Chapter 39: Time goes back.
Shu Lan had just driven out of the farm, wanting to escape the troubled area of District 9, when Shu Maomao pointed to the sky and said, "Mommy, another plane is coming."
As a last resort, the mother and son had to abandon the car and hide in the nearest underground parking lot, waiting for the second round of missile bombing to end.
Obviously, the military did not agree to compromise with the zombies, and the shells hit the ground with heavy fury, as if to blow everything that moved in the area into pieces.
After three days of continuous bombing, District 9 fell completely silent.
The mother and son crawled out of the air-raid shelter in the underground parking lot and stood in front of the car that had become scrap metal.
Shu Maomao asked, "Mommy, is this our car?"
Shu Lan said, "No, our car is not that flat."
Having lost her means of transportation, Shu Lan returned to her original starting point, and her situation was even worse than her original starting point. At first she had a bicycle, but now she only has two legs.
Shu Lan didn't know what District 9 looked like before, but the city she saw now was in such a mess that it was no exaggeration to say it was in such a state. There were broken glass, collapsed buildings, and missile debris everywhere. Some places were even smoking, and the smell of gunpowder in the air overwhelmed the stench of rotting corpses.
Even so, Shu Lan still walked in, because Shu Maomao said that Anselin used her roar to lead the zombies to other places. The war here was over, and the war outside had just begun.
Shu Lan picked up a watch that could move and a small electric scooter that could be ridden on the road. While riding the electric scooter, she cleared obstacles on the road and reached her final destination by stopping and starting.
The survivor base in the center of District 9.
This used to be an industrial park. The electric fence around the wall was broken into pieces, only half of the gate remained, the ground was covered with bloodstains and human limbs, and a missile shell was embedded in the office building directly opposite the gate.
Shu Lan walked through the park and stopped at the entrance of a hidden underground air-raid shelter.
A green vine crawled through the crack in the door and opened the lock inside.
Shu Lan held Shu Maomao's hand, and their footsteps seemed to echo. The survivors hiding in the underground passage all quieted down at the same time, listening to the faint sound echoing in the air.
In the suddenly open space, there was a huge group of people sitting there, holding all kinds of weapons in their hands, staring at Shu Lan who suddenly appeared with terrified and desperate eyes.
Shu Lan spoke immediately: "I am a human being, a living person."
The light down there was too dim, so she pointed the flashlight at her face and showed them her pupils.
The survivors in the passage breathed a sigh of relief, then asked with lingering fear, "Are you coming here to support us from somewhere else? Is it safe outside now? Are all the zombies dead?"
Hope lit up on the originally decadent and gloomy faces, and everyone soon started asking questions.
"Has the plane that's going to transfer us arrived?"
"How come you're the only one coming down here, and you're bringing a child with you?"
Hundreds of mouths were talking at once, making Shu Lan's head buzz. She gestured for them to stop and waited until they gradually quieted down before speaking.
"I have good news and bad news. The good news is that there are no zombies outside, and not all of them were blown to death. They escaped. I don't know if they went to District 10 or District 8. The bad news is that there is no plane to pick you up. There is only a small electric donkey, which I picked up on the street, and it is almost out of power."
One after another, their gazes dimmed again, and their faces turned gray again.
"So what should we do?"
"have no idea……"
"Which district are you from? Why haven't I seen you before?"
Shu Lan replied, "Area 8. I have an earth-related ability. I've been hiding underground to avoid zombies."
"No wonder you're alive. If there weren't any zombies outside, could we go out?"
"Is that alright..."
The people in the air-raid shelter pushed and shoved their way out.
Shu Lan held Shu Maomao's hand and walked inside. Under the dim emergency lights in the passage, there were various temporary beds made of dirty cardboard, blankets, coats, etc.
Packages of compressed biscuits were everywhere, and the air was filled with the smell of human life.
At the end, there was a young woman sitting next to a folding bed. There was another person lying on the bed. She was treated much more specially than the others, so she was also very eye-catching.
Shu Lan walked up to the young woman, lowered her head and asked her, "Aren't you going out with them?"
The young woman's eyelids were half-lifted, her expression looked very numb, and her voice was very tired: "No, I have to look after our commander."
Shu Lan looked at the woman lying on the folding bed. She was about forty years old, with a pale face, chapped lips, and looked like she was dying.
She asked curiously, "Is this your commander Jiang He? When I heard the broadcast, I thought your commander had been killed by zombies."
The young woman sighed, "All the combat-type espers in our base died, but our main commander couldn't die."
Shu Lan was surprised and asked, "Why can't she die?"
The young woman said, "You should have heard that our commander's special ability is to go back in time. He is the only person in the world who can survive being bitten by a zombie and not be infected. In addition, he can help others eliminate the infection."
Shu Lan sat down next to the young woman: "Well, what then?"
The young woman sighed deeply. "Alas, I just discovered that our commander's ability will automatically rewind when she's on the verge of death, restoring her to her state half an hour ago."
Shu Lan's eyes lit up and she turned to look at Shu Maomao.
If Jiang He's special ability could be taken away, wouldn't it be equivalent to giving Shu Maomao a permanent golden medal of immunity from death?
At the same time, Shu Lan felt very strange and asked, "Then your commander shouldn't be in this state right now?"
The young woman was silent for a moment, then looked up at Shu Lan: "My name is Zhong Mei, and I have healing abilities. What's yours?"
Shu Lan said friendly, "My name is Qin Xiaoshuang, and I have earth-related abilities. This is my son, nicknamed Maomao."
Shu Maomao looked up at her silently without saying anything.
Who is Qin Xiaoshuang?
After asking for her name, Zhong Mei, as if making up her mind, told Shu Lan, "On the day our base was breached, negotiations between humans and high-level zombies failed, and they killed the combat-type esper. Those of us in charge of logistics heard the air raid sirens and hid in the air-raid shelter before the missiles fell. But the main commander didn't run away. They seemed to be well aware of her esper abilities. They hung her on steel bars and bled her for several hours. Every time she died from excessive blood loss, her esper abilities would drag her back to the state she was in half an hour ago and bleed her again."
Shu Lan opened her eyes wide and took a deep breath. "Hiss, how cruel!"
"Well, the commander slowly eased herself down from the steel bars, relying on her will to survive to crawl to the entrance of the air-raid shelter and ask us for help. During this process, she was still suffering from near-death blood loss and repeated flashbacks. She must have exhausted all her energy. She hasn't woken up since entering the air-raid shelter. I used my supernatural powers to help her. Every time I healed her a little, the commander would wake up and subconsciously use the flashback power to restore her body to its original state."
Zhong Mei sighed deeply. These days, she had been struggling in despair and exhaustion. No one else cared about the main commander and advised her to give up Jiang He and not waste her energy.
But Jiang He is not dead. Are the people who once helped them rebuild their home just going to leave her struggling in pain and do nothing?
She couldn't do it, but she was indeed tired of Jiang He's behavior. She had accumulated a lot of pent-up emotions and needed to find a place to vent. No one else was willing to listen, and only the stranger from District 8 in front of her was curious. He was the only person she could talk to.
"So I have to keep an eye on our main commander. After she wakes up, I tell her not to use her retroactive ability anymore, otherwise I'll never heal her. But she seems to have been driven crazy by her own ability. Every time she wakes up, she speaks nonsense that I can't understand and doesn't listen to my advice at all."
After listening to this, Shu Lan sympathetically said, "Zhong Mei, you're quite a nice person. If it were me, I would have been too lazy to care about her a long time ago."
"Others also said to ignore the commander-in-chief, saying that he couldn't be saved." Zhong Mei tilted her head to look at the unconscious Jiang He: "But she is still alive after all. Doctors will not give up on any living patient."
Shu Lan patted her shoulder: "Thank you for your hard work."
Zhong Mei had talked too much and felt a little thirsty, so she asked, "Qin Xiaoshuang, do you have any water?"
Shu Lan showed her her bag, which only had two empty water bottles. "Excuse me, I just finished my drink and came here looking for water. I happened to hear some noise here, so I came down to check."
When you are out, don't show your wealth.
Zhong Mei stood up. "Then I'll go get you some water. Could you please keep an eye on our commander? If she wakes up, please warn her loudly and tell her not to use her replay ability again."
Shu Lan nodded: "Okay, you go."
Zhong Mei left, and only Shu Lan and Shu Maomao were left in the air-raid shelter.
Shu Maomao asked, "Mommy, why is your name different every time? I always call you Maomao?"
Shu Lan burst into laughter and patted his head: "Be good, baby, because Mommy is too lazy to think of two names at once."
She squatted beside the folding bed, gently lifted Jiang He's quilt, and glanced at Jiang He's wound. Probably because there was no way to change it, the old and dirty bandage was stained with blood.
The blood and the ability to recall the past are very tempting. I want to grab them and give them to Shu Maomao.
But Shu Lan knew that she couldn't take it now, because she and Shu Maomao were the only ones here. If Jiang He, who couldn't die, suddenly lost his supernatural power and died immediately, she would be the biggest suspect.
Shu Lan put down the blanket. The unconscious man suddenly opened his eyes. She was startled and smiled friendly. "Hello, Commander Jiang He. Zhong Mei asked me to watch you. She asked you not to..."
"Shu Lan!" Jiang He's eyes suddenly widened, looking at her in disbelief and anger. "You are Shu Lan! You are not dead yet!"
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