Chapter 305 - The Missing Mayor and the Mysterious Cave
| Bang! Bang!
After another two shots, Luke killed a spider that had planned to ambush him from the top of the building, and kicked its body away.
In a reclining position, he aimed in a different direction.
Bam! Bam! A spider that had jumped to attack from another wall was shot down.
Luke let go of the M4A1, allowing it to dangle from his arm by its sling, while he exerted his strength with both hands and regained his balance.
He kicked out with his right leg, as quick as lightning, at the head of a spider right below him before its long claws reached him.
The spider’s head collapsed under his boot, which had a special alloy in it. It smashed to the ground in a bloody pulp.
The people who were hauling on the rope from the second floor all wondered what Luke was doing, as the rope was trembling nonstop.
They might not have been able to hold the rope steady if there weren’t four of them.
This string of attacks in fact all happened in the space of five seconds, and Luke was finally pulled up to the window.
Grabbing the windowsill, Luke crawled in quickly and shouted, “Selina, tear gas grenade!”
Selina understood in a flash and took out a tear gas grenade, which she flung down at the open area in front of the entrance.
As the smoke rose, the aggressive spiders suddenly paused, before they started to scatter.
Luke shouted, “Whoever has guns, shoot now. Don’t let the spiders break in. Also, aim before you shoot. Cooperate with each other in groups of four and make sure that there’s always someone in your team who’s shooting.”
While shouting, he rushed past several windows and threw his tear gas grenades as well.
He chucked the tear gas grenades a little further away than Selina, at around twenty meters away.
The spiders were forced to go around the quickly rising smoke. As a result, their speed and movements were restricted.
The people in the shopping center were already opening fire, but thanks to Luke’s reminder, they weren’t shooting too quickly.
However, Selina’s tear gas grenade had been too close to the shopping center, and some unfortunate fellows accidentally inhaled the smoke and could only retreat in tears to take a break for the time being.
That couldn’t be helped.
Compared with the setback that the spiders were facing, however, this was an insignificant loss for the town residents.
After throwing the tear gas grenades, Luke had already begun to reload all his guns.
He gave the shotgun to Selina after it was reloaded.
In this shopping center stronghold, and with the cooperation of the residents, a semi-automatic shotgun was more useful than the M4A1 for Selina.
While observing the battle, Luke had someone summon Samantha.
Samantha was still on the first floor as she organized for everybody to retreat deeper into the shopping center, and had gotten the residents who were armed to establish a defense line so that the spiders wouldn’t flood in through the entrance.
Samantha came up very quickly, and Luke said swiftly, “I’ve already called the FBI for help, but it’ll probably take at least an hour for them to arrive. We need to be prepared to defend this place for that long. Also, we need to think about an escape route. Where’s Wade? Isn’t this his property? Ask him if there’s an evacuation route.”
His plan was to have Samantha lead a retreat if something happened, and then he would blow up the shopping center’s exits after the spiders were lured in here so that they wouldn’t be able to get out so quickly.
But it was best to sound out Wade’s attitude first. Luke had a feeling that the mayor wouldn’t be too happy about it.
It would suck if he sued Luke later for destroying private property and wanted compensation.
Samantha said, “Okay. I’ll go find Wade.”
Just as she was about to leave, Luke stopped her and gave her a walkie-talkie. “Take this. Use the first frequency.”
Samantha was relieved, because running up and down to talk was too time-consuming, and could easily cause problems.
The residents downstairs were still in a panicked state. A single foolish yell about the spiders breaking in might cause them to lose control and scatter.
Seeing that everybody was safe for now, Luke told Selina and Samantha that he would check the roof to prevent the spiders from breaking in that way.
After all, spiders were all great climbers. The shopping center only had three floors, and Luke reached the third floor very quickly.
Who knew what Mayor Wade was thinking when he decided to build a shopping center here. The second floor of this shopping center was basically empty, with a small number of goods piled up here.
The third floor was even more unbelievable. It was utterly stark and didn’t have any fittings at all. Only the basic layout had been completed, and the cement floor was still the rough type that could scrap your skin off if you fell.
There weren’t any windows either, so no spiders would be able to crawl in through here.
While laughing at the mayor’s business incompetence, Luke went up another flight of stairs to reach the door to the roof.
His keen hearing had already picked up the rustling of the spiders outside the door.
He glanced around but didn’t find anything appropriate. Hence, he simply took out several long steel wires from his inventory, and sealed off the door with some pipes and the handrail.
That way, even if the door was broken down, the spiders would be cut up by the steel wires when they crawled in because of their enormous size.
After that, Luke set up a camera on a pillar ten meters from the door to the roof and activated it, before he returned to the second floor.
He couldn’t go to the roof. Opening the door would create an opportunity for the spiders to break in. It would be better to deal with the spiders on the second floor instead.
When he returned, he saw that most people were wearing earplugs.
Samantha had found the earplugs in a store on the first floor, since incessant gunfire in an enclosed space was a little hard on the ears. With the earplugs, they could endure the noise with some difficulty.
Some discomfort was still better than the spiders breaking in and eating them.
At that moment, Samantha spoke via the walkie-talkie. “Luke, Wade’s gone. Someone said that there’s a cave in the basement, which is a branch off an old mine.”
Luke was stunned. “A mine opening? Right here?”
This was the center of town. How could there be a mine opening here? It wasn’t on the maps that he had seen either.
Chris suddenly interjected, “This town was actually established above the very first gold mine, but this mine has been abandoned for decades, so isn’t marked on the maps. Wade’s shopping center is precisely on this old mine.”
Luke asked, “What are you thinking?”
Samantha had mentioned the cave clearly not because she was worried about Wade’s safety. In fact, many residents would probably celebrate if the mayor died.
Samantha said, “I was wondering if we could evacuate everybody from town through this old mine. There are too many spiders in town.”
