Chapter 6

"Hey, is anyone there?"

Chunan raised his voice and walked to the car that was crushed by a large tree. He quickly looked through the broken window and saw the situation inside.

A man was sitting in the driver's seat, his head tilted out of the window, with blood slowly flowing out. He was motionless, clearly dead.

In his arms, a head was wriggling. By the pale red moonlight, Chunan could see clearly that it was the head of a young woman, her mouth full of blood, gnawing on the man's throat and sucking blood from his torn throat.

A thick, broken branch of the fallen tree had pierced through the roof of the car, impaling the young woman sitting in the passenger seat.

The young woman was already dead, but had undergone a transformation, turning into a monster and biting the man to death.

As Chunan approached, the transformed young woman heard the noise, raised her head, and revealed a sharp, quite beautiful face, but it was stiff and pale, with white teeth and a blood-soaked mouth, making her look incredibly eerie and terrifying.

Her cold, hollow eyes met Chunan's, and he felt a chill, instinctively stepping back.

The young woman suddenly started to tremble, reaching out her hands and struggling to leap out of the car to grab Chunan.

However, the large, thick branch that had pierced through the car held her in place, preventing her from escaping.

Chunan, unexpectedly calm, noticed he was not as afraid as before. Perhaps he had seen too much, or killed a few such transformed monsters, and was starting to adapt.

Thinking of the faint energy flowing in his mind, Chunan raised the rebar in his hand.

Tang Sanli, who had heard the commotion, also rushed over and raised his police baton.

"Roar..." The young woman struggled even more violently, her head extending out of the window, causing the entire car to shake. It seemed she might break free at any moment.

Chunan, lips tightly pressed, said nothing, and with a fierce swing, smashed the rebar down on the young woman's head. The rebar, with a concrete block at one end, struck like a hammer.

With a "thud," the young woman's head was hit, blood splattering and hitting the window. Her hands missed, and she struggled even more violently.

Chunan continued to strike her head repeatedly, like hammering a stake.

Soon, the young woman stopped moving, her head completely smashed open, with brain matter and eyeballs bursting out.

Chunan felt a thread of warm energy from the young woman's head surge into his body, gathering in his head, making the warm energy in his head grow stronger.

Putting down the rebar and the concrete block, both covered in blood and brain matter, Chunan slowly slid down the car, breathing heavily, and suddenly smiled bitterly, "Brother Tang, do you think the rescue team will think she was killed by someone and consider me a murderer when they see her like this?"

Tang Sanli stroked his chin and said, "It's hard to say, but even if the rescue team comes, there will be so many dead people in the detention center and the surrounding houses, most of whom have transformed. The rescue team will certainly encounter these transformed monsters and understand the cause. This will likely be considered a paranormal event, and the government will try to suppress it to avoid causing social panic."

Chunan glanced at Tang Sanli, realizing that this drug dealer was not entirely ignorant and had some insight.

"This car can't be used, but let's see what I found."

After the young woman was killed, Chunan sat to one side, while Tang Sanli continued to search the car.

Chunan saw the car's interior turned upside down, with tissues, wet wipes, a mobile phone, a small box of half-used chewing gum, and to his surprise, a few condoms.

Chunan picked up the mobile phone, which was on, but the screen was password-protected, allowing only emergency calls.

His plan to call home was dashed. Chunan dialed 110, but hesitated, thinking of his current identity, and finally sighed, unable to muster the courage to call.

Tang Sanli, excited, held a large plastic bag and sat next to Chunan, saying, "Look, what is it? Damn, it's food, we got lucky this time."

The plastic bag contained cookies, sausages, chocolate, two bottles of mineral water, and a bottle of milk, clearly prepared for the journey by the couple in the car.

Chunan and Tang Sanli were starving, and Chunan's stomach had been cramping from hunger. Under the dim moonlight, their eyes gleamed green at the sight of the food.

Chunan picked up a bottle of mineral water, put away his phone, and drank half of it in one gulp.

Tang Sanli tore open the cookie package, handed one to Chunan, and took one for himself.

The two leaned against the car, devouring the food and water quickly. They had become somewhat accustomed to the bloody scene inside the car.

After eating, Tang Sanli patted his stomach and said, "Too bad there was no cigarettes in the car."

After resting for a while, both regained some strength. Tang Sanli stood up and said, "Let's go, while it's still dark, and leave this cursed place early."

Chunan rubbed his feet, which were numb and aching from walking so much.

The two followed the rural road and finally found a crack no wider than a meter, carefully crossing it.

Neither dared to look down into the crack, which seemed bottomless in the dim light.

Crossing the crack, they continued along the road toward the city.

After walking for a while, the ground suddenly shook.

Another aftershock hit.

Both faces changed, and they started running, but fortunately, this aftershock was not strong and lasted only a few seconds.

Still shaken, Tang Sanli stopped and cursed.

Chunan was also scared, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

Suddenly, he saw shadows moving on the slope to the right of the road.

"Someone?" Chunan whispered, raising the rebar in his hand.

Tang Sanli also leaned down to look and soon saw several figures climbing down the slope.

"They're alive," Tang Sanli sighed in relief.

Chunan also saw clearly that there were five people, who had obviously noticed them and stopped, one of them calling out, "Who's up there?"

"It's people," Chunan replied, and the five people below relaxed, one of them responding, "We're people too, wait for us."

The five people quickly climbed up the slope.

Chunan took a few steps back, realizing from their response that these five people had also encountered transformed monsters, otherwise they wouldn't have said they were people.

The transformed monsters they had encountered did not speak, so if they could communicate normally, they were not monsters.

When the five people climbed up, Chunan observed them: four men and one woman. The woman was a middle-aged rural woman with rough skin, holding a pole with a bit of blood on one end, her face and eyes filled with fear.

The four men included two bald men like Tang Sanli, and two others who looked like ordinary villagers. One was older, around Tang Sanli's age, about forty, and the other was younger, around thirty.

Tang Sanli recognized one of the bald men, a man in his twenties, and called out, "Dongzi?"

The man saw Tang Sanli and his eyes lit up, "Brother Tang." He then moved to Tang Sanli's side and whispered, "Brother Tang, you also escaped. Did you... encounter... those unclean things on the way?"

Tang Sanli smiled bitterly and nodded.

Chunan understood that these two bald men, like him and Tang Sanli, were escapees from the first detention center. Dongzi was from the cell next to their cell number 7, cell number 6, and had been there for a while, so he and Tang Sanli were familiar with each other.

Tang Sanli introduced Chunan, and Chunan learned that Dongzi's real name was Chen Dong, and the other bald man called himself Lu Tianming, whom Tang Sanli did not know.

Dongzi and Lu Tianming had escaped from the ruins of the detention center, encountering and killing two transformed monsters along the way. Later, they met the other two men and one woman, and the five of them gathered together, finding strength in numbers during this terrifying night.

Now, with the addition of Chunan and Tang Sanli, they formed a group of seven, and everyone felt much more confident.

"Following this road for about ten kilometers will lead us to Daxiu District, but we don't know how much the earthquake has affected Jiangtian City," Tang Sanli pointed to the winding asphalt road, which he was somewhat familiar with.

Daxiu District, like Baiyun District, was one of the four districts under the jurisdiction of Jiangtian City, where Chunan's home was located.

Although everyone was exhausted, they continued to push on, wanting to get as far away from that eerie place as possible.

After walking for a while, Dongzi, Lu Tianming, and the other three villagers slowed down, their faces covered in sweat.

Dongzi, rubbing his stomach, muttered, "I can't go on. Let's rest for a moment. I feel like I'm about to die, my throat is almost smoking from hunger."

Chunan and Tang Sanli had eaten some food earlier, so they were still okay, but Dongzi and the others were struggling.