addition to that, he had a pistol on his waist, The other man in the jacket was carrying Zhang Xiaoying's recurve bow, and he also carried an arrow bag on his back, and he didn't know if he could shoot an arrow.

The man in the jacket jumped into the driver's seat of the jeep, Liao Zhuojun and I were at a loss, and the red-haired man said to me when he saw this: "Little white face, you and I sit in the back." I got into the car without saying much, and he pushed Liao Zhuojun again, "Come in, women are just rubbing." ”

The exterior paint of this car is basically scratched, and the jeep with a gray and black background is exposed, and there is a stench that rushes to the nose. The car itself has not been modified much, except for the reinforced iron plate and glass welded with iron mesh, there is a row of strong searchlights on the roof. Liao Zhuojun, who endured the stench, frowned in the front row like a pins and needles, and the red-haired man sat next to me; Whether it was him or the man in charge of the jacket who was driving, neither of them seemed to be worried that we would resist halfway, maybe they didn't take me and Liao Zhuojun in their eyes at all.

The bald middle-aged man appeared by the window not long after the jeep started, I thought he was going to criticize me and Liao Zhuojun again, but I didn't expect him to be like a considerate big brother, leaning against the window, as if he was deliberately hiding his unease with his subordinates, but I could still see that he was very concerned and said: "The destinations are marked on the map, you two be careful." ”

"Got it. Brother Dong and Brother Cao, don't worry. The tone of the man in the jacket suddenly changed from a bad boy to a child who was about to go away, and kindly gave Cao Lige a confident smile.

Even people who are such bastards in our eyes are completely different from what we see in their world, and they may even be a bunch of good people. After saying goodbye to his big brother, the man in the jacket skillfully stepped on the accelerator, and the jeep bounced forward with a thud, jumping into the overgrown asphalt road.

Not long after hitting the road, the man in the jacket shouted for the red-haired man to take out the map to confirm the location, and although he was reluctant to be called, the red-haired man did so. In fact, what I'm more curious about is that it seems that every survivor force has a map to enter the Dead City Forest, you must know that they have never entered here before this, but now they are like taking the map to visit the forest park in a group, although it is not easy, but it doesn't seem to be much difficult.

"Do you have a map too?" I found myself getting more and more out of my mouth. I was a captive of the other side, but I didn't hesitate to ask questions.

The red-haired man did seem a little difficult to talk to, but he actually seemed willing to talk to me. "Do you think you're the only scavengers with maps? Actually, a week after you got the map from the bikers, we had a map of the Dead City Forest on our side. ”

After all, the Dead City Forest Map was indeed a proud asset for the bikers at that time, after all, they were the only ones who dared to use it to travel through the Dead City Forest. Their map shows most of the safe areas of the lost Amazon-like city-state, as well as impassable areas with dense vegetation and neighborhoods frequented by mutants, and while these locations are sometimes a little off, they are still very helpful for navigating through the Dead City Forest. Of course, the city is swallowed up by a sea of plants, the planned neighborhoods are not unrecognizable, and at least the planned road network is barely intact, so the reliability of the map is also visible.

Since the bikers have always kept the map of the Dead City Forest for themselves; In fact, to a certain extent, there is nothing wrong with them, and the fact that other forces are unavoidable of this leads to the fact that the Dead City Forest cannot be safely accessed, of course, this fact was also broken after the Biker Party was eliminated, and Wanxiang City, which inherited this asset, naturally got the map and began to boldly explore the Dead City Forest, but the people of the river also have the map, which is beyond my expectations.

"How did you get the map from the bikers here?"

"Have you forgotten who our boss used to be? What is not in the eyes of a businessman is not something that cannot be seen, as long as it exists. The man in the jacket said the first thing, and it could be seen that he sincerely admired Wei Jiahui, "You see that there are our people among you scavengers, what is the difficulty of getting a map?" ”

"I'm not a scavenger."

"You're not a scavenger, so why are you working for Wanxiang City?"

I didn't answer the redhead's question, I turned my head to look out the window, and the car was quiet again. After a long jolt, the jeep stopped in front of a building that was almost completely wrapped in leafy vegetation. After getting off the bus, the two people on the river untied me and Liao Zhuojun one by one, while I was engrossed in admiring the towering building in front of me that perfectly combines nature and artificiality.

This building should have more than 50 floors, which is a typical high-rise building in the city. From the outside, the main structure of the building is basically intact, but I think there will be "surprises" waiting for us inside. This building is the tallest building in the dense forest that we see when we enter the dense forest, and looking up at its feet does give people a strong sense of oppression. The Tree of the Dead City Forest is indeed well deserved. I don't know when the weather started to suddenly turn gray, which just reflects the horror of this building.

Most of the exterior of the building was covered with that eerie green color, and we couldn't see through the windows, and the only way to enter the building in front of us was probably the glass revolving door. The glass walls on either side of the revolving door were actually shattered, but we couldn't get through them because they were crawling with vines. This is not a lucky sign, because it looks as if this door was specially left for us by this building. The gray glass door was only dark at the end, and the twisted vines on both sides of the door spread to both sides of the door before abruptly stopping, as if to welcome us in. Looking up again, the earth-yellow building towered in front of me like a huge tombstone, and its door was the shaded passage into the tomb.

There were two mutants not far from us, I think they were just roaming around here, but when I appeared, they froze in place like the other mutants who touched me.

"Hey! Look! The red-haired man excitedly pointed to the two mutants who seemed to be petrified, "I didn't expect the little white face to really have this ability!" ”

It seems that the people of Egami already have information about me, but I really don't like the nickname "Little White Face", although it is better than "the living dead".

The man in the jacket smiled and coaxed his companion, then turned and took out Liao's equipment from the car—a black travel backpack and the aluminum alloy box containing the so-called plant vaccine that made me sick to my stomach. At this time, the red-haired man had already trotted up to the two mutants in a daze, and without hesitation, he swung his knife and cut off their heads, and then kicked the two rotting heads to the other side of the road. The red-haired man yelled as if he had been doped, dancing to show his masterpiece to his companions. But the man in the jacket didn't think so, and just asked him to be quiet.

The red-haired man ran back in high spirits, and he seemed to be looking forward to whatever he would encounter in the building, because in his eyes, as long as I was there, no amount of mutants would be just decorations. However, with this ability, my palms were sweating, and my heart was uneasy.

"Are you going to go inside to do your experiments or be outside?" The man in the jacket didn't seem to want to go in either.

"I'm just taking samples, but it's better to be inside." As soon as Liao Zhuojun said, the man in the jacket immediately showed a disgusted expression on his face, "But we don't have to go deeper, just near the foyer." ”

The man in the jacket thought for a moment, turned his head to look at me, and said, "You go in first." ”

I stared at him for two seconds, he didn't intend to give me a weapon, and seeing that I didn't move, he gave another order, but his tone was not too arrogant.

I had no choice but to turn and walk towards the glass revolving door. The dust on the glass made it possible to see only the outline of the furnishings at close range. I pushed tentatively, and the door shaft slowly turned with a creaking sound, and when the partition was empty, a stream of cold, moist air came to my nose. Stepping out of the turntable of the turnstile, I took only two steps before stopping, with a hollowed-out corpse at my feet, the rotting corpse entwined under the green vines emitting an unpleasant putrid stench. The sound of my footsteps and breathing echoed through the hall, and a few rays of light struggled through the almost airtight foliage into the hall, barely serving as a light source to keep it from being so dark that I couldn't see my fingers.

Along the edges of the hall, half-meter-high bushes have grown in many places, intricate vines have hung horizontally from the ceiling, stone pillars have been wrapped in a layer of green from the bottom up, and the marble floor has been gradually covered with thick moss. Jacket man: They didn't take long for me to come in and follow up. They came in with the same expressions on their faces as I did when I entered, looking around in amazement, eager to see deeper down the hall at a glance.