Looking around at the environment, it was chaotic, filthy, with corpses everywhere, including crushed zombie bodies.
Seeing these scenes, it was easy to imagine what had happened here originally.
"Gu Hang, do you think there are any survivors still alive here?" Lin Fan asked, looking at Gu Hang.
Gu Hang analyzed the situation with a calm and collected demeanor, "Yes, there definitely are. If that person really lived in the orphanage, there must be other survivors."
Lin Fan got out of the car, and Han Shuang and the others had also gotten out. Coming to the orphanage was something they hadn’t expected. As they disembarked, they immediately became alert to their surroundings, in case zombies appeared.
The city now was truly desolate. Looking around at the environment, it was a perfect representation of the apocalypse, with weeds growing through the cracks in the bricks on the road.
There was a lock on the iron gate, just hanging there.
Zombies don’t handle locks, and it was to prevent zombies from wandering in here and accidentally stumbling into the orphanage.
The empty orphanage was eerily silent, as if no one had been here for a long time.
Lin Fan called out softly.
Ahead was the bulletin board plastered with many photos. The first one to appear was of an old lady, the orphanage director Jiang Hong.
Xu Zeyang, whose eyes were sharp, pointed at one of the photos and said, "Lin Bro, doesn’t the person in this photo look a lot like the one we just saw?"
Everyone looked at the photo.
"That’s right, no mistake. The person we just saw is the same as the one in the photo, the orphanage’s chef," Lin Fan said.
They could all imagine what had happened.
Walking into the three-story building, each classroom was empty and in disarray, most likely from the chaos that ensued.
Lin Fan sighed, lamenting the orphanage’s tragic fate at the hands of the zombies. How many survivors could there be here? There weren’t many adults, but the number of children was quite large.
Gu Hang said, "I think it’s unlikely to find any survivors in these places. They must be hiding. Xinfeng Orphanage should have a basement; at least there it would be relatively safe. If we’re going to look, we should try to find the location of the basement."
Han Shuang said, "I know where the basement is. Once, our company organized a charity event, and I led a team to Xinfeng Orphanage. The basement should be in the backyard."
Lin Fan said, "Then let’s go take a look."
Just as they were about to turn around and leave, there was a noise from up front.
Facing such a sudden noise, Han Shuang and the others were very nervous. They were ordinary people, and when faced with unknown sounds, their instincts made them feel apprehensive and tense.
Lin Fan, fearing nothing, walked towards the source of the noise.
This was a classroom.
Standing in front of the window, the sight inside was starkly visible, and the scene brutally struck Lin Fan’s heart. The classroom was full of children who had turned into zombies.
This group of kids, with their eyes turned to a grayish white and viscous fluid dripping from the corners of their mouths, wandered inside the classroom. As Lin Fan appeared, their ferocity was fully triggered, and they scrambled towards the window, but none were tall enough. They could only grab the glass with their hands, leaving behind streak after streak of handprints.
Han Shuang came over and, seeing the scene inside, her pupils sharply contracted. She had thought about the miserable fate of children in an apocalyptic situation, but only upon witnessing it firsthand did she realize the enormity of the impact on her.
The others stood quietly by the window, their hands trembling slightly.
Gu Hang gritted his teeth and said, "Damn this apocalypse."
Lin Fan said, "Before the apocalypse, these children were abandoned at the orphanage. Even with the care of many kind-hearted people, without a father’s or mother’s love, they are ultimately pitiful. But now, in the apocalypse, they’ve become zombies locked in a classroom, turned into this state, unable to find release, which is even more pitiful. I really dis apocalyptic world."
He missed the world as it had been.
It was a world filled with love, perhaps with its dark moments, yet when common people discovered the darkness, even if it wasn’t related to them, they would still bravely stand up to fight it. If one couldn’t manage, then two would try, if two couldn’t, a thousand would, ten thousand. When many hands gather wood, the flames reach high, and the faintest light becomes a blazing sun too bright to ignore, hanging high and illuminating the world.
Han Shuang looked at Lin Fan’s profile, watching him. Since their meeting, she had found him to be calm and friendly. But she hadn’t expected him to be quite so sensitive as well, easily affected by the plight of the weak, especially children.
From the age range of the Sunshine District survivors, she noticed Lin Fan’s tenderness towards children was particularly affectionate; he could least bear to see them suffer.
This personality made her think of the words old Master Wang once said: in Lin Fan’s eyes, children were hope. As long as hope existed, so did the future. Suddenly, she understood that he saw children as the hope of the future, and he always believed that the apocalypse would one day end.
At this moment, Lin Fan’s image loomed larger in Han Shuang’s heart.
He was someone worthy of trust.
Not just in terms of strength, but also in terms of character.
Gu Hang patted Lin Fan’s shoulder, "Nobody wishes for an apocalypse. We can only do our very best."
Lin Fan said, "Gu Hang, you’re right. I’ve always hoped that Huang City could return to its former state, but now I feel that even without the zombies, it would be difficult for Huang City to regain its past glory. A gorgeously empty shell is just that, superficial. What truly gives me hope for a prosperous Huang City is you all, these children, and countless kind people."