Hyperthermal Hell || Apocalypse Paradise #1 [Complete]

70: What Did You Say?

While she was still in a half-conscious state, Lin Sanjiu could hear a constant soft "pitter-patter" sound, which disturbed her utterly exhausted mind. From the jerky movements she felt, she could tell that she was in a vehicle...

A packet of butter cookies on top of a large carton shifted about with the jerky movement of the bus, just like Lin Sanjiu. A furry paw appeared behind the carton as if it was trying to sneakily snatch the packet of cookies. However, the bus suddenly jerked, so the paw accidentally pushed the packet of cookies off the carton. "Agh!" The packet of cookies hit someone.

The culprit stuck his head out and incidentally locked eyes with Lin Sanjiu.

"You... You're awake? Haha..." the brown rabbit—B. Rabbit—laughed dryly.

Lin Sanjiu removed the packet of cookies from her face. She still felt giddy, but she slowly sat up and looked around. She was lying in the aisle of the bus; apparently, someone thoughtful had spread out a towel before she laid down. She could see tall stacks of cartons beside her, and she figured that the others probably had to make space for her to lie down. At that moment, B. Rabbit climbed up to one of the top cartons.

"Xiao Jiu? You're awake?"

Hu Changzai's voice rang out from the driver's seat as he took a second to look behind. When he saw that Lin Sanjiu could already sit up, his face immediately lit up. "That's great! I've been worried about you!"

After hearing that, her memories slowly came back to her, filling her groggy head.

'Fang Dan was killed by 12.'

The first thought that emerged strangled her heart tightly. 'Who would have thought that she was a consular officer?' Thus, Lin Sanjiu not only came to accept that she didn't just lose the chance to get a visa, but more importantly, she had lost a friend.

Subsequently, she began to summarize the events in her head. When the five executives were defeated, 12 took the opportunity and escaped while the Oasis was empty. Marcie left ahead of them, as she had to maintain the distance between her and 12 to keep her corporeal form. Right now, Lin Sanjiu did not know where they were. 'How's Marcie? Has Luther woken up?'

"How long have I been sleeping?" Lin Sanjiu was only conscious about how dry her throat was when she started speaking.

Hu Changzai eyed Lin Sanjiu through the rearview mirror before he replied, sounding a little worried, "It's been a week. Luckily, you had a normal pulse and breathing rate; I nearly thought that you were dead..."

'A week?!' Lin Sanjiu was shocked, and she immediately stood up. Her legs wobbled a little, and she nearly lost her balance. "It's been that long? Then, Marcie..."

Hu Changzai, already expecting Lin Sanjiu's question, couldn't help but sigh as he replied, "After you fainted, we discussed and decided to head in the same direction as Marcie. However, even after traveling for quite a distance, we didn't see her. I figured that we might have taken a wrong turn, or perhaps they changed direction midway..."

'In other words, we lost contact with Marcie.'

Lin Sanjiu's head started to hurt. She found herself at a loss as her head pulsated with pain while her intense waves of emotions — anxiousness, worry, and remorse — seemed to ebb a little. Instead, a rather comforting thought became clearer and clearer to her: no news might be the best news...

Lin Sanjiu straightened her body and looked around the bus carefully. She felt some complicated feelings when she realized that, after staying at the Oasis for less than two weeks, her previous companions were all gone and were replaced by a group of new faces.