Explorer

In summer, Siberia can actually reach temperatures above thirty degrees Celsius, but that's in the more southern regions. Within the Arctic Circle, it's still cold enough that you need winter clothing just to move around outside.

However, people accustomed to this weather can step out in just long sleeves and pants. A few young folks returning from the city to their hometown walked through the recently abandoned Siberia Research Base.

The research base wasn't very large; the group took about an hour to roughly cover the entire area.

Teapots, teacups, gas stoves, floor lamps, desk lamps, searchlights—it seemed the evacuees had only taken the essentials, leaving all other daily necessities behind.

Don't underestimate these household items from the perspective of the Red Empire, a manufacturing giant; for their small, resource-scarce village in the Siberian Arctic Circle, these were all hot commodities.

Then there were the filing cabinets, wardrobes, and cupboards—most were wooden, a few made of iron.

Sturdier wooden cabinets could replace the old, rickety ones at home. Those already wobbling could be chopped into firewood for winter. The iron ones could be dealt with separately.

They even found a few rifles and a jeep that wouldn't start.

Even more surprising was their discovery of a food warehouse. It wasn't completely full, but flour, canned goods, and the like filled nearly half the space!

On top of that, the internal power supply and heating systems were still functional. Even ignoring the abandoned supplies, the research base itself held significant value.

Unfortunately, they couldn't find any documents; it was as if everything had been taken away.

If not for the mess scattered everywhere inside the base and the signs of drawers and cabinets being ransacked, one might suspect the personnel had only temporarily left and planned to return.

These various clues gave the young people some ideas about the base itself, rather than just focusing on the abandoned supplies.

As their search pushed deeper into the base, a very distinctive door appeared before them.

Since there were no warning signs or conspicuous red lettering, it seemed there was no lethal danger behind this door.

The young folks exchanged glances and decided to open it. Naturally, their eyes fell on the rotating wheel valve, which looked like the mechanism to open the door.

Sure enough, the valve controlled several bolts sliding up and down across the door. And since the base had been abandoned for a relatively short time, the valve hadn't rusted yet and turned without any effort.

When all the bolts had retracted, the heavy iron door swung open with a piercing screech.

What greeted them was a bright, spacious room with a pure white color scheme, leaving no blind spots. The most eye-catching features were the iron-gray, glossy steel washbasin and toilet.

Besides that, in the center of the room, there was... a person sprawled on the floor?

"Why is there someone here?" "Is this person dead or alive?"...

Countless questions tumbled out from the young people's mouths, all at once. Clearly, no one had any answers.

The reason for their reaction was, unsurprisingly, their nervousness.

After all, finding a person in a base they'd assumed was completely empty—no one wouldn't panic.

So they kept throwing out questions, hoping someone could provide an answer, just to ease the tension.

But who would have the answer?

When the cycle of endless questions with no answers finally died down, everyone looked at each other blankly.

Finally, a bold one stepped forward and carefully examined the person lying on the floor in a strange, contorted position.

This person was quite tall but looked emaciated, clearly malnourished. His skin was a bloodless, sickly white, and his nearly bald head showed what looked like black hair. His eyes were unreadable, rolled back so only the whites were visible.

His chest showed no obvious rise and fall, but there was no pungent stench around him either.

The bold one checked the person's breath and felt his neck, but in the end, he just shook his head.

Seeing that gesture, everyone knew the person hadn't made it.

"What do we do? Leave him here?" someone asked.

The others showed disgust at that suggestion. One of them said, "I was thinking of using this place as a secret base. Leave a dead body in it?"

In the end, the leader—also the boldest young man—said, "Come on, give me a hand. Let's carry him out and bury him. That'll wrap things up here."

In the Russian and Western worlds, of course, there's no concept of "resting in peace" in the ground. But for handling a corpse, the cheapest and cleanest method is to dig a hole and bury it.

Cremation requires gathering fuel; burial needs a sturdy coffin or a specially dug grave to put the dead in. All of those are more trouble than digging a hole.

Just abandoning it, with modern hygiene standards, would obviously lead to stench, plague, and other bad outcomes. So digging a hole and burying it is the simplest.

In this world, so fantastical that rumors of mutants, vampires, werewolves, and zombies are everywhere, a dead person is actually the least scary thing—as long as he doesn't get up.

So once they decided to bury the body, the young folks didn't make any excuses. Two took the arms, two took the legs, and two supported the waist, and they hoisted the person up to carry him out and find a spot to bury him.

As for digging tools, they had some on hand. Not enough for everyone to have one, but burying one body wasn't a big problem—it was just a matter of how deep. Bury it too shallow, and a Beast might dig it up and eat it; too deep, and it's a waste of effort.

But this dead person was heavier than expected. Even six strong men carrying him were panting from the exertion. So much so that as they walked out of the underground research base, they didn't notice the subtle changes happening to the body now exposed to sunlight.

In summer, sunlight in Siberia is a precious thing because it brings warmth. So the group's path didn't deliberately avoid the sun; they just took the straightest route toward the small woods outside the research base.

The surface of the research base was disguised as an ordinary settlement. This ensured that satellites or any high-altitude reconnaissance methods would never spot anything suspicious here.

Back when the base was operational, even the vehicles coming and going wouldn't use military trucks or the kind of expensive cars that shouldn't appear in a place like this.

So, following this layout, there would naturally be a small church and a cemetery, as every village has. The young people planned to bury the person there.

Even if the government people came back, they wouldn't bother checking whether this cemetery—whether it was a decoy or actually used—had one extra grave, right?

What they didn't know, however, was that under the blazing Yellow Sun, the body they thought was a corpse was stirring back to life.