Tang Ye shouted towards the building ruins, but there was no response inside, just the noise getting louder and louder. It felt like the creature buried under the ruins was getting more desperate. Tang Ye was a bit disappointed by the lack of response; there was a good chance that the other party didn’t understand his words. However, his actions didn’t stop, and after about half a minute, Tang Ye lifted the last piece of wall debris.
What he saw was a pit, and indeed there were living creatures inside, but they were not humans. Instead, it was a few cats, four in total: three kittens and one adult cat. The adult cat’s fur was filthy, its original patterns and colors unrecognizable. When it saw Tang Ye’s head poking in, it got so scared that it abandoned its kittens and darted into a hole nearby, which seed to be its regular route in and out.
The remaining three kittens gazed up at Tang Ye with innocent eyes, making soft cries as if expressing their confusion to him.
"What the heck!"
Tang Ye was sowhat speechless. Having been in the post-apocalypse for so long, he had almost forgotten that before the Apocalypse, there were not only humans but also other animals. During the apocalypse, other creatures suffered the sa catastrophic fate as humans. As Earth’s dominant species, humans had their civilization as a foundation, which ant they wouldn’t be wiped out so easily. With the aid of technology, humans could fight back, but the sa couldn’t be said for other animals. Apart from a few livestock reared in survivors’ bases, it was quite rare to see living creatures other than humans in the wild, which led Tang Ye to instinctively think any sign of life was human.
He turned and looked around. There was a nearly destroyed shop not far away. Tang Ye entered and after searching around, found a dusty can of food and two green-packaged foreign sausages. These were probably the only things left in the shop, as most of the goods had been plundered. It was lucky for Tang Ye to have found these. Returning to the pile of ruins, Tang Ye looked at what he had in his hands, peeled the sausages, and opened the can of food to throw them in. The kittens, enticed by the sll, gathered around imdiately.
Glancing at the remaining can, Tang Ye tucked it away. He tried to pet the kittens, but as soon as he extended his hand, the three kittens scattered away, seemingly unwelcoming towards Tang Ye, who then gave up the effort.
"Bye-bye, I won’t disturb you."
After lowering the piece of wall he had lifted, Tang Ye morized the scent of the group of cats and began searching for the scent of other living creatures. It didn’t take long for him to lock onto a target: a tall building in the distance. He had seen this building while moving forward before, and it might be the tallest one in the city. As he passed it, he had slled the scent of life coming from inside. It shouldn’t be an animal this ti, should it?
After tentatively restoring the ruins, Tang Ye ran towards the direction of the large building. As he approached, the scent of life in his nose beca clearer. Arriving in front of the building, he stopped, looking up. The structure seed to have been bombarded, with many walls collapsed to reveal the interior rooms.
The ground was littered with rubble, and each step kicked up a cloud of dust. On his way, Tang Ye had also seen bullet casings by the roadside. This confird that the city had gone through a war, otherwise, it wouldn’t be so desolate.
The scent of life coming from inside the building was a bit mixed. There seed to be more than one person inside, probably two or three.
"I hope you speak Chinese, sigh."
Tang Ye prayed silently in his heart, then stepped into the building, ascending the stairs. The people living in this building resided quite high, nearly reaching the top floor. The stairway had many breakages, with exposed rebar. Between the fourth and fifth floors, a part of the staircase had broken away over three ters. However, a saying goes, ’Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ Across the broken sections of the stairs, soone had laid a plank of wood. The plank had holes drilled into both ends, with ropes tying it to the handrails of the staircase, allowing for upward access.
Finally, Tang Ye stopped in front of a door on the sixteenth floor. This door might be the only one in the entire building that was relatively intact – not only was it made of solid wood, but it was also reinforced with steel plates on the outside, probably to prevent forced entry. The source of the living scent that Tang Ye detected was emanating from behind this door.
Tang Ye raised a hand, initially intending to knock, but then thought that in such circumstances, knocking might not prompt anyone to open the door. The reaction of the stray earlier was enough to show that people in this city were all on guard against each other.
After hesitating, Tang Ye decided it would be better to be a bit intrusive. He then grasped the doorknob and pulled forcefully. The lock core inside imdiately broke due to Tang Ye’s strength. The door then trembled slightly, becoming loose. Tang Ye pulled the door towards himself and opened it effortlessly.
Inside was a young boy, presumably around eight years old, with straw-yellow hair, a sign of prolonged malnutrition.
The boy, caught off-guard by the sudden opening of the door and the appearance of a stranger, leaped up the next second, shouting sothing, then darted into another room.
Unhurriedly, Tang Ye entered the room, following the boy into that room.
"Abu! Abu!"
It was a bedroom with only a bed inside. Apart from that, the only other furniture was a mat laid on the floor at the foot of the bed, with so tableware on it. The utensils held remnants of uneaten food that hadn’t been cleaned, and a sour odor filled the air, quite overpowering.
On the bed lay a man who seed to be fast asleep. The boy ca in and imdiately started making sounds that Tang Ye couldn’t understand, seemingly calling out to the man. He reached out, shaking the man, occasionally glancing at Tang Ye standing at the doorway, with fear in his eyes.
Soon, the man was awoken by the boy’s shaking. He looked at the boy sleepily, and then finally turned his gaze towards Tang Ye. Upon seeing him, the man instantly beca alert, shouting indistinctly as if he got startled. He jumped up from the bed and tore a wooden stick off from the headboard, shouting at Tang Ye while protecting the boy behind him!
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