The Apocalypse Solution Provider

Chapter 49: Meeting at the Pharmacy!

“Hah… hah…” Inside Longxing Pharmacy, Tan Hui’s chest heaved violently.

Catching his breath, he looked at Yue Hao beside him. “I didn’t expect it to be this easy. Way simpler than I thought!”

Since leaving the Yingbin Restaurant, they had sprinted to Longxing Pharmacy in almost a single breath, only pausing briefly behind a couple of abandoned cars for cover.

Aside from a pair of Zombies that chased them right as they breached the pharmacy entrance, the run had been remarkably smooth.

Yue Hao’s footwork was exceptionally fluid, revealing a professional level of tactical training.

Yue Hao took several deep breaths and offered a bitter smile. “Don’t get cocky. Those things outside might lack brains, but their hearing and vision are terrifyingly sharp. If we trigger a horde, it won’t be this simple.”

“Hey, what did you do before all this? You move like a pro.”

“I spent some time in the military… Watch my six. Keep the flashlight steady and illuminate my blind spots. This building isn’t clear yet.”

With a brief command, Yue Hao led Tan Hui deeper into the pharmacy.

Longxing Pharmacy boasted a massive floor plan.

Aisles of towering shelves were packed with various medicines and health supplements, terminating at a sizable medical equipment section.

The two men moved cautiously, moving in a tight single-file formation.

They swept the entire first floor without finding a single trace of another living soul. Only then did they finally relax.

Tan Hui pulled several plastic bags from his pockets and began sweeping medical supplies off the shelves.

Yue Hao stood guard, his vigilance unwavering as he suddenly asked, “Tan Hui… do you have a death wish?”

Tan Hui’s hands paused for a fraction of a second before resuming their work. “Why would you ask that?”

“You’re the healthiest one among our group, always running yourself ragged to help everyone else. I know you’re a good person, but this is overkill. You’re exhibiting a classic overcompensating stress response.”

“I… I don’t want to die… I just don’t know how to live anymore…” Tears welled in the corners of Tan Hui’s eyes, though his hands never stopped sorting through the pill bottles.

“Everyone’s dead. I’ve lost contact with my family, my friends… the entire country is gone. What are we supposed to do? I really don’t know. I can’t stomach seeing another dead body. I can’t… I can’t survive alone.”

At that, his composure cracked, and tears streamed silently down his face.

Yue Hao rubbed his temples, his voice softening with sorrow. “It will get better. The military will mobilize and save us. The disaster hit hard and fast… but those walking corpses are target practice for modern infantry. Plenty of military bases are enclosed; they wouldn’t have been exposed to the rain.”

“Once they re-establish comms, they’ll launch operations to retake the cities. Longshan is a major strategic hub. As long as we hold the line, there’s hope.”

“Yeah.” Tan Hui choked back a sob and nodded.

They quickly finished scavenging the essential drugs on the first floor.

They hurried toward the second floor, Yue Hao taking point with his knife drawn.

Just as his boot hit the landing of the second floor, Yue Hao’s expression drastically warped. He threw an arm back to halt Tan Hui. “Freeze!”

“What’s wrong?”

“I just saw a black shadow dart past. Did you catch it?”

“I didn’t see a thing.” Tan Hui instantly tensed, sweeping his flashlight erratically across the dark room.

“Fall back! Ditch the loot, we’re leaving right now!”

Trusting his gut, Yue Hao spun on his heel and physically dragged Tan Hui back toward the stairs.

But before they could take even two steps down, a sound paralyzed them both.

The muffled, pathetic sobbing of a child drifted from the second floor.

“It’s just a kid.” Tan Hui looked at Yue Hao pleadingly.

Yue Hao hesitated for a long moment before nodding and slowly creeping back up the steps.

Pressing his back against the wall, he used the flashlight beam to slice through the darkness between the aisles.

Near the center of the floor, the beam caught the small silhouette of a child collapsed over a dead body.

Yue Hao deliberately swept the beam past the child, prioritizing a sweep of the remaining aisles and blind spots.

Only after fully clearing the perimeter and confirming the child was the sole living entity on the floor did his shoulders finally drop.

“Alright… It must have been the kid I saw darting around. It’s just him. Let’s check it out.”

The two men approached, the scene coming into sharp focus.

It was undeniably a young boy dressed in a child’s outfit, weeping uncontrollably as he hugged the corpse of a pharmacy employee.

It looked perfectly safe. After all, Zombies couldn’t cry.

Both men crouched simultaneously, and Tan Hui gently reached out to comfort the boy.

“Hey there, kiddo— Urgh!”

Before the words fully left his mouth, a horrifying mutation erupted!

The child’s slender arm blurred, plunging straight through Tan Hui’s sternum and into his heart. Yue Hao didn’t even have a fraction of a second to react before the tiny figure unhinged its jaw and lunged at his throat!

The mouth was small, but the jagged teeth inside were razor-sharp.

“Guh… hk…” Yue Hao’s eyes bulged from their sockets as a fountain of crimson erupted from his severed jugular.

The sickening squelch of tearing flesh was immediately followed by the loud, wet crunch of shattering bone.

The infected child buried its entire face into Yue Hao’s throat, violently gnawing straight through his cervical vertebrae.

Tan Hui was still clinging to his final seconds of life. He lay paralyzed, watching in sheer horror as Yue Hao was decapitated, his head left dangling by only a thin strip of skin on the back of his neck.

As Yue Hao’s head flopped uselessly onto his back, the last glimmer of light faded from Tan Hui’s eyes, and the pharmacy was plunged back into a suffocating dead silence.

….

Back at the Yingbin Restaurant, Ding Jia peered anxiously through a crack in the boarded-up window.

Over ten minutes had passed. Realistically, they should have grabbed the medicine and rushed straight back.

But the street was completely silent… Had something gone wrong?

Ding Jia cast a desperate glance outside, then looked back at her mother, who was still unconscious on the floor.

Every passing second was pure torture.

Suddenly, her pupils dilated. An SUV roared down the street and slammed on the brakes right in front of the Longxing Pharmacy.

Three heavily armed men stepped out of the vehicle, bristling with bows, firearms, and tactical gear.

The man leading the group turned his head to issue an order. Through the gloom, Ding Jia caught a blurry glimpse of his face, and her heart nearly hammered out of her chest.

Losing all self-control, she spun around and screamed, “The aliens are here! The aliens came to save us! They— Mmph!”

“Shut your fucking trap! You already threw a goddamn basin and pulled every Zombie in the area!” Tattooed Arm lunged forward, violently clamping his hand over Ding Jia’s mouth. “Stupid bitch! Do you have to throw a psychotic fit every goddamn hour?!”

“Mmph! Mmmph!” Ding Jia clawed frantically at the thug’s arm, wrenching his hand away just enough to gasp, “They’re right outside! If you don’t believe me, look for yourself!”

Tattooed Arm shoved her aside and squinted through the crack. Seeing the empty street, he glared fiercely at Ding Jia. “Where the fuck is anyone? Listen here, just because you’re a crazy cunt doesn’t mean you get a free pass. You scream your schizo bullshit one more time, and I’ll beat you senseless!”

…

“I explicitly ordered you to equip the helmets. Why bring tactical gear if you aren’t going to wear it?” Su Jin demanded, his voice echoing coldly through the pharmacy.

“You aren’t wearing yours either, Boss,” Cheng Du grumbled, rolling his eyes. “That thing is suffocating and ruins my peripheral vision. Plus, I can’t spit fire with it on. We’re just hitting a pharmacy; the threat level is practically zero. We’ll put them on when we hit the hospital, alright?”

“Yeah, Director, stop stressing over the dress code. We aren’t as fragile as you; you’re the only one who actually needs the armor,” Fu Hu chimed in.

“Hah. You two bastards are going to give me an aneurysm…” Su Jin massaged his temples in sheer annoyance. “Flick your flashlights on! We hit the second floor, grab the targeted meds, and exfil immediately.”

“We aren’t stocking up on general supplies?”

“We already looted a massive surplus from the residential block. Grabbing more basic painkillers is a waste of inventory space and time. You two take point. I’ll cover our six.”

The two henchmen took the lead.

Su Jin trailed slightly behind. Keeping one hand near his weapon, he discreetly unzipped his dimensional briefcase strapped to his chest.

Extending his right arm, he casually swept an entire aisle of expensive, unknown medicines into the void of the bag with a series of loud clatter-clacks.

He had intentionally cleared up inventory space before they left the base specifically for this exact level of corporate embezzlement.

Hearing the suspicious clatter behind them, both Cheng Du and Fu Hu snapped their heads around, staring at Su Jin in sheer confusion.

“My gear scraped against a shelf. Stop staring and keep moving!” Su Jin barked without missing a beat.

The trio pushed toward the second floor. However, right as they hit the landing, their tactical instincts kicked in. They halted simultaneously, heads tilting upward.

“Is that a kid crying? A survivor!” Fu Hu didn’t hesitate. He immediately bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Su Jin’s brow pinched into a hard line. With an explosive burst of enhanced agility, he leaped forward, parkoured off the adjacent wall, and landed squarely on the second-floor landing, physically blocking Fu Hu’s path.

“Control yourself! Let me clear the area first.”

“But Boss, it’s just a little kid… What could possibly go wrong?”

“Shut up!” Su Jin hissed. “Standard risk assessment first.”

Falling into formation, the three of them pressed against the far wall, their flashlights aggressively sweeping through the dark aisles.

They eventually converged on the center of the pharmacy. Three beams of blinding white light focused directly on the small child curled on the floor, whimpering pathetically.

There were three corpses clustered around the child. The blood pooling beneath them was still fresh and vibrant, indicating they had died mere minutes ago.

“Damn, this kid is incredibly lucky we showed up!” Fu Hu sighed in relief. He turned to Su Jin. “Director, we have to extract him. Tossing him in the trunk shouldn’t compromise our operational capacity.”

Su Jin stepped forward, his cold, deadpan gaze locked onto the crying child, while his right hand smoothly thumbed the safety off his pistol…