Chapter 28
G177 Avenue is the main artery connecting G City to other cities. It stretches as far as the eye can see, with endless wilderness and towering mountains.
This place is remote and uninhabited. You will pass through a long uninhabited area on the way, and the nearest transportation hub is a thousand kilometers away.
If a car doesn’t carry two more tanks of gas, it will break down halfway.
Wen Xin remembered that he had cycled on this road before.
At that time, he had just graduated from college and was somewhat ambitious as a young man. One day, he accidentally saw photos uploaded by travellers on the Internet. The scenery was so beautiful that it was fascinating.
Looking at the place again, G177 Avenue is right near my home city.
He immediately stood up from his chair and left.
One person, one bicycle, and a shoulder bag for water and food, a standard light travel plan.
But if someone without any training wants to challenge road cycling, the result can be imagined.
It took him nearly an hour to ride the short ten-kilometer distance on and off.
An hour later, Wen Xin had to stop and sit on the ground, rubbing his twitching calves with a grimace.
The mission is preceded by failure.
This tragic experience left a deep impression on Wen Xin and made him understand that one should act within one’s ability.
At the same time, he still can’t forget the warmth of the warm sunshine on his cheeks and the faint scent of grass in the breeze when he leaned against a big tree and sighed.
This is the peace that the little fox later felt in Wen Xin’s dream.
Now, the feeling of peace is still there, but the place that brings it has changed a lot.
Wen Xin looked out through the car window.
The clean and smooth roads of the past no longer exist, and there are scrapped vehicles everywhere.
Some of them flipped over from the guardrails, and some of them collided with each other. The carriages were still emitting black smoke after the explosion.
Large stains of blood mixed with flesh paste were smeared irregularly on the road surface. A half-round object, like a human head, was vaguely visible next to the broken guardrail.
Even though he had seen many corpses during this period, Wen Xin still couldn’t get used to the dead.
Looking at the pair of bulging gray eyes, he frowned and looked away subconsciously.
Scarface sat on the other side of Wen Xin, looking over from time to time, fearing that this young master, who had just emerged from the Peach Blossom Spring, could not stand the stimulation.
Seeing Wen Xin frown and turn away, he immediately cleared his throat, having already thought of some comforting words in his mind.
Unexpectedly, before he could finish his words, the young man turned his head back.
“The zombies couldn’t catch up with the car. What happened to them?”
Even the sound was steady.
Scarface couldn’t help but feel surprised.
You have to know that the flesh and bones at the scene were all mixed together, which was much more tragic than a simple zombie bite. However, the young man just had a slightly gloomy look in his eyes and did not show any fear at all.
Think about the new recruits in the base who vomit when they smell blood. I really don’t know who is the master.
Seeing Scarface staring at him without moving or answering, Wen Xin asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”
The scarred man raised his lips, looking quite happy to see talented people.
He simply moved his butt over and explained in detail, pointing at the road with his finger.
“To judge what they are experiencing, you just need to look around more.”
Scarface pointed to one of the overturned cars.
“For example, if a single car hits the guardrail, the first thing to do is to look at the tire marks on the ground. If there are many marks and they are crooked, it is likely that the person inside was infected and turned into a zombie during the driving process.”
“In this case, the zombies are usually still inside the car. You either don’t get close, or you must hold something in your hand. In the latter case, I suggest you take a gun. Guns can kill zombies in an instant, but other weapons like sticks and knives are not safe.”
Wen Xin could tell that Scarface wanted to teach him everything he knew, otherwise there would be no need for him to explain it in such detail. His expression suddenly changed.
Now is the early days of the apocalypse and everyone is in the exploratory stage. Such survival experience is undoubtedly a valuable asset that can save lives at critical moments.
So he listened more carefully to the other party’s next words.
Scarface continued, “Look at the cars that crashed into each other again, and first analyze whether the area is open or not.”
“Road G177 is so wide that three cars can run side by side. Even if something happens to the car in front, the car behind can see it and avoid it in time.”
“But they still crashed into each other. Guess why?”
Wen Xin thought for a moment: “Is there something chasing them?”
Scarface clapped his hands and said, “Yes, and he was very close.”
“Then back to your previous question, I can give you a clear answer. If it was an infected person within our knowledge, it would definitely not be able to force these car owners to this extent.”
Wen Xin heard something was wrong in his tone, and thinking of the mutant plants and animals Scarface and the others had mentioned, he said, “Could it be a mutant?”
Being mentioned suddenly, the black ball in the young man’s arms raised his eyelids, and the other balls also twitched their mouths.
Those who should bury their heads should bury their heads, and those who should turn their heads away should turn their heads away.
Although I didn’t do those bad things, as a mutant, I still feel guilty.
Scarface touched his chin and thought so too.
The man with the crew cut was concentrating on driving. He heard their conversation and figured out the problem.
He observed it for a while, and simply stopped the car in front of a crushed scrap car: “Xu Qiang, Wen Li, go and see what kind of mutant it is.”
Xu Qiang is the one with the scar on his face, and Wen Li is an artistic young man who looks thin and weak but has muscles when he takes off his clothes.
He claimed that he studied art before the apocalypse, but before he could even pick up a paintbrush, he picked up a brick and smashed the head of a zombie that was about to bite his sister.
Upon hearing this, Wen Xin also wanted to follow them down to see what was going on.
Unfortunately, Wen Li saw through his intention and quickly stopped him: “No one knows what kind of accident will happen. You should stay in the car. It’s safe in the car.”
Xu Qiang had the opposite idea: “This is a normal person with all his limbs intact and a healthy body. You can’t treat him like a fragile porcelain doll. Besides, the end of the world has just begun and there is no end in sight. Sooner or later, he will have to face these things. Wouldn’t it be better to accumulate experience sooner rather than later?”
Wen Li was still very hesitant. Xu Qiang seized the moment when he relaxed and dragged Wen Xin out of the car.
“Hey, Xu Qiang!”
Xu Qiang left Wen Li’s shouting behind him.
Wen Xin was still holding the black ball in his hand. Xu Qiang pulled him away too quickly and he didn’t have time to put the ball down.
Seeing that Heituan seemed to have woken up, he reached out and touched the other’s soft and warm ears, then simply picked up Tuanzi and came to Xu Qiang’s side.
Behind him, Wen Li also followed reluctantly.
The car was distinctively flat, and Xu Qiang estimated that if the zombies inside were still alive, they would probably not be much thicker than a wooden board.
However, he still kicked the car vigilantly. Seeing that nothing came out, he waved his hand, indicating that Wen Xin could come closer.
Wen Xin slowed down and walked over.
It can be seen that the car was flattened from top to bottom, with two dents as big as buckets in the middle of the top, and the edges were raised high because they could not withstand the pressure.
Xu Qiang looked at it for a moment and felt that his knowledge of the animal world was really limited. He couldn’t tell what kind of creature these footprints belonged to.
Wen Li looked at the two marks again and again, and said suspiciously: “Why do I feel so familiar?”
Even two experienced people couldn’t tell the difference, so Wen Xin didn’t expect to be able to tell what it was.
In fact, it really makes people have no clue.
Judging from the shape, they don’t look like animal footprints, but more like two identical hammers, but with a hook-like protrusion on the head.
Judging from the details, there were no clear fingerprints.
Wen Xin looked for a while and then gave up, leaving Xu Qiang and the other man to search for clues around.
At this moment, the black ball curled up in the young man’s arms raised his head and stared at the two clear dents on the roof, his eyes showing a bit of coldness.
I don’t know if it has developed resistance to the venom of the scaly tree viper, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to suppress the restlessness of its genes, and it has even affected its perception of the outside world.
I still remember that when we were on the road above, Wen Xin and Xu Qiang mentioned mutants.
At that time, it felt that something was wrong, but it was not sure whether there was a real problem or its perception was wrong again.
Until now, it is finally certain.
There is no smell of mutants here.
This means that the monsters chasing these car owners are not mutants.
Wen Xin saw that Heituanzi had a serious expression and wanted to ask it if it knew something.
Before he could even ask, he lowered his head and suddenly saw his hands which were subconsciously clenched slightly because he was holding the dumpling.
Wen Xin was stunned, then his pupils shrank, and an incredible guess instantly formed in his mind.
He quickly stretched out his hand to compare.
“Xu Qiang, Wen Li!”
Hearing Wen Xin’s loud shout, Xu Qiang and the others thought something had happened and hurried over.
“What’s wrong?”
Before he finished speaking, Wen Xin stretched out his clenched fist horizontally in front of them, allowing them to see the shape of the side of his fist.
“Does it look like it?”
There wasn’t much flesh on the young man’s hands, and at first glance, they didn’t look much like the dent on the roof of the car, but upon closer inspection, they did seem to be somewhat similar.
Xu Qiang’s expression changed.
He stretched out his fist and gestured slightly, but the effect was not very intuitive.
So he punched the hood vertically, and then he took a look, wow, even the dents around it were exactly the same.
Wen Li then slapped his forehead and said, “I was wondering why he looked so familiar!”
In the painting class, we had to practice human body structure, and there was a class specifically for drawing all the details of the palm, but he actually forgot about it!
After this great discovery, the three of them rushed back to the SUV and told the others the news.
However, their companions thought it was outrageous: “You said those marks were made by someone punching with their fists?”
Xu Qiang nodded: “That’s right, and the hands must be very fleshy.”
Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been possible to create such a smooth arc, which almost confused them all.
Thanks to Wen Xin for discovering some details.
Although the crew-haired man was sitting in the car, he did not see nothing. He frowned immediately: “That mark is at least ten times the size of a normal person’s fist. How could someone grow so huge?”
“this……”
When others heard this, they also felt it was unreliable.
Some people speculated: “Could it be a mutant monkey?”
“Mutated monkey…”
But the man with the crew cut remembered that they didn’t see any mutant monkeys on the way here.
Moreover, most monkeys live in forests or deep mountains, so how could they appear on plain roads?
The man with the crew cut tapped the steering wheel with his fingers, turned to Xu Qiang and asked, “Did you find any animal hair nearby?”
Speaking of this, Xu Qiang and the others also felt strange because they didn’t find any hair.
Except for human hair, which is all over the road.
While they were discussing, the mutants were not idle either.
Wen Xin opened a gap in the cat bag, so the scaly tree viper and purple squirrel could finally stick their heads out to breathe.
Scaly Tree Viper said: “Why can’t I sense the presence of mutants? Did these humans make a mistake?”
The purple squirrel squeaked, “You’re right, I don’t smell any residual scent either.”
So, it must be humans who made a mistake. It was not the mutants who did bad things, but their own kind who were causing destruction.
After coming to this conclusion, the scaly tree viper and the purple squirrel retreated with peace of mind.
Lan Tuan didn’t say anything. He looked lazy and didn’t care about anything.
Canary focused all his attention on the little fox, because he found that the little fox was shaking uncontrollably.
He was at a loss and subconsciously asked for help from the person he trusted the most: “Wen Xin, what should I do? Xiao Qi is shaking——”
Wen Xin noticed the little fox’s abnormal condition and hurriedly moved from the front seat to the back seat.
When I touched the little fox’s body, I found that its abdomen was very cold, but its heart and back of the neck were particularly hot, which showed that it was obviously not suffering from a normal cold.
Wen Xin had taken care of Hei Tuan before, so he had some experience, so he took off his coat, took the little fox out of Canary’s arms, and wrapped him tightly in his coat.
There was no heating equipment in the car, so he took out some heat patches from his backpack and stuck them all on his gown.
He then skillfully wrapped the gown together to make a simple “hot water bottle”, stuffed it into the little fox’s cold belly, and inserted his fingers into it, massaging it gently.
The little fox felt the warmth and struggled to open his eyes a crack, spilling out tears of pain: “Woo-ooh…”
I feel so bad…
When Wen Xin heard the sound, he hugged it tighter: “Be good, bear with it. When we get off the bus, we can find a place to stay and make a fire to keep warm.”
With the young man’s constant comfort, the little fox’s frown relaxed a little.
Perhaps because it was too tired or in too much pain, it quickly fell into a deep sleep again.
The conversation in front of me had unconsciously become much quieter.
The man with the crew cut and others turned around and looked at the young man who was gently comforting the little fox again and again, and they felt a strange feeling in their hearts.
Maybe it’s because it’s too rare. In the apocalypse, people can’t even take care of themselves, so who would care about their pets?
Going further, there are more corpses and scrapped vehicles.
Several times they had to stop and move obstacles out of the way before they could move forward.
Wiping the sweat off his forehead, even the buzz cut guy couldn’t help but complain: “If it weren’t illegal to damage public facilities, I would have wanted to tear down the guardrail and drive directly onto the plain.”
This was a joke intended to liven up the atmosphere, but it obviously had little effect and no one could laugh at it now.
Because as they moved forward, the fist marks previously found on the roof of the car appeared more and more on this section of the road.
There were eleven cars destroyed on the section of road with the most fist marks. They only counted roughly and found that more than twenty-five people had died.
The crew-cut man exhaled forcefully.
Originally, they did not expect there would be such a mutated monkey.
The strength displayed by the opponent was a little beyond their expectations.
But it’s too late to return now.
Faced with a zombie tide of more than 100,000 zombies and a mutant that looks very powerful, they have no choice at all.
One can only hope that this mutant has gotten far away and didn’t stop along this road.
Xu Qiang sighed indignantly, “You said there are even zombies and mutant plants and animals, so why haven’t humans evolved superpowers? Are we going to treat them differently in the end times?”
His companion laughed and said, “Aren’t zombies transformed from humans? Look, they are not afraid of pain, they don’t need to eat, and their missing limbs don’t affect their movements. As long as no one kills them, they won’t die. How powerful and awesome!”
“Get lost!”
Xu Qiang cursed angrily.
It was almost dusk when they finally arrived at their first resting place, a small town with about 400 households.
However, before the car drove in, the man with a crew cut looked serious and quickly stepped on the brakes.
Sizzle——!
Under the huge impact, almost everyone in the car fell over. Fortunately, everyone was quick to grab the back of the car seat, so that no one’s nose was broken.
“What’s going on?” “What happened!”
They leaned forward and saw the distorted face of the man with a crew cut in the rearview mirror.
Seeing that his face looked so ugly, Wen Xin subconsciously followed his line of sight and looked forward, and his pupils suddenly shrank.
Two beams of headlights shone on the muddy road, leaving a huge footprint.
The shape seems a bit subtle too…
Wen Xin couldn’t help but curl his fingers and heard Wen Li’s gasp in his ear.
“Even though I have abandoned my professional knowledge for many years, at least I am still not blind.”
“No matter how you look at it… they all seem to be human footprints, right?” Wen Li said, feeling unsure. “Could it be that monkey footprints are the same as human footprints?”
Before they could finish their words, they all heard footsteps.
It was not the footsteps of one person, but the footsteps of a large group of people, appearing all around them!
Wen Xin and others turned around quickly.
Through the car window, they saw a small brick bungalow.
It was now dark all around, with dark clouds covering the moon.
Suddenly a gust of wind blew, the clouds dispersed, and the pale moonlight spread over the earth.
Countless zombies were crowded in the corners behind these bungalows, with only half of their heads showing. Their dark pupils were staring straight over. It was unknown how long they had been waiting here.