Chapter 289: The Banshee in the Surveillance (2)

Seeing the situation, Lin Fan turned and glanced at Liu Heng, who was standing awkwardly to the side.

Their eyes met, and Liu Heng instantly understood what this “big brother” wanted. Without a second word, he quickly stripped off his own T-shirt—dirty and sweat-stained, but still in one piece. Now shirtless, he hurried over, crouched down, and handed the shirt to the woman, helping her put it on over her head while carefully averting his gaze. “Quick… wear mine for now.”

The woman shot Lin Fan a grateful glance, whispering her thanks as she scrambled to pull on the oversized men’s T-shirt. She was still a mess, but at least a sliver of her human dignity had returned.

With her body covered, it was as if her spirit returned along with the fabric. Trembling, she propped herself up from the ground and stood.

Then, she took a deep breath and viciously kicked the corpse on the floor. Only then did she seem to have let out her pent-up frustration. She gave Lin Fan a deep bow, her tone regaining a sense of calm. “Let me lead the way. I know the route…”

“Alright.” Having a guide would save them the trouble of blindly navigating this underground maze. Lin Fan glanced at Liu Heng, then gestured toward the rest of the survivors. He said to Liu Heng,

“Organize everyone who wants to live. Don’t make any noise.” He then pointed to the rations and food scattered on the ground. “Gather all this, and get some food in your stomachs. But if anyone causes trouble…”

As he spoke, he shot them a “vicious” glare, leaving the threat unfinished. But that was enough to make everyone’s hair stand on end.

“Got it! We all get it! Don’t you worry, Big Brother!” Liu Heng promised, patting his chest repeatedly.

Lin Fan wasted no more words. He bent down, picked up a package of bread and a bottled drink, and handed them to the woman who would be their guide. With a wave of his hand, he said, “Let’s go.”

Although the woman was weak, she now walked with resolve. The two of them, one following the other, headed back the way they came, down the blood-soaked corridor.

‘There’s a fork in the path here…’

Looking at the familiar walls, Lin Fan retraced his steps in his mind and realized there was a fork in the path right near the cages that had held the Mutated Zombies. He had heard a noise at the time and just charged deeper inside, completely missing it.

Lin Fan gave it a hard shove. With a sharp SNAP, the fire door, which had been locked from the other side, swung open. They stepped through into a stairwell.

“This leads to the second floor. I’ve only been up here a few times…” The woman seemed famished; she had already finished the drink and the bread in just this short distance. Having something in her stomach had clearly revived her spirits. “My name is Li Wan, and you are…?”

The woman led the way, attempting to make small talk with Lin Fan as they walked.

“My surname is Lin. It’s alright, you don’t need to cozy up to me…” Lin Fan wasn’t in the mood for conversation. He knew the woman was just nervous, grasping for something to hold on to, so he offered a simple reassurance. “I’ll get you all out of here. Don’t worry.”

That cold, hard, yet promise-filled statement was more effective than any comforting words could have been.

“Lin… Brother Lin, thank you…”

Li Wan’s eyes reddened. She tactfully fell silent, saying no more, and simply quickened her pace to lead the way.

One following the other, they ascended a metal staircase, crossed a connecting corridor, and arrived at a mezzanine level on the edge of the factory floor.

The design was quite clever. A row of floor-to-ceiling windows along the corridor offered a commanding view of the processing workshop on the first floor below.

Next to the windows, there was even an exquisite coffee table and a wine rack. The sadistic boss had probably stood here, sipping red wine while admiring the corpses hanging from hooks and the survivors toiling away below.

It was, in essence, a throne overlooking hell.

On the other side of the corridor, opposite the large windows, was a row of offices, each with its own window facing the hallway.

“It’s this room…” Li Wan said, pointing to one of the office windows. “I came to the boss’s office once and saw a little girl pressed up against this window. It gave me a real fright at the time.”

She still seemed shaken by the memory. “The person who brought me here then even told me to stay away from her…”

Lin Fan moved closer to the glass window, narrowing his eyes to peer inside.

It wasn’t a special prison cell; judging by the layout, it was just an ordinary office. Right now, however, it was as messy as a garbage dump. A layer of reports and documents covered the floor like a carpet.

In a dark corner sat a pile of flattened cardboard. Disturbingly, the cardboard wasn’t covered with any bedding. Instead, it was caked with dried, blackened bloodstains and some sort of unknown, semi-transparent slime that resembled glue. The shape didn’t look like a human’s bed, but more like a “nest” built by some kind of beast.

On a leather sofa on the other side of the room, scraps of cloth and foam padding torn from a chair were piled haphazardly. This “nest” looked much smaller, and the depression in the middle made it clear that someone had been curling up to sleep here for a long time.

Judging by the size of the indentation, the person was very small, perhaps even frail. Scattered on the carpet next to the sofa were wrappers from compressed biscuits and crumbs of long-molded bread.

‘Looks like the little girl, Yiyi, was living here.’ Lin Fan thought. To think that little girl was sharing a room with a monster, right under that sadistic boss’s nose.

‘No wonder that little girl was muttering about monsters…’

Lin Fan looked toward the cardboard in the corner. That must have been where one of the boss’s two bone-spur zombies had stayed.