As tension mounted among the people, the convoy entered the Zombie horde. Just like the last ti, as the first car approached the Zombies, they reacted as if they were in the presence of so formidable entity, emitting deep growls and scrambling out of the way.
People were so astonished that their eyes nearly popped out. Even though they were aware of Li Henian’s ability to drive away Zombies, it was their first ti witnessing it so directly.
The sight of a human convoy moving amidst a horde of Zombies was eerily bizarre. After the convoy had been moving for a while, Xu Haishui climbed to the car’s roof and yelled out to everyone, attracting their attention.
"Whatever you see today, keep it to yourself when we get to Qinshan Base. Anyone who dares to spill it to outsiders or those joining later..."
He made a throat-slitting gesture. It was clear what he ant, and it sent chills down everyone’s spine.
The air suddenly dropped a few degrees, but Xu Haishui wasn’t bothered about the psychological pressure his words had placed on people. He slipped back into the vehicle.
It took a long while before the atmosphere in the convoy relaxed. As they reached the highway junction towards Hua City, Tang Ye and his n’s faces turned grim when they saw the situation ahead.
The toll station’s overpass had collapsed terribly, with debris and dust scattered everywhere. A dark, scorched patch on the adjacent building wall suggested that an explosion had occurred.
"Who did this?"
Tang Ye looked at the broken overpass and asked in a deep voice, although it wasn’t clear who he was asking.
"It was probably those highway raiders," Bai Huipeng replied.
"Why would the highway raiders blow up the bridge?"
"It’s likely they encountered so formidable Zombies or knew there was a powerful group nearby. Afraid of being wiped out, they destroyed the bridge."
When the post-apocalyptic outbreak occurred, a lot of people turned into Zombies. For a while, people traveling on the highway were trapped. As ti passed and hunger drove people to twisted acts, they began to harm others. In the end, familiar faces grouped together. They turned nearby villages or gas stations into strongholds, forming societies like ancient bandits.
These highway raiders lived off survivors passing by. Whenever survivors managed to escape from their own cities and happened to pass by here, they would be robbed by these raiders.
These guys were infamously brutal. Once in their hands, n were tortured to death, and so even forcibly recruited. As for won, they only faced humiliation, or more crudely, used as sex slaves!
Of course, these highway raiders sotis bit off more than they could chew.
Successful robbery would an they had enough food for days or even weeks. Failure led to death or, in severe cases, the loss of their whole base.
But destroying the highway ramp would cut off their source of inco. They must have been considering sothing to do it.
"Boss, should we change our route? If we go back our way, it will be a bit of a detour," Xu Changchi suggested.
Tang Ye waved his hand, not accepting the suggestion, and said, "No need, those people are probably guarding against us. After you slaughtered one of their groups, word probably got around to the other highway raiders. If this place was blown up, I fear our route might be the sa."
"In that case, the other highway entrances are also blown up, how do we leave?"
"No, the highway raiders need to survive too. They need people to rob. It would be foolish to destroy all highway entrances in Lin City. They are bound to leave one behind. Let’s wait here. Bai Huipeng, go and compile a list of how many highway entrances there are in Lin City, then find the one with the most survivors."
"Yes."
After Bai Huipeng left, Tang Ye gazed at the collapsed highway ramp, an ominous glint passing through his eyes.
Maybe those highway raiders were afraid of them, but Tang Ye didn’t know the thod Bai Huipeng had used. However, using explosives to block highway entrances to guard against a Shiwuguan Base seed rather extre, didn’t it?
As per his understanding, there were countless highway raiders of different strengths along a section of the highway. If a powerful force from within the city took interest in you, finding you would be the real challenge.
Looking at the huge void on the collapsed ramp, it took a substantial amount of explosives to bring it down. Tang Ye was more inclined to believe that the highway raiders had encountered a terrifying creature. Otherwise, considering the quantity of explosives it took to collapse the highway ramp, it was unlikely to be done by a single group. It had probably been a joint effort by multiple highway raider groups.
But what could this creature be?
Half an hour later, Bai Huipeng approached Tang Ye and said, "Boss, I found it. It’s in Kunping, on the southern side of the city. I asked so people who ca from there. They said it had plenty of survivors."
"Right. Let’s go... also, Xu Changchi, you and Xu Haishui go and check our route to see if it’s been destroyed. Co back and report what you have seen."
"Alright."
"There’s no need, I’ll go myself."
Just as Xu Changchi agreed, Xu Haishui waved his hand to refuse. He grabbed a Zombie rat from the cage, got it aboard, and raced back to Shiwuguan Base in a blur, leaving Xu Changchi awkwardly smiling.
"Let him go, we will head to the city’s south first."
Arriving at the place Bai Huipeng ntioned, just as Tang Ye had guessed, the highway entrance here hadn’t been blown up. In fact, even if soone wanted to, it would be impossible. The area here was different from the previous one; there wasn’t an overpass but rather a slope. The toll station was populated with quite a few Zombies. Anyone determined to blow it up would have to pay a high price.
The toll booths were now heaps of twisted tal. A large chunk of the concrete platform was forcefully dug up. The sides were littered with wrecked vehicles. Beyond the aimlessly wandering Zombies were countless skeletal remains and partially-rotten Zombie corpses.
These corpses were in horrendous shape, rotten flesh oozing pus everywhere. Limbs and organs were strewn all around. Past the toll station, every three steps, you could see countless tire tracks stained with blood, sared with clumps of rotting flesh, trailing streaks of blood. These were undeniably the work of survivors who had managed to break out with their vehicles.
Driven by Tang Ye’s ntal command, the Zombies obediently moved to one side. The convoy drove past the toll station, located the road sign marked Hua City and turned the vehicles around. At this ti, Xu Haishui arrived riding the Zombie rat. He held a strange blade that had appendages similar to an insect’s leg. It appeared to be a weapon belonging to a Zombie.
"What’s the situation back there?"
"Hmm, it’s been blown up... but, I found sothing strange."
"What?"
Interest sparked in Tang Ye’s eyes. Xu Haishui took out his phone, opened a picture. It was of a highway entrance not far from Shiwuguan Base. Since getting in from there and heading towards Hua City would involve a long detour, Tang Ye had never taken that way.
In the picture, the overpass at the highway entrance had not been destroyed completely. Only holes were blown on both sides, revealing the reinforcent steel structure inside.
There were several bodies on the ground, all with their necks slashed opened. So of the bodies had their heads split open. One of them had a blade lying in the middle, the sa blade Xu Haishui held.
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