(Lirean Province- Capitol City)
(Outer Region- St. Cheng's Highway)
Qin Lan leaned against the driver's seat and stared out of the window.
The van was now approaching a major road network that led out of the city and in roughly ten minutes they should arrive at their destination.
pαпdα-ňᴏνê|·сóМ None of the teenagers were asleep in the back of the van since they all had numerous thoughts running through their minds.
Death was a common occurrence in an apocalypse, but it was one thing to know that fact and another to experience it firsthand.
Eve's beautiful face kept flashing across Qin Lan's mind, but she furrowed her brows and tried her best to push those distracting thoughts away.
No… she was gone.
There was no use trying to think about what had happened…
She needed to move on… find a place for these kids to survive…
And then… spend the rest of her life trying to atone for failing to protect her brother…
Qin Lan let out a heavy sigh as she curled up her fingers into a tight fist. She was tired and feeling exhausted.
But it wasn't safe yet.
Qin Lan drank some water and splashed some on her face in order to keep herself awake.
She turned the steering wheel to avoid the overturned cars on the road and eventually a large red bridge came into view.
"Thank goodness…" Qin Lan quietly muttered as she observed that the bridge and saw only a handful of zombies roaming about.
There was a large pile of cars blocking the middle section of the bridge, but Qin Lan was fairly confident in her strength.
She would not be able to lift them up with one hand like Eve but with some effort she should be able to drag them slowly to the side of the road.
Just as Qin Lan was about to step on the acceleration pedal, she saw a strange sight in the corner of her vision.
There was a group of five men in military uniforms crawling out from behind the piled-up cars and engaging with the zombies on the bridge.
The man in the front of the group shouted something and the men immediately raised up their rifles and shot at the zombies that lumbered over.
Qin Lan stopped the van and watched calmly as the military officers dealt with the slow-moving zombies.
They were clearly highly trained special forces.
Each bullet accurately landed on the zombies' bodies and not a single person seemed to be affected by killing what used to be humans.
More men crawled out from under the piled-up cars and eventually their numbers reached what Qin Lan could estimate was around twenty to thirty soldiers.
Quite the large group…
They made quick work of the zombies on the bridge and one of the soldiers gestured towards the van.
"You in the van! Come out with your hands up or we will shoot!" a gruff middle-aged man yelled loudly.
Qin Lan frowned as she saw a few of the soldiers point their guns in her direction.
She wasn't sure if the bullets could reach her vehicle from that distance but the faint glint of a sniper rifle behind one of the cars convinced her not to take the chance.
"Guys… stay inside the car… and duck down…" Qin Lan coldly spoke as she raised a finger to her lips.
Liu Yifei, Gong Li, and the rest nodded in acknowledgement which made Qin Lan breathe a sigh of relief.
She opened the van door and stepped outside with her hands up.
The gruff middle-aged man walked over and was accompanied by a squad of five soldiers who each had tense looks on their faces.
It took them around ten minutes to arrive and during that time Qin Lan had already made a plan in her mind.
"State your purpose," the middle-aged officer commanded in a firm tone.
He made a hand gesture and one of the men walked towards the window to take a look inside the van.
"There is no need for that…" Qin Lan politely spoke.
She fidgeted uncomfortably as she felt the warm and fuzzy feeling in her chest suddenly intensify as the words flowed out of her mouth.
.
.
.
.
(Eastern District- Xia's Gas Station)
Eve sniffed the air twice and slowly walked out of the shadows. That familiar scent… it reminded her of the annoying human who she had killed.
But… wasn't he dead?
No… wait…
Eve's brows furrowed as she remembered the faint tangy scent of her brethren that lingered around that annoying human's body.
The zombie empress growled hoarsely as her pitch-black eyes scanned the nearby surroundings for any threats.
Something was wrong…
The gas station appeared exactly the same as it did several hours prior and yet she could sense a few eyes in the dark staring at her.
Or perhaps it was just her imagination…
Eve walked around the front of the gas station and headed towards the portable toilets where she had left Qin Wei's corpse.
She would occasionally stop and sniff the air to make sure that the scent was still coming from the area.
The zombie empress finally arrived where she had killed Qin Wei and a look of confusion flashed across her face.
The body was gone…
What was strange was that the only trace of the corpse that remained were the bloodstains on the ground.
All the chunks of flesh that had left Qin Wei's body when Eve had punched a hole through his stomach had seemingly disappeared.
"What?" Eve muttered quietly as she inspected the scene for any clues but found nothing.
The scent trail ended here.
And to add to the mystery… she could faintly smell that a human had been here… no… it smelled… almost like her own scent…
As Eve stepped forward, she felt a hard metallic device beneath her feet.
The zombie empress barely had any time to react before a loud explosion erupted from the mine.
BOOM!
Eve's figure blurred and then vanished from the spot. She reappeared several hundred meters away with burnt and blackened skin.
Her flesh soon knitted itself back together, but Eve's clothes were now completely ruined.
Fires were scattered around the location where the mine had activated and now both scents were buried under the smoke and ash.
A trap? But who would place one?
"Impressive regeneration… Subject 014…" a hoarse guttural voice came from behind her.
Eve tilted her head to the side and narrowly avoided the black claws that passed mere inches away from her skin.
"Ahh… too slow…" the voice mockingly laughed.
Eve felt an enormous force slam against her ribcage, and she was sent flying towards a nearby wall.
The concrete wall instantly cracked, and Eve slid to the ground with a sickening thump. She slowly raised up her head and saw…
Someone who looked like her.
The humanoid creature looking at her with a twisted smile had a skeletal-like frame and pitch-black eyes that gleamed with cruelty.
He held up his right hand and the space briefly distorted to form a portal. The creature gritted his teeth as if he was in a tremendous amount of pain.
He began to cough up black blood and his body trembled and shivered.
Yet even in his weakened state, every instinct in Eve's body was screaming at her to get out of this situation as soon as possible.
"I… I suppose… I should thank you… I needed… needed… a new… vessel… and… that… boy will do… nicely…" the monster snarled with great difficulty.
He took in a few deep breaths and managed to temporarily suppress the rot that was spreading through his unstable body.
Subject 014… he could not afford to fight her right now… it would be a pyrrhic victory in the best-case situation.
Eve watched silently as the creature stepped into the portal and turned around one last time to take a final look at her.
She recognised that look.
It was a gaze that still brought up many painful memories from the years she had spent imprisoned in that military base.
It was the same look that the scientists would have on their faces before they sliced open her body for experimentation.
"What's… wrong? Subject 014… oh… I guess… I haven't introduced… myself," the humanoid creature giggled playfully.
"They… they… called me…"
"Subject 001."
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