The door to the driver's cabin slammed shut, and inside, enough food, water, and medicine for seven days had been prepared for Asgi.
"Are we still heading to Paris?" Lambert asked.
Shao Ming answered firmly, "Yes, of course."
"But in his condition…" Lambert leaned closer to Shao Ming and whispered, "Not to mention whether he can last until Paris, even if we do get there, how likely is it that his daughter is still alive…?"
"He saved us," Shao Ming replied immediately. "And not just once in the last couple of days. He's saved us multiple times."
"I know, I know," Lambert quickly clarified. "What I mean is, although he's fine now, what if he changes…?"
"Someone has to make sacrifices!" Shao Ming shouted. "One day, this kind of thing will happen to all of us. You'll die, I'll die—we're all going to die."
"This isn't the world we used to know," he continued, his voice more solemn. "Now Asgi's been bitten. Next time, it might be me. If he really turns, I'll put a bullet in his head."
Shao Ming paused for a moment, then added, "This isn't my first time dealing with this… If it were me, I'd want you to do the same for me. But right now, he hasn't turned. He's still a 'human.'"
Lambert looked at the younger man in front of him, a few years his junior, and felt an indescribable emotion stir within him.
"I'll drive," Lambert said finally.
The train started moving again, heading toward Amiens.
Inside the car, the three of them had set up a makeshift stove with various debris and a small alcohol burner. They still had a package of alcohol blocks left, so they could at least have hot meals for the time being.
It was unfortunate they hadn't found a dining car or sleeper car back at the station. Otherwise, it would have saved them the trouble of improvising.
Everything seemed normal. The train sped forward, and the mutants relentlessly pursued, but once again, the train left them behind.
However, over time, the group began to sense something was off.
The train passed through several towns, and the number of mutants chasing them had decreased significantly.
It wasn't that the mutants had grown smarter, but rather that there were fewer mutants in the towns they passed through.
The walkie-talkie crackled to life, and Lambert's voice came through: "We're almost at Amiens."
"Do we need to switch tracks?" Shao Ming asked, grabbing the walkie-talkie.
"Uh…" Lambert hesitated. "We do, but it doesn't seem like we need any cover."
"What do you mean?" Shao Ming asked.
"There aren't any zombies here."
The train slowed down and entered the city of Amiens.
Outside the windows, there were all kinds of houses, street barricades made of debris, and abandoned vehicles—a desolate, post-apocalyptic scene. Yet there wasn't a single mutant in sight.
Shao Ming picked up the walkie-talkie and said, "Stop the train."
The train came to a halt, and Shao Ming jumped out. Gordon followed, happily running around on the empty streets.
Yamada Ryo and Feng Yusheng also got off the train, and the silence of the streets was unnerving.
Aside from the birds perched on the telephone poles, Shao Ming didn't see any other living creatures.
But something didn't feel right. The doors and windows of every house appeared intact. Did the mutants really crawl through the walls to leave their homes? Or perhaps people had only mutated after leaving their homes.
As Shao Ming walked past the train's front, he heard a knock from inside the cabin where Asgi was locked.
"Where are we?" Asgi asked.
"Amiens," Shao Ming answered.
Amiens… Asgi thought to himself. They were already so close to Paris, just over a hundred kilometers away.
The fewer mutants outside Amiens meant that the number inside Paris would be far greater.
After all, in a large city like Amiens, not a single mutant could be found. It was easy to imagine how bad things were in Paris.
"We don't need to go further," Asgi suddenly said.
Shao Ming stepped on the pedal, glancing at Asgi. His face seemed relatively normal.
Communicating through the door was cumbersome, so Shao Ming opened it.
"You're not going?" Shao Ming asked.
Asgi slowly sat down against the wall, looking at his wounded leg.
"It's fine…" Asgi's eyes grew dim. "I didn't have much hope anyway…"
Shao Ming placed a hand on Asgi's shoulder, unsure of what to say.
"Thank you for taking the detour to let me see this place," Asgi said. "This is far enough. If we go any further, we might run into a horde."
"And your daughter…?"
"Maybe she was evacuated with the army," Asgi replied. "Besides, in this condition… if I return to the unit, I'll probably just get shot."
By now, the rest of the group had gathered around them.
Shao Ming said, "Think carefully. Once we leave, we won't be coming back."
Asgi closed his eyes. Perhaps, days ago, he had already accepted the fact that he would never see his daughter again.
"We could go further," Feng Yusheng suggested. "We could at least check what the situation in Paris is."
At that moment, Asgi was torn. His daughter was his flesh and blood. To say he didn't want to search for her would be a lie. But his leg was injured, and he didn't even know if he would survive. The hope of finding his daughter seemed almost nonexistent.
If he were to turn into a mutant, there was no need to drag the others to their deaths.
Besides, if Paris was indeed overrun by millions of zombies, even with a train, it would be nearly impossible to break into the city.
"I'm not going," Asgi shook his head. "If even Amiens has been overrun, Paris… I thought the situation might be a bit better, but there are just too many zombies."
Shao Ming patted Asgi's shoulder and said, "Then we really are heading back."
"Yeah…" Asgi nodded, and tears welled up in his eyes, despite his tough exterior.
Shao Ming jumped off the train, and the others looked at him.
"Let's go. Let's see if we can find anything useful."
They scattered, heading toward the nearby shops. Only Yamada Ryo remained on the train, sitting beside Asgi.
"Are we really just leaving?" Feng Yusheng asked as she walked into a convenience store with Shao Ming.
"He made the decision, and we kept our promise," Shao Ming shrugged. "To be honest, for us, isn't it better if he doesn't go to Paris and just comes with us?"
"What about his leg…?" Feng Yusheng asked.
"At least, it hasn't caused any problems yet," Shao Ming glanced back. Yamada Ryo was sitting next to Asgi, comforting him. "We'll observe. It's a good opportunity to find out whether a bite really causes mutation."
"Alright," Feng Yusheng nodded.
The convenience store had long been looted, and even the warehouse hadn't been spared.
Luckily, they still had an entire city, Amiens, to scavenge for supplies.