On the way to find Dr. Yang Liu, a few Zombies would occasionally sneak attack, but An Qing acted as if she saw nothing, hugging the coat and walking toward the opposite building. However, these Zombies were killed by Wang Zhi's group as soon as they appeared, so An Qing remained quite safe throughout the journey.
Passing through the corridor and making a turn, they arrived at a door at the end. An Qing entered a code, and the door opened.
Wang Zhi walked in and saw nearly ten people lying on the floor, both men and women. Wang Zhi clenched the hand holding his gun tightly. So many people, and they let one man and one woman go out to find food? No wonder An Qing said these people deserved to die. If it were him, and he had the ability, he would definitely have killed them in such a situation. It was a pity An Qing was a delicate young woman; he didn't have the ability to kill anyone, and even in a sneak attack, he could only achieve Mutual Destruction with one.
The people in the laboratory saw someone arrive and struggled to sit up. When they saw Wang Zhi's group, fully armed, their spirits were immediately lifted.
"Thank heavens, we've finally been rescued."
"That's great!"
"Save us!"
For a moment, everyone who had just been lying on the floor started crying out for help. Wang Zhi coldly swept his gaze over the group and said, "Who is Dr. Yang Liu?"
"She's over there," a man said, pointing to a corner nearby.
Wang Zhi followed the direction the man pointed. A woman in a white coat was lying there. Wang Zhi immediately rushed over, squatted down, and slowly helped Dr. Yang Liu up, resting her against his leg.
"Sister Ying!"
Wang Zhi quickly called Su Muying over to check on Dr. Yang Liu's condition.
Su Muying came over, looked at Dr. Yang Liu, grabbed her hand to check her pulse, and immediately took out her Adrenaline Hormone, injecting it into Yang Liu's waist.
"She is severely dehydrated from hunger. Once she wakes up, feed her some water and food first," Su Muying said.
Dr. Yang Liu, having received the Adrenaline Hormone injection, woke up not long after. Seeing that she was awake, Wang Zhi immediately brought water to her lips.
Yang Liu, who had just woken up, was startled to see a stranger next to her, but she quickly calmed down: "Who are you?"
"Don't talk yet. We are here to rescue you. You are very weak right now; drink some water first," Wang Zhi said.
Yang Liu didn't say anything further upon hearing this and quietly drank the water from Wang Zhi's hand.
Seeing An Qing return with a large bag of food and water, the others all shouted, "Xiao Qi, quickly share some food with me."
One person couldn't wait any longer and tried to grab some for himself, but An Qing suddenly pulled out a knife and pointed it at the man, saying, "Brother Xiao Qi gave his life for this; how dare you eat it?"
"An Qing, we were wrong. Just share a little with us."
An Qing ignored these people and walked over to Yang Liu, crouching down, "Dr. Yang, please eat something. This is bread that Brother Xiao Qi and I just brought back from outside."
Yang Liu looked up at the surroundings and asked, "Where is Xiao Qi?"
"Brother Xiao Qi went out with me to find food and got Infected. I almost didn't make it back either. These four people saved me," An Qing choked out.
"Hey, An Qing, go share some food with everyone," Yang Liu said, stroking An Qing's cheek.
Since Yang Liu had spoken, An Qing couldn't refuse any longer and silently turned to walk into the crowd to distribute the food.
"We are from the Dawn Tower. They specifically assigned us to come find you," Wang Zhi told Yang Liu.
"Dawn Tower? What kind of place is that?"
"A shelter, a safe place."
"That's great, thank you all."
"Old He, tell them to hurry up and eat something. We need to leave as soon as possible to avoid any complications," Wang Zhi said.
Old He responded and went to help An Qing distribute the food.
"Thank you, big brother."
"An Qing, thank you so much."
After the food was distributed, Old He urged them, "Everyone eat quickly. We must set off immediately after finishing; we need to hurry."
Hearing they were about to leave, some people in the crowd became afraid.
Old He looked at the frightened people and said irritably, "If anyone is scared, you can stay here."
As expected, once this group heard they would be left behind, all objections vanished.
After a while, Yang Liu gradually regained her strength and tried to stand up.
"Dr. Yang, how do you feel? Can you move?" Wang Zhi looked at Yang Liu as she stood and stretched.
Yang Liu stretched her body, took a couple of steps, and said, "Mmm, I'm fine. By the way, your team actually has such a young girl in it."
Yang Liu looked at Jia Liuli with some disbelief.
"A mountain doesn't need to be high to be revered if it houses an immortal. Now that you're mostly fine, we must hurry and evacuate; it's very dangerous outside," Wang Zhi stated.
"Alright, we'll follow your lead. I'll go get my backup research samples." With that, Yang Liu went to remove the hard drive from the computer.
Once Yang Liu secured her backup research samples, Wang Zhi's group of four, along with Yang Liu and An Qing, totaling eleven people, left the lab. Jia Liuli and Old He took the lead, while Wang Zhi and Su Muying remained at the rear of the main group to protect them.
Wang Zhi and his group decided to return the way they came. Although they would still encounter Zombies, the number would be significantly reduced. Looking at the scattered corpses of Zombies along the road, the group could guess without being told that these were all dealt with by Wang Zhi's team on their way in.
The group arrived at the perimeter wall. Wang Zhi took the Grappling Hook out of his bag and instructed the others to hold the rope while he scaled the wall. Just because Wang Zhi and his team could climb over without tools didn't mean everyone else could.
After climbing over the wall, Wang Zhi still needed to stop by that wooden cabin store.
"We are really lucky this time; we found the people in just one day."
Su Muying felt quite cheerful on the way and remarked to Wang Zhi.
"Indeed. If An Qing and the others hadn't escaped, we might never have found anyone in this massive Research Institute," Wang Zhi also remarked, feeling fortunate.
"So, the question is: how do we get back with all fifteen of us?" Su Muying asked.
Wang Zhi paused, realizing he hadn't thought through this problem carefully. They would have to find vehicles again on the way back.
"We'll take three vehicles. Two of us per car, taking some people, and the rest will be in the last car, driving themselves," Wang Zhi said after thinking it over.
Wang Zhi led the group through the woods to the store they had found earlier. Everyone was surprised again upon seeing it; there were so many supplies and food inside.
"Wow, the stuff in this room is enough for us to eat for a whole month."
"Shush, what are you thinking? These people found this; are you going to steal food right under their noses?"
"Right. Those four people don't look easy to mess with. We definitely shouldn't anger them."
The crowd whispered amongst themselves, but Wang Zhi walked directly into the cabin and began a massive shopping spree for zero cost.
Wang Zhi had the people from the Research Institute pack up everything edible—water, sugar, small snacks—into bags to take with them.
Having free labor significantly lightened Wang Zhi's burden. After clearing out the small cabin, Wang Zhi could officially return. Since the mission objective had been found, they needed to deliver it quickly; staying out too long risked unforeseen accidents.
"Hurry up. We need to reach the Extraction Point before dark." Wang Zhi urged the Research Institute people to quickly grab their things and start evacuating along the route he had mapped out.
When the group reached the bridge, only a few Zombies were still milling about, which made Wang Zhi breathe a sigh of relief: "Everyone be careful, don't let yourselves be ambushed."
Seeing this scene on the bridge, the Research Institute personnel understood that the explosion sounds from the morning had originated here. Looking at the wrecked vehicles and the bloody remains scattered across the bridge, they couldn't imagine what kind of battle had taken place.
Wang Zhi and his three companions shot down the newly arrived Zombies. The small number of Zombies could easily be killed with knives to conserve ammunition, but to ensure these people's safety, Wang Zhi and the others couldn't stray too far, so they simply kept expending bullets.
"Don't be afraid, get up quickly and keep moving forward," Wang Zhi said to a few women who were so terrified they had crouched on the ground.
After crossing the bridge, Wang Zhi used the walkie-talkie to instruct Old He and Jia Liuli to take four people to the police car, while Wang Zhi found two cars on the road that still had their keys inside.
"Which one of you can drive one of the cars?" Wang Zhi asked the crowd.