Chapter 80: Northern Plateau

Shu Fu and Chen Fa almost rushed out of the SUV at the same time and ran towards the bus in front. The front of the bus had been deformed by the explosion, and the rear of the pickup truck was also affected.

Jiang Dai and several other people in the pickup truck patted their heads to ease the buzzing tinnitus in their ears, pushed open the car door, and ran to the back.

"What's going on?" Chen Fa asked.

"It looks like a landmine!" Jiang Dai was driving in the front and saw the whole process of the bus's front exploding from the rearview mirror. The pickup truck probably didn't run over the landmine because its wheels did, or maybe the triggering condition of the explosive was designed to be crushed by an object over a certain weight.

Judging from the number of gray scab patients nearby, the latter is more likely. After all, there are patients everywhere in the city at night, and no one can control where these patients go. If anything pressing on them can trigger it, then these patients would be kept in vain!

Anyway, the pickup truck was lucky enough to escape the disaster.

Otherwise, judging from the extent of the explosion just now, if it was the wheel of a pickup truck that ran over the landmine, she would have been dead by now: "Are those people crazy? They even planted landmines in the city center!"

The front and doors of the bus were on fire. They wanted to go forward but couldn't get close to the doors.

Jiang Dai anxiously shouted her husband's name towards the bus. When the incident happened, Yue Dong and Xu Tingfeng were both on the roof of the bus, but now both of them were nowhere to be seen.

At the same time, the sound of a bus window shattering came from the rear of the bus. It was Lu Zheng. He and Lu Ce were at the rear of the bus and luckily avoided the explosion. He smashed the window with a safety hammer and pushed the injured Xu Jiechu out first, followed by Lu Ce, who was holding two cats in his arms.

Shu Fu met Lu Ce and signaled him to quickly help Xu Jiechu to the SUV behind. The street behind the fork in the road was full of people with gray scab. They were frightened at the moment and were all coming here. They had to rescue everyone and leave here as soon as possible!

Inside the deformed and burning bus, the braided guy and the big guy also rushed to the rear of the bus. Lu Zheng was throwing their bag of supplies out of the window. Seeing that only two people were coming, he hurried forward a few steps: "Where is Xu Tingfeng, and the bald guy and Yue Dong--"

"Brother Xu and Yue Dong are on the roof of the car, they should be fine!" The man with braids held the seat with one hand and covered his abdomen with the other, blood seeping out from between his fingers.

"The bald guy is dead, the driver's seat was too close to the explosion point, and Yue Dong, our teammate, is also dead! Damn it! Those beasts are too crazy! They actually planted mines!" The big guy's cheek was scratched by broken glass, his head was broken, and half of his face was covered in blood, but he still kept cursing. With his angry expression at the moment, his whole face was particularly terrifying.

He turned around and saw the empty bunk bed next to him. He was shocked: "Where's the skinny guy? Why is he gone?"

A moment ago, the thin and long-faced man who had broken free from his restraints in the bus due to the explosion sensed the heavy rain outside, and rushed out howling into the rain. Before anyone could react, he plunged into the dark rainy night and ran towards the other end of the fork in the road, and disappeared in a few seconds.

After getting off the car, Lu Zheng and the other two only saw his back disappearing in the rain.

The big guy wanted to chase after him, but was stopped by the braided guy, who shook his head at him: "We have tried our best..."

"The wounded, get in the car quickly!" Shu Fu threw the bags of supplies they had thrown out back to them.

Chen Yuezhen had driven the SUV around the bus that exploded and drove next to the pickup truck. Lu Ce and Xu Jiechu were in the car. Xu Jiechu opened the window to check what was going on here. He found that his elder brother was nowhere to be seen. He struggled to get out, but Lu Ce held him down in the car: "You are injured, what can you do? Don't cause trouble for them. Stay here. They don't have time to take care of you now. As long as your brother is still alive, they will definitely find him!"

Chen Yuezhen glanced at Lu Ce in the rearview mirror with approval. This kid is more reliable than many adults.

Lu Zheng, supporting the guy with braids and the big guy, rushed over with the bag of supplies. Lu Zheng opened the car door and threw the bag of supplies into the car first, then went back to look for Xu Tingfeng and Yue Dong with Jiang Dai and the others.

At this time, not only the back of the fork road, but also the front of the fork road, the figure of the gray scab patients appeared. With such a big commotion here, even if those people in the organization followed the rules and didn't show up, the gray scab patients nearby would be attracted by the commotion here, and they would block all the passages here!

Fortunately, there were not many buildings on this fork in the road and all the windows were closed, otherwise they would not even be able to drive out.

At the critical moment, Chen Fa gave an order: "Jiang Dai, get in the car and take the others away! I will find Yue Dong! The weight of the pickup truck and the SUV should be fine, but remember to explore the road carefully!"

On the other side, Lu Zheng also asked the braided man and the big guy to get in the car, and took Lu Ce and Xu Jiechu to the shore to wait for him. The two were unwilling to do so, but the braided man was seriously injured and had difficulty walking. Lu Ce "educated" him again, and finally both of them got in the car.

Lu Zheng turned around quickly, but after taking a few steps, Shu Fu reached out and pushed him. She asked him to get in the car as well: "You must go!" As she spoke, she pointed to the back of the pickup truck, where the rubber boat that was originally loaded in the truck bed had slipped down and half of it was burned by flames.

There are no boats that can cross the river, and the inflatable boat on the off-road vehicle can only carry three people. It is impossible to carry so many people across the river.

So Lu Zheng had to go, and use whatever method he could to "find" his raft on the shore and be the first to lead people across the river.

His raft was a bit bigger than hers, and there was room for everyone else in the cabin.

She approached Lu Zheng and lowered her voice and said quickly: "If the raft doesn't move on its own, use the boat engine and hang it on the off-road vehicle to pump out the fuel in the two vehicles. It should be enough to cross the river!"

She wanted to leave after she finished speaking, but Lu Zheng grabbed the hand that was originally pushed in front of him: "What about you?"

In the heavy rain at night, he looked down at her and slowly tightened his fingers around her hand.

Shu Fu smiled at him: "You forgot, I also have what you have." She wanted to leave, but the next second she was hugged tightly by Lu Zheng.

"Don't die..." His voice sounded in her ears, "...I still have a lot to say to you."

At that moment just now, there were more fragments of memories about her in his mind.

She was important to him, in this world or that.

Shu Fu reached out and patted his back, saying firmly, "I won't die. Hurry up and wait for me on the other side of the river! Please take good care of Grandma Chen Fa for me!"

"good!"

The pickup truck drove away first, still driven by Jiang Dai. Another team member in the passenger seat opened the window and leaned out despite the heavy rain to help Jiang Dai check the road ahead. Behind them, the off-road vehicle driven by Chen Yuezhen also quickly followed under Chen Fa's instructions.

After Shu Fu and Chen Fa turned around, the window of the back seat of the SUV opened, and the tabby cat jumped out of the window lightly and landed in the rain.

Inside the car window, Lu Ce watched the tabby cat catch up with Shu Fu and breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

With Lan Lan's protection, everyone will be safe.

**

Shu Fu and Chen Fa rushed back as fast as they could. The fire around the front of the bus had been mostly extinguished by the heavy rain, but the thick smoke still made it difficult to get close.

The two of them quickly checked around the bus, but still didn't see anyone.

"Where are they?" Shu Fu was sitting in the back seat and didn't see the situation of the car in front when the explosion happened.

Chen Fa recalled carefully that Yue Dong and Xu Tingfeng had been staying in the middle of the roof. At that time, the front wheel of the bus ran over the landmine and the power of the explosion lifted the front of the bus. In that situation, the roof should actually be a relatively safe position, at least it would not be directly endangered by the explosion.

But the blast caused the entire bus to flip upwards. If the people on the roof were unprepared, Chen Fa immediately said, "The two people were probably thrown out during the explosion. It's possible that they fell behind the SUV!"

Everyone's attention was focused on the bus at the time, and if the two of them fell to the ground behind the SUV, that would explain why no one noticed them.

Chen Fa and Shu Fu immediately began to search the road behind the bus. They couldn't estimate where the two people fell after being thrown out, so they each checked carefully along the corners of the walls on both sides of the road.

The street lights on the fork were dim, and the front of the bus was on fire, making other places even darker. Shu Fu took out a flashlight and ran forward a few steps, but still found nothing.

At the fork in the road, a large group of gray scab patients had moved over. It was still raining, and their pain was relieved. Except for a few exceptions, most of them did not show any aggressiveness. They were more like empty shells of the human body that had lost their human souls and were wandering in the rain. The stench emanating from them could already be smelled in the air.

Shu Fu knew they had to hurry, because once the gray scab patients occupied the entire fork in the road, it would be difficult for them to find anyone else.

However, there were no figures of the two people on this side of the fork in the road. She looked up at Chen Fa on the other side. She had already run along one side to the intersection and turned back when she was about to run into the patient with gray scab, but she also found nothing.

Where are those two people!

Shu Fu looked at the bus, imagining the sudden blast of air when the bus exploded. Then she noticed the height of the bus, which was about four meters. With this height and the force of the throw...

Shu Fu's flashlight quickly moved upwards, shining on the buildings on both sides of the fork in the road. The buildings on both sides were of different heights, and some of them were one- or two-story bungalows.

"Chen Fa!" She called out to him and shone the flashlight on the roofs on both sides.

Since no one was found on the road, it is very likely that the two men landed on a nearby roof.

Chen Fa understood and immediately shone his flashlight upwards. A moment later, Shu Fu saw a hand hanging down from the eaves of a house. She immediately called Chen Fa, who came over, threw his backpack and flashlight to her, grabbed the drainage pipe on the outer wall, and began to climb up.

She climbed very skillfully, probably because she had practiced rock climbing or something like that. She quickly climbed to the eaves and said to Shu Fu, "It's them, both of them are here!" She climbed onto the roof, checked the two unconscious people, and after confirming that they had no serious external injuries, she stretched out her left and right hands at the same time and began to pat their cheeks.

In extraordinary times, we can only use extraordinary methods to wake them up.

Shu Fu, who was standing below, only heard a series of crisp "pa pa pa pa" sounds coming from above, which made her almost think that the strange fish appeared again. Fortunately, she immediately thought that it should be Chen Fa slapping the two of them.

Chen Fa's attack was not gentle, and the two unconscious people woke up quickly. In addition to the pain from the impact on their bodies, they felt the most pain in their cheeks. There was a burning pain, and their faces seemed to be swollen...

"Are you broken anywhere? Can you walk?" Chen Fa asked immediately.

The two checked their bodies. They both felt dizzy, their stomachs felt heavy and they wanted to vomit. They couldn't tell exactly where they were injured, but they were both sure they could walk.

"What about the others?"

"Where are Xiao Dai and Gang Zi?"

"Bald and Lao Gu are gone, Jiang Dai and the others are not injured, and the others on the bus are slightly injured. I asked them to go to the river first." Chen Fa explained the situation in a few words, and then said, "Are you awake? If you are awake, leave quickly. If you don't leave, you will be eaten by those patients!"

After she said that, she climbed down from the eaves again and quickly climbed down the drainpipe.

Yue Dong and Xu Tingfeng also climbed down one after the other. As soon as they landed, they were startled by the group of gray-scab patients one or two meters away. They were all walking towards the front of the bus that was emitting burning noises and thick smoke. Several patients whose hair had all fallen out noticed them and looked at them with bloodshot eyes. A kind of attacking emotion appeared in their cold eyes.

"Hurry up!" This time, Shu Fu and Chen Fa didn't need to move forward. The two men immediately pushed them, and the four of them ran quickly forward.

On the side, a tabby cat hiding in the darkness on the street corner immediately followed. Its four paws landed silently, and its brown fur was extremely inconspicuous in the rainy night, but it was very fast and caught up with them effortlessly.

This place was very close to the river, and they knew the approximate direction. After running to the fork in the road, they turned and continued running south.

After running past an intersection, there were also patients with gray scab in front of me. The number was not as many as before, but it was not small either. What was even more frightening was that there were buildings with open doors on both sides of the road. It looked like a pedestrian street with shops along the street. At this moment, new patients with gray scab kept rushing out of these buildings.

The scab patients who were not exposed to the rain were extremely aggressive. They roared and howled, and kept grabbing the cracked scabs on their bodies with their hands. When they saw them passing by, they immediately stretched out their hands covered in blood and pus and pounced on them.

Yue Dong kicked away a patient who was about to grab Shu Fu's clothes. After being kicked to the ground, the patient did not crawl in the rain to relieve the pain. Instead, he got up again and rushed towards Yue Dong who kicked him.

This time, Yue Dong had to hit him hard on the head with the baton in his hand and knock him unconscious before he could get rid of him.

"These sick people can't even speak, yet they still hold grudges! Run quickly and don't get entangled with them! Otherwise it will never end!" He said, and caught up with the three people again.

The four people began to run and dodge on the long street full of scab patients. However, the heavy rain reduced their vision and the noisy rain also weakened their sensitivity. From time to time, new patients would suddenly rush out from the building.

Although they tried to avoid them again and again, they still inevitably collided with the patients with gray scab while running.

Once a collision occurs, you will be completely entangled by the other party. If another patient comes at this time, you will be entangled by two people at the same time and there will be no way to get away in a short time.

Fortunately, there were four of them. Once someone was entangled, the other three would immediately stop, swing their weapons, knock the person down as quickly as possible, and then run away quickly.

But running and fighting all the way was very exhausting. When the four of them ran the entire long street and reached the next intersection, they were all out of breath.

They had to slow down. Xu Tingfeng and Yue Dong both had concussions to varying degrees. They were tired and out of breath, and the worst thing was that they felt like vomiting.

"If you want to vomit, do it quickly! Then run!" Chen Fa glanced at them and jumped onto the roof of a broken car on the side of the road. She wiped the rain off her face and took the binoculars handed to her by Shu Fu and looked forward.

Xu Tingfeng and Yue Dong's telescopes and walkie-talkies were dropped when they were overturned by the air wave. At this moment, they had no way to contact other people and could only rely on themselves to get to the river.

After hearing what Chen Fa said, Yue Dong walked away and vomited. After vomiting, he rinsed his mouth with rain water and his complexion looked better.

Xu Tingfeng held it back, maybe because he didn't want to vomit in front of the two girls, but he just held it back. It was the same when he was injured before, a piece of flesh was torn off his calf, but he didn't make a sound the whole time.

"I saw the wreckage of the cable bridge. It should be one of the ones that was blown up. The river bank is just ahead! There are two more intersections! Going straight is the shortest, but the road is a bit 'congested'. You can also take a detour, but if you take a detour, you have to run to the right through the entire commercial area. In addition, there is no more fire and smoke on the road ahead. According to the remaining distance, as long as the car doesn't have any more accidents, the others should have reached the shore safely by now." Chen Fa jumped out of the car and replaced the baton in her hand with the fire axe that Chen Yuezhen gave her before driving away.

Shu Fu understood what was happening and immediately took out a nail gun from his backpack.

What could be blocking the road this late at night?

Xu Tingfeng and Yue Dong also understood. If they had a car, they might choose to take a detour. The car is fast and the distance won't matter. They will definitely drive to the place where there are fewer patients.

But they had no car, and because of the previous sprinting and fighting, most of their physical strength had been used up. They did not have the energy to take a detour. What's more, they could not guarantee that the road to the river would be unobstructed after taking the detour.

When the two saw Shu Fu and Chen Fa exchanging weapons and equipment, they also opened their backpacks and replaced the blunt weapons in their hands with sharp ones.

Xu Tingfeng took a bone-chopping knife and Yue Dong took a dagger. They were determined not to hold back and would kill any patient who came at them again with one blow.

Shu Fu's protective shield had been on since she entered Yucheng. She knew that tonight was dangerous, so she only temporarily closed it for a few seconds when necessary, such as when she needed to wet her raincoat again, or when she persuaded Lu Zheng to leave first...

Relying on the protective shield, she checked the nails and ran directly to the front.

Chen Fa followed closely behind her, while Xu Tingfeng and Yue Dong lagged behind by two steps, running on either side of them.

If Shu Fu looked back at this time, he would find that the white light bar above Chen Fa's head briefly appeared for a few seconds again, and this time, the white progress bar was about to be full.

**

More than half of the patients with scabs on the last two sections of the road had lost their hair. Their bodies were covered with dense scabs, which looked like fish scales from a distance, and they looked like mermaids standing, squatting or lying. The blood and pus that oozed out from time to time mixed with rain water made their bodies look sticky, wet, ugly and disgusting.

Some of them were tearing off the gray scabs on their bodies, howling as they did so. When they saw them, they immediately stretched out their hands and rushed forward.

Yue Dong and Xu Tingfeng immediately rushed to them and helped them deal with the patient who was almost grabbing their clothes.

Chen Fa also ran forward a few steps with a fire axe. The three of them were not like Shu Fu, who was holding close-range weapons, which were ineffective at a distance.

They didn't know why there were so many gray scab patients in Youcheng, nor did they understand why the organization in the north of Youcheng wanted to speed up the treatment of these patients. At this moment, the four of them looked at these gray scab patients and felt a chill spreading from deep within their bodies.

They suddenly realized that the organization blew up the bridge over the river in the center of Youcheng, spread rumors, and cut off the Internet, probably in order to prevent patients in the north of the city from seeking help and treatment in the south.

Shu Fu and Chen Fa even thought of another possibility. If Tang Ping could build a simple laboratory to conduct various experiments on patients with gray scabs with the supplies of a small team, then the large organization that controls the north of Youcheng City would be even less likely to lack experimental personnel and experimental equipment. Even the entire north of the city is their experimental site!

They set a rule not to go out at night and strictly followed the rule. On the surface, it seemed that those who had the courage to cross the north of the city at night had a glimmer of hope. But in fact, those who wanted to cross the city, in addition to dealing with hidden mines, had to face a whole group of gray scab patients in the north of the city.

Rather than a glimmer of hope, this is a huge trap.

The temptation in the trap is the south of the city on the other side of the river. There are troops there. Even if the troops are small, as long as they reach the other side, they will be safe. After that, they may find a way to go to Xiangzhou Province or even to Fengshang Plateau.

How many people can resist such temptation?

But after all, how many people can successfully cross the northern part of the city?

They had to understand the current situation in Youcheng, know the layout of roadblocks and traps when entering the city, have vehicles to cross the city, avoid the mines and traps hidden in the urban area, face the ubiquitous gray scab patients, and finally have to come up with boats to cross the river... All these conditions added together made it clear that there was no intention to allow people to pass safely through the north of the city.

Sure enough, when there was only half the distance left on the last road, an accident happened again!

Shu Fu, who was running at the right rear, suddenly felt something kicking her on the right shoulder. Her protective shield was on so the force couldn't hurt her at all, but it was obvious that the thing that kicked her didn't mean to hurt her.

In the darkness, she only saw a small figure using the force of kicking her shoulder to leap towards Chen Fa in front of her. At the same time, she heard a "puff" sound, as if something was coming from a distance and hit the small figure that was kicking towards Chen Fa.

The small body exploded into a blood mist and fell to the ground instantly without a sound.

Chen Fa and Shu Fu reacted instantly.

"Sniper gun!" Chen Fa pulled Shu Fu with one hand, and pushed Yue Dong and Xu Tingfeng who were running beside her with the other hand, and pushed them under the eaves of a roadside shop.

Shu Fu also rushed towards Chen Fa at the same time, using the force of pushing her to block the sound of breaking air with her body. Two more hits hit the protective shield on the back of Shu Fu's head accurately. At this angle, if she hadn't reacted to protect Chen Fa, Chen Fa would have been dead!

Chen Fa seemed to sense something and turned back to check on Shu Fu in fear: "Are you okay?"

"It's okay!" Shu Fu pointed to other shops nearby. All the shops along the way had eaves.

Several people wiped the rain off their faces and without time to think, they continued to run forward quickly under the cover of the eaves. They kicked or pushed away any patients with scabs they met on the way. Even if a patient grabbed their raincoat, they immediately chose to cut their raincoat with a sharp weapon and quickly get away without wasting any time fighting.

Shu Fu deliberately walked at the back, using his body to cover the three people in front as much as possible.

When they were about to finish the last stretch of the road, Shu Fu looked back. In the distance, the tiny body was lying motionless in the rain. The power of the sniper rifle blew its body apart, and it died silently without even a cry.

Shu Fu knew what it was; it was the tabby cat - Lanlan.

She didn't know why it was here, when it caught up with them, and why it appeared at the critical moment to save people.

But if it weren't for it, the initial sneak attack would have taken Chen Fa's life.

They finally finished the run. Across the road, the river bank in the north of the city was just around the corner. The long-term heavy rain had caused the river water level to rise. The river water had already flooded the road beside the river bank. At this moment, it was surging up with the wind and rain, washing the railings on the river bank.

"Wait here, don't come out yet!" Yue Dong and Xu Tingfeng turned around the road where they were attacked and looked to both sides. "I think I saw their car! It's over there!"

They took cover behind a tall building at the corner and quickly rushed to the river bank across the street. It was indeed their car. Both cars were there, but there was no one inside.

Chen Fa did not rush across the road, but stopped and turned to look at Shu Fu: "Was it Lanlan who saved me just now?" Yue Dong and Xu Tingfeng in front might not know, but she was kicked by that little body, so she knew very well that if it weren't for it, she would have died by now.

She had never looked at the cat straight in the eye. Like Shu Fu, she didn't like to keep such small animals because she thought it was troublesome. In the end times, it was already very difficult to take care of herself and her family. She didn't have the energy to devote her attention to a pet.

She didn't understand how the cat sensed that she was in danger, and why it saved her...

"Yes." Shu Fu did not hide it, and stared at the top of Chen Fa's head in a daze. The small white light bar appeared again, and like Lu Zheng, the light bar that appeared this time had reached its full progress, and it had completely stabilized and no longer flickered.

Behind the white light bar, a number appeared - 100.

She didn't know what this number meant, but it was obvious that Chen Fa's number was higher than Lu Zheng's. If nothing unexpected happened, she had awakened the golden finger.

As expected, Chen Fa was stunned at the air in front of him for a few seconds, then he pulled the corners of his lips and smiled: "You came at the right time."

As she spoke, she stretched out her hand and an exquisitely shaped black pistol appeared in her palm. Compared with real pistols, this one was more sci-fi in shape. In addition to the trigger, there were two buttons on it.

"Don't be afraid, Xiaofu." She looked at her friend in the heavy rain, "Wait for me a moment. Once I take care of that guy, I'll take you across the river right away!"

Of course Shu Fu was not afraid. When she saw Chen Fa walking back along the eaves the same way she came, she understood what she wanted to do.

When Chen Fa held the gun, the method of using it immediately appeared in her mind. She pressed one of the buttons on it, and a small sight immediately appeared above the gun. She raised the gun and found that when she looked through the sight, everything around her became extremely clear.

The scope seemed to be able to see through the rain, darkness and buildings to find her enemies.

But she was still at a disadvantage compared to the opponent, because she could only roughly guess the sniper's position based on the angle of the previous attack, and she had to stand under the eaves to avoid the opponent's bullets, and the angle was limited so she couldn't search the entire range.

Chen Fa frowned and gritted her teeth, just as she was about to take a step forward when someone suddenly hugged her from behind.

It's Shu Fu!

She stretched out her arms and hugged her whole body, as if trying to protect her under her wings: "Don't be afraid, FaFa." She said the same words as she just said, "My protective shield has already wrapped you together, don't be too far away from me, and then-"

She said, taking her out of the roof, "Do you feel it?"

Shu Fu clasped her hands together, and Chen Fa was completely protected in her protective shield. In an instant, Chen Fa felt that the sounds of wind and rain from the outside world had disappeared, as if he was blocked from the world.

Perhaps because the two of them were completely exposed on the street and in the sniper's sight, the sound of breaking air was heard again in the distance. At the same time as the puffing sound rang out, Chen Fa could feel the impact of the bullets, but like Shu Fu, she felt no pain.

On the contrary, because of this attack, she finally found the snipers lying in ambush on the roof in the dark and rainy night. There were actually two of them.

She quickly raised the gun, pressed another button, and pulled the trigger.