"Bai Ru, pull over to the side for a moment!"
Jack, who was squeezed in the front passenger seat with Cao Mei, suddenly spoke up. Once Bai Ru steadied the car, he turned around and rummaged through the metal badge on Dubi's body, then looked at Thomas Xu and asked, "Is the factory that produced the living corpses the one hanging on Cat's neck... Pan Sen Pharmaceutical Factory?"
"I really didn't notice that..." Thomas Xu scratched his head awkwardly, then thought hard for a while before suddenly slapping his hand and saying, "That's right, it should be that pharmaceutical factory! Although most of the copper letters on the gate have fallen off, there are still two characters left, one for 'sen' and one for 'yao'. Old Hu even said at the time whether it was a pesticide factory!"
"Ah, right! I did indeed ask that at the time; it must be Pan Sen Pharmaceutical Factory!" Boss Hu also slapped his head in agreement.
"That's good to hear!" Jack nodded upon hearing this, furrowing his brows as he thought for a moment, then continued, "Let's first go get the car we left by the overpass, and then turn back to that pharmaceutical factory!"
"Huh? Why are we going to the pharmaceutical factory? It's not a grain station!" Boss Hu's eyes widened in surprise as he looked at Jack, full of confusion.
"We can't get fresh vegetables at all now, and even wild vegetables are hard to come by. It's already autumn, and the temperature difference between day and night is significant, making it easy to catch a cold or fever. So whether it's vitamins or antibiotics, we need them. In the future, medicine will be scarcer than food, so it's better to be prepared!"
Jack looked at everyone and explained slowly. Everyone in the car thought about how, starting from these days, the temperature had become so extreme that they could be naked during the day but had to wear cotton jackets at night. They nodded thoughtfully, agreeing with Jack's words. The medicines they currently had were just a few boxes of anti-inflammatory drugs and a few bottles of vitamin C, which were far from enough for so many people.
"That's true. In our gathering place, one box of anti-inflammatory medicine can be exchanged for ten pounds of rice. Without medicine, many people end up dying tragically from minor illnesses!" Thomas Xu said with a frown, his tone serious.
"Alright, we won't have to go far to reach the place where we parked yesterday. Just drive the car and turn back!" After saying this, Jack switched places with Bai Ru and drove the car forward.
...
A Dongfeng Warrior, a Changfeng Leopard, and a Jiangling pickup truck, three diesel vehicles, parked in front of a factory that only had the words "Sen Yao" left. The car that Boss Hu had always favored, the Santana 2000, was abandoned because it was not suitable for the road conditions.
The horde of corpses that had chased out from the factory had already scattered. A few men silently used their knives to take down the few lingering zombies in front of the door before turning to survey the small pharmaceutical factory before them.
The scale of Pansen Pharmaceutical Factory was pitifully small. Apart from a slightly imposing three-story office building, there were only two miserable one-story factory buildings. Upon entering the main gate, there was a space that served as both a parking lot and a basketball court. A small box truck was leaning against the railing, with scattered, crumbling cardboard boxes around it. The group of zombies that had chased after Thomas Xu had run out through the collapsed railing from inside the factory.
"I say, there shouldn't be any zombies left inside, right?" Boss Hu asked, holding the riot shield that Bai Ru had given him in one hand and a large knife dripping with black liquid in the other. He stood at the factory's entrance, looking back at Cao Mei and Bai Ru, who were both standing on the car roof with their guns, looking heroic. He straightened up from the bent posture he had maintained earlier.
"Come on, do you think this small factory could have that many people? Not to mention those who died long ago, the dozens that just ran out are still out there on the road. Even if there are still zombies inside, there probably won't be more than ten!" Thomas Xu said casually, twirling his hunting knife and stepping over the collapsed railing to walk into the factory with a few men.
"Hey, guys, this place fucking can't just be producing eye drops, right? Look at this advertisement!" Gao Chujing, who was walking third, had sharp eyes. He quickly ran to a bulletin board on the playground, brushed off the dust on the glass with his hand, and immediately revealed a clear advertisement for eye drops. Moreover, this advertisement was posted in a long row, and there were no other drug promotions to be seen.
"Damn, could this idea be any worse? What good is this eye drops? I don't even know if it can be used as water!" Thomas Xu also walked over to take a closer look at the advertisement on the bulletin board and, feeling very frustrated, smashed a piece of glass in front of him.
"If it can be poured into the eyes, it should be drinkable, but it must taste very bitter!" Gao Chujiang blinked, looking somewhat uncertain.
"Let's go, since we're here, let's take a look inside!" Jack didn't seem too discouraged, waving his hand and leading the way towards a factory building on the right.
The large iron door of this factory, rusty and worn, was now half-open, with a thin layer of Marcus sand almost covering the originally green-painted clean floor. Four men stood outside the door, peering in, but they didn't see any of the imagined piles of medicine boxes; instead, there were quite a few unknown large stainless steel tanks inside. Three figures in blue work uniforms, resembling zombies, were trapped inside a stainless steel enclosure. Perhaps sensing the presence of living people, they were growling and banging against the enclosure, making a loud thudding sound.
"Damn it, there can't be even a single bottle of eye drops here, right?" Thomas Xu followed Jack a few steps into the empty factory, looking around and immediately getting furious. Then he glanced at a door behind the three zombies marked "Sterile Production Room" and frowned, saying to Jack, "Could it be in there? Should we take out those zombies and check it out?"
"We must be in the wrong place!" Gao Chujiang came over, shaking his head and said, "This is the production workshop. Even if there are medicines, they're probably unfinished products. We should be going to the packaging workshop!"
As soon as Gao Chujiang said this, the others turned to look at the slightly smaller factory across from them. Focusing their attention, they indeed saw a blue sign reading "Packaging Workshop" hanging on the tightly closed door, and they immediately ran over excitedly.
"Damn, why is this place so troublesome? The main door is locked! If I get angry, I'll just blow this damn door up with a rocket!" Thomas Xu and Gao Chujiang pulled hard on the packaging workshop's door, only to find it wouldn't budge at all, clearly locked from the inside. In frustration, Thomas Xu kicked the door, which produced a solid thud.
"Forget it, you should save your energy. I'll go get a crowbar!" Hu Laoda shook his head helplessly and turned to run towards their car. The design of this packaging workshop was quite different from the previous factory, probably to prevent theft, as there wasn't even a ventilation window. To get in, they could only force the door open.
Before long, Hu Laoda returned with two long crowbars from the cheetah vehicle. The four men inserted the two crowbars into the gap of the iron door, pushing from both sides. Then they heard an unpleasant "crack" sound, followed by a broken iron chain falling to the ground from inside. Finally, the door was opened by the group.
"Damn! Damn! Zombies…"
Who knew that as soon as the door opened, three living corpses dressed in clean white clothes would suddenly rush out? Aside from Jack, Thomas Xu and the others instinctively shouted and ran far away. But when they turned back, they found that Jack had already chopped down two living corpses in the blink of an eye, and the last one, which had fallen behind, was also kicked down by him. His mountain knife swiftly stabbed into the eye socket of the living corpse, and with a gentle twist of his wrist, he turned the corpse's brain into mush.
Seemingly not wanting to exert any more effort, Jack quickly pulled out his handgun from his waist while standing in front of the half-open door. He pulled the trigger repeatedly, instantly firing four shots into the factory. After that, he neatly tucked the still-smoking handgun back into his waist, stepped on the incomplete body of a living corpse, wiped his mountain knife on its white work uniform, and then tilted his head at the three dazed individuals behind him, saying, "Let's go in!"