Eight o'clock in the evening.
Night falls, and the lights are not yet on. Looking out of the car window, the highway has become a huge abandoned parking lot, and the howls of zombies can be heard from far away in the wilderness.
Zhou Rong held the steering wheel, his eyes were red, and he said nothing.
Sinan got into the cab from the back compartment, the strong smell of nicotine rushed into his nose, and he couldn't help coughing: "Let me drive it."
Zhou Rong shook his head.
"You stayed up too long."
Zhou Rong did not speak.
Sinan was silent for a moment amid the bumping of the car, and then gently persuaded: "You can't do this, Brother Rong. There are dozens of people in the two cars still counting on you. If you fall down, what will happen to the others? I've changed hands twice."
"... The biochemical car is difficult to drive." Zhou Rong finally said hoarsely, "The wilderness road is difficult to walk, we must hurry, and the farther away from T City, the better."
Just as Sinan was about to say something, suddenly the radio rang: "Yan Hao called for the car in front, and Yan Hao called for the car in front! Captain, try it out, our radio is silent, how are you?"
Zhou Rong's eyes changed slightly and he turned on the car radio.
Countless sizzling currents poured out like a flood, and all the channels converged into the same dark sea.
- No signal on shortwave.
The three special forces in the rear compartment woke up sensitively, as if they sensed something, got up and squeezed forward. I saw that Zhou Rong's face became very ugly. He raised his hand and turned on the base communication with a few snaps. However, the command center channel was like a fish that disappeared in the ocean of radio waves. No matter how it was adjusted, it was hopelessly silent.
Zhou Rong suddenly stepped on the brakes, took a deep breath for a moment, opened the door and hurried out.
The CMB in the back also stopped, and the exhausted survivor woke up from his sleep, and the dazed discussion buzzed.
Yan Hao and Chuncao also jumped out of the car, their faces were filled with exhaustion that could not be concealed, but Zhou Rong didn't say a word of nonsense and said straight to the point: "The base communication is not connected."
The rest of the team gathered around and stood on the grass, looking at each other in fear.
"... There is no sign of... the nuclear bomb." Yan Hao said softly, "Didn't you say it was launched at eight o'clock? It's ten past eight now."
"Will the plans change..."
"If the plan changes, the base should take the initiative to notify us." Yan Hao interrupted Chuncao and explained: "If it is changed to nine o'clock, the base will let us set out to rescue more people, and the helicopter will send another trip; The important thing is that delaying the launch time will cause zombies to spread from the center of the city to the periphery, and the earlier the nuclear bomb is cleaned, the better."
Sinan came from behind, stopped two or three steps away, and looked at them quietly with arms folded.
A terrifying thought gradually rose in everyone's heart, but no one said, or even acted, as if as long as they kept their mouths shut, the terrifying possibility would not exist.
The night in late autumn was already very cold, the wilderness in the night was rolling and rolling, and the faint yellow light of the street lamps was dimly lit by the railroad tracks in the distance.
"Your base," Sinan's calm voice came from behind them and said, "Something happened."
Two or three special forces shouted at the same time: "Impossible!"
"The B military region has perfect facilities and is invincible. At the beginning of the virus outbreak, a large number of armed guards were mobilized, and not even a fly could fly in! And all the survivors of the national government agencies, the general headquarters, and the entire North China region are all, all..."
No one spoke, and Chuncao's sharp voice gradually weakened.
Sinan looked at her gently: "No matter how strong the fortress is, it can't resist internal collapse. Once the virus breaks out from the inside, the subversion will only be instantaneous, you know."
Everyone shuddered at the thought of the people who were only sent to the shelter in the B military region by four helicopters this afternoon.
"Yingjie," Zhou Rong said in a low voice, "inform the location."
The team member named Zhang Yingjie was holding a tablet computer, not any brand known in the world, but it must be military equipment: "We took a detour, and we are still 57 kilometers away from the suburbs of City B. The highway ahead is heavily congested. , it is recommended to take a detour to the industrial area, which is still eight kilometers away from our nearest industrial area..." He thought for a while and said, "Maybe there are surviving residents."
Zhou Rong said slowly: "If City B falls, it will be cleaned by nuclear bombs in at most two days, and it will not be possible to move forward."
The people in the minibus couldn't hold back, got up one after another, looked out from the door, and hesitated.
Zhou Rong pondered for a long time, and under the gaze of dozens of eyes, he finally made a decision: "Set up camp on the spot, count the supplies, and arrange food and accommodation for the people."
"Yan Hao," he commanded, "to count the list of survivors and prepare to work night shifts."
The sound of the wind, mixed with the whistling sound, swept in all directions from the wilderness, like thousands of souls weeping and running to the sky.
Zhou Rong's proper arrangements at the beginning of his escape showed immediate results. The minibus was piled with rice noodles, oil and salt, canned meat and vegetables, and warm clothes, all of which he personally brought people from the shopping mall warehouse to boxes and boxes last night; there were also knives, medicine, generators, etc. The supplies were kept on the biochemical vehicles of the special forces.
Survivors gathered in groups of three or five, sharing the canned food, and there were occasional repressed weeping and lamentations. Si Nan was sitting on the steps of the biochemical car door and was picking up a bottle of yellow peaches in syrup when Zhou Rong came over and stuffed two antipyretics into his mouth.
Zhou Rong smelled of smoke from his hands, his fingertips were slightly salty, and they were all rough and cracked.
"Captain." Yan Hao said suddenly not far away.
Zhou Rong was looking down and wanted to say something, when he heard this, he waved to Sinan and turned to Yan Hao.
"There is not much high-energy gasoline for biochemical vehicles, and diesel can be barely replaced. We are going to check the fuel tanks of abandoned vehicles on the road after dawn. After arriving at the industrial area tomorrow morning, we will try to send a positioning signal to the military area again. If city B does not completely fall, Someone must come to pick us up."
The two walked side by side toward the leeward, and Zhou Rong asked in a low voice, "How many people are left?"
"Thirty-six survivors. Thirty men, six over fifty and two under fifteen; six women, two over twenty and four over forty. All Beta."
Yan Hao swallowed and stopped:
"We have six left. You, me, Chuncao, Zhang Yingjie, Ding Shi, Guo Weixiang."
"Everyone else is… gone."
The surroundings were quiet, and the night wind brought one after another, whispering sobbing in the crowd.
Zhou Rong's teeth were so clenched that his cheeks twitched, and after a while, he suddenly banged! Hit the tree trunk with a punch!
The wood, which was thicker than a human, cracked in an instant, making a dangerous creaking sound, and Yan Hao took a half step back under the conditioned reflex of the fist style.
"What are you doing!" Yan Hao roared in a low voice, "What if you attract zombies?!"
Zhou Rong's fingers slowly blew red threads, and the extremely powerful and deterrent Alpha pheromone in his blood instantly broke through the inhibitor, roaring like a male beast, and drifted away in all directions.
Zhou Rong forced himself to inhale, shaking back his fists.
Yan Hao took out a water bottle and quickly splashed the tree trunk, and then poured water on Zhou Rong's hand, but he was silently blocked, and immediately licked the wound, his eyes were bright in the shadows, like an unwilling alpha wolf in a desperate situation.
"...Three teams will be on duty. We will leave at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning and go to the industrial area." After a long while, Zhou Rong said hoarsely: "If there is no movement in B city for two days, I will go into the city to explore by myself."
Yan Hao wanted to dissuade him, but seeing Zhou Rong turned around and left, he had to rush after him.
Sinan ate half a bottle of yellow peach, and the remaining half was exchanged for half a pack of white sand cigarettes with a man in CMB. The man gave Huang Tao to his wife and children, and Sinan went to Zhou Rong with a cigarette in his hand. When he reached the edge of the woods, he suddenly stopped sensitively.
There was a faint smell in the night air that made him uncomfortable.
That breath floated in mid-air, strong, mature, and extremely aggressive; he subconsciously looked for the source, but after standing here for a long time, his nerve endings suddenly jumped, and an indescribable dizziness slowly rose from the bottom of his heart.
… is the alpha pheromone.
But how can there be Alpha in the wilderness, is there a body bitten to death by a zombie in the depths of the woods
Sinan looked around, the headlights were on in the open space, and the people who had finished resting were getting on the bus one after another to prepare for the night. The woods on the other side were hidden in the darkness, and the street lamps in the distance were dim, which seemed to exude an ominous aura.
"Are you okay?" A female voice suddenly sounded from behind.
Sinan turned his head, Chuncao was looking at him curiously.
"… did you smell anything?"
"No?" Chuncao sniffed hard, then her eyes were dull and her face was delicate.
Simon: "?"
The next second, Chun Cao sneezed into a world-shattering cry, and instantly snorted all over Sinan.
"It must be the smell of carrion!" Chuncao rubbed his nose in embarrassment, and rushed Sinan to the car while blushing: "Go back to sleep quickly, don't worry about it! Go!"
Sinan was a little confused and was forcibly pushed back to the biochemical car.
·
That night, the special forces were divided into three shifts.
Zhou Rong didn't sleep soundly, and woke up in a daze when he changed his shift at zero o'clock.
The seats in the rear compartment were raised, and several special forces were on the floor, snoring one after another. He felt that someone was next to him, and he saw that it was Sinan by the light of the car coming out of the window.
Sinan's body temperature dropped in his sleep, so he subconsciously approached the heat source, wrapped Zhou Rong's arm, took a deep and steady breath and sprayed it into his shoulder.
At that moment, Zhou Rong was in a trance.
Those young and restless fragments in memory came against the time, and even in the dark at the moment, the soft and handsome face and the closed eyelashes quietly overlapped with the pictures that had long disappeared in the years.
Zhou Rong raised his hand like a ghost, and pulled Sinan's broken hair behind his ears.
Just then, footsteps sounded outside, and the door was gently opened.
Zhou Rong immediately closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, even though he didn't know the reason for this conditioned reflex. A few seconds later he felt someone get into the car, pass almost silently across the floor, and stop in front of them.
Immediately afterwards, the person who came came bent down and raised Sinan's hand, with a slight and careful movement.
Sinan took antipyretics containing tranquilizers, so he didn't wake up, he just turned over while murmuring.
Zhou Rong lay there motionless, and after a while, he finally heard someone speak, and said softly, "Thank you, you saved my life."
- It's Yan Hao.
Zhou Rong's heart trembled slightly, and he narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly. In the dim light and shadow of the carriage, Yan Hao lowered his head, breathing nervously, and kissed Sinan's temple.
It was a touch of water, an uneasy and pious kiss.
Zhou Rong's eyes were indescribable.
Yan Hao, like a child who stole candy, got up and walked out of the car lightly, closing the door.
The carriage returned to darkness, Zhou Rong was silent for a while and closed his eyes.