301 Homecoming Train (V)
They have no way to escape
"I'm begging you." The cry for help in the abandoned station sounded miserable. A man had a black sack on his head and a chain around his neck, like a dog. The other end of the chain was held in the hand of a man in protective clothing.
A total of fifteen new people arrived at Nanlin Station, eight of them wearing black protective suits and the remaining seven wearing white.
The trapped man clearly didn't want to move forward, but his hands and feet moved on their own as if he couldn't control himself, like a puppet being held in someone's hand.
The man was getting closer and closer to the car door, and he stepped into it with a bang.
That was the front door of bus No. 12. His face was covered with snot and tears. Because it was covered with a black cloth, he couldn't see outside clearly, but he could also feel a chilling chill.
The owner of the chains did not get on the bus. He was the only one who got on. He was specially used to "trek the road". The group caught him to test whether certain rules were true.
He is lucky to be alive until now. At first, there were more than ten or twenty people responsible for leading the way, but now he is the only one left.
People sometimes have a strange intuition. As soon as he got on the car today, he knew his life was about to end.
No one spoke and the whole train was silent.
In a daze, he saw rows of iron bed frames and a narrow corridor, where what appeared to be corpses lay.
He swallowed, his legs trembled, he felt a warm sensation between his legs, and urine trickled down his body. He was so scared that he peed his pants and could not move.
Suddenly, his stiff body trembled, as if he saw something terrifying at the junction of the carriages. Without warning, he shouted, "Let me off! Let me off!"
At the last moment, his desire to survive erupted, and he tried to rush out of the car door in panic, but his left foot tightened, and a hand grabbed his ankle and pulled it hard.
The chain spun as fast as a ship dropping anchor, and he was pulled away by a sudden strange force.
The person outside the car who was responsible for pulling him staggered. He was clearly prepared, but at this moment he didn't even have the ability to fight back.
With a bang, he stepped on the carriage, trying to stop the movement, but two words appeared on the helmet of his companion next to him: "Let go."
They tried it out and found out that the rule was true: you can't talk on the Homecoming train.
It's just a pathfinder dog that died. There's no need to go to the trouble of saving it.
He understood, but at this moment the chain in his hand loosened, and the strange force he had just resisted disappeared.
They hesitated for a while and slowly retracted the chain. The chain was too light and it was definitely not used to tie up a person.
Sure enough, as the chain was pulled longer and longer, blood stains and granulations appeared on the chain. When it was pulled to the front, only a collar was left with some human tissue wrapped around it, probably from the lymph nodes in the neck.
There were pink particles mixed in the minced meat tissue, which seemed to be... apple snail eggs?
It's worthy of being called the Homecoming, it's so dangerous. I was just talking in the carriage, but someone gnawed me till not even my head was left.
Several of their helmet panels have been modified so that they can project whatever they want directly onto the screen, and several people can communicate without having to speak.
"Did you see how he died?"
"without."
They had someone specifically responsible for observation. When the pathfinder dog was dragged in, the interior of the car could be seen through the car window, but it was always quiet and there was no movement inside.
What was it that killed the Pathfinder dog?
"How many minutes are left?" someone asked on the panel.
The remaining person held up a timer, "Three minutes and forty-two seconds."
They wasted some time exploring the way, and it was said that the Homecoming would only dock for ten minutes, so they had no time to waste.
"After getting on the car, go to your own bed first to look for clues. The dining car can talk. After checking, go directly to car 7." The leader gave orders on the screen, and the others nodded to indicate their compliance.
The leader took the lead and was about to get on the car, but he stopped and looked at the dining car coldly. Looking through the window, he saw only dining tables and no one.
My companion's screen displayed: "Is there anyone else in this car?"
Others: "Sure enough, there are people besides us who are not willing to die."
"I don't know if it's a human or a ghost."
The leader paused and gave an order on the screen: "Kill the living immediately."
They nodded. They were fighting for their lives when "hunting" outside the wall. Anyone who dared to steal the prey was their enemy, and killing them was the easiest way to deal with it.
They were holding guns in their hands, and after talking, they took the tickets in their hands and got on the train through the door of their own carriage. They all got hard sleeper tickets, and no one had soft sleeper tickets.
Zhu Ning and the others spoke only after the desperadoes disappeared.
Just now, Lin Xiaofeng asked everyone else to put their hands on her and became invisible, but no one knew how the leader could tell that there was someone here.
Now the four people are still connected and completely invisible, like ghosts on a train. If someone suddenly comes in, people would probably think that this carriage is haunted.
When Zhu Ning first heard the voices, he thought it was someone sent by Prometheus to kill people, or that the military district had come to kill the traitor Qi Xueliu. He didn't expect that the person who came was very strange and would kill people before getting on the car.
Their style of action is brutal and effective, and they seem to have the key rules in their hands. Zhu Ning has verified it for them and it is true.
Pei Shu explained in a low voice, "The Predators are the most ruthless bounty hunters. They don't accept private orders, only large jobs. They like to use living people to pave the way and test the rules of the contaminated zone. It seems they came prepared. What's in this car?"
Pei Shu became more and more confused. If there were only historical data on the Homecoming, it would be understandable for the investigators to come up, but why would the plunderers run up there like they were risking their lives?
I haven't heard about the hunter group's recent movements, but Bai Cheng might know.
Pei Shu just wanted to hurry on his way. What kind of treasure train was this? People from all sides wanted to get on it to look for things.
Moreover, the plunderers were brutal and had their own way of exploring the way. Unlike Zhu Ning who came up blindly, they knew in advance that they could not speak and even modified their helmets.
This method of communication is very effective, but its biggest disadvantage is that conversations within the team can be seen by everyone and there is no privacy at all.
Zhu Ning was also puzzled and asked, "What could it be?"
"I don't know," Pei Shu said, "What killed the Pathfinder dog?"
It was also the first time they saw the consequences of triggering the rules. The man spoke, and then was dragged away by something, leaving only a pile of blood. Could there be a third creature in the car?
Zhu Ning thought for a moment and said, "Maybe it's the train itself."
The car was alive. They saw so many apple snail eggs, but what about the apple snails themselves? Perhaps they had already entered their shells and were spinning around.
Qi Xueliu: "The ones in white are the Pathfinders. They have eight people in their team."
When there are more people, there are more troubles. Who knows which foolish person will break some rules and the whole car will be ruined.
Qi Xueliu analyzed: "One of them might be a puppeteer."
Even though the Pathfinder Dog was unwilling and kept begging for mercy, it did not make any mistakes in the key actions. This was only possible because someone was controlling it.
And even though he was in invisible mode, he could still sense that there was someone in the car. The leader probably had some intuition.
Those who come here to die are not unscrupulous.
With a bang, ten minutes passed, the train doors closed, and the Homecoming train started moving again.
Just now they had thought about not getting off the bus, but now they had given up completely. The rules were clearly written on the ticket, and if they violated the rules, the fate of the pathfinder dog would be the same as theirs.
Boom, boom, boom. There was a sound coming from the roof of a car. Someone was walking on the car. Judging from the sound, there might be a hole in the roof of car No. 14.
Zhu Ning looked up and saw that the plunderer was too efficient. It was exploring the roof so quickly. Logically, she also wanted to know whether the roof was safe, but she only had one life and could not afford to try.
Zhu Ning suddenly felt that the situation seemed to be taking a turn for the better. A group of desperate people came up, and Zhu Ning could see a pattern while observing from the side.
Zhu Ning loosened his hand on Lin Xiaofeng, slowly emerging like a ghost, and said, "It's time for us to take action."
It was only a matter of time before the marauders found the food truck; they would eventually meet, and it was impossible for them to remain invisible.
Upon hearing this, Pei Shu threw a package to Zhu Ning. He had just collected a bunch of supplies and found a spare protective suit, but he didn't know if it would fit him.
Zhu Ning immediately understood that any human who came here had seen Zhu Ning's face. Now that Zhu Ning was not wearing a helmet, he would be easily recognized.
Zhu Ning shook out the protective suit and stepped into it. The suit was a little small for her and felt very tight.
Zhu Ning's mind quickened as he spoke, "The information revealed in Chen Qihang's notebook is useful. The first infected passenger must be the source of the contamination."
Chen Qihang told the story of the Homecoming, and Zhu Ning sorted out the sequence of events. If it was the same as the Fungal City, the first person infected was the source of pollution, the unlucky guy who was infected with the apple snail eggs.
It can also be seen from the driving trajectory of the Homecoming that it has been running all the time and wants to go home, but unfortunately it does not know where its home is, so it can only drive around in the wilderness over and over again.
Zhu Ning stuffed Chen Qihang's notebook into his pocket and said, "If the golden apple snail is the source of pollution, then the water ghost is just a passenger."
The water ghosts were some dead bodies that came back to life and got on the Homecoming after it fell to the bottom of the river. The Homecoming must have been infected when they got on.
So water ghosts need to follow certain rules, they can only come when there is water.
Moreover, the water ghosts should not have complete control over the car, otherwise they could easily control the entire car to be filled with water.
But all this must be based on the fact that what the notebook says is true.
Pei Shu and Qi Xueliu stood guard at the doors of the dining car and asked, "Are you going to swallow the source of the pollution?"
"That's the worst option. I don't want to go to the last car."
Car 19 is already so scary, wouldn’t car 22 be fatal if it gets close to the pollution source?
Zhu Ning held the helmet in his hand. He was now completely wrapped up, with only his face showing. "The best strategy is to coexist peacefully with this car and survive until we reach our destination. If I can't survive, I'll think of how to fight back."
Once they left the dining car, they could only communicate with gestures, and the information was not very accurate. Zhu Ning spoke as much as he could while he was still able to.
"Xiaofeng is invisible."
Lin Xiaofeng disappeared just as she finished speaking. Zhu Ning continued, "Xiaofeng is in charge of watching the stops. If the notebook doesn't announce any stops, we won't be able to get off if we miss them. You'll be there to provide support."
Zhu Ning had just observed that ordinary trains would have warnings when entering the station, or at least the speed would slowly slow down, but the Homecoming train stopped suddenly, as if the platform emerged from the darkness, and passengers could easily miss it if they were not paying attention.
Being stranded on the Homecoming train also carries risks.
Lin Xiaofeng's invisibility is meaningless to pollutants, but it is meaningful to living people. The predators can't see him and he has a trick up his sleeve.
"The main strategy is to be conservative. We'll go to the front of the car first. After passing seven cars, we'll observe what the predators are looking for. Pei Shu's fire element can burn the eggs of the golden apple snails, and Qi Xueliu will deal with the water ghosts. Let's stall them for now. I'll slowly figure out a solution. The predators must have more information."
Zhu Ning has always been adventurous, but this time he played the conservative card and decided to go to the front of the car. No one else had any objections.
Zhu Ning held the helmet in her hand and looked in one direction thoughtfully. Pei Shu followed her gaze.
The train happened to pass a bend, and the train, which was originally moving straight, bent in the middle, like a U-shaped lock.
When the train turns, the distance between the front and rear of the train is shortened.
They also saw the last carriage at the bend. Car 22 was completely dark. It was night time and the lights in other carriages were off. Only a few lights were left on, which was at least some light source. However, car 22 seemed to be shrouded in an impenetrable black fog, and it was abnormally dark.
If what the notebook said was true, that was the source of the pollution. Zhu Ning seemed to be meeting the other person face to face through the glass.
The train was traveling at a high speed, and the intersection passed in an instant. The train entered the mountain tunnel, and the light and shadow cast on Zhu Ning's face, making her look moody and uncertain, and it was impossible to tell what she was thinking.
Rumble——
As the train emerged from the tunnel, Zhu Ning heard a snapping sound, followed by a crackling noise, and dense raindrops slapped the window like slaps.
It's raining.
What Zhu Ning worried about happened exactly. The plan could not keep up with the changes. The road above the train was completely blocked and everyone stopped.
The plunderer opened the toilet window of car 14, and under the control of the puppeteer, the two scared-out-of-its-lose-shit exploration dogs climbed onto the roof of the train and were able to lie down flexibly when passing through the tunnel.
But after driving through the tunnel, the two pathfinder dogs were covered in the sudden rain before they could even get up. In the misty rain, everything looked like flowers in the fog.
They saw an old lady in a blue short coat standing on the roof of the car.
The old lady's face was gloomy, her body had swelled to three times its size, and she was swollen beyond recognition.
There was a scream from the roof of the car, followed by blood flowing down. The puppeteer below was so frightened by this sudden change that his body stiffened.
The Homecoming killed people at an incredibly fast speed. They had only been on the bus for five minutes when four people had already died. Even though they had been mentally prepared, the death rate was far beyond their expectations.
The air was filled with a strong smell of blood, which spread all the way to the dining car. Zhu Ning did not see how the Pathfinder Dog died, but he felt the same fear, or rather, double the fear.
At the same time, a pale hand slapped the car window, and then a person used all four limbs to quickly crawl across the car body, making a snapping sound.
Perhaps they had been suppressed for a long time, and finally encountered a heavy rain. The water ghosts came out in droves and climbed densely all over the train. They had no way to escape.
Zhu Ning put on his helmet, completely covering his face, and said coldly, "Action."
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Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided me with nutrient solution between 2023-07-24 20:33:08 and 2023-07-25 20:12:13~
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