Chapter 441: Surprise

After running into an alley, Chen Xiaolian checked his personal system and saw that the green dots representing those knights were not coming after him. He breathed a sigh of relief. He had won his bet.

His final act of stabbing the unicorn was to delay their pursuit. Considering how special the mount was, it was very likely that they would not stand by and do nothing after seeing that the unicorn had been wounded.

Noticing a door beside him, Chen Xiaolian broke in and quickly adjusted his rate of breathing to get out from a state of combat.

It was an empty building. He ran across the residential building and moved out through the building’s corridor. After making his way out of the corridor, he turned into another street.

There beside the street was a car dealership. Chen Xiaolian dashed inside and glanced around to see a row of racing motorcycles. One glance was enough for him to know that those motorcycles have been modified before. He looked to the side and saw that the keys and helmets were hanging on the wall beside the exhibit. He smiled and picked a fiery red motorcycle. After getting the key to the motorcycle, he put on a helmet. A few seconds later, the motorcycle charged out into the street, going at full speed toward the north side of the city.

…

Somewhere on the road around nine kilometres away from Jerusalem…

The bus carrying the other members of Meteor Rock Guild continued moving forward along the road.

After Roddy’s story about Chen Xiaolian, the rest of the members entered a deep state of contemplation. That was especially true of Qiao Qiao, who sat there and looked out the window in a trance-like state.

Lun Tai checked his watch and furrowed his brows before saying, “Shouldn’t we slow down a little to wait for Xiaolian?”

Qiao Qiao looked at Lun Tai, a frown on her face as well. She said, “I suggest that we stop to wait for him. At any rate, we still have plenty of time to get to Tel Aviv.” She then asked Roddy, “Roddy, how much farther do we need to go?”

“It should take no more than an hour for us to reach Tel Aviv,” Roddy said loudly without turning his head. “We are about to reach Stonecutter’s Mountain, an industrial area in Jerusalem. We can stop there for a bit and find a spot to refuel.”

“I agree.” Lun Tai considered the proposal. “We will stop for 20 minutes and wait.”

Qiao Qiao said, “I tried calling Chen Xiaolian using the guild channel, but I failed to get any reply. Could he have run into some trouble?”

Lun Tai’s face turned grim and he was pondering the question when Roddy, who was driving, suddenly shouted, “There is a situation up front!”

Hearing that, Lun Tai quickly ran to Roddy’s side. There, he picked up a pair of night vision binoculars and looked forward. Then, he sucked in a cold breath of air.

There on the road ahead were seven to eight cars. There were all positioned at different angles as they occupied the centre of the road. One of the cars had even slammed straight into a large tree by the road while some others had slammed into each other. Some had even turned over.

Those seven to eight cars were scattered across a distance of 200 metres on the road and were taking up nearly half of the road.

Roddy had already slowed down their bus while Lun Tai narrowed his eyes and looked ahead. He could instinctively feel that something was wrong.

The road had been empty all this time. For there to be so many cars here, did an accident occur?

But most importantly, only the cars could be seen. There was no one around.

If this was due to some freak accident, the drivers and passengers involved should now be at the roadside right now.

However, the only things on the road before them were the cars. Those cars rested there, not a human figure in sight.

Feeling the bus slowing down, Lun Tai’s vast experience came into play. A sense of unease streaked through his heart and he shouted, “Roddy! Speed up! Charge forward! Hurry!”

Hearing Lun Tai’s shout, Roddy did not bother trying to figure anything out. He had faith in this Deputy Guild Leader. Showing no hesitation, he slammed his feet down on the throttle. The bus’ engine roared and the bus itself trembled before it suddenly accelerated forward.

Bang!

The bus had sufficient weight and momentum behind it and it slammed right into a car that was leaning sideways on the road. The bus broke through this obstacle and continued charging forward.

The bus trembled and Lun Tai shouted, “Everyone, hold tight! Pay attention to both sides of the bus!”

Bang!

Once more, the bus slammed another car that was blocking the way in the middle of the road. However, the front of the bus became deformed and its speed dropped as a result.

A trace of fear appeared in Lun Tai’s face and he shouted, “Roddy! Don’t slow down! Hurry! Accelerate and break our way out!”

Roddy shouted and pushed the throttle to its limit.

The bus shook bumpily and the younger members inside the bus exclaimed in shock. As for Qiao Qiao, she hugged Soo Soo tightly.

“Did we run over something?” Roddy turned his attention to the rear-view mirror and was instantly shocked.

Behind the bus, a bloody figure twitched on the road before staggering up.

That was clearly… … a human!

“Did we run over a human?”

“Do not stop! Just keep charging forward!” Lun Tai shouted anxiously.

Roddy looked to the back once more. This time, his heart gave an involuntary shudder.

He had finally gotten a clear view of the figure staggering up from the road.

The figure wore a protective suit, a clear indication that he was an Awakened. However…

His vest-style protective suit appeared intact. However, the clothes on his exposed arm had been torn off, revealing his decayed skin. A strange layer of viscous liquid contaminated his body. Most terrifying of all was his face… his entire face was decayed and one of his eyes had fallen off, leaving a gaping hole in its spot. The other eye however, stared intently at the rear of the bus.

“What the Hell is that?” Roddy shouted in shock.

Lun Tai roared, “Keep your eyes in front!”

Roddy pulled his attention back to the front and saw a figure suddenly rushing at the bus from the front.

The figure leapt up high and spread out all four limbs, forming the ‘大’ shape.

The bus sped forward and a “bang’ was heard as the figure slammed into the windshield.

Thankfully, the distance travelled was not enough to build sufficient momentum and the windshield held. However, cracks had begun appearing on the windshield. Additionally, this figure lying on the windshield…

The protective suit the figure wore revealed that the figure was a woman with golden hair. However, its face was also decayed. The same was true of its body and decayed flesh fell off its body.

It was simply a rotten zombie!

The female zombie held onto the windshield and the fingers on both its hands were like sharp, terrifying claws that pierced through the window. Both its hands clung tightly onto the windshield and it raised its head…

Bang!

It slammed its forehead onto the windshield.

At that very moment, it was practically looking straight at Roddy, with only the windshield to separate them both. Roddy could clearly see the terrible face of the female zombie.

“F**K!!!” Roddy screamed.

With his line of sight blocked, Roddy could only react using his subconscious instinct. He turned the steering wheel slightly and the bus abruptly swerved, slamming into a car that was in the middle of the road.

The weight of the bus and the angle of the car allowed the bus to push the car forward through around 20 metres before the car was shoved aside. By then however, the bus had spiralled out of control. It slammed headfirst into a large tree by the road.

Boom!

The entire bus shuddered a few times.

The female zombie clinging stubbornly to the windshield was in the middle of the collision between the bus and the tree trunk and its body was splattered.

Roddy watched as one of its arms flew out and green coloured blood sprayed out from the broken part on its shoulder.

The impact of this collision was finally enough to break the windshield.

At the same time, two to three windows on the side of the bus broke as well.

The passengers in the bus staggered. Thankfully, the bus had stopped jolting and Lun Tai jumped up.

Qimu Xi was the worst off among them all. She was in the rear side of the bus when the collision happened; her head had struck several spots in the process and blood now trickled down from her forehead. The others however, were better off. When the collision occurred, Xia Xiaolei had instantly covered his head and crouched down.

“Damn it!”

Roddy suddenly swore.

After the windshield broke, a bit of the viscous liquid on the female zombie splattered on Roddy’s face. The sticky sensation from the viscous liquid disgusted Roddy and he raised his sleeved hand to wipe it off and was rewarded with an unbearable stench.

He had just cursed out when he saw that the female zombie had yet to die. It struggled for a bit as its body was stuck in between the bus and the tree. Then, it reached out with its broken right hand to claw at the driver’s seat. Its pair of eyes stared intently at Roddy and it attempted to crawl forward.

Roddy jumped up. He first got away from the driver’s seat by taking a few steps backward. Then, he pulled out a handgun and fired two shots at the female zombie’s head.

Bang! Bang!

The two shots blasted the female zombie’s head apart and it lay down, motionless at last.

“Bloody Hell!” Roddy raised his gun and used his sleeve to wipe his face.

“Everyone be vigilant! Don’t get out first!” Lun Tai shouted with a deep voice. “Take positions! Qimu Xi, the rear! Qiao Qiao, Xia Xiaolei, the sides! Soo Soo, Will, you two hide!”

At that same moment, Roddy suddenly gave a wretched scream and he staggered, his face pale.

“What is it, Roddy?”

“I, I have been infected!” Roddy turned around to look at Lun Tai. He had wiped the green coloured viscous liquid off his face. However, there were some residual stain and his face now appeared slightly green.

“Infected?” The faces on Lun Tai and the others flickered.

Roddy read out the prompt he received from his personal system.

“System prompt: You have been afflicted by an unknown power. Checking the comprehensive evaluation of your individual resistance, system detected that you have used Genetic Enhancement Serum before. Your resistance is at [A+] class. Estimated time before entering zombified state: 45 minutes.”

When they hear that, their faces sank.

“Zombified? Afflicted?”

They recalled the two weird looking rotten zombies and their faces sank even further.

…