45: Thanks to Lao Tie

Zhang Mengqi, 28, was an expert in wireless communication research.

When the zombie outbreak occurred, she and a dozen colleagues were trapped in the top-floor Laboratory of this building.

The Laboratory conditions were excellent, with a lounge and a storage room, and a certain amount of food reserves.

They had called for support at the time, but received no response.

Three companions went downstairs and brought back some water and food.

About ten days after the zombie outbreak, four colleagues were infected and mutated, biting two other colleagues to death.

One male colleague, disregarding the danger, lured the mutated zombies away, thus saving the lives of the remaining colleagues.

Originally, there were six people in the Laboratory, including Zhang Mengqi, but three months had passed since the zombie outbreak, and in the first month, the food had already been depleted.

They had no weapons, so they could only go down, floor by floor, to collect supplies.

Those zombies hadn't eaten for a month; they either jumped off the building or were extremely weak, with weak attacks.

Thus, the six people lasted for more than thirty days, but the further down they went, the more zombies there were.

These scientists were too weak in combat, too timid, and just circled around, not daring to escape the building at all.

Due to the power outage, they could only rely on a solar panel and a small hand-cranked generator they cobbled together to power the wireless telegraph.

Later water sources were either filtered urine from the group, or water taken from toilet cisterns for circulation.

Sometimes, when it rained, they would collect some rainwater.

Among the six, one went mad and jumped to his death, and two others suffered from gastrointestinal illness and died in the hallway from the pain.

The remaining three had been hungry for more than ten days, but Zhang Mengqi insisted on sending out distress signals every day, seeking help from the outside world.

Among all the researchers, she was the youngest and endured the longest.

When Tian Ming and Shen Yuan found them, the other two researchers had dark faces, stiff bodies, and extremely faint breaths.

Even if they were taken back, they could not be saved.

A fragrant piece of bread was offered to Zhang Mengqi's mouth.

Zhang Mengqi had been hungry for too long; she even felt as if she was dreaming when she was rescued.

She was extremely weak, slowly opened her mouth, and took a bite of the bread.

"Delicious!" Zhang Mengqi's eyes were unfocused, and she chewed expressionlessly, very slowly.

Tian Ming handed her another bottle of milk and said to Shen Yuan, "Feed her slowly, don't rush, she's very weak."

Shen Yuan nodded and said, "I know, it looks like we arrived late, out of more than ten people, only she is left."

She didn't know how Zhang Mengqi had endured until now.

Her conversation with herself yesterday consisted of mechanical replies; she even thought everything that happened was an illusion.

Zhang Mengqi slowly swallowed the bread in her mouth, and her eyes gradually regained some luster.

She looked at Shen Yuan and Tian Ming in front of her, a very stiff smile appearing on her face.

Shen Yuan continued to feed Zhang Mengqi milk, while Tian Ming observed her condition from the side.

A tear slid down Zhang Mengqi's emaciated cheek.

More than ten days ago, the food had already run out, and at that time, her emotions had already collapsed.

Finding hope in desperation, Zhang Mengqi's tears were like the endless pain in her heart, and also like her life force slowly recovering.

In this Laboratory besieged by zombies, her resilience and perseverance made her hold on until the very end.

"Thank you, thank you all!" Zhang Mengqi's voice was hoarse, but she thanked Tian Ming and Shen Yuan with difficulty.

"Don't speak anymore, your body is still very weak, I'll take you out of here," Shen Yuan said.

Zhang Mengqi looked at Shen Yuan with tears in her eyes, then at Tian Ming, her gratitude inexpressible in words.

She knew that the appearance of these two strangers had given her the hope to live.

Zhang Mengqi handed over a string of keys, which were the backup keys for the data machine room.

"On the east side of the top floor, there's a temporary disk with our research results.

Please make sure to take them."

Tian Ming took the keys, nodded, ran into the machine room, and pulled out all the storage chips inside.

These contained all the data.

He transformed a backpack and directly put them into it.

In this era, enterprise-level storage had entered the all-solid-state era.

Although the data volume was huge, the stacking of storage units had reached a terrifying over ten thousand layers.

Moreover, due to the development of room-temperature superconductivity technology, the problem of data loss was also successfully resolved.

These chips stored data from over ten years.

With this data and a talent like Zhang Mengqi, he wouldn't have to worry about his Shelter not being able to use advanced communication technology.

After tidying up, Tian Ming carried Zhang Mengqi, directly penetrating the floors from the Laboratory and arriving at the first floor.

Zhang Mengqi fell asleep after eating; she was extremely weak now.

Tian Ming drove, taking the two through the city.

Although they encountered many zombies along the way, these zombies were no match for Tian Ming.

He quickly eliminated them.

Upon returning to the Shelter, Zhang Mengqi was immediately sent to the Clinic within the Shelter.

Amino acids, glucose, albumin, everything was immediately hooked up.

Anyway, this person couldn't die; it took a lot of effort to rescue her.

Tian Ming handed the backpack to Shen Yuan and said, "These are storage chips; you keep them.

I'll go see if Gouzi and the others are back."

Shen Yuan was quite resentful of Tian Ming after this outing.

This guy was clearly messing with her.

He was so powerful, yet he had to scare her so badly that she wet her pants in that manner.

Although she was unhappy, she dared not show it on her face, but she had certainly remembered this grudge.

"You go.

When Zhang Mengqi wakes up, I'll talk to her again."

"Okay!" Tian Ming nodded and walked out of the Clinic.

He took out the walkie-talkie and said, "Gouzi, Gouzi, are you there?"

Gouzi's voice came through the walkie-talkie: "Boss, what's up?"

"Who told you to go out?

Why didn't you apply to me before going out?" Tian Ming's tone carried a hint of displeasure.

Gouzi was silent for a moment on the other end of the walkie-talkie, then said, "Boss, I know I was wrong; it won't happen again.

We collected quite a lot of supplies and are now in the lounge next to the warehouse.

I, Brother Qiu, and Iron Dude are all here."

"Who is Iron Dude?" Tian Ming asked with some confusion.

"It's your zombie little brother; he's awesome!

If it weren't for him, we two would definitely be dead this time," Gouzi said excitedly.

When Tian Ming pushed open the lounge next to the warehouse, Gouzi, Qiu Wuhui, and the Metal Zombie were sitting there.

Gouzi and Qiu Wuhui held cans of beer, while the zombie, with great seriousness, held a glass with a sticky mass inside.

Gouzi and Qiu Wuhui both had cuts on their faces, but their faces were very excited.

Gouzi patted the Metal Zombie's back and said, "Iron Dude, I'm sorry for causing you to lose an arm.

But I've prepared some good iron sand for you; you should rest well."

The zombie babbled incoherently, seemingly saying, "It's nothing, my broken arm will grow back in a day."

Tian Ming looked at this scene of talking past each other, and his originally gloomy and tense face couldn't hold it anymore.

They couldn't even understand each other's language, yet they were sitting together drinking, and so intimately.

It was truly baffling.