Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Phantom at the Alley Entrance (Part 1)
"Hu Ge, we’re retreating!"
Staring blankly at the giant hand reaching under the car, Hu Xiaodong was momentarily stunned. Clearly, his tense nerves prevented him from comprehending what was happening outside.
However, once Wu Chao’s simple and worried face appeared in his gaze, all his questions dissipated like a cloud.
"Okay, let’s do it, brother!" With Wu Chao’s right hand pulling, Hu Xiaodong kicked with both legs and slid out from under the car.
Due to staying under the dark shield of the corpses for a long time, Hu Xiaodong, who had just seen the light again, was a bit unaccustomed to the glaring light from above.
He instinctively raised his hand to shield his forehead, blinked hard twice, and after slightly adjusting, immediately asked the question he was most concerned about: "What’s the situation now?"
"Uh~ The supermarket is too small to hold all the zombies, so Xiao Tang suggested we evacuate as soon as possible!" Wu Chao succinctly explained the current situation to the confused Hu Xiaodong and handed over his Compound Bow, saying: "Here, this is for you, Hu Ge!"
Nodding to himself, Hu Xiaodong turned back and glanced in the direction of the supermarket behind him, immediately feeling a bone-chilling cold rush to his head.
Have you ever seen the shocking scene of refugees scrambling for food during a disaster? That was the exact situation at the entrance of Meilizi Supermarket at this moment.
Except, those so-called hungry and helpless refugees had become the bloodthirsty zombies of the present, and the awe-inspiring shock had transformed into endless fear.
"Retreat!" Hu Xiaodong uttered this word almost without any hesitation.
Just as he finished saying "retreat," A Cheng’s thin figure finally crawled out from the passenger seat.
No action plan was needed, no pre-battle mobilization necessary; all the survivors clearly understood that for them, "speed and caution" would be the key to their life and death.
After everyone checked their backpacks, ensuring they were secure and firm, Hu Xiaodong once again crouched down and took on the responsibility of leading the way.
As previously mentioned, the rules the survivors needed to abide by during their escape were nothing more than two keywords: speed and caution.
Speed for the survivors to run back to the base as quickly as possible.
And caution to minimize the chance of being discovered by the supermarket zombies as much as possible.
On the whole, these seem quite contradictory; after all, they had to be both fast and stealthy. If this was an unobstructed open field, it might have been easy to say.
But right now...
The zombies blocking the road every now and then, the various cars abandoned haphazardly in the middle of the roads, all became obstacles on the survivors’ escape route.
And trying to silently overcome these obstacles was clearly an impossible feat.
However, fortunately, Tang Xiaoquan had foresight. His plan for Wu Chao to use fruit cans to distract the zombies greatly reduced their chance of being noticed.
But even so, it still unavoidably attracted the attention of some wandering zombies.
Hu Xiaodong lost count of how many zombies he had slashed along the way. He only remembered that any living thing appearing in front of him was cut down by his blade.
At this moment, if a living person were to appear in front of him, he feared he would unhesitatingly cut them down as well.
"Charge charge charge, kill kill kill!" His mind was filled with bloodthirsty and exhilarating words, and Hu Xiaodong was like a War God of slaughter, his blood-red eyes seemingly ready to devour everything in the world.
This is probably the innate nature humans reveal when facing the death crisis.
Generally, human nature is divided into two kinds: the wolf nature and the sheep nature.
These two natures are often hidden within due to the constraints of worldly ethics in everyday life, but when faced with the apocalypse, this potential nature will be exposed, presenting in two completely different forms.
For example, someone with a wolf-like nature will, when threatened, often turn the threat into motivation, bursting with potential ability, making them like a hungry wolf pouncing on anything that tries to harm them.
On the other hand, someone with a sheep-like nature will naturally turn fear into a reason for their retreat, resorting to prayer and despair as their last methods.
Leaning heavily against the advertisement board of a bus station, Hu Xiaodong’s lungs were wheezing like a bellows, and his five-foot-long blade was covered in dark sticky fluid, appearing especially terrifying under the sunlight.
A short section of road, with a straight-line distance not exceeding 300 meters, felt like a marathon of ten thousand meters for the survivors, leaving them utterly exhausted.
Wu Chao casually lifted the backpack in his hand; the heavy, solid bag was now deflated by more than half.
The space now reduced was undoubtedly filled by the fruit cans he had thrown away.
bottles or 6 bottles, Wu Chao was not sure, but even if it was more, as long as they could ensure everyone’s safety on this journey, it was worth it.
After resting for about 2 or 3 minutes, the survivors once again set off on their journey.
The scorching sun above remained relentless, causing the shirtless survivors to suffer, as a lot of fluids rapidly drained through their dilated pores, and the physically weaker Tang Xiaoquan even began to feel dizzy.
Hence, hydration had become an urgent problem for the survivors, but the perilous streets were evidently not the place to address this.
After another 20 or so minutes of intermittent stops and starts, Hu Xiaodong finally led his companions safely to a vehicle shelter outside an alley.
Seeing the base so close at hand lifted everyone’s spirits, and the beautiful feeling of almost reaching home alleviated some of their exhaustion.
However, Hu Xiaodong’s joy did not last long. When he saw the familiar silhouettes stretching out from the alley, his thick black eyebrows furrowed deeply.
"What’s wrong, Hu Ge? Is there something wrong?" Tang Xiaoquan noticed Hu Xiaodong’s odd expression and crouched beside him, whispering.
Nodding to himself, Hu Xiaodong extended a finger, pointing at the shadows reflected on the ground, saying: "Do you see that? There’s movement in the alley!"
Indeed, following the direction Hu Xiaodong pointed, Tang Xiaoquan noticed several shifting Black Shadows.
So the question arose, what exactly were these Black Shadows?
Humans? Zombies? Or something else?