Facing Zhou Haimei's question, Xu An could only scratch his head awkwardly.
"Hehe, let's first use ropes to lower our bags and such. That way, it'll be more convenient when we run," he said.
Zhou Haimei nodded, and the two immediately got to work. Fortunately, Xu An had bought all the camping equipment before the apocalypse. Most of it was inflatable, so once the air was let out, it could all be packed into a small bundle, not taking up much space. Items of such good quality as these tents were impossible to find now.
After packing everything, Xu An hung some of it on a rope and let it slide down with inertia. Meanwhile, Xu An and Zhou Haimei were busy arranging the number of bombs.
Unbeknownst to them, their actions were being completely observed by Liu Liu. It turned out that the place Liu Liu was hiding was the very building Xu An intended to transfer to. It had to be said, these people were truly destined to meet.
With everything prepared, Xu An wasted no time. He and Zhou Haimei lay on the rope, one after the other, ready to evacuate. The moment they left the balcony, Xu An detonated the bombs. Although Xu An and Zhou Haimei were already moving fast, the rapidly spreading flames still singed Xu An's hair.
As soon as Zhou Haimei jumped off the rope, she kicked open the window and flipped inside. Upon entering, she hopped around, exclaiming, "That was so scary! An'an, look, did my hair catch fire?"
Xu An turned to look and gave Zhou Haimei a reassuring smile, "It's okay, nothing got burned."
"Ah, I thought for a moment there the flames were going to engulf us. That was truly terrifying," Zhou Haimei said, still shaken. Indeed, at the instant the bombs detonated, flames soared into the sky, and the bodies of zombies, along with various dismembered limbs, were blasted everywhere. Zhou Haimei watched as a zombie head, still covered in bloody flesh, flew past her ear and disappeared. In that moment, if not for the safety rope around her, she might have been so frightened that she would have lost all strength and fallen into the zombie horde below. It was Xu An, pulling on Zhou Haimei's safety rope from behind, who swiftly pulled her away.
Even Xu An, who had lived two lifetimes, felt his stomach churn and his scalp tingle at the sight. However, Xu An forced himself to pull Zhou Haimei all the way to the opposite building before finally releasing his grip on the rope. After landing, their first action was to survey their surroundings. This appeared to be an office building, seemingly unfurnished, with bare concrete walls everywhere. However, it was spacious enough, with no place to hide or conceal themselves. Xu An could see at a glance that their current floor was safe, with no people or zombies.
The two also checked their gear, confirming it was all intact.
Xu An said, "Good thing our clothes are okay." The flames had been so intense that Xu An had thought her clothes might catch fire. But fortunately, they only felt hot; the clothes remained intact. After confirming the environment was safe, Xu An turned and pulled down the grappling hook stuck in a crevice. He then used the dagger he carried to cut the rope.
"Why are you cutting it?" Zhou Haimei asked, thinking the rope was quite strong and might still be useful.
Xu An saw the regret in Zhou Haimei's eyes and chuckled, explaining, "We have more at home. If you like it, I'll give you one later. But this one needs to be destroyed. The other end is tied with a knot that can't be undone, and I can't retrieve it. Leaving this thing hanging here makes me feel uneasy, so I'm destroying it for peace of mind."
Zhou Haimei considered it and agreed. Although she felt it was unlikely anyone would climb across using this rope, especially since the building on the other side had been blown to smithereens, and there were so many zombies gathered there. While the explosion had eliminated some zombies, it had also attracted more. Xu An had not held back with this explosion, aiming for a spectacular display, which also widened the blast radius considerably.
The sound of Xu An's explosion, however, attracted more than just zombies. It also drew the attention of those at Lighthouse. Qin Chuan sat in the monitoring room, watching the people on the screen and the thunderous explosion, a faint smile appearing on his lips. He knew that no matter where Xu An was, he would find a way to achieve his desired effect.
At the long table sat many elderly individuals. Their eyes were filled with exhaustion, feeling that even during their escape in the great apocalypse, they hadn't been as weary as they were after staying up all night with Qin Chuan. Yet, Qin Chuan, right before them, seemed as though he didn't need sleep. He had stayed up the entire night, but Qin Chuan hadn't even yawned once. A sense of absurdity arose in everyone's hearts, as if they were training a hawk, only they themselves were being treated as the hawk.
"Qin Chuan, what exactly do you want?" Finally, someone couldn't hold back and began to question Qin Chuan.
Qin Chuan maintained his nonchalant demeanor, "I don't want anything. You know, I don't think your proposal aligns with the actual situation, so I'm not going to sign off on it, unless you can come up with a new rescue plan." Qin Chuan scanned the crowd. He was no longer the naive young man who could be manipulated and deceived. He wasn't going to take the blame for everyone and still expect a good reputation. It was a case of wanting the cake and eating it too, an impossible feat.
The crowd watched as the zombie virus in Zone B began to spread over a larger area. However, no one wanted to be the first to step forward. Qin Chuan had precisely counted on everyone's apprehension to delay them. Qin Chuan had already dispatched a secret team to infiltrate the Zone B laboratory, the place where the virus was created, hoping to find virus samples or perhaps even an antibody or vaccine. According to the confessions of these old guys, as soon as the virus was initially created, scientists had begun researching an antibody. However, for some unknown reason, the experiment failed. The reason for the failure was that a foreign scientist named Greysa had mutated. He had injected the virus, which had not yet undergone clinical trials, directly into a human body. This was also the reason why the virus first began to spread. When Lighthouse began preparing to clear out the virus, Greysa, as if he had foreseen his own end, his eyes flashing with madness, babbled about a savior who would eventually descend. Then, he directly opened the containment of the mutated test subjects and willingly offered his own neck to the mouths of the mutated zombies.