Chapter 66: Pa.s.sing by A Small Town
Translator: Law Editor: Hitesh_
Lin Qiao didn’t know if Xie Dong was nearby, but she had no time to look for him even if she did. However, she wasn’t worried, because she had told him to go straight South earlier on, so they might run into each other at some point.
She drove the car in the direction that Xie Dong had mentioned before.
Earlier on, she had turned the car around on the broken bridge to take another path under Xie Dong’s guidance. But, now that Xie Dong wasn’t with her, she had no choice but to take out the map and study it.
There was a small town nearby, so she needed to take a detour of at least thirty miles to get on the highway which led to the South through another entrance.
Guided by the road sign, she drove toward the small town.
Half an hour later, she finally found the entrance to the town. The closer they got to the town, the more zombies she saw walking on the road. Those zombies were all attracted by the car once they heard the noise it made; they could even sense Wu Yueling’s aroma from the car.
However, they didn’t dare to approach, because the car was surrounded by Lin Qiao’s vibe.
After half an hour of driving, Wu Yueling had calmed down. Her body was no longer straightened, but was huddled in the seat as she gazed at the scenery which was moving backward outside the window.
The little gray rabbit curled up on her lap quietly, letting her brush the fur on its back slowly with her fingers.
Lin Qiao drove into the small town. While driving, she was also reading the road signs and the map which was spread on the steering wheel by her.
After a few turns, she arrived at the central area of the town, which used to be the busiest part of this small town. The streets, buildings, and parks in this area all remained recognizable.
According to the map, after pa.s.sing through this area, she would see another road in the front; after driving seven or eight miles on that road, she would be able to enter the highway which she was on before through a branch nearby.
While driving, Lin Qiao’s ears twitched suddenly as she seemed to hear something from the housing estate not far ahead. When the car was getting closer and closer to that area, Lin Qiao began to sense some thoughts brokenly.
‘So hungry…Hungry…Food…There’s food…’
‘In here…Food…So hungry…’
‘So hungry…So hungry…Hungry…Delicious…So delicious…’
Lin Qiao knew that these simple and repet.i.tive pieces of information were coming from some zombies’ instinctive thoughts the moment she heard them. But, what made her feel strange was that she had sensed a lot of similar thoughts from that direction. However, these thoughts seemed to come from a large number of zombies instead of just one.
‘Hungry…Eat…Want to eat…Hungry…’
‘Food…Here…Here…Food…Hungry…’
As Lin Qiao was trying to figure something out, she suddenly sensed a different thought which was mixed among the zombie thoughts.
“Roar!”
‘p.i.s.s off! Get away from me! p.i.s.s off!’
An angry roar was heard from a distance away, made Lin Qiao stop out of curiosity.
She could sense the emotion contained in that voice, which was that of extreme anger and anxiousness. The anger she could understand, but why was the voice’s owner so anxious? And, that voice seemed to come from a zombie as well, but it was meant for the other zombies.
Lin Qiao felt more and more curious. Apart from the voice, she also sensed a strange vibe.
She turned to look at Wu Yueling, then decided to go and take a look… because that vibe she sensed belonged to a human being.
She turned the car around, then drove toward where those thoughts and that voice came from.
Once she drove into the gate of the housing estate, she saw a large group of ordinary zombies. They had crowded around the entrance of a small building, seeming to want to swarm in, but were stopped by something.
‘Eat…Eat…Eat…’
‘Want to eat…Want…Food…Smells good…’
‘Smells nice…Hungry…Eat…’
‘Food…in there…Food…Food…’
Once near here, Lin Qiao began to receive more information which gave her a headache.
She parked the car aside, then turned to Wu Yueling. Wu Yueling had already begun to feel nervous as she saw so many zombies. Seeing that Lin Qiao had turned to her, she stared at her as well.
Lin Qiao wanted to unfasten the seatbelt for her, but this move startled the kid.
She grabbed Lin Qiao’s hands tightly, trying to stop her from unfastening the seat belt. Meanwhile, she pressed her lips together and raised her head to look at Lin Qiao with a pair of slightly red, widely opened begging eyes. She was afraid that Lin Qiao might throw her into that crowd of zombies after unfastening the seat belt.
Lin Qiao gave the kid a hand signal while looking at her in the eyes and talking to her in mind.
‘I’ll bring you into the s.p.a.ce . Don’t be afraid,’ She said to the child.
Maybe Wu Yueling heard what Lin Qiao said or she understood the meaning of the hand signal, or received the message delivered through Lin Qiao’s eyes, she tamely loosened her hands and let Lin Qiao unfasten her seat belt.
After that, Lin Qiao held her, and then they both disappeared from the car.
“Roar!”
‘Go away!’ That voice was heard again.
Maybe because the angry zombie had sensed Lin Qiao’s vibe, it now seemed to be even more irritated than before.
After sending the little one into the s.p.a.ce, Lin Qiao came back out immediately.
Then, she opened the car door and came out of the car, turning to walk toward the zombie crowd.
The ones in the outer circle were some ordinary zombies which were wearing ragged clothes and covered in rotten wounds. They stepped away automatically and slowly when they sensed Lin Qiao approaching.
Lin Qiao sensed the aroma of a living human being once she got off the car. As she had thought, a living human being was in this place!
In the post-apocalyptic world, some human survivors would be forced into a room or corner by a giant zombie crowd sometimes, hiding behind a mere door. These people could either wait for the zombies to break in and kill them, or luckily expect a zombie-hunting troop. In the latter case, they might have a chance to survive.
This world had suffered five years of misery since the apocalyptic era began. In the first year, every large base would send out search and rescue teams to save people, but they had stopped doing that now.
To the people who were stuck in a hopeless situation, a regular army from a base would be the best thing to expect. If it were a zombie-hunting troop which showed up, the situation could still be under control; but if it were those post-apocalyptic robbers, the ones waiting for help should better just kill themselves.
But this time, what made Lin Qiao curious was the owner of that furious voice. She wondered what kind of zombie had uttered those thoughts and roars.
She didn’t only sense the anger and anxiousness in that voice, but also felt that it was trying to protect something, and that was the reason why it had been preventing this crowd of ordinary zombies from rus.h.i.+ng up.
As Lin Qiao got closer and closer, those ordinary zombies moved away and gradually made a path for her. However, they weren’t willing to just leave; they stayed aside, roaring toward the building, reaching out their arms and seeming to grab something.
“Roar!” The strange zombie roared at the same time, its voice sounding highly alert.
It was already very angry before, but didn’t seem to be so vigilant. Lin Qiao couldn’t tell why, but she knew that those ordinary zombies weren’t the reason.
So, she was even more curious.
She walked past those ordinary zombies, then headed toward the stairs. After that, she found that there was an iron gate before the stairway. No wonder those ordinary zombies couldn’t get in! It turned out that the iron gate was blocking their way!