The traces of the recent storm still remain in the gloomy newspaper office.
There was no maintenance, and the windows were smashed by the strong wind carrying dead branches and stones. Wind and rain poured into the factory and the office area on the second floor. Tables, chairs, and machines were moved crookedly, and there were torn and soaked paper scraps everywhere. Traces of the font remain.
The hollow echo of water drops falling is the only sound in this building.
Tick-tock——
Water droplets fell from the dim ceiling into the pool of water behind the door, and the ripples created in circles disturbed the gloomy sky outside the door and a pair of unreal white bare feet.
Anna looked around the factory area on the first floor. There were more than a dozen identical heavy machines scattered around. There was obvious damage to the appearance of the machines near the windows.
The cold aura exuded was like tentacles reaching into every dark corner of the newspaper office, and was controlled to only cover this building.
No weird smell.
In fact, as soon as we got closer to the industrial area, the surrounding weirdness began to decrease. Maybe they didn't want to occupy the empty factory full of machines, or maybe there was a "big" one hidden deep in the industrial area.
They dare not come over.
The standing water in the factory looks dirty, and Anna floats over it and into the interior.
She checked the printing machines on both sides. The wet metal surface reflected the bright light outside the window or door. The water might not affect their use, but what was worse was that Anna saw that the same position of each machine was connected to the machine wrapped in black rubber. Copper wire.
This is the wire.
They need electricity to work.
Although the power plant in Belfast is located deep in the industrial area, at most two or three miles away from the newspaper office, it is impossible for Anna to restore power to the power plant that has been dormant for nearly half a month. The noise would be too great.
Maybe there's a manual printing machine upstairs.
Anna thought about it and went to the office area to search, but found nothing. There was no printing machine or anything like a printing machine on the second floor.
Places that do not use handwriting and do not print as much as newspapers should have manual printing machines. Such as banks or large companies.
Anna picked up the oil lamp that had rolled under the table and luckily was not broken. She found a match from the drawer and lit it. She unfolded the map next to the faintly lit wick and looked for the locations of banks and large companies.
They are all located around the business district and are not difficult to find. There are even several in one block. It can be expected that printing machines will be easily found there.
But it was once the most prosperous place in Belfast, and it is now - it just has a different set of residents.
There will be some dangers in going there, but this is secondary. Anna is more worried that there will be weird things that she can't detect secretly following or attaching marks to follow her to find Lu Li.
Just imagining that scene would make Anna lose control of her breath.
While hesitating, she noticed a map pressed under the oil lamp.
Or the structural diagram of the newspaper office.
Anna moved the oil lamp further away, and the structural diagram was placed in the photo frame, with "Belfast Today's Newspaper" written in the lower right corner. In addition to the factory on the first floor and the office on the second floor, there were also labels for the backyard, storage warehouse, and basement.
Maybe there will be manual machines in basements and storage warehouses.
Anna first went to the storage warehouse in the backyard. There were blank newspapers wrapped in oilcloth and neatly stacked. Unfortunately, there was no machine.
Under the gap between the first and second floors of the basement, the iron door did not move at all when an invisible hand pushed it.
The door was unlocked, more like it was bolted from the inside.
Anna paused slightly, her breath protruding into the space behind the door like tentacles.
Still no weird smell... This usually means two things. It's a weird entity like Jimmy or it's human.
And the former is obviously unlikely to lock himself in the basement...
Will it be a survivor?
Anna raised her illusory palm and knocked on the iron door with her knuckles, making a clearer sound than the dull wooden door.
Thump thump thump.
Anna slowed down and listened to the sound behind the door.
When I knocked on the iron door for the second time, there was a faint rustling sound coming from behind the door.
"Survivors?" Anna asked behind the door, but received no answer.
Anna, who confirmed that there were living things hiding in the basement, said directly: "I am the assistant of the exorcist... and I plan to come here to print some things. If you can help, we will also help you."
After the words fell, there was some movement behind the door, getting closer and closer.
Wow——
There was a tooth-grinding sound from behind the door as the door latch was being removed. Slowly, the iron door opened a crack, and a wrinkled, bone-like head poked out from behind the door.
The old man is a survivor, but he looks more weird than Anna. The palms on the door are like skinny claws. I don’t know how long he has been hiding in the basement. He may have been hiding in there since the disaster struck.
His cloudy eyes under the shadow looked at Anna, and said hoarsely: "Are you telling the truth...? Has the exorcist...come to save us?"
Anna was about to speak, but the old man's expression was suddenly filled with panic. He found that Anna's silhouette was illusory, and he quickly closed the door and hung the latch in fear.
"I'm a ghost, but I'm really the exorcist's assistant." Anna frowned and said as she staggered away from the iron door. "If I want to hurt you, I can go in directly."
Only a few minutes passed, and the old man refused to come out no matter what Anna said.
Not intending to waste any more time on this survivor, he walked straight through the iron door.
The steps extended downward, the walls reflected water light, and there was a faint light of fire coming up from the basement.
In the basement, the old man covered himself under a blanket and shivered. The flame in the brazier in front of him was only a few centimeters high, like a larger oil lamp, and there was a small half-barrel of unused ink next to it.
Anna ignored the trembling old man and looked around the basement. In the corner, she saw a machine that was half a person tall and covered with a thick layer of dust. It looked similar to the printing machine above, only smaller and more shabby.
"Is this machine good?" Anna asked the old man. The old man may be a worker here.
The latter trembled obviously and remained silent.
"Can you use this machine?" Anna asked again.
Still no answer.
Anna's expression became more and more indifferent, and she remembered something.
The emotion called urging bursts out from the depths of consciousness, like ink falling into clear water, quickly smearing into the surrounding rationality.
Tick-tock——
What does the old man know?
But the old man would not cooperate.
I can get him to talk.
A twisted and trembling shadow slowly emerged behind Anna. It became more solid, like a real shadow, and then left Anna's feet, approaching the old man with steps like a girl, and disappeared into his shaking shadow.
The old man suddenly stopped shaking, and then slowly took off the blanket covering his body.
Under the firelight, the old man's cloudy eyes were full of indifference and other emotions, pain, thinking, and excitement...
His name is Robbie Rudneff, an old man who is almost sixty years old.
