The Police Station and the Pitiful Soldier Used as Bait

“…”

Resting my head on Su Yanlan’s thigh, emptying my mind completely, it took a long time before the ringing in my ears finally receded.

In my line of sight, the three somewhat disheveled people turned around and walked toward where Su Yanlan and I were sitting.

They no longer had the effortless grace they displayed while dodging and weaving through the rat swarm. Without the swarm obscuring them, I now noticed that their clothes were torn in many places.

Although I couldn’t see any wounds, there was no doubt that dealing with the rat swarm hadn’t been as easy for them as it had appeared to me.

“Su Yanlan, you knew there were so many mutants hiding ahead, didn’t you? Why didn’t you tell us?”

Jack was furious. His jacket was stained with rat blood, and his jeans had numerous scratches, revealing the skin underneath.

After just one glance, I averted my gaze and stopped looking at him. I’ve always had an aversion to black people… well, racial discrimination? More accurately, stereotypes, I suppose. I know it’s wrong, but I’m a scumbag anyway, so what does it matter if it’s right or wrong?

“I didn’t know. We only stopped because Miss Qin Yue asked to.”

Saying this, Su Yanlan ignored the enraged Jack and gently stroked my hair.

It tickled and was uncomfortable, but I didn’t struggle.

As for her shifting the blame onto me? It didn’t matter. I had stopped shortly before on this journey, and every time Su Yanlan stopped with me, it could completely be brushed off as a coincidence.

“Qin Yue?”

At the mention of me, Qin Dai suddenly seemed interested. She walked up to Su Yanlan, looked at me with suspicious eyes, and simultaneously reached out a hand, wanting to pull me up.

“Ha, it was just a coincidence. I’m so weak, how could I foresee danger?”

Letting her grab my collar, letting myself be lifted up, I tried to stand steady and, as usual, squeezed out an ingratiating smile.

Qin Dai seemed to hesitate, probably because my attitude was completely different from when I had argued with her earlier.

“Hmph, true.”

With a cold snort, she let go, not forgetting to give me a shove.

Stumbling back a few steps, I steadied myself and bowed to her.

“About what happened earlier… I’m sorry… People get emotional sometimes.”

If acting soft could make things easier, it wasn’t impossible. I was almost amazed at my own endurance. I hated Qin Dai so much, and just earlier I was thinking about never apologizing to her, that at most I’d take a beating, since she wouldn’t kill me anyway.

But I was able to change my mind so quickly. For no other reason than that, in my current condition, a beating might actually kill me.

I figured she could understand which incident I was apologizing for, and as I expected, she did.

She froze slightly, then her face turned cold again. Will she forgive me? Who knows. Anyway, I’ve already apologized to save my life, now I just have to leave it to fate.

Of course, it would be even better if Qin Dai could die. It’s a pity she didn’t die just now.

“Cough, cough… So, are we still going in now?”

I pointed at the police station in front of us, ignoring the scratches on Qin Dai’s silver arm.

Those must have been left by the rats. So the claws and teeth of these tiny mutants are this sharp? I felt even more grateful that Su Yanlan had blocked one of the rats for me earlier.

Not far ahead, outside the police station, the iron fences looked rather forbidding. Perhaps due to a lack of maintenance, there were plenty of rust marks on them.

The one thing to be thankful for was probably that the iron gate wasn’t closed, otherwise, we would have had to expend some effort to tear it down.

“How do we get in? Are you going to deal with that pack of damn rats?”

Qin Dai rolled her eyes at me and sat down nearby.

She was right; that pack of rats had only been temporarily scared off. If a living person entered their territory, they would still be attacked.

As for her suggesting I go deal with them, I took it as a joke. After all, nobody would be arrogant enough to single-handedly fight such a huge swarm of mutants, right? Moreover, I’m not even a cyborg; I would just be gnawed clean in a very short time.

Picking up the gun from the ground, changing the magazine, I walked around to sit on Su Yanlan’s other side, then familiarly leaned against her.

Consequently, Su Yanlan was sandwiched between me and Qin Dai. She was like a steady mountain, blocking the malicious gazes directed at me from Qin Dai.

Jack and Li Li also sat down, though perhaps due to factional alignment, they sat quite far from us three. Indeed, although Spring and Autumn were allies, they were not the same camp after all.

However, what puzzled me was, weren’t Qin Dai, Jack, and Li Li always together before? Why did she choose to sit with me and Su Yanlan this time?

Logically, the three of them had communicated more and were more familiar with each other along the way.

The atmosphere was a bit chilly. Su Yanlan and Qin Dai were both very quiet, saying nothing. However, this was good; I could rest a little while.

Leaning against Su Yanlan, I closed my eyes. Before sleeping, I took another anti-radiation pill, lest the drug’s effect wear off while I slept.

…

The sleep didn’t last long.

Perhaps only thirty minutes. The soldiers wearing hazmat suits soon arrived outside the police station as well. They scattered in groups of twos and threes around the area, somewhat noisy.

I was woken up by Su Yanlan. She gently patted my cheek, waking me from a very light sleep.

Not unexpectedly, I had a nightmare, and as always, I could feel pain in the dream, but the details of the nightmare vanished from my mind in the blink of an eye.

“Yawn~ Are we going in?”

Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I stood up and stretched. Sleeping against someone’s shoulder wasn’t a good idea.

“Mhm.”

Nodding, Su Yanlan also stood up, rolling her shoulders. I figured it must be uncomfortable being leaned on for so long.

So I took the initiative to help massage her shoulders. Her muscles were unsurprisingly firm, a bit hard. Although it couldn’t be seen from her outward silhouette, the strength contained within could be clearly felt.

Is this what you’d expect from a cyborg? My body is not as good as hers; it’s soft, and while elastic, it’s only good for feeling nice to touch, incapable of bursting with any power.

Around us, Jack, Li Li, and Qin Dai had also stood up at some point. The three of them mingled together again, far away from Su Yanlan and me.

The surrounding soldiers were carefully checking their magazines and firearms to ensure nothing would go wrong.

Perhaps because Qin Dai and the others had issued a warning beforehand, no soldier crossed the line; everyone cautiously stayed outside the territory of the rat swarm.

Soon, the squad finished organizing. The soldiers quickly pushed one person out, leaving him to walk alone towards the police station.

As he walked step by step toward the gate of the police station, the surrounding snow began to agitate again. White mutant rats swarmed out, surrounding the poor soldier.

Heart-wrenching screams scattered in the wind, but were quickly drowned out by the sound of flesh being gnawed.

Countless rats covered an entire human being, and the man quickly lost the strength to struggle and wail.