Chapter 6 (2/2)
Zhou Xiao took it up in good manner and bit it.
They sat on the edge of the roof railing. After finis.h.i.+ng his half of this precious apple, Zhou Rong got up to maintain the order and re-arranged the groups.
The survivors’ emotions were very anxious. The people left behind experienced the feeling of having hope to be saved right in their sight, only to feel disappointment as they were abandoned again. They were particularly tense and uneasy, the atmosphere of despair filled the crowd. The few special force members were unable to fully control the situation. Even the medical teams had to get up and help maintaining the order.
“What's wrong with them?” Zhou Rong asked with a frown.
Two or three nurses crowded on the corner of the rooftop with their heads hanging down. They seemed uncomfortable. Their faces were pale and the circle under their eyes appeared dark green and blue in color.
”They are too tired because of working overtime.” The doctor explained, ”Every day we have to go through the quarantine and spray the disinfectant around, we can't sleep even if we feel sleepy. When your people killed the zombies during the day and moved the corpses to burn them, no one was willing to use their own hands, they always used a stretcher to help carry the corpses…”
The doctor's face was very unsightly. Zhou Rong looked at the nurse for a moment and suddenly asked, ”Are their bodies' temperature normal?”
”I have checked it before, they have no wounds!” The doctor was not happy.
“I’m sorry.” Zhou Hao immediately apologized: “When the helicopter returns, your team will be on the first batch to go.”
The doctor finally felt a bit at ease.
Nothing happened after Si Nan finished eating the apple. His fever also had receded, and now his body felt kind of limp and sour. Although it was not uncomfortable, it made him too lazy to move. He leaned against the rooftops and looked at the devastated city under his feet. Then, he lifted the pendant from under his collar and opened it, looking at the smiling face of the man and woman in the old photo.
“Your parents?” someone asked behind him.
Si Nan looked up and saw Yan Hao.
“Your parents are ……” Yan Hao wanted to say good-looking but felt that the term was not dignified enough, he then corrected himself and said:. “Outstanding in temperament,”
Si Nan laughed and said casually:. “Unfortunately it wasn't pa.s.sed to me.”
“It is something that will need to be cultivated, not inherited.” Yan Hao laughed and asked: ”You are a mixed race? I always thought you were a local special police in T City.”
Si Nan did not say anything.
Yan Hao looked at him silently with the corner of his eye. Sinan’s temperament was indeed could not be a.s.sociated in the slightest with elegance and meticulousness. On the contrary, he was very similar to the special force members around him: lean, agile, and decisive.
However, once you had contacts with him a few times, you would find that there were still some indescribable differences hidden in his gestures which made him very different from Yan Hao himself, Chun Cao, and even Zhou Rong.
Yan Hao thought about it for a moment before changing the subject: “What was the captain talking with you about last night?”
Si Nan jokingly said:. “The Sorrows of Young Werther.[3]“
“Being brutally eliminated by an omega compet.i.tor in the International Special Forces jungle Compet.i.tion?”
…… Zhou Rong, this odd man, must have shared his embarra.s.sing past with the team.
“He must have told you only the part about the omega juvenile knocking him out, tying him on the tree, and then apologizing and taking away his gun and hostages.” Yan Hao said, “As for the later part about sending flowers and confession…”
Si Nan asked curiously: 'Sending flowers? Confession?”
Yan Hao looked around a bit and saw Zhou Rong among the crowd, busy explaining why he would put the medical team to the first batch of helicopters.
“The reason why the team remembered it even after so many years was because, after the teenager had tied him up, he kissed him to express his apology.”
Si Nan: “…”
“That was the only close encounter he has with an omega in his whole life.” Yan Hao grinned and continued: ”So if he tells you that after the game he went to find the boy to make him pay, then he is lying… He actually bought flowers to confess, but later found out that the other guy already has an alpha, so he threw away those flowers in anger.
Si Nan shook his head slowly and said: “…that's terrible.”
Yan Hao sympathetically said: “Who said it wasn’t?”
Meanwhile, the sound of fluttering wind was heard in the distance; two helicopters had come back.
”Line up! Line up! Hurry, come on!” The pilot shouted at the crowd until he was exhausted. He held onto the loudspeaker and said: ”The medical team! Where is the medical team?”
The nurses were gathered in the front of the crowd, their complexions pale. They were almost pushed forward by the people who were trying to put their feet into the helicopter's door.
Zhou Rong was watching this scene from afar, somehow feeling a hint of uneasiness in his heart. At this time, the scene was almost too intense. Everyone was roaring forward, some of the smaller sized people were almost squeezed into the tail of the helicopter and nearly got their heads swept away be the high-speed rotating propellers. There were screams everywhere.
”There is no place anymore!” The loudspeaker sound was deafening as the pilot yelled: ”Go to the next one!!” The pilot gave a thumb up to Zhou Rong before slamming the door close and leaving slowly.
Zhou Rong couldn't help but look up, suddenly feeling a burst of fear for no reason.
The sound of wind swis.h.i.+ng was stilled and the world seemed to solidify at this moment.
Zhou Rong subconsciously turned back and swept his eyes through the crowd until his sight fell upon Si Nan’s rapidly shrinking pupils.
In the next moment, the sound of an imaginary death knell seemed to fill the air. Zhou Rong suddenly rushed forward and shouted: “Retreat -!”
“All of you, retreat – !!” The helicopter above them began rotating and falling, the shadows getting bigger and bigger as it came nearer to their place. It then crashed into the second helicopter, resulting in a loud boom and a shocking explosion!
Boom -
The impact instantly thrown countless people off the rooftops until they fell down to the street. The unprepared Yan Hao was also thrown off the rooftops' railing and almost fell down, but his wrist was suddenly grasped by Si Nan!
“Climb up!” Si Nan shouted.
Yan Hao breathed in relief and tried to climb up with clenched teeth. He was about to use force to climb up, but suddenly saw something past Si Nan's body. The expression on his face changed, and he said: “No! Don’t worry about me, you run!”
Si Nan had his chest pressed against the iron railings. Yan Hao’s weight was causing him to be too breathless and he barely manage to pull enough effort to look around.
The distorted helicopter's door was knocked open, and countless burning people rushed out, covered in dark smoke and screaming. More people rushed out behind them, grabbing at the survivors nearest to them and biting into their necks.
– The helicopter was mixed with infected people.
A new round of zombie virus broke out in front of them.
T/N:
[1] Act of destroying the bridge after crossing the river (过河拆桥) is an idiom which means to abandon one’s benefactor upon achieving one’s goal.
[2] Mouth that has been fed by others is soft, the hand that has received doesn’t reach (吃人家的嘴软,拿人家的手短) is an idiom which means one is partial to those whom they have accepted presents/gifts from.
[3]The Sorrows of Young Werther (German: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) is a loosely autobiographical, epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, first published in 1774.
P/s: Ill.u.s.tration of Si Nan and Zhou Rong!
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