Chapter 50

In late February, the south was warming up, and the river ice was breaking.

The car passed through deserted villages, broke through fields covered in residual snow, and sped southward.

In front of an abandoned gas station on the outskirts of a town, the road was empty, with wild grass, dust, and trash flying in the cold wind. Zhou Rong stopped the car, gestured for Si Nan to stay in the warm car, and got out to pick up the diesel pump nozzle.

Si Nan closed the road map. Seeing a small convenience store ahead that showed no obvious signs of being looted, he opened the car door. "Do you want cigarettes?"

Zhou Rong said politely, "No, thank you. I've decided to quit smoking for my partner's health... Get back! Sit back down!"

While pumping gas, Zhou Rong desperately held the car door shut, while Si Nan pushed it outward with all his might. "Don't make such a sacrifice, Rong-ge. I'm very democratic. You can smoke as much as you want, it's fine. I'll go get them for you... Let go! We finally found a store, let me go!"

The two were locked in a tug-of-war for a while when Si Nan's gaze suddenly sharpened. "Get in, quickly! There are zombies!"

Zhou Rong subconsciously turned his head. There was nothing on the road behind him.

Si Nan darted out from the other side of the car like lightning, grabbing his special snack box and running happily toward the convenience store.

"You just want candy!" Zhou Rong didn't know whether to laugh or cry, calling helplessly after his retreating figure, "Be quick, we're low on bullets!"

Si Nan pushed open the door of the convenience store, ignored the zombie struggling numbly behind the cash register, and sneered, "So what."

Two minutes later, Zhou Rong had finished filling the tank. Just as he hung up the gas nozzle, he saw the convenience store door open again. Si Nan came out with his special box filled to the brim, followed by a zombie with a half-rotten face and outstretched arms, stumbling after him.

Zhou Rong's expression changed instantly. He had just lunged forward when he saw Si Nan turn, leap, and climb onto the zombie's shoulders and neck with a dazzling jiu-jitsu move, using only his knees to snap the zombie's cervical vertebrae with a crack.

The zombie wailed and fell. Si Nan landed nimbly, not even sparing it a glance as he walked toward Zhou Rong with a lollipop in his mouth.

"..." Zhou Rong looked down, scrutinizing Si Nan's calm and innocent face, and asked, "...What about the cigarettes you promised?"

"Forgot," Si Nan said, as if just remembering.

He stuffed the snack box into Zhou Rong's arms, turned back to the store, and randomly grabbed a few packs of cigarettes, stuffing them into his pocket. Zhou Rong casually rummaged through the sandwich cookies and Nutrition Express in the box, and a wave of sorrow welled up in him. "When we were dating, you'd sneak out at night to get snacks and still remember to bring me back two cartons of cigarettes. Now that we're married, the treatment has plummeted. You don't care about your ge anymore. I guess once you have me, I'm not worth anything anymore..."

The worthless Rong-ge patted Si Nan's head twice, personally unwrapped a piece of toffee, and popped it into his mouth.

Si Nan, eating the toffee and an Alps green apple lollipop at the same time, sat crookedly in the passenger seat with his long, slender legs crossed. He frowned as he repeatedly looked through the map. "Something's strange."

"Right?" Zhou Rong said nonchalantly, a cigarette between his lips. "I told you this wasn't the right way, but you insisted we follow the map..."

Si Nan: "I meant the toffee tastes strange. Is it expired?"

Zhou Rong immediately stopped the car, found the wrapper he'd tossed in the door's storage compartment, and looked at it closely. Seeing that it wouldn't expire until next year, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Si Nan wasn't very satisfied. "Why doesn't it taste milky?"

Zhou Rong couldn't quite explain to this little mixed-blood kid why a fifty-cent toffee from a small town gas station shop didn't taste milky. He could only comfort him, "Someday, I'll take you to Inner Mongolia. We'll find a grassland, live in a tent, and raise a dairy cow just for you."

Si Nan gave a demure "Mm."

"Continue south for thirty kilometers to bypass the town," he said, closing the map. "Avoid the densely populated areas, and once we reach the peninsula, we'll look for a pier and see if we can get out to sea directly."

—Through the windshield, the road stretched straight ahead, passing through a dilapidated rural town. The residential buildings were like broken reinforced concrete coffins, silently scattered under the gray sky.

For the hundred and first time, Zhou Rong asked, "Are you sure this is the road?"

"Not sure, but this national road map published three years ago indicates it is."

"Three years ago, when I brought my men here for a mission, this town didn't even exist. It was deserted. Back then, the road did bypass the edge of the town, and we had to cross a mountain up ahead..."

"You remember all that?" Si Nan asked, surprised.

"Mm," Zhou Rong exhaled a smoke ring pensively. "I've traveled far and wide, living freely, I've crossed The Hundred Thousand Mountains of Guangxi and waded through the Kunlun and Tarim River..."

Si Nan glanced at him suspiciously.

Zhou Rong: "..."

After thirty seconds of suffocating silence, Zhou Rong finally told the truth:

"Back then, I was looking for a toilet on this road but couldn't find one anywhere. The whole team had to line up and relieve ourselves on the side of the road. We even had a contest to see who could pee the farthest."

"The memory is especially deep. I lost to Yan Hao."

As it turned out, the national road map published in 2017 by the People's Communications Press was no match for Zhou Rong's deep memory of failure—the map was wrong, and Zhou Rong was right.

Around noon, the SUV left the highway, leaving the tide of zombies pouring out from the town center far behind as it drove over the hillside toward the peninsula.

The sun peeked out from behind the clouds, casting a shimmering glimmer on the distant harbor.

The once-bustling casino city had long since been reduced to ruins. Almost all the high-rise buildings were destroyed, the TV tower was broken in half, and the garden casino had been burned to the ground. The lively scene of ships coming and going in the harbor was gone, replaced by the desolate, silent, and deathly still coastal waters.

Farther away, the South China Sea Islands were hidden in a vast mist, like a mythical mirage.

Zhou Rong turned his angle slightly. Looking past the end of the dust-covered city, among the rolling hills, the sun reflected a faint point of light in the high-powered military binoculars.

"What's that?" Zhou Rong squinted, murmuring to himself, "Why does it look like there are buildings?"

Sucking on his eighth Alps lollipop of the day, Si Nan placed his hands on Zhou Rong's shoulders and agilely vaulted up. Zhou Rong staggered and steadied himself against a tree trunk. Before he knew it, a weight settled on his shoulders and neck. Si Nan was already sitting on his shoulders with his legs apart, taking the binoculars.

A moment later, Si Nan said, "A ground base. The surface of the buildings seems to be covered with solar-powered steel plates."

Zhou Rong looked up with a slightly mischievous smile. "Comrade Xiao Si, did you know? This move of yours seems to be a subtle invitation for something, like, say, some car sex in the wild..."

"Do you want to taste a scissor leg choke?" Si Nan squeezed the side of Zhou Rong's neck with his thighs and smiled. "I hear asphyxiation play is a real thrill."

One on top of the other, they stared at each other for three seconds, then suddenly moved at the same time!

Zhou Rong, carrying Si Nan, retreated rapidly toward the SUV behind them, while Si Nan flipped over to twist his neck. With a loud bang, Zhou Rong arched his back, slamming Si Nan's spine onto the car's hood. Amidst Si Nan's loud laughter, he turned, grabbed his ankles, lifted them, and squeezed his entire body between his thighs, striking an extremely intimidating pose as if he was about to fuck him.

"Asphyxiation play?" Zhou Rong leaned down, staring at Si Nan from above.

Si Nan retorted, "I was holding back, you know?"

That was true. If Zhou Rong had been a zombie, in that position, his neck would have already been snapped clean by the force of Si Nan's legs, just like that zombie at the gas station whose head had been so neatly separated from its body.

Si Nan was half-lying on the hood, his eyes bright, his eyelashes curved, and the upturned corners of his mouth held a hint of provocation. From this top-down angle, his neck looked exceptionally long, his collarbones extending into the collar of his black shirt, the veins clearly visible beneath his pale skin.

Zhou Rong's breathing deepened, and a warmth began to spread in his heart. He lowered his head and rubbed his lips against Si Nan's brow for a moment, strongly tempted to commit a small disciplinary infraction right there in the wilderness.

Just then, a faint sound came from the distance—

Snap.

Like the sound of a bird startled from a branch, it traveled over a hundred meters and reached Zhou Rong's ears.

"Who's there!"

Zhou Rong strode forward and picked up the binoculars that Si Nan had casually tossed on the ground.

Amidst the grayish-yellow winter woods, shadowy figures lurked at the foot of the hill. A group of zombies was silently closing in, already within a hundred meters!

"—Get in the car!" Zhou Rong ordered sharply. "Quick!"

Both of them dove into the SUV. The engine roared to life, and they sped toward the shaded side of the hill. But just as they reached halfway up the slope, they suddenly heard shuffling footsteps ahead. Another group of zombies appeared as if out of thin air, densely blocking their path.

"Damn it, how come there was no sound at all? Don't zombies make noise?" Zhou Rong frowned. "They've even learned to ambush?"

Si Nan raised the binoculars. "Ten o'clock, ahead. Quick, there's a breakthrough point!"

The SUV swerved around. The zombie horde pursued relentlessly, finally letting out a series of muffled moans!

Si Nan pulled two submachine guns from the back seat, tossed one to Zhou Rong, and they both lowered their windows and pulled the triggers, blasting the brains of the zombies in front of them.

"They're encircling us!" Si Nan roared over the gunfire.

Zhou Rong: "Are you kidding me! Zombies don't have thoughts!"

The car ran over gnarled tree roots on the ground and bounced violently. With one hand on the steering wheel, Zhou Rong shot down a zombie lunging from the side with the other. The tires landed with a thud, crushing several zombies into a mess of flesh and bone!

"Roar—"

More of the living dead staggered out, finally revealing themselves from the woods, fanning out to surround the front of the car—Zhou Rong's pupils contracted instantly as he realized Si Nan's observation was not wrong.

This was indeed an encirclement.

Not only that, there was also stealth, concealment, and teamwork. The zombies had actually developed the preliminary intelligence of pack animals on a hunt!

An icy chill welled up from the bottom of his heart. Zhou Rong had crossed more than half the country, but never before had he felt such a real and palpable fear.

When did the zombies start to mutate? Could the living dead actually have thoughts?

Was this happening all over the country, or had the virus evolved in the coastal areas?

Si Nan clicked in a new magazine, turned, and fired several shots behind the car. Almost every pull of the trigger took out two or three of the pursuing zombies. Zhou Rong yanked the clutch, and amidst the flying shell casings, he heard him shout, "There are too many ahead! Turn around and head down the mountain!"

On the dirt ground covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves, the SUV roared as it turned, performing a racing-style drift right in front of the zombies, sending a large arc of them flying.

"Hold on tight!" Zhou Rong roared, then slammed the accelerator to the floor!

Most of the zombies had already gathered where the car was originally headed. Now, they were too late to catch up and could only watch as the SUV did a 180-degree turn. The modified front bumper with its protruding spikes sent zombies flying head-on as it roared into the forest, cutting a path through the rocks and tree roots down the slope!

—BOOM!

The heavy SUV flew through the air and landed, its tires screeching sharply.

Both men were thrown upward. Zhou Rong reached out and pulled Si Nan into his arms, but his own head slammed hard against the car's ceiling, and he let out a muffled grunt.

The SUV, with its modified engine, didn't even pause. It left the living dead who were desperately reaching out behind and sped straight into the distance.

·

"Good, a smooth escape," Zhou Rong let out a hot breath. "This car's quality is pretty good. We can express the people's gratitude to my brother-in-law in the afterlife."

"He's not your brother-in-law," Si Nan said coldly, his sensitivity pricked.

Zhou Rong: "Alright, alright..."

The floor of the driver's cabin was covered in ejected shell casings. The SUV bypassed the city and headed toward the hillside where the building's reflection glinted. Groups of three to five zombies wandered along the roadside, but they couldn't catch up to the SUV and could only reach out helplessly toward the dust cloud kicked up by its wheels.

Zhou Rong looked away from the side mirror and asked, "How many zombies were there in the group that surrounded us just now?"

"Five or six hundred. Why?"

"Those zombies didn't have any wounds on them."

Si Nan's hand, which was flipping through the map, paused.

"After a living person is infected with the virus, most start to rot from the bite wound, which then spreads throughout the body. But the decay on those zombies was very uniform. A few of them must have been bitten recently, yet there were no obvious bite marks on their heads, necks, or arms."

Zhou Rong paused, one hand propping up his forehead, his thick, sharp brows furrowed tightly. "When the military helicopters came to T City to pick up the survivors, those sick nurses didn't have any wounds either. They were infected by inhaling the highly toxic smoke from burning zombies... So what's going on with the zombies in the coastal areas? The ocean currents? Has the virus already spread to this extent? That seems unlikely."

The only sound in the car was the bumpy ride of the tires. The two were silent for a moment, then Si Nan slowly turned a page. "They're starting to develop primary intelligence. Maybe it's related to that."

Intelligence.

The word sent a shiver down Zhou Rong's spine.

"The city is too dangerous. Ahead is the ground building we saw earlier." Si Nan looked up and asked, "Should we go check it out?"

Just as Zhou Rong was about to answer, he suddenly cursed for the second time that day. "Fuck!"

Zhou Rong slammed on the brakes. The tires screeched against the ground again, and both men were thrown forward against their restraints. Without explaining, Zhou Rong quickly reversed the car, turning the steering wheel hard.

Amidst the violent shaking, Si Nan glanced back and saw that a cheval de frise made of wire had been stretched across the road where the front of the car had been just a moment ago!

"Stop!"

"Halt!"

"Get out! Or we'll shoot!"

About a dozen people suddenly jumped out from the side of the road, all dressed in camouflage and holding guns, shouting menacingly at the car.

'Roadside robbers?'

A cold glint appeared in Zhou Rong's eyes. Just as he was about to step on the gas and run them over, the leader shouted, "Halt! Who are you? We're the People's Liberation Army!"

Zhou Rong's foot slipped on the accelerator.

Those men were clearly professionals; they must have done this hundreds of times. In that thousandth-of-a-second hesitation, several of them pulled the triggers on their shotguns, shattering the entire front windshield!

With a huge crash, countless pellets and glass shards flew into the driver's cabin. Zhou Rong pushed Si Nan's head down, his eardrums ringing from the blast.

He grabbed his submachine gun with a backhand motion, shielding half his face with his elbow. Just as he looked up to engage them head-on, he suddenly froze.

He saw that just as the dozen or so men were about to charge the SUV, the head of the one who had shouted "We're the People's Liberation Army" exploded in a spray of blood, and he staggered and fell.

Before his men could even let out a cry of alarm, the second, third, and fourth were all shot in the head, becoming ghosts in an instant without knowing what had happened.

"Sniper!" someone roared frantically. "Find cover, quick!"

One of them charged the car forcefully. Just as Zhou Rong was about to twist his neck and send him on his way, he caught a glimpse of a sergeant's insignia on the man's uniform. His eyebrows twitched slightly, and he instead smashed his head with the butt of his gun, sending him to the ground with a bloody head.

"Si Xiaonan, hold on tight!" Zhou Rong returned to the driver's seat. Just as he was about to step on the gas and force his way through the blockade, he heard a crisp—CRACK!

Zhou Rong: "..."

—Si Nan didn't care if they were real People's Liberation Army or not. As long as they weren't the few special forces soldiers from Squad 118, and they had made the first move and fired at him, they were all dead men in his eyes.

His right hand reached out of the window, his five fingers seizing the attacker's throat. With a twist and a turn, he snapped the man's throat with a crisp sound, snatched the dead man's shotgun, and pulled the trigger.

The entire sequence of actions took less than three seconds.

—BANG!

More than half of the ambushers fell, the chests of the dead and wounded caved in as they writhed on the ground.

The remaining men charged the car even more desperately. Just as Si Nan was about to fire a second shot, he suddenly paused slightly and pinched his earlobe.

"Zhou Rong," he said, surprised, "Your Gaydar Locator is vibrating."