Nana had been stationed with the kids from the start, and there was always someone around him, day and night. Even the shifts left no gaps. Trying to get close to him had been the dumbest plan anyone could think of.
Once she calmed down, Lan Jin realized she'd been overthinking. Still, isn't it better to be safe than sorry? Nana had always been cautious, but after Lan Jin gave the order, he got even more vigilant.
So much that—
Let's put it this way. Anyone who saw him would praise him as a damn good guard dog.
Meanwhile, over in Lao Yan's tent, things were a lot more relaxed. Ever since he'd been placed in a separate space, he was living the good life, leaning back on a stool and sleeping one nap after another. His snores were so loud it sounded like he was trying to make up for every missed hour of sleep in the past month. Unsurprisingly, his teammates were jealous.
"Hey, Lao Yan, I'm telling you, your naps are way too good. How long've you been here? You've already slept three times!"
He hadn't even been in there for a full day yet. Other than being forced awake for meals, he spent all his time napping. Anyone watching would think he hadn't slept in days before this.
Not that it was impossible. After everything lately, nobody had been sleeping well.
"Hey, it's not my fault I got pulled aside. Might as well enjoy some proper rest."
His teammate groaned, "Yeah, and when you're out, I'm gonna beg Captain Ji to put you on every shift for a few nights. That's the only way my poor little heart'll recover from this pain."
Lao Yan laughed. "By the time I'm out, we might be back at base already. With that many people there, nobody needs to stay up all night. You guys just keep being jealous."
Not far away, Captain Ji walked over. "Alright, enough. We're keeping you here to investigate, not to let you go on vacation. Think carefully if you left anything out. The sooner you find clues, the sooner you clear yourself. Stop grinning like an idiot."
Lao Yan raised his hands. "Captain Ji, I swear I've already said everything I know. We're together all the time. If I was hiding something, don't you think you'd have noticed by now?"
Captain Ji gave him a flat look. "Not necessarily. It's not like we bathe or take a piss together. Who knows what you could've done in those times."
Lao Yan choked. "Seriously? Fine, I'll think harder then."
...
With that attitude, it was obvious he wasn't going to remember anything useful. So he stayed locked up, while the problems outside kept piling up. By this stage, things had shifted into what you'd have to call the late phase, and the death toll just kept climbing. It got so bad that Captain Zhou had to form a special team just to deal with the corpses.
In the scorching heat, leaving infected bodies to rot under the sun wasn't just smelly, it risked spreading disease through the air. The only option was to pile them together and burn them.
But there were just too many. Even when the team worked nonstop, dragging away bodies only cleared a fraction.
Where'd they take them?
Not too far. Just about an hour's drive to an empty place where they could stack the corpses and burn them in one go. Since they were using fire, the spot couldn't be too close to the survivors. The location had to be not too far, not too close, just right for burning and hauling.
They'd already burned bodies several times. No matter how many they dragged away, it felt endless.
Eventually, Captain Zhou had enough of wasting fuel. "Forget hauling them so far. Just pile them two hundred meters out. Once the crowd thins out, we'll move further ahead and burn them right here. Otherwise, we're burning fuel faster than the corpses."
Captain Zhang agreed right away. "Exactly. Honestly, burning them nearby is the same. It's already hot as hell. Who's gonna notice a few more degrees?"
So the bodies started piling close to camp.
But that one choice nearly caused a disaster days later.
...
The temperature, which had been hovering over 80 degrees, climbed again. For two days straight, it hit 88.
In that unbearable heat, Lan Jin and her group of four stared at the sinking sun, all with the same uneasy feeling.
Lan Jin frowned. "Doesn't it look like the sun's lower than before? It's not directly overhead anymore."
Ling Jiang asked, "So does that mean this heat wave's ending?"
Lao Gao shook his head. "I think it's the polar day ending, not the heat. Remember the polar night? Cold as hell, sun or no sun, it didn't matter."
Huang Jinghe muttered, "If the polar day's ending, why didn't Captain Zhang say anything?"
From behind them, Captain Zhang's voice floated in. "Because I don't know either. But yeah, looks like the sun's really going down."
Everyone turned to stare at him. He added, "I'll ask around. But honestly, it's unlikely. If something this big was happening, the base would've told us in advance. We've heard nothing."
So he didn't believe it.
He went to check with Captain Li. But he didn't know either. "Nobody from the top said anything. They always warn us beforehand. There's no way they missed it, right?"
Yet two days later, when everyone thought it was impossible, the sun slowly sank.
And the world outside really did grow darker.
Without the sun beating down, the temperature dropped sharply. When Captain Zhang tested it, it was down to 72, more than ten degrees lower than before. Everyone was relieved.
At dusk, with the sky caught between sun and moon, everything looked hazy and beautiful. But watching the way the sun disappeared, Lan Jin couldn't shake the feeling it wouldn't rise again for months.
Just as she was about to say something, the mountains of corpses nearby started to twitch in the half-light.
One after another.
One after another.
The bodies, which had long since rotted, began to move.
In that dim and eerie twilight, the sight was chilling, mysterious, and utterly grotesque.