The planned route mostly followed the city outskirts, with roads that were not particularly smooth.
Zombies were everywhere—more densely packed in bustling cities, while the situation in suburban wilderness areas was slightly better.
Tang Yun steered the wheel, noticing Lu Chuan sleeping restlessly in the passenger seat, jolting awake whenever the car bumped.
Seeing him open his eyes in confusion, Tang Yun felt a momentary daze.
Memories of youthful, restless fragments surged against the tide of time, overlapping with his now mature and handsome face.
Ahead, wandering zombies loomed. The car swerved, roaring past as it crashed through a roadblock with a thunderous sound, continuing straight along the original path.
Lu Chuan was fully awakened, seeing the car pass through the suburban residential area with many zombies nearby.
“Hold on, we’re breaking through.” Tang Yun frowned slightly, her gaze fixed ahead as a dozen or so zombies stumbled and crowded onto the road.
More and more zombies in the residential area were drawn by the sound of the car, staggering and lunging forward.
Fifty meters, thirty meters—closer and closer!
Her hands on the wheel remained steady. Spotting a fork in the road ahead, she took a deep breath, turned the car sharply, and the vehicle nearly crashed into a stationery shop at the street corner.
With a “thud,” Lu Chuan was jolted back and forth by the inertia in the passenger seat. He gritted his teeth against the dull pain, casting a heavy glance at Tang Yun.
Her driving skills were terrible!
Zombies stumbled in pursuit behind the car, gathering in greater numbers, their terrifying appearances sending shivers down the spine.
“Faster!” Lu Chuan couldn’t help but urge.
Tang Yun pressed the accelerator and replied, “Residential areas near the city are too dangerous, Dr. Lu.”
Lu Chuan took her phone. “Hmm, I’ll check the route again and try to detour. But this way, it’ll take us much longer to reach G Town.”
Detouring repeatedly consumed multiple times the usual travel time.
After a moment’s thought, Tang Yun made a decision. “Detour it is. Along the way, we’ll also need to look for opportunities to check the fuel tanks of abandoned vehicles by the roadside and siphon their gas for use.”
She calmed down completely. G Town was a must, and Safe Haven No. 3 in City A had to be reached. Everything had to be accomplished within 30 days, or she was finished!
Late autumn grew colder by the day.
Tang Yun tried to stick to less populated areas, passing towns and villages mostly reduced to ruins.
Cold winds howled, and distant fields were dotted with moving figures—mindless zombies driven solely by their instinct to devour flesh and blood.
“Lu Chuan, let’s find a place to rest,” Tang Yun said, keeping her eyes on the road. “Preferably a defensible building. Being surrounded by zombies in the wild is too dangerous.”
With the phone turned on, Lu Chuan scrolled through the map. “Nine kilometers straight ahead, there’s an abandoned rural elementary school. Maybe we can check it out.”
“Alright.”
Before reaching the school, they could see from a distance that the paint on the gate walls had peeled off, and weeds on both sides of the road stood over a meter tall.
With fewer children attending school in the surrounding villages—some having transferred to schools in town—this rural elementary school had been abandoned.
Tang Yun parked the car by the wall. A large lock hung on the gate, and through the overgrown weeds, the playground in front of the teaching building was still visible.
“No need to break the lock. We’ll climb over.” The top of the wall was embedded with sharp glass shards. She took out a climbing rope, tied a knot, and hooked it onto the iron gate, using it to pull herself up.
Entering the elementary school, the three-story teaching building had most of its windows shattered, with overgrown vegetation engulfing the first-floor classrooms.
The two of them went up to the third floor, found the teachers’ office, entered, and locked the door. Inside was empty, not even a single desk remained.
Tang Yun brought out the tent and took two blankets—there were no quilts, so they would have to endure the cold and make do for the night.
With the doors and windows locked, both were light sleepers, easily awakened by the slightest noise around them. Therefore, neither needed to keep watch during the first half of the night; they only needed to guard the latter half.
But the problem arose: there was only one tent.
At nine in the evening, with no lights, a single candle flickered inside the room, while moonlight streamed in from outside.
“Tangtang, mind if I smoke a cigarette?” The pressure had been immense, and now that it had suddenly eased, Lu Chuan felt an itch, an inexplicable craving stirring within him.
Tang Yun bent down and entered the tent, leaning against one side as she sat down, her tone indifferent. “Suit yourself.”
“Heh.” Lu Chuan chuckled softly, took out a cigarette, and walked to the window. He pulled it open slightly, letting in a cool breeze.
The cigarette remained unlit, merely twirled between his fingers as if the motion itself could soothe some unspoken emotion.
After a while, Tang Yun spoke up. “Dr. Lu, tell me about yourself.”
“What?” Lu Chuan tilted his head slightly, glancing over from the window.
She took out her notebook, clicked the pen tip with a soft “snap,” and lifted her chin slightly, uttering just one word. “You.”
“What is there to tell about me? After graduation, I entered the hospital and became a doctor.”
Tang Yun wrote in her notebook while speaking. “I remember, after the Hundred-Day Pledge Ceremony, you filled out T City University on the volunteer wall at the back of the classroom. How did you later—”
“What exactly do you want to hear from me?” Lu Chuan finally lit the cigarette.
Tang Yun finished recording the day’s events in her notebook, then lay down, resting her head on her hands.
“Anything.”
He stubbed out the cigarette, turned around, and walked to the front of the tent, his voice low. “After the college entrance exams, some things happened at home.”
Tang Yun patted the empty space on the other side of the tent, speaking without much emotion. “I see. Let’s sleep now. I set an alarm to keep watch during the latter half of the night.”
…
“Tang Yun, Tang Yun.” Lu Chuan gently shook her shoulder.
Tang Yun woke up and looked into his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“There are footsteps.” He whispered the reminder before extinguishing the candle flame.
Tang Yun quickly stepped out of the tent, stored all their supplies into her space, and cautiously pressed herself against the door near the window, listening for any movement outside.
Judging by the rhythm of the footsteps, it wasn’t zombies—there were at least two or three people.
She surveyed the surroundings, quickly devising a plan for counter-ambush and retreat.
The window was made of transparent glass. As the footsteps drew closer, she caught a glimpse of the ambushers’ faces.
There were two men and one woman—the men were burly, the woman had short hair, and her face was quite attractive. But in an instant, alarm bells rang in her mind. These three figures looked somewhat familiar, as if she had seen them somewhere before.
“Little girl, don’t be nervous. We just saw the candlelight and came over to say hello.”
“We’re all survivors. Are you heading to Safe Haven No. 3 as well?”
“The road isn’t safe. Why don’t we travel together at dawn? There’s safety in numbers. There are too many zombies along the way.”
The people opposite smiled, trying to strike up a conversation with Tang Yun.
She lifted her eyelids, her amber-like pupils calmly watching them.