Leaving Hongqiao Town behind, the convoy raced forward without pause.
The entire convoy kept speeding for over ten hours straight.
Everyone looked behind the convoy with panic-stricken eyes.
Although those terrifying giant infants had long since vanished from sight,
people’s fear of those monsters couldn’t be calmed in such a short time.
Even Chen Ye still felt a lingering dread.
The Smoke Breath Mist’s ability to block perception had never failed before—whether against humans or Anomalies.
Not once, until they encountered the giant infants of Hongqiao Town.
This was the first time.
Even though Chen Ye had long known this day would come,
he never expected it to be today.
Chu Che had said it before—Superhumans were advancing their Sequences,
and those Anomalies were growing stronger too.
But actually facing that moment still gave Chen Ye a crushing sense of urgency.
“Th-that’s enough!”
Chu Che’s weak, exhausted voice came through the radio.
“We can… rest here.”
Only then did the convoy slowly come to a halt.
When Chen Ye stepped out of his vehicle, his hairstyle had turned completely wild.
The Monster Pickup Truck had no windows; driving all the way like that, the wind rushing in had given his hair quite the makeover.
His black hair was blown back, making him look somewhat like the Lion King of the savanna.
Especially his blood-red left eye paired with his hollow right eye—
it gave people an extremely intense visual sense of oppression.
Stepping out of the truck, Chen Ye lit a cigarette to calm his nerves.
This danger seemed simple to resolve on the surface,
but only those who had lived through it knew the true peril.
In particular, the image of those giant infants lifting their noses, sniffing through the Smoke Breath Mist, was seared into Chen Ye’s memory.
Every supply-gathering mission was incredibly dangerous.
That was exactly why Chen Ye always preferred to rob other survivors.
Compared to those Anomalies, the Shepherd Convoy was much cuter.
Bus Number Five and Bus Number Six had barely stopped
when some survivors burst out, kneeling by the roadside to vomit uncontrollably.
In truth, the air inside the vehicles wasn’t pleasant either.
Some passengers had already thrown up inside during the journey, and it had never been cleaned up.
A sour, rancid smell permeated the buses.
Those creatures that looked like human babies but had abnormally massive bodies
had dealt a considerable psychological blow to everyone.
Many people started vomiting just from seeing those giant infants.
The impact those things had on people was truly overwhelming.
At the back of Bus Number Five, a battered, broken-down bus was tied up.
This was the vehicle Ding Dong had managed to drag out during the final escape from Hongqiao Town.
It was clearly undrivable now.
The whole bus was wrecked, covered in dust,
with multiple areas of the body deformed and twisted.
Without a mechanical Superhuman like Gong Yong in the convoy, this bus would be nothing but junk.
To be fair, Ding Dong might not have had much ambition to advance her Sequence, but she still fully demonstrated her value to the convoy.
While everyone else was thinking only about how to escape,
only she remembered to drag a vehicle out at a time like that.
When Chu Che got out of his vehicle, he looked completely drained, his face practically bloodless.
He leaned against the door for a long while before he felt a little better.
The Pink-haired Girl also looked like she was still reeling from the scare.
She had just advanced to Sequence 4, thinking that when she encountered Anomalies, she might not cut through them like chopping vegetables,
but she certainly believed she could put up a fight.
The giant infants she encountered in Hongqiao Town had dealt a heavy blow to the Pink-haired Girl’s confidence.
“Squad Leader Chu, are… are you alright?”
Gong Yong looked at Chu Che’s pale face and asked with concern.
Chu Che waved his hand, indicating he was fine.
“We’ll stop here for tonight. We can’t go any further.”
“Xue Nan, go check how many people didn’t make it out.”
Chu Che’s voice sounded weak and exhausted.
Xue Nan, though also very tired and looking unwell, still picked up the loudspeaker and walked toward Bus Number Five and Bus Number Six.
This supply-gathering mission had been a huge success.
Chen Ye’s Monster Pickup Truck, Sun Xixi’s modified off-roader, and Ding Dong’s panel van were all packed to the brim.
In fact, besides Chen Ye’s Monster Pickup Truck,
the roofs of Sun Xixi’s and Ding Dong’s vehicles were also loaded with plenty of supplies.
And that broken-down bus that had been dragged back—
it, too, carried a considerable amount of goods.
This was one of the main reasons the convoy hadn’t abandoned that vehicle even while fleeing for their lives.
The convoy had a bumper harvest.
But the convoy also lost many people.
Even though Xue Nan had repeatedly warned everyone about the dangers of Hongqiao Town before they entered—
telling them to stay alert and respect the time limit—
many still didn’t make it out.
They were forever left behind in Hongqiao Town.
They, too, had become part of Hongqiao Town.
Earlier, everyone was focused solely on escaping, on fleeing the pursuit of those terrifying creatures.
They simply had no time for grief.
Now, as the convoy just came to a stop,
the entire group was enveloped in a strange atmosphere of both joy and sorrow.
Some people excitedly circled the gathered supplies, occasionally touching the sacks of flour and rice, or checking out the warm clothing that had been collected.
Others, however, sank into endless grief.
They wandered anxiously through the crowd, seemingly trying to confirm whether a familiar figure was still there.
“Old Zhou… Old Zhou didn’t come back!”
The man who had once shared a vehicle with Chen Ye sat on the ground beside Bus Number Five, his face covered in tears.
He didn’t dare to blame Chen Ye.
That was a Superhuman.
Back then, he had wanted to ask Chen Ye for help,
but… he didn’t dare.
A Superhuman wouldn’t take someone like him seriously.
A normal person’s life wasn’t that important in a Superhuman’s eyes.
The man thought this to himself, but he didn’t dare say it out loud.
That was his best brother in the convoy.
A brotherhood forged during the apocalypse was infinitely more precious than the fair-weather friendships of peacetime.
The man had no way out. He just leaned against the bus, grabbed his own hair, and kept blaming himself.
He pounded his head with his fists while cursing his own cowardice.
They say men don’t easily shed tears, but that’s only because they haven’t yet reached the point of true heartbreak.
Now, remembering his own weakness, he was left with nothing but endless self-reproach.
“Little Song didn’t make it out either. That bastard, I told him not to pack so much, but he wouldn’t listen to me. Now look…”
A middle-aged man beat his chest in anguish.
He had been partnered with a young man named Little Song.
Though their ages differed considerably, they shared similar interests and had agreed to scavenge together.
They had originally thought this supply run would be a huge score—
they might even get their hands on some valuable goods and finally have better days ahead.
But while scavenging earlier,
Little Song had discovered a large stash of cigarettes and liquor.
In the apocalypse, food was the most important thing, followed by cigarettes and alcohol.
Perhaps for some people, cigarettes and liquor—things that let them briefly escape reality—were even more precious than food.
If they found the right buyer, they could definitely get a good price.
That young man named Little Song was too greedy. Even when his hands were already full and he couldn’t carry any more, he still tried to haul out even more supplies.
He completely ignored the man’s warnings.
And then…
Little Song never came out again.
He was forever left behind in Hongqiao Town.
The middle-aged man cursed, his eyes reddened.
“Wah… my husband! My husband didn’t make it out!”
A woman grabbed Aunt Gu’s arm and asked, her face full of panic.
Aunt Gu fell silent, not knowing what to say.
“Husband, did you come back? Did you come back?”
“Are you here? Don’t scare me! Don’t scare me, please…”
“Husband! Come out…”
Every man she saw, the woman would walk up to and grab their face to check.
With each confirmation, her heart sank a little deeper.
Among the crowd, anyone who saw this woman showed expressions of sympathy.
Halfway couples like this weren’t common in the convoy,
but there were still a few.
This woman was one of them.
The two had met and come to know each other in the convoy, eventually coming together in this cruel world.
Later, they heard about the convoy’s Return to the City Plan.
They had already discussed it—if the Superhumans could reclaim a city,
they would settle there and never leave again.
They were tired of the nomadic life.
Having a stable place to live was something they both desperately hoped for.
When entering Hongqiao Town, the man told the woman that this time, he would gather enough supplies.
For her and the baby in her belly.
Who would have thought… the man would never come out again.
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