The blue sky was impossibly clear, and the pure water, revered by the wastelanders as the source of life, was thrown on the ground like garbage everywhere in Jericho, often because of the wretched and helpless hands of the waterworks workers, intentionally or unintentionally, or because they ignored the small pits and bumps in the ground while pushing the cart.

This is especially true near the outlets of the water plants, where the leaked water even pools into a trickle, following the traces of an ancient waterway to a hole in a drainage well, and then disappears into the darkness.

It can only be said that this is much better than the previous waste, when the valves of the former cistern had not been repaired, and there was even a small stream flowing here, just look at the traces that remained.

Andy withdrew his gaze and dragged his wandering thoughts back into his mind and stepped into the police station. The old mottled floors creaked and creaked when stepped on, and the skin of the walls rolled and peeled off like the skin of a diseased beast.

Sergeant O'Connor sat in a chair with his long black curly hair draped over his shoulders, his pistol and shotgun casually placed next to him, surrounded by several policemen, all of whom frowned.

The sound of footsteps attracts attention, and people turn their heads to look at Andy, and then there is some sparkle in their eyes, as if it is not just a person, but a living answer to a difficult question.

"Here you are, Andy, I thought you were going to have to drink a little longer. Although Anson's beer is a tasteless thing, I'm afraid you've suffered a lot in the desert before, and I should have given you some more time to rest, just ..... Sorry, as you might have guessed, we're in trouble again, and one of my respectable lieutenants is now missing. Andy straightened the collar of his coat and scratched his back with his hand, others only felt that he behaved a little unusually, at best, it was called calm, and if it was ugly, it should be careless.

Only he knew that there had been a constant stream of annoying preaching from the back of his neck, and that a mechanical female voice had been warning him of the folly of ingesting alcohol since he had drunk his first beer, and had listed the serious dangers of alcohol for more than ten minutes.

While it can't be said that the AI is unreasonable, it keeps asking if it wants to take the 'necessary irritation' to induce vomiting on Andy's stomach, which is a bit excessive.

Do you want him to vomit all over the place in front of everyone? What makes people feel even more shameless than this kind of thing is simply the terrifying scene of defecating in front of everyone because they can't hold it back.

So he gritted his teeth and muttered to himself: If you dare to cut and play like before, I will definitely take you off and throw you into that foul-smelling pit, and if you don't want to be treated like that, you will understand my answer, no.

"I have something very important to tell you, Sheriff O'Connor, but it seems that the situation is urgent right now, so why don't you let me know first, what is going on?" Sergeant O'Connor propped his hat on one finger, his face a little worried and guilty.

"There's been a bit of a problem in the town lately, and it's all about the sewers, which were part of the city's underground drainage network before the war, and then seem to have been modified by the New Canaanites. No one can say exactly what the structure is underground, the spacious pipe gallery extends in all directions underground, and some people think that its total area is larger than the town of Jericho above ground, and it is of course dangerous inside, not to mention the terrible rumors that are circulating among the people, and the corridor branch line that cannot predict when it will collapse is scary enough. ”

"But the problem is getting worse and worse, the huge rats that came out of the sewers, at first just roaming around, occasionally stealing something, and now they are even starting to invade the granary to devour our vital food, and bite several children and guards; This forced me to start making a plan to exterminate the rats, and we went down there to try to find the nests of the rats, but instead of success, one man went missing. Andy nodded, almost understanding what Sheriff O'Connor meant.

"So you want me to go down and find the missing man, don't you?" Sheriff O'Connor had an embarrassed look on his face.

"I'm sorry... It's a very dangerous task, it's very narrow and full of sewage, it's unrealistic to have too many people going down, your beep-beep boy can map and map, you don't need to be afraid of getting lost underground... I only hope you can find the missing policeman, he is a dutiful man, we were attacked by a lot of rats, and the sudden collapse of a wall cut him off from us, when we had already found what was suspected to be a rat nest. Andy saw that many police officers still had stains on their clothes, their pants were basically wet, the sewage height below was not low, and some people were injured, and the gauze showed red blood.

"I see, then I'll try to go down and have a look, but I can't guarantee that I'll find him, besides.... I'll have to tell you about that when I get back, it's very important and urgent, you have to know. Sergeant O'Connor repeatedly promised to listen, and Andy followed the two police officers who were in charge of guiding the way.

They walked to the southeast of the town, where the water on the surface gradually collected, so the smell was quite horrible.

Originally, it was supposed to be a shaft, but now it has collapsed into a large pit with a black and green bottom, with old bricks scattered everywhere, and some people have used it as a garbage dump and discarded a lot of rubbish into it.

"We've forbidden them to throw anything in there before, but it's dirty enough before we officially stop it." The policemen pinched their noses and recalled the scene when Sheriff O'Connor led the team to exterminate the rats, and they were still sick to their stomachs, and the foul-smelling sludge was pouring up from the bottom of the sewage because of the trampling of everyone, because this sewer was the main pipe, and the sewage gathered everywhere was indescribable, including but not limited to rotting animal carcasses, human bones, foul-smelling green mud, excrement, rotting food.... The only reason they were willing to obey Sheriff O'Connor's orders to go down was because there was no shortage of water in Jericho, and if they wanted to, they could start washing their bodies and clothes at once, and the water was inexhaustible here.

But after going down, they understand that after some things are stained, the stains will not only remain on the clothes and body, but also in the depths of their memories, as if engraved in the brain into a synapse, which cannot be washed away so easily.

"Vomit—" A policeman retched, he couldn't take it anymore and hurried to take a shower.

"The man is probably dead, but... Maybe not dead? Oh my God, I've always admired Sheriff O'Connor, but this time he really came up with a stupid idea, we should have a few workers go down and explore the way before we get started, and if you do want to go down, remember to watch out for those big rats. With that, he turned and fled.

Alexandra glanced at it and snorted.

"Hell, cough cough cough.... Don't tell me you really have to be a marionette, O'Connor's stupid mistakes are up to him, and even if he can pay, he won't be able to take all the work. I wouldn't have gone down to find someone missing for him if he hadn't died, and if he hadn't died, he would have committed suicide down there, and if it were me, I would definitely have done that, ahem, ahem..."Hull continued to scream, almost starting to babble.

"Alright... I see, of course it would be a mistake to go down here. Even if Andy is not so clean, it is dark to look at the hellish scene in front of him.

The two retreated, and Andy wanted to go straight to tell O'Connor that he couldn't go down and find someone, and then move on to the next topic, but there happened to be an elderly lady not far away who was sitting on a broken chair looking at it, next to a ruined homemade shack, the main material of which was some charred black metal plates that had been scavenged from the ruins of New Canaan.

Andy thought for a moment and walked over to ask her.

"Hello old man, I think you seem to have lived here for a long time, are you familiar with this sewer?" The old lady's face was wrinkled, and her whole face seemed to be brought together, and she stared at Andy for a while, but she didn't answer.

Alexandra didn't want to stay near the horrible sewers for a moment, and when she saw Andy still pestering with the strange old lady, she sarcastically persuaded him to give up.

"I'm afraid the old guy can't hear what you're saying, even if she can hear it, there must be something wrong with it, how can anyone live so close to such a horrible place? Is the nose not easy to use? Or the brain? If you want me to say, I'm afraid I'm a madman! The old lady turned her head to look at Alexandra, and showed a smiling expression, and there was no half of a tooth in her mouth, only pink gums, which made people feel terrible to look at.

"Whoever goes down suffers." She said something in an indescribable accent, and Andy guessed that the content should be like this, not knowing whether it was a true description or a curse.

Without waiting for Andy to continue asking, the strange old man seemed to open the conversation, and then Andy noticed that she was wearing a strange-looking dress with a lot of strange patterns outlined on it, but most of them were covered with stains and dust, but as long as you looked closely, you could still see it.

The pendant around her neck and the earlobe pendant on one ear were made of a strange greenish metal, and the carved pattern of the coat of arms was obscure, as if it were some kind of existence of a large mass of twisted strips.

"I have lived here long before the heretics have taken possession of this land, just to watch over the gods, [inaudible description] when the fire of sinners burns the earth, and the pure water of the salt moistens the mud, and the bloodworms and the giant rats will be resurrected [incomprehensible description] The first sacrifice is in place, and soon He will pour out his wrath on all the unbelievers who maliciously disturb His rest, [a lengthy chant that sends chills down his spine] and let their skin rot, and maggots grow out of their flesh, and pus flows out of their bones, seeping into the depths of their souls [Whispers of Malice]." This is the key thing that Andy finally distilled from her speech, and everything else that fills in the gaps and gaps is incomprehensible.

A terrible noise came from the shack, as if something was about to break through the restraints, Andy and the two looked over, and the closed iron door was finally pushed open, and behind it was not some deformed dark monster, but it was no better, it was clearly a large group of huge black haired rats that were on par with the Denver wild dogs.

As soon as they came out, the rats scattered like a puff of smoke. Of course, they can't really disappear, but they are only temporarily reduced to zero to avoid the glare on the surface, and soon they will regroup in a place where there is no light, and devour what they can.

"Hee-hee- Andy didn't want to pay any more attention to her, because he noticed that there was a well leading to the underground inside the open tin house, from which all the rats that had swarmed out should have escaped.

Alexandra looked sharply at the old woman.

"You're deliberately letting out these rats? Why do you have a well in your house? How much do you know about this? The old lady just continued to laugh and not answer, and after a moment she suddenly stopped, her cheeks puffed up slightly, and then she coughed up a mouthful of thick phlegm.

There seemed to be something wriggling in the dark green phlegm. Alexandra took more than ten steps backwards as if struck by lightning, raised the shotgun she was carrying behind her back, and put her finger on the trigger.

"Don't, Alexandra, that's against the law here, and you'll be in trouble if you shoot." Andy spoke up to stop her.

"When the police come back, they'll come back and let them deal with it." Alexandra stared at the old lady so hard that goosebumps exploded all over her body.

"Fuck you.... There's something wrong with this old thing, I've seen countless sloppy people and sick ghosts and poisonous insects, and there are people who are dirtier than this old thing, but she's not normal, I don't know how to explain it to you, there's something wrong with her! Andy sighed, and he looked at the well, which was black and empty, but there was no stolen goods.

This is probably another opening connected to the underground waterway, and perhaps directly to the underground rat's nest; If the missing person is trapped near the mutant rat's nest, this may be a passage entrance that can be quickly approached.

Maybe he might still have a chance to live? He turned back and greeted Alexandra outside the door.

"You help me look at the old lady, I'll go down and have a look first." Before she could respond, Andy lifted his leg and jumped.

The sound of a heavy object falling into the water spread through the darkness, followed by a beep, a green light pierced the darkness, and Andy looked around with the help of the Pip-Boy's lamp, and there were three bifurcated corridors leading in different directions.

There was black sewage beneath his feet, and it had reached a little above his knees. He raised his pistol, and a pair of reflective eyes appeared in the illuminated darkness of the corridor in front of him, roughly calculated, I am afraid that there are dozens or hundreds, the nimble scurrying and unpleasant squeaks.... Needless to say, these things would be rats, all rats, giant rats, abominable rats.

They looked at the uninvited guest who had suddenly entered, and after a moment, suddenly rushed over.

It was almost like a tidal wave coming towards Andy, hungry enough to nibble a two-headed cow to its skeleton in an instant, and it contained deadly toxins, germs, and parasites in its mouth.

The glow of the fire shone through the almost frozen darkness of the ancient sewers, and a powerful sound dispelled the silence and turned everything upside down.

"Bang-bang-bang-" The sound of the bullet casings falling into the water was so pleasant that it started out as a grunt or a metal trill against a nearby wall, followed by a stabbing sound of water evaporating instantly.

The python and the rhinoceros start a dense and extremely accurate continuous fire in V mode, the huge bullet power allows each shot to beat multiple rats into a meat puree, and these fresh meat puree will make the surrounding rats want to devour, and the gathered rats to snatch the corpses of their kind further reduce the difficulty of shooting, so shoot after shot, until the rats finally realize that the instinct comes from the fear of death.

When he finally put down the two pistols emitting high heat and smoke, the blood from the dead rats had stained the black sewage in front of him red.

Andy let out a sigh of relief, then was smoky with the foul stench and hurriedly put on his gas mask. There was another commotion in the back of the neck

Suggestion.

"The structure here is highly dangerous, and the probability of a sudden collapse is not less than 23 percent." Andy ignored Hull, loaded his bullets and walked straight ahead on the sewage, he had a gut feeling that it wasn't that simple down there, a special aura touched his nerves, and he remembered something.

Something that is widely present underground.... What is it?