Chapter 48: The Village – Dad, Run!

On the way, they occasionally encountered zombies—inside cars, in the woods, beside trash bins, or lurking around street corners. For some reason, these zombies liked to hide in such places. Maybe they’d never tasted human flesh before; though fond of ambushes, their attacks weren’t very strong. After Bian Changxi took care of five of them and collected five white cores, her field of vision suddenly opened up.

In the distance, she saw a stretch of low hills. At the foot of the hills were a dozen or so shacks scattered about, surrounded by vast fields gone to waste. Knee-high wild grass grew exuberantly under the sunlight, painting a surprisingly picturesque scene from afar.

This was already the edge of the new district. It used to be a rural area, with rolling hills, lakes and rivers crisscrossing the landscape, all quite scenic. When the area was planned, it was decided to leave it for future development as a tourist resort, to be renovated after the main district was completed.

Yesterday, Bian Changxi had asked those two workers about the place. There were quite a few elderly people who’d lost their only children, and some stubborn, impoverished folks. With nowhere else to go, or simply unwilling to leave their homeland, they’d built makeshift shelters here and stayed on.

And this was exactly Bian Changxi’s target for today.

Suddenly, she heard a commotion up ahead. A number of old men and women were fleeing in panic, crying and shouting. She quickly drove up the winding dirt road, only to be blocked at the bridge by a rough mud wall. She got out, pushed herself up onto the wall, and her expression changed instantly.

A young, burly man with a ferocious face and bloodshot eyes was chasing the elderly with a shovel. He was tall and strong, and although he limped on one foot, he could kill with a single blow. Bian Changxi saw him jam the shovel into an old man’s stomach, step down, and pry—just like turning soil in a field—spilling intestines and organs into the air.

“Ah—!” The scream echoed across the fields. Bian Changxi shuddered all over, nearly losing her grip and falling. She quickly pulled out the pistol Gu Xu had given her and fired. The young man screamed, dropped the shovel, and rolled on the ground clutching his bleeding wrist.

Everyone was stunned by the gunshot. They saw a woman in black easily jump down from the wall and rush over. She glanced at the injured old man, then at the young man. “What’s going on here?”

People were still in shock. A middle-aged woman rushed out, knelt beside the wounded old man, and wailed, “Uncle Wu! Uncle Wu!”

The old man’s abdomen was a bloody mess, his ribs and sternum exposed—a pitiful sight. Bian Changxi took one look and knew he was beyond saving. Sure enough, the old man convulsed twice, his lips moved, then his head lolled to the side and he stopped breathing. The woman sobbed and grabbed the shovel, beating the young man furiously. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! Was Aunt Wu biting your father on purpose? You killed Aunt Wu and it wasn’t enough—you had to kill Uncle Wu, and now you want to kill us all, you beast!”

The others snapped out of it and rushed at the young man, punching and kicking him, or else collapsed in grief over the bodies of their loved ones.

Bian Changxi stepped back a little and quickly took stock: three dead, all elderly, plus the body of a female zombie. Several others were injured. Besides the middle-aged woman and the young man, there were five other survivors, all elderly. The situation was now clear: Uncle Wu’s wife, Aunt Wu, had turned into a zombie and bitten the young man’s father. In a rage, the young man killed Aunt Wu, but that wasn’t enough—he went on a rampage against everyone.

It was, of course, the young man’s fault. But from Bian Changxi’s perspective, she didn’t think it was such a sin—if someone she cared about was bitten by a zombie, she’d probably go mad, too. Besides, in the apocalypse, bloodbaths sparked by a bad mood were nothing new.

After firing that shot, she just stood there, not knowing how to intervene.

She had only come here to trade supplies for a few chickens and ducks, maybe catch some fish. There were no live poultry markets in the new district, and with so few people, it was hard to find even a live cat. She wanted to secure some breeding stock for her farm before animals and plants started mutating. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it? So why did she have to run into something like this?

Suddenly, she sensed something. Looking up, she saw a male zombie with a ghastly, rotting face standing in front of a low brick-and-wood house, staring at her with yellow, bulging eyes. It began to stagger toward her.

Bian Changxi’s eyes widened slightly.

She raised her gun, but just as she pulled the trigger, the dazed young man suddenly lunged at her from the side. “Bang!” The shot went wide, possibly hitting someone else. Bian Changxi was tackled to the ground, her pistol knocked from her hand.

She didn’t have time to worry about the gun and immediately tried to push the young man off. He reacted quickly, pinning her down with his whole body, one hand pressing her face into the dirt as he shouted, “Dad, run!”

Meanwhile, his fully zombified father let out a roar and bit into an old man’s neck.

A silver leg knife appeared in Bian Changxi’s hand. She stabbed at the young man’s throat. He screamed, grabbed the blade with one big hand, blood spurting out, then twisted her wrist with his other hand, forcing the tip of the knife toward her chest.

Bian Changxi was no match for his brute strength. As the knife was about to pierce her, she hurriedly stowed it back into her farm space, but her fist, pinned against her chest, made her grunt in pain. She kneed upward, striking the man’s most vulnerable spot. As he flinched in pain and loosened his grip, she quickly freed her hands, bent her elbows, and slammed both elbows into the sides of his neck, then pushed him off with all her strength.

She rolled to her feet to retrieve her gun, but someone was faster. The middle-aged woman who’d been crying earlier grabbed the pistol, panic-stricken, and pointed it at the zombie chewing on human flesh. She backed away, shaking her head. The zombie rose from its victim, mouth dripping with flesh and saliva, and lunged at her.

“Shoot the head!” Bian Changxi shouted.

The woman only screamed shrilly, squeezed her eyes shut, and fired wildly. Who knew where the bullets went? Bian Changxi cursed, “Idiot!” and ducked down to avoid the shots. After five rounds, the pistol clicked empty, but the zombie was unharmed. It immediately pounced on the woman and tore out her throat.

Bian Changxi quickly pulled out a fire axe and raised it at the feasting zombie, but a burly figure suddenly tackled her from behind, locking her in a tight bear hug. “Dad, run!”

Run, my ass!

Bian Changxi was furious. She couldn’t break free; her upper arms were pinned, but her forearms were still mobile. She swung the axe backward, the blunt end smashing into the young man’s head—once, twice—until blood streamed down his face and his vision blurred. Yet he only tightened his grip, still shouting, “Dad, run!” Then, unbelievably, he opened his mouth and bit down toward Bian Changxi’s neck.

He was a strength-type ability user. If he bit down, he could tear off a chunk of her flesh. Bian Changxi’s hair stood on end. In a flash, she raised her right hand and jammed it into his mouth, then yanked down hard. With a crack, she dislocated his entire lower jaw. The young man, jaw hanging uselessly, howled in pain.

Annoyingly, even then, his arms didn’t loosen.

Bian Changxi was held in a death grip, watching as the old zombie turned toward her, roaring excitedly.

She made a snap decision and put away the fire axe. With a flick of her hand, a vine shot out, wrapping the zombie up. Another flick, and two wooden spikes shot into its eyes.

She barely had time to feel relieved before the zombie staggered back a couple of steps, shook its head, and the spikes fell out. Its eye sockets were now a disgusting mess, but it didn’t seem much affected—if anything, it was angrier and more violent. It flexed its arms and snapped the vine.

Bian Changxi gritted her teeth. Thicker vines shot from her palm, wrapping the zombie from head to toe, turning it into a giant green cocoon.

This move drained all her energy, even overdrawing a bit. Nausea swept over her, making her head spin and her legs go weak. Luckily, her willpower was strong. She crossed her hands behind her back, found the young man’s ulnar nerve groove at his elbows, and pinched hard.

The young man’s arms instantly went numb.

Bian Changxi quickly braced her arms behind her and pushed. The young man stumbled, tripped over some wild grass, and—just her luck—fell backward onto a rock.

His neck landed on the sharp edge of the stone, and blood spurted out in a crimson arc.

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