Chapter 48: The Reason for Keeping Her

Along the way, they occasionally encountered zombies—inside cars, in the woods, beside trash cans, at street corners. For some reason, these zombies liked to hide in such places. Perhaps they had never tasted human flesh before; though they loved to ambush, their attacks weren’t very strong. After Bian Changxi took down 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, with a dozen or so shanty-like houses scattered at the foot of the mountains. All around were vast, barren fields, knee-high wild grass growing wantonly in the sunlight, which, from afar, looked rather pleasing.

This was already the edge of the new district. It used to be a rural area, with rolling hills and lakes and rivers everywhere, the scenery quite beautiful. During planning, it was decided it would be better to turn this place into a tourist resort, so it was left untouched, waiting for the new district to be completed before being redeveloped.

Yesterday, Bian Changxi had asked those two workers about this place. There were quite a few elderly people who had lost their families, as well as some poor and stubborn folks. With nowhere else to go or unwilling to leave their homeland, they had built temporary shelters here and stayed on.

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

Suddenly, she heard a commotion ahead. Many old men and women were fleeing in panic, crying and screaming. She quickly drove up the winding dirt road, but at the bridgehead, her way was blocked by a rough mud wall. She got out, pushed off with her hands, and leapt onto the top of the wall—only for her expression to change dramatically.

A young man, face twisted and eyes bloodshot, was wielding a shovel and chasing after the elderly. He was tall and strong, with almost superhuman strength. Though one of his feet was lame, each swing of the shovel was enough to kill someone. Bian Changxi arrived just in time to see him drive the shovel into an old man’s stomach, then step down and pry, just like turning soil in a field, spilling intestines and organs into the air.

“Ah—!” The screams echoed in all directions. Bian Changxi shuddered all over, nearly losing her grip and slipping down. She hurriedly drew the pistol Gu Xu had given her, took aim, and fired. The young man screamed, dropped the shovel, and clutched his bleeding wrist, rolling on the ground.

Everyone was stunned by the gunshot. When they saw it was a woman in black, who had easily jumped down from the wall and rushed over, they watched as she glanced at the wounded old man, then at the young man. “What happened?”

The crowd was 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 chest and ribs exposed—a truly miserable sight. Bian Changxi could tell at a glance he was beyond saving. Sure enough, the old man convulsed twice, his mouth moved, then his head lolled to the side and he stopped breathing. The woman sobbed bitterly, grabbed the shovel, and began beating the young man furiously. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! Was it on purpose that Aunt Wu bit your father? Killing Aunt Wu wasn’t enough, you had to kill Uncle Wu, and now you want to kill us? You beast!”

The others snapped out of it, rushing forward to punch and kick the young man, or else collapsed in grief beside the bodies of their loved ones.

Bian Changxi stepped back a little and quickly took stock: three dead, all elderly, plus the corpse of a female zombie. Several others were injured. Besides the middle-aged woman and the young man, there were five living people left, all elderly. The situation became clear: “Uncle Wu’s” wife, “Aunt Wu,” had turned into a zombie and bitten the young man’s father. The young man, enraged, took revenge—after killing Aunt Wu, he wasn’t satisfied and began attacking everyone.

Of course, the young man was at fault, but from Bian Changxi’s perspective, she didn’t think it was so unforgivable. Put yourself in his shoes—if someone she cared about was bitten by a zombie, she’d probably go mad too. Besides, in the apocalypse, it’s all too common for people to go on killing sprees just because they’re in a bad mood.

After firing that shot, she just stood there, unsure how to stop things.

She had only come here to trade some supplies for a few chickens or ducks, maybe catch some small fish. There was no live poultry market in the new district, and with so few people, it was probably hard to even find a live cat. She wanted to secure some breeding stock for the farm before animals and plants started mutating—was that so much to ask? Why did she have to run into something like this?

Suddenly, she sensed something and looked up. In front of a low brick-and-wood house, a male zombie with a greenish face and rotting flesh stood menacingly. Its yellow, bulging eyes seemed to glance at Bian Changxi as it stiffly started walking toward her.

Bian Changxi’s eyes widened slightly. She raised her gun, but just as she was about to pull the trigger, the young man—dazed from the beating—suddenly shouted and tackled her from the side.

Bang! The shot went wide, possibly hitting someone else. Bian Changxi was knocked to the ground, her pistol flying from her hand.

She didn’t have time to worry about the gun and hurried to shove the young man off her. He reacted quickly, pressing his whole weight on her and shoving her face into the dirt, shouting, “Dad, run!”

Meanwhile, his father, now fully zombified, roared and bit into an old man’s neck.

A silver leg-knife suddenly appeared in Bian Changxi’s hand, and she stabbed at the young man’s throat. He screamed, grabbed the blade with one large hand, blood spurting everywhere. With his other hand, he twisted her wrist, forcing the knife’s tip down toward her chest.

Bian Changxi was no match for his brute strength. As the knife was about to stab 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 cried out and his grip loosened, she quickly freed her hands, bent her elbows, and drove both points hard into the sides of his neck, then shoved him away.

She rolled to her feet, ready to grab her gun, but someone beat her to it. The middle-aged woman who had been crying earlier snatched up the pistol, terror-stricken, and pointed it at the zombie who was chewing on human flesh, backing away step by step, shaking her head in disbelief. The zombie rose from its victim, bits of flesh and saliva dripping from its mouth, and lunged at the woman.

“Shoot the head!” Bian Changxi shouted.

The woman just screamed shrilly, squeezed her eyes shut, and fired wildly. Who knew where the bullets went. Bian Changxi cursed “idiot!” under her breath and ducked for cover. After five shots, the pistol clicked empty, but the zombie was unharmed. It immediately pounced and tore out the woman’s throat.

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

Run, my ass!

Bian Changxi was furious, but 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. Blood streamed down his face, his eyes blurred, but he only held her tighter, still shouting, “Dad, run!” Then, to her horror, he opened his mouth and lunged for her 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, yanking down hard. With a crack, she dislocated his entire lower jaw. The young man’s jaw now hung uselessly, and he howled in pain.

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

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

Without hesitation, she put away her fire axe. With a flick of her hand, a vine shot out, binding the zombie tightly. Another flick, and two wooden spikes flew at its eyes, stabbing deep.

Before she could celebrate, the zombie staggered back a couple of steps, shook its head, and the spikes fell out. Its eyeballs were now a disgusting pulp, but it didn’t seem much affected—if anything, it grew even more enraged and violent, bracing its arms and snapping the vine.

Bian Changxi gritted her teeth and sent out even thicker vines from her palm, wrapping the zombie from head to toe until it looked like a giant green cocoon.

That move drained her energy, even overdrawing a bit. A wave of nausea made her head spin and her legs go weak. Fortunately, her willpower was strong. She crossed her hands behind her, found the young man’s elbows, and pressed hard on his ulnar nerves.

The young man’s arms instantly went numb.

Bian Changxi quickly braced her arms behind her, shoving him off. He staggered back a few steps, tripped over some wild grass, and—just her luck—fell right onto a rock.

The sharp edge of the rock cut into his neck, and blood spurted out in a torrent."