Zhou Rong looked at his blood-stained yet handsome and cold face, finding it hard to comprehend.
When he first came in, he had actively leaned close to whisper in his ear, cried out upon seeing him in the pit, and was furiously angry when Zhang Yingjie’s body was snatched away. Now, Si Nan had suddenly returned to their first meeting state in T City – distant, cold, and even wary, maintaining a distance of over ten meters at all times.
It seemed that after experiencing life and death, all his vivid and intense emotions had instantly vanished, retreating back into an invisible, cold shell.
Sinan’s wariness towards an Alpha made Zhou Rong develop some unpleasant guesses but he was unwilling to dwell on them. He took a deep breath: “Comrade Sinan, it will take at least two hours to get from here to the entrance. You’re alone and unarmed…”
Sinan reached out his hand: “Give me.”
Zhou Rong angrily pointed at his nose: “Just stop right there! Don’t you trust your own comrade?!”
“Won’t give?” Sinan said coldly, turning to leave.
Zhou Rong unloaded his Uzi submachine gun, pulling out the keys to the old biochemical vehicle: “Come here!”
Sinan was uncompromising: “Throw it.”
Time passed second by second, and Sinan’s attitude was as unshakeable as ice. Zhou Rong pondered for a moment, completely out of options, and could only throw the car keys and submachine gun through the iron bars.
He thought for a moment and, still worried, instructed: “The base’s drainage system is complex. There might be zombie gorillas near Area E. Wait here. I’ll go up to get a signal flare. If you encounter danger, immediately…”
Before he could finish, Sinan picked up the car keys and assault rifle, turning to walk away. Zhou Rong’s anger choked in his throat: “Hey! Where are you going?!”
Sinan didn’t look back, saying flatly: “Meet at the fertilizer factory.”
Zhou Rong listened as the footsteps in the tunnel grew more distant, finally exhaling weakly.
The distance between people is indeed like this – endless pursuit only leads to more urgent and vigilant retreat from the other party. He thought this self-mockingly, turning to walk back the way he came, when he suddenly sniffed, sensing a strange odor.
The sewers’ long-accumulated stench was rich and far-reaching, mixed with rusted iron gates and moldy walls. But in this indiscriminate bombardment, where Sinan had just stood, there was a faint, indescribable presence.
He couldn’t describe what it was, only feeling a slight tremor in his heart.
But his footsteps paused, then were overwhelmed by the sewers’ aggressive odors.
“Rong Ge!” Chun Cao’s voice came from afar: “Where are you? Are you okay? Where’s Sinan?”
Chun Cao couldn’t wait and came down to look. Zhou Rong came back to his senses, coughing: “I’m fine… I’m here, come help.”
Zhou Rong and Chun Cao worked together to carry Zhang Yingjie up. Sinan had jumped out of the sewer early, so Zhang Yingjie’s body wasn’t too damaged, only his eyes were wide open. Zhou Rong wanted to help close them but couldn’t.
Ding Shi said that people who die with open eyes have unfinished business. So Zhou Rong squatted down, looking at Zhang Yingjie, murmuring: “Yingjie, Yan Hao survived, everyone survived. We’re preparing to take the materials and antibodies to the South China Sea.”
After the mission, we’ll steal a helicopter, go to the Northeast to pick up your wife and children to the shelter. As long as I have a bite to eat, your wife and children will have a bite. As long as I’m breathing, your wife and children will have good days…” After saying this, he reached out and Zhang Yingjie’s wide-open eyes slowly closed.
They came in with seven people joking around, but now only four were standing, one was unconscious, and one would never wake up again. Zhou Rong and the others first returned to the central area and then went up, encountering several zombie waves on the way. But Yan Hao and the others brought plenty of additional ammunition, and several sweeps with machine guns and grenades cleared everything out.
They reached the surface half an hour earlier than expected. Zhou Rong saw the armored vehicle and said, “Hey, you guys are something else. You could even drive this up?”
Guo Weixiang said: “We blasted through several doors to get to the surface. We were originally planning to go back and steal a helicopter, but then we got caught by zombies.”
“So this is a case of human greed. You should have just waited at the original location. But you guys can really run, from the South District all the way to the North. It’s a loss for our country’s track and field team that you weren’t sent to the Olympics…”
Zhou Rong laughed, tried the mortar on his shoulder, then tossed it back into the vehicle’s trunk and slammed the door shut.
“Let’s go!”
The armored vehicle turned around, roaring across the base’s parking lot, smashing through the roadblock with a loud bang, and speeding directly south.
At six in the morning, the sky was dim, gray and hazy over the blood-red land. Zhou Rong circled around outside the wire fence, and ahead was the sewer entrance they had entered the base through. The old biochemical car they came in was still parked on the roadside.
A silhouette leaned against the car door.
Sinan looked like he was waiting for sunrise or simply resting. The dried blood on his profile had been washed away. Dressed in all black, his face was starkly white, and as the armored vehicle passed by, he made eye contact with Zhou Rong through the window.
Zhou Rong looked down at him from above, his gaze mixed with scrutiny. Then Sinan’s figure was left far behind.
In the rearview mirror, Sinan got into the car, and the biochemical vehicle slowly drove onto the main road.
Two cars were less than two hundred meters apart, closely following each other. Zhou Rong could see the shadow of the car behind him every time he looked up.
As the daylight gradually brightened, Zhou Rong stopped at large supermarkets and gas stations along the way to search for supplies and replenish food and water. Si Nan slept in the driver’s seat.
Zhou Rong rummaged through the messy shelves, mixing batteries, salt, soap, paperclips, and other miscellaneous items into a cardboard box. He casually kicked a stumbling zombie onto its back as he carried it out of the supermarket.
He took out some anti-inflammatory medication and threw it to Ding Shi, gesturing to give it to Yan Hao. Zhou Rong noticed Chun Cao standing by the window of the biochemical vehicle, stretching her neck to talk to Si Nan.
Feeling uncomfortable, he stood there pondering for a while. He returned to the supermarket, shot a few zombies, and pulled out several bags of preserved fruits, stuffing them into his jacket.
“Daughter!” Zhou Rong shouted between the two vehicles, holding up and shaking the preserved fruits.
Chun Cao looked up and said with disgust, “So sweet! Who wants to eat this!”
Zhou Rong clearly saw Si Nan’s throat move, as if swallowing saliva.
“Forget it,” Zhou Rong said disappointedly, keeping the preserved fruits and walking away.
They stopped seven or eight times along the way, raiding more than ten supermarkets within the third ring road, carrying out over a ton of rice, flour, oil, and dozens of boxes of daily necessities – a truly remarkable harvest.
Yan Hao’s condition neither worsened nor improved, remaining unconscious with a slight fever in the evening. Zhou Rong wanted to raid a hospital pharmacy, but public hospitals were zombie hotspots. With only four full combat-capable members, including Si Nan who might slack off, they lacked the ability to tackle a public hospital.
