In front of Jin Xuyan and Jiao Lizhi, the corridor was packed with zombies. The walls and floor were smeared with black and dried blood.
"Roar!"
Their surprise only lasted for a second before the zombies rushed toward them. Seeing the incoming sharp claws, Jiao Lizhi waved her hand and two water blades shot forward at high speed.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
As the water blades cut through the zombies, Jin Xuyan saw the opening and rushed out as he swung his longsword. The zombies were packed so tightly that with every slash, several were killed.
With black flames enveloping his longsword, any zombie his blade touched ignited and turned to ash.
While he fought at the front, Jiao Lizhi covered his back and blind spots. Standing two meters behind him, she had a clear view of the battle situation. She used her water blades to kill the zombies attacking Jin Xuyan's back or sides.
The two of them cooperated seamlessly, cutting down zombies with ease.
Inside a room at the end of the corridor, a group of people heard the commotion outside. Their faces were pale, their cheeks sunken, and their lips cracked. They hadn't eaten in five days and hadn't had a sip of water for almost three days.
At this moment, their bodies were so weak that they could only lie on the ground, conserving what little energy they had left to hold onto their last breaths.
Their dull eyes slowly regained their light as they heard the sounds of fighting outside. One of them forced himself to open his eyes, turned his head to the woman beside him, and said hoarsely, "W-wife, someone is here…"
When he saw his wife lying beside him, unmoving, he reached out and weakly pulled at her fingers.
"Wife, don't sleep. Someone is here… we will survive…" he said as his eyes slowly turned red.
He could feel his wife's cold fingers and had a guess in his heart, but he was unwilling to accept it. Half an hour ago, his wife had still told him to hold on. So, she would definitely hold on and keep her word.
Beside him, two more people opened their eyes. As for the rest, they just lay on the cold ground with their eyes closed. No one knew if they were still alive or not.
The man looked at the door, hoping that whoever was coming would be able to open it. After locking the door, they had hidden in this room for more than a week. Now, they didn't even have the energy to move, let alone open the door.
Five minutes later, he saw the lock slowly melting, and hope ignited in his eyes. A moment later, the door opened, and he saw a man and a woman.
Jin Xuyan and Jiao Lizhi were shocked when they saw a group of people in laboratory coats lying on the ground. Judging from their condition, some of them had died, probably from starvation or dehydration.
They entered the room and saw a man raising his thin arm. Seeing this, Jiao Lizhi walked toward him and took a bottle of water out of her pocket.
She opened the lid and fed him some water before asking, "Comrade, can you hear me?"
The man swallowed the water before nodding and saying, "Please, save my wife."
Jiao Lizhi saw him holding onto the woman beside him. Reaching out, she checked her pulse but found nothing.
She thought the woman had died, but before she let go of her wrist, she felt a pulse. Although it was slow and fleeting, she clearly felt the weak throbbing under her fingers.
Without wasting time, she fed her pond water and transferred her energy to the woman. As her energy entered the woman's body, she could detect the faint life force still lingering.
As she worked to save the woman, Jin Xuyan did the same for the other survivors. Unlike Jiao Lizhi's gentle water-type energy, his fire-type energy was more domineering.
"Ughh…"
The moment he transferred his energy to them, they felt burning pain spreading throughout their bodies and let out low groans. Though the process was painful, their bodies recovered faster.
When he finished pulling several people back from the brink of death, Jiao Lizhi finally finished saving the woman. A moment later, the woman opened her eyes and looked at her husband in a daze.
She parted her pale lips and said, "Husband, did you die too?"
Hearing his wife's words, the man smiled with teary eyes and replied, "Wife, both of us are alive."
Jiao Lizhi let out a sigh of relief when she saw them finally regain some energy.
It wasn't that she had suddenly developed a saint's heart or found her conscience to save others. She only saved them because they might become valuable assets for Jin Xuyan's base.
With this group of researchers, even if they couldn't produce rare medicines, they could at least be able to recreate medicines to treat common illnesses. This would help them a lot when recruiting ordinary people to build the base.
They checked the rest of the group with heavy hearts. Out of twenty-three people, only seven survived. The rest had either long died or had just died.
Jin Xuyan carried their cold bodies outside and burned them, while Jiao Lizhi took out her backpack from her space outside. When she entered the room, she was carrying a backpack full of food and water.
No one had any doubts and only thought that she had left her backpack outside the room when she entered.
Opening her backpack, she took out several cartons of banana milk and handed them to the survivors while saying, "Drink some milk first before you eat something."
Everyone was grateful for her generosity and accepted the milk. They quickly opened the lids and finished it. The milk was fresh and didn't have much sugar. After drinking it, they felt the burning pain in their stomachs lessen.