However, she was certain she had never seen such a person before. She didn’t trouble herself with it and the car slowly left the refugee camp.
It would have been faster and shorter to take the highway from P City to Yellowstone City, but Jianxiong didn’t choose that route, for it was clogged with abandoned vehicles for several kilometers.
They needed to enter another city before nightfall to find a place to stay overnight.
However, it still took the better part of the day just to drive out of P City, even taking the shortcut.
Traveling on the desolate national road, the arrival of spring did not bring vitality to the barren trees, the black-brown dead trees on either sides of the road, and the yellowing decaying leaves formed a thin layer on the highway ahead.
As the car sped by, it stirred up countless fallen leaves. Occasionally, a few zombie bodies or the remains of human corpses lay in the middle of the road, producing a crisp crushing sound as the car wheels rolled over them.
The waning light of the setting sun shone on the car’s hood, an indescribable desolation, making Su Mo’s mood all the more somber.
The apocalypse entered its second year, and the entire planet had collapsed entirely.
On the not-so-spacious road, fortunately, there weren’t many zombies, but occasionally, a few white-eyed deer would leap through the bushes beside the road.
Su Mo leaned on the car window, looking out at the scenery and said casually, "Will we be able to find a place to stay before nightfall? There are many bushes around here, and it seems dangerous to camp rashly."
Jianxiong had a map spread out on his thigh; he sat in the back seat, looked at it for a while, and said, "There’s a small city ahead of us where we can manage to settle down for a bit on the outskirts."
Lu Chen was driving the car, his phoenix eyes glanced to the side, and with one hand free, several lychee-flavored lollipops appeared in his palm, extending them towards Su Mo.
"Lollipops? You didn’t give all these snacks to Ling Ye, huh?" Su Mo took the candy, smiling and asking.
The man looked back unnaturally, coughed lightly, and said, "Well, that’s all that’s left."
"Jianxiong, here’s one for you," Su Mo handed one back, then unwrapped the lollipop and put it in her mouth. The sweet taste brightened her mood considerably.
With the lollipop in her mouth, Su Mo gazed at the fiery clouds ahead, her eyes filled with wonder.
The car then continued calmly for about another hour, until the roaring of a helicopter’s rotors reached their ears from the sky.
Surprised, Su Mo stuck her head out the window to look up; a military-green helicopter was flying at low altitude. Its rotors were spinning rapidly, and black smoke billowed from its tail and top, indicating it was about to crash.
"A helicopter? Those are hard to come by nowadays," Jianxiong couldn’t help but exclaim, then added with some regret, "It’s going to crash."
Following the direction of the helicopter’s trajectory, Su Mo looked towards the small city they were heading to, where she could vaguely make out a very tall building.
"It’s crashing," she said, frowning.
She deliberately extended her focus to the utmost to observe the helicopter; its wings were damaged, and due to the thick smoke, the base of the propeller was unclear, as if it had been hit by something.
Sure enough, not long after she spoke, the helicopter, unable to find a landing spot and with its control panels and instruments completely malfunctioning, crashed right into that very tall building.
What followed was a series of explosions so loud they could deafen, one after another, sending up vast plumes of black smoke and flames.
"Lu Chen, this noise is too loud. Are we still going to rest here tonight?"
From the intercom inside the vehicle, Jin Han’s questioning voice came through.
Su Mo also turned to look at him and spoke softly, "I just observed it. It seems like it crashed after being hit by something in the air."
Jianxiong also said, "This isn’t P city. It’s hard to estimate the number of zombies. To be safe, we should rest around here."
Lu Chen picked up the intercom, "Go down the fork in the road ahead and find a place to settle around there."
As several vehicles, bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun, entered the outskirts of the small city before night completely fell, they set up camp inside a high-speed train station.
In the distance, some desolate hilltops, and the fiery red sunset hid its last corner behind the hills. Half of the sky, stained by the orange glow, gradually succumbed to darkness.
They passed through the hall, cleared out some of the lower-ranked zombies inside, and Su Mo walked onto the escalator of the already out-of-service station, standing on the platform covered with a thick layer of dust.
This high platform, whose top seemed to be destroyed due to some external invasion, provided her with a perfect view of the helicopter that had collided with the skyscraper in the small city.
The thick black smoke had not yet dispersed, and the flames within the smoke were still burning. The fire expanded to both the upper and lower floors, and the charred exterior walls exposed many steel frameworks due to the blaze. Without a stroke of lucky heavy rain or artificial precipitation, the collapse of the building at its midsection was only a matter of time.
Su Mo squinted her eyes, her pupils contracting as she zoomed her vision to its limit, barely making out several people above the raging flames, struggling to descend using a wooden vine, one of whom was as blackened as if charred.
Were there so many survivors from that helicopter?
That was her first instinct. Soon after, she noticed something else. Su Mo looked left and right, her gaze locking on the pillar that originally supported the station platform’s canopy. She deftly climbed up it using her hands and feet.
"What are you doing up there?" Lu Chen, who was setting up a tent with Jianxiong, saw her climbing up like a monkey and asked indifferently.
"There are survivors from the crash site. I’ll take a look," Su Mo replied, quickly standing on top of the stone pillar, where her view was even clearer. She zoomed in again.
Her eyes searched, returning to the people struggling to climb down.
They were about to cross a layer of the building that had been burned to a mere framework. Surprisingly, amidst the high heat of the flames and the floor that could collapse at any moment, these people didn’t seem scared at all. They didn’t even look down; instead, they all turned their heads in unison now and then, looking toward the far east.
Obviously, whatever was on that side was more terrifying than the flames that were endangering them.
Su Mo turned her head, the layers of buildings and trees limiting how far she could see. Within her range of sight, apart from the occasional zombie jumping around, there were only rotting corpses and ruined houses.
She crouched down on the top of the pillar and called out, "There are still living people in that building."
Jianxiong glanced at her while he tied a rope and said, "Little sister, isn’t it quite normal for there to be living people in this world? It’s getting dark. Under these circumstances, we can’t afford to help. That would be a big trouble."
Su Mo drew back her gaze and raised her voice, "I’m not saying we should help. I mean, there is something unusual going on. They don’t seem to be afraid of the zombie horde; they seem to be more afraid of something far away."