After a day of effort by both the fire brigade and soldiers, the mutated red ant swarm was finally driven away.
Long Gan even caught five or six live mutated red ants, put them in a sealed glass jar, and took them away.
Along with the mutated poisonous ants, there were also 220 skeletons in the community that had been eaten away by the mutated poisonous ants, and 45 people who were bitten by the mutated ants and poisoned by their saliva died.
Among them were 85 people who sustained minor injuries and were taken to the hospital.
Before the torrential rain and floods, their community had a population of over 10,000. After the torrential rains, floods, and this extreme heat disaster, fewer than 3,200 people are still alive.
Now, after this attack by mutated poisonous red ants, more than one-tenth of the residents in the community have died or been injured in just one day.
The surviving residents of the community looked through the glass of their balconies at the skeletons and corpses being carried down from the buildings by firefighters and soldiers, and they could no longer control their fear and despair.
"What kind of world is this? I'd rather be dead!"
The Xu and Xiao families could clearly hear the wails coming from two neighboring households across the corridor.
Judging from the cries coming from these two homes, adults and children in both families had died from bites caused by these mutated, poisonous red ants.
"Tian Tian, Tian Tian, no, I need to check on my son again. He's only thirteen, still a minor. And my husband, he was perfectly fine when I woke up this morning..."
"Madam, please accept my condolences!"
"It's really not easy for everyone to survive in this environment, so please take care of yourself!"
Hearing the desperate cries and words of comfort from across the corridor, Xu Lai and her family felt as if their hearts were being ripped apart by a sharp knife.
Even Song Qiu'e, who was emotional and had relatively more contact with her neighbors across the street, was silently wiping away tears along with the mournful cries.
"Dear residents, the mutated poisonous red ants have been driven away by the firefighters and the soldiers who came to assist."
But nobody knows if they will attack again. Everyone must keep their doors and windows tightly closed these next two days. Seal any gaps or cracks, including door seams and air conditioner drain holes. Don't be careless!
After recovering from medical treatment, Feng Chun, the community leader, and two subordinates rode electric bikes through the community using a loudspeaker to broadcast safety precautions after the main rescue team left.
"Lai Lai, before it gets dark, hurry up and send me into the space. There's still some unused cement in there. I'll add some water and use it to seal all the drain holes in this air conditioner!"
Thinking about how horde of mutated red ants looked today, Grandpa Xu still felt a lingering fear.
"Second Uncle is right. We observed it today as well. Those mutated red poison ants are not only highly aggressive, but they have also evolved intelligence. If they come for revenge and get into our house, it will be terrible!"
Xu Haiguo also hurriedly spoke up.
Xu Lai nodded after hearing this and quickly brought her second uncle and father into the space.
The whole family worked together to seal all the air conditioner drain pipe holes in the house with cement, and then used strong tape to cover all the drain hole covers tightly.
The Xu family, who were truly terrified by the mutated poisonous red ants today, have done all this, and although they haven't even had lunch, they still have no appetite.
That evening, Xu Lai took the initiative to cook a pot of tomato and egg noodles, served a bowl to everyone, and forced them to eat it before she stopped.
After dinner, worried about his old boss and old friend, Mr. Xu insisted on calling Mr. Xiao and Mr. Lu again to make sure they were alright before hanging up.
"Lai Lai, take some cement dust out of your space. I'll send some to Squad Leader Xiao's house and Brother Lu's house respectively, and also seal up the holes connecting their houses to the outside!"
After hanging up the phone, Grandpa Xu looked very worried about his two old friends' families.
After listening, Xu Lai went into her spatial dimension and divided the cement dust into two small bags, then left the space with these items.
"Second Uncle, I'll go with you to deliver it!"
Worried that there might be mutated red poisonous ants left on the stairs outside, Xu Lai personally accompanied Grandpa Xu out the door.
The Xiao and Lu families, who had managed to cook a simple dinner despite their own efforts, were very grateful to Grandpa Xu and Xu Lai for taking the risk to deliver cement mortar to their home.
After seeing the two off, the two families quickly added some of the water they had saved to the cement mortar and mixed it to plug the drain hole of their air conditioner. Only then did they breathe a sigh of relief.
Because of the swarm of mutated red ants that appeared during the day, the Xu family got up several times throughout the night, carrying rechargeable energy-saving lamps to check all the rooms in the house, including the kitchen and bathroom, several times.
Thankfully, nothing happened throughout the night.
The next morning, Xu Lai heard a loud thud as something heavy fell to the ground, followed by the screams of surviving residents from the building across the street pointing at the second unit of their building.
"Someone jumped from the building! Someone jumped from the second unit on the first floor..."
Upon hearing the noise, Xu Lai and her family immediately sensed something was wrong. They rushed to the balcony and peered out onto the open space on the ground floor of Unit 2.
On the hard concrete ground below the apartment building, a person wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans lay face down, her head exposed. Bright red blood spread rapidly from her head, like a spider lily gradually blooming.
"Oh my god, isn't that the girl from 1704?"
Song Qiu'e stretched her finger out the window, pointing tremblingly at the middle-aged woman lying motionless on the cement ground, and shouted in a somewhat out-of-control voice.
Their neighbor lost her husband and son yesterday in a swarm of mutated red ants.
"What a terrible thing!"
The oldest man, Mr. Xu, couldn't bear to see this cruel scene, shook his head, and sighed helplessly.
"There's no one else in apartment 1704. Let's go down and check on them as neighbors!"
Knowing he shouldn't be soft-hearted, Xu Haiguo sighed along with his second uncle and offered his advice.
Indeed, respect for the deceased is paramount, especially since they were neighbors.
Moreover, although the two families were not close, during the year and seven months following the natural disaster, the two neighboring households across the corridor did not cause them any trouble.
She also remembered that when Zhang Xiaowu from the Samsung gang and Xiong Zhong, the former building manager, teamed up to cause trouble for them, these two neighbors had secretly passed messages to their family.
So the family decided to go downstairs to take a look.
When they went out, they saw Grandpa Xiao and Li Qingya coming out of their house.
When they came downstairs, the neighbor who jumped had already been surrounded by onlookers.
Xu Lai and the others finally managed to squeeze in. Xu Haiguo squatted down and reached out to touch his neighbor's nose; she was already dead.
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