The large door opened, and a group of about ten people entered. They were all equipped with rifles slung across their chests.
With the other people in the warehouse watching, these individuals pushed the newly arrived, unconscious people onto the floor. Everyone remained silent. After finishing their task of adding the new arrivals to the warehouse, the group left without saying a word.
With the new additions, there were now approximately one hundred people in the warehouse. Some, like the commissioner, stayed in their own quiet corners. Others began to huddle together, seeking safety in numbers.
At this moment, the commissioner's expression turned grim. She had recognized the uniforms of the group that had just entered, they belonged to the Doom cult.
She thought back to several years ago, before the horrific sacrifice they had caused. The Doom cult had their own distinct uniforms. It was only after they were nearly wiped out by humanity that they stopped daring to wear them.
The same was true for the Doom cult today. If a person was found with one of those uniforms in their possession, they would be arrested immediately.
After the purge that year, it seemed some remnants of the Doom cult had escaped to this city and rebuilt their organization, using the survivors as their foundation. After many years, they now dared to poke their heads out again, extending their reach to Frontline 17.
If this was indeed the Doom cult, based on their inhumane cruelty, it was highly likely that the people they took away would not have a good ending.
Food for the doom, experimental subjects, tools for venting, there were too many horrible things these cultists could do. They saw lives as mere commodities to be used and expended at will. As someone who had lived through the era when the Doom cult was at its most active, the commissioner understood this all too well.
And if she didn't escape, she would certainly become food in the mouths of the doom.
While she was thinking of a way out, a strange noise appeared in the room. Almost everyone remained silent, but a few of the people who had been living in the warehouse for a long time explained that it was the sound of food flowing down the trenches.
And it was true; a stream of some kind of pulverized, mixed food, whose ingredients were unknown, gradually flowed down the trenches. It was too dark for the commissioner to see the shape or color of the food, but she could feel that it had just been cooked, as it was still steaming.
The sound of slurping soon emerged, led by the people who had been there the longest. Gradually, everyone followed suit, bending down to the trenches and eating in this manner. As survivors of the apocalypse, almost no one had enough food to eat, so they would eat whenever they could to satisfy their hunger.
A few people did not eat, silently sitting in their places.
The commissioner was one of them, but her reason for not eating was different from the others. After realizing that this facility belonged to the Doom cult, she became suspicious of everything here, including the food and water.
Would those crazy cultists be so kind as to provide delicious food for the survivors? And in such a huge quantity?
The commissioner didn't think so. Either the food itself had a problem, or the food... was not what they thought it was.
What was even more strange was that when the door opened, thanks to the brief burst of light, she had observed many people in the room. The commissioner noticed that among them were only people of her own age, elderly people, and teenagers from about 15 to 20 years old. There were no women other than the elderly ones, and no adult men or women.
It wasn't that she was looking down on others, but the survival rate of adults was much higher than that of the young and the old. She didn't believe that among all the survivors the Doom cult had captured, there were no adults.
"I just hope an opportunity comes quickly."
The commissioner couldn't remember the last time she was in a situation like this. No bodyguards, no military protection; it was just her facing the situation alone. Although there was no immediate danger, this situation wouldn't last for long.
The newly brought-in people also began to wake up, and under the guidance of the older residents, they started to eat. Watching this scene, the commissioner felt both a sense of amusement and sadness. When had humanity been reduced to eating from a trench like a pig trough just to survive by the hand of their own kind?
About ten minutes later, water began to flow down the trenches, washing the food away and carrying it out through the pipes connected to the trenches. The people who hadn't eaten became horrified, scrambling to the trenches to try and eat the pulverized food that was now flowing away. But they recoiled in pain as soon as they touched the water, because the water used to wash the food was scalding hot.
Their empty stomachs and the burning pain from the hot water made those people deeply regretful. No one among those who had eaten showed any glee or smugness; most were just silent. Some felt lucky that they had managed to eat in time, while others showed no expression, but their eyes were clearly laughing at the pain of others.
The commissioner remained focused, unaffected by the people around her. Her gaze was fixed on the door from beginning to end, waiting for an opportunity.
Days passed, and the commissioner's face became a little gaunt and pale. For the past few days, she had only dared to drink water and hadn't touched any of the food, still focusing on the main door.
Finally, on the third day, the door opened. Ten armed cultists entered. This time, they came to take people away.
Crying and begging had no effect at all. They coldly tied up people one by one and fastened them to a large rope to lead them away.
Even though her body was weak, tired, and depleted from hunger, the commissioner knew this was her chance - a chance to escape. Suppressing her feelings of weakness and fatigue, she used the terrain and the cover of darkness to stealthily approach one of the cultists.
The man was in the process of tying someone up, so both of his hands were not holding his rifle; it was just dangling from his neck. The commissioner snatched it, and when he tried to resist, she used the rifle strap to strangle him. The other cultists quickly noticed. Ignoring the life of their fellow cultist being choked, they opened fire.
The cultist was riddled with bullets, beyond any hope of survival. But just as the bullets were about to hit her, the card Noid had given her was activated, and a transparent crystal shield formed around the commissioner, blocking all incoming bullets.
Taking advantage of the cultists' stunned surprise, she controlled the rifle of the man she was strangling and shot and killed all nine of the remaining cultists. All of their attacks were rendered useless against this shield; if a mortar round couldn't pierce it, these normal bullets certainly couldn't.
The commissioner grabbed two rifles, a key, and all the magazines, then ran out of the warehouse. The entire event took less than 20 seconds from the moment she grabbed the rifle to the moment she ran outside.
The people inside were stunned for a moment, then one by one, they started running out of the warehouse. It was like a chain reaction, and very quickly, 80% of the people had escaped.