She’s Fiercer Than Zombies - Chapter 44

“They are test subjects.”

Tang Jiu turned back somewhat dazedly to look at the zombies of varying forms. What kind of experiment could have transformed them into their current state?

All four of them fell into a heavy silence.

By the time they officially reached the entrance of Tai’an Building, the glass doors had been completely shattered. Peering inside, they could see numerous broken fragments scattered about, and the haphazardly placed potted plants had long lost any semblance of vitality.

It was clear that the interior of the building had not escaped the destruction brought by the initial zombie outbreak.

Upon entering the building, a chilling coolness greeted them, so cold it raised goosebumps on their skin. The temperature difference between indoors and outdoors was starkly contrasting.

The group inspected the first-floor lobby but found no signs of danger or anything unusual.

Song Qingxu stood before a bulletin board, next to which was a structural diagram of the entire building. The locations of various departments on each floor were clearly marked.

The others gathered around. The Tai’an Building had a total of 35 floors, with the R&D department occupying the most space floors 20 to 30 were entirely dedicated to it. Above the 30th floor were the offices of senior executives.

After clarifying the departmental layout, they unanimously decided to first check on the situation in the R&D department.

With the power system completely disabled, the only way up was to climb the stairs on foot. Fortunately, their physical condition had greatly improved since evolving into ability users, so even climbing such a high staircase was manageable.

Just as they reached the 15th floor, an unexpected situation arose. They paused momentarily, taken aback by the sight of a zombie standing on the staircase leading to the floor above. None of them had expected to encounter a zombie in the fire escape.

“Roar!”

Yinxi let out a low growl. The zombie, dressed in a suit, staggered toward them before brushing past and pulling open the fire escape door on the 15th floor. As it released the door and stepped inside, the door slammed shut with a loud bang.

“Let’s go,” Yinxi said, tilting her chin up with a hint of pride.

“You’re amazing, Senior!” Qiao Gaogao immediately praised.

“Hmph!” Yinxi grew even prouder.

Song Qingxu and Tang Jiu followed behind them, listening to their unrestrained, intimate praises. The two exchanged a glance, and though their relationship had never been explicitly stated over this period, it was clear from their interactions that it was anything but ordinary.

Knowing the nature of their relationship didn’t make them uncomfortable. Instead, they felt it was a rare and precious thing that, even in such an apocalyptic world, the two could still share such affection and care for each other.

“Be careful,” Song Qingxu reminded Tang Jiu. Over the years, she had grown accustomed to looking out for her, especially since Tang Jiu was younger.

“Mm, you too,” Tang Jiu replied. As she lifted her gaze to look at the backs of Qiao Gaogao and Yinxi, a flicker of emotion passed through her eyes. She then glanced at the person beside her and lowered her gaze, lost in thought.

The rest of the journey proceeded without incident until they reached the 20th floor. Standing at the fire escape entrance, they took a deep breath to steady themselves. With Qiao Gaogao taking the lead, Yinxi and Tang Jiu followed closely behind, while Song Qingxu ensured the rear remained secure.

After exiting the safety passage, they found themselves in the elevator lobby. The entire research and development department was designed with extreme privacy in mind. Even after reaching the elevator lobby, they still needed to swipe a card to officially enter the office area of the R&D department.

The group stood silently before the door, staring at it.

“Hmm… Gaogao?” Yinxi tentatively called out.

Qiao Gaogao turned back and flashed her a toothy grin, placing her hand on the door. She melted all the metal components, causing the glass door to loosen slightly. With a gentle push, the door swung open.

No matter how the people at Tai’an had envisioned it when installing these doors, they could never have anticipated that humans would evolve supernatural abilities in the future. Nor could they have imagined that, by sheer coincidence, a metal-element ability user would arrive at Tai’an.

“Gaogao is amazing!” This time, it was Yinxi’s turn to praise.

“Hehe, it’s nothing special!” Qiao Gaogao immediately beamed, her adorable baby face looking both sweet and innocent.

Tang Jiu: “…”

Song Qingxu: “…”

These two were truly experts at encouraging each other.

Once they entered the office area of the R&D department, perhaps due to the commotion they had caused, they heard the growls of zombies nearby. At the same time, several figures in white lab coats rushed toward them at high speed!

Before Qiao Gaogao and the others could even react, Yinxi let out a roar that made the other zombies freeze in their tracks. They obediently followed her command, huddling together in a corner, trembling.

Watching Yinxi effortlessly overpower the other zombies, they couldn’t help but wonder if she had already become the highest-level zombie in existence.

However, they quickly pushed such thoughts aside and began splitting up to search the various research labs for anything useful. Unfortunately, after scouring the entire floor, all they found were records of basic drug research nothing out of the ordinary.

They proceeded to the next floor, only to find that the doors meant to restrict unauthorized personnel from entering the office area were even more advanced. Inside, there were also researchers who had turned into zombies.

These researchers shared a common trait: none of them had external injuries. The group couldn’t determine whether they had turned into zombies due to experimental drugs or if they had transformed naturally during the initial outbreak.

They found nothing of value on this floor either. But when they reached the 25th floor, the situation began to change.

Rows of isolation rooms, resembling solitary confinement cells, occupied almost the entire 25th floor. Each door had a file bag hanging on it, containing detailed records of the physical conditions of the individuals inside, identified only by numbers.

In these isolation rooms, they weren’t even deemed worthy of having names.

And without exception, all of them were suffering from leukemia.

So, were they genuinely trying to develop a cure for leukemia? Then why had things escalated to the current state?

Some of the isolation room doors had been destroyed, and the occupants had long since disappeared perhaps they were among the zombies downstairs.

As for the rooms that remained intact, some contained zombies, while others held people who had starved to death. Almost all of them were emaciated, reduced to skin and bones, lying lifelessly on the ground.

Unable to bear the sight, the group continued upward. When they reached the 27th floor, they stared in shock at the object that occupied two entire floors, rendered speechless by what they saw.

“Is this, a stone?”

The 27th and 28th floors had been merged, and the entire stone-like object was covered in pits of varying depths. It was placed on a large tray, sealed off layer by layer with extremely tight security measures.

“This is…” Tang Jiu finally spoke uncertainly, noting how different it looked from an ordinary stone.

“It looks like a meteorite,” Song Qingxu said with a frown. The surface of the stone showed signs of burning, very similar to the meteorites she had seen online.

“Mm,” Qiao Gaogao agreed.

Yinxi’s expression turned grim as she stared at the meteorite.

A memory from the past suddenly resurfaced.

When she was very young, her parents had left her with the family nanny and disappeared for over a year. Before they left, they had mentioned something about discovering a meteorite somewhere and needing to investigate it.

That investigation ended up taking over a year, during which they rarely even called.

As she grew older, she gradually forgot about the incident. If she hadn’t seen this meteorite now, she probably would never have remembered it again.

So, was this the same meteorite her parents had mentioned back then? And what was so special about it that they had taken it so seriously?

Yinxi shared this story with Qiao Gaogao and the others. After hearing it, everyone’s expressions shifted slightly, and they fell silent as they looked at the heavily sealed meteorite.

If the meteorite was being guarded so strictly, it must be extremely important to Tai’an. But did this meteorite have any connection to the catastrophe they were facing?

The group split up to search for clues, hoping to uncover the origin of the meteorite.

On the 30th floor, they found a drug test report in a desk drawer in one of the offices.

They had also wanted to check the computers for information, but without power, it was impossible.

Qiao Gaogao was the first to find the test report. She opened it and glanced through it, but the numerous technical terms meant nothing to her. She had no idea what they referred to or what their functions were. However, when she saw the familiar drug name on the report’s title, she sensed it might be significant.

She handed it to Yinxi, who had some knowledge in this area.

“This is the anti-hematologic cancer drug released by Tai’an,” Yinxi said with a frown. After examining it more carefully, her expression grew even more troubled.

“What’s wrong, Senior?” Qiao Gaogao asked anxiously, noticing her frown.

Yinxi bit her lip. “On the surface, there’s nothing particularly unusual about this report,” she said, then looked up at the others. “Of course, it’s possible that my knowledge is insufficient, and I’m missing something.”

After all, she was just a university student and hadn’t had much exposure to various drugs.

Qiao Gaogao didn’t like hearing her talk like that and pouted disapprovingly.

“Although I can’t spot any major issues, there’s an unidentified substance in this report,” Yinxi said, pointing to one of the data entries. “It’s something outside the range of normal components.”

Several people leaned in for a closer look and noticed an empty line mixed among a long list of terms. If they hadn’t examined it carefully, they would have missed the gap entirely, assuming it was merely a line break from the previous data entry.

“Why is this blank?” they wondered, puzzled. How could a drug analysis report possibly contain an empty entry?

“This report was most likely produced by Taian’s own people,” Yinxi concluded, closing the document. A sense of unease stirred within her, and she couldn’t help but speculate whether the unidentified substance had any connection to the massive meteorite downstairs.

Moreover, that meteorite seemed to exert a strange pull on her almost like the magnetic draw between a mother and child.

“Given how well-protected that meteorite is, it must be quite important to Taian, right?” Qiaogaogao suddenly remarked.

“Huh?” The others turned to look at her.

But Qiaogaogao only smiled at Yinxi, her eyes crinkling mischievously.

“What if we just took the entire meteorite?”

Support She’s Fiercer Than Zombies