Chapter 306 - Exploration and Rescue

Luke firmly opposed the idea. “I suspect that the spiders have taken over the mines as their nest. Bringing everybody in will just be sending them into the mouths of the spiders as food.”

Samantha was surprised. “But Wade escaped through there. He worked in the mines before, and must be familiar with the territory. That guy is cunning. It’s possible that this is the escape route he prepared for himself.”

Luke thought for a moment, but disagreed. “If Wade really knew that the giant spiders were coming, he could’ve skipped town for a few days; once everybody was dead, there would be nothing to stop him from selling the town. The fact that he only escaped just now suggests that this isn’t an escape route he had prepared beforehand.”

Samantha was unwilling to give up, mostly because the panicked residents were urging her to find a way out, the spiders proving too big a pressure on their nerves. Luke suggested, “How about this? I’ll go in and take a look first, and if it’s safe, I’ll come back and let you know.”

Samantha hesitated. “Won’t that be too dangerous?” It was outrageous to ask Luke to risk his life for some town residents he barely knew.

Luke chuckled. “Relax, the reason Elizabeth asked me to come was to fix the problem. I know what I’m doing.”

With Sharp Nose, he could track Wade’s scent and detect the spiders in advance; it wasn’t as dangerous as it seemed.

Luke went upstairs and told Selina about the camera that he had installed near the roof. She could monitor the situation on the special “phone.”

In addition, he gave Selina a huge bag of close to a thousand bullets which he had taken out of his inventory in a hidden corner.

The town residents had a lot of guns on them, but not many bullets. Many of them had simply grabbed their guns before they ran, and forgot to bring more bullets.

Some of them were even carrying old gun models that Peter had brought with him, but there weren’t many bullets either.

Selina had just told Samantha to get bullets from the residents on the first floor, or there would be nothing that the defenders on the second floor could do.

Luke told Selina to distribute the bullets, and reminded her that her safety took priority if anything happened.

Selina nodded silently.

She knew that Luke was saying that she could abandon the residents in an emergency.

Luke didn’t want her to get herself killed because of her soft heart.

From his words, Selina was more important to him than the residents of the town.

Luke then went to the storeroom in the basement.

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Examining the mine opening that was revealed after a huge cabinet was moved aside, Luke grew suspicious.

This opening had never been completely sealed off. There were even tracks under the cabinet, which suggested that it was a secret door.

Why would Mayor Wade build a secret door to an old cave in his shopping center?

Drawing out the Glock, Luke ran into the cave with quick steps.

Following Wade’s scent, Luke started to get a weird expression on his face as he ran, and he couldn’t help but slow down.

Was this Wade… trying to get himself killed?

Luke could already smell a huge number of spiders, and Wade had gone precisely in the direction where the scent of the spiders was the thickest — their nest.

Pondering for a moment, Luke put the Glock back into his holster and took out an alloy rod from his inventory.

This was raw material meant for making equipment, but would serve well as a weapon now.

Luke certainly didn’t want to be killed in a gas explosion triggered by him opening fire.

Even if he wasn’t killed, he might also be buried alive, which would be too stupid.

Putting on a gas mask, Luke pressed on, and couldn’t help sucking in a sharp breath at what he found.

This… had to be the spiders’ food store.

Looking at the cocoons littered over the ground, most of whom were human-shaped, Luke quickly examined them with a heavy heart.

After a while, he was certain that these people had basically died by suffocating inside the thick cocoons, including Wade, who had sent himself here.

With his sharp senses, Luke found a survivor. He used his jack knife to cut open one of the cocoons to reveal an elderly face.

The person was about to cry out, but Luke covered her mouth and said in a low voice, “It’s me, Luke. I’m here to get you out. Don’t make any sound, Gladys, okay?” The old woman was none other than Gladys, Chris’s aunt.

She was lucky; the threads wrapped around her didn’t completely block her nose, which was what had kept her alive.

Luke also noticed a smaller cocoon nearby that moved from time to time.

Gripping his small flashlight between his teeth, Luke cut the cocoon free of the threads that were attached to it, and put the cocoon in his backpack. He was about to get up, when he noticed something else.

He crouched down and picked up a small piece of ore from the ground where he had cut away the threads.

This piece of ore had clearly just fallen from somewhere as the break was new; perhaps it had been caused by those giant spiders.

Luke looked at the ore for a moment with his flashlight, before his gaze swept over the cave and finally landed on a hole that was obviously newly dug.

With a smile on his face, he turned off the flashlight, put Gladys on his back, and placed the stone inside his inventory before he left the cave.

After Luke was some distance away, Gladys said in a low voice over his shoulder, “When I was caught, I saw a lot of things nearby that looked like oil barrels.”

Luke was curious, and asked in a similarly low voice, “What’s the problem?” Gladys said, “I’ve seen those barrels on Vitello’s trucks. I asked Wade about them before, and he said that they were goods. However, I noticed that there wasn’t any logo on the barrels.”

Frowning, Luke asked, “Where are the barrels?”

Gladys said, “There’s a bigger cave not far from the one we were in. It’s occupied by a huge spider and a lot of smaller ones. It seems that they’re using those barrels as nests.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “Got it. Get some rest. I’ll get you out of here.”

He didn’t think too much about the matter any longer; he would let the fake FBI captain Wales know later, and let him look into it.

Gladys was shocked by their speed on the way back; it felt like she was riding a horse. Suddenly, two gigantic spiders charged out from a side tunnel up ahead.