Chapter 343: Chapter 292: Human or Zombie?
"Damn it!"
Just as Zhang Su was puzzled by his companions’ strange behavior, Zhao Dezhu exclaimed from the front, turning back, "The pit is four or five meters deep, there’s definitely something down there!"
"Of course there is, the Edge Squad’s laboratory is just below here. That modified zombie was released from inside and took down half a building at the time!"
Pan Guoliang clicked his tongue with lingering fear, countless scenes from the night before last would follow him for a lifetime, unforgettable even in death.
Zhang Su stepped over a human-sized broken wall, stood by the pit and looked inside. In the middle of a cement slab, some bent steel bars were exposed, a few flames were burning on unknown objects, strands of black smoke permeated the air, accompanied by various burnt smells.
The most striking were some human body fragments, blood and pieces of flesh were everywhere. One didn’t need to guess that these were people hiding here before, thinking they had escaped a disaster, only to ultimately face the fate of death.
A substantial metal door lay twisted in the ruins, presumably the security door to the laboratory, with a drop of four to five meters from ground level.
"Why would there be such a large amount of explosives in the laboratory? Was it for self-destruction?"
Zhang Su curiously looked at Xin Qi.
Xin Qi waved awkwardly, "Brother, I have no right to know such things, you need to ask Captain Pan..."
"There is no Captain Pan, I am Pan Guoliang now, Pan Guoliang of Celestial Horse Island!"
Pan Guoliang didn’t want Zhang Su to misunderstand, he hurriedly explained, "Brother Zhang, you might not know, the Cyan Dragon Corps’ science department has an Edge Squad that researches dubious stuff, like human modification, zombie modification, that sort of thing!"
"On the surface, most members of the Corps only know about 000 to 003, but there’s not only the hidden 004, there are also many modified zombies with short life spans, some of them are particularly dangerous. To prevent them from creating unmanageable monsters, explosives were installed, similar to some high-risk laboratories that install self-destruct devices to prevent leaks. If a monster really goes out of control, detonate the explosives to avoid a disaster."
Zhang Su nodded understandingly, "Such preventative measures are necessary, the Edge Squad has quite the spirit of sacrifice."
"They have no spirit of sacrifice at all..."
Pan Guoliang chuckled, "These explosives were secretly installed by Ma Juguang, there are only two remote detonators, one in the hands of the Edge Squad leader, the other with Ma Juguang. It seems Li Zhaohua was hiding here before, but why he detonated the explosives is still unknown. Oh, right, Li Zhaohua is the leader of the Edge Squad."
"Regardless of their spirit of sacrifice, this explosion... it was definitely man-made, right? But why?"
Zhang Su looked at the ruins in confusion, the people hiding in the lab should have been focused on survival, not likely to press the detonation button, and accidental triggering is even less likely since such a critical button usually has safeguards.
"I really don’t know about that."
Pan Guoliang shrugged, estimating that only those involved would know clearly.
Zhao Dezhu sneered, "Could they have felt there was no hope of survival, so they gave up on themselves?"
"Could there have been more than one person here, leading to internal conflict?"
Zheng Xinyu pondered aloud.
Zhang Su looked at Zheng Xinyu with a peculiar expression, thinking that her good luck seemed to extend even to her deductions?
His thoughts were similar to Zheng Xinyu’s, but he had hints from subtitles in his mind, knowing that someone had died first and then the explosion occurred, making a reasonable deduction based on that. Zheng Xinyu knew nothing of this.
"Hey, Brother Su, it’s all blasted to hell, should we still go down and take a look?"
Lu Yubo looked at the ruins with disdain, blood and human tissue everywhere, feeling that there wasn’t much of value.
"We didn’t enter the lab earlier because we were afraid the building would collapse, now it looks like it could collapse any moment again, so we’re not... hmm? Wait a moment..."
Zhang Su was speaking when his ears twitched suddenly, with regained hearing, he picked up on an unusual sound.
Rustling, one moment like skin scraping against concrete, then like crushing eggshells.
"Wait, there’s movement down there, do you hear it..."
Zhang Su’s eyes narrowed, he bent down slightly and tilted his head, trying to hear more clearly.
"Nope... who’s this skilled?"
Everyone looked at each other, not doubting Zhang Su’s judgment. If he said something was there, then something definitely was. Surviving that level of explosion was miraculous!
"It’s not human!"
Zhang Su suddenly frowned, took a half step back, and raised his rifle to his chest, "There’s a zombie sound down there!"
The distinctive growl could be heard even through the debris, the howling and moaning sound was unmistakably a zombie.
If this were elsewhere, a single zombie wouldn’t draw Zhang Su’s attention. With dozens of elite troops present, they could easily deal with even a hundred zombies using their terrain advantage. But now he dared not be careless because beneath the pit was the Edge Squad’s laboratory of the Cyan Dragon Corps!
The most crucial part was that Zhang Su detected something unusual in the low growling, the sound differed slightly from a typical zombie growl, making him instinctively cautious.
The others saw Zhang Su on high alert, somewhat puzzled, but they too braced themselves for attack.
In an instant, the scene descended into complete silence, only the crunch of feet on gravel could be heard as everyone fixed their eyes on the pit, the scene resembling a painting, cold wind whipping against their faces, none dared to relax.
AOOOOOO!
Suddenly, a muffled zombie roar emanated from the depths of the pit below, and this time everyone heard it clearly, their expressions changing in unison.
"Shit, there’s really a zombie, perhaps the people killed earlier have turned?"
Zhao Dezhu single-handedly propped his gun, craning his neck downward, eyes filled with caution.
"Could it be, like Old Pan said, that there are other modified zombies hiding below?"
"Fall back, please fall back..."
After hearing the previous roar, Zhang Su grew increasingly tense. Others didn’t pick up on the nuance, but the roar sounded different to him.
He heard something distinct, a normal zombie roar is devoid of awareness and emotion, after a while it sounds foolish, but the recent roar was different, full of satisfaction, like sitting in the shade after baking in summer and downing half a bottle of iced beer, coupled with a strong desire for slaughter.
Zhang Su was certain this was no figment of his imagination, but rather genuine emotion conveyed in the sound.
Rustle, rustle.
The team from Celestial Horse Island had strong execution, and when Zhang Su ordered, they began retreating, albeit slowly due to the complex terrain, with plenty of stone for cover.
Just then, a whooshing sound erupted from the pit, and a section of wall the size of a Mahjong table was flung out of the hole as if by movie special effects, spinning and crashing to the side.
"Holy shit!"
Qi Xiaoshuai leaped with his butt sticking out. Luckily, he was agile enough to barely avoid the wall, otherwise, getting hit would’ve hurt!
AOOWWOO...!
However, nobody was focusing on Qi Xiaoshuai, because after the wall flew out, a figure emerged from the pit. To say he was human wouldn’t be wrong, as he had many human traits, but it was also valid to call him a zombie, for he bore zombie characteristics too!
"What the hell..."
Zhao Dezhu’s pupils contracted upon seeing the half-human, half-zombie creature, leaving him momentarily speechless.
The figure standing in the pit was clearly not an ordinary zombie at just a glance, its build was tall and slim, about two meters high, its clothes inexplicably torn apart, and combined with the explosion’s devastation, the remnants were in tatters, barely covering anything.
Upon the exposed parts, this zombie was entirely red, like a cooked prawn, upon closer inspection, you’d find the redness stemmed from a lack of skin, muscle tissue directly exposed, intertwined with white sinew and membrane, evoking a sense of dwarf retreat!
Because of these features, it looked more human than zombie!
Uncertain whether due to the explosion, the zombie was emitting a white mist, indicating extremely high body temperature, its eyes entirely white, with a bean-sized black pupil set in the middle, comically if viewed alone, but terrifying on an exposed muscular face.
