The two of them ate another meal full of heat and excitement. As expected, after dinner, Tang Ke found that his spiritual abilities were completely replenished. He was ready to directly absorb that level-one crystal core.
Before sitting down to meditate, Tang Ke looked at Qi Yue. “Yueyue, let’s leave tomorrow morning. We’ll head to S Base first, and then I’ll pull some strings so we can go to B Base together.”
“You have connections to get into B Base?” Qi Yue looked at him with anticipation.
Tang Ke nodded. “I have family with authority in B Base, and they hold influence in S Base too.”
Qi Yue gazed at him fervently, eyes practically sparkling. Capability and backing, he really had good taste.
Aside from his own father, Tang Ke’s relatives across three generations were all in the military district. Before retiring from frontline leadership, his grandfather had always served as a commander. The current military commander of B City was Tang Ke’s uncle, and his parents were both in B Base as well. When the apocalypse first broke out, he had been in contact with home, and they had planned to send people to pick him up. That was why he had stayed hidden at the school for so many days. Later, the signal was cut off, and no one came, so he decided to head to the closer S Base first.
“Okay.” Qi Yue was, of course, delighted. He narrowed his eyes and grinned, nodding vigorously.
To absorb a crystal core, one had to hold it tightly with the hand used most often for power release, then meditate. The time required depended on physical strength. Seeing that Qi Yue had agreed, Tang Ke calmed his mind and began absorbing the core.
There was only one wooden plank bed in the room. Tang Ke sat at the foot of the bed to absorb the crystal, while Qi Yue sat on the other side watching him.
A few hours later, Tang Ke finished his meditation and successfully advanced.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Qi Yue asleep on top of the quilt, small mouth slightly open, sleeping soundly. Tang Ke leaned forward and lightly kissed him, then propped himself up to take off Qi Yue’s coat and shoes, tucked him in, and lay down beside him, pulling him tightly into his arms. Exhausted from absorbing the core, and with Qi Yue in his embrace, he soon fell into a deep sleep.
In the middle of the night, they were jolted awake by shouting. Flames outside lit the base bright red, was there a fire?
Qi Yue woke up as well, quickly scrambling to the window to see what was going on outside, not even thinking about how he ended up sleeping in Tang Ke’s arms. Outside was chaos: villagers running in panic everywhere, children crying, women screaming, and those bitten letting out miserable wails, all of it chilling to the bone. Mixed with it were the sounds of fighting. Through the firelight, he could see zombies chasing the crowds. Some people were resisting with weapons or using abilities. Although there weren’t many zombies chasing, someone in the chaos had opened the base gate.
This was the dead of night, the peak feeding time for zombies. Staying was too dangerous. If they didn’t leave now, the consequences would be dire.
The two of them hurriedly put on their clothes and shoes, slung on their backpacks, and rushed out the door. The corridor was a mess, full of villagers fleeing in panic. The building had only four floors, and they lived on the third. Most villagers lived here too; only a few stayed in makeshift cabins outside. People squeezed downstairs, shoving and shouting. In the chaos, Tang Ke and Qi Yue got separated. Tang Ke reached the door first and assumed Qi Yue was right behind him, when he looked back, Qi Yue had been pushed aside and couldn’t get through at all.
Seeing Tang Ke at the door, Qi Yue pulled a small keychain from his pocket and tossed it across the crowd. “Go open the door first!”
Tang Ke caught the key. There was no other choice, they were too far apart, and everyone was jammed at the exit. Qi Yue couldn’t move. Tang Ke could only accept it and flowed with the crowd out the building, heading straight for the car to circle back and pick him up.
Qi Yue, shoved to one side of the corridor, scanned the crowd. Suddenly, he noticed a few people in the center who looked very wrong: deathly pale faces, vacant eyes, bluish lips, a cold dead aura about them.
Fck! Fck! F*ck! They were about to turn!
Qi Yue turned and ran toward the far end of the corridor, planning to break a window and jump out. But this was an office building, the corridor was long. Some rooms were open, their occupants having fled in panic, others were locked. Qi Yue checked a few rooms and was stunned, these idiots had installed security bars on all the windows. Some were even boarded shut with planks. They’d only thought about keeping zombies out, never considering what would happen if zombies got in!
He cursed furiously.
He could only continue down the corridor. Several more rooms, locked. Then he saw silhouettes emerging from the stairwell at the far end. Not people, zombies. Their mouths smeared with fresh blood. One. Two. Three—d*mmit, four.
He turned around to go back.
At the front exit, people were still jammed in place. A middle-aged man suddenly screamed, it came from him because the woman beside him had just turned. She bit directly into his neck, tearing off a chunk of flesh, chewing loudly. Several more people around them immediately mutated and attacked those nearby. Some froze in terror; others ran wildly, some up the stairs, some into open first-floor rooms.
The other direction was worse. Zombies were stumbling closer.
Qi Yue stopped in front of a locked door, pulled a piece of wire from his bag, and worked on the lock. Just as the zombies were nearly upon him—click. It opened. He slipped inside and locked it behind him. Spotting a bookshelf, he dragged it against the door and collapsed onto the ground, panting hard.
He scanned the room. It was a suite, an office area outside with a large desk by the window, and an inner room that was likely a break room. He faintly heard voices inside, wasn’t that Zhao Yi, the one who greeted him earlier? Yes, it was him.
He opened the door and found more than a dozen people squeezed inside, men and women, even a few elderly people and someone holding a child. They were surrounded by bundles and bags, arguing about something. Zhao Yi was among them. When they saw Qi Yue, they were all shocked. Zhao Yi hurried over to greet him.
Through the gap, Qi Yue saw that they were gathered around a hole in the floor.
A tunnel.
Bags of dug-up dirt lay piled beside a wall. They had secretly dug an escape tunnel without telling anyone.
Seeing they were discovered, Zhao Yi immediately explained that everything had happened too suddenly. The tunnel was meant as an emergency escape route for villagers, but there hadn’t been time to inform everyone. He invited Qi Yue to escape with them first and think later about saving others. Zhao Yi was shrewd, under these circumstances, he had to placate this young man. Otherwise, if Qi Yue caused trouble, none of them would escape smoothly. Everyone here was Zhao Yi’s own relatives or his brother’s subordinates.
Outside, pounding noises hit the door. Bam. Bam. Bam.
One by one, people began climbing into the tunnel. There was no time for Qi Yue to hesitate. He followed them inside.
The tunnel was low, everyone had to crouch, and some parts required crawling. A child cried nonstop, and a middle-aged man kept cursing at the woman holding him, making everyone irritable. The tunnel was long; maybe because it was so hard to move inside, it took more than an hour before they reached the exit.
It opened into a field, with several cars parked nearby. They’d clearly planned this long ago, if danger came, they’d escape and leave the villagers to die. The base was already far behind; now only a faint burning glow could be seen, and screams carried on the wind across the silent night.
Qi Yue got into a car with them. There was no way to go back for Tang Ke now. The zombies in the surrounding villages would probably reach the S Base soon, maybe they were there already. He could only hope Tang Ke got away safely.
The car drove along a country road. Through the window, the burning S Base shrank from a dot to nothing. Only darkness remained.
Sitting in the car, Qi Yue felt an unexpected sadness.
In the apocalypse, strength was king. People seized land, rebuilt it into bases, and fought against what remained of the government. Many had the mentality of “whoever’s on top is king,” including Zhao Yi and his village-chief brother. After losing contact with the authorities, the government building became a small base, and the village chief became its leader. His subordinates included several ability users. When forming the base, they planned ahead and secretly dug a tunnel with the help of ability users so their own people could escape in emergencies.
As more people came seeking refuge, they grew complacent, loosening requirements for ability users. The more ability users, the safer the base; the safer the base, the more power they held. With more and more refugees arriving, their hunger for power grew.
Earlier that night, several people had come seeking shelter. They were originally going to refuse, but one of them was an ability user. The village chief decided to let them all stay. Zhao Yi had warned that the ability user looked unwell, but the village chief brushed it off, thinking one person wouldn’t cause trouble, maybe he was just tired and planned to assess him again the next day.
The chaos that night all began with that pale ability user. He had been scratched by a zombie earlier but hid it from everyone. Shortly after entering the base, he mutated and bit his companion. At first, they thought they could contain it, but an ability user’s mutation was far more severe. Injuries multiplied, the situation spiraled out of control, and more people were bitten. Some fled back to the building to find family and mutated there. In the end, the base could not be saved, they abandoned it and escaped with their own people.
