Rebirth: I Will Win Easily in the Apocalypse-Chapter 28 - 18: The Dead Person

"Ah!"

Zhang Qian suddenly screamed, her eyes fixed on the ground beneath her feet, and her hand tightly clutched her father's.

Everyone followed Zhang Qian's gaze and saw a lifeless face under the ice, the features twisted as though the deceased had experienced great agony before death. The expression was stiff with fear, seemingly leaving behind a trace of reluctance and terror at the moment of death.

Though the ice was turbid and blurred, his outline remained clearly visible. His eyes were tightly shut, his mouth slightly open, and the skin on his face had turned pale and rigid, lacking the warmth and vitality of life, looking exceptionally frightening.

Zhang Qian's father quickly embraced his daughter, comforting her, "Don't be scared, don't be scared, daddy is here." His voice was calm yet there was an inevitable unease in his heart.

Zhang Qian held her father tightly, her heartbeat racing, her small face pale and trembling. Her father's comforting words brought her some calm, but the fear inside her couldn't be easily shaken.

Aside from Zhang Qian, everyone else felt a chill in their hearts. This was not their first time seeing dead bodies; they had even witnessed Gu Yanzhi committing murder before, but such a visual shock still struck fear into them.

Carefully circumventing the corpse, the group continued toward their destination in silence. The once merry mood was gone, and a heavy sense of dread weighed on everyone's hearts.

The only one unaffected was Gu Yanzhi. Killing had no effect on her, let alone seeing a body. She had seen plenty in the apocalypse.

After some distance, they saw several more bodies, each having met a different grisly end, but all were equally horrifying.

"Something's not right, these bodies don't seem like they've been dead for long," Sister Li suddenly spoke.

Pausing for a moment, Sister Li continued, "I've seen bodies that have been in the water a while, the better-off ones are bloated and swollen from soaking, the severe ones completely decomposed."

Sister Li paused again, as if organizing her thoughts, "These bodies look like the skin is tight without the wrinkling that comes from being in water too long, like they'd just died and were quickly frozen. I suspect the time of death wasn't long after last night when the temperature dropped."

"Indeed, these bodies don't look like they've been dead very long," everyone agreed with Sister Li's explanation after hearing it.

Gu Yanzhi too appeared contemplative, and after a pause commented, "The place where we were robbed last time is just ahead, and these past few days, the current has flowed from that direction toward us. I suspect the bodies might have come from there."

"We shouldn't go to Song Mountain anymore; let's pick another place," Gu Yanzhi made a decisive call.

Her suggestion received unanimous consent.

The presence of the bodies was a clear indication that further ahead, they were likely to encounter those intent on robbing travelers.

The weather was cold, but under the pressure of survival, some people were capable of anything.

Their preparations today were insufficient, with at most a couple of axes brought along for chopping wood. Of the sixteen people, only Gu Yanzhi's family of three, Uncle Zhang, and Sister Li were capable of fighting – our side had too little combat power. If they carried on rashly and encountered the robbers, the consequences would be unthinkable.

Having backtracked a bit, they found a concealed and safe spot to stop and discuss a change of destination: a nearby office building.

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This idea, too, came from a reminder by Gu Yanzhi. Office buildings were generally built taller. Excluding the floors sealed by ice, there could still be several floors to search.

Once decided, everyone quickly made their way to their first marked target. Even when encountering more bodies encased in ice along the way, they no longer felt the initial fear.

Arriving at the nearest office building, it was not clear how many floors it had; the lowest accessible windows were half frozen over, half exposed.

Gu Yanzhi wielded an axe, cracking the glass with a couple of blows. With one more kick, the glass shattered, clinking down on the ice.

Carefully clearing away the broken glass around the frame, Gu Yanzhi leaped in first, and everyone else followed her inside with success.

The first floor of the office building was at least half-encased in ice, with only about 1.6 or 1.7 meters of clear height. Only the shortest, Yin Meng and Liu Sisi, could walk upright with difficulty; the rest had to stoop or bend over. Though there was no value to search on this floor, the group still made a round, bending over, before finding the stairs to the second floor.

The office floors were generally higher than those in residential buildings, and the location here was also somewhat elevated compared to the Jinxiu Thunderbolt District; their district had been flooded up to the 10th floor, but this office building was only submerged to half of the 7th.

Upon reaching the 8th floor of the office building, they could finally stand upright and took a good look around. The area was relatively small; the companies on this floor also seemed small. Based on the logos on the doors, a room of about 30 square meters constituted a small company.

They all dispersed and searched around but apparently didn't find anything of value.

The only two marginally useful items found were several packets of unbrewed coffee powder discovered by Zhuang Nanyang and a few bottles of frozen mineral water by the couple Liu Sisi and Gao Zhi.

Taking these items with them, they continued up the stairs.

The situation on the 9th floor looked much like the 8th, with each small room housing a small company, which quelled everyone's interest in searching. They decided to head straight to the top floor and search from the top down.

The top floor of the office building was the property management office. Exiting the stairwell, they saw various property management regulations and notices hanging on the walls, but no one really paid attention, scattering by household to search for resources.

"Let's start with the executive offices; usually only the executive offices have solid wood furniture. The pressed wood desks outside have excessive amounts of formaldehyde and are unsuitable for burning." Before splitting up, Uncle Zhuang reminded everyone to only look for solid wood. As an owner of a decorating company, he was well versed in these details.

Gu Yanzhi chose a locked room; a few axe swings later, the door was split apart. She was in luck; this was the property's storage room, full of various cleaning supplies: brooms, mops, cleaning agents, disinfectants, trash bags, hand soap, tissues, and more.

There were also some old furniture, appliances, stacks of nearly ceiling-high discarded newspapers, and cardboard.

Gu Yanzhi also unearthed two foldable cargo trolleys in there and a maintenance toolbox. She opened it to take a glance; the box was well-equipped with a hammer, electric drill, screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers, and even included a battery-operated headlamp for lighting, all very practical.