XG 69 - Do we need to ransack a bedroom?

"Let's search the other room." Kang Xunsu decided when the decision on what to do with the girl remained undecided.

From Suzie Yap's answer, she was leaving it to them to decide on what to do with the girl. It sounded very democratic, but in their case, it gave them trouble to decide.

Anyway, they were here to gather supplies, not on a rescue mission. But they could also not leave the mentally ill girl alone without food. It was also unknown whether her father will return or not.

They tested the second door, but it was locked. As for the third door, it was the washroom that fortunately does not have any surprise attack.

After Chen Yibo repeatedly asked the girl, they finally got the answer that the locked room belonged to her parents.

"Do we need to ransack a bedroom?" Wong Xue Guo asked dubiously.

"Curious~" Kang Xunsu whistled and had Chen Yibo stay on guard while he broke down the door.

"Curiosity kills the cat."

"Aiyoh, little princess. How could you say such misfortune words at this time."

She did not bother arguing and stood beside Chen Yibo, with her sword drawn. "Do it quickly if you want to."

With a fierce kick, the door was kicked open and the breath she paused finally resumed after seeing nothing had jumped out of the room at them.

There was no electricity but the room could be seen well from the natural light coming from the unblocked window. It was a bedroom mixed with storage purposes, judging from the unopened boxes on the corner of the room as well as under the bed.

"That is…" Wong Xue Guo trailed off.

Lying on the bed was a dead man, his greyish and slightly sunken cheeks resembling the man from the family portrait she had seen earlier.

"Well, that answers why the girl was left without food." Kang Xunsu placed his gun back into its holder and checked the dusty boxes. "He shouldn't have died long ago, with the bedroom yet to be ransacked."

"Let me do it, brother Xunsu!" Ash immediately raised his hand like a student volunteering to do work.

Kang Xunsu stepped aside. "Come then."

“It’s instant ramyeon! There’s also luncheon meat!” It was hard for Ash to contain his joy once he saw what was inside the box. Similar to most youngsters, he quite liked Korean food, especially instant noodles.

Kang Xunsu was not really impressed. Compared to Korean noodles, he preferred Maggi mee. But he welcomed the luncheon meat. “Well, it’s food. Check the other boxes.”

While the others were captivated with the boxes, Wong Xue Guo approached the bed, wanting to search for some clues on how the man died. Seeing the injuries on the corpse, she hissed softly. This man does not even have the time to wrap his wounds before leaving the world.

"There's a bite mark, but why isn't he turning into a zombie?" she asked Chen Yibo in alarm and pointed at the corpse's lower arm that was exposed to their sight. It was gnawed quite badly, with most of his flesh peeled off, and was the most serious injury judging from sight.

Chen Yibo eyed the corpse's black hair. "He might not have the gene. They could not activate what wasn't there."

"So those without the gene will just immediately die from the bite?" Wong Xue Guo murmured. It does somehow explain the black-haired corpses she saw from the shopping mall.

The girl must have gotten the gene from her mother. It might also be the same case for the Chen brothers with their father that does not have the gene.

She reached out to the bedsheet and touched the bloodstain, which was no longer wet. "He was bleeding a lot but it does not seem to be coming from the bite mark."

"His back was injured. There's also a possibility of his death related to blood loss,” Chen Yibo said.

This man must have been afraid he would turn into one of those monsters and choose to hide in his room. One of his hands was holding tightly onto a picture, identical to the one they had seen from his daughter's room.

Wong Xue Gup took a deep breath and nearly regretted her action with how stinky it was. "Do you think… that daughter knows about his death?" If she does not know, she could not possibly make a father version crayon-like figure when she could have the real one, right?

Chen Yibo shook his head, as he was unsure of it too.

“Yibo, try to talk more to the girl and see if she’s willing to follow us.” Kang Xunsu sighed and paid respect to the dead man on the bed. “It’s only right when we will be taking her supplies. She could stay at the lab with whatever uses they could get from her ability in exchange for providing her shelter.”

“I will try.” Chen Yibo went out of the room to where the girl was entertaining herself in the small corridor.

“We could choose to not take anything and leave everything to her,” Wong Xue Guo said in a rather meaningful tone.

Kang Xunsu had already ordered Ash to start moving things to their car. “It would be a waste not to take them. She may have the ability to protect herself, but she’s not smart. Look how easy young master Yibo had coaxed her.”

At Kang Xunsu’s pointing, Wong Xue Guo saw the girl was speaking animatedly to Chen Yibo with her crayon dog beside her. Surprisingly, she could touch her crayon-ish dog, but when Chen Yibo tried to pat the ‘dog’, his hand slipped through.

The girl had seen it but did not seem shocked that she was the only one that could touch her crayon-ish dog. Then, to everyone’s shock, the crayon-ish dog’s body suddenly enlarged and a crayon-ish humanoid figure separated from the dog’s body.

“Mama.” It was only her that could differentiate which tall crayon-ish figure was her mother. The ‘mother’ moved and her hands wrapped around Yuna, mimicking the act of hugging.

“So they could merge into one on standby?” Kang Xunsu guessed.

“Saving energy consumption?” Wong Xue Guo voiced her suspicions that had Kang Xunsu laughing at how in line their thinking was.

“Her name is Yuna. She refuses to leave her home,” Chen Yibo informed when Yuna was distracted by her own ability.

Wong Xue Guo pursed her lips worriedly as she gazed at Yuna who was talking to her ‘mother’. A trace of pity flashed in her eyes. If Yuna continues to stay here with no food left, even with her ability that could protect herself somewhat, she will die from hunger if she was not found by survivors.

It would be a fortune if she was found by good people, but what if they were bad people?

Wong Xue Guo finally dropped her concern over taking Yuna with them. “Yibo, try to get her to follow us back to the lab. If she follows us, we will protect her ‘family’. I will help to move the goods.”

Getting the hint, Chen Yibo proceeds to lure Yuna to follow them with another method.

They found more canned food, which Yuna’s father might have quickly stored once the epidemic hits the town. It was a wise move, but unfortunately, he could not live longer to eat them.

Finally, Chen Yibo manages to trick Yuna into following them. He had originally tried to say they were dead, but Yuna does not seem to understand the word and he had to use a childish excuse to hoodwink her.

They had finished ransacking the supermarket without any zombies coming out to attack them. The task of finding goods could be said to be complete and they could move on with training before returning to the lab.

“Shall we find an abandoned building and lure zombies over?” Kang Xunsu suggested.

It will serve as training for the kids and reduce the number of zombies, even if it was only a small number of them. At least it might help the survivors that were still hiding in this town a tiny bit.

Hearing that idea, Wong Xue Guo gulped nervously but did not voice any protest.

“I saw something,” L.L. reported. “A total of five people in plain sight from ten o’clock. No signs of zombies yet.”

Their group grew wary. While it was good to discover survivors, they also know not all survivors were good people. It was forgivable if they did not help others, but it was a different case if they chose to make trouble for other survivors.

“They will be passing by our direction. Three men, two women. One injured. Unknown of their destination,” L.L. added.

“Should we hide?” Ash whispered.

The option to hide was gone when L.L. saw them making their way towards their hiding place.