Chapter 16 Ventilation Duct

Seeing the ventilation duct, Ding Ning finally realized where he had been negligent! And understood why Qing Lang hadn't died in the massacre he had previously carried out.

A prison cell definitely needed ventilation ducts, after all, so many prisoners were locked inside. Moreover, although the ventilation duct was large enough for a person to crawl through, one problem was that it was on the ceiling, making it difficult to reach. Another was that the duct was monitored; anyone approaching would be immediately detected by the monitoring room.

Furthermore, the ventilation duct on the ceiling only led to the roof, which was still inside the prison. Any prisoner appearing on the roof would definitely be spotted by the people in the surrounding watchtowers. So, using the ventilation duct to escape was simply a joke.

But now, seeing that the cover of the ventilation duct opening had been removed, Ding Ning immediately understood that Qing Lang had hidden here to survive the slaughter!

Thinking of this, Ding Ning immediately rushed up the stairs, all the way to the top floor. Then, he jumped up, grabbed the edge of the ventilation duct opening, and peered inside. After confirming that no one was there, Ding Ning crawled into the duct and made his way forward, carefully searching. Finally, he followed the duct to the roof.

At this time, the sky was already faintly bright. Ding Ning didn't dare use a flashlight, but instead relied on the morning light to carefully search the roof!

On the roof, Ding Ning found many footprints, all from the same person, obviously Qing Lang's. Thus, the mystery of how Qing Lang had evaded the pursuit, then suddenly appeared in the darkness to launch a brazen attack on the camp, was solved.

But the existence of the ventilation duct alone couldn't explain Qing Lang's explosive increase in strength, nor the missing corpses from the prison cells.

The ventilation duct could accommodate people coming and going, and was even relatively spacious. But so many corpses would not be easy to transport through it.

Especially… the exit of the ventilation duct was on the roof. If the corpses had been transported from here, they should all be on the roof. But Ding Ning couldn't see any corpses now, nor had he found excessive bloodstains in the ventilation duct.

"Bang!"

Just as Ding Ning was about to go back and carefully re-examine the ventilation duct, a familiar gunshot suddenly rang out.

"Old Tian is dead! It's that sniper!!!"

Shouts also came from below. Ding Ning was shocked and quickly rushed to the edge of the roof and looked down. Sure enough, he saw the body of a survivor lying on the ground, a combat member.

Previously, Ding Ning had ordered everyone to take shelter in the main prison building, and most of the survivors had complied. However, there were still a few combat members outside collecting weapons from the corpses. One of them was the one who had just been killed.

"Quick, leave the corpses, everyone get into the main prison building."

Ding Ning immediately shouted loudly below, then immediately lay down. His current position was very high, essentially exposing him to the sniper's eyes.

Sure enough, just as Ding Ning lay down, another gunshot rang out, and a bullet crater appeared on the roof behind Ding Ning.

Ding Ning didn't dare linger. He hunched over and ran back to the ventilation duct, followed it back to the prison cell, then went downstairs and passed the key through a hidden compartment that connected to the outside, allowing Wu Cheng outside to open the prison cell door.

"Everyone's inside! The door is closed!"

Wu Cheng already knew the situation outside, so as soon as Ding Ning came out, he immediately said, "However, that gunman must have infrared equipment. He shot and killed three more people through the wall. We need to think of something!"

"Everyone, get into the prison cells and hide under the walls on this side!"

Ding Ning immediately said without hesitation, "Also, have everyone bring as much food and water as possible!"

The sturdiest walls in the entire prison were of course those of the prison cells. Not only were they twice as thick as the walls in other locations, but they also had more steel bars inside. Although Ding Ning wasn't sure if the walls could stop the sniper's bullets, he had no other choice now!

At this time, the sky was beginning to brighten. Trying to escape the prison with the survivors at this time would clearly make them targets for the sniper. They could only hide first and then think of another way.

Because of his desperate fight with Qing Lang earlier, Ding Ning had now been accepted by the survivors. Plus, there was still a mysterious gunman outside. Thus, his orders were quickly executed. All the survivors came out of the other rooms of the main prison building and rushed to the prison cells.

Although Ding Ning hadn't yet investigated the reason for the disappearance of the corpses, he had at least carefully searched the prison cells and personally checked the ventilation duct. It was basically free of problems.

Because of the special nature of the prison cells, although there were sewer pipes in this prison cell, the sewer openings were only the size of bowls, making it impossible for people to pass through. If Qing Lang and the mysterious gunman wanted to come in, the only way was to enter the prison, climb onto the roof, and come in through the ventilation duct.

So, while having people quickly organize the personnel to enter the prison cells, Ding Ning found Shan Zi and Wu Cheng and had them lead people to keep an eye on the four ventilation duct exits in the prison cell. If they discovered anything, they should immediately call him.

During the survivors' transfer to the prison cells, gunshots continued to ring out. Even after they entered the prison cells, the gunman shot through the prison cell's glass, killing several survivors who had entered his line of sight in a panic.

However, the gunman's action made Ding Ning slightly relieved. At least it showed that the walls of the prison cell could indeed block the gunman's bullets.

After another twenty-odd people died, all the survivors finally entered the prison cells and, according to Ding Ning's orders, all lay down at the base of the wall, using the wall to protect themselves!

Sure enough, when everyone had hidden in the prison cells and lay down, the gunshots stopped. Ding Ning was now thinking about how to kill the gunman and resolve the crisis in the prison.

Although the gunshots had stopped now, and they were temporarily safe, they couldn't all just hide under the walls all the time, could they? If they did, even if the gunman and Qing Lang didn't think of another way, hunger alone would be enough to kill them all.

The only good thing was perhaps the gunman's persistence. These survivors who had died later had all been killed with headshots. Otherwise, if he had shot them in the heart, there would have been more than twenty more zombies in the prison. Although Ding Ning could deal with them, there would definitely be trouble.

Afterward, Ding Ning tried many methods, but none were successful. The gunman was also not in a hurry. He just lay in ambush in the distance. As soon as they showed their heads, gunshots would ring out.

And then, something even more troublesome came. Just as Ding Ning had said before, Qing Lang had indeed not died, and he had returned. And as soon as he returned, he loudly announced his return to the prison cell, and promised that all the survivors in the prison would die. He would kill everyone one by one…