Chapter 23: The New Leader

"Is Ling going to be fine? She's not in danger, right?"

　　"She's not going to abandon us, is she?"

　　"No way, I trust her, she will not do that!"

　　"She must think we were too weak, so she left us."

　　Everyone was discussing about Ling.

　　"Shut up all of you! I believe her, Ling would never betray us. She must meet some special situation and couldn't come back in time. Don't worry everyone, we'll wait for her tomorrow morning." Jason said.

　　"I believe her too, Ling will not abandon us and will definitely come back." Some people who supported Ling agreed with Jason's words.

George and Luca came to here at this time.

　　When they heard that Ling hadn't come back, the two were also very worried about her and decided to search for Ling tomorrow morning.

　　The next morning, people went out to look for Ling. Jason George Luca three people searched Ling in three different directions, Rachel stayed in the basement to study the Magic Circle. Charlie and his father John went out together.

　　The day passed quickly and no one found Ling. John and Charlie brought back not only just food, but also cigarettes and wine.

　　Three-day passed, but Ling never came back. The Bloodaxe did not come to the hospital either. John and Charlie brought back a lot of food. They gave food to everyone for free. People got use to the life without Ling.

　　Although people were curious about where John found the food, he never told others. Until this night, John divided the food to everyone. Then he asked people in the hospital to choose a new leader.

　　Jason, George, and Kaya disagreed with John's words, but the others, they had accepted John's food and Ling had disappeared for so long, they agreed with John's words.

　　The new leader was John, because he provided a lot of free food to others. The first thing John did was to cooperate with the Bloodaxe.

　　"The Bloodaxe can be trusted, and the food given to you is from the Bloodaxe. They only need those blood bags, which are completely useless to us, why not trade them with Bloodaxe.

The Bloodaxe will also provide us skills and soul crystals, as long as they received blood bags . My new skill, "Primary Battle Call" was given by them.

Tomorrow Kane will bring Bloodaxe here, at that time we can leave the hospital and go to the Bloodaxe camp. It's safer there."

　　Some people who had been captured by the Bloodaxe, disagreed with John's words.

　　Kaya was the first to say

　　"The Bloodaxe captured us. Trade us as sacrifices with these Goblins, I don't trust them."

　　George also spoke up

　　"Yes, the Bloodaxe even killed their own members, I saw Bran killed other Bloodaxe people."

　　People in the crowd began to discuss whether they should listen to John or not.

　　"Quiet!" John said

　　"Since we all have different ideas, let's vote. Those who agree to cooperate with the Bloodaxe, stand to the right, those who do not want to cooperate with them, stand to the left."

　　The crowd split into three parts, some people stood to the left, some stood to the right, and many others stood in the middle not knowing what to choose.

　　John looked at the number of people standing on the left and the number standing on the right, and then he said

　　"Those who want to cooperate with Bloodaxe can choose one of the following three things." John took out cigarettes, cans and soul crystals.

　　"This is bribery!" Kaya said angrily.

　　John ignored her.

　　People stood in the middle went to the right, and some people who had just stand to the left, also went to the right. Finally only a small group of people stood on the left, disagreed to cooperate with the Bloodaxe.

　　"If Ling was still here, she would not agree your decision, you betrayed Ling!" Jason said angrily.

The result of the vote was already out, most people agreed to work with the Bloodaxe.

　　After the meeting, Jason came to Charlie's room, he pushed the door, went to the room. Charlie was lying on the bed, no one knew what he was thinking about.

　　"Charlie, I trust you so much, but you guys traded with the Bloodaxe in private!"

　　Charlie was lying on the bed and didn't get up.

　　"I'm sorry Jason, I know that doing this must make you guys feel difficult, but I think my father is right.

　　We are not rivals for the Bloodaxe, and they tolerated us for so long because they were afraid us to destroy the blood bags. Otherwise they would have attacked the hospital." Charlie said.

　　"But they don't deserve our trust. Once we give them the blood bag, they can betray us again." Jason said to Charlie.

　　"We are the weaker, the weaker has no choice. They have already tolerated enough. If we don't give them the blood bags, they will attack us for sure. I don't want anyone else to get hurt and die, sorry Jason."

　　Jason left Charlie's room and went back to his room. Rachel, George, and Kaya were already waiting for Jason.

　　"Did you just go to see Charlie?" Rachel asked.

　　Jason nodded his head.

　　"It seems that Charlie has chosen to cooperate with the Bloodaxe already?" Rachel asked again.

　　"Yes." Jason was very frustrated. He and his best friend made two different choices.

　　Rachel went up and hugged Jason, comforting him

　　"It's okay it's okay, I'll always be there for you."

　　"What do we do now, we do not know where to find Ling. Only she can stop John." Kaya asked the others.

　　"The main purpose of the Bloodaxe is those blood bags, although we don't know what they want them for, we can't let them get blood bags easily. I suggest we destroy the blood bags first." George said.

　　"No!" Jason and Rachel both said at the same time.

　　"They main purpose is the blood bags, if we destroy the blood bags, we do not know what the Bloodaxe will do next. They probably kill us all." Jason said.

　　"Those blood bags are guarded by John and his men, we have no chance to get close to them." Rachel then said.

　　"How about I wear my Invisible Hat and quietly steal the blood bags out?" Jason suggested.

　　Both Rachel and George denied his suggestion. The Invisible Hat can only last for 20 minutes, Jason can not steal all the blood bags in 20 minutes. The four them stayed in Jason's room and couldn't think of anything to do.

　　"Found you guys, what secrets are you discussing? Why don't you let me join in?" Luca came to Jason's room.

　　"We were discussing about tomorrow, we can't trust the Bloodaxe. Why are you here Luca?" Jason asked.

　　"So what do you guys want to do, leave here?" Luca asked.

　　"No, Ling hasn't come back yet, if we leave here, Ling won't be able to find us." George said.

　　Luca sat down in a chair, took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, lit one up, and then said

　　"I have a plan, and we can work together. Bran took the treasure that should belonged to me. I want it back."

　　"What's your plan?" They asked Luca

　　"My plan is simple, the blood bags are in the hospital freezer room. My room is not far from the freezer room.

　　We can dig the tunnels from my room to the bottom of the freezer room and then steal the blood bags."

　　Rachel disagreed with Luca's plan.

　　"It would be hard for us to dig through the tunnels, since we only have one night. I think we need to consider other plans."

　　George, however, thought it worth to try Luca's plan.

　　"I think we can try it. At least, doing something is better than just staying here."

　　They looked to Jason, waiting Jason to make a decision.

　　"I think we can try Luca's plan. There are five of us, plus George's Image, six of us. There's still a night to go, we are able to do it!"

　　"I knew you guys will agree with my plan, the tools are in my room, I have them all ready."

Five people came to the tunnel. At first, they thought it was easy to dig, but when they actually dug, it took a long time to do.

Finally, they dug the tunnel under the freezer room, but they did not expect that the bottom of the freezer room is made by concrete. They could not dig through the concrete.

　　"Alas, Rachel is right, my plan is too simple, sorry I waste you guys so long time." Luca was ready to give up his plan.

　　Seeing there was concrete blocked the way, they sat in the tunnel sadly.

　　"Concrete, concrete. I've got an idea!" Jason suddenly said.

　　"I learned in chemistry class that the main component of the concrete is calcium carbonate, we can use hydrochloric acid to corrode the concrete!"

　　"No. It won't work. I have thought of this way before, but first we do not know where to find hydrochloric acid, even if we find the hydrochloric acid, it can not corrode such a lot concrete." Rachel said.

　　"Maybe we can!" George listened to Rachel and Jason's talk and immediately said

　　"We've all made a mistake, we don't actually need to dig a big hole. We just need a small hole that can get through the blood bags. I can use my wand to control the rats, then let the rats steal the blood bags for us!"