Apocalyptic Island - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Even though Wen Yishu was mentally prepared, she was still startled.

Her dagger was pressed against the woman’s neck, and as she backed away, she realized the person in front of her was the minister.

She seemed startled as well. She quickly backed away and turned on her flashlight: “Xiao Wen, what are you doing here? Did you see the message I sent you? Come with me quickly, it’s not safe here.”

Wang Li’s face was normal. Other than her eyebrows being furrowed from the recent scare, there was no other sign of abnormality.

Her clothes were a bit messy, but there was no blood on her.

She was also holding a weapon. Wen Yishu looked down and felt that the person in front of her was not a mutated Variant.

“Sorry, I haven’t been checking my messages. Minister, there’s a rescue message from above, and the main gate is locked. Huo Xiaoguan and Ling Shuang are still outside. Can we please let them in first?”

Wang Li shook her head and then nodded, responding to both sentences. The two of them exchanged the information they had, confirming the danger was over, and walked toward the main entrance of the apartment, talking as they went.

Rescue wouldn’t be coming for now. The Rhine branch was on the edge of the coastal city. Although the local government was responding quickly with disaster relief, it was a drop in the bucket for the tens of millions of people on the island.

The breakdown of order was only a matter of time.

“But you don’t have to worry. Someone will definitely come to save us. After all, Rhine controls important technology and a lot of energy.”

This was true, but it was still unknown when the rescue would arrive.

The lights in the corridor hadn’t all gone out yet. It seemed that she had patrolled this area and then came back and found her.

“The situation was urgent before, so I destroyed the elevator on the basement level. Is Bai Mi okay? Why don’t you two move down there together? There’s an emergency shelter in the basement.”

As she spoke, she handed Wen Yishu a piece of chocolate and an energy bar. A woman came toward them.

As the flashlight got closer, Wen Yishu saw her face. It was Minister Wang Li’s assistant in the lab, Ji Shuyi. She was about the same height as Wen Yishu and was carrying a bag of things almost as tall as she was, slowly coming toward them.

The two of them quickly went up to help. Ji Shuyi felt a burden lift from her shoulder. When she saw Wen Yishu, she said happily, “Xiao Wen, it’s great that you’re okay. The minister sent you a message, and you didn’t reply. She was so worried.”

Wen Yishu felt a little embarrassed. She held up the large bag of paper towels that Ji Shuyi was carrying. It seemed that she had been overthinking things.

After the plants were no longer rioting, the two of them came out to look for people, racing against time. The basement was very large, and now only a few dozen people lived there, which was less than half of the apartment’s population.

Some people who didn’t want to squeeze into the basement stayed in their original places.

Wen Yishu could actually understand Wang Li’s approach of concentrating people for management.

Although it was a bit risky, the probability of survival also increased.

She was also clearly aware of the drawbacks of doing so. If someone were to mutate for an unknown reason, it would be a devastating blow to the people in the room.

Wen Yishu told the other person her thoughts. Wang Li nodded: “Downstairs, it’s also two people to a room, and they supervise each other. If anything happens, it can be discovered in time.”

She looked at her with concern and added, “If there’s any danger, be sure to notify me. I hope everyone in our department can get out of here alive.”

Wen Yishu nodded. She suddenly remembered the Variant they encountered upstairs. She briefly told the two of them what had just happened and reminded them to be careful.

Wang Li’s eyes flickered, as if she was trying to recall who the person Wen Yishu described was.

After thinking for a while, she couldn’t figure out who this person was. The three of them carried a large bag of paper to the front door.

Bai Mi was still persistently fiddling with the door lock. She turned her head when she heard the footsteps of the three people.

She nodded to the two of them as a greeting.

Wang Li first looked at the three people outside and then quickly took out the key in her hand, entered the initial command, and unlocked the door.

The moment the heavy security door opened, a cold wind whistled in from outside, carrying fine rain, like entering an ice cave, making people shiver.

The wind made Wen Yishu shiver. Seeing the three people’s pale lips, she handed them the clothes she had prepared.

Huo Xiaoguan was so frozen that she couldn’t even speak properly. She quickly walked two steps inside. With a loud “bang,” she closed the apartment door and felt a little better after a while.

The air outside was wet and cold. Rainwater dripped from the three people’s faces. Ling Shuang’s lips were already white from being soaked, and she was trembling non-stop.

Huang Fei was slightly better. Her body was very strong, and she was wearing a lot, so she was more resistant to the cold than the other two.

Wen Yishu had a faint bad feeling in her heart. In this situation, they were very likely to develop a fever.

Even a normal fever would be fatal in this situation. After all, they didn’t know when a person might mutate.

So, besides Wen Yishu and Bai Mi, the other two unconsciously kept their distance from the three of them.

Seeing Wen Yishu’s concerned eyes, Huo Xiaoguan gave her a comforting smile: “It’s already great to be able to get in.”

Wang Li: “There’s a shelter in the basement. Let’s go now, but we have to isolate you first.”

Ling Shuang’s body was shaking. She felt her teeth chattering, but she still said, “We saw the live feed. We discussed it outside. We won’t trouble you by going to a crowded place. We’ll go back to our room upstairs first and meet up with you and the minister if we’re okay.”

Upon hearing this, Wang Li and Ji Shuyi both unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. They took out a few bags of food from their backpacks and gave them to the three people. The three of them helped each other walk upstairs.

They couldn’t hold on for another moment. They just wanted to lie down in a warm bed and have a good sleep.

The apartment was temporarily safe. The plants inside had lost their aggressiveness for some reason.

The two ministers decided to patrol the building again and also go upstairs to notify the people on the upper floors to go down to the shelter.

Wen Yishu insisted on going back after checking downstairs. The two teams walked together and separated at the corner of the stairs.

Before leaving, Wang Li called out to Wen Yishu: “If the body upstairs isn’t dangerous, don’t move it for now. Ji and I will go up to check it later. You two should also be careful.”

Wen Yishu nodded, watching the two figures disappear around the corner of the stairs.

Looking at the mess in the lobby, she slowly walked to the service desk.

The location where the robot was could no longer be recognized. They could only vaguely tell the location by its orientation.

She picked up an unknown piece of cloth nearby, managed to wrap it around her fingers, and started to move the fragments on top.

Dust fluttered down on the uncovered parts. She moved a few pieces and barely saw the wooden counter underneath.

Bai Mi stood by and asked with some confusion, “What are you looking for?”

Wen Yishu turned her head, stopped what she was doing, covered her mouth, and said, “Did you see the android butler here?”

Based on the degree of damage to the counter, this should be the primary scene. Based on the size of the money tree, the android butler standing here should have had no chance of escaping.

The pot under the money tree had already been smashed by its roots. The roots were connected to several human-shaped things.

Wen Yishu tried not to think about the bodies in the lobby right now. She looked at the clothes. They shouldn’t be the android butler’s.

Bai Mi also joined the search. Wen Yishu looked at her. Although she didn’t understand why she was doing it, she was still obediently helping. The constantly churning feeling of nausea in Wen Yishu also slightly lessened.

The two of them moved the scattered debris on the counter. The counter underneath was still intact. This was the benefit of having good-quality construction.

After pushing away the building debris, Wen Yishu saw a human leg.

The skin had been stained gray with dust. The cotton fabric had scratched a white mark on it.

Wen Yishu saw the pointed high-heeled shoe on her foot and recognized that this was the body of an android.

The skin on the calf was still elastic, so it must have fallen down not long ago.

But the person was completely dead. The skin showed a pallor that humans don’t have.

She had to admit that android technology was truly mature. If it weren’t for those people insisting that androids must have mechanical features, they would be no different from normal people.

Maybe she was a mechanical android. Wen Yishu no longer felt the fear she had when facing a real person.

After the two of them simply cleaned the debris from her body, they finally saw her original face.

She was staring with lifeless eyes that were now covered with a thick layer of dust.

The smile on the corner of her mouth was frozen on her face because she didn’t have time to retract it.

Bai Mi squatted down seriously, placed her fingers on her carotid artery, and said a few words: “No vital signs.”

The corner of Wen Yishu’s mouth twitched. She had never realized what kind of person her team leader was. She even had to verify this. Wasn’t it obvious!

“Mhm.” As she answered, Wen Yishu clenched her toes. She felt a little neurotic herself.

Taking a deep breath, she continued to check the robot butler.

There was a big hole in the back of her head, which should be the cause of death.

Although she had flesh and blood like a human, due to the control of the brain-computer, her thoughts and actions were fixed, so there was no possibility of escape.

Wen Yishu sighed. She didn’t know what to feel. She had a kind of sorrow for this cold robot, and she also felt strange, as if her sympathy was inexplicably overflowing at this moment.

She took the cloth from her hand, flipped it over, and covered the face of this apartment manager she once hated.

When she turned to leave, she didn’t notice that the pair of lifeless eyes blinked, slowly wrinkling the cloth she had covered them with.

The two of them quickly searched for some supplies and went upstairs. Wen Yishu felt that her weak body had already reached its limit.

She didn’t like to show off. There would be plenty of opportunities to come out later, but she only had one life.

For the last two floors, she almost climbed up hanging on Bai Mi.

She gasped for a while and found that Bai Mi, who was walking in front of her, had stopped.

Just as she was about to speak, the person in front of her suddenly turned around and covered her mouth.

Through the side of her shoulder, she saw with a look of confusion that the body that was originally lying on the ground, along with the large puddle of sticky liquid, had disappeared at some point.

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