The Archive Room

In the snowfield ahead, the white rat swarm devoured the soldier chosen as bait. The sickening sound of flesh being gnawed was jarring, even over the noisy chatter of the other soldiers.

Disgusting. Truly disgusting. Anyone would feel nauseated watching the flesh of their own kind being eaten right before their eyes, wouldn’t they? But if you asked whether I felt sympathy for that poor bastard? My answer is no.

I only felt fortunate that I wasn’t the poor bastard.

Seeing that the rat swarm had mostly gathered together, a few scattered soldiers around pulled grenades from their waists, pulled the pins, and threw them towards that small mountain of mutants.

Following three loud explosions accompanied by flashes of fire, a brief rain of blood and flesh fell over the entire area ahead. Although it only lasted a few seconds, it was genuinely somewhat shocking.

“Hmm…?”

Hiding behind Su Yanlan to ensure no mutant fragments would fly onto me, I waited a few seconds before poking my head out.

What met my eyes were three sizable craters. Beneath the snow, the hard concrete ground had failed to withstand the power of the grenades and was cracked open. I figured that if it weren’t for the thick layer of snow and the huge pile of mutant rats absorbing most of the explosive energy, the concrete ground would probably be more than just cracked.

Flying bits of stone would have scattered everywhere, scratching the hazmat suits of the watching soldiers to varying degrees, leaving them to despair and await death in the heavy radiation zone.

Right, unsurprisingly, that poor bastard who was pushed out to die was abandoned because his hazmat suit was torn. He wouldn’t have lived long anyway. Clearing this massive horde of rats would have been very strenuous; thanks to this poor bastard, a lot of effort was saved.

A few grenades cleared out the majority of the mutant rats. The remaining scattered individuals were no longer a threat. Soon, the soldiers began walking towards the police station in twos and threes.

Sticking closely behind Su Yanlan, I naturally couldn’t stay outside either. Once everyone else went in, who knew if those rats would regroup and return?

On the path ahead, fragments of flesh and blood were everywhere, along with the scorching marks of gunpowder and pieces of charred flesh. It made one nauseous just looking at it.

The corpse of the man devoured by the rats was nowhere to be seen; only his bloodied, shattered bones remained, mixed in a large puddle of rat flesh and blood.

Carefully bypassing the craters blasted by the grenades, Su Yanlan and I arrived before the iron fence outside the police station.

As several soldiers worked together to push open the rusted iron gate, Su Yanlan, Qin Dai, and I were among the first to truly enter the police station.

The small courtyard inside the iron fence was no different from the outside, equally covered in ice and snow. The only difference might be that it was a bit messier here.

Perhaps those mutant rats had used this place as their nest. Passing through the long-shattered glass doors, the tiles inside were already covered by various dried-up vegetation. Occasionally, the foul stench of rat excrement wafted through the air.

In short, this was not a good place.

“Ugh…”

As soon as I entered the police station, I couldn’t help but dry heave. Already tormented by the drug’s side effects, the air everywhere inside was permeated with a disgusting smell.

Fortunately, there wasn’t much in my stomach, so I ultimately threw up nothing, leaving only a burning sensation in my throat.

“Are you okay?”

Beside me, Su Yanlan gently patted my back, speaking words of concern.

In this cold apocalypse, only Su Yanlan would be so gentle to me. If I didn’t constantly remind myself that we were enemies, I probably would have fallen in love with her by now.

A thousand thoughts boiled down to one sentence: Miss Yanlan, you are so gentle.

“Cough, cough… I’m fine, it’s just the smell here is a bit too pungent.”

Walking through the lobby towards the inner parts of the police station, I tried to find a place where the smell wasn’t so strong.

The soldiers who entered with us weren’t idle either; they quickly scattered, searching with Qin Dai and the other two for the armory or safes where guns were stored.

Su Yanlan just silently followed me without a word, and the atmosphere suddenly grew eerily quiet again.

Twisting and turning through the corridors—I don’t think I’ve ever been to a police station in my memory, so it seemed incredibly large to me.

Room after room, rusted door after rusted door, I only wanted to find a room where I could rest properly, but it seemed impossible.

Along the way, passing by interrogation rooms or other places, it was inevitable to see scattered skeletons and smell the utterly nauseating stench of corpses.

The whitewashed walls were peeling, revealing the gray concrete beneath, mixed with mottled bloodstains.

What’s certain is that the corpses in those interrogation rooms were mostly just prisoners. On their disjointed skeletons, the silver handcuffs still shone brightly. As for the police? Who knows where those guys ran off to.

Whether they became phantoms of the old era along with the government or fled to some camp to serve a warlord, their fate was probably not much better than the criminals who died here.

“Phew…”

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the smell of corpses and the bizarre stench of excrement gradually faded. Before me was still a partially open, bloodstained door, no different from the ones I had pushed open before.

Above the iron door, a golden plaque was stained with blood. The writing on it was blurred, but I could faintly make out the words “Archive Room.”

“Miss Qin Yue, did you come here on purpose?”

Giving me a surprised look, Su Yanlan probably thought I had been wandering aimlessly just to find this so-called archive room.

“Miss Yanlan, it’s just a coincidence…”

Wearing a smile, I pushed the door open.

The sound of a heavy object hitting the ground. Behind the door, a pale skeleton crashed to the floor, breaking into pieces. The black and white uniform on it revealed its identity.

A police officer. The first police officer I had seen in this ruined station.

In his hand, he tightly gripped a small, delicate revolver. Even though the arm had separated from the torso, the grip remained tight.

I didn’t pay much attention to the revolver on the ground. What’s the use of such a backward gun? In the time it takes to load bullets one by one, an enemy could shoot me several times. Or rather, even the white humanoid mutant, which in my impression is the easiest to die, couldn’t be dealt with by a revolver that’s barely enough for self-defense.

In my line of sight, there were many bookshelves ahead, filled with numerous files and various strange books.

Behind the desk, another skeleton, also wearing a police uniform, sat in a chair. It tilted its skull, and I actually started to feel that this scene was somewhat surreal.

The hat with the police badge, the ornate epaulettes on both shoulders—things seemed to be slowly getting weird.