“Screech~!”
A sharp, drawn-out metallic scraping sound echoed as the side door of the 9-004 Refugee Camp barracks swung open.
A middle-aged man of average height, around 1.7 meters, hunched his back and hesitated at the doorway for a moment before slowly stepping inside.
While walking, he muttered to himself: “After delivering this last batch today, I finally get a day off. What wretched luck—dealing with piles of corpses day after day. Who knows when I’ll get to enter the city proper…”
He wore a blue training uniform that seemed slightly oversized, with shoulder badges extending beyond his shoulders and drooping down, imprinted with distinctive patterns.
The barracks had no lighting, and with his back to the sunlight, only his silhouette was visible.
Xu San San had been awakened by the grating sound of the door opening. She had been quietly observing the middle-aged man for a while, but could only make out his careless, dragging movements without clearly hearing what he was muttering to himself…
From the moment he entered, he used a square instrument in his hand to scan each person lying on the ground, the device emitting continuous “beep~ beep~ beep~” sounds.
As he scanned, the man occasionally kicked the prone figures forcefully, as if deliberately venting his frustration. Strangely, those on the ground showed no reaction…
Hiss!
So painful, so painful!
Xu San San winced inwardly. Those boots looked hard and heavy—if kicked directly, her emaciated legs would surely be crippled.
Oh heavens!
This is bad, bad, bad!
Her left hand was already injured. If he suddenly delivered a kick like that, she definitely wouldn’t survive the day…
Squinting her eyes, Xu San San stared intently at the approaching man, her right hand tightly gripping a surgical knife, ready to resist at any moment.
When the middle-aged man finally stopped beside the person lying next to her and prepared to deliver his practiced, forceful kick in her direction, Xu San San instinctively knew disaster was imminent. There was no time to determine whether the man’s target was her or the unlucky soul beside her.
To ensure her own safety, she immediately propped herself up without hesitation. With a trembling right hand, she pointed the surgical knife directly at the man and mustered the loudest roar of her life: “What are you doing? Stop right there! Believe me, I’ll dissect you!”
Whether from prolonged dehydration or other reasons, her voice now oscillated between hoarseness and cracked extremes.
The result was that not a single syllable emerged correctly.
The sudden development terrified the middle-aged man so much that he collapsed onto his backside. Scrambling backward while sitting on the ground, his small eyes widened as he screamed with gaping mouth: “Corpse reanimation! Corpse reanimation!”
Whether naturally cowardly or simply panicked, in this critical moment he displayed none of the agility expected during escape.
Instead, he kept howling while remaining seated, shuffling backward step by step. His legs pedaled rapidly in alternating motions—so fast and vigorous in movement yet barely making any backward progress—resembling someone frantically performing core abdominal exercises from a KEEP fitness program.
Xu Sansan was momentarily stunned, never expecting her half-baked surprise move to yield such dramatic results!
But wait—what was he shouting?
“Zombie resurrection”?
No, I was never dead to begin with—how could this be “resurrection”?
Tilting her head in confusion, Xu Sansan curled her knees and prepared to stand, intending to explain the situation to the middle-aged man.
Little did she know that her movement would startle the entire group.
Coincidentally, four more men in identical blue training uniforms came rushing through the side entrance upon hearing the middle-aged man’s shouts. They varied in height but shared the same gaunt frames and sunken eyes—clear signs of chronic sleep deprivation.
The moment they entered, they saw a girl in tattered clothes, her hair a tangled, frizzy mess, her pale face devoid of color. Beneath her grimy forehead, only a pair of wide, pitch-black eyes stared vacantly. Dangling a bloody arm, she swayed unsteadily as she rose and moved toward them.
Her bloodless lips parted and closed like a ravenous zombie craving human flesh, occasionally emitting hoarse, guttural rasps. In her right hand, a sharp blade glinted coldly, backlit in the dim barracks like the claw of a mutated beast…
All four men stumbled backward and collapsed in near-perfect unison.
It was a déjà vu moment multiplied by four.
Amidst the overlapping screams and cries for help, Xu Sansan watched countless legs churning frantically in the air, as if trying to conjure flaming wheels through sheer panic.
Perhaps she had risen too abruptly—the moment Xu Sansan stood, her vision darkened.
Not good. This must be anemia from blood loss and malnutrition…
Before she could finish her self-diagnosis, she staggered and collapsed back to the ground.
“Hey, could you… give me a glass of water…”
@#￥％…￥％……&％￥2#￥…&*
Well, Xu Sansan had to admit her voice wasn’t exactly pleasant at the moment.
Adhering to the principle that “more words lead to more mistakes, while silence avoids trouble,” she abandoned her plan to explain and decided to adapt to the situation as it unfolded.
Fortunately, one clear-headed individual was striving to steer the derailed scene back on track.
The man who had fallen at the outermost edge, noticing Xu Sansan had collapsed and fallen silent, quickly activated his bracelet and contacted Captain Wang, leader of the Guard Team in Refugee Camp Zone 9.
Captain Wang arrived swiftly with over a dozen Guard Team members armed with heavy weapons. He posted eight outside for perimeter defense, sealing off the side entrance of Barracks 9-004 completely.
Weapon in one hand and a long detector in the other, he advanced slowly toward Xu Sansan under the cover of several heavily armed guards, stepping over the “flaming-wheel quintet” still scrambling on the floor.
As he moved, the detector emitted repetitive mechanical alerts: “Beep! No anomalies detected!”
“Beep! No anomalies detected!”
“Beep! No anomalies detected!”
Only when he reached Xu Sansan and the device automatically scanned her from head to toe did it issue its final confirmation:
“Beep! Human female! External injuries, minor, no infection, capable of self-recovery…”
“Whew~”
Xu San San could clearly sense everyone present unconsciously letting out a sigh of relief.
Only then did Captain Wang finally look directly at her and ask, “Identity information?”
Xu San San slowly straightened up and replied humbly, “Xu San San…”
@#￥%
Right, she’d forgotten she still couldn’t speak. Helplessly, she looked at Captain Wang, pointed at her throat, and shook her hand.
Captain Wang glanced at the disheveled girl and her blood-stained ragged clothes, suddenly understanding why a 14-15 year old survivor from Zone 9 had caused such a commotion…
He then scanned the Bracelet on Xu San San’s right wrist, and a mechanical voice announced:
Xu San San, ID 3356899, 15 years old, Scavenger;
Last Base mission: Wasteland City 505 cleanup…
The mechanical voice soon stopped. Captain Wang gave her another glance, then turned and led his team away, leaving only these words:
“Since you’re not dead yet, leave as soon as possible. Zone 9 doesn’t welcome the living.”