Chapter 1771 S Apocalypse Event (Thirty-Nine)

Chapter 1745 S Apocalypse Event (Thirty-nine)

When Spider-Man woke up, he found himself lying at the end of a dark alley. There was a faint flashlight in front of him, and fierce screams echoed in his ears. Spider-Man blurted out: "Stop..."

But the sound he made was not as strong as before. Most of his voice was breathy, and it didn't sound like he was shouting, but rather begging.

Spider-Man found that he couldn't move.

The moment he made the sound, the flashlight shone in this direction. When the vision lit up, Spider-Man could barely see that there were several half-grown children standing by the wall. The older one looked about thirteen or fourteen years old, and the youngest one was probably only about ten years old.

They were beating a child who was much younger than them.

Spider-Man originally thought that this was just a fight between ordinary children, and the worst case was bullying, until he saw that the oldest child was holding a bloody crowbar in his hand.

The sticky cold liquid flowed down from his forehead, and Spider-Man realized that he had changed his body. After the initial tension dissipated, he found that one of his eyes could not see, and the vision of the other eye was constantly shaking.

"Bang!"

The crowbar hit the head of the beaten child, and after the last scream, he died.

The others walked towards Spider-Man, and fear spread in Spider-Man's heart. He struggled with all his strength, but he could not control many limbs, and most of his body was completely in a state of not feeling.

Spider-Man opened his mouth to make a sound, but he could not say a complete sentence. He only heard the big child who led the group said: "Don't steal things in your next life if you don't want to die!"

"Bang!"

Spider-Man lost consciousness. After a long period of darkness, he found himself in a dimly lit room. His right leg hurt badly, but at least he was no longer dizzy.

A girl's face appeared in the hazy vision. Her waving fingers were skinny, but her face was a little chubby. Words with a Gotham accent rang in Spider-Man's ears.

"Jayne, are you okay? You were beaten by Johnny and hit your head. I thought you were dead."

Spider-Man sat up reluctantly. He shook his head and said, "I'm not... I'm not..."

"I know, I know, don't worry, we all ate a lot in the past two days, and it's okay to eat less today. Even the most powerful golden hand in the alley has times when it fails."

"Yes, yes, Jayne, don't worry, we can work now." A more childish voice came from behind the girl.

The girl turned around and scolded, "Jimmy, I told you a long time ago that you and your sister are too young and not tall enough to steal anything. You are not allowed to go out."

"But Jayne is injured. If we don't go out to work, no one will have food to eat." The childish voice protested, "Besides, my brother and I will be eight years old next year."

Spider-Man took a deep breath and shouted, "Stop, who can tell me what's going on? I'm not on Apocalypse..."

"Jayne, what's wrong with you? Do you have a fever?"

Several children gathered around him. In addition to the girl named Lan, there was a pair of siblings who looked like twins, two thin boys, a girl with braids, and a little girl who looked only three or four years old.

Spider-Man held back a lot of words.

Because these children looked too embarrassed.

The older girl in the lead was better, with some flesh on her face, but judging from her exposed wrists and fingers, her body must be skinny. The twins were completely skinny and small, and the remaining children were not only skinny, but also pale and thin, with sunken eye sockets and ragged clothes.

In Spider-Man's opinion, the Queens and the Bronx where he lived were already poor settlements, and he had never seen such children there. They looked like the child survivors photographed in war reports.

No, in fact, it was worse than that, Spider-Man thought. The child survivors were just ragged and had ashes from the artillery fire on their faces, but from their body shape and faces, it could be seen that they had lived a good life before, but these children had not been fed enough for many years, and their bodies had not developed at all.

Spider-Man recalled that the younger sister of the twins just said that they would be eight years old next year, but these two children did not look like they were in the second grade at all. The five-year-old children in the kindergarten next to his house were much stronger than them.

Spider-Man was speechless for a moment and didn't know what to say.

He struggled to sit up and gently pushed away Lan's hand touching his forehead and said, "I don't have a fever. Can you tell me where I am now and who you are?"

"Oh my God, you didn't hit your head, did you?"

"I'm fine, but I really can't remember it." Spider-Man tried his best to make up a lie. He was afraid that telling the truth would scare the children. He could clearly feel their concern and expectation from their eyes. If Spider-Man told them that Jayne, whom they were counting on, was probably dead, they would probably cry out of fear.

Suddenly, the children began to explain to Spider-Man. After listening, Spider-Man summarized it. In short, this is a gang of thieves.

They used to steal things from groups led by their parents. Later, they were driven out or ran away because of various events. In order to survive, they formed their own small gang and made a living by doing some odd jobs in the border area of ​​several large thief groups.

This boy named Jayne is the organizer of the group and the oldest child. He is eleven years old this year. He took the initiative to escape from a thief group. Before he came out, he was the most powerful child in the thief group. He ran away because of a dispute with the mother in the group.

Now only he and Lan can go out to work, but Lan has been an apprentice for a short time and has poor skills. He can't steal much even if he works all day. The whole gang is basically supported by the things stolen by Jayne.

Spider-Man opened his mouth. He was very righteous, but his conscience made him unable to say "stealing is wrong" in front of such a group of children.

He clenched his fists in anger, wanting to rebuke the parents who gave birth to these children but did not raise them, and wanting to scold the welfare institutions and community staff, but now the only thing hovering in his mind was what Lan said before, that they might not have food to eat in the next few days.

Spider-Man took a deep breath, tried to ignore the pain in his body and wanted to stand up, but in the process he thought that standing up was useless. He was not Jayne at all. He would not steal, and he did not want to steal. Was there no other way to get something to eat?

Spider-Man explained his views to several children, but what made him feel uncomfortable was that after listening to him, several children neither agreed nor refuted, but just stared at him with a look that Spider-Man could not understand.

"…It's just food." Spider-Man said, "It's enough to fill your stomach, right? Or, or you can ignore the taste?"

Lan sat down in silence, lowered his head and repeated, "Yes, it's just food."

Suddenly, the younger sister of the twin brother and sister screamed, and she shouted at Lan, "You can't go back! You can't go back to that inhuman old woman, those men will kill you!!!"

Lan was silent for a while and said in a crying voice, "It's just food."

Spider-Man suddenly understood what they were saying. He stared at the little girl in front of him in amazement. Although she was considered the oldest among the children, she was completely a child.

Spider-Man took a deep breath, and the flames of anger almost burned his heart. He instinctively hammered the floor, and then froze for a moment.

He looked down at the floor, there was nothing there, no trace left.

He was no longer Spider-Man.

The flames of anger went out with a whoosh, leaving Spider-Man with only cold sweat and vague fear.

He is no longer Spider-Man. He is no longer strong, agile, or sensitive to danger. He does not have the advanced equipment given to him by Mr. Stark, nor does he have Uncle Ben and Aunt May who always prepare hot meals for him.

Spider-Man felt tears welling up in his eyes, but he held them back. It was not because he did not want to cry, but because his kindness made him know that he could not cry, because if he cried, these children would cry, and they would not even have food to eat after crying.

Find food, find food, find food...

Spider-Man gritted his teeth, stretched out his hand to push Lan, who was a little distracted, and asked, "I really can't steal now, but we can't have no food to eat. Apart from stealing, don't you know any other way to get food?"

"If there is, we will not steal. The life of a thief is the least valuable. If caught, we can kill him."

Spider-Man thought of his last death. It seems that he was also a thief last time, but unfortunately he was caught.

Thinking of this, Spider-Man felt his heart sinking heavily, and the chill crawled up his spine to his neck, which meant that the living people in front of him were very likely to be beaten to death because of a mistake.

If he tried to steal reluctantly, he would be beaten to death, and if he didn't steal, he would starve to death. Spider-Man found that he was not so anxious when he faced Thanos snapping his fingers to destroy half of the life in the universe.

Because at that time he had only one choice to fight to the death. Even if the end was a dead end, he could say that he tried his best, but now he knew that both were dead ends, and he still had to choose one. The moment of choice meant that someone would definitely die.

It was impossible for all these children to survive.

Spider-Man's reason told him that Jayne fell too suddenly, they had no preparation, and there was a shortage of people who could work in the group. They couldn't find another way to make a living within three days, and the youngest girl would definitely not survive.

Where is the way out?

"What about looking through the trash cans?" Spider-Man suddenly said, "If you just want to fill your stomach, discarded food is not a problem."

"The trash cans are managed by children. They will guard them before the garbage truck falls." Lan shook his head and said, "They are much stronger than us. We can't snatch them."

The older twin brother shrank his neck and said, "And you might get beaten if you get close to them. They especially hate thieves."

Looking at the disappointed expression on Spider-Man's face, Lan gritted his teeth and said, "Jayne, your cooking skills are well-known. Parents nearby know that you will definitely not starve to death if you go back to them. As for us, we can find a way ourselves."

"Lan! You just want to go back to that old woman. Have you forgotten how Jayne saved you back then?!"

"I would have died anyway!" Lan gritted his teeth and said viciously, "It's just food!"

Spider-Man took a deep breath and said, "Don't say it. I will find a way. I will find a way to keep you all alive."

Spider-Man failed.

Long-term malnutrition caused the youngest girl to have almost zero resistance to hunger. Her body did not have the nutrients to allow her to temporarily cope with hunger, or she might have been hungry for a long time before that.

But in short, she starved to death in front of Spider-Man.

And Spider-Man had not spoken for a whole day.

Until that evening, he saw a smiling boy under the street lamp at the entrance of the base, carrying a bag of bread and walking towards him.

"Long time no see, Gotham's good neighbor Spider-Man."

Spider-Man was stunned for a moment, looking at the familiar smile on his face, Spider-Man instinctively shouted: "Joker?!!!"

Deja vu