PDLP Chapter 14 Central Control Room
Chapter 14 Central Control Room
"Damn it, we couldn't find a way out, but we've gained another mouth to feed!" a portly man cursed, then kicked over a stool next to him.
The people around him didn't stop him, they just rolled their eyes impatiently, clearly used to the man's bad temper.
Miao Yin asked in a low voice, "And what about you? How did you survive? Aren't there monsters on the eleventh floor?"
A tall, thin man sneered, "No monsters? Why are we still stuck in this godforsaken place if there are no monsters? Have you gone mad from being a star? Why don't you go out and see if there are any monsters outside?"
Miao Yin pursed her lips and fell silent.
The brown-haired woman sighed, "Forget it, what's the use of saying all this now? Yaozong is dead, we still need to think of another way to get out, we can't wait any longer."
"Hey, you celebrity over there, since you came up from down here, you heard that explosion, right? Did you see any soldiers or police officers?"
Miao Yin shook her head: "I don't know. I was in the emergency exit when the explosion happened."
The conversation reached another deadlock, and everyone in the control room was anxious.
The brown-haired woman analyzed, "If the explosion was caused by the police, they will find us sooner or later, and we don't need to rush out to our deaths."
“What if, as Qi Sun said, those monsters accidentally touched some electronic device and caused this? How much longer are we going to have to wait here?” the tall, thin man retorted once again.
"Then what do you suggest? Why don't you do what Yaozong did and leave on your own!"
The tall, thin man's face turned red with embarrassment at those words. Of course, he didn't dare to go out on his own. The last person they forced out, Lin Yaozong, was still alive.
"Are you all talk and no action like me? You bitch, you've never been to an amusement park before!" The tall, thin man flung his hand and sat down on the ground.
The brown-haired woman was clearly speechless, and neither of them could say anything.
Miao Yin secretly glanced at the expressions of the people around her.
So that's how it is, it's the conservatives and the radicals.
After a verbal altercation, no one paid any attention to Miao Yin, so she quietly avoided them and went to a quiet corner by herself.
As soon as she walked over, the people who were sitting there looked up at her.
He was a young man with a cool and gentle appearance, fair and smooth skin, a high nose bridge, and well-defined facial features. His long eyelashes cast a shadow under the light, and his eyes were slightly droopy. His eyes, which should have been as clear and shallow as mountain spring water, had no light at all. They were hidden in the shadow of his wispy hair, making him look very gloomy.
His face was somewhat pale, and he was wearing a torn down jacket, which wrapped him up tightly. He huddled in a corner, hugging his knees, silently staring at the floor, completely out of place with the others.
Upon noticing Miao Yin's approach, he instinctively glanced up, but before his gaze could land on her face, he lowered it again.
"May I sit next to you?" Miao Yin asked softly.
The boy kept his head down and didn't say anything, but just moved to the other side on his own, like a little turtle that would move when poked.
"Thank you." Miao Yin understood what he meant.
Meanwhile, the crowd on the other side started discussing the situation outside, chattering away, with the occasional sound of someone kicking a stool.
Miao Yin poked the little turtle next to her.
The little turtle turned around in confusion: ?
"My name is Miao Yin, what's your name?"
Upon hearing this, the young man pursed his thin lips slightly, and Miao Yin was not in a hurry, but simply waited quietly for his answer.
“…Yan Shuzhou,” he said softly.
"How old are you?"
Yan Shuzhou looked somewhat awkward, clearly not expecting the conversation to have a second part: "...nineteen."
“I’m a bit older than you, so you can call me ‘sister’.” Miao Yin smiled and then secretly slipped a candy into his hand.
'A little gift to mark our meeting,' she said silently.
Yan Shuzhou instinctively gripped the candy tighter, his eyes widening, and his gloomy expression dissipated considerably. He stared blankly at her dress, completely unable to figure out where she had pulled the candy from.
"Can you tell me about your situation? I've been hiding outside all alone for so long, it was really terrifying. Can you tell me how you survived?"
Yan Shuzhou froze, his face turning even paler. He remained silent, saying nothing.
A woman in a black suit, who looked like a sales clerk at some department store, sat not far away. After hearing their conversation, she interrupted.
"You don't need to pay attention to him. He's always like this. He says a few words and then goes silent. What do you want to know? I'll tell you."
"Okay."
The woman in the suit was named Zhang Manyu. From her words, Miao Yin learned what had happened here.
On the day the apocalypse arrived, the staff in the central control room were drugged by two thieves. The two thieves cut off the building's power supply and escaped. To prevent the power from being repaired too soon, they even thoughtfully locked the door.
The staff were awakened by the knocking on the door. When they woke up, they found the control room in chaos. Hearing the knocking, they thought it was a leader coming to question them, so they quickly opened the door.
When they opened the door, they found that everything outside was in complete chaos.
The elevator stopped, and there were monsters blocking the emergency exit, so the survivors, with nowhere to hide, had no choice but to rush into the control room.
The staff had just woken up and were unaware of the strange occurrence. They thought some kind of terrorist attack had occurred, so they quickly sent the survivors inside to hide.
Actually, there weren't that many people in the control room at the beginning, only about thirty. They made all the phone calls they could get but didn't receive any help, so they had to fend for themselves first.
They inspected the damaged wiring and equipment with flashlights, and with the emergency repairs by the staff, they managed to restore half of the power to Building B, allowing the lights and elevators to work.
However, the elevators are the furthest from the control room. In this circular building, only the eleventh floor is completely enclosed, with a huge playground in the middle. The control room is on the south side, the three elevators are on the north side, and the escape route is on the east side.
In other words, if they want to leave the eleventh floor, they either have to head east to find the emergency exit, or they have to traverse the entire eleventh floor to find the elevator!
But that's almost impossible, because outside the control room, there are mutants hiding everywhere, and any one of them could wipe them out.
Forget about the elevator, they can't even get through the emergency exit on the east side; several people have already paid a bloody price for it.
But staying here indefinitely isn't a good idea; there's nothing to eat here except water.
Then they thought of amusement parks.
The amusement park is open-air, with a wide variety of attractions, covering almost the entire eleventh floor, and it's also the closest to them.
The food inside is diverse. Not to mention the freshly baked meatballs and sausages, the instant noodles from the vending machines alone are enough to feed them. Moreover, the complex facilities inside make it easier to avoid monsters.
So they discussed it and decided to send someone with a little bit of strength, along with a few screwdrivers, a utility knife, and a hammer, to the amusement park.
At first, some people worried that they might sneak away, but it was clear that monsters were often lurking at the entrance of the survival passage, and no one dared to challenge them.
This trip was fraught with danger. Despite being extremely careful, four people still died along the way, but the survivors managed to pry open a vending machine and get food.
Not only that, they also discovered some people hiding in the amusement park.
The amusement park has a variety of facilities, such as escape rooms, snow-covered areas, and mazes. These winding and intricate games provide them with ample space to hide.
At first, everyone was enthusiastic about helping others in need, since more people meant more hope, even if it meant rushing out together.
However, as the number of people increased, the food supply fell short of demand, leading to more and more conflicts in the control room.
With phone calls going unanswered and no one coming to their rescue, nearly seventy people were huddled in one space. Under such immense pressure, they launched their first escape attempt.
Who knew that in just a few days, those monsters had completely changed, and one of them had even evolved into a three-armed, three-legged, and three-headed creature!
Unsurprisingly, after paying the price of more than a dozen lives, they slunk back to the control room.
After this brutal operation, the remaining fifty-seven people quickly split into two factions.
One faction still advocated self-preservation, believing that waiting to die would only lead to destruction, and planned to charge out with weapons, determined not to turn back until they hit a brick wall.
The other faction was the conservatives, who were terrified by the distorted fighting power outside and chose to stay, continue to live off the amusement park, and wait for the army to rescue them.