CH 78.2

Chapter 78.2 – Tram’s Grave

Before Shi Yuan could finish his entanglement, there was a loud thunderclap that shook the earth! Thousands of butterflies danced, they were crystal clear, and their tails and wings were colorful. There was an explosion in Garage No.7,  grenades and petrol bombs were thrown out in turns, and a tram that was parked too close and was engulfed by a raging fire.

“Boom!” With a loud noise, the tram exploded, and Shi Yuan curled up his tail in fright.

The sound of fluttering wings also came from the second floor of the garage they were in. Old Song cursed secretly and re-set up the flamethrower, ready to fight the monster tide.

They couldn’t delay anymore.

The fire of the tram soared into the sky, and the heavy rain could not extinguish it. Shi Yuan was about to leave when he suddenly heard Major Ke say, “…what is that?!”

Old Song held his gun and didn’t dare to look back, he heard Major Ke continue to speak: “It’s reinforcements! Reinforcements are coming!”

The soldiers in Garage No.7 also discovered this, and their morale was high for a while, and there was the sound of gunshots again. The convoy of armored vehicles came from afar, running over countless puddles and crushing the newly formed water butterflies. The butterflies could not crash through the armor, but were shattered to pieces in repeated attempts, turning into water droplets, and flowing down.

The armored vehicles drove to Garage No.7, forcing the butterflies to retreat.

At the same time, butterflies poured onto the second floor of the garage.

Old Song’s forehead was full of sweat, and he whispered, “Go to hell for Lao Tzu.” He pulled the trigger, and the scorching flame spewed out of the muzzle! Major Ke also picked up an ejector, and the two of them clung to the small space.

For a while, the sound of butterflies fluttering their wings, flames burning, and large areas of rainwater evaporating mixed together, making it as noisy as a frying pan boiling, Major Ke gritted his teeth and said, “Hold on—hold on for a while! We will be soon…”

“Dudu—”

Two very loud beeps.

Major Ke reacted quickly: “The communicator has a signal! Shi Yuan!”

Shi Yuan picked up the communicator on the ground, and a familiar voice came from inside: “This is General Lu Tinghan, please reply.”

Shi Yuan said, “Hey, Lu Tinghan…”

The other side froze for half a second, his voice was still very calm: “Where are you?”

Shi Yuan: “The 2nd floor of Garage No.3.”

“Received.”

The two armored vehicles turned a corner and came straight towards them. Although it was impossible to contact other people in the city, the fleet’s communication system could guarantee short-range signals.

Shi Yuan told the two of them: “Lu Tinghan will send someone over.”

Old Song breathed a sigh of relief: “We’re finally saved. Is the general… here in person?”

“It is estimated that they went towards the transport ship and saved us on the way,” Major Ke said, “Besides, if these cores are gone, it will be a big problem.”

The armored car cleared the downstairs and a dozen soldiers pushed toward the 2nd floor, finally picking up the three of them.

Once in the car, Old Song collapsed and leaned in the back seat, sweating profusely. Major Ke was also very tired, and even took several sips of warm water.

Fortunately, the butterflies retreated, they held on for more than ten minutes before the lightning and thunder went away.

The rain stopped.

Temporarily stopped.

The soldiers walked out of Garage No.7, sorted out their equipment, and took the time to transport the energy core to the car. They couldn’t delay for a minute after the rescue, and each of them wore solemn faces.

Only when he got so close did Shi Yuan see how big the energy cores were: the small core was half a person tall, and the large core was almost as tall as two or three people. The whole body was made of strange metal, and there was a faint blue light flashing in it.

He wanted to step forward and see clearly, but the soldiers surrounded the cores and were busy transporting.

He could only look around with his feet in the distance.

“Shi Yuan,” a voice came from behind him.

Shi Yuan turned his head and saw Lu Tinghan standing behind him.

Shi Yuan’s eyes lit up, the tip of his tail began to wag happily, and he rushed to his side: “Lu Tinghan, why are you here?”

Lu Tinghan replied: “To make sure the core could get on the transport ship. I should ask you this question: Why are you here?”

“Professor Guan asked me to come,” Shi Yuan replied, “I went to the research center to find him, and he also said that there is a core here.”

Lu Tinghan touched Shi Yuan’s head.

The sky has not cleared yet, and there were butterflies flying in the distance, at least the vicinity of the base station was safe.

Lu Tinghan and the other officers were explaining something, and Shi Yuan waited by the side. Then the two of them got out of the garage and walked side by side next to a green tram. There were puddles of water under their feet. There was oil-like colorful light floating on the water. The butterflies came from the rain and returned to the water.

Shi Yuan thought of a sentence that he saw from Lu Tinghan’s book: [When a person dies, it is like water disappearing into water.]

He looked through the glass of the tram and saw rows of seats.

He had taken the tram to Tower 4 countless times. In the morning, there were many people on it, and there was no sound of conversation. Several people always yawned with dark circles under their eyes. He would get off at [Jia District Station] and start the day’s work at dawn, then take the tram and squeeze in with the people who got off work, and at every stop, there was a group of people returning home.

There were so many cars here at the base station, and there were some that he had taken. Now the trams were parked here, neat and tidy, and would not move in the future, this was the starting station of the Alliance trams, but also their graveyard.

Shi Yuan stretched out his hand and touched the shell of the tram.

It was cold due to the rain.

Lu Tinghan walked forward silently and a team of soldiers followed him closely. His hawk-like gaze surveyed the surroundings, and Shi Yuan knew that he was again speculating on the behavior of the monsters.

Suddenly, Lu Tinghan stopped in his tracks.

He stood still next to a gun and asked Shi Yuan, “Is there… something here that has been there?”

This was where the female soldier was infected. Shi Yuan replied to him: “Someone was infected here and I scared her away. She should have run very far.”

“No,” Lu Tinghan looked at the rain on the ground, half of the butterflies fell to the ground, weakly fluttering its wings, “She’s still here, nearby, and she’s injured.”

Shi Yuan didn’t feel anything.

Once again, he realized how terrifying Lu Tinghan’s presence was to monsters. Lu Tinghan followed the water marks on the ground, turned around, and chased to an abandoned garage on the edge of the base station.

The garage door was half broken, and it was full of maintenance vehicles, including pickup trucks and forklifts. A few dead butterflies fell at the door, the wind blew, and they turned into water.

Lu Tinghan made a gesture, and the soldiers behind him rushed in, searching everywhere. He also walked into the garage with a gun, Shi Yuan followed him, and they went to the second floor of the garage.

The second floor was old, with many cardboard boxes and several spider webs hanging. Several soldiers came up to search, and they checked the cardboard boxes one by one.

Lu Tinghan stepped on the water flowing on the ground, walked to a small cubicle, put his white-gloved hand on the doorknob, and said, “Here.”

The soldiers gathered around. Lu Tinghan pressed down the door handle—

“Creak!” The iron gate opened with difficulty.

The glass of the windows in the room was broken, and a gust of convective wind blew suddenly, carrying the water vapor on the eaves and window sills, and brushing the faces of the people. The sky was dark, but it was brighter than the inside of the house. A little glimmer of light floated inside, reflecting the silhouette of the people inside the room.

There were butterflies dancing, each as exquisite as a work of art, and the woman in a butterfly robe looked out the window, tiptoeing, as if to touch something.

Hearing the door open, she turned her head suddenly.

Her pupils completely disappeared, leaving only the flowing colors.

“…” She opened her mouth.

A bullet hole appeared in the center of her eyebrows, and it was not blood that splashed out, but large patches of colorful rain.

The rain splashed on the wall, she slowly fell to the ground, and a white butterfly happened to land and kissed the tip of her nose. Soon, all the butterflies died together, folding their wings and falling to the ground. Together, they and the woman turned into water and flowed to the feet of everyone.

“It’s safe here,” Lu Tinghan said.

A soldier next to him hesitantly said, “Did she… just try to say something?”

“The infected person has no language skills and can’t communicate,” Lu Tinghan said, “Let her live for one more second, and she will start attacking us.” He glanced at the soldier, “Go downstairs and tell them not to search, go back to Garage No.7.”

“Yes!” The soldier no longer hesitated, saluted, and trotted downstairs.

Shi Yuan and Lu Tinghan were the only ones left on the second floor.

Shi Yuan knew that Lu Tinghan was right, that woman was already a complete monster, and regarded humans as prey. However, he remembered that the woman leaned out the window to reach something. He walked to the shattered window and looked around—

His eyes were illuminated by the shimmering light.

He saw a group of xuejian flowers that had just bloomed. The white petals were stained with a little rain, and they opened obliquely in the soil in the gap, delicate and dewy, and there was its light fragrance in the wind after the rain.

She wanted to pick a flower.

Normally, Shi Yuan would pick up the flower, but now, he thought it was better to let this flower stay here. Maybe one day, there would be butterflies kissing it.

He asked Lu Tinghan: “What was that monster thinking just now? Is she homesick too?”

Lu Tinghan walked up to him: “Hmm.”

“She said I was a ‘lighthouse’, but I don’t know what that means.”

“It may be the revolving lantern, speaking in ravings before death, I’ve seen this happen,” Lu Tinghan said, “It could mean something else too, we’ll figure it out.” He paused for a second, “At least you will figure it out.”

“Okay,” Shi Yuan said, “The communication hasn’t been restored yet?”

“No. I’m going to send someone to the data center and turn on the access manually.”

“Will it work?”

“We have to try.”

In the garage, the move was still in full swing.

They stood side by side, looking into the distance.

The green trams were silent, and in the distance were city streets, energy towers, solar panels, and white windmills. The huge storm clouds on the wasteland were approaching. It was overwhelming and devastating. In ancient times, it would have been inscribed on many murals, calling it a natural disaster or divine punishment. Fengyang City was like a flat boat in a violent wave, about to be submerged.

Shi Yuan took Lu Tinghan’s hand.

The lightning in the clouds exploded in brilliant colors, beautiful purple and red, striving to catch people’s eyes. He asked, “Is that like fireworks?”

“Hmm,” Lu Tinghan replied, “It’s very similar.”

“It’s so beautiful, just like I imagined.”

Lu Tinghan didn’t answer, lowered his head, and kissed Shi Yuan’s side face.

The wind blew in from the broken window, with dampness, and another round of rain was about to begin.

Seeing the xuejian flowers swaying in the wind, they held hands in the abandoned garage, watching the city and the fireworks in the clouds.

At the end of the street, under the pouring dark clouds, the topmost light of the data center flickered.

It was very faint and inconspicuous, as if it was an illusion.

It lit up a tiny light.