"What's going on here…?"
The three quickly scattered and hid behind trees to avoid being spotted by the mutants near the train.
Shao Ming wiped the sweat off his palm, though it seemed the train's carriages had not been breached.
He raised his rifle, scanning the interior of the train. He could see no sign of the two young women, nor any mutants inside.
The gunfire near the train earlier hadn't failed to attract more mutants, but they only arrived after the three had already left the area.
It seemed these mutants hadn't fully entered a dormant state. Although they stood still for the moment, they still occasionally shifted or turned their bodies.
"What do you think, kid?" Asgi slowly moved beside Shao Ming and asked.
"I didn't see them…" Shao Ming replied. "It looks like they're not in the train."
Asgi nodded. "We need to deal with the mutants around the train first."
"There are a lot of them…" Shao Ming resumed scanning the area around the train. "Maybe over a hundred. We can't just shoot our way through."
Asgi agreed. Even though they had guns, it was impossible to engage the mutants directly in this terrain. Once the mutants entered the forest, their chances of hitting them would drastically decrease. Even Asgi, with his special forces training, couldn't guarantee taking down a hundred mutants.
A lone soldier, no matter how skilled, couldn't face such overwhelming numbers.
"What about grenades?" Lambert asked, eyeing the two grenades strapped to Asgi's waist.
"Using them directly would be too inefficient." Asgi shook his head. "Plus, they're too close to the train. I'm not sure if the shrapnel might damage the train."
"What do you think?" Shao Ming asked.
"We need to lure them away," Asgi said. "I'll go. You two try to find the girls."
"You're going alone?" Shao Ming asked incredulously. "There are no sewers for you to crawl into here."
"Being alone makes it easier to avoid detection." Asgi responded. "Like I said, no matter how fast you run, bullets are faster."
With no other viable option, Shao Ming nodded and said, "Come back in one piece."
After Asgi left, Lambert moved closer to Shao Ming.
"He won't see how many zombies there are and just run, will he?" Lambert asked.
Shao Ming shot Lambert a glance and said, "Did that pilot mess you up with PTSD? Don't worry. He still needs us. And besides, would you want to be the one luring the zombies away?"
Lambert shook his head.
With that, the two moved to the other side of the train.
Before long, a gunshot echoed through the forest, and one of the mutants by the train fell.
The mutants immediately reacted and began charging into the forest.
Once most of them had moved away, Shao Ming and Lambert sprinted toward the train.
"Get the train ready!" Shao Ming tossed a walkie-talkie to Lambert. "Press the big button, I've already set the channel."
Lambert nodded and scrambled into the driver's cabin.
Shao Ming hurried to the passenger carriage and opened the door.
Inside, it was empty—Gordon was also nowhere to be seen.
Just as Shao Ming was about to leave the train, the two girls, followed by Gordon, emerged from the swamp nearby.
Seeing Feng Yusheng safe and sound, Shao Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Feng Yusheng threw herself into Shao Ming's arms, her voice tinged with tears. "The moment you left, zombies ran over from the city. We had no choice but to hide in the swamp over there…"
Shao Ming gently patted her back. "It's alright, it's alright…"
The three of them, along with the dog, were all soaked, likely from hiding in the swamp.
"You're really lucky," Shao Ming said as he wiped off some of the mud from Feng Yusheng. "Why didn't you run into the woods? What if you got stuck in the swamp?"
"No, no," Feng Yusheng hurriedly explained. "The swamp isn't continuous. We circled around the edge and made our way to the coast. A lot of zombies got stuck in the swamp, though."
Shao Ming glanced at the swamp. It seemed more like a collection of small ponds. It was easy for a person to identify the real swamp areas, but if you were on the other side of the swamp, you wouldn't be able to tell which parts were safe and which were dangerous with the mutants charging straight toward you.
"Very clever," Shao Ming said as he pulled Feng Yusheng closer. "I'm just glad you're alright."
Yamada Ryo looked around and asked, "Where's Asgi? I don't see him."
Another gunshot rang out from the forest, answering the question.
The group ran to the window and saw a figure in the distance.
Asgi was limping toward the train, with several mutants still chasing him through the woods.
"Cover him!" Shao Ming shouted as he quickly positioned his rifle against the window.
However, Shao Ming had no clear shot. The tree trunks obstructed his view and blocked his bullets.
Asgi finally emerged from the forest. Shao Ming grabbed his shotgun, jumped off the train, and ran toward Asgi.
Yamada Ryo and Feng Yusheng quickly followed and helped Asgi aboard the train.
Shao Ming took aim at the first mutant to break through the trees and pulled the trigger, blasting it in half.
The three of them covered Asgi as he boarded the train, and Shao Ming quickly used the walkie-talkie to signal Lambert to start the train.
The train gradually picked up speed, leaving the mutants behind.
Shao Ming rushed to Asgi's side and saw a bloody wound on his leg.
It was a bite mark.
When Feng Yusheng looked up at him, her eyes were filled with a complex expression.
"How did this happen?" Shao Ming asked.
"I need to admit something…" Asgi said, "Some of them really are fast…"
Shao Ming gripped his rifle tightly, ready to pull the trigger at any moment.
"I understand..." Asgi saw the look of concern on his face and said, "Kid, if I turn into one of them, give me a bullet to the head."
Yamada Ryo started crying, and Shao Ming took a deep breath, squatting down.
Asgi's wound wasn't deep, but it had already torn through the flesh.
Shao Ming replayed every zombie movie and TV show he had ever watched in his mind. Almost every one showed that being bitten meant certain death.
"Didn't I tell you to come back in one piece?" Shao Ming said.
Asgi chuckled. "Looks like I failed a bit."
"Lambert," Shao Ming pressed the walkie-talkie. "Stop the train."
"I won't give up on you," Shao Ming said. "We don't know for sure if this virus will cause mutation from a bite… but just to be safe, I'm locking you up."
"I understand, kid." Asgi nodded.
The group bandaged Asgi's wound and locked him in the empty cabin at the front of the train.
Lambert closed the door and said to Shao Ming, "We should've gone with him to lure the zombies away…"
Shao Ming shook his head. If both of them had gone, it might have been two people locked in there instead.