"Hey, look! There's something in the sky."
Lin Moxi's voice echoed, prompting the three to look up. The sky was still bright and clear, with the sun shining high, and the sky was a rare, deep blue. But in that bright sky, a small black dot from afar was growing bigger and more noticeable.
"Really? Let me see." Xiao Jin said.
Soon, his eyes changed from curiosity to shock.
"No way! It's a plane!"
A Southern Airlines plane, marked with the code B-7056, descended from the sky, heading straight down towards a building with "Ren" written on it in big letters. The plane crashed with a loud explosion, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass, causing Xiao Jin to slip down, clinging desperately to the wildly shaking door.
The scene of the massive explosion was like a tidal wave sweeping over the tiny SUV, tossing it around. Everyone clung to their seats, staring blankly at the dark smoke, unsure whether to believe what they were seeing.
Boom ———
...
It somehow started raining in the sky. In the breeze from the sea, the thick smoke gradually dispersed, revealing the twisted, dark road ahead.
Jiang Xing closed her eyes. Her chest felt tight, and her head hurt. She massaged her temples, feeling that her left hand was going numb. She didn't even want to speak, and couldn't even muster a sound.
The smoke outside the car was so dense that even the sunlight couldn't fully penetrate it, making everything look blurry. She grabbed her phone, focusing on the empty space in front of her. Amid the chaos, she faintly heard a loud crash followed by a series of strong, rhythmic impacts.
Clearly, they had hit something.
Jiang Xing's nose picked up a faintly decaying smell. Apart from the scent of blood, there was something else, an odor she recognized. Although her head was spinning, she wasn't injured. That smell could only mean there were others nearby.
Jiang Xing forced her eyes open, trying to make out sounds, and amidst the buzzing in her ears, she faintly caught the distinct groans of zombies... from outside the car.
Jiang Xing turned back to look. The car window had a few cracks, and she didn't know what kind of obstacle they had hit, but she dared not check outside herself. She couldn't risk opening the window and becoming a convenient meal for the zombies.
The air inside the car was thick and suffocating. Jiang Xing pinched her nose, took out her phone, and carefully observed the others' conditions.
She checked on Chen An, who was seated in the back row. His situation wasn't great; his head had hit something, causing a lot of bleeding. The scent of blood lingered around him, making her worry.
The two people in the front had clear bumps on their foreheads but seemed to be okay. There was no blood, and though they were unconscious, it didn't look too serious.
Jiang Xing tried shaking Chen An, but he didn't respond. If not for the faint breath she could still feel, she might have thought he hadn't survived.
Left with no choice, Jiang Xing struggled to move past Chen An to reach the people in front. But at that moment, she realized the ground beneath them seemed to be shaking... like an earthquake?
No, this tremor felt more rhythmic, like... something was approaching along the road.
The sound was getting louder, and Jiang Xing held her breath, shrinking into a corner, not daring to move. She caught the familiar, sickening scent of rotting flesh. From the cracks in the car window, a black shadow loomed closer.
As the smell of decay thickened, the groaning of the zombies changed, almost sharper, and there was a rumble that echoed with each step. She watched the black shadow pass by the car with no hesitation, and as soon as it vanished, the zombies began to scatter and flee.
"Boom..."
A low growl, like that of a wild beast, echoed down the street, making Jiang Xing involuntarily tense up.
She struggled to suppress her breathing and squinted through the broken glass of the passenger window. Beyond the glass, there was thick smoke, accompanied by a horrifying and unsettling sound that made her scalp tingle.
Even though she couldn't see clearly, she had a gut feeling that whatever was making that sound was moving in their direction.
Not wanting to take any chances, Jiang Xing sat up in a cold sweat, grabbed her phone, and noticed there was still a signal. She immediately swapped the SIM card from her left pocket with Chen An's SIM card. If she remembered correctly, Chen An's phone had a better network provider.
Luckily, she found Chen An's phone under the seat and managed to retrieve it.
She had to admit, Nokia's build quality was incredibly durable. Her own phone screen was already cracked in several places, yet this phone was still perfectly functional.
After confirming that Chen An's phone was working fine, Jiang Xing crawled forward, squinting to peer through the smoke outside. In front of them was a shape that seemed to be partly hidden, which looked like an electrical pole if she was not mistaken.
Clutching the phone tightly, she closed her eyes, then threw it with all her might in that direction.
"Clang!"
The phone hadn't even landed for long before she heard a thud. As Jiang Xing was about to retrieve it to make a call, a hurried warning siren reached her ears.
"Boom!"
The ground shook as the thundering footsteps grew louder, accompanied by what sounded like someone slamming a giant bell. Jiang Xing barely glimpsed a massive black shadow passing by before it disappeared with a crash towards the eastern part of the street.
Crash!
Screech~
The unsettling, ear-piercing sound echoed through the darkness, and Jiang Xing spotted a ball of fire. Then, another explosion followed. The sound of heated waves spread through the thick smoke, and Jiang Xing felt her ears were being bombarded by shards of glass, her eardrums practically numbed by the intensity.
She felt a cold sweat break out on her body, and she even felt nauseated. Luckily, she hadn't eaten much earlier; otherwise, she might have already vomited it all out.
Hugging herself, Jiang Xing curled up tightly in the corner. After the blast passed, the chaotic sounds around her gradually faded, and the suffocating smoke began to dissipate. She knew she had narrowly avoided being crushed, but she didn't dare move. After all, the loud noise just now could easily attract countless zombies.
However, after several minutes, Jiang Xing heard no further approaching sounds. Even the groans of the zombies had become faint, indicating that they were moving away.
The window next to her had been shattered by the shockwave, leaving a few cracks. Jiang Xing cautiously peeked outside, seeing nothing but an empty street.
There were no more zombie groans, and the smell of decay had vanished; the zombies had left.
Jiang Xing slowly exhaled, realizing the worst had passed. She then reached for the door handle but found it had already broken. After thinking for a moment, she used some force and managed to pry open the car door.
Fresh air rushed in, and Jiang Xing felt much better. She stepped out of the car and walked a few paces toward the site of the explosion.
There, she found only a dried-up zombie skeleton, and nearby, the upper half of a mutated creature.
Jiang Xing gulped. This mutant's body was large enough to crush her with ease, but fortunately, it had been blown apart in the blast. Its giant, insect-like limbs were still twitching from the residual biological activity, though they were now lifeless and powerless.