There were several routes displayed on the navigation screen. Besides the expressway, there was also an old provincial road. It was a bit of a detour, but it showed clear traffic.
Su Nian turned the steering wheel, squeezed out from the emergency lane, and headed toward the provincial road.
From the back seat, Xingxing asked softly, “Mom, aren’t we waiting in line anymore?”
Forcing a smile, she replied, “No. We’re taking a different road.”
After reaching the entrance to the provincial road, Su Nian decided to return Lu Chen’s call.
After all… they had once loved each other.
But after several attempts, there was still no signal.
She couldn’t afford to waste any more time, so she kept driving.
There weren’t many vehicles on the provincial road, but the farther she drove, the more something felt wrong.
Su Nian noticed that the traffic wasn’t thinning because it was getting late. It was because the vehicles had all stopped along the roadside.
Some had their doors hanging open. Some had crashed into trees. One had overturned into a roadside ditch, its four wheels still spinning slowly.
Xingxing leaned against the window, peering outside.
“Don’t look. Sit properly,” Su Nian said.
Xingxing obediently pulled back, but a few seconds later, he couldn’t resist sneaking another glance.
“Mom, there’s a hand inside that car.”
Su Nian’s heart skipped a beat, but she calmly answered, “That’s just a glove. Don’t stare.”
She pressed harder on the accelerator, picking up speed.
There were things moving in the fields beside the road as well. In the distance, several dark figures shuffled through the crops. Their movements were strange, bent at the waist as though searching for something.
Su Nian didn’t dare look any longer. Her eyes remained fixed firmly on the road ahead.
There was still no signal on her phone, and even the GPS had stopped loading. She pulled out the paper map she had printed long ago.
Shuixi Village was still a long way off. There was no chance of arriving before nightfall.
A gust of wind squeezed through the crack in the window, carrying a sickeningly sweet scent of decay. Su Nian rolled the window shut, but the smell still seemed to force its way into her nose.
Xingxing wrinkled his nose.
“Mom, it stinks.”
“Someone’s burning garbage outside. It’ll be gone soon.”
She didn’t want her son to know that it was the smell of corpses.
A bend appeared ahead, and Su Nian slowed down.
As soon as she rounded the corner, she saw someone lying in the middle of the road.
No, not lying.
They were facedown, completely motionless, their clothes stained with dark patches that had spread into a large pool beneath them.
Gripping the steering wheel tightly, Su Nian steered around the body.
As she passed, the figure’s fingers twitched.
Every muscle in her body tensed. She didn’t dare look again and floored the accelerator.
From the back seat, Xingxing asked, “What’s wrong with that person?”
“I don’t know,” Su Nian replied. “Maybe they drank too much.”
She realized she had already begun lying to her son instinctively, hiding the truth about this world from him for as long as she possibly could.
About forty minutes later, a gas station appeared ahead. Su Nian glanced at the fuel gauge. There was still half a tank left, enough to keep driving for quite a while.
She didn’t need to stop, but Xingxing clearly couldn’t hold it any longer.
She pulled over on the roadside outside the station instead of driving in.
The convenience store at the gas station was still lit, its door standing open, but there wasn’t a single person inside. Merchandise was scattered across the floor as though someone had ransacked the place in a hurry.
After hesitating for a moment, Su Nian decided not to go in.
She let Xingxing relieve himself beside the truck while she stood nearby, keeping her eyes fixed on the gas station.
The wind drifted over from that direction, carrying the smell of gasoline mixed with something else she couldn’t identify. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t pleasant.
After Xingxing finished, Su Nian took out a pack of wet wipes and cleaned his hands.
The little boy looked up at her.
“Mom, when will we get there?”
“Soon. We’ll arrive tomorrow.”
Xingxing pouted.
“How much longer is tomorrow?”
“You’ll be there after one night’s sleep.”
She knew it would take much longer than that, but she didn’t want to disappoint him.
Once they were back on the road, darkness began to fall.
Su Nian switched on the headlights, and two yellow beams illuminated the road ahead.
The shadows of the trees slid backward on both sides of the road. Occasionally, startled birds burst out of the woods, only to flap back into the darkness after being caught in the headlights.
A village came into view.
Several houses stood scattered along both sides of the road. Many had shattered windows, leaving black, hollow openings.
In front of one house lay a dark, shapeless mass that was impossible to identify from a distance.
Su Nian accelerated, eager to get through the village as quickly as possible.
As she passed one of the houses, a light suddenly flashed from a second floor window.
Su Nian froze.
Was it a flashlight?
Or something else?
She couldn’t be sure, but she had definitely seen a brief flash, as though someone was inside.
She neither slowed down nor stopped.
At a time like this, seeing another person was even more frightening than seeing a Zombie.
Only after the truck left the village did Su Nian finally let out a sigh of relief.
Xingxing had already fallen asleep in the back seat, hugging his teddy bear with his mouth slightly open.
Su Nian switched off the interior light so he could sleep more peacefully in the darkness.
The road became increasingly narrow, and the surface grew rough and full of potholes.
The pickup truck bounced violently over the uneven ground. Su Nian avoided the larger potholes whenever she could, but when there was no way around them, she could only crawl over them slowly.
In his sleep, Xingxing frowned, rolled over, mumbled something unintelligible, and drifted back into deep sleep.
Su Nian kept her eyes fixed on the road ahead, every nerve in her body stretched tight.
She hadn’t slept for a very long time. Her temples throbbed, and her eyes began to burn with fatigue.
She needed to find somewhere to rest, but spending the night inside the truck was far too dangerous.
According to the map, there was an abandoned factory five kilometers ahead.
Su Nian couldn’t remember whether she had passed it in her previous life, but she had no other choice now.
Not long afterward, her headlights caught sight of something moving on the road ahead.
She slowed down and squinted into the darkness.
It was a human shaped figure, bent over and pacing back and forth in the middle of the road.
A Zombie.
Su Nian gradually brought the truck to a stop about thirty meters away.
It seemed to sense something and turned around.
The headlights illuminated its face.
Its skin was ash gray. One eyeball hung outside its socket. Its lips were gone, exposing blackened gums.
It charged toward the truck.
Su Nian shifted into reverse and backed up hard.
The Zombie wasn’t very fast, but she had no intention of hitting it. She had no idea what kind of damage it might do to the truck.
She reversed several dozen meters, yet the creature kept coming. It wasn’t quick, but it never stopped following.
Su Nian glanced at the map.
There was still some distance left before reaching the factory.
Gritting her teeth, she shifted back into drive and slammed the accelerator to the floor.
The truck roared straight toward the Zombie.
The creature didn’t dodge. It lunged directly at her.
At the very last second, Su Nian jerked the steering wheel. The front of the truck scraped past the Zombie’s body, and one of the headlights shattered with a sharp crack.
In the rearview mirror, she watched the Zombie get knocked to the ground. It rolled over twice before climbing back to its feet.
Su Nian’s heart pounded wildly. It took several deep breaths before she finally calmed herself.
Xingxing hadn’t woken up. He was still sleeping peacefully in the back seat.
The factory had finally come into view.
Calling it a factory was generous. It was really just a few dilapidated brick buildings surrounding a courtyard, with the iron gate hanging half open.
Su Nian drove inside, parked in a corner, and switched off the lights.
Darkness swallowed everything around her.
She remained seated in the driver’s seat, listening intently for any sounds outside.
From somewhere in the distance came scattered growls, impossible to tell whether they belonged to people, beasts, or something else entirely.
She took a blanket out of her 200-square-meter storage space and tucked it securely around Xingxing in the back seat.
The little boy slept soundly, completely unaware of how dangerous the night truly was.
Leaning back against the driver’s seat, Su Nian closed her eyes.
She couldn’t allow herself to fall into a deep sleep.
Just a short rest, she told herself.
Her thoughts began spinning once again.
Lu Chen’s phone call.
Shuixi Village.
The supplies inside her storage space.
Xingxing’s safety.
One thought after another flickered through her mind like scenes in a lantern show.
She had no idea how much time had passed when a loud crash echoed in the distance.
Su Nian’s eyes snapped open.
The sound was close. She looked out through the window.
Outside the factory, something was moving.
It wasn’t the beam of a flashlight.
It was a torch, its orange flames flickering against the darkness.
Someone had arrived.