Chapter 03
The cars in the convoy formed a circle and stopped on a wide, flat area to take a short rest.
This was the place that Mi Ge, Wen Jiuze, and Dai Ying had liked when they were exploring the area. There were few zombies here, and it was not far from the suburban factory they were going to. In the distance was an abandoned farmland.
Wen Jiuze's car was parked at the outermost circle as usual, and people in the convoy looked at his car intentionally or unintentionally.
Everyone saw clearly on that street before that Wen Jiuze brought a zombie into the car.
Zombies have no reason and want to attack people all the time. Staying in the convoy is a threat to everyone.
As soon as Dai Ying got off the bus, the team leader Mi Ge waved him over and asked about the situation.
Dai Ying looked back at the car and whispered, "That zombie is my cousin's ex-girlfriend."
Migo is a man in his thirties, not very tall, but strong and generous. He was surprised for a moment, then sighed:
"I can understand Xiao Wen's feelings, but if he brings a zombie into the convoy, other people in the convoy will definitely have opinions."
"A zombie is a zombie after all, not a living person. Even if you bring a zombie with you, it won't remember its former friends and relatives, and will only want to eat people... Hey, Xiaoying, please persuade your cousin to kill and bury the zombie."
Dai Ying recalled how her cousin didn't care about holding the zombie in the car, and goose bumps appeared on her hands. "I don't think my cousin would agree to this."
"If he can't do it, he can just leave it far away. After all, he can't carry a zombie with him forever." said Mi Ge.
Dai Ying thought so too.
When the apocalypse just started, everyone had relatives, friends, and lovers who turned into zombies. Some people just couldn't bring themselves to kill the zombies. Even if they knew in their hearts that the other person was dead, they were unwilling to accept it.
Many people bring their relatives who have turned into zombies with them, hoping that they can recover one day.
But it was okay for a day or two, but after a long time, these people who carried the zombies either got bitten by the zombies accidentally and became zombies themselves, or were ostracized by others because of carrying the zombies, and ended up living alone outside the camp and dying outside.
Some people even raised zombies in order to feed them to harm others. In the end, these people were surrounded and killed along with the zombies.
Dai Ying has seen too many tragedies like this in recent years. Now everyone is used to it. If a relative or friend turns into a zombie, it is better to just kill them and bury them.
He didn't want his cousin to be ostracized by everyone because of a zombie, and he didn't want him to accidentally lose his life to the zombie one day.
He made up his mind to persuade his cousin. When he returned to the car, he turned around and saw his cousin still holding the zombie. His determined expression became hesitant again.
"Cousin, you... this zombie..."
"Shut up." Wen Jiuze closed his eyes, leaned on Xue Ling's shoulder, and uttered two words.
Dai Ying turned around and drove away embarrassedly. He thought, let my cousin calm down for a while and we can talk about it in the evening.
Because of a zombie, the atmosphere in the convoy was subtly tense during the break, and even after arriving at the destination, the usual laughter and chattering was no longer heard.
This time their convoy came to Anxi City with a mission.
It has been three years since the apocalypse, and the affected network signal has not yet been restored. Long-distance communication has become a big problem, and bases of all sizes are scattered everywhere and managed independently.
The base that Dai Ying and his team had was neither big nor small, surrounded by fields and nearby forests. They were basically self-sufficient in food, but many essential daily necessities were in short supply.
There was a local from Anxi City at the base who knew that there was a textile factory, a toilet paper production plant, a soap factory, and some other small factories in an industrial zone here.
The base decided to send someone to check out the situation and see if it was possible to transport a batch of machines back first.
Now they have successfully found the factory and discovered that it has not been damaged at all, so they are very happy.
The next step is to move into the factory, clear out the zombies to ensure safety, and move some of the machines that are still intact and usable onto the vehicles.
If there were many machines that could be used here, they would have to go back to the base to call for help.
Brother Mi pointed at the people in the team and assigned them cleaning tasks. Someone in the team looked at Wen Jiuze's car.
"Brother Mi, Brother Wen, aren't you going to clean up the zombies with us this time?"
Wen Jiuze was quite skilled and it was obvious that he had practiced martial arts before. With him around, the journey was much easier for everyone.
In the past, whenever Brother Mi asked about such zombie cleaning tasks, Wen Jiuze would always give him the face and participate.
One person mentioned Wen Jiuze, and someone else asked, "If he goes with us to clean up, what will happen to the zombie? Will we just leave it in the camp?"
"I'm worried about leaving a zombie in the camp. My wife still has to cook in the camp. What if the zombie attacks people?"
Dai Ying came over and heard this, and hurriedly said, "My cousin has tied up the zombie and locked it in the car. It will be fine as long as you don't get close to it."
Some people wanted to refute, but the car door slammed and Wen Jiuze got out. Seeing him coming, the people who had raised opinions before stopped talking.
Brother Mi smiled and waved to Wen Jiuze, discussing with him: "We are going to go to the nearest soap factory to take a look. Do you want to come with us to clean up the zombies?"
"As we agreed before, after the cleanup is complete, I'll give you two bottles of gasoline and a hundred rounds of ammunition. How about that?"
Gasoline and bullets are now hard currency and are difficult to obtain.
Wen Jiuze followed the convoy to help. Besides Dai Ying's presence, Mi Ge's generosity was also another reason.
Wen Jiuze thought about it for a moment and agreed readily: "Okay."
Migo and the rest of the team looked relieved. Dai Ying raised his hand and said, "I'll go too!"
Wen Jiuze patted his cousin on the shoulder and said, "If you don't go, stay here and watch my car. Don't let anyone get close."
"...Okay." Dai Ying watched his cousin and Mi Ge and their group leave, leaving only a few people in the temporary camp.
He returned to Wen Jiuze's car and looked inside from the window. He saw that the zombie was tied up but relatively quiet, so he sat beside the car and combed Puff's hair, rubbing its head and playing with it.
Without his cousin, he didn't dare to stay in the car alone with the zombies. It was scary.
A middle-aged man came over, holding a pale little boy in his arms.
"Xiaoying."
"Uncle Feng, what's the matter?"
"That's right, uncle wants to ask you, does Xiao Wen want to keep the zombie in the car forever?"
"Ah... this..."
"I'm not saying this, uncle. Look at the man carrying a zombie, he's not going to have a good ending."
Feng Wei and his son are not regular members of their fleet. They followed the fleet to Anxi City this time because they wanted to find medicine here.
The little boy Feng Zicheng was only nine years old and suffered from heart disease. The medicine he needed to take was not found in the base. Feng Wei could not bear to watch his son die of illness, so he gritted his teeth and led his men out with the convoy, thinking that perhaps there was a hospital pharmacy in Anxi City that had the medicine his son needed.
Because of the little boy's heart disease, Feng Wei took him wherever he went and protected him with all his heart. Everyone in the convoy took care of them, and Feng Wei didn't have to clean up the zombies, he just helped in the camp.
Now gasoline is scarce and there are few cars that can be used, so everyone is sitting in a crowded place. The little boy can't stand the crowd, so the father and son often take Wen Jiuze's car because his car is the most spacious.
Considering the little boy's mental illness, Wen Jiuze allowed the father and son to take his car. When they were in a hurry and not killing zombies, the father and son would sit in his car.
But if there was a zombie in the car, they would never dare to sit there again.
"Uncle, why don't you help him deal with the zombie while Xiaowen is away?" Feng Wei said earnestly.
"No, no!" Dai Ying refused subconsciously, "My cousin will be angry!"
"If you can't do it, I'll do it!" A sturdy middle-aged woman came over with a kitchen knife. "Then you can say that I killed the zombie. I wonder if your cousin can still beat me!"
The woman was in charge of cooking and guarding the camp. She and her husband, Brother Wang, were both veterans in the team, and everyone called her Sister Lu.
Occasionally when the team is short of manpower, she will go with the men to fight zombies. She kills zombies more efficiently than some skinny men.
Because the couple witnessed their only daughter being eaten by zombies, she hates zombies the most.
"What are zombies? They are man-eating beasts, and they are no longer human. Our lives are already uneasy because of these things. If we keep zombies in the camp, I will be the first one to disagree!"
Sister Lu yelled.
If it was just Feng Wei who advised, Dai Ying would still be hesitant, but Sister Lu had been with him longer, and it would be difficult for her words to shake Dai Ying.
After all, he himself felt that his cousin shouldn't be carrying a zombie.
"Kill her... No, let me drive her away from you." Dai Ying said after a moment's hesitation.
"If we throw it somewhere else, it will still harm people. We should just kill it once and for all!" said Sister Lu.
"No, my cousin will be really angry!" Dai Ying emphasized, "I will send her away and throw her away."
——
Xue Ling sat in the car. She tried to escape several times but failed, and was forced to stare blankly.
Zombies can’t open car doors, but that damn man was so defensive that he even locked the car doors and windows.
Suddenly someone got into the driver's seat. It was Wen Jiuze's cousin. He looked at her and said quickly:
"I'm sorry, I'm going to throw you away. Don't blame me. Who called you a zombie?"
He knew that zombies couldn't understand human language, and he said these things just to make himself feel better.
Before driving, he made sure that the zombie in the back seat had its hands tied and was fastened with a seat belt, so it wouldn't suddenly jump over and bite him, then he quickly started the car and drove away.
Xue Ling didn't expect such an unexpected surprise. She wanted to escape, but her cousin came to help her.
Thanks, brother!
Xue Ling cooperated well along the way and did not scream or struggle on purpose to scare anyone, allowing Dai Ying to safely send her to a remote wooded area.
The car stopped on the side of the road for a while, dropped Xue Ling off, and then drove away quickly.
Xue Ling got up from where he was, sighing inwardly.
Why don't you just do the right thing and help her untie her hands that are tied behind her back?
That bastard Wen Jiuze tied her up very tightly, and it was really hard for a zombie like her to untie her by herself!
It seems I need to find someone to go to the kitchen to get a knife and cut this leather strap.
Great, she's free again! Hurry up!
She staggered along the deserted road, thinking that she never wanted to see Wen Jiuze again.
She died peacefully, with Wen Jiuze holding her all the way in the car, and it felt like she was dying again.
In the evening, the men who had finished cleaning retreated from the factory area. Everyone was happy because many of the machines in the factory were still usable.
Wen Jiuze left the team, his pants stained with blood and dirt, he was wiping his dagger in his hand, and his gun was slanted at his waist.
He walked to his car and said, "Have you watched my car carefully? No one is approaching, right?"
"Ah..." Dai Ying was evasive and responded randomly.
Wen Jiuze felt something was wrong when he saw his expression. His face suddenly darkened and he opened the car door.
Sitting in the car were Feng Wei and his son. The honest-looking middle-aged man held his sleeping son in his arms and greeted him with a smile: "Xiao Wen, you're back."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
