Boom!
Boom!
Jing Shu was still talking when a thunderous rumble exploded overhead. Turns out the impatient overseers had already tossed several grenades, shaking the entire mountainside where they were holding their meeting.
Dr. B, Jing Shu, and Tis rushed up in a panic. By the time they reached the surface, they were all gasping for breath, and the sight before them made their blood run cold.
Huge craters had been blasted into the ground, smoke rising with a foul stench that made everyone's stomach turn. Grenades were powerful, sure, but each only covered an area of about ten square meters, killing maybe a hundred rats at most.
The rat corpses, each the size of a piglet, were shredded into pieces. In the blink of an eye, the rats behind them swarmed in and devoured every scrap of flesh. These zombie rats even ate their own kind, and after feeding, their bodies swelled larger than before.
Now that was what you called a real undead army.
Those few grenades had barely made a dent. Within moments, the front line was gone, and the rat tide surged forward again, hungrier than ever. It was pointless. Unless they flattened the entire mountain, there was no way to wipe them out.
"Damn it! Stop! Don't throw any more grenades!" Dr. B sprinted over, his voice cracking as he shouted at the guards. "What, you plan to blow up the whole mountain and bury all our supplies with us?!"
The guards froze. Realizing how serious this was, they immediately restrained those still holding grenades. The materials stored below were too valuable to risk.
"Doctor, we've got to stop those damn rats fast, or everything down there's gone!" someone yelled.
Yeah, the supplies at the foot of the mountain were about to be toast. If only they'd finished transporting them earlier. Jing Shu might've even used the chaos to set off an explosion and pull off a perfect escape act.
She sighed in regret. If only the rats had shown up a day later, she'd have a much better excuse for everything. But no, they had to come now, of all times.
Dr. B's face looked calm on the surface, but his heart was in chaos. If things got exposed, he was screwed. "Oh God, don't panic. Damn it, fine, use the fuel pipes and spray them with gasoline, then burn them! Nothing's ever survived fire!"
He refused to believe it. Soak them in gasoline, set them ablaze—what rat, even zombie ones, could survive that?
That idea actually sounded decent. Everyone clapped in agreement, and some people immediately ran to start up the oil truck. The vehicle was already equipped with hoses, which made things easier. They had plenty of fuel on hand anyway, since both electricity and machinery here needed large quantities of it.
"Wait! You can't use gasoline!" Jing Shu narrowed her eyes and shouted, stopping those foolish humans. At the same time, Zhen Nantian's translator transmitted her words in English.
Dr. B frowned. "Why not, Miss Mirror? Sorry, but I really can't think of another way to stop them fast."
Jing Shu drummed her fingers against her temple, feeling a headache coming on. She hadn't planned to stand out like this—because once you did, it got harder to slip away later.
Why couldn't she just be a quiet, beautiful woman for once?
"Think about it," she said, her voice calm but sharp. "Calculate the size of those rats, and how long it takes to burn through a body that big when soaked in fuel. Now, remember, these things aren't ordinary. Even in a blazing fire, unless you burn them to ash, they'll keep moving. They won't stop until they're nothing but carbon."
Her words were translated, maybe roughly, but everyone understood well enough.
Dr. B's face went pale. "Damn it, I forgot that! At their size, it'll take at least ten minutes to burn one completely!"
Jing Shu exhaled. "Exactly. Before they're fully burned, they'll keep running. If those burning rats charge into the mountain storage and start eating while on fire, everything down there will go up in flames with them."
Everyone's faces changed as they imagined the scene—flaming, undead rats storming into the storage area, spreading fire and chaos. Just thinking about it was enough to make their skin crawl.
"What do we do then? Do you have any better idea? Jing, it's all on you now!" Dr. B was nearly frantic.
"I can try." Jing Shu nodded. Dr. B's eyes lit up immediately.
She continued, "Blocking them won't work, we have to divert them. Research shows zombie-infected creatures still retain their basic instincts. Rats love oil, especially peanut and cooking oil. So here's what we do: mix the oil we have with gasoline, load it into the fuel truck, and spray it into the air ahead of them. The smell will lure them away. Once they've moved far enough, light it up. The fire will take care of the rest."
Of course, part of her plan was to make sure those damn rats never found their way back. If she was going to kill them, she'd make sure they stayed dead.
"Good, good! Brilliant idea! We'll do exactly as you said! Get all the peanut oil and food oil, dump it into the truck, quick! Someone start the engine, we don't have much time!" Dr. B barked orders like a madman.
No one dared to slack off. If the supplies were lost, everyone was done for. They scrambled to obey.
Soon, countless barrels of cooking oil were mixed into the gasoline. Two workers grabbed the hoses, while the driver maneuvered the truck closer to the massive swarm.
"Spray the leading rat first!" Jing Shu reminded them. "Take down the leader, and the rest will follow!"
They did exactly as she said. The truck sprayed a rain of oily mist into the air, then started moving in another direction. Sure enough, the horde of giant rats immediately caught the scent of the delicious oil. One by one, they turned and chased after the truck.
As they ran, they lapped up every drop of oil they could reach. Just like Jing Shu said, they didn't care what it was—as long as it fit in their mouths, they'd eat it.
Terrifying creatures.
But at least they were moving away now.
"It's working!"
"Look, it's working! They're heading the other way!"
"Thank God!"
Dr. B finally let out a deep breath. His heart had been pounding so hard it felt like it might burst. In China, they called that having a near-death scare.