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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Two: The Yellow Sparrow
For many, tonight felt a bit long; the dawn colors lingered stubbornly on the horizon, and the clamor echoed once more through the night.
Zeng Yadong sat by the window, lost in thought. She felt the need to clear her mind; the days of comfort had left her somewhat dazed. Faced with the multiple-choice question left by Su Lan, she found herself at a loss. Emotionally, she had spent more time with Su Lan and preferred to be with her, but the reality was somewhat conflicting. Su Lan was unwilling to betray Kenny again, and Kenny had fulfilled his promise to Su Lan, not only sparing their lives but also providing them with daily sustenance. Aside from being confined, everything else was quite harmonious.
It was somewhat ironic that the two who had initially proposed coming here were An Zheng and Su Lan. Whether voluntarily or under duress, they had both accepted reality, embraced their roles within this building, and begun this phase of "life." Meanwhile, Ming Junwei and his companions, who had never held much hope for Launch Base, found themselves trapped here, caught between life and death after a narrow escape.
After sitting there for a long time without even a hint of sleepiness, Zeng Yadong realized she was experiencing insomnia. Her body felt exhausted, yet her mind buzzed as if on drugs—she simply couldn't feel tired. Just as she prepared to seek some sleeping pills from the Security in the hallway, the stillness of the Gobi Desert erupted once more.
A series of gunshots rang out abruptly, as if they had been building up for a long time, exploding at this moment when people were most fatigued. The sound swept through the air in an instant.
Zeng Yadong paused and returned to the window, staring blankly at the flickering flames in front of Container Camp. Her mind struggled to catch up with reality. Before she could process what was happening, Su Lan burst out of the door in her nightgown, banging on Ming Junwei's door.
The Security in the hallway remained vigilant despite the sudden turn of events; they did not relax their watch over the group. One by one, they approached slowly with their firearms aimed directly at the door.
The door across opened to reveal Jin Bo, his hair a mess and bleary-eyed. He glanced at Su Lan's alluring figure beneath her nightgown and involuntarily shivered. Upon realizing it was Su Lan, the young swordsman blushed furiously and quickly turned away, hopping back into his room while covering himself.
Zeng Yadong chuckled softly; it seemed they weren't escaping after all. Who was Chen Zhao Zhou firing at?
Two minutes later, three drowsy men were ushered into Su Lan's room. The Security shared Zeng Yadong's thoughts; they unanimously believed these three men were trouble. Regardless of what caused the commotion in the Gobi Desert, they could not afford to let their guard down around these individuals. Thus, three men clad only in shorts were sent into the girls' room while two Security members stood watch outside the elevator and three others guarded the door.
"What is going on? Can't we even sleep?" Jin Bo complained loudly as he rolled his eyes at the door. The Security ignored his grievances; they simply would not allow him to wander off or close the door.
Wheat groggily emerged from her room and saw three bare-chested men sitting side by side on the sofa. Not immediately recognizing them, she gasped and hurried back inside her room. Zeng Yadong laughed heartily, wishing she had a camera to capture this moment of embarrassment for the three swordsmen.
"There's something happening outside; if you're not awake yet, you can sleep in my room," Su Lan said as she wrapped herself in a coat and emerged with a much calmer expression. She was surprised that these three troublemakers seemed so subdued tonight.
Jin Bo awkwardly turned his face away, embarrassed to look at Su Lan's long legs. He had been half-asleep when he opened the door and was taken aback by Su Lan's stunning appearance; his gaze inadvertently wandered and he felt a physiological reaction that left him flustered.
Su Lan smiled knowingly but said nothing about it. She walked to the door and exchanged a few words with Security before leaving it slightly ajar.
“What’s going on?” Ming Junwei got up and looked out the window, a puzzled expression on his face. “I thought I was dreaming. Why are they fighting again?”
“I don’t know,” Zeng Yadong shrugged, glancing at Su Lan with a mischievous smile. “I thought it was you three causing all this commotion.”
“Where’s the trust we talked about?” Ming Junwei chuckled awkwardly, stroking his stubble. “I would like to, but the conditions aren’t right.”
Xiao Wei lay on the sofa, dozing off again. The young man was quite sleepy and, seeing that nothing important was happening, drifted back into his dreams.
Su Lan shot a glare at Ming Junwei, furrowing her brows as she gazed out the window, feeling uneasy. She hadn’t seen Kenny in days and wondered what trouble he might be in.
The few who had woken up were each lost in their own thoughts when suddenly a flash of white light streaked past the window, just for an instant, before darkness returned.
&&&&&&&&
Jiang He and Luci witnessed the flare rise and fall. At the moment the bright light illuminated the area, gunfire in the Gobi Desert reached a peak intensity, interspersed with occasional explosions that sounded like heavy artillery.
“Let’s go! While they’re in chaos!” Jiang He suppressed his suspicions and hurriedly pulled Luci down from the high platform. They grabbed weapons and ammunition from the bodies and rushed toward the exit.
The large testing workshop was divided into many levels. After running for a while, they spotted a row of fences. Beyond the fences was an expansive space rising several dozen meters high, completely dark without any lighting. The lights from the waste pipes couldn’t reach the entire factory, but fortunately, they didn’t need to descend via the spiral staircase; an elevator stood brightly next to the fence.
Luci was familiar with this setup. She pressed the button and waited for a few minutes until the cabin door clicked open with a ‘clank,’ a red light illuminating as it slowly opened.
Jiang He clicked his tongue in amazement; after months of being stuck in darkness, he hadn’t expected there would still be an elevator here.
“Where does the electricity come from?” Jiang He couldn’t help but ask.
“I don’t know; maybe it’s solar-powered,” Luci replied as she searched inside the cabin for floor options but found none in this underground structure—only two buttons, one red and one green. After a moment's hesitation, she pressed the red button. The cabin door closed, and a whirring sound from a conveyor belt echoed above them. The two felt unsteady beneath their feet; before they could grab onto anything, the elevator plummeted down like a roller coaster.
“Bang!”
The elevator landed, kicking up a cloud of dust as the doors opened. Luci dragged Jiang He out like a dead dog.
Jiang He felt a deep sense of indignation. Ever since he had infiltrated the high walls, nothing had seemed normal. This was no elevator; it was practically a slide, and a straight-up-and-down one at that! Fortunately, the designer wasn't completely insane; this crazy elevator was still a means of transport, not a killing machine. Even so, the rapid descent had caught him off guard. He didn't know how fast an elevator could fall out of control, but the earlier experience had almost made him consider writing a will.
In truth, it wasn't entirely the designer's fault. The primary purpose of this elevator was to transport corpses or zombies to the waste disposal area. The testing facility was over seventy meters high; it couldn't afford to move slowly. Thus, the red button activated the fast mode, while the green button was for regular ascent and descent.
For Luci, none of this made a difference. The swift drop did not disturb her balance at all, but Jiang He swayed unsteadily and fell to the ground upon landing due to inertia. If Luci hadn't been quick on her feet, Jiang He might have suffered a worse concussion.
"How are you? Feeling better?" Luci supported Jiang He as they groped their way forward in the darkness. The elevator cabin had no floor selection buttons, so they shouldn't have any issues with being on the wrong level. The bottom floor was pitch black, with metal rust surrounding them. A few dozen meters ahead, moonlight faintly filtered through a cold beam. Jiang He struggled to keep up with Luci's pace, his calves throbbing from the sudden drop.
"I'm fine, just a bit shaky," Jiang He said, vigorously slapping his calves to alleviate his discomfort. It took them five minutes to cover what should have been a short distance.
The door was ajar, with no guards outside. On either side lay several carts similar to those used for unloading in warehouses, their cargo platforms stained with dark blood and reeking of decay. Like the previous launch site, beneath the towering launch tower was an open area filled with numerous abandoned buildings of various purposes. Stepping out from the shadow of the launch tower, they found the window where they had stood earlier and adjusted their direction to identify where the signal flare had risen.
"Climbing through that sewer wasn't in vain," Jiang He remarked as he kicked his legs and looked at the fallen zombies beyond the barbed wire fence, impressed by Luci's cleverness.
Although it seemed their progress was slower than that of those spider-men, their safety was clearly much higher. There was some distance between the steel frame wall and the barbed wire fence, which was filled with numerous zombies; evidently, the steel frame wall hadn't completely blocked their path. Jiang He couldn't help but feel curious; it appeared that the militants occupying this area hadn't fully sealed it off. In the middle of the barbed wire fence was a gap—a man-made cut—beneath which were clear drag marks. It seemed that those spider-men hadn't been able to continue climbing before turning into pangolins.
Following those marks, they continued on their way. Those who came before had paved the way for them; these individuals were also action-oriented and hadn’t bothered to conceal their tracks while sprinting ahead. After circling several oddly shaped buildings, their footprints vanished in front of an unremarkable concrete factory. This building differed from the previous ones; it bore no markings and stretched about twenty meters wide but wasn’t tall enough to see its top. Every four or five meters dropped a roll-up door painted with a white cross and splattered red paint forming an 'h' in its center.
"Hey? Where did they go?" Jiang He scrutinized the footprints on the ground; they extended right up to the roll-up door before disappearing. He gently pressed against the roll-up door—it was sturdy and didn’t resemble cheap goods that could be kicked in easily like those found in convenience stores.
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