Chapter 28: Falling into the Subway
“Ugh… Hmm…”
The damaged body sent waves of pain to the nerves.
Under the continuous stimulation, the groggy consciousness finally slowly broke free from chaos and spread its long-dormant perception to all parts of the body, regaining control.
Following an unconscious soft moan and slightly twitching fingers, after more than ten seconds, Zhong Jing finally managed to open her eyes.
Her dazed gaze fell upon the dim and unfamiliar surroundings.
Her still-unclear thoughts, after a brief stupor, suddenly jolted.
Where is this… “Hiss—!”
Before she could sort out what had happened, intense pain interrupted her thoughts.
Wanting to prop herself up, she hadn't noticed to check her current condition.
The large movement pulled at new injuries on her body.
The sharp pain and weakness that suddenly came from her right elbow made her unable to adjust her body in time, and she fell down again, face first.
The impact of her face against the hard, cold stones beneath her was not pleasant.
“Pain… pain…”
Gritting her teeth and waiting for the pain in her right hand to subside slightly, Zhong Jing carefully propped herself up by pressing her forehead against the ground and using her left hand for support.
Having finally managed to sit up, the first thing Zhong Jing did was to check her right hand.
After rolling up her sleeve and carefully examining it, Zhong Jing breathed a slight sigh of relief: there were no obvious fractures or deformities under the skin, not even any external injuries.
It was most likely just a sprain that would heal with some rest.
It might affect combat, but fortunately, her dominant hand was her left.
The Chu Sheng City C106 submachine gun was relatively light in quality and recoil.
In her current condition, she could still use it skillfully.
Fortunately, other parts of her body were fine, except for an abrasion left where her face had met the rough stones due to her reckless actions just now.
Although it was just a small wound, being exposed like this in this highly polluted area still posed a risk.
Zhong Jing casually took out a wound dressing from the medical kit hanging at her waist and isolated the wound from the air.
Without any protection, falling nearly ten meters in free fall and only suffering a sprained right elbow joint was nothing short of a miracle.
Or had her resistance to impact become so outstanding at some point?
“This should be fine, right…”
Her finger lightly pressed the rough surface of the wound dressing to confirm it was tightly adhered to the wound.
However, a sense of incongruity, different from usual, always made her feel that something was wrong, as if… something was missing.
When her gaze caught an item lying beside her, she finally realized the reason…
Her gas mask had fallen off!!!
Zhong Jing stared blankly at the gas mask on the ground, momentarily unable to react.
In such a highly polluted area, not wearing a gas mask was tantamount to suicide.
The danger was directly proportional to the time; the longer the exposure, the higher the risk.
She didn't know how long she had been unconscious without her gas mask, but it had clearly exceeded the acceptable safety threshold.
The thought of suffering a fate worse than death under the torment of that terrifying mutated disease made her shiver all over.
That was an outcome she absolutely could not accept.
However, the gas mask was severely damaged, shattered from being hit by a falling rock, leaving Zhong Jing with no way to even attempt a remedy.
How could this be…
Zhong Jing’s face turned ashen as she fumbled with her waist pouch.
She was certain she didn’t have another spare.
She didn't know whether she was lucky for not being hit by a falling rock, or unlucky because her gas mask was damaged by a falling rock.
Regardless of whether the gas mask was intact or damaged, the fact that she had inhaled an excessive amount of polluted air was an unchangeable reality.
Even replacing her entire respiratory system would be useless.
The pollutants had already seeped into every part of her body, causing irreversible changes.
Thinking of this, Zhong Jing instead adjusted her mentality, comforting herself inwardly: a high risk of mutated disease outbreak didn't mean it was inevitable.
That tiny probability of immunity wasn't an absolute dead end…
Even if she really contracted a mutated disease, she could just end her own life before it fully manifested.
After all, she could be considered experienced when it came to dying.
It was just whether her death this time would be a true eternal slumber or connect to a world in another location.
She didn't know if the urgency of the current situation overshadowed her fear of death, or if her defeatist self-comfort was starting to take effect.
"After giving up on obsessing over the polluted air and continuing to breathe, she finally faced the main issue."
Where is this place?
Through observation of the environment, she could initially judge that she was currently in a subway station in JD Ruined City…
Subway, huh…
As she silently repeated these three words in her mind, a bitter taste welled up in Zhong Jing’s throat.
Along with the shock, there was also an unreal, illusory feeling.
Who would have thought that a trip to JD Ruined City would gradually spiral out of control and turn into this.
First, inhaling a large amount of polluted air, then falling into a subway station she knew nothing about.
One desperate situation after another kept pushing her towards death.
Chu Sheng City didn't even have a complete understanding of the surface layout of JD Ruined City.
Their knowledge of the underground facilities hidden deep beneath the earth was even more scarce.
At least, she had no idea that such a place existed beneath her feet.
Of course, it couldn't be ruled out that the base government's strict blockade of high-level intelligence led to a lack of information on this aspect among the civilian population.
“Hey! This is Stone, if you can hear me, please respond. If you can hear me, please respond…” Zhong Jing tried to establish contact with the other team members, but after repeating it several times into the comms headset with no response, she could only helplessly give up and save her breath. The method of consulting Researcher Han Nianling was definitely not going to work.
Whether it was due to a damaged headset or signal interference, it meant she had lost contact with the other members of the squad.
Zhong Jing looked up.
Cracks in the ground surface above cast down some faint, dim light, preventing the place from being completely dark.
It was clearly impossible to get out from above; she could only look for another way.
“Let’s go…”
Speaking to herself in a lowered voice, Zhong Jing stood up after her body’s mobility had mostly recovered.
Of the original eight fully loaded extended magazines on her carrying gear, only two remained.
Including the bullets in the gun, there were a total of seventy to eighty rounds.
This showed how intense the battle against the corpse tide had been just now.
There was also a cracked hunting knife.
These were all she had left.
Whether it was enough to support her out of the subway was still unknown.
For now, she could only try her best.
She flipped the switch for the flashlight.
The flashlight mounted on the gun barrel flickered a few times before resuming a stable beam of light.
Her vision extended with the illumination of the light.
She was on a platform somewhere in the subway.
Under the illumination of the light, she could clearly see that a considerable amount of dense dust was still floating in the air.
Even if she was lucky enough to not have a mutated disease outbreak, she would probably get pneumoconiosis.
However, the thick layer of dust settled on the ground also indicated that no other creatures had been active here for some time.
She was still safe for now.
She cautiously advanced along the path beneath her feet, leaving a trail of footprints in the thick dust on the ground behind her.
The glass separating the platform and the tracks was quite sturdy.
Situations where it was completely shattered were rare.
Most of them, even if riddled with cracks, still held their positions.
Scattered parts of numerous skeletons littered the ground.
There was no other domestic garbage or survival supplies.
These should have been passengers waiting for the subway.
It was just that they hadn't expected that what would arrive faster than the subway was a devastating blow.
Soon, Zhong Jing found the stairs leading upwards.
The middle section of the stairs had been destroyed by falling rocks.
The escalators on both sides had survived and looked relatively sturdy.
A sign suspended by an iron chain at the entrance of the stairs swayed slightly.
“Subway Entrance, One-Way Traffic…” Reaching out to wipe off the dust covering it, the green background with white text under the protection of the plastic glass was still clearly discernible.
It seemed this way was correct.
Following the stairs upwards, she arrived at an extremely spacious hall.
Because it was hidden underground, the facilities here were relatively well-preserved.
At least the seats fixed to the ground still maintained their formation from over a hundred years ago.
Having seen so much wreckage on the surface, this place actually gave an impression of neatness.
Compared to below, there was much less dust here.
In the deathly silent environment, it always felt as if even faint footsteps were infinitely amplified.
Her gaze continued to explore the surroundings…
A row of snack and drink vending machines against the wall awakened Zhong Jing's hunger.
Although the broken display windows made it easy to take the food inside, Zhong Jing would rather chew on a few bites of her carried compressed biscuits than touch those snacks that had expired over a hundred years ago.
But this didn't mean Zhong Jing wouldn't fantasize about the taste of these things if they were still within their shelf life.
Much better than her dry compressed biscuits, right…
“If I could also live in the pre-war world… even for a year, a day would be enough…” Zhong Jing sighed to herself.
No mutated beasts, no pollution, no harsh polluting climate, no need to worry about hunger and cold.
The vast world was a domain for human exploration.
This paradise world yearned for by humans of the post-war new era was actually what pre-war humans truly lived and experienced.
If not for the remnants of the pre-war world scattered across the globe, Zhong Jing wouldn't dare to believe that these things had actually existed.
Found it!
After scanning around several times, Zhong Jing quickly found what she was looking for: a layout map of this place.
It was hanging on a wall not far away.
The plastic board was partially damaged, but it still retained most of the high-value information.
Zhong Jing quickly took out paper and a pen, recording it down in the most primitive way.
A few strokes of a rough sketch instantly increased the value of this piece of paper considerably.
Zhong Jing even considered that if she returned to Chu Sheng City, selling it to the base government's intelligence department would probably fetch a handsome reward.
Just as Zhong Jing was feeling extremely excited about the smooth progress of things, a sudden tug on her back collar made her fall backward, pulling her off the ground regardless of her struggles.
There were clearly no signs of any living creatures nearby!
The sudden attack was completely unexpected by Zhong Jing.
However, when she saw the attacker's identity clearly, she realized the reason.
It was a disgusting creature shaped like a lump of flesh, parasitic in a crack in the ceiling wall.
And the tongue, covered in barbs, extending from its mouth-like organ, was how it was dragging Zhong Jing.
The long tongue looked slender yet was quite powerful, or perhaps Zhong Jing's weight was too light.
Soon, Zhong Jing's feet left the ground.
This posture made it difficult to use firearms.
She immediately drew her hunting knife and swung it backward towards the tongue.
However, the tongue’s toughness was extremely high, and the hunting knife wasn't sharp.
No matter how hard Zhong Jing tried, she couldn't sever it.
Seemingly sensing the prey's fierce resistance, the unknown flesh lump's movements became even faster.
Damn thing, was I careless?
Seeing that disgusting maw getting closer and closer to her, Zhong Jing was about to switch to cutting her clothes with the knife.
However, a gunshot ended the tongue's continuous dragging of her.
Then, the familiar feeling of weightlessness came again.
The sensation of falling once more was no longer unfamiliar to her.