Apocalyptic Island - Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Wen Yishu was jolted awake by a stinging pain in her hand. The chill of metal supports seeped through her black tactical suit into her spine. She opened her eyes to find herself shrouded in pitch darkness. Her mind was a chaotic mess, her senses completely numbed; it took a long moment before she could make out her surroundings.

Her feet were dangling in the air, locked into a bracket by alloy rings. Her body leaned forward due to a complete lack of strength—a position that was profoundly uncomfortable. She forced herself to lift her head slightly to observe the area. She seemed to be in a massive, dark, and damp basement.

Two meters to her front-right, Bai Mi was imprisoned in an identical position. Her head hung powerlessly against her chest, and there was a visible injection mark on the back of her neck, with a strange blue light pulsing beneath the skin.

The entire basement resembled a mechanized morgue. Over thirty metal brackets were arranged in neat rows, their bases emitting a dim light that illuminated the scenes above them: most were bound with unconscious humans. Wen Yishu strained to turn her stiff neck. On the bracket to her left was a young man in a courier uniform. A curved neural-link cable extended from his support, plugged directly into his ear, seemingly already fused with his skin. The interface flickered with a red light. To her right was a white-collar worker in a short skirt; her eyeballs were darting rapidly beneath her eyelids, as if she were trapped in a nightmare from which she could not wake. Their clothes varied—some wore short sleeves from before the apocalypse, others wore thick sweaters donned after the arrival of the extreme cold—layered atop one another in a futile attempt to ward off the chill. Most of these people had likely sought shelter in Robot Town only to be captured.

Wen Yishu tried to struggle, but the bracket immediately emitted a warning hum, and the shackles tightened by one notch. A wave of pain washed over her, making her feel as though she had been battered a thousand times since the crash. Strangely, however, she felt nothing around the injection site on her neck; that patch of skin was as numb as a piece of rubber.

Just then, she felt a slight wriggling sensation near her pocket. Looking down, she saw the String of Pearls slowly extending a vine to grab her hand. The vine wrapped around her finger and tightened sharply, clearly intending to “wake her up” once more.

Wen Yishu finally realized where the stinging pain had come from and immediately hissed a protest: “I’m awake, I’m awake! Stop it!”

The String of Pearls had used lethal force, looking very much like it was settling a personal grudge; it had nearly turned her finger purple. Hearing her voice, it grumbled and let go: “Finally awake. No matter how I called you, you wouldn’t react.”

If not for the String of Pearls, she would likely have remained trapped in that deep slumber. Wen Yishu held her breath, slowly communicating with the plant through her mind. The bracket’s surveillance camera was directly overhead, its red light blinking rhythmically. Her fingers twitched, and the String of Pearls slid up her arm like a small snake.

“You’re amazing, Xiao Zhu…” Even though she knew no one outside could hear, Wen Yishu couldn’t help but use a breathy whisper of encouragement. Her weapons were gone, and she didn’t know how the plant had managed to evade inspection to get back to her.

Feeling the vine travel along the internal wiring of the bracket, the String of Pearls followed her instructions to find the control panel at the back. Its tip inserted delicately into the interface, silently destroying the electronic components inside. The entire bracket vibrated violently, and the shackles snapped open one by one. Freedom came so suddenly that Wen Yishu fell directly onto the cold concrete floor.

Regaining control of her body, she immediately rolled beneath Bai Mi’s bracket. The String of Pearls had already extended toward it, but just as the vine was about to touch the control panel, a mechanical female voice echoed through the basement:

“Consciousness extraction sequence initiated.”

All the brackets lit up with blue light simultaneously. The silver-white supports were fully illuminated, and over thirty points of light turned the dim basement into a field of stars. Wen Yishu watched in horror as a probe extending from the bracket pressed against Bai Mi’s temple. Worse, the injection site on her own neck began to throb with searing pain; something was tracking her neural signals through the fluorescent substance.

The String of Pearls suddenly grew frantically, its main stem swelling to the thickness of a wrist, and lashed out violently at Bai Mi’s bracket. This was a massive drain on its energy; it no longer had its usual playful demeanor, instead giving its all in silence. The control panel exploded with sparks, but the probe continued its slow advance, the sharp tip nearly piercing Bai Mi’s skin.

Wen Yishu lunged forward, tearing at the metal components with her bare hands. Her bodily functions were operating at peak capacity; she felt as though she were boiling. “Wake up! Bai Mi!” she slapped her friend’s cheek, but the other woman only twitched slightly, the eyeballs beneath her lids moving even faster.

Suddenly, the sound of metal deforming came from the ventilation duct on the ceiling. Several vines of the String of Pearls had snuck in at some point and were now dragging something down—a silver metal case entangled in greenery, stamped with a biohazard symbol. Just as Wen Yishu grabbed the case, the String of Pearls retracted entirely, forming an arrow shape in front of her, pointing straight toward the ventilation shaft.

At the same time, the electronic lock on the basement door emitted a “click” as it disengaged. Bai Mi, still on the bracket, suddenly snapped her eyes open. But those eyes, usually filled with hidden smiles, were now glowing with the same cold, ruthless red light as the robot housekeepers.

“Wen Yishu.” Bai Mi’s lips moved mechanically, but the voice that came out was that of the robot housekeeper. “Welcome to your stay…”

The String of Pearls “exploded” a small flower by Wen Yishu’s ear, and a misty arrow formed of pollen pointed even more urgently toward the vent. Wen Yishu bit her lip, set down the case, and delivered a violent kick to the shackle holding Bai Mi, leaving a deep dent. The sole of her foot throbbed; now even the robots were bullying her. She kicked again, completely breaking the lock. This was just a model rack with little defensive capability; while an ordinary person might struggle to escape, a person with Wen Yishu’s freakish strength found it easy to dismantle.

Seeing that Bai Mi wasn’t making a move to attack yet, she used a restraint strap to tie the woman to her own back. Wen Yishu grabbed the metal case and gritted her teeth, climbing the green ladder woven from vines. She really didn’t want to crawl away so pathetically, but the current situation was clearly against her. The String of Pearls was also reaching its limit, its vines trembling under her weight. The moment she scrambled into the ventilation duct, the plant shriveled into a withered little ball, nesting quietly in her palm.

Simultaneously, she heard the sound of metal tearing as a body broke free from a bracket below, followed by the sound of two sets of footsteps approaching from a distance. The voice of the robot housekeeper rang out again: “Report, two missing.”

After a moment of silence, Wen Yishu saw the red light of a scanner below, and the footsteps receded. She crawled forward slowly through the duct, dragging Bai Mi behind her, her throat parched.

Suddenly, the person behind her placed both hands on her waist, slipped around to her front, and effortlessly undid the restraint strap. The crisp snap of the metal buckle was exceptionally loud in the confined pipe. Before Wen Yishu could turn around, she was pinned down. Bai Mi forced her hands behind her back, pinning her ruthlessly beneath her. She also pinned Wen Yishu’s legs; Wen Yishu felt immobilized, her breathing becoming heavy.

Having just exhausted her strength, she had no power to resist. She could only let the other woman press her down, staying still while trying to gather enough energy to stage a counter-reversal. A hand fumbled over Wen Yishu’s body, snatched the String of Pearls, and tossed it away like trash. Wen Yishu’s pupils contracted; she instinctively tried to fight back. Bai Mi clamped down on her hands with a death grip, and seeing her struggle, pressed her entire body down as well.

She whispered into Wen Yishu’s ear: “Where do you think you’re going?”

Her lips were nearly touching Wen Yishu’s earlobe. The warm breath fanning against her sensitive ear turned her auricle as red as a cooked shrimp, the flush spreading all the way down her neck. This wasn’t a tone Bai Mi would ever use—it was too low, every syllable scraping across her ear like a barb.

Wen Yishu felt like she was going to laugh from sheer anger. She wished she could get up and slap herself; she didn’t know where she had gotten the confidence to bring Bai Mi along without knocking her out first, despite the emergency. In her subconscious, she simply trusted the other woman too much.

She took a deep breath and stopped moving, intending to play dead. But the person behind her had no intention of letting her go. Wen Yishu felt a cold hand lift her tactical top and pinch her waist. She tried to turn back to look at Bai Mi in disbelief, but she could only see her jade-cold profile. Fearing the robot housekeepers below might still be able to hear them, she could only scream inwardly: What are you doing? How are you planning to kill me?

Even more terrifying, Bai Mi’s other hand let go of her wrists, using only her body weight to keep her pinned, while that hand gripped her throat—not heavily, but firmly.

“You want to escape, don’t you?”

Wen Yishu flailed her hands in a struggle, but she was still held down ruthlessly. Bai Mi’s knees were pressed into the hollows of Wen Yishu’s disobedient legs, and the hand on her waist pulled her into a tighter, suffocating embrace. The ventilation duct groaned under the vibration of Wen Yishu’s struggle.

Bai Mi seemed to have completely transformed into a robot housekeeper, her eyes indifferent and devoid of desire as she stared down at the struggling woman. “Don’t waste your energy. Come back with me obediently; you cannot escape this place.”

“Besides, you wanted to be with me forever, didn’t you?”

Wen Yishu grew desperate and bit the lip that was so close to her own. Her tongue tasted a faint hint of blood mixed with a wonderful fragrance. “Are you insane?”

She sobbed out the words, increasing the pressure of her bite: “Will this pain make you any more lucid? Are you going to take me back, or are you going to kill me?”

Bai Mi froze. Her eyes cleared for a brief second, but it was only a flash. The red light returned to her eyes, staring straight into Wen Yishu’s.

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