Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Leaving the City
The Sun siblings traded a look. Sun Yi nodded without hesitation. As followers, they didn’t question Wu Lian Yi’s choices. A warning was useful; doubt was dead weight.
They had packed early, knowing they couldn’t hide here forever. Cleavers in hand, heavy backpacks biting into their shoulders, they moved fast and kept quiet.
Wu Lian Yi approved. At the door, she spoke low and sharp. “This is downtown. Those monsters are evolving. You’ve seen it—their movements are getting smoother. Soon they’ll be as fast as normal people. This place will fall. Leaving early for the resettlement camp gives us the advantage. And there’s someone in this building who’s my enemy.”
She led them into her room and pointed out the window.
Below, Yun Rou was scrambling up into the back of an army-green truck like a rat racing for a hole.
“That woman is Yun Rou,” Wu Lian Yi said. “She used to be my good sister. She got my fiancé to abandon me and run off with her. That idiot tried to protect her, got bitten by a zombie, and died. Yun Rou awakened a superpower too—corrosive water. Keep your eyes open. When I brought you back, she was hiding in this building. She saw you.”
Sun Wang listened like he’d stumbled onto a juicy drama. Wu Lian Yi’s face stayed calm, almost blank—too calm for a story like that.
Wu Lian Yi glanced at him. “Don’t look at me like that. In this world, living is what matters. Everything else is noise.”
Sun Yi couldn’t stand it. She smacked Sun Wang on the back of the head—hard enough to sting, gentle enough to count as love.
“Don’t let curiosity get you killed,” Sun Yi warned. “And don’t fixate on Yun Rou. If we run into her, we stay alert.”
“Yes, Sister!” Sun Wang tightened his backpack straps. “Sister Lian Yi, I’ll listen.”
Wu Lian Yi led them downstairs.
By then, three military trucks were already loaded and pulling out. People with private cars were jamming bags into trunks, desperate to haul away every scrap of their old life.
The trio burst out of the building and headed for their SUV, hidden under a tarp in the alley.
Two men were already there, prying at the door.
Sun Wang barked, “What the hell are you doing? Get away from our car!”
Sun Yi surged forward with her cleaver raised, eyes cold and murderous. The two men—one tall, one short—jerked back, cursed under their breath, and fled from beneath the tarp.
“Good thing we came,” Sun Wang spat. “They’d have stolen it.”
They piled in, turned the key, and slid in behind a black sedan. Following the path the military trucks had carved, they joined the moving line.
Zombies gathered fast, drawn by engines, shouting, and the thick scent of living bodies. Even with soldiers clearing the way, dead still poured from alleys and doorways, lurching toward the rolling line of meat and metal.
“Sister Lian Yi—Sis,” Sun Wang said from the back seat, peering out. “They don’t move stiff anymore. They’re smoother. Almost like normal people.”
Up ahead, screams tore through the air. Metal slammed against metal. The convoy shuddered—something had gone wrong.
“Lian Yi,” Sun Yi said, frowning, “I don’t like what’s happening up there.”
“Turn into the alley,” Wu Lian Yi said instantly. “Shortcut. We’ll get out and wait for the convoy outside the city.”
“Got it.” Sun Yi yanked the wheel into a narrow lane, barely wide enough for one car. The vehicle behind them hesitated—then gritted its teeth and followed.
—
On the second military truck, Yun Rou gripped a golf club and smashed at a zombie clawing into the truck bed. This one was different—faster, stronger, moving with a vicious coordination that looked almost human.
The convoy had been fine until a child started crying and wouldn’t stop. The sound cut through everything, thin and sharp. Zombies turned toward it like dogs hearing a whistle.
The child’s mother panicked, bouncing the baby and whispering frantic comforts, but the more she tried, the louder the crying became. An older woman finally snatched the child, jammed a bottle into its mouth, and the wailing stopped.
Too late.
Zombies were already sprinting after the trucks, hungry for fresh flesh. One managed to leap, fingers hooking the tailgate, and clawed its way into the bed. Screams erupted. People shoved and trampled each other trying to get away.
Yun Rou had been hiding deeper inside, but the crush of bodies forced her out toward the edge.
For a moment, she wanted to kill every one of them. These lowly, unevolved humans had shoved her forward like bait.
But she couldn’t afford to stop and rage. She swung the golf club, face set like stone.
The panic and crowding made the child start crying again. The sound rose, and the chaos thickened.
From the truck behind, a soldier leaned out and fired a single shot. The zombie’s head snapped back and burst. The corpse slumped.
People scrambled, seized its limbs, and heaved the dead thing over the side.
The truck finally steadied. Yun Rou didn’t crawl back into the deepest corner. She stayed near the outer edge, watching—because she’d seen that zombie scratch someone. Those people would mutate sooner or later.
—
With Sun Yi’s local knowledge, Wu Lian Yi’s SUV twisted through a maze of side streets and popped out onto the service road beside the expressway. They hit the bridge and sped toward the outskirts. Other vehicles joined behind them, forming a ragged little line.
Near dusk, they reached the rendezvous point.
Cars and army-green trucks packed the area, apparently waiting for stragglers. Several men in combat uniforms stood clustered together, arguing in harsh, urgent voices.
Then Yun Rou appeared again, edging close to a man who looked like the leader. She spoke in a careful, submissive tone. The leader’s brow knotted. The men around him looked worse by the second as they peppered her with questions.
“Sister Lian Yi,” Sun Wang whispered, “they got here before us.”
“Go find out why,” Wu Lian Yi said. “Those faces mean trouble.”
And Yun Rou choosing this moment to wedge herself into their circle? That wasn’t an accident.