Discovering Survivors

The helicopter carrying the four of them had already taken to the sky. As they flew out from the underground base, Jason noticed that they were passing over a forest area. The four of them looked at the city in the distance, still smoking from the recent explosions. It was a city that had once been bustling with life, but in just a few days, it had descended into chaos, gradually falling into ruin. What would the future of humanity be like? Where would they go from here?

Jason took out his binoculars and watched the frenzy below, his mind racing. At this moment, his once-held fantasy that all of this might be an illusion was completely shattered.

Hank's voice cut through the tension as he reminded them once again about the parachuting precautions. Although it was the first time for Jason and Simon, they weren't too worried with two experienced jumpers leading the way.

"We are approaching the target area. Altitude is 3,000 meters. I repeat, altitude is 3,000 meters. We will be at the drop zone in one minute. Prepare to jump!" The voice of the pilot came through the intercom.

After the pilot's announcement, the four of them moved to the side door of the helicopter.

"Alright, our target is the largest rooftop in the middle! Don't be afraid, follow my lead! 3, 2, 1, jump!" Hank shouted.

With Hank's countdown, the four of them linked hands and jumped out of the helicopter in a neat formation.

As Hank and Sakura controlled their descent, they could be heard through the radio.

"Let go and spread out, maintain distance, and open your chutes!"

The sound of parachutes opening filled the air. Jason nervously adjusted his direction, trying to stay in line with Hank and Sakura.

"Simon, stay away from me!" Sakura's voice came through the radio.

At this moment, Simon was a bit too close to Sakura, and in order to avoid their parachutes entangling, Sakura had to adjust her descent.

Sakura's altitude quickly decreased, and it looked like she might miss the rooftop. Everyone's hearts skipped a beat.

But Sakura had already prepared for this. She quickly deployed a grappling hook from her waist!

Clang! The grappling hook latched onto the rooftop guardrail.

Sakura tugged on the rope, drew her knife, cut her parachute free, and then climbed up to safety.

Once the three of them landed, they quickly detached their parachutes and rushed to the guardrail. They saw Sakura had already climbed up, and they breathed a sigh of relief.

"Simon, are you trying to get us killed?" Sakura gritted her teeth.

"I'm sorry, Sakura! I... I'm still not very good at this. I'm really sorry..." Simon kept apologizing, knowing he had messed up.

Jason watched the scene, feeling lucky that Sakura reacted quickly. If it had been him, he would either be crashing to the ground with Simon or missing the rooftop entirely.

Meanwhile, on a campus somewhere.

"Senior! I just saw a helicopter fly by!"

"A helicopter? Aren't there more planes in the sky recently? Zhang Xiaowei, don't tell me you actually think they're here to rescue us?" A student beside him interrupted.

"No! It wasn't just a helicopter! Four people jumped out of the helicopter!" Zhang Xiaowei excitedly said.

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Where are they?"

"Let's go out and let them find us!"

The people inside began to discuss among themselves.

"Shh! Quiet!" The senior, whom Zhang Xiaowei had referred to, signaled with her hand.

At this moment, everyone realized their overzealousness. The outside was still full of zombies, so they started praying not to attract their attention.

But things didn't go as hoped. Two zombies, attracted by the noise, had already reached the door and were clawing at the wooden door, producing eerie screeching sounds.

"If this keeps up, the other zombies will be drawn here, and we're dead for sure," one student couldn't help but cry.

"Stop crying. We have the senior with us. If you keep crying, the zombies will eat you first," a male student scolded.

"Open the door!" The senior gripped her iron knife tightly and spoke in a calm tone.

After the senior's command, no one dared to open the door, which disappointed her. She turned to Zhang Xiaowei and said, "Xiaowei, open the door."

Called upon, Zhang Xiaowei hesitated and nervously approached the door. Taking a deep breath, he yanked it open and immediately ran back to hide behind the senior.

"Grrr!" The zombies at the door smelled their prey and grew more aggressive, about to claw through the door to get to Zhang Xiaowei. But the senior quickly dashed forward.

With a diagonal slash, she decapitated the first zombie. Then, with another stab, she drove her knife straight through the second zombie's skull!

Thud! The two zombies collapsed to the ground.

In a matter of seconds, two bloody corpses lay inside the room.

The senior flicked the blood off her knife and calmly began to clean it in the corner.

Although they had been facing bloody scenes over the past few days, some people inside still couldn't bear it and began gagging.

"Let's move," the senior said.

"Senior, there's... nowhere left. If we move again, we'll have to go to the rooftop," Zhang Xiaowei said.

"Then let's go to the rooftop!" The senior said before leading the group toward the rooftop.

On the rooftop, Jason spread out the map of S University and looked around.

"We're currently on the office building's rooftop! The campus is divided into four areas: North and South are teaching buildings, while East and West are dorms, playgrounds, and cafeterias," Jason said, examining the map.

"Which direction should we head to first?" Simon asked.

"Wait a second, let's observe the surroundings first," Jason said, picking up the binoculars. From the eighth floor of the office building, he could see the chaos below. A campus with tens of thousands of students, and zombies were mostly congregating near the teaching and dorm buildings.

"This is a hellish situation. Those who managed to survive are really lucky," Hank remarked.

"Jason, how do you think they've survived in this kind of situation?" Simon leaned over and asked.

"Where there are fewer people, it's naturally less dangerous. It seems they've been hiding in less crowded areas," Jason analyzed.

"Simon, go guard the rooftop door, don't let any zombies come up," Sakura said, concerned that zombies might climb to the rooftop.

Jason picked up the map again, studying it carefully. He was looking for an opening, somewhere with fewer people. The teaching buildings were likely overrun, and the people inside had probably been infected. In the cafeteria, food would be plentiful, but it would also attract large numbers of people, making survival impossible and increasing the risk of infection.

That left only the library and gymnasium. These places were usually less crowded and could be relatively safe as long as supplies were enough. With enough food and water, there was still a chance of survival.

"Any findings?" Jason asked the others.

"Nothing. It's just zombies everywhere," Hank said.

"I did spot two kids, but they were bitten near the supermarket," Sakura said casually.

Jason immediately grabbed his binoculars and focused on the direction Sakura pointed out. There, a group of zombies was tearing into two students, and the scene was gruesome enough to make him lower the binoculars.

A moment later, Jason picked them up again and resumed scanning, but all he saw were zombies—no signs of more survivors.

Just as he was about to put the binoculars down, the iron gate of the gymnasium's rooftop suddenly opened!

"There are survivors! 9 o'clock direction, gymnasium rooftop!" Jason shouted to Hank and Sakura.

"Twenty... twenty-three people!" Hank quickly counted the figures with his binoculars.

Clearly, these twenty-three survivors had made a wise choice by staying on the rooftop. If they hadn't gone up there, it would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack for Jason and his team to find them in this vast campus.

Seeing this, Jason began thinking of ways to catch their attention. First, they needed to make sure the survivors knew they were there, and then hopefully, they would wait for them to approach.

As soon as the survivors saw the white parachute fabric hanging from the office building, Zhang Xiaowei immediately started waving towards Jason's group.

After thinking for a moment, Jason decided to use a powerful flashlight and began signaling towards the gymnasium rooftop.

"Wait? They want us to wait!" The senior, understanding Jason's intentions, gestured with an 'OK' sign towards the office building rooftop.