The Body Collector
Given how dangerous his condition was—he might already be unconscious—Meng Fanchen reached out and flipped the blanket off.
The moment the blanket lifted, a foul, bloody stench hit him in the face.
The person inside suddenly sat up and lunged at Meng Fanchen, teeth bared.
Pale eyeballs with no pupils in the sockets.
Blackened, elongated fingernails.
Thick, dark-red viscous blood spilling endlessly from the mouth.
Mutated!
Meng Fanchen was frozen in place by the sudden sight, his legs as if nailed to the floor, unable to move an inch.
The mutant drew closer and closer, and Meng Fanchen could clearly see its sharp, bloodstained teeth.
Despair screamed in his heart.
Why couldn't he move!
He was going to die!
He was going to be bitten to death!
He was going to turn into one of those disgusting mutants!
He was still so young.
In that brief instant, a thousand thoughts raced through his mind.
Just as the mutant's jaws were less than a centimeter from his neck—
Meng Fanchen felt the collar of his jacket yanked from behind, and a tremendous force dragged him back two meters.
In the blink of an eye, he was clear of the mutant.
Tu Ran stood in front of him.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
Deafening gunfire rang out in rapid succession.
Every bullet, not one spared, tore into the mutant's head.
Its eyeballs burst, fluid spraying from the sockets.
Bloody brain matter splattered across the equipment behind it.
When the magazine ran dry, the mutant's body could no longer hold itself up. It toppled off the bed, head hitting the floor first.
Its body lay twisted in an unnatural pose.
The gory scene was hard to look at.
Gunfire wasn't uncommon in these four buildings.
Everyone had grown accustomed to it.
The body collectors followed the sound of the shots into the ward, carrying a stretcher.
The stretcher had carried who knew how many bodies; it was covered in blood, stained in layers of varying shades.
Tu Ran was unfazed, but for Meng Fanchen, it was a first. Especially when he thought of how close he'd come to lying on that very stretcher—he couldn't help but shudder and backed away from it as far as he could.
The body collectors paid little attention to the scene.
With the shortage of staff, once they finished with this one, there was another waiting.
They had gone numb.
When they'd first arrived here last night, this kind of sight would make them sick, make them recoil in disgust. But now, they felt nothing at all.
Mechanically, they hoisted the mutated human corpse onto the stretcher, not even bothering to lay it flat.
The upper body faced down, legs sticking up—they simply carried it off like that.
All the corpses would be tossed into the incinerator.
From last night until now, the smoke from the corpse incinerator hadn't stopped.
Only Tu Ran and Meng Fanchen remained in the room.
Tu Ran glanced at the other two beds; they were still neat.
She turned and walked out.
"Tu Ran, where are you going?" Meng Fanchen hastily grabbed his medical kit and hurried after her.
"Go back to your room." Tu Ran didn't look at him, walking toward another ward.
Meng Fanchen let out an "oh" and stopped following her.
No matter where Tu Ran went, it seemed he couldn't be of any help.
He'd just be another burden she'd have to protect.
Meng Fanchen trudged back to his room, dejected, medical kit in hand.
The teammate who'd been waiting inside saw him return safe and burst into tears.
He grabbed Meng Fanchen's hand tightly.
"Fanchen, I thought you were going to die too!"
Meng Fanchen pushed him away, annoyed. "Pfft, pfft—can you watch your mouth!"
On the other side, Tu Ran walked straight into Ward 405.
This ward had seen a mutant earlier that had bitten a treating doctor; both had been shot dead by Ding Naiqing. Two people were still in the room now.