Surviving the Apocalypse with the Young Miss - Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Running for Life

Kecheng during the day was very different from Kecheng at night; similarly, the Kecheng seen from a rooftop was very different from the Kecheng seen up close.

Song Ge carried Tong Xiangyu, riding swiftly and silently through the deserted streets.

The fierce sun hung high, without a single cloud in the sky; even the moisture in the air seemed to have been baked dry. Tong Xiangyu wrapped her arms around Song Ge’s waist, breathing in nothing but the smell of decay and dust.

The entire city of Kecheng lay under a sunlight so bright it was blinding.

Burnt-out vehicles, blood-stained roads, rotting corpses, and mangled, putrid flesh dragged haphazardly across the ground… all the destruction was laid bare.

Song Ge tried her best to avoid “obstacles” on the road. However, as they passed over a certain sewer manhole cover, they nonetheless startled a dozen fluorescent green blowflies that were feeding.

Tong Xiangyu looked over in fright and found they were swarming an area where two trash cans lay overturned. Not far away, there were more things; judging by the tattered clothes, they looked like several skeletal remains. The flesh had rotted and molded into an earthy color, half-dried and stuck to the pavement, half-covered in writhing maggots. Several rats the size of fists and shiny cockroaches crawled around the edges.

Tong Xiangyu felt sick to her stomach and quickly averted her gaze.

Even wearing two masks, she felt a strange, pungent odor rushing up her nose. She tightened her grip on Song Ge’s waist and buried her head into Song Ge’s back. Never had Tong Xiangyu realized as clearly as she did now: this was an unprecedented, horrific disaster. Countless people of Kecheng had died in this terrible catastrophe. The disaster had happened; it could not be changed.

Song Ge noticed Tong Xiangyu’s movements and knew she was anxious. Unlike the previous night when they went out, she didn’t joke about holding her too tight; instead, she said in a low voice, “Don’t be afraid.”

Tong Xiangyu, pressed against Song Ge’s back, nodded. Feeling that wasn’t enough, she voiced her response: “Mhm!”

Song Ge had firmly memorized all the nearby routes. She knew exactly which way to turn at every intersection, which shops they would pass, and which forks to take.

But unexpectedly, as soon as they entered the main thoroughfare—an eight-lane road for two-way traffic—they found it packed tight with a dense mass of private cars! They completely blocked the way. The non-motorized vehicle lanes were the same, scattered with various electric scooters, bicycles, and severed limbs of rotting flesh.

A living hell was nothing more than this.

Song Ge hadn’t expected the scene to be this tragic. Suddenly, a car nearby shook violently and made a loud noise! Song Ge was startled and immediately looked over. The window film on that car was very thin; she saw the dried, rotting face of a woman covered in cadaveric spots inside the sealed vehicle. Its hair was like withered grass, its eyes were white, and its teeth were yellow-brown with bits of rotting meat stuck in them. It looked skeletal but struck the car with immense force!

Once this monster made a noise, the cars across almost the entire street, across all eight lanes, began to shake and vibrate frantically one after another!

Although she couldn’t see the monsters, the scene was enough to make her scalp tingle. Especially when a monster broke a car window and fell recklessly and crazily from a truck, Song Ge’s scalp prickled. She decisively turned the scooter around and quickly fled from this main road, which was the most convenient way to leave Kecheng.

The disaster had broken out too hastily and suddenly. Out of panic, people’s first reaction was surely to take their wives, children, and families to leave the danger immediately and escape to a safe city. Therefore, it was only normal for the main roads out of town to be jammed.

However, not only were the main roads “traffic jammed,” but the side roads were also in poor condition. Families who lacked the means or reacted too late would lock their doors and windows and avoid going out. Cars were parked hastily downstairs, blocking narrow alleys. Combined with a private car coming from the opposite direction, the road was completely blocked; even a vehicle as small as an electric scooter could not pass smoothly.

The path was blocked once again. Song Ge frowned.

At that moment, a strange cry erupted from a nearby residential building! The two of them looked up together. On a balcony were a hunched old man and a middle-aged couple, but they were no longer human. They mindlessly gaped their mouths and reached out their hands, eyes rolled back, their faces a bloody mess of bitten flesh. They had likely discovered living prey and were extremely excited, screaming, looking as if they were about to vault over the balcony and jump down.

Nearby monsters were also attracted by the screams, popping their heads out one by one to come down. Seeing this, Song Ge cursed under her breath and turned the scooter around again!

Tong Xiangyu was panicking inside, her hands clutching Song Ge’s waist tightly. “What should we do? Song Ge, are we going back?”

Song Ge’s jaw tightened, but her emotions were calm and her gaze firm. “Not yet.”

Yes, not yet. But if they couldn’t escape quickly, the longer they circled around, the more monsters they would alert. Song Ge turned the scooter back to the main road, re-selecting a route out of the city.

The blazing sun made them dizzy, and the air distorted violently. Suddenly, Tong Xiangyu noticed a straight, wide road ahead that was unobstructed. She said in surprise, “Song Ge, look! There’s a road there, and no cars!!”

Song Ge looked over and saw it too, but she wasn’t surprised like Tong Xiangyu at all; instead, her heart sank. Song Ge remembered the nearby route maps clearly in her mind; there was no such phantom wide road in this vicinity.

Suddenly, Song Ge remembered that when they escaped from the basement, they had also seen a black SUV. That car was visible but they could never catch up to it. How similar was the situation?!

Song Ge immediately became alert—could those monster viruses release some toxic substances that cause people to hallucinate? Then they couldn’t stay long!

Song Ge made a snap decision and turned onto another street.

“Song Ge?” Tong Xiangyu didn’t understand. “Why aren’t we going to that road?”

Song Ge didn’t explain. She just pushed the throttle to the max. But as they passed a cinema, she heard an increasingly clear thud-thud of a door being rammed from inside. Unluckily, the monsters broke through the main doors just then, and a tide of corpses erupted like a wave!!

With this number, even scattering a whole bag of soybeans wouldn’t work!

Hot sweat kept sliding down Song Ge’s cheeks. She twisted the scooter’s throttle all the way and charged with full power. She hoped their luck would be a bit better and the battery would be sufficient.

But Song Ge’s luck was never good.

Seeing that the road ahead was in good condition, not so crowded, and they could evade the tide of monsters, the electric scooter’s power became lower and lower, and the speed slower and slower.

It wasn’t going to work.

Song Ge decisively abandoned the scooter, grabbed Tong Xiangyu, and started running wildly in that direction!

Tong Xiangyu had sworn last time that she never wanted to run while wearing a mask again. She knew the scooter must have run out of power. She mustered the courage to take off the mask—perhaps because she was too nervous and breathing too fast, or perhaps her olfactory center had unconsciously adapted to the smell of rot and mold in the air.

Tong Xiangyu didn’t feel nauseous or want to vomit. She had said she wouldn’t hold Song Ge back. At this moment of life and death, Tong Xiangyu gritted her teeth, pulled her hand back from Song Ge’s grip, and sprinted forward at full speed with her backpack on!

There was a car! A car!!

Tong Xiangyu’s eyes suddenly lit up. In the distance, she saw an intact Volkswagen with the passenger door wide open!

“Song Ge! I see a car!” Tong Xiangyu sped up desperately, even surpassing Song Ge. She ran to the driver’s side and pulled the door open. However, there was someone in the driver’s seat—no, a corpse, a maggot-ridden corpse still buckled in with a seatbelt!

Tong Xiangyu screamed in terror, retreating several steps and almost falling to the ground.

Song Ge, arriving right after, caught her in time. Seeing the situation in the car, Song Ge unbuckled the seatbelt without a word, dragged the shriveled corpse out onto the ground, and shouted to the dazed Tong Xiangyu: “Get in the car first!!”

“Okay, okay.” Tong Xiangyu nodded frantically. Just as she was about to sit down, she saw that the driver’s seat cushion was covered in dried urine, blood, and a large amount of maggots and rotting flesh that had just fallen off the corpse. It made her want to vomit.

Song Ge saw Tong Xiangyu stop and noticed where she was looking. She yanked the seat cushion out, then with a somewhat rough and urgent motion, shoved Tong Xiangyu into the car and slammed the door shut with a bang. Almost simultaneously, Song Ge dodged an attack from a zombie monster chasing from behind. Using the old man’s walking stick she had just picked up, she swung it again at its head!

Like smashing a rotten watermelon, with a splat, another indentation appeared on the zombie’s decaying head. It had just been attacked by Song Ge; now its head was a mangled mess, its skull shattered, but it was unexpectedly still “alive.”

Song Ge knew she couldn’t “kill” it with just this, but she didn’t intend to “kill” it. She just used the momentum to kick the monster away fiercely. Using the small amount of time gained, she ran to the passenger side of the car.

Tong Xiangyu was anxious to death inside the car, calling Song Ge’s name repeatedly. Fortunately, Song Ge successfully forced her way into the passenger seat. She slammed the door shut and immediately said to Tong Xiangyu, “Drive!”

“Okay.” Tong Xiangyu’s hands trembled as she twisted the car key. She was very panicky, rapidly recalling all the mnemonic devices from her driving test. After starting the car, she stepped on the clutch and the brake to release the handbrake.

At that moment, a monster hit the car from behind with a bang.

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