Chapter 162 The Missing Corpses

Luo Hong and the others had departed from the mall and headed directly out of the city. Therefore, the traffic-free section only extended to that point. The street leading to the Qin Ting Hotel, the same one Li Chenzhou and the others had previously walked, was still blocked by numerous vehicles.

Grizzly didn't care about the cars. He floored the accelerator, intending to use the armored vehicle to smash through them and reach the Qin Ting Hotel.

Just as he had cleared two cars, Duan Lei sped up from behind, and after ramming one vehicle aside, blocked Grizzly's path.

"Screech!"

With a deafening screech of brakes, Li Chenzhou leaped out of the car and shouted at Grizzly, "Have you seen your captain?"

"No! But he must be there!" Grizzly bellowed.

"How do you know? And even if he is, what can you do charging in like this?" Li Chenzhou asked. "Do you see those zombies? If you go in, they'll completely engulf your vehicle. You'll just be throwing your life away!"

"Zombies can't break this vehicle, not even enhanced ones!" Grizzly roared.

"Even if the zombies can't break the vehicle, how will you kill them?" Li Chenzhou pointed to the horde in the distance. "Hiding in the car, killing them with your hateful glare?"

"..."

Grizzly was stunned. Yes, even if the zombies couldn't break through the armored car's shell, how would he kill them while trapped inside? He had a gun, but to shoot, he would have to open the door or the sunroof. Either way, the zombies would have a chance to hurt him.

"You have a lot of ammunition in your vehicle. We're on the edge of the zombie horde. So, whether your captain is alive or not, your best option isn't to charge straight in. It's to start clearing zombies from the outside while searching for your captain!" Li Chenzhou said, staring at Grizzly.

"Alright!" Grizzly took a deep breath, finally nodded, grabbed the rifle from the passenger seat, flipped into the back, forced open the sunroof, and aimed the silenced rifle at the approaching zombie horde.

Because they were on an overpass, they had a commanding view of the area near the Qin Ting Hotel.

At this time, the entire area was packed with zombies, like a crowded square during a grand festival. A mountain of corpses, a sea of bodies, a writhing mass of heads. Even the nearby buildings were overflowing with them.

The Qin Ting Hotel was the same. Even the hotel's rooftop, where Li Yunshan had set up two lookout posts, was now filled with zombies. Occasionally, a zombie would be pushed off the roof and fall into the horde below.

This was why Grizzly was so anxious. He had used binoculars to see that the lobby of the Qin Ting Hotel was now occupied by zombies. What about his squad? They had been holding the lobby.

"Don't shoot yet!" Li Chenzhou jumped into the car and pressed down on Grizzly's gun.

"What are you doing?" Grizzly glared at Li Chenzhou.

"Something's not right!" Li Chenzhou pointed to the Qin Ting Hotel and handed Grizzly the binoculars. "Look at the lobby, observe carefully! Is something missing?"

"Missing?" Grizzly subconsciously took the binoculars and looked at the lobby. There weren't many zombies there, only a dozen or so. Li Yunshan and the others who had been there before were naturally gone.

But Grizzly knew that Li Chenzhou wasn't referring to Li Yunshan and the others. After looking closely, he still couldn't figure it out, so he looked at Li Chenzhou.

"Corpses! Zombie corpses!" Li Chenzhou said, pointing to the Qin Ting Hotel. "You know your squad's strength. And you should know how much ammunition they have, right? Even if the zombies broke through, would they not fire a single shot? Take a good look. There doesn't seem to be much sign of a fight!"

Li Chenzhou's words made Grizzly realize. Yes, the entire lobby was full of living zombies, with no zombie corpses.

As Li Chenzhou said, if zombies attacked the hotel, even if Li Yunshan and the others were defeated, they definitely would have killed at least one zombie. And zombies weren't interested in the corpses of their own kind, so if any zombies had been killed, their bodies should still be there.

"You mean..." Grizzly looked at Li Chenzhou again. After discovering that the Qin Ting Hotel was overrun by zombies, his mind was a little clouded, and he had almost lost his ability to think.

"The lobby is the best defensive point. They wouldn't abandon it without a fight!" Li Chenzhou grabbed the binoculars and looked at the Qin Ting Hotel. "It's true that retreating upstairs and defending in the rooms might present a smaller target, but according to the hotel's layout, apart from the restaurant and conference room, no room can accommodate everyone.

"And your captain is unlikely to abandon all the survivors and leave with his squad. So, logically, when the zombie horde attacked the hotel, they would have defended the lobby for a while to kill as many zombies as possible!"

Then, Li Chenzhou looked at the rooftop, which was packed with zombies. "But now, not only is there no sign of a fight in the lobby, but there isn't much blood on the ground. What I see seems to be what was already there when we left.

"And looking at the rooms on the other floors, I don't see any humans or zombies. So... the only possibility I can think of is, is there a tunnel or something in the Qin Ting Hotel? Did your captain lead the people out of the zombie encirclement through a tunnel?"

"I... we didn't find a tunnel inside!" Hearing Li Chenzhou's words, Grizzly's eyes lit up, but then he frowned and said, "Could it be... they found it after we left?"

"Also, there's something else strange, and that's... why are there so many zombies on the rooftop of the Qin Ting Hotel? Climbing so high doesn't seem to make sense for them!" Li Chenzhou said, then looked at the community next to the hotel, where they had fought before, and found that the roofs of several buildings in that community were also full of zombies. Of course, the community itself was also blocked by countless zombies!

Just then, Li Chenzhou suddenly saw that the zombies in the binoculars were all raising their heads to look in one direction. He subconsciously moved the binoculars and looked at the roof of a building across the street from the Qin Ting Hotel.

There didn't seem to be many zombies on this rooftop, but among them, Li Chenzhou actually spotted several familiar figures, and was immediately stunned. Then, he looked at Grizzly, handed him the binoculars, and pointed to that rooftop...