Everyone ate a little something as breakfast.
With the zombies all shut out, the group suddenly found themselves with nothing to do.
Shi Zuo An didn’t know where he’d dug up a toy car. It had batteries in it, but even after flipping the switch it wouldn’t move, so he found a toolbox from the security office and took it apart to study it.
Song Zi Qiao watched him dismantle and reassemble it with great interest, muttering nonstop that Shi Zuo An would absolutely be a top-tier LEGO master.
On the other side, Xia Ao was still hugging his notebook, endlessly running calculations.
“Hey! Look at this!” Jiang Si called out, having dug something else out of a corner.
Yet, aside from Chen Jian Hua, not a single person looked up at her!
“What are you guys even doing?” She marched over with a thump-thump-thump, confiscating both the toy car and the notebook, one in each hand. “I’ve made a major discovery!”
“What is it?”
What could possibly make her this excited?
“Heh heh, I found a radio in a cabinet by the security checkpoint at the main entrance!”
!
Ever since the power and internet went out, they hadn’t been able to contact the outside world at all. They had no idea how far the zombie virus had progressed.
A radio didn’t rely on the internet. As long as it still had power, they might be able to get some information!
Everything they’d been tinkering with instantly lost its appeal, and all five of them gathered around the security desk.
It was an old-fashioned radio. The whole unit was bulky, with speaker grilles on both sides that looked like fly eyes, densely covered in tiny mesh holes.
Aside from Chen Jian Hua, none of them had ever used this kind of radio. They could only watch as he flipped the switch, then tapped it here and there.
“Looks like it’s out of power.” After fiddling with it for a long time, he still couldn’t get it to turn on.
They thought about trying the toy car’s batteries, but as soon as they opened the back cover, they realized the batteries didn’t match.
“This needs a size-D battery,” Chen Jian Hua muttered.
A size-D battery?
They couldn’t think of any appliances that would still use such a large battery.
The group wracked their brains, but no one could figure out where they might find a replacement.
“How about I give it a try?” Shi Zuo An suddenly spoke up.
?
Everyone watched as he took the radio, did something they couldn’t quite see, and removed the battery compartment cover.
Then he pulled out a few materials from the security office’s toolbox.
He even grabbed a bottle of saline.
Just as they were all left utterly baffled by Shi Zuo An’s series of moves, he swiftly assembled the materials together. The moment the circuit connected, a crackling hiss of electricity came from the radio.
“Nice one, Shi Ge!” Song Zi Qiao was especially excited. “You should seriously think about it, once the apocalypse is over, go be a LEGO blogger. I’ll totally be your top supporter!”
Well, thanks so much for that.
Next came the moment everyone was extremely tense about.
The small dial was turned, and the static went on and on, until a sudden stretch of quiet, empty sound appeared.
Then a clear, steady female broadcaster’s voice came through:
“Dear people across the nation, our country is currently at a critical life-or-death juncture. We hereby remind everyone to stay indoors with doors and windows tightly shut and not go outside. The state is urgently mobilizing rescue forces and will absolutely not abandon a single person.”
It was only a short announcement, but all five of them listened with utmost attention.
Standing closest, Chen Jian Hua couldn’t help lifting his hand as if to touch the sounding speaker, but halfway up, his hand stopped and hung in the air.
“That’s great, the country hasn’t given up on us!” Song Zi Qiao shouted.
More or less, they all let out a sigh of relief.
The broadcast looped once every thirty seconds, ensuring that every citizen who intentionally or unintentionally turned on a radio could receive the message in time.
The tension in everyone’s nerves immediately eased.
Since that was the case, then they would live on properly.
“Chen Ge, we should be leaving in the next couple of days. Are you coming with us, or are you staying here?” Jiang Si asked.
“Huh? You’re leaving?” Chen Jian Hua was startled at first, but then, as if he’d thought of something, he hesitated before saying, “Uh… yeah, okay. As for me, I guess I won’t go with you.”
“I see. Alright then, Chen Ge, if you’re staying here alone, you really need to be careful.”
Chen Jian Hua nodded hurriedly.
His behavior was a little strange.
Aside from Song Zi Qiao, the other three exchanged glances, all understanding what they saw in each other’s eyes.
Jiang Si stood up first. As she left, she tapped Song Zi Qiao on the arm, signaling for him to come out with her.
“What’s going on with those two?” Chen Jian Hua was completely puzzled. How did they end up leaving in the middle of the conversation?
Shi Zuo An could only laugh it off and explain, “Just ignore the two of them. Young couples are like that, arguing one moment, making up the next.”
“Hahaha, alright. You young people don’t date like we did back then. You’re always talking about your quarrels and spats. My daughter…”
He stopped abruptly at the end.
Seeing that he didn’t continue, the others respected the boundaries of adulthood and didn’t press him further.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Jiang Si and Song Zi Qiao.
“Why’d you knock me?” Song Zi Qiao asked, eyes wide, looking utterly innocent.
Jiang Si was speechless. She reached out and covered his big eyes a bit, then asked, “This morning, you said that when you woke up, you didn’t see Chen Jian Hua?”
“Yeah!” Having just been bombarded by everyone earlier, he was holding in a bellyful of resentment, his gaze full of grievance. “I really didn’t see him! And he said he went to the bathroom, but I was in the bathroom at the time, and I didn’t see him at all!!!”
“Shh, shh, shh—”
His voice was too loud, and Jiang Si hurriedly gestured for him to lower it.
She tilted her head and looked toward where they’d been earlier. Shi Zuo An and the others were pulling Chen Jian Hua aside, apparently talking about something.
Only after confirming that they hadn’t noticed them did Jiang Si let out a breath.
“Did you notice anything else unusual?” she continued in a low voice.
Anything else unusual?
That hit right on Song Zi Qiao’s sore spot.
“After I used the bathroom this morning, I was going to sleep a bit more. Then when I turned my head, I saw a completely white figure flash past outside the glass window!”
“It was kind of like that super-poisonous mushroom, rounded and conical on top, and a bit thinner below.”
Jiang Si looked around, thinking.
White?
Her gaze fell on the white seat-back cover Chen Jian Hua had brought back from the dining car yesterday.
A suspicion formed in her mind.
She told Song Zi Qiao to behave and not talk to Chen Jian Hua, so as not to let him realize they were already suspicious.
Then, after the other three finished talking, she naturally went to Xia Ao, told him about it, and had him pass the message on to Shi Zuo An.
“Just as I thought. I felt something was off about how easily he came with us,” Shi Zuo An replied, his hands never stopping their work.
He was once again fiddling with the toolbox and some small gadgets whose purpose no one could quite tell.
Jiang Si took the other two back to the chairs to play cards, while Xia Ao sat beside them with his notebook.
“I’m planning to go take a look tonight,” Xia Ao said.
There were definitely things still hidden in the train that they didn’t know about. Going during the day would be too conspicuous, it would be best to wait until late at night.
“When?” Shi Zuo An asked without even lifting his head, dismantling something with a screwdriver.
“Hmm… we’ll put him on the first watch tonight. Once it’s time to смена, we’ll head out and take a look… can you keep your eyes closed for two hours without falling asleep?”
Xia Ao looked at him skeptically, only to receive an eye roll in return.
“No need to worry. I’m not at the age where I can’t stay up late yet.”
Xia Ao snorted softly. He opened the notebook beside him, the one he’d last left half-worked, and was just about to resume his scribbling when he felt something sharp poke his arm.
?
He turned his head and saw Shi Zuo An carefully prodding him with the screwdriver in his hand.
“What are you doing?”
“Tsk, you’re so heartless.” Shi Zuo An scrunched up his features, as if genuinely hurt by his cold tone, but dropped the act the next second. “See that speaker? Help me take it down.”
He pointed with his little finger to a speaker near the ceiling, whose fate looked precarious.
“What do you want that for?” It was way too high, there was no way to reach it.
Xia Ao was just about to refuse.
“Can’t you tell? I’m making a bomb.”
Shi Zuo An: innocent eyes.jpg
Xia Ao…
“You really know how to make a bomb?” Xia Ao asked in disbelief, even standing up and bending over to look at the electronic components spread out on the table.
The scattered bits and pieces made his head spin.
He watched Shi Zuo An twist a length of copper wire, no idea where he’d salvaged it from, into a braided spiral, utterly baffled.
Feeling Xia Ao’s stare, Shi Zuo An shivered. “Didn’t I tell you before? I make bombs.”
“You said it so casually, I thought you were joking…”
“Huh? You’re the only one who’d think I was joking!” Shi Zuo An puffed out his cheeks and planted his hands on his hips.
…There was no way it was only him.
One hundred percent, everyone except Shi Zuo An thought so.
But Xia Ao wasn’t going to say it out loud.
There was no way he was going to be the only one to suffer the embarrassment and ridicule.
So he smoothly changed the subject. “You want me to help you take down the speaker, what are you going to use it for?”
Shi Zuo An lifted the model in his hand. “When I was messing with the radio over there just now, it suddenly occurred to me that we don’t need to leave someone behind every time to lure the zombies. It’s too much trouble.”
“I can make a few fairly simple small bombs and noise-makers. That way, one, we can set off a chain of loud sounds like dominoes, and two, in a critical moment, we can use them to drive the zombies back.”
“Noise-makers are easy to make, but this kind needs heating wire. I want you to dismantle the speaker and get a few heating wires for me.”
He said it with complete confidence.
The speaker was mounted less than half a meter from the ceiling.
And the ceiling itself was at least six meters above the ground, the height of two stories.
“You’re overestimating me a bit.”
“Only with expectations do you have the motivation to try.”
…Idiot.
In the end, Xia Ao still found the sturdiest-looking suitcase and climbed up to the second-floor platform.
The general layout of the waiting hall was like this: after entering on the first floor, you faced the escalators and the first-floor seating, the platform at the top of the escalators was where the second-floor waiting hall was.
The second floor was at least one-third smaller in area than the first.
And the speaker Shi Zuo An had his eye on was mounted on the vertical wall that extended straight up from the platform.
All the other easily reachable speakers had already been taken down, but every time Xia Ao asked if that was enough, Shi Zuo An said it wasn’t.
What a never-satisfied man.
With no other choice, Xia Ao huffed and puffed as he hauled the suitcase full of heavy stuff up to the second floor, a police fork he’d “borrowed” from the security office in his hand.
He laid the suitcase flat under his feet, climbed onto it, and braced himself against the wall with one hand.
With the other hand, he raised the police fork and jabbed at the speaker on the wall.
Anyway, all Shi Zuo An wanted was the heating wire inside, there was no need to leave the speaker intact.
The tip of the fork struck the connection point, bang!, and the speaker fell to the first-floor ground, shattering into pieces.
The noise was enormous, it probably even cracked the tiled floor.
“Holy crap, Xia Ao, what are you doing?!” Song Zi Qiao cautiously poked his head out from below the platform, but, worried that the free-fall show wasn’t over yet, he took one look and hurriedly pulled back. “You scared the hell out of me!”
Quiet, he was busy making a certain stargazing someone happy.