Chapter 93: Cellar
The boy who poked his head out of the well was a little boy who looked to be only about ten years old.
The little boy looked at them with some fear but still summoned up the courage to ask: "Who... who are you?"
Yun Shuhuai replied: "We are survivors passing by. My cat ran here. Did you see it?"
"What... what kind of cat?"
"It's a black and white, big Maine cat. It ran here." Yun Shuhuai stared at the little boy and said with certainty, "It's my family member. It was scared by the zombies and ran away."
The little boy said with some embarrassment: "I don't have... I don't have..."
Before the little boy could finish, Yun Shuhuai interrupted him directly: "Little brother, my cat is in your cellar. It is a mutant animal and eats a lot of meat for every meal. Are you sure you want to keep it? Or do you not intend to return it to me at all?"
"No, no, it looks scared and has been hiding in the corner." The little boy explained quickly when he saw the sister in front of him looking a little angry. He could sense that these two people were much more powerful than him, so he didn't dare to offend them.
Yun Shuhuai heard that Guo Baorou was in a bad condition, so he stepped directly through the gap in the wall, followed closely by Xi Qing. The little boy was startled and said in horror: "What are you going to do?"
"Let me go down, I want to see my cat!"
"No!" The little boy immediately refused.
"Why?"
"Your origins are unknown, I don't know whether you are bad guys or not!"
Yun Shuhuai stood up and looked at him for a while, then took out a bag of snacks from the backpack on his back and handed it to him: "I'll give you this, can you let me go see the cats?"
The little boy looked at the sealed paper bag in his hand, then looked at Yun Shuhuai. He tore it open gently, and then the aroma of food came out. It was the smell of meat!
The little boy swallowed and looked at Yun Shuhuai in disbelief and said, "You are really not bad people?"
"Brother, I just want to find my cat. I've been looking for it for the whole afternoon. I swear I will never hurt you, okay? Let me go down and I'll give you another bag, how about that?" Yun Shuhuai was helpless. It was a good thing that the child had a strong sense of safety, but she had finally found the pot-baked meat and couldn't wait. Considering that he was a child, Yun Shuhuai was very restrained.
Seeing that the little boy was still a little scared, Xi Qing also walked over. She squatted down and said to him: "We are sorry that we destroyed your vines. We came from the south today, and the cat was scared away by the zombies. We finally found it. Can you let us go down and take a look?"
"South? How is it possible? There are monsters that can throw stones there. Many people died there!"
"It's true. We have killed all those things. If you don't believe me, look, this is a photo of us driving from the south." Xi Qing took out a photo from her bag and showed it to him.
The little boy looked at the photo of two people holding a cat and sitting in a luxurious off-road vehicle. There were zombies and familiar landmarks in the background. It was indeed taken in the end of the world, and the location was indeed in the south.
"Are you really from the south? No, what's with this photo?"
Xi Qing showed the Polaroid camera in her bag again.
The little boy looked at the two of them, "I... I can let you in, you promise not to hurt my family!"
The two said in unison: "Absolutely promise!"
Seeing them like this, the little boy stopped trying to stop them, stood up and opened the lid to let them in.
Suddenly, his face turned horrified, pointing at the gap in the courtyard wall and shouting: "Zombie!"
But before he finished speaking, a metal shuttle pierced the zombie's head, and brought out a transparent crystal core that flew back and fell into Yun Shuhuai's hands.
The little boy's voice suddenly stopped. He looked at Yun Shuhuai with sparkling eyes and whispered, "Very powerful."
But the noise they made just now was a bit too loud. The little boy's shout was particularly loud in the quiet and empty village. Along with the chaotic footsteps, the howling of zombies soon came from outside the house, which was extremely creepy in the middle of the night.
Xi Qing stood up and drew his weapon, "You guys go down first, I'll be back soon." Then he turned around and walked outside.
"Don't you need help?" Yun Shuhuai said.
"No, you've helped me enough. I can still handle this little thing."
The little boy looked at Xi Qing's back as she walked out with a knife, and he also said, "Sister, when you come back, touch the vines at the door five times, and I'll open the door for you."
Xi Qing smiled, "Okay." Then she killed a zombie that had already run to the gap with a knife, and stepped out.
While Xi Qing was holding the zombie outside, the little boy quickly opened the well mouth and let Yun Shuhuai climb down.
It was very dark in the well, and the air inside was not good, filled with a foul smell. Yun Shuhuai turned on the flashlight after landing.
This seemed to be a cellar, and it looked quite spacious. She looked around with a flashlight. There were some tables, chairs and other daily necessities in the cellar. There seemed to be a person lying in a corner on one side, and a little girl was sitting on the other side. She looked very similar to the little boy. There was a big white ball lying next to the little girl.
"Pot-wrapped meat!" Yun Shuhuai shouted in surprise.
The white ball moved, looked up and saw Yun Shuhuai, then "meowed" and ran over to Yun Shuhuai and jumped into his arms.
Yun Shuhuai hugged it tightly, tears almost falling, "Finally found you, why did you run so far, what if you were caught by zombies? What if you were taken away by mutants? You dared to go around after you mutated, if you do this again I will never let you out again!"
"Meow, meow, meow~" Guo Baorou couldn't speak, but just clung to Yun Shuhuai with all his strength.
"Silly cat, you've grown so fat that I thought you were going to be stewed."
The little boy walked behind Yun Shuhuai, and after he came down, he happily ran towards the two people in the cellar with the bag of snacks.
"Xiao Wan, Grandpa, we have meat!"
The boy ran to the corner and helped the old man up, then pulled his sister over, tore open the package and handed them the dried meat.
The little girl reached out and took a piece, but she didn't eat it. Instead, she handed it to the frail old man.
The old man opened his mouth and seemed unable to speak, only making a few gasps. He patted the two children gently and asked them to eat.
Yun Shuhuai stood by and watched them with the pot-wrapped meat in his arms. The boy and the girl looked very thin, and the old man was even more skinny. The rotten smell came from him.
The little boy handed the meat to his sister, and then came over to move a stool for Yun Shuhuai.
Yun Shuhuai looked at the greasy stool and couldn't sit down, but he remembered that he had just crawled out of a pile of zombies not long ago, and his body was not clean, so he moved the stool and sat aside.