Since Xu Shu and the others had taken this road before, this time—with them and Suo Tian leading the way—it took us less than two hours to circle around to the other side of the landslide.
Zhou Wen had been right earlier: the landslide had occurred on this side of the tunnel.
Suo Tian and his group must have noticed it ahead of us and sped through in time.
The static we heard over the walkie-talkie back then was probably them trying to warn us.
Because of the heavy rain earlier, the mountain ground was extremely muddy.
By the time we climbed down the cliff and reached the cars, all of us were covered in mud from head to toe.
Since we had lost two vehicles, we had to redistribute the remaining ones.
After some discussion, I ended up sharing a car with Xiao Hu, Suo Tian, Rongrong, Yangyang, and another black-clad man.
Shen Feng rode with Xu Shu, Uncle Gazi, the bearded man, and Han Lu.
Han Xue, Zhou Wen, Taozi, Jun Di, and Chen Pu took another car.
The black-clad men who had been in the lost cars were reassigned among the remaining vehicles.
We still had six cars left—enough to carry everyone.
Because I get carsick easily, I sat in the front seat holding Xiao Hu, while Yangyang, Suo Tian, and Rongrong sat in the back.
Perhaps because the rain had stopped, all our walkie-talkies were working again.
Not long after the cars started moving, Suo Tian pulled out that same map from before, stared at it for a while, then raised his walkie-talkie and ordered, "There's a small city about a hundred kilometers ahead. We'll exit the highway there and go in."
As soon as Suo Tian finished speaking, Zhou Wen's hesitant voice came through, "The city? There'll definitely be a lot of walkers there. We don't have to go in."
"You're not thinking straight," the bearded man cut in.
"Looks like it's going to rain again soon. Staying on the road is suicide. Better to head into the city, find a safe place, and wait out the storm."
After giving his order, Suo Tian put down the walkie-talkie and kept staring at the map, seeming completely indifferent to the conversation going on over the radio.
"Boss," the middle-aged man's voice finally came through the walkie-talkie, catching Suo Tian's attention.
"Hm?"
"We didn't plan on entering a city before. If we run into a large group of walkers, our ammunition won't be enough to handle them."
Hearing that, Suo Tian paused to think, then replied, "It's fine."
Suo Tian always had a way of inspiring confidence.
Once he said that, the middle-aged man didn't press the issue any further.
As long as Suo Tian said it was fine, it meant he had a plan.
From what I'd learned about him over this time, he was not someone who would act without certainty.
"Suo Tian." Rongrong always addressed him directly by name.
"Hm?" Suo Tian glanced at her, then turned his gaze back to the map booklet.
"Aunt Chen Yang keeps looking at you."
I hadn't expected Rongrong to suddenly say something like that—it completely caught me off guard.
The next second, when I came back to my senses, Suo Tian had already lifted his eyes and was looking straight at me.
After studying me for a moment, he turned back to Rongrong and said seriously, "Mm, that's because she likes me."
Yangyang, who was sitting beside them, burst out laughing, and even the black-clad man driving next to me couldn't help but chuckle.
I shot Suo Tian a glare, then snapped at Rongrong fiercely, "Say something like that again and I'll throw you into Uncle Zhou's car!"
Rongrong had barely interacted with Zhou Wen before, but maybe because he looked so stern and rough, she was the one person she feared most among all of us.
Whenever she got out of line, just threatening to "go get Uncle Zhou" was enough to make her behave instantly.
Sure enough, as soon as she heard me, Rongrong turned her little face away and flashed me a fawning smile, waving her hand playfully.
Her expression was mischievous to the core.
Seeing that I was still squinting at her, she puffed her cheeks and, imitating Yiyi's tone, barked twice—"Woof, woof"—like a little dog.
That was one of Rongrong's peculiar ways of apologizing.
Back then, whenever she'd done something wrong, she often apologized to Xiao Xue like that.
But Xiao Xue thought it was too silly and improper and had forced her to stop.
Now that Xiao Xue was gone, Rongrong had brought it back again.
Yiyi was in another car at the moment, but when Suo Tian heard Rongrong's spot-on imitation, he turned to look at her once more, reached out to ruffle her hair, then put away the map, pulled Zheng Rongrong into his arms, rested his chin on her head, and closed his eyes to rest.
A journey of just over a hundred kilometers should've taken only one or two hours, but because the earlier rain had washed down plenty of mud and rocks from the mountains, we had to drive slowly.
It wasn't until around five in the afternoon that we finally saw the highway exit in the distance.
"Get off here," Suo Tian said.
Even though he'd had his eyes closed the whole way, as soon as we reached the junction, it was as if he'd sensed it.
He opened his eyes, looked ahead, then picked up the walkie-talkie and ordered, "This is it—head into the city."
"Yes, sir." A few responses came over the radio, and our convoy of vehicles all exited the highway and began heading toward the city.
There was still some distance between the highway exit and the city proper.
Dusk was already setting in, so we picked up speed as we drove.
The area was mountainous, unlike other cities where highways usually led into suburban neighborhoods—here, it was nothing but desolate wilderness, completely devoid of life.
After traveling another ten-plus kilometers forward, a huge cluster of cars suddenly appeared ahead, crammed together in a chaotic mess, blocking the entire road.
"Boss?" The black-clad man driving our car turned his head slightly and called out to Suo Tian.
"Stop. Let's get out and take a look," Suo Tian said after staring at the obstruction for a moment, then was the first to step out of the car.
I quickly scanned the surroundings.
The road we were on ran straight between two small hills, and up ahead, nearly a hundred cars were haphazardly parked, completely blocking the way.
After signaling to Yangyang to stay in the car and watch over Xiao Hu and Rongrong, I got out as well.
The others from the other vehicles also stepped out one after another and gathered around us.
Suo Tian climbed onto the roof of one of the cars and looked into the distance for a while before lowering his head, deep in thought.
Soon, the other black-clad men followed suit, climbing onto nearby cars to get a better view.
"Holy crap, this road's blocked tight," the bearded man shouted after taking a glance ahead.
"There's no damn way we're getting through that!"
"Huh? Then what do we do? Do we have to go back the way we came?" Taozi asked nervously.
While he spoke, I glanced at the cars ahead.
Each one was coated in a thick layer of dust—clearly they'd been here for a long time.
My guess was that when the chaos first broke out, everyone had been desperate to escape, but something must have happened here that caused the entire convoy to jam up.
As for the people inside those cars… most of them probably hadn't made it.
Judging by the chaotic way the vehicles were stopped, you could imagine just how disastrous the scene must have been back then.
"We can't turn back," Zhou Wen said, frowning.
"Look at the sky—there's definitely going to be a heavy storm tonight. If another landslide hits, we might not be as lucky as we were last night."
At that moment, Suo Tian jumped down from the car roof, scanned the area once more, then pointed ahead and said, "Clear out the larger vehicles around the outer edge. We'll stay here for the night. If the rain's still heavy tomorrow, we'll head into the city then."
So we all got to work, starting to clear the vehicles on the outskirts.
Split into small groups, each of us began cleaning out the cars we intended to use as temporary shelters.
Xu Shu and I found a small truck with a cargo compartment—it was large enough for all of us to sleep inside.
Shen Feng and I decided to check the driver's cabin first.
The windshield was covered in a thick layer of dust, completely blocking the view inside.
Standing beside the door, I reached out and wiped some of the dust away, but it was too thick—no matter how much I wiped, I still couldn't see clearly.
So I leaned closer, pressing my face near the window to get a better look inside.
Just as my face was almost against the glass, a half-rotted, blackened face suddenly slammed against the window from the inside with a loud thud.
For an instant, that decayed face was right in front of mine, separated only by the thin pane of glass.
The sudden shock hit me hard—I let out a loud scream and instinctively stumbled back two steps.
"What happened?!" Shen Feng ran over from the front of the truck.
Seeing the terrified look on my face and hearing the muffled bangs as the walker inside pounded on the window, he frowned slightly, then looked at me. "You okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," I said, still shaken, swallowing hard.
"I leaned in too close to the glass and ended up face to face with it. Scared the hell out of me."
Shen Feng gave me a helpless look and waved his hand. "Step back. I'll take care of this."
I took two quick breaths, tightened my grip on the dagger, and tried to sound casual to Shen Feng standing by the truck door: "I'm fine — open the door. One stab and it's done."
Shen Feng glanced at me, seemed to think I'd recovered, nodded, shifted his body slightly to the side, raised his hand and counted, "One, two…"
I stepped back a little so I wouldn't get knocked down if the walker lunged out once the door opened.
"Three!" Shen Feng yanked the door open.
The walker, which had been slumped against the door, lost its support and tumbled out.
I seized the moment — while it was still on the ground and hadn't yet risen, I gripped my dagger, charged in, and drove the blade hard into its rotten, disgusting skull…
Afterwards Shen Feng and I gave the cab a quick look-over and, to our surprise, found several comic books inside.
I picked them up and glanced down at the walker whose head had been caved in, thinking to myself that this person likely had a small child at home before they died.
----------------
Exclusive access on patreon to Ch 190
Join now : p@treon*com/DeCakraWnloverz