The firelight made the night, which was not too dark to begin with, even darker, and the group of people staring at them and shouting seemed to be standing on a burning altar, as if they were about to be haunted in the next second.
This was a scene that was incomparable to the most terrifying stories in the storybooks that Qiu Shi had collected since he was a child.
What’s especially special is that these people actually called out Xing Bi’s name.
"It must be your ancestors!" Qiu Shi shot at them without hesitation.
"Ah--" Hu Xiaoling, who had been frightened silly, was awakened by the gunshots, and he also fired wildly with the machine gun in his car.
The infected people with their mouths open were torn into pieces by bullets and scattered all over the ground in the fire.
Xing Bi held down Qiu Shi's hand holding the gun and took the gun away from him.
Only then did Qiu Shi come to his senses and feel pain in his chest.
After Hu Xiaoling stopped, all that was left around him was the occasional crackling sound of the wooden hull in the fire.
"Beat him to death?" he asked.
"Kill them all. If there is another legion coming from 500 meters away, you can kill them all together." Xing Bi said.
"What the hell is this!" Hu Xiaoling stared, "I didn't see anything like this when Brother Shi was cleaning up the infected!"
"It wasn't like this originally," Qiu said. "When the symbiote appeared, they became like this."
"Get in the car." Xing Bi said.
"Let's go quickly." Hu Xiaoling said, "I'm scared."
Not to mention Hu Xiaoling was afraid, Qiu Shi felt afraid too. This was the first time he intuitively experienced the control of the subject, and the subject behind this knew Xing Bi.
He glanced at Xing Bi who was driving the car and asked, "Do you know who the subject is?"
"I don't know," Xing Bi said, "Many of my biochemical bodies know me."
"Do you think he is an enemy or a friend?" Qiu Shi asked.
"Actually, I can't remember," Xing Bi said, "but I feel like... an enemy."
"Drive faster." Qiu Shi felt that the wound on his chest was not only painful but also cold. He took out the painkillers from his pocket and swallowed them.
"You take a nap." Xing Bi said.
"I want to see the map." Qiu Shi stared at the map in front of him, although it looked peaceful.
"It'll be fine," Xing Bi said, "Their attention should still be on Yuncheng and Donglin. They won't be distracted by us."
"There are also those inexplicable vagrants and wild biochemical bodies..." Qiu Shi sighed, "It seems that there are no friendly people in this world."
"I can deal with all these strange vagrants and wild biochemical bodies," Xing Bi said. "Go to sleep. If we don't stop, we will be able to return to Yuncheng soon. I'm afraid we won't have time to rest by then."
"Will you be locked up back in?" Qiu Shi frowned, "In that hibernation chamber."
"It's for a short time. It needs to be inspected and repaired," Xing Bi said. "Remove the 28-day restriction."
"And then they will let you out?" Qiu Shi said, "Why do I distrust those people so much?"
"Yes," Xing Bi said, "Yuncheng needs to activate biochemical bodies now, the more the better."
Qiu Shi didn't say anything. If Xing Bi hadn't been facing a crisis, he would have stayed in that dark cabin, clearly feeling the passage of time.
He did not ask Xing Bi whether he regretted it or not. Those biochemical creatures who ultimately chose to betray humans at least looked free. Time had color to them.
Qiu Shi didn't intend to sleep, but after the painkillers took effect, he fell asleep anyway.
When he woke up, the car was parked, the backrest of his seat was laid flat, and there was a piece of clothing covering him. He picked it up and took a look at it. When he was about to be moved, he found that it was the clothes in his bag, and he couldn't help laughing.
"I can feel the cold too," Xing Bi's voice suddenly came from the slightly opened car window, "I can't take it off for you."
"Fuck." Qiu Shi slowly sat up, "Why did you stop?"
"Hu Xiaoling is an ordinary human being who is injured and in a state of high mental stress," Xing Bi said, "He needs to take a nap. He is right behind you."
Qiu Shi looked back and saw that Hu Xiaoling was sleeping soundly among the pile of luggage and supplies in the carriage.
"I'm going to pee." Qiu Shi said as he opened the car door and prepared to get out.
The cold wind that came in through the car door instantly sobered him up as if he had just chewed a mint.
"Put on some clothes," Xing Bi pointed to the clothes covering him, "It's snowing."
"What?" Qiu Shi was stunned.
"It's snowing." Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi put on his clothes, hunched his neck and got out of the car. Sure enough, there were snowflakes dancing in the wind in the sky, and there was a light layer of white on the ground.
"Have you ever seen snow?" Qiu Shi crossed his arms and looked up at the snowflakes that kept flying towards his face.
"I didn't come into contact with ordinary people before," Xing Bi said, "but I can still come into contact with them in ordinary weather."
Qiu Shi tilted his head back and laughed.
"Is that Lin Sheng," he asked, "as close to a human as you are?"
"The personalities are different," Xing Bi said, "The second generation of biochemicals all have their own teachers. We may be closer to our teacher's personality. That was the first human we came into contact with."
"What is your teacher like?" Qiu Shi turned and looked at him.
"A very kind old man." Xing Bi said.
"You're not friendly either." said Qiu Shi.
Xing Bi smiled.
"The old man," Qiu Shi thought for a moment, "then... he's already dead."
"Well," Xing Bi said, "it was a child, but he is dead now."
Qiu Shi sighed: "Yeah, when I die, you will still be like this, right?"
"I don't know." Xing Bi said.
"What's there to not know?" Qiu Shi said, "Your former partner is also dead."
"Yeah." Xing Bi responded.
"And you are still like this." said Qiu Shi.
"Yeah." Xing Bi responded again.
"Are you short-circuited?" Qiu Shi asked.
Xing Bi smiled and said, "Humans love to think about death too much."
"Because humans will die, and we are afraid of death," Qiu Shi said, "Aren't you afraid too? Biochemical bodies will die too."
"I'm just afraid that I won't be around anymore," Xing Bi said.
"Is there any difference?" said Qiu Shi.
"Yes." Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi didn't say anything. If he thought about it carefully, maybe there was, but he couldn't think about what it was. His chest was so cold and painful at the moment, which directly affected his thinking, so he couldn't think about it carefully.
"I have to get back to the car. It's too cold." He turned around and prepared to get in the car.
"You're not going to pee anymore?" Xing Bi asked, "Are you frozen?"
Qiu Shi leaned against the car door and laughed for a long time: "Will your urine freeze?"
"If it's cold enough, your urine will freeze," Xing Bi said, "I'm not peeing in boiling water."
"Fuck." Qiu Shi walked to the back of the car while laughing, "I really want to meet your teacher."
"Yes." Xing Bi said.
"Yes," Qiu Shi nodded, "When I die in a few decades, I will go down and chat with him."
Hu Xiaoling was probably frightened, tired from driving, and injured, so he slept like the dead and couldn't wake up at all.
In addition, his precious car had no roof, only a frame, and it was too cold to drive at night, so Qiu Shi simply gave up the idea of traveling overnight and decided to sleep until dawn.
However, that night, because the group of infected people who looked like they had seen a ghost were too stimulating, Qiu Shi did not sleep well. Several times he dreamed that the infected people stabbed his chest with a knife and he woke up from the pain.
Fortunately, every time he woke up, the first thing he saw was Xing Bi sitting quietly in the driver's seat, staring blankly at the front.
When he woke up for the last time, it was already bright outside the car. There was a warm light of light gold, and Xing Bi was completely light gold.
"Eat something and go." Xing Bi reached out and touched his face.
"Huh?" Qiu Shi was stunned.
"You don't have a fever," Xing Bi said, "You haven't been resting well for that injury."
“…Hu Xiaoling isn’t going to have a fever, is he?” Qiu Shi said.
"No," Hu Xiaoling's voice came from behind, "I don't feel anything except pain."
"There are painkillers in the medicine box. Take two." said Qiu Shi.
"Oh," Hu Xiaoling sighed, "I had nightmares all night and cried several times. I even dreamed that Zhao Lu died."
"If Brigade Zhao finds out, I'll beat you so hard that you'll have nightmares for a month," said Qiu Shi.
Hu Xiaoling chuckled twice and handed Qiu Shi a can of food: "Want to eat? You haven't eaten anything."
"Eat one," Qiu Shi took it, "I'm hungry."
"Xing Bi, what do you want to eat?" Hu Xiaoling asked, "Gasoline?"
"Well," Xing Bi looked at him, "Use the screws to dip them in and eat them."
"Fuck." Hu Xiaoling laughed.
After eating something quickly, they continued on their journey. Xing Bi originally wanted to drive Hu Xiaoling's car and let Hu Xiaoling drive this big car, which would at least be warmer.
But Hu Xiaoling didn't want to. He had been living outside the city since he was brought to Yuncheng by his father when he was a child. Although the life of a corpse collector was better than that of many refugees, no one had much property.
Qiu Shi promised that the car would be his if he could take it back, so he was unwilling to part with his "property" for even a second.
"Put on your clothes," Qiu Shi sighed, "Don't freeze to death halfway through the journey."
"Even if you freeze to death, remember to burn this car with me." Hu Xiaoling jumped out of the car.
"That's impossible," Qiu Shi said, "It must be left to me and Zhao Lu to drive. It's better not to die, otherwise we will drive to your grave every day."
"Okay." Hu Xiaoling ran over and jumped into the car, wrapped his head with a scarf, made a gesture, and drove out.
Although Yuncheng has temporarily resolved the crisis in the inner city, it is still surrounded by symbiotes. On the way back, Qiu Shi did not find any vagrant refugees or wandering biochemical bodies.
These people who usually live along the river must have discovered something unusual and either fled, hid, or were killed.
It was as if the whole world was empty.
Even the car they had dumped in the swamp was gone.
In order to avoid being tracked and discovering the passage through the mountain, to reduce walking time, and to keep the car that Hu Xiaoling wanted, they took a slight detour, climbed over the mountain from a further east location, and entered the larger area of Yuncheng.
However, the closer they got to Yuncheng, the depressed Qiu Shi became.
It's not just because he can't see the outcome of this crisis clearly and doesn't know what will happen or when it will end, but also because he doesn't know what kind of situation he and Xing Bi will face after returning to Yuncheng.
Although he and Xing Bi had not been together for a long time, the things they experienced together were more than what he had experienced in the past twenty-five years combined.
Returning to Yuncheng means separation, and even if it is just for inspection and repair, he will suddenly feel a little empty.
He didn't want to be used like a tool by the corrupt officials in Yuncheng, but it was also difficult for him to return to the peaceful life of a corpse collector outside the city.
Everything has changed.
The lives of his brothers were destined to no longer be as peaceful as before.
"Contact Li Feng," Xing Bi said, "We are almost in Yuncheng, about two hours."
"So fast?" Qiu Shi asked.
"It's a smooth journey," Xing Bi said, "and we don't have to get off the car and walk, so it will definitely be fast."
"Well," Qiu Shi looked ahead, "Will we pass by the nest soon?"
"Yes, we came from nest number three." Xing Bi said, "We will pass through all three nests."
Qiu Shi touched his arm and a small light on the back of his hand lit up. After a while, he heard Li Feng's voice in the headset: "Are you back?"
"We're almost there. We're in the eastern jungle now," Qiu Shi said. "We'll be at the edge of the outer city in about two hours."
"Did you encounter any situation on the road?" Li Feng asked in a hoarse and nasal voice.
"It's strange, no," Qiu Shi said, "After crossing the river, nothing happened. I drove all the way here."
"The people patrolling the lair have lost contact today," Li Feng said, "Can you bypass them?"
"How can we get around it?" Qiu Shi said, "There is no road there. We can only take the old waterway."
"Then I'll send another team out." Li Feng said.
"What are you doing?" Qiu Shi asked, "Are you going to die?"
"Mark the location." Li Feng said.
"You are really cruel," Qiu Shi said, "Why don't you go yourself? From the sound of your voice, you are about to die. Why don't you go and mark him?"
“No need to mark,” Xing Bi said, “I can feel it in advance.”
"How are Zhao Lu and the others?" Qiu Shi asked.
"I didn't tell them you were coming back today because I was afraid they would be upset if you didn't come back," Li Feng said, "You can go to the bunker first after you come back."
"Yeah." Qiu Shi responded.
After entering the jungle, the road became difficult to drive, but for safety reasons, they still had to drive, and they had to change drivers. Xing Bi drove the all-terrain vehicle, and Hu Xiaoling drove their current large vehicle.
"Actually, I can do it," Hu Xiaoling said, "and the car is stable."
"The car only has a frame, and I'm afraid you'll just chop it up," said Qiu Shi.
"Underestimate me." Hu Xiaoling said with a smile. They were almost reaching Yuncheng and he was in a good mood.
"I just contacted Li Feng," Qiu Shi said, "Zhao Lu and the others are all doing well, but I don't know if we can give him a surprise when we go back today."
"I didn't bring anything for them." Hu Xiaoling frowned.
"Donglin canned food." said Qiu Shi.
"It's OK," Hu Xiaoling laughed. "It tastes OK. I think it's fresher than the canned food in Yuncheng."
"Ask Li Feng to bring some good wine in the evening," said Qiu Shi.
"Can you come with us tonight?" Hu Xiaoling asked, "Will they ask you to report to the inner city?"
"I'm not going," Qiu Shi said, "I want to drink first."
"Where is Xing Bi?" Hu Xiaoling asked again.
Qiu Shi was silent for a while: "He needs to go back to the cabin for maintenance."
Hu Xiaoling also fell silent, and then he sighed after a while: "I can't get used to it. He is just a person, just a little more powerful than us. What about going back to the cabin for maintenance? It sounds really awkward."
Qiu Shi smiled and said nothing more.
Although Li Feng said there might be danger in the jungle, perhaps because the scenery, terrain and even the smell in the air were familiar to Qiu Shi, he was not too nervous.
However, he still opened the map and stared at the constantly changing graphics on the interface, trying to see where there might be hidden things. After all, the map sometimes could not display the symbiote.
Now only three small bright spots can be seen.
"Is the forest all dark?" Hu Xiaoling was shocked when he saw the edge of nest number three. "This is a whole area..."
Xing Bi's car in front suddenly slowed down, so he quickly slowed down as well: "What's wrong, Brother Shi, ask him what's wrong?"
"Can you see the map?" Xing Bi's voice came from the headset.
"No," Qiu Shi said, "What do you feel? The symbiote?"
"Yes." Xing Bi said, "Both the main body and the symbiont are here."
"On the map..." Before Qiu Shi could finish his words, a bunch of small bright spots suddenly appeared on the edge of the map, "We are surrounded."
"You rush out." Xing Bi Che suddenly turned left and made way.
"What?" Qiu Shi was stunned, but he did not ask the hesitant Hu Xiaoling to stop the car. Instead, he gestured for him to continue driving.
Their car rushed out from beside Xing Bi's car.
"What's going on?" Hu Xiaoling shouted.
"Don't stop," Xing Bi said, "They want to trap us here."
"Charge." Qiu Shi said. He and Hu Xiaoling were two injured men and might not be able to help much in this situation, and it would also distract Xing Bi.
He looked out the window and could already see with his naked eyes the infected people rushing towards him from all sides. He lowered the car window, stuck his gun out of the window, aimed at the infected people and fired a few shots.
But it's hard to hit.
These infected people were not standing; they were all lying on the ground, using all fours to quickly crawl towards them under the cover of the rocks.
The scene was no less bizarre than the one on the boat last night.
Qiu Shi gritted his teeth, leaned out of the window, and threw a mine forward, but the effect was also not very good. The opponent was able to dodge it, and because of the rugged terrain, not many infected people were hit by the bomb.
"Brother Shi!" Hu Xiaoling yelled, "Come back! Close the window!"
Qiu Shi returned to the car and saw that the infected person on the driver's side had pounced on the car, and all the windows were blocked.
He quickly closed the car window and turned to look at Xing Bi.
"Xing Bi!" he said, "What are you doing?"
Xing Bi stood beside the car without moving.
The infected people had surrounded him, and what made Qiu Shi feel cold in his hands and feet were the several biochemical bodies that jumped down from the trees.
Judging from their movements and postures, they should be symbiotes.
Xing Bi said that this kind of symbiotic relationship in the form of group partnership can prevent control by other entities.
"Xing Bi! Your ancestors!" Qiu Shi was anxious, "Run!"
"The subject is there." Xing Bi said.
If the subject is there, Xing must kill him.
"Run!" Qiu Shi yelled.
Their car was already crawling with infected people, and they could no longer see Hu Xiaoling Road. They could only rush forward based on their feeling.
Qiu Shi could barely see Xing Bi through the gap in the rear window of the car, but he was surrounded by the infected and the symbiotes that jumped down from the tree, so he couldn't see what situation they were in.
"I won't die." Xing Bi's voice came from the headphones, accompanied by noise.
"Fuck your ancestors." Qiu Shi reached out to open the car door.
But the car door locked with a click.
Qiu Shi suddenly turned his head and looked at Hu Xiaoling.
"Brother Shi," Hu Xiaoling said, "calm down. You have always believed in him. It is right to listen to him."
"I..." Before Qiu Shi could finish his words, a huge explosion was heard behind him.
Qiu Shi's heart sank.
When I turned around, I only saw smoke, flames and scattered debris through the gap.
There was no more Xing Bi's voice in the headphones, and because of the interference of the symbiote, the map in front of him also disappeared.
"Xing Bi." Qiu Shi called out in a low voice. When there was no response, he raised his voice again, "Xing Bi!"
Still no response.
The headset lost connection.
Qiu Shi closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Xing Bi is a man of his time. After so many battles together, he has never made a mistake. He is a perfect first-level sub, an awesome sub whose fans call out his name even when he crosses a river in the wild.
He is not the kind of person who would easily exchange his life for another's.
He won't die.
…
"Brother Shi," Hu Xiaoling's voice pulled him back, "Do you know the way?"
The sound of the infected people smashing the car frantically became clear.
"I don't know." Qiu Shi held the gun steady, preparing to clear the infected on the car body, "Drive forward."
As soon as he finished speaking, the car drove into a pit, and then bounced up again with a bang.
Qiu Shi controlled his body, opened the car window a crack, and stretched out the muzzle of the gun, but the infected needed to have their heads destroyed, and he couldn't hit any head at this angle.
"Fuck your ancestors." He cursed, took out a grenade, and prepared to reach out and throw it directly at the front of the car. This car is bulletproof and theoretically should be able to withstand the explosion.
There was a sudden "bang" sound from the front of the car, and the body of the car shook.
"Someone is here." said Qiu Shi.
Just when Hu Xiaoling was about to rush forward and throw the people off, a long knife slashed across the necks of several infected people lying on the front of the car.
Black liquid spurted out.
Then the infected people were kicked out of the car.
"Fuck." Hu Xiaoling was stunned when he looked out.
When Qiu Shi saw the man holding a knife standing on the front of their car, he was also stunned: "Deng Ye Ye?"
Deng Yeye pointed to the right front of them and then jumped onto the roof of the car.
"Drive that way." said Qiu Shi.
"Yes," Hu Xiaoling responded, "It was her! She asked me to tell you something, then hit me on the head twice, and I was taken to Donglin!"
Qiu Shi didn’t know the relationship between Deng Yeye and Donglin, nor did he know why she appeared here.
But she quickly cleared out the infected people outside the car.
Qiu Shi turned around and wanted to take another look at the situation on Xing Bi's side, but the place where the explosion occurred had disappeared in the dense forest and could not be seen at all. All that could be seen was the drifting smoke.
There was still no sound in the headphones.
"Go with her?" Hu Xiaoling asked.
"Follow me first," Qiu Shi said as he lowered the car window and looked out at Deng Yeye who was squatting on the hood. "Thank you."
"Follow me," Deng Yeye jumped off the car, ran a few steps, and soon rode a motorcycle out from behind a rock and returned to their car. "They are all their people here. Go behind the city."
This road around the city was not easy to drive on, and Hu Xiaoling's driving skills were limited. The road made Qiu Shi feel that the knife wound that had begun to heal seemed to have split again, as if he had just been stabbed.
Fortunately, the journey was not too long. Deng Yeye, who was leading the way, stopped at a piece of rubble ground that had been cleared by humans.
Qiu Shi did not get out of the car. He could smell a strong stench of decay.
Deng Yeye turned around and said, "This is it. If I leave, the Yuncheng guards will find me soon."
"Where is this?" Qiu Shi was unfamiliar with this area.
Deng Yeye pointed forward, then turned the car around and rushed into the woods, leaving behind a sentence.
"The fertilizer pond in Cloud City."
"Fertilizer pool?" Hu Xiaoling was a little confused.
At this moment, Qiu Shi suddenly knew what this foul smell in the air was.
The author has something to say:
See you tomorrow\\^O^/.