When the woman saw the gun in Luke Li’s hand, her body visibly stiffened.
She instinctively took half a step back and held the child even tighter.
She was clearly afraid Luke Li might be someone with bad intentions.
“I won’t hurt you.” Luke Li pointed the muzzle down and opened his left hand for her to see.
“What happened to your car?”
The woman looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with short brown hair and freckles on her face.
Her voice, however, was terribly hoarse.
“We got a flat tire, and the spare in the car is flat too.
That damn used car dealer…
My husband works in Atlanta, and I can’t get through to him.
I was trying to take my daughter south, but…”
Her voice began to shake.
Clearly, the trip had not gone well.
Luke Li interrupted her.
“Can you drive stick?”
The woman froze.
“What?”
“Never mind.
Doesn’t matter.” He glanced both ways down the highway.
It was empty.
“Get in my truck.
I’ll take you part of the way.”
The woman stared at him for two seconds.
The buff above her head changed.
[Fear] was still there, but beside it, a faint [Trust – Tentative] slowly lit up.
She did not have many choices.
Either she took a ride from this strange man, or she stayed on the highway and waited.
Sooner or later, those things would find her.
“My name is Sarah,” she said.
“This is my daughter, Emma.”
“Luke Li.
Just call me Luke.
Get in.
Don’t waste time.”
Sarah climbed into the back seat of the pickup with Emma in her arms.
Luke Li pushed the boxes of medicine aside to make room for them.
They got back on the road.
He brought the speed up to fifty miles per hour.
Sarah stayed quiet in the back seat for a few minutes before she finally could not hold back anymore.
“Do you know what’s really happening out there?
The news said it was riots, but on the road, I saw…
those people…
The way they walked was wrong.
One of them had a huge hole in his neck, and he was still walking…”
Her voice grew smaller and smaller.
“I know,” Luke Li said.
“What are they?”
Luke Li was silent for a moment.
“The dead.
They die, then they get back up.
If you get bitten, you’ll be infected.
Once you’re infected, you’ll become one of them.
The only way to kill them is to destroy the head.”
In the rearview mirror, Sarah’s face had gone paper white.
But the [On the Brink of Collapse] above her head actually faded a little.
In its place appeared [Shock], along with a new [Acceptance – Initial].
Sometimes, no matter how cruel the truth was, it was still easier to handle than fear of the unknown.
At least now she knew what the enemy was.
The pickup continued north.
The scenery on both sides of the highway gradually changed from farmland to scattered suburbs.
Gas stations, fast food restaurants, motels.
Some had doors and windows tightly shut, while others had entrances hanging wide open.
There was not a living person in sight.
When they passed the parking lot of a small shopping center, Luke Li stepped on the brake.
There were walkers in the parking lot.
He counted them.
Seven.
They were scattered across the lot, wandering aimlessly.
Three of them were gathered around an overturned car, heads lowered as they gnawed at something.
Luke Li did not want to see what they were eating.
Probably some unlucky bastard.
“Get down,” he said quietly to the back seat.
Sarah immediately pressed Emma’s head down, and both of them ducked below the seats.
The pickup rolled past at low speed.
Luke Li kept it at fifteen miles per hour, minimizing engine noise as much as possible.
The seven walkers did not react.
Their attention was fixed on whatever was beside the car, and they did not raise their heads.
They passed through safely.
Luke Li let out a breath, but his hands stayed tight on the steering wheel.
Seven walkers, and this was only the suburbs.
Once they reached the outskirts of Atlanta, the density would increase by dozens or even a hundred times.
He had to find the next safe spot before dark.
After another twenty minutes of driving, the road conditions began to worsen.
There were more and more abandoned vehicles, some blocking the middle of the road.
Luke Li had to get out several times to push obstacles aside or drive around them on the shoulder.
Every time he got out, he carried the fire axe and kept scanning his surroundings.
Around three in the afternoon, as the pickup passed a sign that read “Jesup 12 Miles,” a group of people appeared on the road ahead.
Living people.
Five or six of them stood in the middle of the road, waving in his direction.
Luke Li slowed down and raised the binoculars for a closer look.
Three men and two women, all in rough shape.
One man held a shotgun, and another carried a baseball bat.
He looked above their heads.
[Fear], [Exhaustion], [Anxiety].
A normal combination of survivor emotions.
No red.
No Hostility.
But one man standing at the back had a buff over his head that made Luke Li’s heart tighten.
[Bitten – Left Forearm].
Dark red, slowly flashing.
[Infected].
Dark red, steady.
The man had a strip of cloth wrapped around his left arm, with blood seeping through it.
He leaned against an abandoned car, his face gray-white and his forehead covered in sweat.
The others still did not know he was infected?
Luke Li’s hand hovered above the steering wheel as the pickup rolled forward at idle.
Should he stop and tell them?
Or just drive past?
He glanced at Sarah and Emma in the rearview mirror.
Then he stopped the truck.
When Luke Li got out, he tucked the Glock 17 into his waistband and carried the fire axe in his hand.
The five survivors watched him approach, each with a different expression.
The man with the shotgun lowered the muzzle slightly.
Luke Li swept his gaze over their buffs.
Shotgun Man: thick beard, sturdy build, [Alert], [Exhaustion].
Baseball Bat Man: tall and thin, wearing glasses, [Fear], [Anxiety].
Short-haired Woman: jeans, cold expression, [Alert], [Anger – Suppressed].
Heavy-set Woman: red, swollen eyes, [Fear], [Sadness].
Last was the man leaning against the abandoned car.
Twenty-five or twenty-six, curly-haired, wearing a sweatshirt, his face gray with a bluish tint.
The cloth wrapped around his left forearm was already soaked through with blood, dark red spreading into his sleeve.
[Bitten – Left Forearm]
[Infected]
[Fever]
[Pain]
Four buffs stacked together, like a damn lottery jackpot.
The other four were clean, with no signs of infection at all.
The shotgun man spoke first, his voice rough and hoarse, carrying a Southern accent.
“You alone?”
“There’s a woman and a kid in the back seat.” Luke Li did not hide it.
Hiding it would only create distrust.
The shotgun man glanced toward the pickup and nodded.
“I’m Danny.
This is my wife, Karen…” He pointed at the short-haired woman.
“That’s Tommy, Linda, and Matt.”
Matt was the one who had been bitten.
“We came from Waycross,” Danny continued, his voice growing lower.
“It’s all gone to hell over there.
Those…
things are everywhere.
Our car hit a guardrail up ahead and got totaled.
We’ve been walking for two full hours.”
He looked at Luke Li’s pickup, something struggling in his eyes.
“Can your truck take us?
Even if it’s just to the nearest town.”