Chapter 9

"Chunan, what are you researching? Have you found anything?" Tang Sanli, leaning on the other side, saw Chunan busy for a while, fiddling with something alone, and couldn't help but feel curious.

"Nothing much, I'm just looking at how their brains differ from ordinary humans, why they can turn into zombies after death, and what causes them to have such power, while those who are killed do not turn into zombies..."

Chunan said casually, putting away the magnifying glass and his phone.

Tang Sanli, Dongzi, and others were all around, and it was inconvenient to delve deeper into the research here. The discoveries he made just now were his own secret, and he certainly wouldn't talk about them casually.

"Did you find anything?" Tang Sanli asked curiously.

"In their brains, there is a reddish-brown bean-like object. I think it might be related to this bean-like object. It resembles the pineal gland in medicine, but it hasn't been confirmed yet."

Dongzi interjected, "Right, right. After the earthquake, when I regained consciousness, I felt a pain in my head. Later, after killing a zombie, I felt something strange in my head, and I could clearly sense it. It should be the bean-like object you mentioned."

Chunan nodded and said, "Whether dead or alive, they all have this thing in their brains, and it can be sensed by everyone. If it was just an ordinary earthquake, there wouldn't be such changes. There might be some unknown reasons behind this."

"Yes, after I passed out, I had a strange dream about Adam and Eve. Damn, what the hell are Adam and Eve?" Dongzi cursed.

Chunan was startled, as he had the same dream.

"Strange, I also had a dream, about Adam... and Eve, and something about elimination..." Tang Sanli said this, and the few of them looked at each other, noticing the change in each other's expressions.

"You... also had this dream?" Tang Sanli asked Chunan, his voice trembling.

Chunan nodded silently, and then no one spoke. Each person felt a sense of eeriness and fear of the unknown.

This earthquake was far from simple.

Perhaps it wasn't a natural disaster.

"Don't overthink it. The most important thing now is to survive." Chunan said calmly, walking to Tang Sanli's side, putting away the rebar in his hand, and sitting down against a tree.

Tang Sanli nodded, and the others didn't speak either.

After the scene just now, everyone was too exhausted to continue the journey. They decided to rest on the spot and wait for dawn.

Although they were resting, no one dared to really fall asleep. They were all silently resting, lost in their own thoughts.

Dongzi kept turning the lighter in his hand, while Tang Sanli frowned and fiddled with the police baton in his hand.

Chunan lay back and looked at the sky, thinking about the magnifying glass he found by chance, the terrifying yellow dog, the bean-like object that resembled the pineal gland, the eerie earthquake, his parents, and Li Feng. His mind was in turmoil.

The villager, who was around thirty, stared blankly at the sickle in his hand.

Everyone was deep in thought.

The only one who truly fell asleep was the injured Lu Tianming, but he was unconscious.

It was almost dawn. As the moon, which had a faint red glow, set, a new day finally arrived.

The sky gradually brightened, and the few resting people felt a bit more relaxed. The terror and eeriness of the previous night seemed to have passed with the arrival of the new day.

"Finally, it's light. I'm so hungry, we need to find something to eat and drink." Dongzi put away the lighter he was playing with, slowly stood up, and looked around, hoping to see where there might be food and drink.

Tang Sanli touched Lu Tianming's forehead, who was lying on the ground, and said, "His forehead is very hot, he has a high fever."

Chunan looked over and saw that the unconscious Lu Tianming's body occasionally twitched, his face was flushed, and his forehead was covered in fine sweat.

"This is troublesome. I'm afraid his wound is infected." Chunan looked at Lu Tianming, who had lost a lot of blood. Although the blood had dried, it was clear that Lu Tianming had lost too much blood. If he could be taken to a hospital immediately, he might still have a chance, but in the current situation, it was hard to say.

"Moving him in this condition might not be a good idea." Tang Sanli frowned.

"Staying here will only make him die faster. We should carry him and find a doctor to save him." Dongzi called out, as he was so hungry that his legs felt weak. He didn't want to stay here any longer now that it was daylight.

Tang Sanli looked at Chunan and said, "Chunan, you're a doctor, you have the final say. What do you think?"

Chunan smiled bitterly, wanting to say that he was a veterinarian, treating animals.

"The most important thing now is to find a hospital or a clinic. His wound needs to be treated, otherwise..." Chunan shook his head. With such a large wound, if it wasn't treated, Lu Tianming would die.

"I... I know the nearest health center, it's over there." The villager with the sickle pointed in the distance after hearing Chunan's words.

Dongzi's face lit up, "A health center, good, let's take him there, and we can find some food too."

Chunan took out his phone and checked, but unfortunately, there was still no signal, and he couldn't make any calls.

"Alright, let's carry him to the health center."

Chunan, Tang Sanli, Dongzi, and the villager lifted the feverish and unconscious Lu Tianming and headed towards the health center the villager mentioned.

The sky gradually brightened, and the few of them felt much more relaxed. The terror and eeriness of the night were swept away, and they felt like they had returned to the real world. Only the collapsed houses and cracked ground around them reminded them that the earthquake was real.

"Almost there, it's right there." The villager in his thirties pointed.

Chunan and the others looked up and saw a large area of collapsed buildings about a hundred meters ahead, stretching as far as the eye could see. Not only was there a rural health center, but there were also many suburban residents living around it. Smoke was rising from the ruins.

From a distance, it looked like a scene of great devastation, as if a battle had just taken place.

"Xiao Hu, that's not just a health center, it's more like a small town." Tang Sanli stopped, frowned, and his expression turned grim.

Yu Xiaohu was the name of the villager in his thirties.

Chunan understood why Tang Sanli's expression turned grim.

The large area of collapsed buildings was a densely populated residential area. With almost all the buildings collapsed, many people were likely buried, which meant there might be zombie creatures, and a lot of them.

Thinking of the zombie creatures, Chunan tightened his grip on the rebar in his hand. "Let's check the situation first. Everyone be alert. If things go wrong, we'll run." He secretly hoped the zombie creatures would appear, as only by killing them could he obtain that special energy.

Chunan was eager to know what changes would occur in his brain after the bean-like object absorbed enough energy.

These zombie creatures had only a bit of instinct. As long as they weren't in large numbers, they weren't hard to deal with.

"Right, if we don't find food soon, we'll starve to death." Dongzi rubbed his stomach, feeling very hungry, and didn't care much about the risks.

Tang Sanli was much more cautious. He originally didn't want to get closer, but seeing Chunan and Dongzi insist, he reluctantly nodded after some thought.

The four of them approached carefully. When they were about twenty meters from the ruins, they put the unconscious Lu Tianming down.

From a distance, they saw blood splattered all over the collapsed buildings, which was particularly striking in the daylight.

When they were about ten meters away, sounds came from the ruins, and soon two figures emerged. Their faces were stiff and twisted, their eyes glowing with a faint, eerie red light. They were no longer alive.

Zombie creatures.

Chunan, Tang Sanli, and the others stopped, took a deep breath, and tightened their grip on their weapons.

One of the zombie creatures was a middle-aged man in a white coat, with the words "Yutang Town Health Center" on the left chest. He should be the doctor from the health center mentioned by Yu Xiaohu. A thick piece of wood was deeply embedded in his abdomen, piercing through his body.

The other zombie creature, dressed like a local villager, was a woman with disheveled hair and a tongue hanging out, looking like a hanged ghost.

After noticing Chunan and the others approaching, the two zombie creatures lunged at them quickly.

"There are only two, what's there to be afraid of? Let's go, take them down." Dongzi growled, swinging the wooden stick in his hand at the doctor in the white coat who was lunging at them.

Chunan had already killed several last night and wasn't afraid. He also secretly hoped to kill these zombie creatures to absorb enough energy sooner.

Zombie creatures were strong and fast, but their brains were not agile, and they couldn't adapt, which was the biggest difference between them and normal humans.

Chunan took a step forward, letting the woman with disheveled hair and a hanging tongue grab his shoulder. He then swung the rebar in his hand.

This attack was something Chunan had become familiar with after last night. The concrete block, about the size of two or three fists, hit the woman's head with a thud, and blood and brain matter splattered.

The woman's body fell forward, and Chunan dodged, following up with another blow.

The woman's head was completely smashed, and Chunan felt a familiar warm current. In the daylight, the faint red light was not noticeable.

While Chunan was dealing with the disheveled woman, Dongzi and Yu Xiaohu worked together to take down the health center doctor. The doctor's scalp was torn, and his brain matter splattered. He fell to the ground, twitching slightly, and soon stopped moving.