At the sentry post, Bai Mu held a cigarette between his fingers, pretending to step out for a smoke. Open flas were strictly prohibited inside the Gas Station, so any soldier craving a drag had to head outside the periter.
The guards were completely accustod to this behavior. They didn't even utter a word of greeting, simply letting him co and go as he pleased.
He easily left the sentry post behind. Then, slipping around a street corner, he changed his clothes back to his original attire and headed toward his house.
The Tranquilizer Watch on his wrist showed that the current ti was 9:24 PM.
Bai Mu had headed out just past six o'clock. Coming and going like this had still eaten up about three hours of his ti.
He soon arrived back at his house and found the Witch hiding in the shadows. Her health was full, indicating she hadn't engaged in any combat. Upon his return, Bai Mu dismissed the summon. While he could have left her to continue keeping watch, her very presence ran the risk of attracting a Doppelganger's attention. Furthermore, if she were spotted by patrolling soldiers, it would only cause unnecessary trouble.
Bai Mu pulled out his key, unlocked the front door, and stepped into the entryway.
Before leaving, he had specifically instructed the children to deadbolt the door from the inside. Under normal circumstances, a re key wouldn't be able to bypass a deadbolt. However, he possessed the Hand of Walrider, an entity capable of slipping through the narrowest of cracks. As long as he understood the chanical structure behind the door, he could simply unlock the deadbolt himself.
He had told the children that this was a custom key and lock cylinder setup, but in reality, it was purely an extraordinary ability.
Seeing him return safely, the three children visibly breathed a sigh of relief. Bai Mu asked them if anything had happened while he was away. They reported that a stranger had knocked on the door, but upon hearing their voices and being refused entry, the person had left. All in all, they hadn't encountered any violence, so it had been a relatively peaceful evening.
As for whether that person was a Doppelganger or just a holess vagrant, there was no longer any way to verify.
Bai Mu went to the bedroom and set down the items he had acquired. His original bedroom had essentially been converted into a warehouse, storing all the miscellaneous supplies and food he had scavenged earlier. Afterward, he tinkered with the radio dials. After so trial and error, he successfully tuned into the military frequency. However, the vintage radio had so cross-channel interference; occasionally, the broadcast would beco staticky, and the audio from other stations would bleed through.
The airwaves were quite lively at night, indicating that the military was highly active across various districts of the city. Yet, the terminology and phrasing used were far from friendly, constantly revolving around corpse disposal and matters concerning the Quarantine Zone.
Bai Mu kept both the radio and the television running simultaneously, unwilling to miss even the slightest bit of crucial information.
Before going to sleep, he developed the photos of the map he had taken and studied them ticulously.
Heading west would lead to a forested area, which had likely been engulfed by wildfires, as a red marker had completely crossed out that entire section. Heading east seed to lead toward a rural countryside. This was one of the few areas circled in green marker. Judging from the map, there were very few buildings there, and the surroundings were relatively wide and open.
Most of the locations circled in green were similarly sparsely populated open spaces situated on the outskirts of the city.
'Green should signify a lower level of alert.'
'Judging from the density of the red crosses, it's obvious that the green zones haven't experienced many incidents of Doppelgangers killing people.'
'On the contrary, the more densely populated an area is, the more dangerous it becos.'
'Especially around hospitals and schools, there are too many red crosses to even count.'
'If I have to choose a place to relocate, the east would be a solid option.'
Bai Mu seriously considered the relocation plan. If safety was his sole priority, unpopulated areas were clearly the most secure. Even a Doppelganger probably wouldn't bother trekking out into the desolate wilderness or deep into remote mountains.
The Doppelgangers' targets were obviously humans; they were operating with a specific purpose.
Three days later. Day ten, 9:00 PM.
Bai Mu hurried back toward his house, carrying the supplies he had conveniently scavenged from the Gas Station.
Over these past three days, he had taken a stroll through the Gas Station every single night. He felt like he knew the layout even better than the guards stationed there. After all, it was a relatively small Gas Station—just a break room, a storage room, and restrooms. That was all there was to it, and he had scoured every single room. The sentries seed to have developed an unspoken understanding with him; when he returned today, one of them even bumd a cigarette off him.
Bai Mu amiably handed over a cigarette to the naless soldier he hadn't exchanged a single word with. The two of them stood in the dark, finishing their smokes in silence. Afterward, the guy went back to his post, while Bai Mu found a secluded spot to change clothes before heading ho.
Three consecutive days of scavenging had allowed Bai Mu to amass a hoard of useful supplies.
He had practically transported an entire twenty-liter drum of gasoline back to his house in batches. Of course, he didn't relentlessly siphon from just one barrel. The storage room housed dozens of them, so he distributed his theft evenly, draining less than a single liter from each container.
Unless soone specifically weighed each drum, it was nearly impossible to tell with the naked eye that any fuel was missing.
Any soldier inspecting them would probably just assu the barrels had only been filled that much to begin with.
During these extraordinary tis, relying on the military was truly the way to go. The troops with the guns held all the power. They had no shortage of food or water; the Gas Station even had a twenty-four-hour uninterrupted water supply.
Bai Mu secured plenty of food and also managed to swipe a sizable amount of cash.
He discovered that the cash register at the Gas Station had been completely untouched. It was likely that the location had been commandeered by the army before the owner could even clear out the till. The soldiers' resources were all allocated from above, so they had no use for hard cash. When they played cards and gambled, they used cigarettes, alcohol, and coffee beans as direct stakes, rather than paper bills printed with faces that couldn't buy a thing.
As a result, the cash register was emptied entirely by Bai Mu alone.
In this single haul, he netted over a thousand in cash. Just by having Lucy go on grocery runs to the supermarket, he didn't even need to leave the house. His resources were more than enough to sustain himself and the three children.
However, over the past few days, the number of people wandering the streets at night and knocking on doors had been steadily increasing.
The citizens had depleted their stockpiled food, forcing them to venture outside.
Soldiers began rounding up the roars in massive droves. The radio broadcasts constantly ntioned the Quarantine Zone taking in new arrivals, but the fragnted chatter made it impossible to discern what kind of place it truly was.
It most certainly wasn't a charity shelter offering free room and board; every day, Bai Mu heard orders for soldiers to transport corpses out of the Quarantine Zone. He increasingly felt that the city was unsafe, so he pushed his relocation plan to the top of his agenda. He had amassed just about enough food and gasoline. Wrapping his trench coat tighter around himself, he hurried ho.
Suddenly, the streetlights lost power. First, he saw a flash of fire, followed imdiately by the deafening roar of an explosion.
The blast had originated from the northwest. Bai Mu looked up in that direction, his brow furrowing. He rembered that there was a Quarantine Zone located there. The surrounding blocks had all been plunged into darkness because of the explosion.
It seed sothing terrible had happened. Quickening his pace, he sprinted back toward his house.
Reviews
All reviews (0)