Aoyama has comprehensive security measures, which is also an important guarantee that it has not lost control and has more than 400 people, but with this high security comes the freedom of the people. Entering and exiting the security zone must be approved by the relevant departments, and some important warehouses such as food warehouses, arsenals, and oil depots cannot be entered without authorization, weapons cannot be concealed, lighting fixtures cannot be used without authorization, and strict controls such as curfews after eight o'clock can indeed play a comprehensive role in protection, but some people have also begun to resent Qingshan because of this, and have moved to live in other security zones, Wanxiang City is one of them.

I don't know if it was because I had just spoken to the mayor that the Scout ID was quickly passed on to me, and my immediate application for Scout was immediately approved. Since the official arrangements for my reconnaissance team have not yet been decided, I have been approved to form my own four-person team. It just so happened that Sister Liu passed by, but I didn't expect her to become a scout too, and after knowing my plan, she took the initiative to join my team; I found Zhang Xiaoying and Wei Hong again, and they were also willing to join. However, when I submitted the team proposal, I realized that there were no "veterans" in my team as required by Aoyama's regulations, but to my surprise, our team plan successfully passed the review. Maybe there was some human error on the part of the official department, and we didn't think much about it.

In the travel maintenance room, everyone was busy counting the equipment and ammunition in their hands. Zhang Xiaoying is naturally still her set of bow and arrow equipment, Wei Hong took his competitive crossbow, I don't know where he got a long knife, Sister Liu took the submachine gun that Wei Liqin brought back before, and of course I used a Bonelli shotgun, Wei Hong thought I didn't have a melee weapon, so he threw me a dagger, it seems that this guy went to hide a lot of good treasures.

Twelve o'clock was approaching, and Liao Yuan still didn't show up, so I casually flipped through my scout ID to pass the time. This square card made of cardboard is about the same size as a bank card, with a few large characters written on it, my name written on the other side, and Scout written in the position column, of course, this information is also stamped with a steel seal, and when I look seriously, it turns out to be the steel seal of the government; What's more funny is that there is also a column of original identity under the position, which says ordinary student. And Wei Hong's original identity is written as a national defense student, Sister Liu's is written as a university chemistry teacher, and Zhang Xiaoying's is also an ordinary student like me.

Liao Yuan arrived just in time when we were comparing our IDs with each other, and she said that it took some time to argue with the mayor, but she still got agreement. After re-confirming that the equipment we had brought was correct, we went about our actions and successfully passed the security checkpoint.

Liao Yuan said that she used the doctor's investigation to get a car for us, which saved a lot of time for us to reach the No. 3 Middle School. Aoyama set up an observation post near the Qingzhu overpass, which must be passed up and down the mountain, in fact, he found a location with a good view in a hotel next to the overpass as a guard post, and a bus was also used as an observation post on the overpass during the day. This is not only to prevent the scavengers in Wanxiang City from sneaking up, but also to ensure that a large number of mutants will not gather near Qingshan in the first place. The men in the post are well equipped, and most of them are well-trained soldiers who are able to handle any contingencies.

It took us some time to get through this security checkpoint, because we were all new scouts they didn't know well, and there were no veterans in the group, so we weren't considered smugglers because someone recognized Dr. Liao Yuan. In Castle Peak, residents are absolutely allowed to leave the safe zone and find a way to survive elsewhere, but they are not allowed to leave without permission and must notify the authorities in advance. People like ours who carry so many lethal weapons without official proof are usually detained and shot if they don't comply.

Leaving the checkpoint on the overpass, we are basically out of the safe area controlled by Aoyama, although the streets on both sides are not much different from the so-called safe area area, but the gloomy windows on the gray and white buildings are like a pair of magic pupils watching us, if you keep staring at a certain window, you may wonder if you have seen a ghost peeking at you.

In winter, the trees in Nanning are barely green, but it is inevitable that some trees will shed their yellow leaves, and their bare trunks will be shivering in the cold wind. The five of us huddled in a small car with closed windows and airtight wind, inevitably a little stuffy, but we all know that this depression comes more from the dilapidated streets we walk on and the strange uneasiness. Along the way, everyone didn't say any nonsense, maybe because the people in our team were not very cheerful, if Yu Heng was there, he would definitely not be able to chew his tongue at this time, and then shut his mouth in embarrassment under our hasty response.

Our school, No. 3 Middle School, is just at the other end of Aoyama Road, where the overpass is located, and as you can tell from the name of the road, it is not much away from Aoyama. Since this road was not considered the main section of the city to evacuate at that time, there were not many vehicles abandoned on the road, but the few car accident relics we occasionally passed still vividly illustrated the chaos at that time. There were also several charred shops on the side of the street, surrounded by a yellow cordon, and there were also scrapped ambulances and several police cars, and it was not known what had happened there at the time.

When we reached the main entrance of the school, there were more cars parked on the street, but after passing the school, Aoyama Road was covered with thick vegetation; It was originally a lakeside square leading to Nanning City and an underground tunnel through the bottom of the lake, but now it looks like an Amazon world with huge vines wrapped around the entrance of the underground tunnel, and the street signs are crawling with all kinds of strange plants, and it feels like it has been abandoned for years or even decades. We have seen similar scenes in Tianyang, where the desolate urban area and rainforest-like vegetation are incredibly frightening.

"Beyond that is the Dead City Forest, the speed at which these plants grow is terrifying, isn't it?" After we stopped the car, Liao Yuan said to me while packing up her gear, "It's a pity that I'm not a biologist, but I seem to have heard that these plants have some genetic connection with those infectious viruses, as for why, it's not clear." ”

I'm more concerned about the changes in the city than the connection between these strange plants and the zombie virus. "What did you mean when you said it used to be the 'Dead City Forest'?"

"Oh, I've heard Liao Shuzhen say before that the plants in the city center are growing like crazy, and the whole city center is now becoming like a forest, so they call this the Dead City Forest." Wei Hong interjected, put on his backpack, jumped on the roof of an abandoned car and looked around, and said, "I don't know if there are survivors in it." ”

"Yes." As soon as Wei Hong's words fell, Liao Yuan said categorically, "A few survivors who came to Qingshan said that there were still many people in the city center, and some of them formed groups like small tribes, and the lone people either died in the mouths of zombies or died at the hands of others. ”

"Hmmm......"

"There's no way around it." Sister Liu patted me on the shoulder and said, "You are lucky to be able to form a small team and walk back from Tianyang." You know, when a crisis arises, people are counting on someone who can lead them alive. Usually this is when the government comes to the fore. Hearing her say this, I couldn't help but look at the gymnasium behind the school railing, "But people have a limit to patience, and if this limit is broken and people don't get what they expect, then they will find their own way." ”

"Then it will get out of hand." Zhang Xiaoying, who had already walked a few steps, turned around and took Sister Liu's words, and said the result mercilessly, and at the same time urged us to stop the meaningless conversation.

Because it was used as a temporary quarantine station, many police cars were parked in front of the school, safety guardrails and isolation nets were also put up, and several large military tents were placed on the parking lot near the gymnasium. The tester for security checks was long gone, so we swaggered across the security check area at the school gate to the gymnasium.

"The scout has reported that there are zombies in the vicinity, so be careful." Liao Yuan looked around and reminded us, "We have to divide into two groups, one to restore power and the other to find a laboratory machine. ”

"Wei Hong and I are in charge of restoring the power." Sister Liu volunteered and gestured to Wei Hong, and Wei Hong also nodded in agreement.

"Okay, the generator should be in a room in the gymnasium." Sister Liu said.

Once the plan was drawn up, we started implementing it. Stepping on the stairs of my campus, I seem to be able to hear the conversation of students as they enter and leave on weekdays, but the gray campus I see in front of me is indeed a cruel truth. There is also a security station in the gymnasium, but the checks here are obviously stricter than those at the school gate, and biochemical signs can be seen almost everywhere, and the passage made of non-slip isolation shelters is the only entrance and exit to the gymnasium. The blood splatters and miserable bloody handprints on the gray-white chemical protective film seemed to give me a bad feeling, and everyone took out their weapons to guard against them.

Although it is in the daytime, the design of the gymnasium is relatively closed, except for the outer corridor with windows, the internal court area is relatively much more airtight, if you don't turn on the lights, it is simply dim. Not to mention the reduced visibility, if a mutant breaks in, or if there are a few mutants lying inside, we will be in a passive situation.

At the entrance of the corridor, we divided into two groups as planned, Wei Hong and Sister Liu looked for generators along the corridor, and we entered the court area to continue our operations. As I expected, the light was so dim that we had to turn on the flashlights, and the air was filled with not only the dusty smell of disinfectant but also an unsettling rancid stench. The circular auditorium blurred my vision, and the tiny dust particles wandered in the air, and the subtle sounds that echoed from time to time played with our hearing again and again, making our hearts beat faster.

The court area in the center of the gymnasium is a standard-sized basketball court, and we can vaguely see all kinds of testing equipment in it, and it should only be a matter of time before we find the quarantine test machine, but the problem is that we can't guarantee that there is anything else in it besides us. For the sake of safety, we did not look separately, but gradually investigated together, although it will take a little time to do so, but it is better than having an accident after looking separately.

Liao Yuan can identify various medical devices faster than I thought, and in this visual environment, I can accurately identify whether it is what we are looking for with a simple glance. She observes and mutters to herself medical terms we don't understand, like a mad scientist who has found some idea for an invention and is reveling in his own world.

"Hah! That's it! At the same time that Liao Yuan found the machine, the power was also restored, and the surrounding machines began to operate one after another.

The headlights turned on, our eyes flickered, and as soon as the vision was restored, I saw a corpse upside down on the operating table of the laboratory machine, and what was even more terrifying was that it was "woken up" by us and wanted to stand up like a lazy waist, and Dr. Liao, who was next to it, was frightened and retreated, but this mutant was already about to pounce on her. Zhang Xiaoying, who was quick-eyed, drew a knife and flashed, just slashing at the mutant's neck. The guy couldn't keep his center of gravity and fell to the other side after being slashed, and his upper body fell on the table.

The mutant's plasma didn't gush out, but Zhang Xiaoying's knife stuck in its neck couldn't be pulled out, and it kept making disgusting creaks. The mutant hadn't given up resisting, and kept moaning and waving his teeth and claws at Zhang Xiaoying. Seeing this, I stepped forward and pulled out the dagger that Wei Hong had given me and stabbed the guy in the head, and the monster stopped struggling. Zhang Xiaoying twisted the handle of the knife in disgust, only to hear a click, and the mutant's head fell heavily to the ground.

Once the danger was cleared, we pushed away the disgusting mutant corpses, and Dr. Liao began testing the machine. The assay machine makes the sound of the machine running, and a complex operating interface appears on the display. Liao Yuan smiled excitedly, I knew that everything was running normally under her control. She took out a small tube of Yuheng's blood sample and skillfully and carefully placed it into the testing tank of the laboratory machine. Blue light began to appear near the testing tank, scanning the sample back and forth, and the monitor began to come up with various calculation parameters, which in the eyes of laymen like us were the result of numbers, and perhaps some medical conclusions had been drawn in the eyes of Dr. Liao.

"It will take some time for the test to be completed." Liao Yuan turned around and smiled at us as if she was comforting a patient anxiously waiting for a lab report, but when she saw the data on the monitor again, the smile disappeared, "Wait...... Won't it......"

"What's wrong?" I can feel that this doesn't seem like the beginning of good news.

"This data ...... It can only be said from a few basic data that have been drawn so far...... Du Yuheng has been infected with the HTS89 virus ......"

"No, it won't!" This was not what I wanted, and I felt a slight weakness in my legs and a dull pain in my chest as if I had been punched.

"But ......"

"But what!"

But in the most critical judgment data, he is also at the normal value...... Let's wait until all the data comes out......"

Along with the inspection of the machine, a long report with various parameters is slowly being typed out from another machine. Liao Yuan was busy paying attention to the situation of the detector for a while, and then ran to the printer to study the data that had just been released. Zhang Xiaoying and I focused our attention on Dr. Liao Yuan, and as laymen, we could only wait patiently and not disturb Liao Yuan's work. But just then, there was a sudden rush of running on the other side of the hallway. I was about to shout when I heard two gunshots, and we all stood up. The sound of footsteps seemed to be heard from one end of the corridor that surrounded the outer circle of the gymnasium to the other, followed by Wei Hong's hurried warning.

It seemed that something had happened, and I said to Zhang Xiaoying while checking the safety of the shotgun: "You are here to protect Dr. Liao, I'll take a look." ”

"Well, be careful."

I nodded, turned around and ran towards the corridor, and was just about to reach the corridor passage when I saw Wei Hong rushing towards me.

Wei Hong hurriedly said to me: "There is a bastard who knocked Sister Liu unconscious and snatched her gun!" Chase! ”

I didn't think too much about it, and rushed out of the gymnasium with Wei Hong, and there was no trace of the person at this time. The two of us stood at the door of the gymnasium and looked around, hoping to find some clues, and Wei Hong kept explaining. "We wanted to meet you just now, but someone suddenly came out and knocked Sister Liu unconscious, and when I turned around, he had already snatched Sister Liu's gun and ran away......"

Listening to it, I felt that something was wrong, so I turned my head and asked Wei Hong, "Wait, wait, you're out, where is Sister Liu?" ”

"Oh, oops!" Wei Hong, who suddenly realized, patted his head and hurriedly ran back to the gymnasium with me.

Unexpectedly, when we returned to the room that Wei Hong said, Sister Liu, who should have fallen to the ground, disappeared. We returned to Zhang Xiaoying and Liao Yuan, who were still waiting for the test results on the court, and we didn't see Sister Liu.

"Hell, how can this be?" Wei Hong struggled to slam the table and said in annoyance, "I shouldn't have chased it out just now!" ”

"It's useless to say that now. I'll go find Sister Liu, and you will continue to wait for the results here. ”

I patted Wei Hong and was about to leave, and as soon as I took a few steps, Wei Hong shouted, "I'll go with you!" ”

"No, you stay here."

"More than one person has a better chance of finding her."

"But there's also one more risk." I interrupted Wei Hongdao, "I brought you out, so it is naturally my responsibility to ensure that you can all go back safely." You and Zhang Xiaoying are here to protect Dr. Liao, and when the results are out, hurry back to Qingshan. ”

"What about you?" Zhang Xiaoying asked calmly.

"No problem, it's not far from Qingshan." I smiled confidently, but Zhang Xiaoying still looked at me with suspicion.

It was useless to say more, so I decided to go looking for Sister Liu as soon as possible, and before they could find any more reasons to convince me, I ran out of the gymnasium and out of the school. In fact, in the past few days, I found Sister Liu a little strange. On the way to Aoyama, she would often disappear from our field of vision without realizing it, and then suddenly appear again, as if something was hidden from us. She and Yu Heng are very close, and she usually cares about us like an ordinary big sister, but I always feel that she is not as simple as we see. She was also present after Long Hao told me about Yu Heng's multiple nosebleeds, but unlike those of us who heard the news for the first time, she did not show surprise or concern, but silently watched us talk, as if she was watching us.

I was looking for Sister Liu while analyzing what had just happened and my suspicions about Sister Liu, but I knew that the entrance of an alley across the street from the school gate was pretending to be right with Sister Liu, and she didn't seem to have anything to do. Seeing me suddenly appear, Sister Liu also seemed a little surprised. Standing behind her were two stout middle-aged men, both of whom were pointing guns at me. I didn't show weakness either, and I raised my gun to confront them.

"Oops! I didn't expect you to chase it out. Sister Liu seemed to have changed as if she had changed, and even her tone became enchanting, and she couldn't see the shadow of the eldest sister next door, Liu Yijing.

"You really have a problem." Since it's all here, I don't have anything to be polite to her.

Liu Yijing didn't care about the gun in my hand at all, and stood in front of two middle-aged men in front of me, and said directly at my gun: "I know that you have been staring at me, so I can only use your brother as cover for the time being." ”

"Yu Heng trusts you so much."

"Trust? Hmph, I told him a long time ago not to be so naïve at this time, but he still can't get rid of this weakness. Liu Yijing put aside my muzzle and said in a seductive tone, "Okay, classmate Huang Weizheng, let me tell you the truth, I am from Wanxiang City, and it was just an accident to walk with you, and now that I am going back, you won't stop me, right?" ”

"No, it won't." I really don't have any reason to keep someone like her.

"Then you don't want to go to Wanxiang City with me?"

The question was so funny that I laughed and said, "Hmph, why should I go there with you?" ”

"You will go with me, because you want to save Du Yuheng." Liu Yijing's words really made me stunned, "Listen, the people of Qingshan can't save Du Yuheng." If I'm not mistaken, he probably won't live long if he drags it out any longer. ”

"Believe it or not, I'll blow your crow's mouth." As soon as I lifted the gun, the two men behind Liu Yijing immediately became alert.

"Believe, but you have lost your best chance to save your friend. As you can see, Tsingshan advocates self-defense, and the research on the virus can be said to be still at the stage when the crisis broke out, but Wanxiang City is different, we already know more about this virus, which means that we have more ways to cure Du Yuheng than your doctor Liao. ”

"Why should I trust you?"

"I didn't want you to believe it, I just wanted to tell you the truth. I don't force you, you love to come. Liu Yijing turned around without any worries, took two steps with her back to me, and then turned around and said, "In addition, I want to tell you that Wanxiang City is not at all what those people in Qingshan said. ”

Seeing that I slowly put down the gun, Liu Yijing also motioned to the subordinates next to me to put down the gun, and asked in a slightly tactful tone, "How is it?" Do you want to come with me? ”

Do you want to go with me? My heart was still struggling back and forth, and if the other party forced me to go with them, I didn't need Liu Yijing to say so much at all, I just needed to point a gun at my head, but they didn't do it. And what I care about the most is Yu Heng's condition, and the few test data I heard just now are indeed not optimistic. If it's really like what Liu Yijing said, I still have to go to Wanxiang City. Should we take this risk?

After struggling for a long time, I finally took a step forward. "You lead the way......"