It wasn’t that Chen Wan was acting impulsively. The side where she had just thrown the silly sunflower was now silent. That thing must have been trampled by the zombies. Suddenly, the empty supermarket was filled with ear-piercing DJ music. Chen Wan had never heard it before; it must be a popular song from Planet R2.
She didn’t linger any longer and quickly jumped from the shelf to the ground, frantically running towards the passage leading to the garage on the other side. The zombies were piled up in the west passage where she had thrown the silly toy, so the east passage was clear of zombies.
Chen Wan didn’t dare to waste any time and quickly walked towards the truck. At the same time, she scanned the cars around her, grabbed the handle of the narrow knife in her hand, and smashed the glass of the nearby driver’s seat, opening the car door.
The special forces training she had undergone included dealing with such emergencies. Even without a key, Chen Wan knew how to start a car. The sound of her smashing the glass wasn’t small, but fortunately, the zombies were already attracted by the deafening music inside the supermarket. Only a few zombies noticed her, and the noise she made was brief, not as loud as the music inside the supermarket.
Chen Wan calmed herself, connected the wires in the car, and started the engine, pressing the gas pedal until the front of the car gently touched the truck’s body.
This noise was a bit loud, but fortunately, the low-level zombies had limited intelligence and were all attracted by the sound from the supermarket. They wouldn’t react immediately. Chen Wan didn’t dare to relax and quickly moved three more cars close to the truck.
Just as the last car approached the truck, the mechanical voice in Chen Wan’s mind sounded again: “The basic equipment for synthesizing the RV is ready. Starting the fusion process now, estimated time: 5 hours. Executing system command.”
As soon as the system issued the command, a distinct barrier formed around the truck, the four cars, and everything nearby. Chen Wan tried to move forward but found she couldn’t enter the barrier.
The system noticed Chen Wan’s confusion and explained, “During the first vehicle fusion, a protective barrier will form around the vehicles. This won’t happen in future upgrades. The host can wait inside the RV for the upgrade to complete.”
Chen Wan felt a bit relieved after hearing the system’s explanation, but before she could relax, she heard faint, chaotic footsteps from the entrances on both the east and west sides. Her heart tightened. The noise she made starting the vehicles must have attracted them. She quickly retreated a bit and hid beside a private car, quietly observing the zombies’ movements.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, about a dozen zombies slowly walked towards the source of the engine noise. Unable to find the source, they began to wander aimlessly in the garage. Fortunately, there weren’t many of them, so Chen Wan decided to wait and see.
She was indeed exhausted, sitting quietly on the ground to rest. The high tension of the entire night had left her utterly fatigued. Coupled with her weak body, the shoulder that the male zombie had grabbed earlier was still aching. But Chen Wan didn’t dare to relax. She needed to stay highly alert for the next five hours.
Meanwhile, even Jiang Yanxin and Chen Yang on the fourth floor heard the commotion downstairs. The building was already empty, and the sudden, ear-piercing music was like a beast’s roar, breaking the silence. Not only were the zombies in the garage attracted to the supermarket, but the zombies throughout the building were also heading towards the supermarket.
Jiang Yanxin’s heart was pounding. There were only three of them in the entire building. She knew the noise downstairs was caused by Chen Wan. Tightening her grip on the axe, she hoped Chen Wan would come back to take her and the baby away, but she also couldn’t help but doubt if Chen Wan would go back to Zhang Qiang and betray her again. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time Chen Wan had done that.
But deep down, she felt that the current Chen Wan was different from the one before. Countless thoughts piled up in Jiang Yanxin’s mind. She gripped the axe tightly, feeling that she couldn’t just sit and wait. She needed to give herself and her child a chance to survive.
With that in mind, Jiang Yanxin packed some food and water from the floor into her coat, using it as a makeshift backpack. She then whispered to her child, “Yang Yang, let’s find a safer place while the noise outside is loud.”
The child looked puzzled. Mommy had just told them to wait here. She voiced her confusion, “Mom, didn’t Mommy tell us to wait here?” Jiang Yanxin gently patted her daughter’s head, feeling a bit sorrowful. In a world with order, her adorable daughter would be treated like a little princess, crying, laughing, and occasionally throwing tantrums. But now, her daughter was so sensible, it made her heart ache.
This kind of life had just begun. Jiang Yanxin didn’t know when it would end or when she and her daughter might disappear silently in this apocalypse. But she couldn’t afford to hesitate now. She needed to find a safe place on this floor to hide. That way, if Chen Wan came back with Zhang Qiang’s people, she wouldn’t be caught off guard.
And if she hid somewhere else on this floor, she wouldn’t miss Chen Wan if she really came back to take her and the child away.
With that in mind, Jiang Yanxin softly explained to her child, “It’s not very safe here. Let’s find a safer place to wait for your mommy to come back.”
The little one obediently nodded, and Jiang Yanxin gathered their belongings, leading the child towards the door. When they reached the store’s entrance, Jiang Yanxin carefully moved the chair aside, trying not to make any noise.
Having survived in the apocalypse for a few months, she knew that zombies were sensitive to sound. Given the loud noises downstairs, the zombies on this floor should have already been drawn down.
Jiang Yanxin quickly picked up the child and headed towards a grilled fish restaurant diagonally opposite the snack shop. She cautiously knocked on the glass door to make a slight noise, then nervously took a few steps back, holding the child’s hand. The shop was eerily silent.
Breathing a slight sigh of relief, Jiang Yanxin tied the makeshift bundle from her jacket around her waist, gripped the axe tightly in one hand, and gently pushed open the door of the grilled fish restaurant. Afraid of bumping into the child, she held the child in her arms and carefully closed the door behind her as she walked inside.
Fortunately, even after reaching the window at the very back, there was still no movement inside the shop. Jiang Yanxin instructed the child to sit quietly in the open space by the window, then returned to the entrance to barricade it with a few chairs.
Just as she finished securing the door, she hurriedly grabbed the axe and turned to find the child, only to see a crooked shadow limping towards her.
Jiang Yanxin bit her lip to stifle a scream. The zombie’s neck was half-severed, with part of the spine still intact, leaving the head hanging at a bizarre angle. Its left leg was heavily decayed, emitting a foul stench.
She warned herself to stay calm; if something happened to her, there would be no one to take care of the child. Recalling how Chen Wan had fought zombies earlier, she shakily raised the axe with both hands.
The zombie moved slowly, and Jiang Yanxin broke out in a cold sweat. She felt that if she didn’t act soon, she might lose the courage to hold the axe. Gritting her teeth, she charged at the zombie with the axe.
Using all her strength, she swung the axe at the zombie’s half-severed spine. Unfortunately, the blow didn’t completely sever the spine.
The foul-smelling, short zombie reached out its decayed arm towards Jiang Yanxin. She took a deep breath, yanked the axe out of the zombie’s spine, and, following the previous wound, frantically hacked at the spine again. After three more strikes, the zombie’s head rolled to the ground, splattering Jiang Yanxin’s face with foul-smelling blood.
Her strength gave out, and she collapsed to the ground. This was her first time killing a zombie since the apocalypse began. Previously, she and Chen Wan had survived by hiding. Jiang Yanxin looked at her hands in disbelief. Even as an Omega, she had managed to kill a zombie.
Whether it was the joy of surviving or the realization that she could actively fight back instead of waiting to die, tears streamed down Jiang Yanxin’s face. But she knew now wasn’t the time to cry; she couldn’t cry because she and her daughter had no one else to rely on. She was her daughter’s only support.
Jiang Yanxin quickly wiped the blood off her face with her jacket, despite the nauseating smell. There was no time to be picky. She cleaned the blood off the axe and used the nearby tables and chairs to stand up. Her legs were still weak.
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Yanxin continued to check the shop to ensure it was completely safe. When she returned to the child’s side, there were no more zombies in the shop. The previous zombie must have been too slow to follow the noise downstairs and had encountered her instead.
The child cautiously called out, “Mommy~” Jiang Yanxin, reeking of decay, didn’t dare to hug the child. She just patted the child’s head and covered them with a small blanket. “Sleep now, Mommy’s here. Everything will be fine when you wake up.”
The child looked at her mother with concern but said nothing. She wanted to ask what they would do if Mommy didn’t come back, but seeing her mother’s exhausted face, she decided not to. As long as she could be with her mother, it was enough.
~~~
It was unclear how much time had passed when the DJ music on the radio outside abruptly stopped.
“System, how much time has passed?”
“Two and a half hours have passed. The RV fusion will take another two and a half hours,” the system’s mechanical voice replied.
Chen Wan furrowed her brows, analyzing calmly. The two new batteries shouldn’t have run out so quickly. The most likely scenario was that the zombies had somehow damaged the radio hanging from the ventilation shaft.
As Chen Wan suspected, the zombies, lacking intelligence, had all swarmed towards the supermarket upon hearing the noise. The zombies at the back pushed forward, ignoring those in front. The ones in front fell, and the ones behind climbed over them, forming a pile that eventually reached the radio.
