Chapter 162: Chapter 162: Xiao Gu Is Here
Amid the frantic howls, a faint signal was sent.
The three Speed System zombies that had been besieging the soldiers by the military truck suddenly shrieked, abandoning their targets and turning to sprint toward Xie Ning.
Song You’ai’s eyes were bloodshot as she stared ahead. She wanted to leap out of the RV, but the thought of her daughter’s warning forced her to remain frozen in her seat.
Swinging the metal chain in her hand, Xie Ning could already feel the strain of her superpower being rapidly consumed.
But she couldn’t retreat now!
The three Speed System zombies scrambled toward her on all fours.
With one hand, Xie Ning unleashed a row of sharp metal spikes to fend off one of the attacks.
With her other hand, she flung the chain. The Metal Beast Capture Circle flew free, whirling through the air with a metallic CLANG before suddenly changing form.
The capture circle broke apart. As her Gold Ability re-formed it, it transformed into waves of razor-sharp blades that shot, WHOOSH, toward the Speed System zombies.
Two of the zombies took the full brunt of the attack, and the top half of one’s skull was sheared clean off.
The last one, faster than the others, dodged the blades in a flash and lunged for Xie Ning’s face with a guttural hiss.
A vicious glint flashed in Xie Ning’s eyes. A gun suddenly appeared from under the sleeve of her sun shirt, and she fired two shots—BANG! BANG!—into the forehead of the roaring, charging zombie.
The powerful recoil made her hand tingle.
Utterly exhausted, Xie Ning summoned Heavenly Blade from her villa’s living room space into her hand, her eyes blazing with ferocious light.
BOOM!
A massive Thunder Ball, like a cannonball, suddenly descended, blasting the skull of a nearby Speed System zombie to bits just as it was about to pounce.
A few bullets whizzed through the daylight and flew past her, taking out several ordinary zombies in her vicinity.
Xie Ning covered her face and stepped back, avoiding the putrid stench from the exploded zombie heads.
Recalling the remaining Metal Knives into her body, she barely managed to steady herself and looked up.
A black Land Rover was speeding toward her along the winding mountain road.
"Ningning." Before the vehicle had even come to a complete stop, Gu Chen threw open the passenger door, leaped out, and rushed to Xie Ning’s side in a few great strides.
He grabbed her slender arm, looking her over from every angle. "Are you hurt?"
Xie Ning shook her head. She secretly tossed the gun back onto the sofa in her living room space and looked at him with a grave expression.
Lu Wei brought the car to a stop and ran over with Zhai Ruobai. "What happened?"
Just then, a cacophony of shrill screams erupted from the crowd in the distance.
Uncle Ge Liang whipped his head around and yelled to his nephew and the others behind him, "Get out of the way! Quick! Now!"
People on motorcycles and electric scooters scattered frantically to either side.
A large bus, pushing two smaller cars before it, was careening out of control toward the Song Family Pavilion group.
With a grim expression, Song You’ai wrenched the steering wheel to swerve aside. Zhong Shichong, He Dayong, Wu Qiuyun, and the others also quickly steered their vehicles clear of the runaway bus.
As the bus shot past, everyone saw the driver. Half his face was chewed away, and he was thrown back in his seat, bleeding and howling madly against the restraint of his seatbelt.
The entire vehicle smashed uncontrollably into the roadside barrier and burst into flames with a WHOOSH.
"AHHH!"
"Oh my God."
The screams rose and fell, one after another.
About twenty people, blood-soaked and trembling, huddled behind them, covering their eyes, unable to watch the scene.
They were some of the survivors who had escaped from that death trap of a bus.
Having escaped by breaking the windows and jumping out, they all had various cuts and scrapes from the sharp glass.
But at least they were still alive, weren’t they?
Nearly half the people on that bus had been bitten to death in the sudden zombie attack. The driver, too, had been mauled beyond recognition.
Fortunately, with the Spiritual Zombie and the few Speed System zombies all dead, the ordinary zombie horde was left without a leader, and the situation was gradually brought under control.
Xie Ning silently watched the bus burn by the roadside until it was nothing but a hollowed-out husk, an unreadable emotion swirling in the depths of her eyes.
Someone suddenly turned her around. "Ningning, where’s your aunt?"
Snapping back to reality, Xie Ning grabbed Gu Chen and started running toward the RV.
Song You’ai was just hopping out of the vehicle when she spotted her daughter with Xiao Gu and the others. Overjoyed, she rushed forward to greet them, nearly weeping with relief.
"Xiao Gu, you’re finally here!"
"Auntie, I’m glad you’re all safe." Gu Chen breathed a sigh of relief. "There was a landslide on the road ahead. We had to make repairs three times before we could finally get through."
Song You’ai was on the verge of tears. "Xiao Gu, my parents... did they make it to the safe zone?"
"Your parents and uncle are all fine. They’ve already settled into the safe zone and are just waiting for you to join them."
"Auntie, they were all very worried about you," Zhai Ruobai interjected. "The temperature’s been scorching these past few days. You didn’t run out of water, did you?"
"Yes, yes, yes, we’re doing just fine."
Just then, a dark-faced man ran up to them, snapped to attention with a sharp salute, and said, "Sir!"
Startled, Song You’ai quickly pulled her daughter back a few steps.
"You are?" Gu Chen felt the man looked vaguely familiar.
Lu Wei cleared his throat. "That should be Zhao Jianjun, from the First Battalion of the 54385th Regiment. We put them through three days of special training once. You made a lot of them cry."
Gu Chen stared blankly at the dark-faced man.
’No, he wasn’t! He wasn’t one of them!’
Zhai Ruobai looked surprised. "Old Zhao? You’ve gotten a lot darker!"
With his face all covered in dust and grime, he was completely unrecognizable at first.
The scene before them was one of total chaos. A moment ago, Lu Wei and the others hadn’t even known who to talk to.
Luckily, a few sharp-eyed soldiers from the 54385th Regiment had spotted them and reported to Squad Leader Zhao.
Zhai Ruobai reached out to pat his shoulder, but the slap sent up a cloud of dust that made Zhai Ruobai himself choke twice.
"Old Zhao, hurry up and get a headcount. We should get over this mountain road while the weather’s clear and it’s not raining." Zhai Ruobai started pulling him toward the military truck.
Zhao Jianjun was overjoyed. "We can leave?"
"Of course. How else do you think we got here?"
Just then, two young soldiers carrying registration notebooks ran over, looking grim. "Jianjun, one bus and four small cars have been destroyed."
"Twenty-three civilian casualties."
"Another thirty are injured to varying degrees. Twenty-four of them escaped from the bus and are being checked to see if they were bitten by zombies."
"Six of our brothers in the regiment are wounded, one of them seriously."
"I told you we weren’t bitten by zombies, why don’t you believe us? What’s there to check?" A shrill female voice, thick with resentment, came from behind them.
"You failed to protect us, and now you suspect us? Is this how you serve the people?"
The young men being yelled at all hung their heads in silence.
Another civilian, unable to watch any longer, pushed through the crowd to retort, "What are you shouting for?"
"Why are you yelling so loud? Aren’t you afraid of attracting more zombies?"
"They’re already doing their best, you know?"
"You’re not the one who’s dead, so it’s easy for you to talk!"
