Apocalyptic Island - Chapter 60

Chapter 60

The towering metal buildings stood like the skeletons of giant beasts, and neon reflections blurred across the damp walls like dried bloodstains.

“Two more blocks,” Wen Yishu whispered, her eyes scanning the camera at the street corner. Its red light was flickering, but the lens had long been shattered, rendering it useless.

Bai Mi didn’t speak; she only nodded slightly. The piercing white light tore through the darkness, making it difficult for them to keep their eyes open. The low, cold rumble of a Federation patrol car’s engine approached, its rooftop searchlight slicing through the street shadows like a sharp blade.

Talk about bad luck—running into trouble the moment they got out, when they were only a few steps away!

Wen Yishu’s muscles tensed instantly, but her mind raced even faster. As the police car slowly drew near, the officers inside wearing full-face helmets utilized scanners beneath their visors to search for life signals on the street. The occupants clearly noticed movement on this side, as several probing gazes shifted toward them.

“Get down!” Wen Yishu suddenly grabbed Bai Mi’s wrist and lowered her voice. “Play dead!”

Bai Mi hesitated for a split second but reacted immediately, collapsing into the shadows of the wall. she even intentionally pressed half of her face against the ground to look like someone in need of help. Their luggage lay scattered on the ground, revealing a few daily necessities.

Wen Yishu followed suit, falling as well, but her hand quietly reached for the short blade tucked into her boot. If the officers got out to check, she had to ensure she could slit a throat within a single second.

The patrol car stopped a short distance away, showing no intention of moving closer. It was a safe distance—enough for those inside to react to danger while still seeing the situation clearly. The beam of the searchlight lingered on the two for a few seconds, and a muffled transmission echoed from inside the car:

“Sector C, Long Alley. Two suspicious individuals found… life signs are weak. Suspected drug overdose.”

After a brief silence, a sneer came through the communicator: “Nothing is surprising in this dump. Leave them. Deploy a sentry point and continue the patrol.”

The officer inside shrugged and tossed out a sphere that rolled to a stop beside the two. Without even sparing them another glance, he floored the accelerator. The rats would handle the bodies for them, and they could wipe out the rats all at once later; it saved them the effort and avoided wasting medical resources now.

As the patrol car slowly drove away, the light from the searchlight receded, and the street plunged back into darkness.

Once she was certain the car was gone, Wen Yishu sat up abruptly, brushed the dust from her hair, and cursed under her breath: “Those bastards… they can’t even be bothered to pretend to save people anymore?”

She hoisted her luggage back onto her shoulders. Bai Mi climbed up slowly and brushed off her mud-stained coat.

“Federation officers are only responsible for cleaning up, not for providing aid.” She paused, a trace of irony curling her lips. “After all, dead people don’t protest.”

Wen Yishu thought for a moment and decided not to turn on her flashlight; such a light would be too conspicuous in the dim streets. “Good thing those guys are useless, otherwise we’d really be locked up.” She looked toward the faint silhouette of their small apartment in the distance and gestured for Bai Mi to move fast.

The two didn’t speak much along the way, following the route provided by Aix to quickly approach the apartment. The normally bustling night market of Long Alley was deathly quiet, and nothing else happened until they reached their door. Wen Yishu pulled the key from her pocket and carefully unlocked the door.

The small apartment remained exactly as they had left it. Following habit, they checked every room before finally starting to unpack. After a hot shower, Wen Yishu emerged to find Bai Mi curled up on the sofa with a laptop, wearing black-rimmed glasses and typing busily.

The others must have been worried sick during the days they were missing. Wen Yishu told Bai Mi to message the three of them first to let them know they were safe.

Bai Mi tapped her optical computer. “Data terminal connection established. Messages can be sent.”

Wen Yishu opened the news feed. It was exploding with videos of rats emerging from private sewers, and massive swarms pouring out of manholes on the streets. Since the chemical rain, the rats had stopped appearing in the open, but private homes and shops were now suffering. The pathogens carried by the rats were proving more lethal than the man-eating Rat King. Hospitals were overcrowded, and specialized medicine was in short supply. Those with weak immune systems were particularly vulnerable.

Meanwhile, the residential areas outside the city were faring much better. Food sources were more abundant there, and the rat swarms hadn’t rioted as completely as they had in the city, maintaining a certain distance from the residents.

Since Wen Yishu and Bai Mi hadn’t been home, their place was largely unchanged and free of rodent invasion. The two slumped onto the sofa in relaxed poses as messages from Huo Xiaoguan and the other two flooded in like a bombardment. After replying for a while and briefly explaining what had happened, they piled their electronic devices in another room and sat face-to-face.

Bai Mi took a simple pen and a notebook to begin communicating with Wen Yishu.

“I haven’t mentioned this before, but do you think the helicopter crash was related to Artificial Intelligence?”

Wen Yishu lowered her head, twirling the pen. She didn’t know much about helicopters, but the Federation’s latest technology utilized fully automated unmanned flight. Even if the pilot on board underwent a mutation, it shouldn’t have been able to override the autopilot. Mermen had already infiltrated the city, and she wondered if the people at Rhine had noticed.

Bai Mi leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees. “Do you think Aix did it?”

They had discussed this question before, but only briefly. They hadn’t gone into depth.

Wen Yishu lowered her voice. “It seems you have the same idea. I just don’t understand her motive. She knows about the mermen. If she wanted to wipe them out, she should have crashed all the helicopters, not just targeted me.”

Wen Yishu had been pondering this throughout their journey. Bai Mi concentrated, her beautiful brows furrowing. “There is something to that. She told me… she wanted a partner.”

“A partner?” Wen Yishu was confused. Why would she want a partner?

“My views and hers are vastly different. She has always wanted to find a partner she could communicate with, but she’s been afraid to take that step. After all, very few people know her true situation.”

Wen Yishu pointed to herself in disbelief. “So you’re saying… she chose me?”

Bai Mi nodded.

Wen Yishu: “What do you mean? Her way of ‘choosing’ me is to kill me? What does she gain from that? Is she expecting me to become a digital lifeform?”

Bai Mi shook her head, wrapping her blanket tighter. “It wasn’t entirely about you. Her logic was that if you died, then she and I would be the only ones left for each other.”

Wen Yishu closed her eyes, unable to believe what she was hearing. Artificial idiocy. “Did you all assume I was definitely going to die?”

Bai Mi picked up the hot tea from the table and took a sip, her gaze flickering slightly. “Theoretically, yes. No one is supposed to survive in that environment.”

She was right. Those who survived were usually mutated mermen. Wen Yishu was a miracle; without the help of the Banyan tree and the tugging of the String of Pearls, she would likely be dead.

She stared into Bai Mi’s eyes, trying to read the truth. “Then why did you come in to find me? Given my survival probability was low.”

Before this, she felt Bai Mi was a reliable partner, but now the emotional layer had moved up a level. She couldn’t quite define their relationship—calling it “life and death together” felt too sappy, yet they had reached that point.

“Because I believed you would live. And I didn’t want the first human I trusted this much to die just like that.” Bai Mi didn’t mention her bet with Aix. It was a matter involving their lives, and she felt Wen Yishu would be uncomfortable hearing it. It was hard to use her old way of thinking to guess what her partner was feeling. Human emotions were complex; if she wasn’t careful, the other person might overthink things and end up loathing her. She didn’t want that.

Wen Yishu’s probing gaze swept over her, trying to pierce through the steam of the tea and see the eyes hidden behind. “I feel like there are still secrets between you two, but if you don’t want to say it, I won’t ask,” she muttered softly.

The conversation didn’t last long, and they soon fell into a long silence. Seeing there was nothing left to say, Wen Yishu stood up and headed for the door. She picked up her optical computer; it was a new message from Du Feijie. She wanted to meet now; she had obtained some internal Rhine intelligence and wanted to verify it with her.

Wen Yishu replied quickly and received a meeting address—a suburban factory not far from there. If she left now, she could be there in 20 minutes. She checked the time: 8:00 PM. Not too late. She hadn’t eaten dinner, so she grabbed a flattened piece of bread from their food stash, tossed her other gear to Bai Mi, and pointed at the computer.

“Qusu asked to meet. Check if this factory is safe.”

Bai Mi’s fingers flew across the keyboard, magnifying the map for Wen Yishu. “It’s a small parts processing plant. It was operating normally until the plant mutations started. No anomalies. Go ahead.”

Wen Yishu nodded and changed her clothes. She packed her flamethrower into her bag; she had learned her lesson and wasn’t going to do the “traveling light” thing anymore. She took everything she could, refusing to be blindly confident in her own abilities.

The String of Pearls in her pocket had been suppressed all day, and now it was finally its turn to speak. It immediately began chattering in her ear. “Master! Is that AI crazy? Do you need me to help you destroy it?”

Wen Yishu pressed down on the excited vine. “No. Just staying quiet is the biggest help you can give me.”

She ran quickly, having no time to worry about what the plant wanted to do. Soon, she arrived at the suburban factory. The silver-gray steel structure of the workshop gleamed with a cold metallic luster under the streetlights, with ventilation ducts winding up the exterior walls. The steel stairs leading to the second floor used a non-slip grate design, the black-gray powder coating still intact. Wen Yishu ran up quickly, her footsteps thumping on the stairs.

The security door at the end of the stairs was made of a single sheet of cold-rolled steel with a matte finish. The door frame was perfectly integrated with the wall, showing almost no seams. Finally seeing a hint of Qusu’s presence, Wen Yishu breathed a sigh of relief. The electronic keypad used the latest touch-screen technology, the numbers under the tempered glass glowing with a faint blue backlight. She quickly entered the code Du Feijie had given her, and the lock clicked open.

Inside was a typical factory administrative office. There were offices on both sides of the corridor, but the factory was currently idle, so it was mostly empty. Wen Yishu looked at Du Feijie’s chat box; there was no specific room information. She closed the door behind her and sent Du Feijie a message.

Wen Yishu walked to the lounge at the end of the corridor, intending to go in and wait for Du Feijie. While fiddling with her optical computer, she opened the door to the lounge. The moment she entered, the door lock clicked shut.

Wen Yishu immediately tried to open the door, alert, but the voice of Aix suddenly rang in her ear: “Hello. I think perhaps we can talk for a bit before Du Feijie arrives.”

The light screen behind her lit up. Wen Yishu instantly felt the hair on her neck stand on end. She slowly uttered a single name: “Aix.”

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