Amid the bushes below the cliff, something black was hanging obscurely.
Tang Hao froze, then immediately ran. They almost rolled down the steep, smooth cliff. The riverbank was full of smooth pebbles, with wild grass and bushes growing madly on the steep slope. Tang Hao crawled up first and saw a long black cloth tied to the end of a dead branch!
“It’s our T-shirt!” Tang Hao yanked down the cloth strip and handed it to Sinan, quickly removing his camouflage jacket and pulling out the black T-shirt collar: “Look! This is it! They must have torn it off and tied it here as a marker. There must be more nearby…”
Sinan immediately refused: “No, talk properly and don’t take off your clothes.”
Tang Hao hastily buttoned his jacket, scrambling down the slope and rushing forward, easily finding more traces: “Come quick! There’s blood here!”
Sinan followed, and about twenty steps away, there were obvious dried blood marks on the rock base and ground. Following the splattered direction, they found new blood drops approximately every few steps, suggesting Spring Grass and the others were already seriously injured during their escape.
They fired shots,” Sinan crouched down, feeling out a metal shell casing from under the grass roots, and looked up: “They encountered zombies here.”
Tang Hao’s expression changed: “Look, what’s that?”
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The riverbank suddenly rose upward, with a cave opening on the cliff face not far away, about three to four meters high, barely accessible by climbing the protruding rocks.
On the overgrown weeds within the vertical rock crevice, there were extremely obvious large patches of blood, as if pressed by someone drenched in blood.
Tang Hao looked up at the mountain cave, his voice sounding off: “Could they be inside?”
Si Nan’s pupils tightened, thoughtfully staring at the dark cave entrance.
“Is anyone there?” Tang Hao shouted loudly: “Hey! Is anyone there! Come out quickly!”
The rapid river rushed past their feet, and the sharp wind whistled through the valley, with no other sound.
Tang Hao walked to the cliff bottom, signaling Si Nan to come up: “Put down your gun and equipment, step on my shoulder to take a look. Don’t go in too deep, be careful of snakes.”
However, Si Nan stared at him, not moving.
“Come on, what’s wrong?”
“I won’t put down my gun and equipment,” he stared at Tang Hao, not loudly but very clearly: “When I’m alone with you, I won’t let go of my weapon.”
Tang Hao was stunned, then slowly turned around:
“Are you being wary of me?”
In the faint whistle of the wind gradually approaching, turning into roars from all directions.
Tang Hao took several steps back, seeing zombies emerging from the trees on the cliff, suddenly gathering in increasing numbers!
Pap! Pap! Pap!
Several zombies swayed and fell off the cliff, splattering juices and dismembering before their eyes. More zombies tumbled down the steep slope, some with broken spines lying twisted on the ground, others staggering up and howling as they pounced towards them!
Si Nan opened fire, his assault rifle knocking back the first wave of zombies that had rolled down the cliff. Tang Hao rolled on the ground, grabbed his pistol, and precisely headshot the zombies in front of him, rushing to the mountain wall and shouting: “Quickly, to the cave! Hurry!”
During a fierce exchange of gunfire, Si Nan glanced at him as a second wave of ragged zombies staggered forward!
Tang Hao had only four bullets left in his gun barrel, unable to confront the zombies, so he quickly climbed up the rocks. At the last moment, he dodged the rotting hands reaching for his ankle when he heard a loud—Splash!
Si Nan fired while retreating, quickly reaching the riverbed. The assault rifle tore through rows of zombies, limbs flying and brains exploding, shell casings scattered everywhere, creating a gap in the zombie horde.
Before the next wave of over a dozen zombies could surround them, Si Nan was about to rush towards the cliff when a loud splash came from behind in the river, something bursting out of the water, and something wrapped around his waist.
It was a pair of cold hands!
The incident was truly too fast. During the gunfire, Si Nan had no time to react and was pulled back by the opponent’s brutal force, his feet suddenly stepping into empty air—
A loud splash, and then the water surface was completely submerged!
Si Nan spurted a string of bubbles in the murky river, realizing he had been ambushed.
“I’ll tell you the details later. Anyway, we fought desperately to break through the zombie horde, but couldn’t find Xiang Zi no matter what.”
While being chased by zombies, we rescued a wounded teammate who mentioned seeing an off-road vehicle coming out of the forest, picking up Tang Hao and someone who looked like Xiang Zi.
Si Nan interrupted, “Were they A-country people?”
“I don’t know, though I suspect so,” Chun Cao said hoarsely. “I administered the second-level antibody, but… he didn’t make it.”
They fell silent.
“We traveled all night, lost all our supplies, and ran out of bullets. After daybreak, we completely lost our bearings, unable to find the camp or any trace of Xiang Zi.”
Chun Cao sighed. “We set up a temporary base. Da Ding and I took turns scouting and foraging. This morning, I reached near the waterfall but couldn’t find the camp. Instead, I saw you and Tang Hao walking along the riverbank. I was suspicious of Tang Hao, so I followed you for most of the day and noticed he was leading you to a remote area…”
“So I cut my hand to attract zombies, dove underwater, and pulled you into the water during the chaos to separate you two.” Chun Cao paused, her tone puzzled: “I thought Tang Hao was a traitor, colluding with the people in the off-road vehicle. But if he was, why didn’t he kill the critically injured Xiang Zi, and instead cared for him until rescue?”
“
Indeed, it was illogical, unless Guo Wei Xiang had also turned traitor like Tang Hao. But that possibility was as unlikely as Zhou Rong suddenly falling in love with Yan Hao, or Yan Hao suddenly falling in love with General Zheng – the probability was so small it wasn’t worth discussing.
The river curved, and Chun Cao waved to Si Nan, leading the way into the bushes.
“Tang Hao might have his own plans. Regardless, it’s best to avoid him before meeting Brother Rong,” Chun Cao said, cutting through dense vines with her curved knife. “All his talk about getting separated during our escape is fake, and those cloth markers and signposts are fabricated…”
“I know.”
“?” Chun Cao turned back. “How do you know?”
Si Nan waded through knee-deep grass, a hint of sad humor in his eyes: “He said they got separated because it was a matter of life and death, and no one could care for anyone else. But I know you wouldn’t leave anyone behind unless you confirmed someone was dead. This has nothing to do with life-or-death situations or capabilities, purely because… because it’s you guys.”
Chun Cao’s movements momentarily froze, her gaze flickering with emotion: “Si Xiao Nan…”
Si Nan removed the blood-stained dog tag from his chest and held it out: “I found this.”
Chun Cao was stunned: “Ah? How did you—”
She wanted to ask why he’d hang it around his neck, how dirty it was, but Si Nan suddenly interrupted her, as if avoiding any external questions: “I need some time.
Chun Cao: “?”
“I might need a long time to accept Yan Hao’s departure. Could you let me keep this in the meantime?”
Chun Cao: “Ah?!”
Chun Cao was bewildered.
Si Nan: “…What?”
They stared at each other. Chun Cao quickly covered her face, squeezing out a painful sound: “O-okay, keep it if you want… but where did you find this damn… dog tag?”
“At the camp. There were many bodies. I brought everyone’s tags.”
Chun Cao: “Oh, I see… Are you grieving for Yan Hao?”
