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Chapter Fourteen: Power Station (Part Three)
'Thud!'
A heavy object fell to the ground and rolled against the wall.
Jiang He and Song Yao stared in shock at the sofa that had fallen from above, their mouths agape as they looked up at the window.
Chao Yifan leaned out halfway and shouted, "Run! Wrong way!"
The two downstairs nearly choked, unable to utter a word as they exchanged glances and took off running.
Inside the White Tower, a series of crashing sounds echoed. Moments later, Chao Yifan and a soldier burst through the glass door, while the zombies in the front yard were startled by the loud noise and swarmed out from both sides of the corridor.
Jiang He and Song Yao quickly turned back, brandishing their Wooden Spears to take down several encroaching zombies.
"Where's Old Bai?" Jiang He asked as he pulled out his Wooden Spear, splattering blood everywhere.
"Upstairs, going back for a gun!" Chao Yifan replied, his hands empty; he didn't even know where his Wooden Spear had gone. Seeing more zombies emerging from the side alleys, he swiftly drew his pistol and began firing.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The powerful .54 caliber bullets knocked down several zombies, sending birds flying in all directions.
"We're done for," Jiang He exclaimed as he grabbed Chao Yifan and shouted, "Run!"
The four of them no longer lingered in battle; they stabbed a few zombies that had fallen behind them and sprinted away.
Jiang He had lost count of how many times he had been chased by zombies in such a frantic escape. While running, he asked the two beside him, "What about those two?"
"They got chased into the conference room; they can hold them off for a bit," Chao Yifan replied as he checked his magazine for bullets, angrily disengaging the safety. "Damn it, this isn't a dormitory!"
"Of course! This is the back door! The main entrance isn't here!" Jiang He glanced back and said, "Ming the Great Hero misjudged the situation; we're in trouble now!"
As they spoke, they had already run outside. The two waiting outside rushed over to assist. Seeing the four in disarray, Ming Junwei asked with confusion, "What happened? I heard gunshots."
"Big Brother, this is the leadership office building, not the Living Area! The zombies have been stirred up; Old Bai and the others are trapped upstairs!" Jiang He explained while signaling Pan Luo to get ready to fire. He pointed at the electric door and added, "Zombies are coming out fast; this should be the back door!"
Ming Junwei looked as if he had just realized something, slapping his thigh. "I miscalculated! The government unit has a party and government building!"
A few of them hurriedly donned their gear, and one of the soldiers who had run out with Chao Yifan pulled a set of keys from his pocket. "I'll go close the electric door!"
Chao Yifan grabbed him. "Who knows if there's power or not? Don't get yourself trapped inside!"
A horde of zombies surged forward, their growls echoing in the air. In just a few minutes, the zombies would burst through the electric door. Behind them, the road was dark and deep, obscuring what lay ahead.
Ming Junwei urged everyone to retreat first, and they quickly ran away from the entrance toward a high wall on the other side.
"The main entrance is over here; we’ll take a detour." Ming Junwei shone his flashlight ahead. The terrain beside the high wall was untouched by human hands, filled with pits and muddy streams. The high wall was far from the hillside, leaving an open area devoid of trees.
"The Vice Commander is still inside!" Buzz-Cut Warrior said anxiously.
"There are too many zombies here; we don't have enough ammunition," Ming Junwei explained as they ran. He had made one mistake already and didn't dare take another risk. "The noise you just made should attract quite a few zombies, which will relieve some pressure on Old Bai."
"But what if the zombies from the Plant Area come over?" Song Yao worried.
"We can only rely on luck; we can run faster than the zombies," Ming Junwei said, slinging his gun over his back and picking up the little boy to sprint.
With no better options, they quickened their pace, trying to reach the main entrance before the Plant Area zombies entered the Living Area.
They were too anxious; if they had checked around the Power Station first, this blunder wouldn't have happened. Unfortunately, unexpected events had occurred in recent days, and even Bai Yudong had lost the caution expected of a leader.
You never know how exhausting it is until you start running.
When they first saw the high wall upon ascending the hill, it appeared too orderly, leading them to mistakenly believe that the Power Plant was a long rectangle. It had only taken them about ten minutes to run from the Cooling Tower to the main entrance in a straight line. Now they realized that this side did not lead straight ahead at all. Due to the mountainous terrain, this side of the building was quite irregular. After running about a hundred meters, they were suddenly blocked by an unexpected high wall. Shining their flashlights around revealed that there was actually a steep slope on one side of the wall.
The sounds of zombies behind them faded for now; they hadn’t pursued closely. Cautiously, they descended the steep slope and navigated around a patch of swampy ground before finally finding a dirt path that led upward.
A pungent odor wafted from near the swamp. Jiang He swept his flashlight around and noticed two thick pipes protruding from where the slope was steepest. Below them, black mud flowed with thick, murky water.
"Xiao Ming!" Jiang He suddenly called out to everyone.
"What is it?" Ming Junwei came over.
"Is this a sewage pipe?" Jiang He asked.
Ming Junwei frowned, covering his mouth and nose as he leaned closer to the pipe. "You've got a good eye, kid. It really is."
"Can we crawl in from here?" Jiang He thought of many movie scenes.
"Get lost! This pipe connects to the chemical wastewater treatment workshop; it'll suffocate you!" Ming Junwei rolled his eyes and waved his hand, signaling everyone to ignore Jiang He.
Jiang He was undeterred and shone his flashlight into the pipe, saying, "But it's already been used, right?"
"Hey?" Song Yao suddenly spoke up. "The treatment workshop should belong to the Plant Area, right? Is this all part of the Plant Area?"
Ming Junwei paused to think and leaned closer to inspect the pipe again. The others felt awkward just standing around, so they gathered around to help shine the light.
Ming Junwei used a Wooden Spear to poke around in the muck beneath the pipe, stirring up some plastic bag-like items.
"It looks like a domestic wastewater discharge pipe..."
"Where does this lead? To the bathroom?" Pan Luo asked, pinching his nose and speaking in a muffled voice.
"The sewage pipes are interconnected. If we're lucky, we might be able to pop up directly under the manhole cover in the Living Area," Ming Junwei pointed into the depths.
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