Jiazhou City belongs to the edge of the Yunjiang Plain, near the western Dazhu Plateau, and is also a major transportation hub. From here, heading in the northeast direction can lead to Xilan and Quan City, the northeast direction covers the Western Desert swallowed by the Star Abyss No. 5, and the southeast direction includes Haidong covered by the Star Abyss No. 7. The Star Orbital passes right through the middle of the Star Abyss No. 5 and No. 7, intersecting cities like Jiazhou City, Hengshan Pass, Wei River, Longjiang, crossing over Palma Prairie into Jin Hai and Star City.
Jiazhou City’s Star Orbital station is a large building constructed on the slope of a hill, overlooking the whole of Jiazhou City from a height.
Because it wasn’t enveloped by the Dark Tide, the area was clear and sunny, lacking the blizzard and freezing temperatures of the Dazhu Plateau before, making the temperature quite comfortable.
At this moment, the Infinity slowly entered the rail station platform. This station is a passenger center and, under normal circumstances, should be occupied by zombies. However, when Lin Xian and his group arrived, vigilant, they discovered that the passenger platform was entirely empty. Moreover, there wasn’t even a single corpse in sight.
Were it not for the scattered luggage, dried and congealed bloodstains, and buzzing flies, Lin Xian would have almost thought it was just like before the apocalypse when the doors hadn’t opened yet.
"That’s strange, we only arrived a few hours late. Could it be none of the survivors in their vehicles wanted to rest in this city? Why can’t we see anyone?" Chen Sixuan frowned and asked.
Lin Xian also felt puzzled at this moment. He remembered that Shu Qin’s caravan was supposed to wait for them here, but the situation at hand was subtly eerie.
"Where are Da Lou and Lu Xingchen?"
"They stood guard all night, they’re still sleeping."
"Wake them up," Lin Xian said gravely. "Everyone, be on alert."
Something abnormal is a sign of danger, and the absence of so many survivor caravans here was highly unusual.
Normally, this area would be temporarily away from the eternal night of the Star Abyss No. 3. After experiencing a cruel night at the Airport, they should have stopped to rest.
"Jiang Yun and the others should have arrived a few hours earlier than us, and it wouldn’t have been daylight here at that time," Chen Sixuan attempted to analyze, "Could they have encountered an Abnormal Body?"
"That’s possible," Lin Xian nodded.
Crack crack... crack, crack.
At that moment, the radio suddenly sprang to life, leaving Lin Xian somewhat astonished. This radio frequency was still set from when they coordinated during the Airport’s traction plan; was someone from the Airport still here?
"Captain Lin, Captain Lin, can you hear me?"
"Is that Shu Qin!?" Chen Sixuan exclaimed in surprise.
Lin Xian immediately pressed the talk button: "We can hear you. Where are you?"
"Captain Lin! Be careful, do not open the car doors or windows, this place has... crack, crack—"
Before Shu Qin could finish her sentence, a crisp bird call suddenly sounded right in front of the vehicle. Thud, a black crow landed in front of the windshield, constantly cawing while looking into the cabin.
Everyone instantly held their breath as the crow’s eyes were already hollow masses of flesh, with several slender black tentacles growing from inside, writhing like some Parasite.
As if sensing the presence of people inside, the crow turned its head and suddenly pecked fiercely at the windshield.
The force of the impact was tremendous, emitting a clear sound.
"This thing has been infected by the darkness," Lin Xian frowned as he spoke, and just as KIKI stepped forward, raising her hand to clean it, the crow suddenly went berserk and began to ferociously peck at the car window.
Like a machine, after a few pecks its entire beak started to break apart, numerous black slender tentacles began to stretch out from the smashed bird head, sticking to the glass and making a creaking sound.
Following that, more and more crows started to fall from the sky above the platform, a dark mass formed, some circling in the air, others landing on the platform’s canopy, and with the continuous strikes from that crow, the flock began to descend upon the Infinity.
Bang Bang Bang Bang...
In an instant, sounds like rain drops began to emerge from the roof of the car, and people inside the vehicle started to look around.
Lin Xian’s mind shifted, and he immediately closed all the blackout panels and at the same time shut down the entire ventilation system, temporarily turning the carriage into a crude sealed environment.
"These things... so disgusting..."
Lin Xian turned his head and looked at Ding Junyi, "Have you seen this thing before?"
Ding Junyi glanced around, hands in his pockets, "I’ve never seen it; the mutated species infected by the darkness are too numerous, our biological lab receives new samples every day. Their infectiousness, aggressiveness, and methods of attack are completely unpredictable, but the fact that there is not a single zombie here suggests that some kind of biological outbreak has happened."
Biological outbreak...
Everyone’s expressions changed slightly upon hearing this, wondering what kind of biological outbreak could have occurred that there isn’t even a single zombie in sight.
Shu Qin’s voice came through again: "Can you hear me?"
"I can hear you, where are you?"
"We... click... we are currently hiding in a train maintenance warehouse... click..."
"Over there!" Hearing Shu Qin’s words, Chen Sixuan immediately pointed Lin Xian towards a distant black warehouse on a platform sideline, which also had a gantry crane outside and several old, rusty gas turbine locomotive heads parked.
The walkie-talkie continued to transmit, "Last night, many survivor caravans were attacked by unidentified creatures... click... the sky is full of them everywhere... click...any sound heard would attract them..."
"Look!" Chen Sixuan pointed towards the city streets above at that moment, where there was a mass of black clouds slowly moving, "That’s not a cloud, that’s all birds!"
"Oh my goodness, so many birds," Lu Xingchen came over with dark circles under his eyes, staring out in surprise.
"It’s like a swarm of mosquitos," Sha Sha’s small face tightened into a knot, also feeling terrified looking at the scene.
Bang Bang Bang Bang!!
The dense, constant sounds began to resonate, and Lin Xian immediately raised his hand to silence everyone, then he looked around and noticed an old freight train metal water tower not far from the docking platform. With an idea in mind, he turned and pointed at the cylindrical water tank above the tower to KIKI, then made a rolling motion.
KIKI, seeing this, quickly nodded, understanding Lin Xian’s intention.
Right away, she stepped forward, raised her hand trying to use telekinesis to control the water tank. Fortunately, the distance was not too far. Under KIKI’s superpower coaxing, the water tank on top of the high tower suddenly began to twist, the supporting metal frame snapping, emitting a bang bang bang sound.
This noise suddenly attracted the attention of many Zombie Crows, and just like that, a swarm of Zombie Crows flew from the sky and the canopy.
KIKI realized it was effective and began to exert more force, twisting the metal water tank with telekinesis and then throwing it down the slope.