Along the way, they’d lost count of how many zombies they’d rammed or crushed. As long as the head was intact and still attached to the body, even if the lower half was gone, the upper half could still crawl.
This was the first time they’d seen anything like this.
Before, they’d only gone out on foot, aiming for the back of the skull or the neck for instant kills. They’d never created half-zombies like this.
It was both disgusting and terrifying.
Someone couldn’t help cursing: “What the hell kind of freak virus is this?”
On the major forums, medical and biology students had already fiercely debated this, arguing that based on their knowledge, such a thing couldn’t possibly exist.
Yet there it was—outside the window, downstairs, in the streets. No one could deny it.
The Route 535 terminal didn’t have many zombies.
This bus line was mainly used by commuters traveling between the development zone and the city center. The zombie outbreak had happened last Saturday, at night, so there was basically no one around.
The few zombies in the depot were probably staff on duty. They were still wearing their uniforms.
It was heartbreaking to think about—hardworking laborers who’d worked so diligently—but there was no choice. Everyone had to kill them.
There were about thirty buses in the depot, with all the keys in the dispatch office.
The Route 535 Express used a different model than regular city buses—exceptionally tall. Jiang Cheng was right; they did look particularly sturdy.
“Holy shit!” Li Jiangbing put his hands on his hips and marveled.
There was a sense of abundance, like “it’s all ours now.”
The core members huddled to discuss: “Three? Four?”
They deliberated on how many to take.
Jiang Cheng sighed: “If only we could take them all.”
Someone couldn’t help laughing: “You’re so greedy, like a little hamster—everything you see, you want to scoop into your arms.”
Jiang Cheng readily admitted to her greed: “That’s exactly how hamsters make it safely through winter.”
There was no criticism in the laughter. The interim committee’s core members—actually, by now, pretty much all committee members—had come to accept Jiang Cheng’s unique sense of urgency.
It was precisely this crisis awareness that always kept them one step ahead.
In the end, after considering all factors, they drove away four buses with full tanks.
Four tall, towering buses. None of the four drivers had experience driving anything this big—the largest any of them had driven was a seven-seater. They were running purely on nerve. The moment they sat down, it was all “holy crap, the visibility is amazing,” and then two of them scraped the pillars at the depot entrance as they pulled out.
Everyone on board winced at the sound of metal scraping against concrete.
Four big buses, plus a dozen or so small cars, formed an even larger convoy. They drove back to the youth apartment first to pick up more people.
Volunteers from the youth apartment had already gathered on Jixiang West Street, waiting for the buses to arrive. The large crowd caught the attention of residents from Jixiang Jiayuan. Someone opened a window and shouted down: “Are you guys heading out to get supplies?”
Quite a few people also came downstairs to watch, since Jixiang Jiayuan residents were also planning to head to the Fifth Ring to scavenge supplies today, and many were already gathered on the ground level.
Zhou Wang got wind of it and came over with his people to check things out. He asked: “Where’s Xiao Jiang? Where’s Xiao Song? Where are the rest of them?”
The youth apartment residents gave vague answers: “They went to get cars.”
Zhou Wang was a seasoned old fox. He could tell from the way these young people spoke that they weren’t telling the whole truth.
But their group had also held meetings all night and made plenty of arrangements for today’s operation. He assumed the youth apartment was probably doing something similar—mobilizing residents with cars, coordinating households without cars to provide people, neighbors cooperating with each other.
So he didn’t press further. There was no point chasing after answers people didn’t want to give.
But when four 535 buses came rumbling down and stopped on the main road, Zhou Wang realized he’d underestimated these young people from the youth apartment again.
The cars all drove back into the apartment’s underground garage. The four buses parked, opened their doors, and Li Jiangbing bellowed: “We’re moving out—”
The volunteers were traveling light: each had a small bag with one meal and water, some basic protection, and a weapon in hand.
The towering buses boosted morale. Everyone roared as they climbed over the vehicles blocking the intersection at Jixiang West Street, full of energy.
“Here they come, here they come!”
“Let’s go!”
“Get on!”
The people of Jixiang Jiayuan stared in disbelief: “They can do that?”
Zhou Wang watched their retreating figures and let out a sigh.
He felt like he was still too bound by the rules. Deep down, he was still following the old social norms. But now, survival was the first principle—and under that principle, you could ignore many laws, like private property and public property.
Young people really did have sharper minds.
The Jixiang Jiayuan residents envied those four big buses, and some were tempted: “Brother Zhou, maybe we could also…”
Zhou Wang checked his watch: “Too late. Let’s stick to the original plan and head out.”
Everyone was slightly disappointed.
But in last night’s news bulletin, the emergency command center had estimated the arrival times for the supply convoys at each drop point. If they were late, they’d lose out.
Though there was still plenty of time, the fear was that too many people would want to go early to stake out a spot.
Zhou Wang: “Let’s go. We need to move too.”
A long convoy of private cars rolled out from Jixiang Jiayuan’s east gate—almost every available driver they could mobilize was out.
Soon they caught up with the youth apartment’s convoy. Anyone watching would’ve thought they were one big fleet together.
But the Jixiang Jiayuan people weren’t content to always be behind the youth apartment, nor did they want the youth apartment to reach the drop point first. So one after another, the cars hit the gas and overtook the buses.
The youth apartment drivers didn’t dare overtake—mostly because they weren’t used to driving such large vehicles and feared an accident. They cursed under their breath and followed behind.
But the Jixiang Jiayuan people soon regretted it. When they were following behind, even though they could see zombies on the roadside being attracted by the noise and chasing after the vehicles, the ride still felt relatively smooth.
But once the cars overtook to the front, it was a completely different story.
Zombies lunged from the front, from the sides—smack! Cracks appeared on the windows.
The drivers cursed, “Why are there so many zombies!” while gritting their teeth and flooring it.
If they were lucky, they’d send zombies flying.
But sometimes luck ran out. Zombies felt no pain and feared no death. When there were too many, a few would get knocked away, but one careless moment could let one land on the hood. It would crawl a couple of steps and reach the windshield, grabbing onto the wipers!
Now they couldn’t see the road at all!
“Fuck!”
“Turn the wheel! Shake it off!”
People inside were screaming!
Jiang Cheng and the others were on the lead bus. With its high vantage point and clear view, they could clearly see one of the private cars ahead start swerving. After a couple of wobbles, it jumped the curb and crashed into a roadside planter.
The car flipped over. The door flew open.
A swarm of zombies surged toward it.
A second-generation zombie leaped, using the original zombies as stepping stones, and landed with a thud on the overturned car.
The zombie bent over, hung upside down, and plunged its upper body into the car.
Screams and shrieks erupted from inside.
No one came to rescue them.
There were too many zombies by the roadside, all drawn by the noise of the convoy. Quite a few second-generation zombies were among them.
Who would dare stop to help? What if only your car stopped and no one else did? You’d just be walking to your death.
A bit of neighborly affection wasn’t enough to make someone willingly sacrifice themselves.
But the cars ahead all slowed down and moved aside, clearing the inside lane.
The four big buses drove with renewed pride, taking the lead once again. Before these towering vehicles, even the zombies looked small—they charged forward and were directly knocked down and crushed, the sound of breaking bones satisfyingly crisp.
No more cars dared to overtake. They all obediently fell in line behind the youth apartment’s four buses.
Zhou Wang received a call from Jiang Cheng: “Which drop point are you heading to?”
Zhou Wang: “Wanzhuang Bridge is the closest one.”
Like Jiang Cheng, he had a map in hand, marked with circled supply drop points.
Of course, everyone would head to the drop point closest to them.
When the drop points announced yesterday were marked on the map, it became clear that they corresponded to large, densely populated residential areas. Wanzhuang Bridge, Sishui Bridge, and Liujiabu Bridge were clearly designated for the development zone.
Among them, Wanzhuang Bridge was the closest.
Going to a farther drop point didn’t make sense either—because residents from neighborhoods closer to those points would head there. Overall, the population distribution across the drop points was fairly even.
Jiang Cheng said: “We’re staying outside.”
“Good,” Zhou Wang said. “Then we’ll go inside.”
They were referring to the inner loop and outer loop of the Fifth Ring Road.
It went without saying that there would be conflicts.
The youth apartment and Jixiang Jiayuan had been in a semi-cooperative state for a week—neighbors just one street apart, with many familiar faces.
Since they’d have to compete either way, there was no point in souring relations with people they knew. With drop points on both sides of the ring road, they could split up and compete with strangers instead.
Jiang Cheng had barely hung up when someone in the bus suddenly retched. Everyone turned to look: “What’s wrong?”
The lead bus had been ramming and crushing zombies the whole way, splattering the windows with sticky, disgusting gunk. But it had been a week since the outbreak—they’d split open heads, stepped on eyeballs, hacked through necks. Their mental fortitude should have been built up by now.
Why was someone puking now?
“Eating… eating people… ugh…” the person explained between dry heaves. “Dogs… cats!… eating people… ugh!”
There were indeed many corpses along the way. In the summer heat, after a week on the road, they were already rotting, with swarms of flies buzzing around them.
Crows were pecking at them too.
But cats and dogs were different—they hit on another level entirely from crows.
Cities naturally had stray cats and dogs, and there were even more after the zombie outbreak. Some had lost their owners; others had been thrown out when their homes ran out of food.
Cats and dogs ate meat. When they couldn’t find food, they gnawed on corpses. To carnivores, a dead human was no different from a dead rat or a dead bird—just a bigger chunk of meat. It was normal.
It was just this poor guy’s bad luck that he happened to look over at the wrong moment.
Someone leaned toward the window to peer out: “Where?”
But the bus had already driven past—it was out of sight now.
Someone sat in their seat murmuring: “What kind of world is this…”
Even cats and dogs were eating people now.
Someone couldn’t help glancing at Jiang Cheng’s familiar crossbody bag, its zipper open, revealing a circle of darkness inside.
As their gaze landed on it, that patch of darkness suddenly lit up with two brilliant emerald eyes, like gemstones. Sensing the stare, it gazed back with an eerie, distant look.
The person startled and quickly looked away.
There were more and more cars on the road—clearly all residents from the development zone heading for the government’s supply drops. They were all mixed together now, private cars everywhere, impossible to tell which belonged to Jixiang Jiayuan and which to others.
But the four 535 buses stood out the most.
Some quick-thinking drivers, seeing so many private cars following the big buses, decided to follow along too.
If this were a game, the big buses were the meat shields and tanks at the front.
When the convoy finally turned onto the service road of the ring road, it was a relief—the Fifth Ring Road and the areas inside and outside it were separated by green belts, and unlike city streets, there were almost no zombies on either side. Just a scattered few, probably drivers who’d parked overnight last Saturday.
The big buses crushed them directly.
The convoy began to split. The four buses turned onto the outer service road of the ring road, while Jixiang Jiayuan’s convoy went straight under the overpass and entered the inner side.
Many drivers, watching the convoy split ahead, didn’t know which side to follow.
The once orderly convoy suddenly fell into chaos.
Leave a Reply