"Is there anyone else inside?"
Zhang Xiaoqiang asked the hundreds of survivors standing together. These hundreds of men and women were of different ages. The youngest was still learning how to speak, while the oldest was around 40 years old. Overall, these people were still considered young, with an average of less than 30 years old.
"…"
No one answered him. Zhang Xiaoqiang was a little surprised. These hundreds of people were as silent as a single person. Were they too united?
Zhang Xiaoqiang's face became gloomy. If he really encountered a group of survivors, it would be really hard for him to deal with them.
Among the hundreds of people, there were about a dozen underage children. There was only one over 40 years old. Most of them were between 17 and 30 years old. There were seven or eight over 30 years old, and they were all men.
Since no one answered, Zhang Xiaoqiang didn't need them to answer. He raised his hand, and the 12 members of the search team entered the cave to search. Zhang Xiaoqiang carefully looked at the hundreds of people in front of him.
These hundreds of people lowered their heads and looked at their toes, waiting for the outsider to decide their fate. Zhang Xiaoqiang, with his sharp eyes, found that there was still a difference between them.
They all had their heads down, but most of them were afraid. This could be seen from their slightly trembling bodies that they were really afraid. There were also some people who seemed to be very abnormal. They also had their heads down, but it could be seen that their heads were moving slightly. They were observing, and they were observing very carefully. They tried to be in sync with the people around them. Only their eyes swept across the surrounding gunmen. Some people's eyes met, and after a slight exchange, they immediately looked away.
These people were obviously dressed better than the others. They even had some cloth that could hang on the most delicate parts of their bodies to prevent abrasion. But the others only had grass clothes woven from plant fibers. Their bodies were covered with large patches of moss, and some of the moss had already formed a hard shell.
Zhang Xiaoqiang understood that these hundreds of people were also divided into classes. Those who had cloth on their bodies, including the three who wanted to attack Zhang Xiaoqiang, were all of the same class. They were the privileged class that could wear underwear. The others were the lower class. They could only endure the friction of the grass clothes on their bodies, even if it caused calluses to appear on their skin.
Following that, Zhang Xiao Qiang discovered a new difference. Those who had scars on their bodies were all men. There were very few women. The younger a woman was, the more tender her skin was. The more delicate a woman was, the fairer her skin was. As for those who were uglier and older, their scars were the same as those of the lowest class of men, or even more severe. This could only mean one thing, those who did not have scars on their bodies usually did not wear clothes.
These seemingly delicate women were also restless. In the midst of hardship, they would look at the men of a higher class. Sometimes, several women would look at the same man, even though there might be a large age difference between them. It was also common for a seventeen or eighteen year old girl to look at a thirty-five or thirty-six year old man.
Zhang Xiaoqiang knew that these women were definitely those men's women. Whether they were forced or not, they had already become those men's women. This was an indisputable fact. Even if those women might be very disgusted with their current men, in the face of a greater threat, they could only place their hopes on their current men.
The men stood alone, the women also stood alone. The children followed the women. In the pile of grass clothes, Zhang Xiaoqiang's eyes swept the traces of cloth. After a closer look, he discovered that there were a few women hiding behind the other women. These women were actually wearing a full set of cloth clothes.
These women were all very beautiful. Of course, this was relatively speaking. After all, there weren't many beautiful women before the apocalypse. If they put on makeup, they could also become the prettiest girls on the internet before the apocalypse. One of them was a little older, in her thirties, about the same age as Xu Mengzhu. The rest of the women were very young, the youngest seemed to be only thirteen or fourteen years old.
Zhang Xiaoqiang knew that the highest privileged class had been exposed. Although he hadn't found the leader yet, since his women had appeared, could they still run away?
A few women wearing cloth clothes were crying and screaming as they were pulled out of the crowd. One of them might not have suffered much since the apocalypse. She actually sat on the ground and made a scene. The team member who pulled her out did not hold back and grabbed her hair and dragged her away. This time, the woman couldn't make a scene. She half-squatted, and with small steps, she chased after the team member who grabbed her hair. Her mouth was repeatedly begging for mercy.
When these women were pulled out, Zhang Xiaoqiang saw that the expressions of the privileged class among the men changed. They seemed to be really afraid. Whether it was because they were afraid of being exposed or something else, Zhang Xiaoqiang didn't know.
These women were watched alone. Zhang Xiaoqiang ordered people to pull out the dozens of people from the privileged class. This time, the survivors were surprised. They didn't expect that these high-ranking people who were mixed among them would be so easily discovered. Moreover, the soldiers didn't even interrogate them.
"Why is this place so smelly?
I really don't know how these people can stay here. If it were me, I wouldn't even be able to stay here for a day … "
Lu Xiaobu, who was walking in the cave, kept grumbling. His team becoming a search team was a good thing, but it was also a bad thing. The good thing was that he could always use the search as an excuse to earn some extra money and buy some luxuries. The bad thing was that he had to crawl into a hole when he was asked to, but when he was asked to scout, he had to run with his tail between his legs.
The cave was very dark, and there was basically no light. The light from the dozens of flashlights had to reach far, so it was hard to avoid bumping into something. It was no wonder Lu Xiaobu would grumble. Huang Quan, who was behind him, also bumped into something. He didn't respond to Lu Xiaobu, but listened to the movements in front of him.
The other team members walked in front. In order to deal with a possible attack, they were also on full alert. Seeing that no one was talking, Lu Xiaobu stopped grumbling and walked in silence.
The hill was not big, and the tunnel was not long. When they reached a wide cave and saw the space before them, they were shocked speechless.
From the outside, the hill looked like a normal dirt hill, but after entering the wide cave, the search team realized that the hill was actually a stone mountain. The cave was very wide, and the wide cave floor was filled with reeds of different thicknesses. They were standing on a carpet made of reeds.
The layer of reeds on the ground was slightly damp, and the layer at the bottom had turned black. There was a rotten stench in the air. Some of the thicker reeds were laid on higher ground, and from the marks left on them, these reeds had been used as beds, mats, and blankets.
In the middle of the hall was a clear spring. The spring water was green and deep, and it was unknown if this spring was connected to the big lake outside. Not far from the spring were many pits. Lu Xiaobu took a closer look and realized that these pits were actually stoves, and on the stoves, there were large clam shells sealed in the pits like pots.