Chapter 14 The Apocalypse 13
Luo Mingchuan finally gave in. The next morning, the two packed their bags and set off on their journey.
The apocalypse brought not only hordes of zombies, but also extreme and abnormal weather. Summer vacation had just ended, and according to past practice, the weather should have been hot for a while, but now there was a cool breeze and an unnatural chill in the air.
After becoming zombies, their bodies maintained a constant temperature and they were unaware of hot or cold. However, the two still habitually added clothes according to the season: Luo Mingchuan wore a dark, thin windbreaker, covering himself up completely, with not an inch of skin showing except for his face; Lu Xuejin changed into a light-colored hoodie, which made him look slender and youthful, and he looked a few years younger than Luo Mingchuan.
They didn't bring much luggage; a few changes of clothes, some food for disguise, medicine, and necessary tools were enough.
Leaving the residential building, Cheng Ce followed without fail, awaiting Lu Xuejin's instructions. However, this time the handsome young man didn't even glance at him, completely absorbed in his "dangerous" journey to the base.
The Sky Base is located in a neighboring city, and it would take an unknown amount of time to walk there. Using other means of transportation would be too conspicuous, so I decided to go to the side of the street to observe and found an "abandoned" car with its door wide open. After sweeping off the dust, this old means of transportation was put to use again.
"The problem is, I don't have a driver's license and I can't drive," Lu Xuejin said helplessly.
As he spoke, he raised an eyebrow and glanced at the person beside him, a slight smile playing on his lips, his meaning clear.
"..." Luo Mingchuan remained silent.
He just turned 18, does that mean he already has a driver's license and knows how to drive?
A moment later, he resignedly opened the car door and sat in the driver's seat, awkwardly and clumsily familiarizing himself with the positions of the accelerator, brake, and other pedals.
There are no traffic police now, and no need to follow traffic regulations. As long as the car can move and doesn't crash recklessly, it's considered acceptable. Although he has never actually driven one, Luo Mingchuan feels that driving is not difficult.
He quickly mentally rehearsed the procedure, then frowned and turned his head. "What are you standing there for? Get up here!"
Lu Xuejin smiled and said, "Mingchuan, you give it a try first."
Dongyao agreed with his caution: "Exactly! What if he drives recklessly? It's right for the baby to be careful."
"Tsk." Luo Mingchuan clicked his tongue impatiently, stepped on the clutch, pulled up the handbrake, and gently pressed the accelerator. The car slowly started moving, smoothly crashing into the zombies blocking its way.
After driving a short distance, the vehicle slowly reversed and came to a steady stop on the side of the road. He rolled down the window and said succinctly, "Get in."
The roads were filled with zombies with blank, stupid expressions; wherever the car drove, the road was cleared away.
Following the paper map, Luo Mingchuan drove on. As night fell, they planned to park the car next to the shopping mall for a short rest. Just as they got out of the car, several low, ferocious howls suddenly shattered the silence, followed by a barrage of ear-piercing gunfire!
boom!
The raging flames lit up the night sky, and deep purple lightning leaped and flashed at the heart of the flames. In the blink of an eye, the zombies near the mall were wiped out.
Lu Xuejin's right hand was suddenly grabbed by Luo Mingchuan. Before he could speak, his strong arm wrapped around his waist and he was quickly pulled into the shadows of the trees nearby.
Before they could conceal themselves, a well-trained team surrounded them from all directions. Seeing this, Lu Xuejin stepped forward, shielding Luo Mingchuan behind her.
More than a dozen tall, strong men, dressed in uniform dark combat uniforms and leather boots, with daggers and other melee weapons at their waists, bulging backpacks on their backs, and the black muzzles of their guns all pointed at them, exuding a strong sense of intimidation.
“There are two humans,” one of the men said after observing for a moment with his gun. The men blocking the way parted to the sides, and a man strolled out lazily. He was not carrying any weapons and walked straight up to Lu Xuejin. He was clearly the leader of this group.
A cluster of flames leaped out, the flickering light casting interplay of light and shadow on Lu Xuejin's face.
The leader had a youthful, baby-faced appearance, but his voice was deep and hoarse, completely at odds with his looks: "Where are you from? Where are you going?"
His tone was languid, but his gaze was sharp as a knife, scanning up and down, his light-colored eyes seeming to conceal daggers.
"..." Her long eyelashes, shrouded in the firelight, trembled a few times, like a butterfly fluttering its wings in the night. Lu Xuejin dared not look into his eyes, her gaze lowered, only daring to fall on his chin, and whispered about her origins and whereabouts.
"Speaking so softly, do you think we're bad guys?" The leader chuckled twice, gesturing with his chin towards Luo Mingchuan. "Where is he?"
The dozens of gun barrels around him were mostly pointed at Luo Mingchuan.
In the eyes of these team members, the frail Lu Xuejin was not a threat, but the man she was subtly shielding behind her looked like someone who was not to be trifled with.
“…He is my younger brother, Luo Mingchuan.” Lu Xuejin’s voice trembled, sounding full of fear.
"Don't dare to look at me?" The leader felt a tickle in his heart from the weak and timid voice. Without saying a word, his rough fingers pinched the other's fair chin and slowly forced him to lift it. In the flickering light, he met a pair of warm and clear eyes.
Those eyelashes blinked rapidly, like butterflies fluttering. The leader wanted to touch them, but seeing his men trembling with fear, their faces taut, looking utterly terrified yet too afraid to push him away, his heart, harder than stone, surprisingly stirred with a bit of conscience, and he loosened his grip.
Lu Xuejin immediately took a half step back and subconsciously moved closer to Luo Mingchuan behind him for support. He thought his movements were discreet, but the leader saw everything.
He's as timid as a rabbit.
The leader chuckled and continued questioning, "Where were you hiding before? Did you encounter any zombies?"
Lu Xuejin clutched the hem of her clothes, as if drawing courage from it to speak, "...I stayed home the whole time. When I saw people biting each other downstairs, I was too scared to go out, so I locked all the doors and windows and hid. There weren't many zombies in the building. At first, a few would ram the doors, but after a few days they stopped. Later, the food became less and less, and we didn't want to starve to death. Yesterday, I heard the radio, gritted my teeth, ran to the basement, drove out, and knocked away any zombies that tried to approach..."
She's pretending to be weak again.
Luo Mingchuan thought.
Those who were extremely wary of him would never know that the body nestled beside him was utterly devoid of human warmth, the fingernails hidden in the cuffs were sharp as knives, and those seemingly innocent eyes would turn bloodshot in an instant. Once deceived by the trembling, weak, and easily bullied appearance, and their guard was lowered, they would immediately learn a lesson etched into their bones that they would never forget.
A bunch of idiots.
The leader pressed on, "And then?"
Lu Xuejin appeared even more terrified, "We originally wanted to find a place with fewer zombies to stop and rest, but then we heard gunshots, and we thought it was..."
He stopped speaking at this point and lowered his eyes again.
Although timid, he speaks logically and clearly, and doesn't annoy people.
The leader smiled enigmatically, "If we were bad guys, with your fragile body, you'd be dead in a single encounter."
After speaking, he raised his hand, and the team members all lowered their guns, instantly easing the tense atmosphere that was about to erupt.
Someone kindly reminded them: "Don't leave the car rashly next time. Enclosed spaces can lock in your scent, making it harder for zombies to detect you. We're not bad people, we're a hunting team from Sky Base."
"This is our captain, Mu Tong. I'm Yun Hongli. You all seem quite young, probably still students, right? Just call me Sister Li," she introduced. The other team members either dispersed to keep watch around the perimeter or went inside the mall to search for supplies, leaving only Yun Hongli and Mu Tong behind. She watched over the two of them, while Mu Tong stood for a while, then went to the side to smoke.
Yun Hongli then reminded everyone of some precautions for navigating the post-apocalyptic world. She had seen too many survivors like Lu Xuejin since joining the hunting team—most of them had narrowly escaped the first wave of zombies and hadn't yet adapted to the post-apocalyptic world. They foolishly ran out, neither knowing how to conceal their "humanity" nor how to deal with these zombies.
If the hunting party encountered any, they would save as many as they could. Those who weren't encountered mostly ended up as food for hordes of zombies. The more Yun Hongli saw, the harder her heart became.
But the young man in front of her was good-looking and had a gentle temperament. He didn't get angry even when the captain teased him like that, which made her feel good about him. So she couldn't help but say a few more words.
After speaking, she caught a glimpse of the cold-faced, gloomy man beside Lu Xuejin out of the corner of her eye, and felt a sense of unease for no reason.
...These two brothers are truly worlds apart.
“Sister Li,” Lu Xuejin didn’t correct the other woman’s misjudgment of her age, and still asked in a weak voice, “Are you going back to the base? Can you take us with you? We can help you with logistics. I…we still have money…”
What a silly child. In the current situation, money is like waste paper; it's only good for burning as a game.
However, the base was short-staffed at the time, and all the survivors they had encountered earlier, as long as they were confirmed not to have been bitten by zombies, would be sent to the base. Yun Hongli was about to agree when the shepherd boy stubbed out his cigarette and walked over, bluntly asking, "Why should I take you along?"
He'd been standing there smoking for ages, yet he didn't smell of smoke at all, only the stench of flames. His voice, like his superpower, was pungent. "I can't lift anything, so bringing you along would just be a burden. Do you know what the hunting team does? Zombies contain crystal cores, essential for power users to upgrade their abilities. They're practically the base's hard currency now. My team specializes in hunting zombies and looting crystal cores. You want to come along? With your guts, you'll probably faint from fright when facing a horde of zombies, and we'll have to divide our attention to save you."
"No way..." Lu Xuejin retorted softly.
"What don't you know?" The shepherd leaned closer, almost touching his face, his gaze extremely intimidating. "Dare you look me in the eye and say it?"
My fingers are almost intertwined.
The shepherd boy watched with great interest, finding Lu Xuejin's weak and vulnerable appearance, yet her forced courage to deal with him, both pitiful and endearing. A wicked gleam of amusement bubbled up within him, refusing to subside. He, who usually couldn't be bothered with words, found himself unable to contain his sharp wit and insults towards this beautiful and delicate young man.
"Captain." Yun Hongli couldn't stand it anymore, not understanding why the shepherd boy was being so serious this time, as if possessed by a ghost.
The shepherd boy didn't turn his head. "Don't interrupt. Let him speak."
After a moment of silence, Lu Xuejin, as if having exhausted all her courage, slowly raised her head, her eyes timidly meeting the shepherd's gaze. The hunting team leader's eyes were as sharp as a hawk's, instantly locking onto him, the powerful pressure suffocating him.
He instinctively gripped the hem of his clothes tighter, his fingertips inadvertently brushing against Luo Mingchuan's cold fingers. The knuckles stiffened for a moment, then slowly hooked around him.
"...We will absolutely not hold you back. If something really goes wrong, just abandon us." The young man pleaded in a low voice.
"That sounds very inhumane."
The young man was so frustrated he almost cried.
The shepherd boy was pleased. "Alright, I can take you along. But you must follow my orders and are not allowed to act on your own."
He leaned closer, staring intently into Lu Xuejin's watery eyes, and pointed a finger at the air, "If you don't behave, watch out for dozens of gun barrels in the team."
"Captain, we've almost finished moving everything inside! Come over and check!" A team member called out at the mall entrance. The threat and warning abruptly stopped. Shepherd Boy clicked his tongue impatiently, turned around, and strode over.
As soon as he left, Lu Xuejin's tense body suddenly relaxed, as if all her strength had been drained away, and she almost leaned against Luo Mingchuan.
Yun Hongli reassured her gently, "Don't listen to his nonsense. I will protect you. The hunting team's mission is not dangerous because we are strong enough."
Lu Xuejin nodded weakly, forcing a smile, "I understand. Thank you for teaching me, Sister Li."
Seeing his forced composure, Yun Hongli silently cursed her captain countless times in her mind.
The hunting party kept coming and going until late into the night, filling several vehicles to the brim. Yun Hongli gestured for Lu Xuejin and Luo Mingchuan to get in the car with her. Just as Lu Xuejin had secured the vehicle, the voice of a shepherd boy came from behind them again.
“Wait, I almost forgot there’s something else.” The shepherd boy, sitting in the back seat of the car behind, leaned out and stared at Lu Xuejin. “We need to check if you have any wounds.”
These words were spoken with righteous indignation, but his expression was malicious and mocking, clearly indicating ill intent.
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