The ground was stained with blood, and the air was filled with the stench of decay. Chen Wan and Qin Ke quickly walked towards a row of large trucks in the service area.
Chen Wan counted again to confirm that there were eight trucks parked here, and four more were blocking the exit. She breathed a sigh of relief, as they had all the materials they needed this time.
“Be careful of zombies in the trucks, and stay safe,” Chen Wan warned Qin Ke beside her.
“Got it, you be careful too,” Qin Ke replied while observing the surroundings.
There were no zombies in sight around them, so they just needed to be extra cautious about the situation inside the trucks.
Chen Wan approached a truck, easily grabbed the handle, and climbed up to the outside of the cab. There were no zombies inside. She used the back of her knife to smash the truck’s window, carefully climbed in, quickly found the wires under the steering wheel, and started the engine, reversing towards the cluster of small cars.
Qin Ke was also making good progress, successfully starting a truck and driving it until it was stopped by a few small cars.
After parking, Chen Wan and Qin Ke got out of the trucks and went back to start another one. Chen Wan lightly hooked the handle and climbed into another truck’s cab, only to find herself face-to-face with a zombie inside. Without caring about the zombie’s reaction, she raised her hand, smashed the glass with the back of her knife, and swiftly dealt with the zombie with a single strike, splattering its foul-smelling blood everywhere.
Chen Wan opened the door, dragged the zombie out, and, suppressing her disgust, sat in the driver’s seat, connected a few wires, and started the truck, driving it to park closely behind the previous one.
She and Qin Ke moved quickly, and in no time, they had parked all eight trucks in the parking area. Now they needed to find two more from the ones that had collided.
Without delay, they each chose a truck and climbed up, but this time, there were zombies inside.
For Chen Wan, low-level zombies were as easy to deal with as cutting vegetables. She smashed the window and swiftly took care of the zombie inside.
Qin Ke, however, encountered some trouble. Her wrist was injured, and the human spine was hard to sever with one strike. Moreover, there was a zombie in the passenger seat, so she had to use her handgun. After a few shots, the two zombies in the truck were lifeless. Qin Ke’s left wrist, holding onto the truck’s door handle, was bleeding slightly through the bandage, indicating that her old injury from handcuffs had reopened.
Ignoring her wrist injury, she opened the door, dragged the zombie out of the driver’s seat, then opened the passenger side door and kicked the zombie out, before closing the door and quickly starting the truck.
Chen Wan drove over first, got out of the truck, and waited for Qin Ke, ready to head back together.
Unbeknownst to them, their actions had already been observed by a few people hiding on the second floor of the small building in the service area.
“Should we go out? They managed to start the trucks without keys,” a sallow-faced man whispered to his companion.
“I don’t know, squad leader. We’re running out of food. If we don’t find a way out, we might all starve, and Zhao Jingjing has been sick for days. There are no medicines here. Should we try asking for help? Even if it’s just to find out if there’s a base or safe zone nearby,” a ponytailed female Omega asked worriedly.
“But they seem to have guns. Wouldn’t it be too risky to go out? What if they’re bad people?” a short-haired female alpha responded.
Everyone fell silent, and the room was quiet for a moment.
The sallow-faced man, called the squad leader, furrowed his brows, clearly deep in thought. There were five of them, high school sophomores. Before the apocalypse, they were good friends who had joined a tour group for a trip. But before the fun could begin, the apocalypse broke out. Their tour group stopped at this service area to rest, and many people turned into zombies. In a moment of desperation, they gathered some supplies, blocked the doors and windows, and managed to survive for over a month.
However, one of the female Omegas had been intermittently feverish for days without improvement, and their hard-earned supplies were running out. They were considering going out to seek help.
They had noticed the RV honking from a distance earlier, and the sight of hordes of zombies rushing towards it was terrifying. Hundreds of zombies, but surprisingly, the RV wasn’t harmed. Instead, the zombies were either run over or crushed. From afar, they could only see piles of zombie corpses and the RV stained with black blood.
These teenagers had never seen such a scene before and were too scared to speak until they saw two people heading towards the service area to start the trucks, making them hesitate about seeking help.
The short-haired girl gritted her teeth and spoke, “I’ll go out and check. If it’s safe and feasible, I’ll signal you. If it’s dangerous, don’t come out and risk your lives. Take care of Zhao Jingjing.”
“How can you go alone? I’ll go with you,” a chubby-faced male alpha interjected, clearly afraid for his friend’s safety.
“Better one than all of us. It’s the apocalypse; we don’t know what tomorrow holds. Let me go,” the short-haired girl thought for a moment and decided it was best to go alone.
After a few seconds of silence, the squad leader looked at the short-haired girl and said, “No, I’m your squad leader. I should do this. Listen, if something happens to me, follow Li Yue’s lead. She’s resourceful, and you won’t go wrong listening to her. And take care of Zhao Jingjing. Promise me, live one day at a time, and never give up.”
“Squad leader…” the chubby boy wanted to say something but was interrupted.
“Chubby, I know what you want to say, but it’s unnecessary. Stay and help Li Yue protect Zhao Jingjing and Qiao Shirui. We can’t act recklessly now. If one of us can survive, that’s enough. I have to go; those two women seem to be leaving,” the squad leader gritted his teeth, instructing his companions, though he himself hadn’t even turned 17 yet, trying to appear calm to reassure them.
Apart from Zhao Jingjing, who was still asleep, everyone else looked at the class monitor with red eyes.
The class monitor picked up a wooden stick for self-defense and tried to comfort them with a relaxed tone, “Don’t worry, what if they’re good people? Then we’re worrying for nothing. After I leave, block the door.”
The class monitor and the chubby guy moved the things blocking the door. He didn’t dare to look back at his companions, gritted his teeth, and walked downstairs with the wooden stick in hand.
On the other side, Qin Ke had parked the RV. Chen Wan noticed the bandage on her wrist was bleeding and quickly asked, “Did the wound open?” Qin Ke shook her head and said, “It’s nothing, just minor injuries.”
“How can it be nothing? In the apocalypse, any small injury can be fatal. You should rest well in the RV for the next few days and can’t come out with me anymore,” Chen Wan advised with a frown.
Qin Ke had a faint smile on her face. It was nice to have friends who cared.
“Alright, I’ll play with Yang Yang,” Qin Ke replied.
While they were talking, Chen Wan keenly noticed someone coming out of the two-story building in the service area. She immediately raised her gun and aimed at the person, “Who are you? Stop.”
The class monitor didn’t expect the woman to pull out a gun directly, and cold sweat broke out on his body. But for the sake of his companions, he forced himself to speak, “Don’t misunderstand, I mean no harm. I’ve been hiding from zombies in this service area, and now that supplies are running low, I thought I’d come out and ask if there’s a base or safe zone nearby?”
Chen Wan and Qin Ke exchanged a glance. They didn’t take the man seriously, but it was clear neither of them believed his words.
Chen Wan lowered her gun slightly and said to the man in the distance, “Throw away your weapon and come closer to talk.”
Seeing the woman’s gun no longer pointed at him, the class monitor felt slightly relieved. But he was reluctant to throw away the wooden stick. Although it wasn’t very lethal and not as useful as a gun, it gave him some courage.
Chen Wan grew impatient with his hesitation, but considering the RV upgrade, she needed to find out if there were any other survivors in the service area. After all, in ten hours, ten trucks and a hundred cars would disappear into thin air, and Chen Wan didn’t want unrelated people to know the RV’s secret.
Chen Wan frowned, “What’s wrong? Can’t even throw away your weapon? If I wanted you dead, you’d already be a corpse.”
The class monitor gritted his teeth, thought about their dwindling supplies and Zhao Jingjing’s illness, and decisively threw down the wooden stick, walking towards Chen Wan with unsteady steps.
He had been too far away earlier, but as he got closer, Chen Wan could see clearly that this was no man, just a schoolboy, with a face full of youth and fear, clearly wary of her and Qin Ke.
“Are you a student?” Chen Wan asked again.
“I’m not, I’m already 22,” the class monitor denied loudly. In the apocalypse, he couldn’t let people know he was a student; students were easy to bully, so he couldn’t tell the truth.
Chen Wan chuckled and shook her head, sighing as she continued, “We’re not bad people. If you want information from us, at least be honest. For example, where are the others? Don’t tell me you’ve been here alone for a month; even a fool wouldn’t believe that. If you don’t have the sincerity to tell the truth, then I’m afraid we can’t help you.”
Chen Wan turned as if to leave. She wasn’t really going; she was just putting pressure on him to make him confess what needed to be confessed. She didn’t want any trouble when the RV upgraded.
