Chapter 169 — Frozen Wasteland
“Maintain defenses! Don’t fall behind! Ability users put up barriers!”
For safety reasons, almost every sled carried at least one ability user. The vehicles without ability users stayed protected in the middle.
The moment the zombies appeared, Yan Fei split apart the massive metal sphere trailing behind them, forming protective walls on both sides of the convoy.
Zhang Su quickly withdrew the wind he’d been using for scouting and instead erected a dense wall of compressed air behind the rear sled.
Xu Mei handed control of her sled to Song Lingling while she focused on combat. Whenever zombies surfaced ahead, she blasted them away with fireballs.
Xinran also manipulated sand beneath the snow just like Yan Fei. Whenever obstacles or holes appeared, she filled them in to smooth the convoy’s path.
Luo Xun drove at the front.
Ironically, the front was the safest place because the zombies reacted slowly. By the time they fully climbed out of the snow and stretched out their arms, most of the convoy had already passed them.
Only the last two sleds occasionally encountered zombies directly, but Xu Mei quickly blasted them away.
The little dog stood upright excitedly, staring behind them with its tail held high as though desperate to leap out and fight those strange black figures emerging from the white snow.
While driving, Luo Xun casually smacked its head.
“Behave. This isn’t your turn yet.”
The dog flattened its ears slightly and lowered itself a little, but it still stared curiously at the black figures left behind.
Some of them were suddenly running after them—
Fast.
“Woof!”
The moment the dog barked, the entire convoy abruptly sank downward as though trapped in deep snow.
Fortunately, they soon pushed through and stabilized again.
Although the dog’s outburst delayed them slightly, the pursuing zombies suffered the same invisible crushing pressure and immediately sank into the snow with heavy thuds.
Those fastest zombies were speed and wind-type mutants. If they’d continued chasing, who knew how long the pursuit would’ve lasted?
Unfortunately, while the dog’s ability had helped, its indiscriminate area attack was also incredibly dangerous.
So Yan Fei turned the dog’s face toward him and spoke slowly.
“Don’t. Bark. Right. Now.”
The dog stared back at him.
Then it wagged its tail weakly and collapsed dramatically onto the blanket covering their legs, pretending to be dead.
Though it usually loved provoking Yan Fei and chewing on his shoes, the truth was that it listened to Yan Fei even more obediently than Luo Xun.
Most of the time it deliberately caused trouble, but once Yan Fei became serious…
Well.
It clearly understood exactly who possessed the highest combat power.
Luo Xun glanced sideways at the now obedient dog and inwardly sighed.
When he smacked the dog, it ignored him completely. But one sentence from Yan Fei and it instantly behaved.
Truly infuriating.
Thankfully, the dog still loved acting spoiled with him while only causing trouble for Yan Fei. That at least somewhat soothed Luo Xun’s wounded pride.
After racing forward for over an hour, the zombies finally stopped emerging from the snow.
Only then did everyone relax and return the sleds to normal speed.
“Everyone okay?” Luo Xun asked over the radio.
During the earlier escape, nobody had time to talk unless there was an emergency. Now they finally had a chance to speak.
“We’re fine!”
“One zombie grabbed our sled earlier! Fatty chopped off its arm!”
“What happened to the arm?”
“Kicked it off already.”
Luo Xun sighed in relief.
“When we stop later, Song Lingling, wash everything down carefully. Don’t bring the virus back to the base.”
“Got it,” she replied.
The zombies themselves weren’t the biggest issue.
What bothered Luo Xun was how strangely concentrated they had been.
As they continued traveling, he quietly muttered to Yan Fei, “Why were all the zombies gathered in that area? Isn’t that way too concentrated? Were there even residential buildings nearby?”
Everything outside the base was completely buried beneath snow now. Everywhere they looked was endless white.
Still, even beneath snow, large buildings should’ve been visible.
That earlier area had looked almost completely flat.
Yan Fei shook his head slightly.
“I’m not sure either. I wasn’t paying attention to collecting metal nearby.”
So he couldn’t confirm whether buildings existed there.
“Let’s just keep moving…”
Then Luo Xun suddenly remembered something.
“Ah! Time to feed the baby. Check if he wet himself too.”
Yan Fei immediately gathered metal around himself and the infant compartment, shielding them from the cold wind.
He took out the bottle kept warm beneath blankets beside heated metal plates and began feeding the baby.
Surprisingly, their insulation system worked quite well.
The baby had remained asleep the entire time without any visible discomfort.
Once the child finished feeding, remained dry, and fell asleep again, Yan Fei finally relaxed slightly.
In weather this cold, bringing a newborn outside was terrifying.
Though they had heavily modified the sled, nobody could truly guarantee it would work perfectly.
At least now, after surviving the zombie attack without incident, they could finally feel a bit reassured.
The convoy continued steadily through the frozen wilderness.
Aside from the initial zombie encounter shortly after leaving the base, their journey remained surprisingly smooth.
In this endless white world, without Luo Xun’s compass, maps, and GPS corrections from satellites every two hours…
None of them would’ve dared venture out so boldly.
By evening, as darkness approached, the group began building temporary shelters for the night.
Other than stopping once midway to change the baby’s diaper, nothing interrupted their journey.
What shocked everyone was—
After spending an entire night in their shelter fully prepared for a zombie siege…
Not a single zombie appeared.
The next morning, everyone sat around a fire preparing breakfast when Li Tie suddenly asked quietly,
“Brother Luo… do you think the zombies might all be gathering together somewhere?”
“Gathering together?” Luo Xun looked puzzled.
Li Tie lowered his voice.
“When the zombies attacked the base before… think about how many there were. Could it be that all the zombies from A City and the surrounding cities gathered together and started moving as one?”
Luo Xun froze.
Then he looked toward Yan Fei uneasily.
“But we haven’t seen tracks outside the base,” Han Li objected. “If huge zombie groups were moving around, there should be footprints everywhere like around the base.”
“Maybe there just aren’t many zombies around here,” Li Tie argued. “There aren’t even many buildings nearby. How many people could’ve lived here? Besides, in weather this cold, as long as we don’t wander too close to buried zombies, how would they even notice us?”
Suddenly Zhang Su raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t forget. There were two zombie sieges.”
Everyone froze.
Even if the second siege happened after snowfall, nobody knew what became of the zombies after the first one.
Luo Xun suddenly felt his scalp go numb.
“If most of the zombies gathered together after the first tide… then during the second siege they might’ve already come from the same place. And afterward… returned there too…”
A chill spread through the cramped metal shelter.
Everyone stared at him in silence, fear written plainly across their faces.
For a long moment, nobody spoke.
——————————
Beneath the sleds stretched endless white snowfields.
Above them spread blue skies and a brilliant sun.
Though the sunlight barely provided more than a faint warmth, everyone had noticed over the past few days that the uppermost layer of snow seemed to be slowly melting.
The snow was melting.
Which meant spring was approaching.
This was already the third day since leaving the base.
For three straight days they had crossed snowy wilderness with barely any recognizable landmarks.
Yet surprisingly, the baby, Xinran, and the dog all remained perfectly healthy. Aside from exposed skin feeling numb from the cold wind, everyone else was doing fine too.
“Right now we’re here,” Luo Xun said during a rest stop, pointing at the map. “The solar panel factory is probably still three days away.”
Then he pointed elsewhere.
“But the experimental farmland everyone found earlier is less than a day away from here.”
He looked up at the group.
“So? Should we check it out now, or visit it on the return trip?”
Everyone exchanged looks before quickly agreeing.
“Brother Luo, if we keep staring at snow much longer, we’re all going snow-blind anyway. Let’s go check the experimental farm first.”
“If there’s really useful stuff there, we can sort it out now and pick it up on the way back!”
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