In such difficult times of the apocalypse, the few men and women before them were all energetic, and their clothes were clean and tidy. This suggested that these people either possessed great strength or had powerful backing.
As they spoke, the eight people had already arrived in front of the "Sunshine Squad" members.
The man leading them was about thirty years old and introduced himself as "Wang Yue." He said to the group, "Friends, you all clearly possess strength. Our Base Leader welcomes strong individuals like you the most. Would it be convenient to accompany us to the Heng Ai Base for a chat?"
Although the words were polite, their posture was not friendly, with the eight individuals subtly forming a cordon.
"How do you know we are strong?" Yang Ning asked, perplexed. "Perhaps we are all just ordinary people!"
"Haha, you jest, my friend," Wang Yue said with a hint of pride. "Strength is apparent. All of you appear confident and healthy, with rosy complexions. Even compared to us, you are not inferior!"
After a few more polite exchanges, they all set off towards the "Heng Ai Base" together.
...
Inside the base.
"Uncle Wu, when can my dad come out?" an eight-year-old girl, holding her mother's hand, asked timidly at the entrance of a laboratory converted from a factory, looking at Wu Zhao, who was on guard.
Wu Zhao was a plant-type ability user, skilled at weaving vines and particularly adept at defense. Liang Yunchong had assigned him to guard the laboratory's entrance.
He crouched down, looking into the little girl's eyes, and said, "Yaya, your dad was bitten by a zombie outside. Base Leader Uncle Liang is taking people to treat him! If all goes well, he should be out soon."
"But Dad has been taken away for so long, can he really still come out? And will the person who comes out still be my original dad?" During this apocalypse, children of Yaya's age were no longer naive.
Speaking of this, Wu Zhao felt a pang of guilt. Everyone knew there were only two paths for those bitten by zombies. One was to turn into a zombie, completely assimilated. The other was to resist for a period and potentially evolve an ability.
However, before Yaya's father was taken in, he had already shown clear signs of zombification. Wu Zhao didn't understand why the Base Leader still said they would treat him. He had also instructed him to guard the door and not let anyone else in.
"Brother Wu, actually, we also know that the child's father is most likely beyond saving. We just want to spend more time with him before he fully turns into a zombie, while he's still lucid." Yaya's mother, a water-type ability user, said with tears in her eyes. "Brother Wu, could you help us ask the Base Leader to give us a little more time for our family to be together?"
Wu Zhao's heart softened. Just as he was about to go inside to find Liang Yunchong, the door to the temporary laboratory opened.
"Uncle Liang, where is my dad?" Yaya anxiously asked upon seeing Liang Yunchong emerge.
Liang Yunchong saw Yaya and her mother, and a trace of displeasure flashed across his eyes. But he quickly masked it with a kind smile. "Yaya, your uncle and the others couldn't save your dad. I'm sorry!"
"Then what about my husband's... body?" Yaya's mother asked, her voice trembling.
"He finally turned completely into a zombie and attacked us, so we killed him," Wang Yue, standing behind Liang Yunchong, replied nonchalantly, as if discussing an unimportant matter.
Upon hearing this, Yaya burst into tears, swinging her small fists at Liang Yunchong. "Waaah... you owe me my dad... Dad was still lucid... Waaah..."
As Yaya had also awakened a strength-type ability, her small fist was not to be trifled with. Liang Yunchong naturally did not dare to let her hit him hard and quickly retreated a few steps.
"Even if you killed him, what about the body? I want to take him back to bury him," Yaya's mother stepped forward, stopping the child, and continued to ask.
"The body... this... he attacked us... so I accidentally burned it... it's already turned to ash..." Liang Yunchong was a fire-type ability user, and fire was his most frequently used attack.
"Why would you be so cruel to us? Even if he turned into a zombie, you had many ways to end his life. Why burn his body?" Yaya and her mother could not accept this.
For a moment, the area outside the base factory's temporary laboratory became noisy, and more people gathered to watch.
"That's right, that's right. How could they burn a person's body?" A bystander said indignantly.
"That wasn't a person anymore; it was a zombie, okay?" Another bystander had a different opinion. "Our Base Leader is a fire-type ability user. What else would he use besides fire? At least his initial intention was to save those who were bitten by zombies!"
"Actually, don't you find it strange?" a third bystander whispered. "Why is it that every person taken inside is burned to ashes? None of them die in other ways? The laboratory has more than one ability user, and more than one type of ability."
The second bystander was a fervent fan of Liang Yunchong and retorted unhappily, "What nonsense are you talking about? How could our Base Leader have bad intentions? If it weren't for Base Leader Liang's kindness, ordinary people like us without abilities would have long been reduced to mere bones by the zombies outside."
The third bystander didn't say anything further upon hearing this, merely pouting slightly.
"Yaya, is this your dad's body?" Suddenly, a female voice called out.
All eyes turned in that direction.
At some point, a group of young men and women, who appeared to be only in their early twenties, carried out a zombie's corpse. These were the members of the "Sunshine Squad."
It turned out that while Yaya and her mother were in conflict with Liang Yunchong and his group, Wang Yue and the others, who had led the "Sunshine Squad" in, had their attention drawn to the incident.
So, Xiao Wenqiang seized the opportunity, gathered her teammates into her spatial ability, and then, without anyone noticing, slipped into the makeshift laboratory and retrieved Yaya's father's corpse.
"Mom, Dad's body is still here. Then why did Uncle Liang lie to us?" Yaya looked up and asked her mother, recognizing the familiar clothes.
At this moment, Yaya's mother stepped forward. She had not noticed earlier that the members of the "Sunshine Squad" had been supporting her husband. His skull had been split open from the top, and a gaping hole was now exposed.
Fortunately, after humans turned into zombies, their blood turned into green liquid. Otherwise, this scene would have terrified many.
"Who are you people?" Liang Yunchong, instead of answering Yaya, questioned Xiao Wenqiang and her group.