Traveling on a Cloudy Day
“There are ten rounds in all. That’s as many as you’re getting.”
Fu Bin sneered. “Take them if you want them. If not, get lost. What, do you expect me to deliver them to you?”
He lifted his chin, swaggering. He’d said it deliberately for Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi to hear as they stood in the doorway, and to put Liu Dong in his place.
This was Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi’s first trip outside with Liu Dong. As usual, Liu Dong had asked the camp for supplies, and things were already off to a bad start. It wasn’t a good omen.
The camp had a little over twenty people. As an awakened, Li Liang was at the heart of the group. He stayed at the base to oversee its security and held all the decision-making power. Fu Bin, Li Liang’s right-hand thug, had been given considerable authority.
The camp wasn’t far from town. Liu Dong had once said that the remote mountains might be even more dangerous than the city.
From the text, Jiang Ziyao knew they wouldn’t be in this city for long. Sooner or later, they’d have to pass through the toll station and leave. With no idea what dangers lay ahead, he wanted to secure food and shelter first.
With no firearms available, Huo Chi picked out an axe from among the metal tools. He’d found the dagger too small and awkward, so he’d gone for something bigger.
“Brother Jiang, look at me! How do I look? Am I giving you Saw vibes?” He slung the axe over his shoulder and struck a pose for Jiang Ziyao.
Before the peacock could even spread his tail, he was mocked. “Are you getting in the car now, or should I set up a runway for you first?”
Liu Dong bent over to organize the tools, then slammed the trunk shut. He’d also brought three large backpacks. His voice was icy, as unnerving as when he’d first pointed a knife at them.
Jiang Ziyao understood Liu Dong’s stern attitude. He was a longtime member of the camp, but got no special treatment. The way he and Fu Bin were at each other’s throats made it clear he wasn’t in a good position. If they didn’t find supplies this time, none of them would come out of it well.
Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi still had a way out, but Liu Dong had to look after Liu Xiaobei. His son was an obvious weak point others could exploit.
Huo Chi pursed his lips and whispered in Jiang Ziyao’s ear, “Sometimes he talks like a real young guy. He’s got a knack for putting people down.”
Jiang Ziyao asked, “Is he that old?”
Huo Chi shrugged. “Tch… His face is all dried out, his skin’s terrible, he’s got a ton of wrinkles and a thick black stubble on his chin. He’s always so blunt, and he’s got a kid. Would you still call him young?”
Jiang Ziyao didn’t comment on his assessment. He only gave a meaningful hum.
Huo Chi watched as Jiang Ziyao silently turned and leaned against the car, the corners of his eyes lifted, chin tilted slightly upward. The wind tousled his hair, giving him a bold, striking air.
Huo Chi stared. Jiang Ziyao was much fairer than him, with none of the roughness of a big, burly man. Back in college, when he played basketball under the sun, he’d only worked up a light sweat and seemed completely unaffected by the UV rays.
Jiang Ziyao’s dark eyes were bright, but his smile was wicked. This wasn’t good.
Sure enough, Liu Dong suddenly appeared behind Huo Chi and barked, “What are you standing around for? Get in!”
Jiang Ziyao had been waiting to laugh at Huo Chi all along!
Huo Chi was a little embarrassed, but accepted defeat. He gave a dry laugh. “Right away, right away…”
Liu Dong let out an impatient snort. “Quit dragging your feet.”
Huo Chi wasn’t sure if he’d heard them. Feeling guilty, he avoided meeting Liu Dong’s eyes and changed the subject. “Do you have a detailed map? How do we get there? Let me take a look.”
Liu Dong put the map in Huo Chi’s hands without expression. “What good will looking at it do? The car can’t take the main roads. Unless you want to walk there and serve yourself up as takeout.”
Huo Chi clicked his tongue. “See? I told you he talks like a young guy.”
Liu Dong didn’t look at him again. He turned and walked off, passing Jiang Ziyao on his way to the car. As he went by, his arm brushed Jiang Ziyao’s.
A moment later, something cold lay in Jiang Ziyao’s palm. A pistol! He said nothing, only looked at Liu Dong in surprise.
“Five rounds. Don’t use them unless there’s no other choice.” Liu Dong got into the car after saying this.
Jiang Ziyao immediately tucked the gun behind his waist. They were wearing reasonably clean clothes from who knew where, but the fit was off, and his ankle was exposed.
They were heading to Nanpu District. Liu Dong had reached Huayu District on his last trip, and Nanpu District lay just beyond it. There was a hidden path into the city. Liu Dong said they’d lost five people securing it.
This time they parked closer to their destination, bypassing the supermarket they’d visited before, and got out.
The quickest way into Nanpu District was through a park plaza. Liu Dong said there hadn’t been many walkers in that direction when he scouted it two days ago, so things should go smoothly if nothing went wrong.
But the sky was overcast, dim and sunless. It was the kind of weather they liked.
Liu Dong held his gun in both hands. The park entrance and the area nearest it were empty, just as he’d seen before. Only a few rotten bones and scraps of flesh remained on the ground.
Once they crossed the activity center directly ahead, they’d reach Nanpu Street.
The activity center looked spotless at a glance. That meant it was safe, which couldn’t have been better.
They couldn’t linger out in the open for long. Liu Dong gave the order. “We’re going in.”
They were armed and on guard when Jiang Ziyao suddenly said, “Wait.”
Both men looked at him. Jiang Ziyao felt uneasy. “Something doesn’t feel right. There’s a lot of debris on the ground. It’s obvious a large number of walkers have been through here, so why can’t we see a single one?”
Liu Dong replied, “Those scraps of cloth are military uniforms. That means someone with decent firepower cleared the place out. Nothing strange about that. It’s good for us.”
“Is it?” Jiang Ziyao hesitated. He moved slowly. That damn text hadn’t appeared, but the blood in the air still made him nauseous, and he could hear a mass of low growls. The trouble was, there wasn’t a single walker in sight. Was he imagining it?
Distracted, Jiang Ziyao accidentally bumped into Liu Dong’s back. He jolted, nearly shot by Liu Dong, who had a quick trigger finger.
Liu Dong glared at him. “Pay attention.”
He raised his gun, furious. “Listen. I know you two have some skills, but I’m not wasting time on anyone. If either of you gets trapped or causes trouble, I’ll put a bullet in you. Understand?”
Huo Chi said, “We’ve been through life and death together. That’s a pretty heartless thing to say.”
Liu Dong scoffed. He meant it. He turned and climbed the steps. Suddenly curious, Jiang Ziyao called after him, “Have you ever killed anyone?”
“Living survivors.”
“Yes,” Liu Dong said. “I have.”
“How many?”
Liu Dong didn’t give him a precise answer. “Living people aren’t much better than walkers. You two should understand that.”
Jiang Ziyao asked something else. “Then why did you save us back then?”
Liu Dong answered bluntly. “As long as someone’s alive, they can be useful.”
Jiang Ziyao had no more questions. When survival grew harder, people killing each other was only to be expected. But just a few days ago, he and Huo Chi had been the top class representatives in their year, model students, enjoying a hot-pot feast on their government scholarships.
They’d spent twenty years learning to adapt, but there had always been a divide between them and this world. He was Jiang Ziyao of the year 3901. That wouldn’t change.
He thought the Jiang Ziyao who had survived two years of the apocalypse would probably be much like Liu Dong, absolutely cold and wary when it came to survival.
“Focus. Don’t make me remind you again.” Liu Dong hunched as he moved forward, more cautious this time. He refused to overlook a single corner. The eaves, the walls, the roof. Only after checking everything did he step inside.
But the air right in front of them split open in a clear, shimmering line, like a burst water bubble scattering tiny droplets.
Jiang Ziyao immediately sensed danger. He realized what that rippling veil of water had been.
The thing clinging to the surface of the air vanished at once.
[Text: Gene sequence 88, Barrier.]
[Functional type.]
[Gene rank: low-tier.]
Thunder rumbled across the sky, right on cue. The walkers’ growls finally reached Jiang Ziyao’s ears, clear and loud. Everywhere he looked, there were heads, all turning in unison toward the living.
They’d been right under the walkers’ noses all along.
“Run!” Liu Dong’s shout was swallowed by the thunder. Lightning flashed before their eyes, its white glare striking the pale, twisted heads. They saw the hall packed with walkers. Hundreds? They couldn’t count. Like ants, like a swarm in a hive, they charged at them in grotesque, animal-like postures, scrambling over one another.
The air reeked of rot, but the walkers had an uncanny sense of smell. No matter how fast they ran, they couldn’t shake the cannibals pursuing them.
Liu Dong shouted, “West! Follow me!”
They couldn’t run around like headless chickens. When he’d planned to cross this area, Liu Dong had paid attention to the layout. There was a small door on each side, east and west. He took a gamble. By the time the three of them reached the door, their hearts were in their throats.
“Damn it!” Liu Dong cursed. The door was bolted from the inside. He rammed it with his shoulder, only to be thrown back by his own momentum.
Huo Chi kicked it, but it wouldn’t budge. He tried chopping it with the axe, but that was useless too.
The walkers came straight after them. The ability an awakened had set up earlier was meant to trap them in the hall, but they’d accidentally destroyed it.
Liu Dong fired twice. He hit the heads of the first two walkers with perfect accuracy, but two bullets were nowhere near enough to stop the horde.
They had eight rounds left, an axe, and a dagger. Oh…and a shovel too. But against the horde, their odds of surviving a fight were zero. They’d be torn to pieces.
The situation took a sudden turn for the worse. They tried to flee in another direction, but the walkers had already caught up.
“Huo Chi!” Jiang Ziyao shouted.
Huo Chi reacted instantly, swinging his axe at a walker’s head. Fortunately, walkers weren’t as fast as normal people. The longer they’d been turned without feeding, the more sluggish their bodies became. His axe struck, then stuck halfway through the skull.
No one had told him a walker’s flesh was like swamp mud. Its face split in two, its eyeball squeezed out and got crushed underfoot. Huo Chi broke into a cold sweat, quickly kicked the walker away, and swung again, this time chopping cleanly into its neck.
What was it like, hacking at flesh again and again? They said spraying blood could get a person’s adrenaline going. Huo Chi’s mind was a tangled mess. He kept one eye on Jiang Ziyao and hacked wildly, unable even to shout.
The walkers kept closing in, their jostling heads making him dizzy. They gaped, ready to bite off a chunk of flesh if he slipped up. To stay alive, he had to pierce their brains. That was what Jiang Ziyao thought as he drove the dagger into a walker’s skull. He didn’t use the gun.
They couldn’t make a single mistake. If they were knocked down, one wrong move and they’d be swarmed and eaten. They couldn’t turn back or stop running. So this was what killing walkers was like. Once you crossed that line, you could get used to it surprisingly fast.
They ran while keeping an eye on their surroundings. It seemed fate wasn’t set on killing them after all.
“There’s an iron gate!”
The sight was a relief. Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi hadn’t slowed down once. They’d even left Liu Dong behind. Jiang Ziyao swore it felt like he’d run his thousand-meter fitness test at the speed of a fifty-meter dash.
The iron gate at the corner was about one and a half meters high. They grabbed the bars and scrambled over quickly.
Liu Dong was a step behind. A walker had already grabbed his foot, but Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi pulled him up in time, hauling him over by hand.
He immediately checked his leg and confirmed there were no wounds.
The walkers crowded around and slammed against the iron gate, making it clatter. Jiang Ziyao felt relieved. At least the walkers couldn’t climb over gates yet. They crowded against it, some crushed underneath the others like a human hamburger, reaching out and growling.
Huo Chi had calmed down. He swung his axe once more, his face flushed, the muscles in his hands twitching.
Jiang Ziyao asked, “You okay?”
“I’m okay.”
After his panic passed, Huo Chi braced his hands on his knees and managed a smile. “This is ridiculous. Even as walkers, they’re still competing. The ones at the front were running like marathoners. Too bad they chased fast and died fast.”
Liu Dong gasped for breath beside them, still on edge. “The gate’s lock is rusted. It won’t hold for long. Hurry up and see if there’s another way out.”
Compared to the other two, Jiang Ziyao’s heartbeat was steady, as if he’d just taken a casual stroll.
Liu Dong looked at Jiang Ziyao and had to admit he was getting old.
But Jiang Ziyao knew the truth. Gene awakening had changed him. Besides the new ability, it seemed to have strengthened his body too.
They were in a garbage dump. There were a few walkers here, but they’d been trapped under the rubbish and couldn’t get out.
The dump happened to be built right against the wall of Nanpu District.
“It’s a bit of a detour, but it won’t affect our plans. Let’s climb over.” Jiang Ziyao picked up a box from the ground, stepped onto it, and climbed over the wall with ease.
The wall was about two meters high. There were too many walkers on Nanpu District’s commercial streets, but the residential area was relatively safe. A few figures wandered below, but they didn’t pose much of a threat.
Jiang Ziyao stood atop the wall and looked ahead. The wind immediately tousled his hair, blowing sand into the strands and irritating him.
Huo Chi put an arm around his shoulders. “Brother Jiang, if we get the chance, we should find some hats too.”