Chapter 23

The surroundings instantly fell into dead silence. No one there had expected an ordinary citizen in this place to actually have a gun. Moreover, Su Xing was tall and imposing, looked agile and powerful, and was armed with both a knife and a gun. For a moment, everyone was frozen in place, too afraid to move. The crew-cut man, still half-crouching with his long knife in hand, also didn’t dare act rashly.

“Miss, don’t… don’t get worked up. I was just asking,” the man said nervously.

Su Xing said in a deep voice, “Put the knife on the ground.”

“Okay, okay.” The man slowly put the knife down, then raised his hands.

Su Xing tucked her watermelon knife behind her pack, bent down, and picked up his long knife.

Beside her, Wen Ruyao took the food out of her bag, leaving only the drones and some tools at the very bottom. She zipped it up and slung it back onto her shoulders. Standing up, she said unhurriedly, “We don’t have much either. This should be enough to relieve everyone’s immediate needs. The stadium is only a half-hour drive from here. Surely there won’t be a shortage of food there.”

“…”

Muffled murmurs arose around them. Only after Wen Ruyao walked behind her did Su Xing slowly pull the gun back.

The crew-cut man got up from the ground. The young man who had let Su Xing and Wen Ruyao in earlier received a signal from him and began distributing the food on the floor to everyone.

The amount of food in Wen Ruyao’s backpack wasn’t large. Evenly divided among seven or eight people, it could only barely fill their stomachs. What these people needed more desperately was water, actually. Yet the crew-cut man alone downed three bottles in one go. By the time the rest was distributed, there was even less for others. But at this moment, no one dared speak up. Those suffering from thirst and hunger, combined with the hyperoxic state weakening the already frail, became even less adapted. The weaker the body, the less qualification one had to receive food.

“So that drone yesterday was yours? Impressive gear,” the crew-cut man said, his thirst quenched after downing the water. He didn’t seem angered or humiliated by Su Xing pointing a gun at him earlier; he sidled closer.

Yesterday, he’d heard a strange noise outside. Also aiming to solidify his leadership position here, he had grabbed his knife to psych himself up and do his routine patrol up the stairwell. Actually, his so-called patrols were just him going up one floor where there was no one and hanging out for two or three minutes to put on a show. But when he came down yesterday, he saw the drone that had suddenly appeared at the door. In a moment of tension, he had knocked it down with his long knife.

Su Xing kept a cold face, not wanting to respond to him. But then she recalled not seeing this man in the video footage the drone’s camera had captured yesterday, which led her to suspect he might be the one who’d struck the machine from behind. She had even less to say to him.

It was Wen Ruyao who, uncharacteristically, took the initiative to engage. “When do we leave?”

“Right away, right away. But it’s very dangerous on the road. Do you have a car? How about riding in mine?” the man said, smiling.

Finding a capable ally in the apocalypse increased one’s chances of survival. Su Xing and Wen Ruyao, at a glance, had clearly come prepared—they had food, a gun, and were calm and collected. Moving together with people like that meant extra assurance if they ran into danger. So, the man was deliberately trying to win them over.

But no one paid him any attention. The crew-cut man turned back around sullenly to face the others. “Then let’s go over my evacuation plan. Does anyone have objections? No? Then go get your cars and get ready to move out!”

The remaining people in the garage exchanged glances. Finally, a man with glasses hesitated and spoke up timidly, “There’s only seven or eight of us total. Even with the two of them, ten people—two five-seater cars would be enough. Why do we need to take so many vehicles?”

The crew-cut man scoffed. “What if the car you’re in gets targeted by a monster? All five people in one car, all dead? You’re welcome to cram into one car together. Just don’t come crying about it later.”

“…”

With that said, no one else voiced any objections. They silently accepted his suggestion.

“Those with cars, go get them now. High-chassis, big vehicles lead the way up front; small cars follow behind. Little Yang, you drive and take point.” The crew-cut man finished speaking and patted the shoulder of the young man holding the baseball bat.

The young man froze, then said reluctantly, “Huh? W-why do I have to be at the front?”

“You punk, didn’t you say you knew the back roads best? Would I screw you over? Don’t worry, I’ll be right behind you. You’ll be very safe.” After saying this, the man nudged him. “Go on, hurry up.”

The young man frowned but didn’t refuse further. He turned and went to get his car.

These people were basically all property owners here; their own cars were parked right in the garage. Soon, five cars—including Wen Ruyao’s Land Rover—were lined up at the garage exit.

Three SUVs in front, two smaller sedans behind. The baseball bat boy was in the very front leading the way; the crew-cut man drove the second car himself; Wen Ruyao drove the third, placing them right in the middle.

Su Xing sat in the passenger seat, holding the gun in her hand in case they ran into danger on the road.

She frowned, staring at the rear of the car ahead, and couldn’t help but say, “We could have just threatened them earlier and driven straight out ourselves.”

Why did they absolutely have to go with these people and even give away a pack of food? Although Su Xing still carried most of the supplies on her person, she was still puzzled. This didn’t seem like Wen Ruyao’s usual style at all.

Wen Ruyao gripped the steering wheel, her expression calm. “When a pride of lions hunts a herd of gazelle, they typically prefer to attack the straggler at the back. To those monsters outside, we are like fish on a chopping block. If sardines want to survive near the mouths of powerful predators, they can only swim forward in dense schools, winning by distracting the enemy’s attention.”

“…”

Su Xing simply shut her mouth and stopped talking.

Looking at it that way, that crew-cut man had intended from the start to use the others as distractions, hoping to sacrifice them to save himself. But now, they were doing the same—it was just that who would survive was still uncertain. After heading out, it all came down to luck. The only certain thing was that the current arrangement was somewhat disadvantageous to the two lower-chassis sedans at the back. And those people were also the ones with the least say in the decision, the most passive ones.

The garage door slowly rolled open. The lead car floored the accelerator, tearing out right at the edge of the rolling shutter. Wen Ruyao followed closely behind, driving her car right after. The violent forward momentum slammed Su Xing’s back hard against the seatback. She reflexively clutched the seatbelt tightly. After speeding out of the garage, the car made an abrupt left turn, a move that nearly launched out the dinner Su Xing had eaten the night before.

The vehicle tore through the residential complex at an extreme speed. Inside, Su Xing’s heart hammered rapidly in her chest from pure instinct. Only after calming down a bit did she start paying attention to the outside situation. But because the car was moving so fast, she couldn’t observe carefully in time. She barely managed to focus her vision when, through the window, she saw a four-legged monster scuttling across the outer wall of a nearby high-rise, chasing after them. It then leaped, jumping straight toward the roof of their car!

Wen Ruyao slammed the accelerator to the floor. The car instantly surged forward in speed. The monster grazed the car roof and tumbled behind them, landing on the very last car in the convoy.

Through the rearview mirror, Su Xing saw the monster clinging to the roof of that small sedan. Its hard head brutally smashed through the front windshield. The sedan lost control, crashing into a tree and stopping. Then came a series of bloodcurdling, agonized screams.