Su Nian jolted upright from the driver’s seat, her hand already reaching for the machete.
Dawn had broken. She looked out through the windshield.
The iron gate was still locked, wrapped with three layers of wire.
The sound came from outside the factory. Headlights swept through the gap in the gate, flashed once, and disappeared.
The engine noise grew fainter and fainter.
It was just passing by.
Su Nian leaned back against the seat, her heartbeat still racing, her palms drenched in sweat.
She stared at the gate for a while longer, but no other sounds came from outside.
Xingxing was still asleep in the back seat, the blanket kicked off to one side. Su Nian reached over and tucked it back around him.
She got out of the car and stretched her stiff shoulders. The pool of blood from the night before had already dried.
Su Nian glanced at it once and quickly looked away.
From her 200-square-meter storage space, she took out two bottles of water and a few steamed buns, then gently woke Xingxing and told him to eat a few bites first.
The little boy was still half asleep. After taking two bites of a bun, he tilted his head and tried to fall asleep again. Su Nian did not urge him. She carried him to the front passenger seat, fastened his seat belt, then checked the tires and fuel tank one more time.
Taking a pair of pliers from her storage space, she cut the wire wrapped around the iron gate, pushed it open, started the car, and got back on the road.
The road grew narrower, and the trees on both sides became denser. Su Nian drove slowly, her eyes fixed on the road ahead.
A gentle slope appeared in front of her. She pressed the accelerator and drove uphill. The moment she reached the top, she saw something in the middle of the road.
It was a human-shaped figure crouching on the ground with its back facing her, chewing on something. Hearing the car, it suddenly turned around.
Half of its face had rotted away. One eyeball hung from its socket, and blackish-red stains covered the area around its mouth. The moment it saw the car, it dropped what it was holding and charged toward her.
“Damn it,” Su Nian cursed, slamming the accelerator to the floor.
The car lurched forward and slammed into the Zombie with a heavy thud, sending it flying.
In the rearview mirror, she saw it climb back to its feet and chase after the car for a few steps before being left behind.
Xingxing was jolted awake and rubbed his eyes.
“Mom, what happened?”
“Nothing. We ran over a big rock.”
Before she could finish speaking, several dark figures appeared on both sides of the road ahead. More Zombies. Drawn by the sound of the engine, they all raised their heads in unison.
Su Nian tightened her grip on the steering wheel and did not slow down.
The nearest one lunged straight at the car. She yanked the wheel sharply, and the front bumper scraped past the Zombie’s body. Its rotting hand slapped against the passenger-side window, leaving a filthy smear.
Another Zombie charged from the side and slammed into the rear door with a dull bang.
Xingxing cried out.
“Get down. Don’t look up,” Su Nian said.
He immediately ducked down.
The car burst through that stretch of road. In the rearview mirror, Su Nian could still see the Zombies chasing after them. After several hundred meters, the dark figures finally grew smaller and smaller.
Only then did she let out a breath.
Her palms were soaked with sweat. She glanced at the fuel gauge. There was still a little less than half a tank left.
Scattered Zombies appeared along the roadside, crouched beside corpses and feeding on them. She did her best to steer around them. When there was no way around, she simply accelerated and charged through.
After driving for more than an hour, the Zombies finally disappeared.
But then two figures appeared by the roadside ahead.
Su Nian slowed down.
It was a woman holding the hand of a young girl. The woman looked to be in her early forties, wearing a gray jacket, her hair a tangled mess. The girl was around thirteen or fourteen, with a high ponytail that had mostly come loose.
They stood in the middle of the road, waving frantically at Su Nian’s car.
Xingxing pressed himself against the window and looked outside.
“Mom, that big sister…”
Su Nian said nothing.
She reduced the speed to a crawl, but she did not stop.
The woman ran over and slapped the car window, her eyes red as she shouted desperately. The girl stayed by the roadside, not daring to come closer, watching anxiously.
Su Nian gripped the steering wheel tightly.
She knew she should not stop. In the Apocalypse, you could not let strangers into your car so easily. She had learned that lesson in her previous life.
Who knew whether they were truly in trouble, or whether this was a trap?
With Xingxing beside her, she could not afford to gamble.
The car rolled past the woman. She chased after it for a few steps, then collapsed to her knees and broke down in tears.
Su Nian suddenly thought of herself and Xingxing in her previous life. If someone had helped them back then, would things have been different?
In the rearview mirror, she saw the woman kneeling on the road while the girl clung tightly to her mother.
Su Nian stepped on the brakes.
From her storage space, she took out ten bottles of mineral water, five bags of bread, three packs of compressed biscuits, and a military shovel. She packed everything into a bag, lowered the car window, placed the bag on the ground, drove forward for more than ten meters, and stopped.
In the rearview mirror, she saw the woman run over and pick up the bag. After opening it and taking one look inside, the woman looked toward Su Nian’s car and bowed repeatedly in gratitude.
Su Nian did not wait. She pressed the accelerator and drove away.
Xingxing asked, “Mom, why was that big sister’s mom crying?”
“Their car ran out of fuel,” Su Nian replied.
Xingxing gave a small “oh” and asked no more questions.
Su Nian rolled up the window, forced herself to forget the scene she had just witnessed, and focused on the road ahead.
According to the map, Shuixi Village was still more than an hour away.
But the road conditions were getting worse.
Abandoned vehicles began appearing along the roadside, some overturned, others blocking the road entirely. Su Nian had to weave left and right, and sometimes squeeze along the shoulder to get past.
More Zombies appeared as well, wandering in small groups across the road.
She tried not to attract their attention. When she could not avoid them, she accelerated and charged through. Several times the car scraped past their bodies, leaving filthy streaks across the doors and splattering the windows.
When she reached a small rise, Su Nian stopped the car.
She had found the real problem.
The road ahead was completely blocked.
A large horde of Zombies, at least several dozen of them, crowded the road and surrounded a pile of something they were feeding on. It looked like an overturned van. Around it were several burned-out car wrecks, with faint smoke still rising from them.
The entire road was packed solid, and even the shoulder was blocked by debris.
A few of the Zombies seemed to hear the noise and turned to look in her direction.
Su Nian did not hesitate. She reversed the car and stopped around a bend. Then she shut off the engine.
In the distance, the Zombies growled and snarled.
There was no other road.
The map showed only this one route.
She watched the horde for more than ten minutes, but there was no sign that they would disperse.
Su Nian made a decision.
She turned off the engine, got out, opened the rear door, and lifted Xingxing out of the car.
The little boy rubbed his eyes and asked drowsily, “Are we there yet?”
“Almost. We’re going to walk from here,” Su Nian said.
She fastened the military shovel and the machete at her waist, then took out a thick jacket and helped Xingxing put it on.
Standing on the ground, Xingxing looked up at her.
“Mom, are we leaving the car behind?”
“No! Mom will put it away,” Su Nian said, tapping his nose gently. “We’ll walk the rest of the way.”
She secured Xingxing to her back with a carrier, and the little boy wrapped his arms around her neck.
Su Nian glanced once toward the horde. They had not followed.
Then she turned and slipped into the forest.
She planned to circle through the woods and bypass the blocked section of road.
The forest was dark. The ground was covered with dead leaves and muddy rot, making every step difficult. Branches scratched her arms and face from time to time, but she ignored the stinging pain and kept moving forward.
Xingxing lay quietly against her back. He would occasionally lift his head to look around, then rest it again.
After about twenty minutes, Su Nian stopped to catch her breath.
The provincial road was no longer visible.
In the distance came the cries of Zombies, neither too close nor too far away.
She shifted Xingxing higher on her back and continued forward.
After only a few more steps, she stopped abruptly.
The wind in the forest had died.
Even the insects had fallen silent.
Everything was deathly still.
Then she smelled it.
The sweet, rotten stench of decaying flesh mixed with the sharp scent of blood, seeping into her nose.
The bushes ahead were shaking.
Something was moving inside them.
About ten meters away.
A dark figure emerged from behind a tree trunk, and the hoarse growling grew closer and closer.
Su Nian’s hand found the machete at her waist, and she tightened her grip around the handle.
Xingxing was still asleep, completely unaware of what was happening.
The thing stopped.
The forest fell silent again.
Su Nian knew it was sniffing, searching for her.
She had no way out now.
All she could do was wait for it to make the first move.