8: Chapter 8 New Companions

The next morning, Wang Jie was awakened by a commotion.

He walked out of the command room and saw several survivors gathered together, talking excitedly about something.

"What's going on?" he asked, walking over.

Lin Waner squeezed out of the crowd with a strange expression on her face.

"Someone has arrived outside," she said. "It's a woman."

Wang Jie was stunned. "One person? How did she get here?"

"She walked here," Lin Waner said. "She said she escaped from the east, and when she saw the smoke from here, she came over."

Wang Jie frowned.

In this apocalypse, walking around alone outside was practically asking for death.

Unless that person had some special skills.

He walked toward the perimeter wall, climbed up the guard tower, and looked out.

There was indeed a woman standing outside.

She was twenty-three or twenty-four years old, with short hair, wearing a dirty tracksuit, and carrying a large backpack. She stood twenty meters away from the wall, holding up her hands to show she was not a threat.

Wang Jie had a soldier call out: "Who are you? Where are you from?"

The woman looked up at the guard tower.

"My name is Chen Xue!" she shouted. "I'm a nurse! I escaped from a survivor camp in the east!"

Wang Jie was stunned.

A nurse?

He looked at Lin Waner.

Lin Waner nodded. "We are short on medical personnel."

Wang Jie thought for a moment and shouted down: "Wait there!"

He jumped down from the guard tower, took two Heavy Soldiers with him, opened the gate, and walked out.

As he got closer, he could see the woman's appearance clearly.

She was very young and quite pretty, but there were injuries on her face and deep dark circles under her eyes. There were bloodstains on her clothes, and it was unclear if they were her own or someone else's.

"You said you're a nurse?" Wang Jie asked.

Chen Xue nodded. "I attended the Jiangdong City Nursing School, graduated last year, and worked at the Municipal Second Hospital for a year. After the apocalypse began, I escaped to a survivor camp in the east with some colleagues. But there—"

She paused, her eyes dimming.

"What happened there?"

Chen Xue bit her lip. "The people there… they aren't good people."

Wang Jie didn't speak, waiting for her to continue.

"That camp is controlled by someone called 'King Kong'," Chen Xue said. "He used to be a thug. After the apocalypse, he gathered a group of people and took over that place. He makes us work, makes us hand over our food, and beats anyone who doesn't listen."

Her voice trembled slightly.

"Later, he... he started targeting women. Some of my colleagues were all…"

She couldn't continue.

Wang Jie was silent for a few seconds.

"So you ran away?"

Chen Xue nodded. "Last night, while they were changing shifts, I climbed over the back wall and ran all the way here."

Wang Jie looked at her and asked the system in his mind:

"Can you scan this person?"

【Scanning…】

【Target: Human female】

【Infection status: Uninfected】

【Threat level: None】

Wang Jie breathed a sigh of relief.

"You can come in," he said.

Chen Xue was stunned. "You… you're letting me in?"

Wang Jie nodded. "Aren't you a nurse? We happen to be short on medical personnel."

Chen Xue's eyes turned red.

She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end, she just bowed deeply.

"Thank you. Thank you."

Wang Jie turned to the side. "Let's go."

Chen Xue followed him into the base.

Lin Waner was already waiting at the gate. When she saw Chen Xue, she walked over and took her hand.

"Welcome," she said. "I'm also in medical care, we'll work together from now on."

Chen Xue looked at her, and tears finally streamed down her face.

They were tears of joy.

Chen Xue's arrival added another professional to the base.

Lin Waner took her to take a shower, change her clothes, and then arranged a place for her to sleep.

After getting settled, the three of them sat together and talked about that "King Kong" camp.

"How many people are in that camp?" Wang Jie asked.

Chen Xue thought for a moment. "About seventy or eighty. Half of them are King Kong's people—those thugs. They have guns and knives, and they're very vicious. The other half are survivors controlled by them, responsible for working and finding food."

Wang Jie frowned. "Seventy or eighty? Where is that place?"

"In the east, about ten kilometers away. It used to be an industrial park, and they occupied one of the buildings."

Wang Jie was silent for a while.

Ten kilometers, seventy or eighty people, with guns.

If those people discovered this place, it could be trouble.

But Wang Jie didn't have the energy to deal with them right now.

He needed to develop the base first.

"Get some good rest," he said to Chen Xue. "We'll deal with future matters later."

Chen Xue nodded.

She looked at Wang Jie and suddenly asked, "Are you the leader here?"

Wang Jie was stunned. "I suppose so."

Chen Xue looked at him, a certain light in her eyes. "You're different from the others."

Wang Jie didn't speak.

Chen Xue continued. "That guy King Kong, he can't walk straight when he sees a woman. But when you looked at me just now, there was nothing in your eyes. You're a good person."

Wang Jie coughed, feeling a bit awkward.

Lin Waner laughed from the side.

"Alright, alright," she said. "Stop praising him, or he'll get carried away."

Chen Xue laughed too.

The three of them sat together, and in this apocalyptic night, they laughed for a rare moment.