Chapter 1038: They

The night was slightly cool, a faint smell of rotting garbage drifted on the night wind into his nostrils.

Following behind Sufiya, Lin An silently observed his surroundings, his expression calm.

But when he looked at Sufiya, a hint of surprise flashed across his face and vanished.

"Captain Lin, is this how she avoids zombies?"

Following behind the little girl, Zhang Tie looked at the girl with considerable admiration.

He saw the girl lying on the ground, her whole body moving like a crawl, her hands and feet alternating forward carefully. Unmindful of the sharp stones pricking her palms, the girl seemed accustomed, using her body to sense the road conditions.

Without sight, unable to see anything, the girl used her tongue to touch the smells in the air, sensing whether there was the unique rotten odor of zombies.

Her nose twitched, her ears constantly alert to the surroundings, like a bat, probing the environment.

Compared to ordinary people surviving in the apocalypse, someone like the girl, a disabled person, undoubtedly must exert tremendous effort.

The distance wasn't far; after a few minutes, Lin An saw a garbage-processing plant littered with trash.

He saw a large door covered in rust standing at the entrance of the park, piles of electronic waste and plastic bags stacked like mountains. A strong stench welled up.

Sewage flowed across the ground, with some wriggling white maggots burrowing back and forth.

After waving his hand to sweep away a swarm of flies, Lin An looked around and found no trace of human habitation.

As a dump for electronic waste, the survival conditions here could be said to be among the worst.

Compared to a landfill for everyday trash, this place has no food at all, not even scavengers would come.

"We've arrived... home... Sufiya's... home"

He stammered.

Whether or not she had returned to the familiar grounds, the girl crawling on the ground rose happily, a cautious smile on her face, she glanced back toward where Lin An was.

Her nose could smell the aroma of the canned food Zhang Tie held in his arms.

"This... place... come..."

Her voice timid, after speaking Sufiya waved her hand, leading Lin An skillfully through the tangled heaps of garbage.

Her tiny figure moved with extraordinary agility, weaving through the junkyard like an elf returning to the forest.

Smelling the chemical agents and plastic fumes strong enough to make ordinary people dizzy, Lin An frowned slightly, his True Eye continually scanning the surroundings.

If ordinary people lived here, they would likely fall ill with various diseases in no time.

The chemical pollution here is too severe...

After a few minutes, under the little girl's guidance, a small mound built from discarded materials suddenly appeared before Lin An's eyes.

He saw the girl arrive at a "door" made of an iron frame, tiptoeing as she squatted on the ground, lightly tapping the iron pieces with her palms.

"Clang-clang"

"Clang-clang"

It sounded like some kind of code.

The clear tapping sound spread through the night sky; moments later, a weak voice came from beneath the trash heap:

"Is... that Sufiya?"

The voice was wary; the female voice hidden underground seemed to sense an outsider approaching and delayed opening the door. Merely standing behind the girl, Lin An immediately noticed a crack beside the trash heap.

There, a pair of eyes stared warily at him.

Spreading his hands, Lin An realized the owner of those eyes could see him clearly, so he slightly nodded, indicating he meant no harm.

Turning his head toward Xiong Hanzi, Zhang Tie, who knew his habits, instantly understood.

"We brought food! We're not bad people!"

He shouted, but to little effect.

The survivors hiding underground, as if they had suffered some harm, continued merely to watch them warily.

Meanwhile, Sufiya, squatting on the ground, also realized the teacher might fear bad people; she anxiously pointed at herself, then at Lin An behind her.

From her muffled mouth came ah-ah cries, as if saying the one behind her wasn't a bad person.

Moments later.

"Squeak-creak"

The old iron door creaked open cautiously; a pale, equally dirty face peered out from the crack.

Her gaze carried a question:

"Who... are you?"

"We... have nothing..."

Although Sufiya had provided proof, the girl behind the door remained just as wary. When her eyes fell on the canned food Zhang Tie had set down, a clear gulp sounded inopportunely.

"Don't worry, I mean no harm."

Spreading his hands, Lin An spoke gently to the survivors behind the door, a restrained aura spreading out like a soothing presence.

Seeing Lin An's sincere expression and the canned food on the ground, the girl behind the door hesitated, then finally opened the iron door slowly.

A weak light shone into the interior.

At the moment the door opened, Lin An instantly took in the layout inside.

Inside the shack built from iron frames and metal scrap, pairs of vacant or fearful eyes peered out from behind the girl, looking at him.

In an instant, Lin An's heart sank, a wordless oppression weighing on his chest.

The reason was simple.

The children inside were all disabled.

Including the teacher who opened the door.

A campfire rose, its faint warmth igniting in the abandoned warehouse.

Lin An gazed at the "home" far larger than he had imagined, and couldn't help but fall silent.

Squatting on the ground, Zhang Tie likewise looked with mixed feelings at the children hugging cans and wolfing down their food; he wanted to say 'eat slowly', but the words wouldn't come out.

Before him, there were twenty-seven people in total, more than half of them leaning on crutches or in wheelchairs.

Disabled, blind, deaf-mute, intellectually disabled..

Not a single child here is healthy.

Sitting by the campfire, Lin An looked at the teacher who was merely sipping canned water, and asked softly:

"Can I know what happened here?"

Looking at everything before him, Lin An found it hard to imagine how these children had managed to survive until now.

Lifting her head, a girl with malnutrition and dull blond hair gave a bitter smile, hesitating before speaking softly:

"As you can see."

"These are all the children from the disabled school."

"I am their teacher, Ailin.."

Brushing aside the sparse bangs on her forehead, Ailin gave Lin An a grateful glance:

"After the Apocalypse broke out, I hid with the children in a school over there in the city. At first the military said they would rescue us, but later they seemed to have met with trouble as well."

"There are many zombies outside; we dare not go out. There are also some inside the school, but fortunately those zombies are from disabled people, so their movement is impaired."

"We relied on the food in the cafeteria and held out for over a month. After that, we could only fight our way out."

As she spoke, Ailin's eyes filled with sorrow, and she glanced at the child happily eating a can:

"Many died along the way; by the time we got here, only these remained."

"Actually, at first we stayed at a gathering place, not here. But not long after the Apocalypse, we were driven out."

Crackle—sparks flared bright.

Lin An listened to Ailin's brief account, nodded slightly, and his eyes flickered.

Although the girl's account was brief, he could imagine how a lame teacher could manage to bring a group of children through a zombie siege and survive to this day. As for being driven out, which Ailin mentioned, Lin An felt no surprise.

Healthy children would be seen as burdens and abandoned, let alone a group of disabled ones.

Beside him, Zhang Tie sighed, pulled another can from behind and handed it out, then couldn't help asking Ailin:

"Now that you're here, what do you eat?"

In his peripheral vision, Xiong Hanzi silently watched the little boy sitting in the wheelchair. Although these children were sallow and thin, their limbs were slender like matchsticks.

But they hadn't starved to death, which proved that the survivors here still had a food source.

Hearing Xiong Hanzi's question, Teacher Ailin hesitated a moment, then lowered her head and spoke:

"As for food.. at first I would go pick up some useful junk, assemble it into things, and take them to the gathering place to sell."

"The children would also help me.."

"Although the food obtained in exchange wasn't much, back then many houses still had unspoiled food, which was enough to get by.."

"Later...."

As Ailin spoke, her body trembled, and she unconsciously looked toward Su Fei Ya, who was happily eating a fruit can:

"Later, a group of survivors took notice of us, wanting to use these children as bait to lure zombies for scavenging."

"So we dared not go pick up junk to sell anymore."

"Back then, if Su Fei Ya hadn't awakened and gained some minor abilities, we might have died..."

With bitter memories, Teacher Ailin looked at the little girl drinking sugar water, her face full of pity and heartache:

"After that, Su Fei Ya could only go out with another child to search for food."

"That child was named Ke La Ke; his awakened ability was to run very fast, but he couldn't hear, and his mind was a bit slow."

"Thus, whenever they went out, he would carry Su Fei Ya on his back, while Su Fei Ya listened to their surroundings. Working together, they managed to find quite a bit of food."

Ke La Ke?

Lin An looked around and saw no one among these children with fully functional limbs.

As if seeing Lin An's doubt, Teacher Ailin gave a bitter smile and weakly lifted her head:

"No need to look."

"That child, Ke La Ke, was seized by a group of Awakened Ones during one outing. They thought Su Fei Ya and Ke La Ke were thieves who had stolen their designated supply points. Neither child could explain—Ke La Ke couldn't hear—and when he tried to flee with Su Fei Ya, the Awakened Ones beat him to death."

"Su Fei Ya... was also locked up by them, used as bait."

Her voice full of bitterness and self-reproach, Ailin turned away, unable to bear it, her voice trembling:

"I originally wanted to go save Su Fei Ya, but I simply didn't have that ability."

"Fortunately, during one outing Su Fei Ya seized the chaos and escaped. But when she returned, I only then discovered how much abuse she had suffered."

"Those people cut her with knives to draw blood, just to... lure out the zombies."

Covering her face, Ailin's shoulders trembled, her voice choked with sobs:

"When Su Fei Ya came back, her entire back was sliced to shreds... I don't even know how she managed to crawl back... snivel..."

"In order... to avoid attracting zombies with the bloodstains, she kept crawling outside, smearing mud on her wounds, and only crawled back once the blood had dried.."

"This child... has endured too much suffering.."

Low sobs echoed in the warehouse, while Su Fei Ya, who was licking the last drop of sugar water clean, stared blankly in the direction of the teacher's crying.

On her dirty little face, full of unease.

She hurriedly waved her little hands, as if wanting to comfort the teacher, feeling her way over.

"Teacher.. don't cry.."

"Su Fei Ya.. not hurt.."

"Eat.."

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