Bai Ming slumped on the sofa, grabbed a towel from the table, and pressed it over his wound.
He pulled a card from his pocket and tossed it to Old Crab, then laboriously took out a cigarette, lit it, and stuck it in his mouth.
"Take this gate card and get out of the city!"
"How are you going to explain this to the District Chief?"
"There were too many of you. You resisted, and I was injured and knocked unconscious. Hurry! I can only hold out for fifteen minutes. After that, I have to call for backup to save my miserable life!"
"Thanks, Old Bai. If you're ever in trouble, I'll come back and help you!"
Old Crab gripped the magnetic card tightly, his eyes red and his voice trembling slightly.
He hurried into the room and woke his wife. Without saying much, he just told her to follow him!
Time was short. There was no time to pack anything!
When they came out of the room, the woman was startled by the scene in the living room.
Old Crab carried his daughter on his back, grabbed his frightened wife, and hurried away.
Downstairs, Xu Chao and Mengmeng emerged from the shadows. "How did it go, Old Crab?"
"Let's go. We have to get out of the city within fifteen minutes!"
Old Crab had no time to explain everything.
He led his daughter and wife out into the rain.
The rain soon woke the daughter on his back!
"Dad..."
"Xiaohui, don't talk. Close your eyes!"
The rain grew heavier, and the water pooling in the streets rose above their shoes.
Since their home was far from the city gate, Old Crab didn't dare walk. He ran through the rain, racing against every second!
At the city gate, more than a dozen Guard Team members stood beneath the gate, sheltering from the rain.
As they smoked, they remarked that Zone 96 hadn't seen a downpour like this in many years.
The vice captain leaned against the guardroom doorway with a cigarette in his mouth, muttering, "With rain this heavy, someone might try to fish in troubled waters..."
Dazzling headlights pierced the curtain of rain, shining in from outside the city!
Seeing a vehicle approaching, the dozen or so guards tossed aside their cigarettes and moved to stop it.
The black jeep stopped at the city gate.
A guard walked to the front of the vehicle, raised his gun, and barked, "Get out!"
When the people in the black jeep made no move, the dozen or so guards raised their rifles and surrounded it.
"Get out!"
Click!
The door opened, and a middle-aged man in a black coat stepped out of the front passenger seat.
"What are you here for?"
"To enter the city!"
"Enter the city? It's too late for that!"
"I understand. You want money, right?"
"Who said we wanted money? We're just doing our jobs!"
The middle-aged man said nothing. He took a stack of cash from his pocket and handed it to the guard.
Along with it, he handed over a set of credentials!
"If the money isn't enough, there's this too!"
The guard's face lit up at the sight of so much money.
But when he saw the dark red credentials, his heart suddenly jolted!
"D-Dark Pavilion!"
The other dozen or so guards also flinched and lowered their guns.
"I'm Black Crow, captain of the Dark Pavilion's Night Raven Action Team. I have business with your District Chief. Lead the way!"
"Yes, yes, of course. Our vice captain is over there. Please wait a moment; I'll get him."
The guard no longer dared accept the money. Trembling, he handed it back to Black Crow along with his credentials.
Rumble!
Purple lightning streaked across the night sky, illuminating most of the forest.
The rain was so heavy that a curtain of water had formed across the cave entrance.
Smoker grabbed Glasses's left hand and looked at the watch on his wrist, its hands motionless. He gave it a few hard taps, but when it still didn't move, he couldn't help complaining, "What kind of lousy watch is this?"
Song Jie raised her left hand and checked her watch. "It's been almost an hour. Why haven't they come out yet?"
Glasses was full of worry. "Could something have happened?"
"Good words fall flat, but bad ones come true. That crow's beak of yours is never right about good things, but it never misses when it comes to bad ones!" Unable to smoke in the cave, Smoker could only tear his tobacco apart bit by bit and chew it.
Almost an hour had passed, and there was still no sign of Xu Chao or Old Crab. Everyone's hearts hung in midair.
If everything had gone smoothly, they should have been out by now.
"I'm going into the city to take a look!" Smoker stood up. "If I'm not out before daybreak, you should leave!"
"Where to?" Song Jie asked.
"Anywhere, as long as you don't stay here. If Chaozi and the others and I get out later, we'll find a way to look for you."
"The Fallen Zone is so big. How long would it take to find us? It'd be better to pick a meeting place!"
"I don't know whether I'll be caught, and I don't know what they'll do to me if I am. So it's best if I don't know where you're going!" With that, Smoker passed through the curtain of rain and plunged into the downpour.
Song Jie pressed a hand to her forehead in frustration. "Fuck! When I find that traitor, I'm going to castrate him!"
"What if the traitor is a woman?" Glasses tried to ease the tense atmosphere.
"Then I'll cut those two things off her!"
As Song Jie spoke, two clear streams of tears ran down her face.
She had family at the camp.
It was her younger sister, who was much like Qin Ling.
Her sister had only barely survived a major accident after having both legs amputated.
Smoker had said that more than a hundred family members had been killed. She didn't know whether her sister was among them.
Sometimes she thought about how good it would have been if she and her sister had died in that explosion.
Then they wouldn't have had to face this awful world!
This utterly awful Fallen Zone!
Glasses saw Song Jie's tears. He said nothing, but placed a hand on her shoulder.
At that moment, silence spoke louder than words!
Qin Xun held Qin Ling with one arm, still betraying no emotion.
Qin Ling leaned against his shoulder with her eyes closed. It was hard to tell whether she had fallen asleep.
But under these circumstances, probably few people could sleep, even if they were only a little girl in their early teens.
Clatter...
The sound of chains scraping together rang out in Qin Xun's mind once more.
Outside, in the mountain forest and the pouring rain, a Snake Frog over two meters tall, thickset and covered in black lumps, crouched on all fours. Its blood-red eyes stared at the cave not far ahead, where firelight flickered.
It opened its mouth and stuck out two scarlet tongues.
A closer look revealed that the two tongues were actually like snakes, with snake-like heads and gaping, bloody mouths that exposed scarlet fangs.
The Snake Frog was very hungry. It hadn't eaten in half a month.
The reason was that an unwelcome visitor had seized its territory not long ago: a huge tiger that could slap it to death with one paw.
It had tried to find food in the territories of other monsters, but those monsters weren't very polite. They chased it away without even inviting it to a meal.
It needed to eat soon to make sure it didn't die.
Otherwise, if those two tongues with minds of their own grew too hungry, they would turn on it!
Fortunately, heaven never left a frog without a path!
After roaming for more than ten days, it had finally found food in the cave ahead!
The rain was heavy, but its eyes were special. It could see through the downpour and the curtain of rain into the cave.
It could sense that two of the fellows inside were not to be trifled with!
But the other two could become its food.
It didn't need to rush in to hunt. It only had to get a little closer, then quickly shoot out its two tongues and drag out either of the two people on the left!
It moved its limbs little by little. The sound of rain beating against the leaves covered its movements, while also masking the fishy stench it gave off.