Constantly pushing aside the weeds blocking his path, Brian looked up to observe everything around the Factory, hoping to find a way in, while occasionally turning his head to look ahead, vigilant against any danger that might appear at any moment.
“Hmm?” Just as he was struggling to climb over a pile of obstacles, some tiny gaps that appeared along the edge of the Factory suddenly caught his attention.
Walking closer, Brian crouched down and pressed against the sheet metal where the gaps were.
To his surprise, as soon as he applied force, the spot suddenly caved in, and the bent sheet metal revealed the hidden gaps along the side.
Seeing this, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and he thought to himself, “I guessed right; these guys really did leave themselves a way out.” In fact, it wasn’t hard to guess.
In a place as chaotic as this, fights and conflicts were a daily occurrence.
No one knew what would happen the next second, so these people usually left themselves a retreat route.
Especially in a place with a fixed base like this, it was even less likely that the main gate was the only entrance or exit.
Brian looked up to check his general location; he had already reached the back of the Factory.
He gently removed the entire piece of sheet metal, then leaned down to look inside, discovering it was an office with a desk and chair in the middle, and a sofa by the door.
“This is it!” Having found the entrance to the Factory, Brian quickly stood up and walked briskly towards the other end of the building; he needed to go get Sarah and tell her he had found the entrance.
Meanwhile, at the other end, Sarah was walking slowly along the spacious road, holding an iron rod, also earnestly searching for an entrance into the Factory.
But she noticed that the side of the Factory was covered in warning signs written in red paint, just like at the main gate, with phrases like “Don’t open the door!” and “There are monsters inside!” “Strange, who wrote all of this?” Sarah didn’t notice that while she was intently staring at the red words on the Factory, on the other side of the abandoned car behind her, an Infected was slowly standing up from the ground.
When it saw that there was prey, it roared excitedly and charged towards her.
The sudden movement behind her startled Sarah.
She had clearly checked the surroundings just a moment ago; how could there be an Infected behind her?
This scene immediately reminded her of the encounter with the young black woman in the Convenience Store, and she thought she had run into the same kind of “evolved” Infected.
This realization filled Sarah with fear.
She knew she was no match for that kind of monster, but she didn’t want to die here; she still wanted to keep living.
The will to survive helped her overcome her fear.
She swung the iron rod in her hand fiercely, striking behind her without looking back.
Just as the Infected rushed in front of her, there was a loud “bang,” and the iron rod hit it squarely on the head.
But the Infected only staggered for a moment before pouncing again.
Although the blow had landed on its head, because Sarah was too young and her strength was limited, it hadn’t caused much damage.
However, this allowed Sarah, who had turned around, to see that it was just an ordinary Infected behind her.
This discovery allowed her to ease her anxious heart slightly; although ordinary Infected were also dangerous, they were still better than the kind of monster that lurked behind her.
Seeing the Infected pouncing again, Sarah nimbly dodged its bite, then seized the opportunity to smash her rod heavily onto the back of its head, but it only caused it to stagger for a moment, without causing much damage.
The Infected immediately turned and pounced again, but this time it was also easily dodged by her, and she struck its head heavily with the rod again.
After repeating this several times, Sarah found that she was becoming increasingly adept at dodging the enemy’s attacks.
Now the Infected was very angry.
Are you using me as a grinding machine for experience points?
The more it thought about it, the angrier it got.
With an angry roar, it prepared to lunge again.
“Ah…” But just as the Infected was halfway through its cry, a gleaming dagger suddenly appeared behind it and plunged into its skull, causing the roaring to stop abruptly.
The Infected then collapsed limply to the ground, but its eyes were still fixed firmly on the little girl in front of it, seemingly unable to rest in peace.
Brian pulled out the dagger and walked quickly to Sarah’s side, looking her up and down, and asked with a concerned expression, “How are you?
Are you hurt?” “I’m fine.” Looking at Brian’s concerned expression, Sarah waved the iron rod in her hand with a smile and said, “I’m fine; I just taught it a good lesson!” “Alright, regardless, if you encounter this kind of situation again, you must call for help, do you understand!” Seeing that Sarah could still smile, Brian didn’t know what to say and could only shake his head helplessly.
“Where did this guy pop out from?” Hearing Brian’s question, Sarah pointed behind the abandoned car and said, “It must have been from behind that car.
I was looking at those red words at the time, and this guy suddenly appeared behind me.” After speaking, she subconsciously looked back behind her.
Although she didn’t show it on her face, this incident truly made her feel very shaken, and she secretly warned herself to always keep an eye on the rear from now on.
Following the direction of her finger, Brian went behind the abandoned vehicle and saw a bucket of red paint placed there, with a not-too-thick notebook on top of it, and a brush dropped nearby.
There were messy handprints and footprints on the ground; clearly, the Infected had emerged from here.
Picking up the notebook from the paint bucket, Brian curiously flipped through it, and Sarah, seeing this, quickly leaned in, wanting to take a look too.
It contained the diary written by this Infected before it turned, but it seemed to have been started only recently, so there was very little content.
However, Brian still found some key information: September 10, 2013 I never thought I would ever write a diary.
I have been trapped here for 4 days, and food is running low, but these monsters are still staying outside.
Damn it, can’t they just go stay somewhere else?
I can’t keep waiting like this; I have to do something.
There aren’t many of them, maybe I should take the initiative?
…
September 11, 2013 Haha!
These monsters only rely on their eyes to find prey; what a bunch of idiots, they didn’t even know I was sneaking up on them.
I remember that guy Ford left a car for his brother Morris.
Hehe, that guy hasn’t appeared for so long, he must be dead.
As expected, even God is on my side.
But there seem to be some strange-looking things there, half of their heads covered by disgusting mushrooms.
But that’s fine, the monster lost an eye, so it will be easier to deal with.
I’ll take care of them all tomorrow.
…
September 12, 2013 I am such an idiot.
That blind monster could actually judge my position from the sound.
Fortunately, I reacted quickly enough and locked them inside the Factory, but this monster actually scratched me.
Damn it.
I used red paint to write some warnings at the entrance of the Factory; that should tell people there is danger inside.
After working for half a day, I feel a bit tired.
Hmm, I’ll rest against the car for a bit and then leave here…
…
The last entry in the diary was the day before yesterday; clearly, this person was Infected by the pathogen after that.
Brian silently closed the notebook and turned his head to look at the Factory.
Judging from the contents of the diary, there must be “evolved” Infected inside, and these “evolved” Infected already possess sensitive hearing and can detect subtle sounds nearby; they no longer rely solely on their vision to search for targets.
Although it might be extremely dangerous inside, this could not stop him from his intention to continue entering the Factory.
“Let’s go.
I found a hole over there that we can get inside through.” Saying this, he put away the diary in his hand, waved his hand, and led Sarah towards the other side of the Factory.
Crawling in through the hole in the Factory, the two successfully entered the office.
Sarah looked at the desk nearby and instantly remembered the hidden compartment written on Brian’s letter.
She quickly crouched down to observe the situation under the desk.
Sure enough, she saw an obviously sunken spot on the ground, but this spot was half covered by the desk.
If they wanted to take out the things inside, they would inevitably have to move the desk, but the sound of moving it would definitely alert the Infected outside.
Thinking of this, Sarah turned her head and cast an inquiring look at Brian.
“Don’t rush.
Let’s take care of the Infected outside first.” Brian was not without any preparation for this operation.
Ever since he learned about the existence of “evolved” Infected, he had been constantly hypothesizing how to deal with them if he encountered them on this trip.
So he desperately recalled the movies and games he had watched in the past, hoping to find weapons that were easy to make and had considerable lethality, and the simple-to-make “molotov cocktail” became his primary choice.