Chapter 39 Chapter Thirty-Nine

Juliet squeezed through the inner gate, then struggled to close it.She pushed with all her strength, the hinges creaked, and the heavy iron door finally closed with a bang. At that moment, the inside was plunged into darkness.She reached for the steering wheel, took the handle and pressed down hard, turning the steering wheel and locking the door. The air in the helmet became more and more stuffy, and she felt that she had begun to sink into groggy.She turned her back against the wall and groped her way along the edge in the darkness.When the door was just opened, the poisonous air outside also seeped in.At this moment, she felt the poisonous air like a swarm of fierce insects swooping down on her back.The corridor was dark, and Juliet staggered forward, trying desperately to stay away from the poisonous air.

There were no lights inside, and no images of the outside world on the walls.She secretly prayed in her heart, hoping that the layout of the two bunkers would be the same, so that she could find the way.She prayed secretly, hoping that the oxygen in the protective suit could last longer, that the air in the bunker would not be as poisonous as outside, or that the oxygen content would not be as scarce as in her protective suit.It doesn't matter if the air is toxic or there isn't enough oxygen, the result is the same. After a while, her hand touched the iron fence, and the detention room was indeed in the same position.Hope was immediately ignited in her heart, believing that she could find her way in the darkness.In this darkness, she didn't know what she wanted to do at all, and she didn't expect to survive. She just couldn't wait to escape the terrible world outside.She didn't seem to realize that she was inside the bunker, and kept feeling as if she was still outside.

She sucked in the little oxygen left in her protective clothing, and fumbled through the security officer's office. After a while, her foot suddenly tripped over something on the ground, and she immediately fell forward, hitting a soft mass on the ground. .She reached out to feel it and found it was an arm.It was a corpse.A lot of dead bodies.Juliet had to crawl over the corpse.Those corpses still had flesh and were soft to the touch, more human-like than the skeletons and bones outside, but relatively, they also posed greater obstacles to her actions.She touched the jaw of a corpse whose neck twisted under the weight of her body.At that moment she almost fell.She felt as if she was crushing someone, so she retreated instinctively, and had an urge to say sorry.Still, she bit the bullet and crawled over the pile of corpses, moving on in the darkness.Then, her helmet hit the office door.

Climbing too fast, she was caught off guard and slammed the door hard, staring at the stars immediately, thinking she might pass out.She reached for the doorknob.It is completely dark here, you can't see your fingers, you are no different from a blind man.She couldn't help thinking that the muddy puddles in the mechanical and electrical district had never been this dark before. After a while, she touched the doorknob, so she pressed hard.The door opened, but it was stuck, unable to be pushed.Juliet struggled to stand up, stepped on the corpse with her feet, and pushed the door with her shoulder.She wants to go out.

At last the door was pushed open, but only a little.She felt something being pushed open outside the door panel, and suddenly thought that there might be a mountain of corpses outside.She continued to push the door hard, exhausting all her strength, moaning unconsciously.She was sweating profusely, her hair falling loosely over her face.She couldn't see anything, and couldn't breathe.Inhaling too much carbon dioxide, she became more and more lethargic. Finally, the door was pushed open a gap, and she tried desperately to squeeze through.First she squeezed her shoulders out, then the helmet, and finally the other arm and leg.She fell to the ground, struggled to turn around and lean against the door, and then pushed the door hard to close it.

That's when she noticed a dim light here, but so faint that she could barely notice it at first.Then she felt a mass of tables and chairs blocking her way.She struggled and squeezed between the tables and chairs, desperately trying to break free from the entanglement of the corners of the table and the legs of the chair. Juliet could hear her labored breathing and knew that time was running out.She felt as if she was surrounded by poisonous gas.When she opened the door just now, the poisonous gas seeped in.Now, those poisonous gases are waiting for an opportunity, waiting for her to take off the protective clothing, and then they can swallow her and corrode her body.

Then she suddenly thought, just lie down and wait for the oxygen to run out.This sophisticated suit, like a chrysalis, would protect her corpse.Her body will not rot.It was a gift from Old Walker and the Supplies District.Her body would stay forever in this dark bunker—better than lying out on the hills.There, her body will be blown by strong winds full of poisonous acid, corroding away bit by bit.Therefore, dying in a protective suit is considered a kind of happiness.She gasped for breath, proud that she could choose where she was going to die, that she had climbed into this place after all the hard work.

Leaning against the door, she could hardly resist lying down and closing her eyes—but she didn't.She is still curious. Juliet held up her hands, examining the gloves in the dim light coming from the stairwell.The glove was taped and had melted a bit, looking like a skin glistening.Looking at the gleaming gloves, she suddenly felt like a machine.A long time ago, when she was still an apprentice in the mechanical and electrical department, she had a bad habit of dismantling the machine, even if the machine was obviously not broken, she would do it.What had Old Walker said of her then?Her biggest hobby, he said, is to dismantle the toaster completely to see what's inside.

Juliet sat up, trying to pull herself together.She has begun to lose consciousness, and her will to survive is getting weaker and weaker.She shook her head violently and struggled to stand up. The pile of tables and chairs in front of her was pushed to the ground by her.She suddenly understood that at this moment, she herself was like a toaster.Her curiosity desperately wanted to dismantle the toaster, but this time she wanted to see the world "outside" the toaster.Even with her last breath left, she has to figure it out. She squeezed through the gap between the tables and chairs, trying her best to stay away from the poisonous gas she let in.In the security officer's office just now, she had crawled over some corpses that felt whole at the time, as if they had died of natural causes, probably trapped there, starved to death, or suffocated.However, their bodies did not decompose.Although she was now beginning to lose consciousness and urgently needed fresh air, at this moment, there was still a sliver of sanity in her mind, and she knew that she should get her body wet first, and then take off the helmet.Just like in the mechanical and electrical area back then, she would splash some kind of chemical on herself to neutralize the toxicity.

Later, she finally got rid of the pile of tables and chairs and walked through the vast restaurant.The emergency lights in the stairwell glowed green, and she could barely see her way in the dim light.She went into the kitchen and went to the big sink to try to see if there was water at the tap.She turned on the faucet, but no water came out, and there was no movement in the pipe, as if there was not even a drop of residual water.Then she went to the scullery stand and turned the tap lever, but still no water came out of the pipe.There is no water at all. Then she thought about the freezer.Maybe she could go into the freezer and freeze the toxins left on the suit.She stumbled around the counter and grabbed the large silver handle on the refrigerator door.She was having difficulty breathing.The light from the stairwell was difficult to get into the inside of the kitchen, and it was so dark that it was almost impossible to see anything.She couldn't feel the cold through the protective clothing.However, she couldn't be sure whether it was because of the protective clothing, or her body had begun to paralyze.The hazmat suit was designed to insulate her from the outside world, and it apparently worked.The lights in the ceiling weren't on, so she figured the freezer might be out, too.The door of the freezer was open, and she poked her head inside to see if there was anything liquid.At this moment, she saw several large objects, possibly soup pots.

Now, she has nothing to do, she has to try everything.Juliet walked into the refrigerator, and the door slowly swung inward, and it would close automatically after a while.She saw several large plastic jars and immediately reached for one.The plastic pot was huge, about as big as the largest soup pots.She lifted the lid of the can, and at this moment, the door closed with a "click", and the refrigerator immediately fell into darkness.Juliet knelt in front of the shelf, turned the pot over, and immediately felt the soup spill on her, with a rustling sound, and then all over the floor.Her knees were soaked in soup and felt slippery.So she reached for the second can and poured the soup on the floor as well.Then, she dipped her hands in the soup and lifted it up to smear all over her body.She couldn't judge whether she was crazy or not, and she didn't know if doing so would lead to more serious consequences.Still, it doesn't matter anymore.Then, her shoe slipped and she fell onto her back, her helmet hitting the ground. In this way, Juliet lay in the lukewarm soup, her eyes could not see anything, and her breathing became more and more difficult.She will not live long.She was so groggy that she couldn't think of any other way, she couldn't breathe, and she had no strength.She had to take off the helmet quickly. She reached out and fumbled for a while, trying to find the position of the helmet's latch, but the gloves were too thick, and her fingers couldn't feel anything.Gloves would kill her. She turned over and lay on the ground, and began to kneel up and crawl forward.There was soup all over the floor, and she slipped on her hands and knees.She slowly crawled to the door, gasping for breath, then reached out to the doorknob and opened it.There is a knife holder behind the cooking table with a few shiny knives hanging from it.She staggered to her feet, grabbed a knife, gripped the handle through her thick gloves, and then suddenly slipped again and fell to the ground.She was exhausted and feeling groggy. Juliet flipped the blade over to her neck, and then she slid the point along the ring on the neck of the suit, and after a while, the point finally touched the button of the tenon.Her arm was shaking, but she still raised the knife, tried to hold it steady, and then mustered up the courage to cut down hard.This action violates human instinct. Then she heard a tiny "click".Panting, Juliet probed the button on the other side with the tip of the knife along the connecting ring, and it didn't take long for the tip of the knife to hit the tenon.So she raised the knife and cut down hard. There was another slight "click", and her helmet came loose. Juliet instinctively took off her helmet and took a deep breath.The smell was unbearable, but she still gasped for breath, gasped for breath.Rotting food, rotting corpses, a warm stench rushed into her mouth and into her nasal cavity. She immediately turned her head and vomited, but couldn't vomit anything.Her hands are full of soup, slippery.This stench makes breathing a torment.She felt a burning sensation all over her body, but that might just be an illusion caused by her fever.She held her breath, crawled out of the freezer, and crawled towards the dining room, desperately staying away from the rotten soup, and then she tried to take another breath. Air. She took another deep breath, still feeling stinky because she was covered in soup.However, she could sense something else in the air besides the stench.It was faintly difficult to detect, but with every breath she took, the feeling of dizziness gradually subsided, and the fear gradually disappeared.That's oxygen.That is life. Juliet is still alive. Laughing maniacally, she stumbled toward the stairwell, toward the green light.She took a deep breath after breath.She was so tired that she couldn't feel the miracle in front of her for a while.She is still alive.She is still alive.