Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Endless Sorrow (Part 2)
A man doesn’t easily shed tears, only when he reaches a place of heartbreak.
Slowly laying the body down, Hu Xiaodong indifferently picked up the head that had rolled to his feet, and solemnly placed it back on "Huzi’s" neck.
"Huzi, go in peace, live happily in heaven!" Wu Chao, choking with emotion, arrived at Huzi’s side and took out a piece of Dove chocolate from his pocket.
It was something he had specially prepared for Huzi while scavenging at the supermarket. Worried something might go wrong on the way, he had deliberately kept it in his pocket to give Huzi a surprise.
But who would have thought, the surprise was brought back successfully, but Huzi...
Tears dripped onto the chocolate’s wrapper, splashing tiny droplets of water, then falling, evaporating, drifting, and finally disappearing without a trace, just like Huzi’s young but short life.
Wu Chao trembled violently, his large hands shaking ceaselessly like a sieve. The chocolate wrapper, which was originally easy to tear, took him a long time to peel open.
Scorched by the blazing sun, the chocolate inside the wrapper had already melted into a pool of brownish sludge.
Despite this, Wu Chao still carefully placed the sludge beside Huzi.
"Eat it, Huzi, you told me you love chocolate, I brought you some today..." His choked throat could no longer continue, and Wu Chao broke down, crying uncontrollably.
Hu Xiaodong knelt silently, tears covering his chiseled face.
He had gone through so much in his life, from retiring from his career to being lost in business, each was a severe blow to him, but he managed to endure it all.
However, now... when he saw the hollow eyes of Huzi, he felt as if a sharp blade pierced through his chest, rendering him breathless.
If I had sent more people to guard, maybe they wouldn’t have been attacked.
If I had carefully checked the surroundings, maybe the zombies wouldn’t have ambushed here.
Ah! As if realizing something, Hu Xiaodong’s tear-streaked eyes suddenly widened, and he sharply stood up.
"No, how did the zombies get up here?"
A sudden low cry, causing everyone immersed in grief to be taken aback, and before they could react, Hu Xiaodong immediately asked again, "Lu Rui! Where’s that kid Lu Rui?"
Looking around, apart from Lin Muye’s already cold corpse, there were only five lonely tents left.
"No!"
"Nothing here either!"
"None here either!"
In succession, Wu Chao, Wen Quanxin, and Tang Xiaoquan’s voices came, but the search of three tents remained empty, without a shadow.
Until Ah Cheng’s somewhat horrified voice sounded, "Brother Hu, here... you, you guys, come quick!"
The piercing stench of blood rushed in as the curtain was opened. Although Tang Xiaoquan was somewhat prepared for this, the nauseating smell still made his stomach churn.
Forcing down the urge to vomit, Tang Xiaoquan frowned deeply and peeked inside the tent, and just one look made him rush to the side to retch.
Inside the tent, stained with bright red, lay a disheveled female corpse in a supine position, her flesh mangled beyond recognition, looking as if a pack of hyenas had devoured her, an unbearable sight.
How could this be? Huzi’s dead! Uncle Lin’s dead! Even Auntie too... Wen Quanxin found it hard to accept the scene before him, still holding onto the hope that someone survived, but the reality...
Hu Xiaodong despondently closed the curtain, not bearing to look any longer. He made his way to the last tent and halted.
This was the tent where Lu Rui usually stayed, and knowing this person’s fate was of urgent importance to him.
A steel blade lifted a corner of the curtain, Hu Xiaodong instinctively took a sniff. The empty tent did not emit any foul odor, which slightly calmed his restless mind.
Pulling harder, the curtain gradually rose, unveiling everything inside the tent.
"No one! Lu Rui escaped!" Wu Chao’s voice caught the attention of the others, even though they often looked down on Lu Rui, after enduring such tragedies, the news of someone escaping alive offered a slight solace to the survivors.
However, Tang Xiaoquan had a different opinion. He gestured Hu Xiaodong over, then took a deep breath of fresh air, leaned toward Lin Muye’s leg, and pointed to the severed part:
"Brother Hu, look here, the cut on the severed bone is very clean. If it were a zombie attack, the bone should have been torn entirely from the knee, not cut smoothly like this, so I suspect Uncle Lin’s leg was chopped off by someone with a blade. But I don’t know enough about blades to determine if such a result is possible."
Hu Xiaodong stared silently at Tang Xiaoquan’s pointed finger for a few seconds, then his eyes grew serious: "As long as the blade’s thickness is appropriate and the angle correct, it’s entirely possible to chop a person’s leg bone in one go. And since Lin Laoge was elderly and his bones were severely degenerated, your deduction is correct."
"What! Uncle Lin was..." This revelation astonished everyone, Wu Chao even grabbed a steel blade and rushed to Tang Xiaoquan’s side, shouting angrily, "Was Uncle Lin really chopped by someone? Who? Who could be so ruthless! Could it be..."
Realizing a certain possibility, Wu Chao’s voice abruptly cut off, then with a look of disbelief, he turned his gaze to Tang Xiaoquan.
No need to ask further, at this point the only suspect they could think of was one, so Tang Xiaoquan nodded without hesitation and then stood up to say, "Four people, three are dead, only Lu Rui escaped, and everyone can see that our personal belongings in the tents are all gone, without a doubt, Lu Rui must have scavenged those items."
"But gathering supplies takes time, and he didn’t kill the zombified Huzi, so the question is, how did he manage to avoid Huzi’s zombie attacks while successfully scavenging supplies and escape?"
"This question puzzled me until I saw Old Lin’s chopped-off leg."
"Undoubtedly, fleeing with an elderly person in a zombie horde is not as safe as escaping alone. So, Lu Rui chopped off Uncle Lin’s right leg. This not only ensured the latter couldn’t escape the rooftop but also used his cries and struggles from the pain to divert Huzi’s attention, giving himself enough time to gather supplies and escape. Lastly, when we followed the marks he left to regroup with him, he could naturally claim that the zombified Huzi attacked the others, covering up all his crimes, and once again blend into our team as if nothing had happened."
"Hiss~" After listening to Tang Xiaoquan’s analysis, everyone couldn’t help but draw a breath of cold air.
No wonder they had such shocked expressions, most of them were young men in their early twenties, and although they were living in a cruel post-apocalyptic world, they still knew little of the nastiness of human nature.
Hu Xiaodong controlled his emotions with great effort, convinced that Lu Rui was the real culprit behind everything, but at this point, he still had one more question to figure out, so...
"Xiao Tang, do you know why Huzi zombified?"