As has been said before, no one can or should leave a home with a bonfire or lights on in the dark and go to the surface.
The sudden exchange of gunfire outside the inflatable tent soon subsided, like a short marketing video with no beginning or end. Before the sounds became sparse, Gu Chen was still worried whether stray bullets would drift to their destination, but before he could take any concealed measures, the terrifying sounds that shook his eardrums came to an abrupt end.
When he came to his senses, he realized that the "demon" sitting cross-legged was still in the same position as before, like a Buddha statue carved from rock. He suddenly felt that Jiang Ling's figure had grown taller, as if he had rewinded to the time when he had just become the first mate and faced the old captain. A strange sense of dependence gradually became clear in his subconscious.
"Tsk, one got away." The Buddha statue said, "That's it for tonight. Let's wait until tomorrow! Good night."
"Um, good night!" Gu Chen answered blankly. He didn't realize that he had lost the ability to think independently.
The next day, among those who got up at the scheduled time, no one tried to talk about the beautiful dream of last night. They just completed the necessary washing and filling human feed, then packed their bags and set off on the journey again.
The early morning sky was covered with gray clouds, and sunlight had to penetrate thousands of meters of water vapor to reach the ground. Fortunately, it was not raining at this time, and the vision would not be disturbed by the rain curtain, so everyone could see the dilapidated scenery around them, which was exactly the same as yesterday.
The group walked for an hour and a half before reaching the location of the transportation provided by Lady Luck. To be more precise, it was the scene of a damaged traffic accident—one of the original three cars was missing, and the only drivable one was a modified jeep, overturned on the side of the road.
The scene of the accident was horrific, with no one alive - this was inevitable - but the crowd also did not find any complete bodies. After they pushed the jeep back to its original position, they removed half of a human corpse that was emitting a strange smell from the side that was pressed down.
The two young men didn't comment on the halfling. They had to work hard not to vomit directly into their protective suits. Gu Chen, on the other hand, found some clues about the truth from the various traces left at the scene:
This group couldn't have more than nine people in total, otherwise, no matter what they managed to gain during their outing, it wouldn't have been a positive outcome! Judging by the footprints, the "accident scene" should have had three stages... The first was a sudden braking incident. They were driving very fast, leaving very long skid marks that broke off at a depression in the road, causing the leading jeep to flip over. The second stage was likely a fratricide; the bloodstains in the car were all caused by gunshot wounds, as evidenced by the bullet holes in the cremated tractor trailer. The third stage might have been the intrusion of mutants. The heavy rain that suppressed the smell of blood last night stopped early, and some mutants are extremely sensitive to smells, able to smell corpses from kilometers away. They're likely still quite a ways away.
"What are you thinking about?" Jiang Ling patted his shoulder.
"No, nothing." Gu Chen suppressed his thoughts temporarily and returned to reality, "I was wondering how long we have to walk on the road."
"Then you have to be prepared. Both fuel tanks of this broken car are leaking, and now there is less than 20% of fuel left. The drive shaft also makes some strange noises. I don't think it can last too long, so we have to take a walk around this group's lair. I hope you haven't forgotten how to shoot." Jiang Ling opened the driver's door and said with one foot on the car frame.
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