“Zhou Rong!!” he screamed hoarsely. “Zhou Rong—!” After turning through several blocks, Si Nan stopped at the intersection, catching his breath and looking around.
Hospital, school, traffic booth, street garden… Zombies wandered in small groups, dragging their feet, limping, emitting dull, unclear roars.
Si Nan’s gaze gradually sank into despair, then suddenly froze like spotting a lifeline— Not far ahead, behind a machine at the gas station, a large SUV was partially visible, its blue and white paint showing. Si Nan involuntarily took two steps forward, then stopped again. Through the gaps in the gas pump, he saw the car door open, and a tall driver in a hood got out, retrieved some compressed biscuits and water from the trunk, then returned to the driver’s seat. Si Nan’s fever-addled brain was like being doused with ice—that wasn’t Zhou Rong.
Once the heat subsided, his well-trained nerves instinctively tensed: Reason reminded him to immediately conceal himself, maintain tracking, and observe the situation; but the extreme hunger made him hesitate, very much wanting to go over and… steal some food. He had never been this hungry before. Si Nan swallowed slightly.
Chapter 41
Reality didn’t give Shen Nan many chances to hesitate. A few seconds later, the SUV slowly started and drove out of the gas station.
Cold wind swept through the desolate streets. The bus stations, supermarkets, and schools were empty. Garbage and plastic bags chased each other in the dust, then were trampled by zombies.
The SUV passed through a residential area. In the side mirror, the trees on the wall suddenly moved imperceptibly.
“Still following,” Abal spoke.
This time, the female Alpha also noticed the movement: “Could there be many people?”
She turned back to look at her superior. In the back seat, Romuel finally stopped wiping his short knife: “Only one.”
Without looking up, he said: “Slow down and set up a checkpoint ahead to see who it is.”
His heart was beating rapidly in his chest. Shen Nan was breathing heavily, feeling cold sweat flowing down his temples. Should he give up?
Or try to circle to the front of the car and take a chance by asking for help?
Shen Nan’s strong vigilance instinct made him less inclined to the latter, but he had already chased for half a day, and the massive energy expenditure made him reluctant to give up directly. Just as he was at a loss, the SUV suddenly turned into a lane full of bungalows.
There’s a chance.
Noah dashed two steps, leaped over the wall onto the treetops, then used momentum to jump onto the rooftop, quickly shuttling across the connected flat roofs like a light and agile feline, silently stopping at the edge of the eaves.
The SUV was parked in front of a residential house, with the driver getting out and opening the trunk, carrying half a box of mineral water into the house, appearing as if this was their temporary base.
Noah lay on the roof eaves, looking down at the contents of the trunk, suddenly stunned — so many supplies! Stacked boxes of compressed biscuits and meat cans, dried fruits and vegetables, high-protein foods, various energy drinks, cold-resistant clothing and blankets, fire-starting and power generation equipment…
Noah swallowed, carefully observing the surrounding environment, quickly designing an approach and escape route. Silently thinking: I’ll just steal one can. Just one can, enough to sustain me until I reach the suburban helicopter airport alive.
After making up his mind, Noah silently leaped down from the eaves, like a vigilant snow leopard, landing without making a sound, then approaching the trunk, reaching out for a luncheon meat can.
Just then, his nerves tightened, and he suddenly turned his head. The knife tip grazed past his cheek! Noah spun around and was momentarily stunned when he caught sight of the attacker’s face: a strong white female Alpha with quite an attractive face.
But the moment he glimpsed this female Alpha, alarm bells rang in his mind, with an inexplicable and disgusting feeling rising from deep within, as if he had seen her somewhere before.
The female Alpha was also stunned, instinctively asking in English: “You, how did you…”
In that fraction of a second of her daze, Noah decisively withdrew and retreated several meters away.
“Stop!” the female Alpha shouted, and the previously massive driver came rushing out of the house, firing a gun!
Noah yelled, “I just wanted something to eat!” Before his words finished, he rolled on the ground, dodging the consecutive bullets, and hearing the female Alpha bark something at the driver before both began to chase him.
Noah blocked the driver’s flying kick with his arm, instantly pushed back several steps, bending like a willow to dodge the female Alpha’s thrown short knife. The knife spun and embedded deeply into the wall, Noah again dodging the driver’s mountain-splitting strike, pulling out the short knife and leaping onto the wall.
The female Alpha shouted something in English, and Noah instantly understood: “Switch to tranquilizer darts!”
Noah’s eyebrow twitched, jumping from the wall’s top, grabbing the eaves, feeling a numbness at his ankle.
The tranquilizer dart brushed past his skin.
Damn!
Noah cursed internally, biting his tongue hard as paralysis approached, staggering a few steps along the eaves before discovering another person ahead.
It was a white male, around thirty-something, standing up from the roof tiles.
Noah had no time to ponder the other’s strange expression and slow movements. He just wanted to escape these Alphas, preferring to return to the zombie horde rather than approaching these people again.
“…Noah,” Romuald called softly.
Noah rushed toward the eaves, but Romuald blocked him, and in that moment, Noah seemed to teleport in place. Romuald couldn’t see his movement, just feeling a breeze slide under his arm.
—This speed could only be described as ethereal, Romuald thought.
Familiar lightness he had witnessed countless times before.
Romuald’s eyes narrowed, delivering a lightning-fast sweeping leg, forcing Noah to dodge and counter, reaching out to grab his neck—
At the same moment, Noah seemed inspired, grabbing Romuald’s arm and spinning close.
Romuald instantly realized his intention and subtly paused.
The next second, the knife edge pressed against his throat, Noah hiding behind him, facing the approaching female Alpha and driver, shouting: “Stop!”
Both halted, exchanging glances with Romuald, the air becoming tense.
Romuald slightly shook his head, stopping his two subordinates: “Noah.”
“…” Noah held the knife in reverse, pressing it to Romuald’s throat, forcing him to retreat step by step, “Who are you?”
“You can’t escape,” Romuald said.
Noah repeatedly closed and opened his eyes, forcing himself to stay conscious amid increasing dizziness.
“You can’t escape,” Romuald repeated, this time as if speaking to himself.
Noah’s knife edge pressed tightly against his throat, hoarsely asking: “Shut up! Who are you? Why are you here?”
Romuald said: “Your temperature is very high… you’re running a fever.”
The roof tiles suddenly shattered, Noah’s foot twisting, his leg completely numbed by the tranquilizer dart, barely supporting his body weight, staggering in extreme dizziness.
Si Nan slightly loosened his grip on Rommel’s hand, seemingly wanting to use the last bit of strength to escape alone. However, he greatly overestimated his resistance to anesthetics, and within seconds he staggered and knelt down. Before his knees could touch the ground, he was embraced by a pair of hands stretching from the side.
Immediately after, his body sank.
Under the drug’s effect, he finally briefly fell into a sleep without hunger, regret, or disappointment.
