Chapter 282: Traffic Jam
Bangladesh, east bank of the Ganges River, Comilla.
A convoy of vehicles was steadily making its way east along the Ganges, having left the river basin behind.
The makeup of this convoy was unusual. It consisted of about a hundred survivors, all women.
Their vehicles were a motley assortment of vans, armored cars, and pickup trucks, all overloaded with people and supplies, looking incredibly bulky.
It was as if they had cobbled together whatever vehicles they could find.
Because of the sheer number of people they were transporting, the convoy moved slowly, each vehicle maintaining a speed of around forty to fifty kilometers per hour. Any faster, and someone might fall off.
In the lead pickup, carrying barrels of gasoline, a young girl who looked about fourteen sat at the wheel, glancing worriedly at the beautiful woman beside her, who was staring blankly at a map spread across her lap.
“Sister Sharma,” the girl said, her eyes returning to the road ahead, “are you sure you don’t need to rest?”
They were now driving through a strange area.
The road was surrounded by dense forest, giant trees blotting out the sky, creating an unsettling atmosphere.
Although the trees were a welcome sight, their excessive greenery and sheer size were unnerving.
“I don’t know… We have to go through here to reach Highway NH-44.” Sharma sighed softly. “It’s fine, keep driving.”
Whatever lay ahead, it couldn’t be worse than the horrifying purple blood infection they were fleeing, a monstrous plague spreading like wildfire.
The entire Ganges area under Sharma’s control had been decimated. Hundreds of people under the bridge had died, and even those on the bridge had been mostly wiped out by the infection.
Sharma had even killed many people she knew, barely escaping with a small group. The blood stones she had lost hadn’t been replenished, and what she had scavenged along the way was a mere drop in the bucket.
But they had persevered, spending days fleeing India, crossing Bangladesh, and now heading towards Manipur, the easternmost state of India.
If possible, she still wanted to stay in the familiar territory of India. Manipur was a good option, far from the Ganges, close to the inland, and even offering an easy escape route across the border.
The arduous journey had exhausted Sharma. She hadn’t slept in days, constantly vigilant for zombie hordes, and her mental state was nearing its limit.
Feeling the overwhelming urge to close her eyes, she placed a hand on the young girl’s shoulder. “Stop the car. Let’s rest for two hours.”
They hadn’t seen a single zombie for nearly three hours. This seemed like a good place to stop. Sharma ordered the convoy to rest and regroup, giving the vehicles a break as well, to avoid breaking down on the last leg of their journey.
“Okay.” The girl nodded, gently applying the brakes and waving out the window to signal the others.
In the cracked rearview mirror, she saw the drivers behind her wave back, and she brought the pickup to a complete stop.
“Hiss…”
The engine sputtered and died, emitting a plume of white smoke.
The girl got out to check on the vehicle and inform the others about the rest stop. Sharma, meanwhile, had already closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Her sleep was plagued by nightmares and splitting headaches. She was constantly jolted awake by every sound, her mind on the verge of breaking.
Finally, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, her mental exhaustion slowly fading.
But the respite was short-lived. A commotion abruptly woke her. Sharma’s eyes snapped open, bloodshot and filled with a desperate exhaustion.
“Sister Sharma! Sister Sharma! Behind… behind us!”
Fighting back a splitting headache, Sharma looked in the direction of the voice and saw the blurry figures of the terrifying flesh-and-blood insects stopped at the rear of the convoy.
Each insect was the size of a car, some with three pairs of legs, some with two.
But they all shared a common feature: they were all grotesque amalgams of flesh, bone, and blood.
And the pulsing, purplish-red veins that crisscrossed their bodies… The sheer, unconcealed density of blood stones within them… it was suffocating.
All the survivors had gathered in front of Sharma’s vehicle, relieved to see her awake.
But they didn’t notice the despair in Sharma’s eyes as she stared at the rearview mirror.
Why… had they followed them so far?
They were so far from the Ganges, so far from New Delhi…
Sharma’s breathing grew ragged, her mind racing with despair.
But after a moment, she pushed open the car door and stepped out, forcing herself to remain calm.
The giant insect creatures were stopped at the rear of the convoy. It was impossible to get everyone back in the vehicles now.
She had few blood stones left, resistance was futile, and Sharma didn’t even bother ordering the others to run.
If they couldn’t outrun them in vehicles, they certainly couldn’t outrun them on foot…
Sharma looked at the monstrous insects at the rear of the convoy and stood there, resigned to her fate.
But after a long while, the expected roars and clicking of legs didn’t come. The insects remained motionless, like statues.
What was going on?
Hesitantly, Sharma walked towards the rear of the convoy. The closer she got to the flesh-and-blood insects, the more her hands trembled.
The terrifying aura of blood stones emanating from them filled her with a primal dread.
Sharma slowly raised her hand, forming a cloud of black mist in her palm with her remaining blood stones.
The moment the black mist formed, the previously motionless insects stirred, taking a few steps back in unison.
These few steps put them just outside Sharma’s attack range.
Huh?
Sharma frowned, confused by the fleshy insects’ retreat.
She took two steps forward, trying to bring them back within range, but the insects retreated again, maintaining the same distance.
It was then that Sharma, her head throbbing, finally realized what was happening.
They knew her attack range and were deliberately avoiding her.
As long as Sharma remained still, they also remained still.
She had never encountered such a strange standoff with other zombies…
No, wait.
She had encountered this before.
That long-haired zombie, controlled by the Awakened who claimed to be from China, the one that hatched from the purplish egg and gave her the blood stone liquid.
Could it be…
Were these also…
Sharma narrowed her eyes, finally examining the fleshy insects closely.
Their legs, their bulky bodies, the single, lifeless eye at the front… they didn’t look threatening at all.
And, if she wasn’t mistaken…
Sharma dispersed the black mist in her hand, took a step forward, and, confirming the insects hadn’t moved, climbed onto a nearby van and looked at the creatures from the roof.
Their backs were translucent, covered with a membrane like a thin layer of jelly.
And beneath that translucent covering, she saw piles and piles of blood stones.
“Ah…”
Sharma’s mouth dropped open.
She had never seen so many blood stones piled together… The sight was so shocking that she momentarily forgot the danger she was in.
These fleshy insects… were they transporting these blood stones?
Sharma couldn’t help but think of the zombie controlled before. Could these be controlled by that Chinese Awakened?
No, that was unlikely… She hadn’t left any markers; how could they know her location?
Could it be that she just happened to be blocking their path, which was why they had stopped?
Indeed, looking at it this way, their convoy had completely blocked the road. This road was the only way to Highway NH-44. Surrounded by giant trees, there was no other way through.
There was no point in wondering whether these insects were being controlled. Regardless, it meant there was a chance to survive without fighting.
It depended on whether Sharma could seize this opportunity.
As for stealing the blood stones?
What a joke.
The power and strength behind creatures or an organization capable of transporting such a massive amount of blood stones were definitely far beyond Sharma’s imagination. Knowing these were transport insects, how could she be so foolish as to attack them?
Did she have a death wish?
And the direction these insects came from… wasn’t it the same direction as her convoy? Wasn’t that place completely infected with that purple blood?
Or had something happened there after she left?
To confirm her thoughts, Sharma slowly walked forward, reached the last vehicle, climbed into it, started the engine, keeping an eye on the insects in the rearview mirror.
After reversing the car a few times and parking it by the roadside, she saw the blood insects move.
They slowly crawled forward along the path she had cleared, stopping beside her—because the road ahead was blocked by other vehicles.
These insects were like AIs executing pre-programmed commands, their movements mechanical and stiff.
But even so, Sharma didn’t dare to have any greedy thoughts.
Even if their movements were stiff, having transported so many blood stones, they must have some kind of “defense program”. She was even afraid that she would do something wrong and activate these defense programs, bringing death upon herself.
After waiting in the car for a while and seeing that the blood insects had no intention of attacking her, she slowly breathed a sigh of relief and turned off the engine again.
She got out of the car, had the other survivors stand on the side of the road with the vehicles, clearing a path, and then started the cars one by one, moving them to the side of the road.
While moving the cars, a question flashed through Sharma’s mind.
Since they stopped when they saw cars, when she was leading the convoy, she had ordered others to set up various roadblocks to prevent zombie hordes from chasing them. Why didn’t those roadblocks stop these flesh insects?
The roadblocks she set up were much more substantial than these parked cars. Those were low walls made of scrap cars.
There was only one explanation.
That was, these insects had been given orders not to harm humans who didn’t attack them.
Just as Sharma was thinking about this and preparing to start her own vehicle, which was at the very front, and leave, she suddenly heard a faint buzzing sound.
“Buzz…”
Bees? Or fruit flies?
Sharma looked up and saw a golden light descending from the dense branches and leaves.
The golden light hovered in the air for a while, then landed on a branch, seemingly observing them.
What… kind of insect was this?
Just as Sharma was puzzled, a large number of golden flying insects swarmed through the branches onto the road, which was covered by giant trees, and landed on the huge trees on both sides, turning the originally somewhat dark road into a starry sky.
What was going on?
Just as Sharma’s mind was about to short-circuit again, she saw a graceful figure slowly descending, and vaguely, she seemed to hear the beautiful girl saying something in a foreign language.
Perhaps because she was dizzy, the language, spoken by the beautiful girl’s lips, sounded exceptionally pleasant to Sharma’s ears, as if she had heard some kind of divine oracle.
“So that’s where you’re stuck… what a pain…”
Lin Jiayao, controlling Goldie, slowly descended, looked at the “traffic jam” below, and sighed softly.
