allendalepharm Chapter 16 Cleaning the 4th Floor
Chapter 16 Cleaning the 4th Floor
The two walked out of room 403, and Lu Chen paused at the door.
He glanced back at the ten zombies standing neatly in the corridor, thought for a moment, and then pointed to one of the ordinary zombies.
"You, stay!"
The zombie walked to the door of room 403, turned around to face the corridor, and stood still like a gatekeeper.
Lu Chen patted the doorframe and said to Xu Wan, who was still packing inside, "I'll leave a zombie here to guard the door and protect you. Don't worry about packing!"
Xu Wan's grateful voice came from inside the house, "Okay, okay, thank you!"
Immediately, Lu Chen felt a warm sensation emanating from the meteorite mark on his wrist.
"So, it really does require genuine gratitude? But we need more people to verify it." Lu Chen thought to himself as he led the remaining zombies toward the next room.
Before Lu Chen could speak, Shen Qingci had already walked to the door and closed her eyes to release her supernatural perception.
A moment later she opened her eyes. "There are two zombies inside, both ordinary zombies."
Lu Chen nodded, pulled out the crowbar, wedged it into the door crack, and then took a step back.
The rest is up to Tiezhu.
Tie Zhu gripped the end of the crowbar, his muscles tensed, and with a sudden pull, the wooden panel at the lock cracked open, and the entire door sprang open.
Tie Zhu pushed open the door and entered, followed closely by Da Zhuang and Er Zhuang. The three largest zombies rolled into the entrance hall of 404 like a bulldozer.
Two roars came from the living room!
Lu Chen stood motionless in the corridor. He heard a series of chaotic crashes, something was knocked over, glass shattered, and then the dull thud of a blade cutting into flesh. The screams abruptly stopped.
It all happened in less than thirty seconds!
Once all movement had completely ceased, Lu Chen stepped into room 404.
In the living room, two zombies lay in pools of blood, one of them having been cleaved in two from the shoulder by Tie Zhu's watermelon knife, almost severing its entire upper body.
The other one was hit by Da Zhuang and Er Zhuang at the same time, and its head rolled under the coffee table.
"Inventory the supplies!"
Lu Chen didn't waste time being sentimental and went straight to the kitchen.
The kitchen in apartment 404 is larger than those in the apartments on the fifth floor.
Since the power was out, when I opened the refrigerator door, a rotten smell hit me. The vegetables and meat had been rotting inside for three days and were no longer edible.
Fortunately, there were still quite a few things in the cupboard, including a 10-pound bag of rice that had been opened but was still mostly empty.
Two packs of dried noodles, a box of instant noodles, several packets of pickled vegetables and ham sausages, all the seasonings were there, including oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar, and even an unopened bottle of chili sauce.
Lu Chen took these items out of the cabinet one by one and arranged them in a row on the stove.
Shen Qingci went to the bedroom and bathroom. She was much faster than Lu Chen, and finished searching in just a few minutes.
"I have some medicine." She came out carrying a small first-aid kit, opened it to show Lu Chen, and said, "I have cold medicine, fever reducers, anti-inflammatory drugs, band-aids, and iodine. I also have two rolls of toilet paper, an unopened bottle of shower gel, and half a bottle of laundry detergent in the bathroom."
"They also have daily necessities over there!" Shen Qingci pointed to the TV cabinet in the living room. "There are batteries, lighters, and a few candles in the drawers. There are clothes racks and clothespins on the balcony."
Lu Chen walked around the room and gathered all the usable items in the center of the living room. The owner of 404 was clearly a stockpile of goods, possessing even more supplies than Lu Chen had stored.
Besides food and other necessities, he also pulled out two knives. One was a sheathed fruit knife with a blade less than ten centimeters long, but it was very sharp. The other was a kitchen cleaver with a thick back and a blade that was much heavier than an ordinary kitchen knife.
"This is for Tiezhu!" Lu Chen put the cleaver aside. Tiezhu was the strongest, and the heavier the weapon, the greater its power.
After all the items were inventoried, they were piled up in the center of the living room like a small mountain.
Rice, flour, cooking oil, canned food, pharmaceuticals, daily necessities, knives and tools—all mixed together, they weigh at least a hundred kilograms.
Moving everything at once is impractical.
Lu Chen went into the bedroom, pulled off the bed sheet, and spread it flat on the living room floor. He then stacked the supplies on the sheet one by one, and after finishing, he gathered the four corners of the sheet together to form a large bundle.
He tried to lift it, but couldn't.
However, when Tie Zhu was called over, the other party picked him up with one hand.
"Next room!" Lu Chen clapped his hands.
The two led the zombie horde out of room 404, piled the huge bundle at the door, and then turned to room 405 next door.
The process is exactly the same.
Breaking down the door, entering, and killing the zombies—Lu Chen and Tie Zhu have become increasingly adept at this process.
Shen Qingci scouted out the zombies' location beforehand, wedged a crowbar into the door crack, and broke the lock with two quick snaps of the iron pillar. Three strong zombies filed in, and a brief, muffled fighting sound echoed in the living room before falling silent.
The whole process took less than a minute.
The real time-consuming part was taking inventory of the supplies.
Lu Chen entered the room and began searching through everything one by one.
Check the kitchen cabinets, the refrigerator's crisper and freezer compartments, the storage drawers under the stove, and then the bedroom: are there any thick clothes in the wardrobe, any commonly used medicines in the bedside table, and any toolbox under the bed?
It takes at least ten minutes to check each room.
When they reached the third room, Lu Chen straightened up and glanced at his watch. Forty minutes had passed since they entered this floor, most of which had been spent rummaging through drawers and cabinets.
He put down the half-bag of rice in his hand and patted the dust off his hands.
"That won't work, it takes too much time."
Lu Chen frowned slightly and quickly calculated, "It took more than ten minutes just to check the supplies in one room. There are six rooms on one floor, and it will take more than an hour to check them all. At this rate, we can only check half of the floors at most today, and the rest will have to wait until tomorrow."
But the survivors can't wait that long; every extra day they wait increases the danger for those trapped in the rooms.
Moreover, he had already heard about elite zombies on the radio today. Those things are gradually evolving, and the longer it takes, the greater the variables will become.
He quickly made a decision, saying, "Clean up the zombies first, then take the weapons and knives."
"The rest of the work—gathering supplies—can wait until we've rescued more survivors; let them handle that. We don't need to waste our time on that."
This is a very simple efficiency calculation. He and Shen Qingci have limited energy. Inventorying supplies is a task that requires no technical skills and can be done by anyone with able hands and feet.
Shen Qingci nodded immediately: "Okay! I'll arrange that."
Arranging personnel work is something she excels at. Having worked in HR for several years, she's adept at knowing what types of people are suited for what kinds of work, and how to group people for maximum efficiency.
"Then I'll have to trouble you." Seeing that the other party took the initiative to accept the task, Lu Chen also smiled. If he were to arrange these things, it would be a real headache.
The pace of the subsequent clearing operation suddenly accelerated.
They pried open the door, and Tie Zhu led his men inside, slaying the zombies and grabbing all the knives from the kitchen knife rack before heading straight to the next room.
Not long after, only one room, 401, remained on the fourth floor.
The situation is slightly different for 401.
After examining the area, Shen Qingci said, "There's only one zombie inside, but it's bigger than a regular zombie."
"It's not as strong as Da Zhuang, but it's among the strongest of the ordinary zombies."
Lu Chen immediately perked up.
"Don't kill them, capture them alive!"
He currently has ten zombies under his command, but he can easily replace them if he encounters a stronger one.
The process of prying open the door was the same as before. After Tie Zhu pried open the door, Lu Chen did not let it rush in and kill directly. Instead, he let Tie Zhu, Da Zhuang, and Er Zhuang, three strong zombies, go in together with the goal of suppressing them.
The zombie in room 401 was indeed much stronger than the ordinary ones. It was able to struggle even when surrounded by three zombies, and its roars could be heard throughout the corridor.
But with three against one, including someone like Tie Zhu who has a physical advantage, they can't turn the tide.
Soon, the zombie was pinned to the ground by Tie Zhu.
Only after there was no more movement inside did Lu Chen enter room 401.
The zombie that had been subdued in front of them had much more defined muscles than ordinary zombies, and was only half a level below Da Zhuang.
He glanced back at his zombie horde in the corridor.
If all ten slots are filled, and we want to take this one, we'll have to replace it with another.