Chapter 37 — The Child
While strengthening the outer defenses was crucial, the inner zone—already protected by the original wall—had to be expanded even faster to accommodate the wave of new arrivals expected soon.
Most normal communication networks had long since failed, but the military’s secure systems and even satellite phones were still functioning. As soon as the situation in the other bases began deteriorating, the Southwest Base had received word. Not only civilians but also several important individuals needed to be evacuated to the two most fortified bases in City A.
The Southwest Base was responsible for taking in refugees from the Western Base and Northern Base, while the Eastern Base only needed to assist those from the Northeast Base. Yes—after the fall of the Western Base, both the Northeast and Northern Bases were also in serious trouble and could collapse at any moment. With the Western Base’s disaster as a lesson, they had already begun organized evacuations.
Building the new outer wall was only one part of the ongoing effort. If hordes of zombies reached them before the wall was complete—as had happened to the other three bases—they would still need to retreat and defend the inner zone. That made the construction of new housing even more urgent.
In Hongjing Community, new residents had been moving in steadily. Since the rear side of the complex faced an area of vegetable gardens, it had remained relatively quiet—until recently. Ever since news broke that the other three bases were in crisis, the once-peaceful neighborhood had been filled with the noise of construction.
The row of old single-story houses on the east side had already been demolished before the apocalypse. Now, the rubble had been cleared away, and workers were digging new foundations.
Outside, the rhythmic “thud, thud, thud” of hammering echoed through the air. On the balcony of one of the apartments, a little creature lay with its head resting on its paws, basking in the sunlight. Its paws were planted on a slipper that still held a few stray dog kibbles. It yawned lazily, baring a set of small white teeth.
Stretching its warm, sun-soaked fur, the little black shepherd wagged its tail and trotted over to the large glass tank nearby, inspecting its territory.
Yes—its territory. The entire room was its domain! It didn’t go around marking the place, of course, but since it lived here, that obviously made it the lord of this space!
Inside the glass tank, several quails were cheerfully darting about, scratching the soil with their tiny claws, digging up fat worms, and pecking at the fresh green vegetable leaves planted in the dirt. Above the tank, a thin irrigation tube dripped water at steady intervals to keep the plants moist.
The dog pressed its big black nose against the glass, fogging it with a thin layer of mist. After pawing at the glass and confirming for the twentieth time that it couldn’t get in to play with the tiny creatures inside, it turned away with a proud flick of its tail—though it couldn’t resist sneaking one more glance at those little beaked things happily pecking at the greens.
Green things… they looked kind of tasty.
Tilting its head, the pup glanced toward the white plastic hydroponic pipe sectioned off on the sunlit balcony. Those green leaves growing there looked awfully similar to what the quails were eating, didn’t they?
The young dog circled the metal safety barrier twice. The barrier wasn’t that tall—if it really jumped, it might be able to get over it. But… crashing into it would hurt a lot!
A clever dog wasn’t like a curious cat who’d risk its neck for mischief. As a bright young German Shepherd, it knew some things simply weren’t allowed. If it jumped over and couldn’t get back, what would it do when its humans came home? No, no—bad deeds must leave no trace! The tail must stay clean!
After wagging its sturdy little tail twice more, it wandered around the room, hopped into its kibble box for a few big bites, then leapt back out again. To make it easier for it to climb, Luo Xun had stacked a smaller box outside the food bin as a step.
But when the pup jumped out this time, it landed clumsily and knocked the smaller box aside—
Wait a second. It moved?
A lightbulb seemed to flicker on above its head. Moments later, the room was filled with the sounds of “scrape, scrape, scrape…”
*
All seven people across the four vehicles were drenched in sweat. Even Yan Fei, their only ability user, looked tense, his forehead glistening.
“We’ll have to ram through,” Luo Xun gritted out, stepping hard on the accelerator.
Their luck was terrible. Just when they’d escaped the supermarket and were racing toward the base, they’d run right into a convoy of dozens of vehicles—with a long tail of zombies chasing behind them!
Luo Xun’s truck was great for hauling supplies, but nowhere near as sturdy as the modified off-road vehicles leading the convoy. Those cars could plow through zombies; theirs couldn’t even match their speed. They had no choice but to fall to the rear of the line. Worse yet, several vehicles in the middle of the convoy were slowing everyone down—no idea if it was from engine failure or panic.
Yan Fei had recovered a decent amount of mental energy from the crystal cores, but now their car was surrounded by zombies pounding on the sides. He’d had to unleash several bursts of power to kill the ones clinging too close, and he’d reinforced the vehicle’s metal shell more than once. Even so, the small truck wasn’t built for this, and his energy was nearly spent again.
“Hit it. The front bumper should hold,” Yan Fei said through gritted teeth—he’d already reinforced it with metal plating earlier.
Behind them, Li Tie’s two vehicles stayed glued to their tail, terrified of falling behind. Luo Xun couldn’t worry about them now—he could only hope their luck held.
He floored the gas pedal, slamming through one, two cars ahead— Then suddenly, a vehicle near the front of the convoy swerved sharply out of line—blocking the entire road.
“What the hell?!” Luo Xun shouted. The car wasn’t moving fast, but its position completely sealed off the lane. There was no way around it.
Yan Fei’s brows drew together tightly. With how slow that car was going, there was no way it could break through the dense wall of zombies ahead.
Was the driver in trouble? Or… was this on purpose?
Luo Xun felt his anxiety spike as the car ahead slowed even more. Its rear lights flashed wildly, horn blaring, but none of the nearby drivers made a move to help.
A dozen zombies threw themselves onto the car, pounding and clawing. The thin metal shell couldn’t hold long—rotting hands tore through it as the creatures drooled streams of greenish-black slime, howling at the living flesh trapped inside.
Luo Xun had no choice but to turn the wheel sharply, rejoining the back of the convoy. From there, he could see glimpses of terrified faces inside the trapped vehicle. They weren’t infected—they’d just panicked after seeing Luo Xun’s truck charge through the horde earlier and tried to copy him, forgetting their car wasn’t built for impact.
He shook his head. There was nothing he could say, and he wasn’t about to stop to save them.
Behind him, Li Tie’s car flashed its lights—a signal. They were going to try another breakout maneuver through the opposite lane. Luo Xun adjusted slightly to clear the way.
Twenty grueling minutes later, they finally burst free of the zombie crowd.
The surviving convoy was in tatters. Every vehicle was battered, splattered with foul fluids, and claw-marked from top to bottom. The sight alone was enough to make one’s scalp crawl.
The road ahead had fewer zombies than before, but the streets on both sides teemed with stragglers wandering out from nearby residential blocks—more and more of them.
Some were even faster than normal zombies, sprinting alongside the convoy and slamming against the car doors.
Luo Xun exhaled shakily. If we just keep this up a little longer, we’ll make it back to the base.
That thought had barely formed when a faint sound reached their ears— A baby’s cry.
Neither of them could tell which car it came from, but the moment the crying began, the surrounding zombies went berserk, throwing themselves at one of the vehicles in the convoy.
Their shrieks filled the air, frenzied and hungry.
Then the crying abruptly stopped. Someone must have muffled the baby. But it was too late. The zombies had heard—and their hearing was sharper than anyone had guessed. The faint, muffled sounds only made them more excited.
One zombie leapt onto the car and ripped a hole straight through the trunk with a screech of tearing metal.
The baby’s wails grew louder. Inside, people screamed.
Cars behind them swerved wildly, trying to avoid the doomed vehicle.
Suddenly, the car’s window rolled down, and a small bundle was thrown out.
“My child! My child!!” a woman screamed hoarsely from inside. Someone tried to silence her, covering her mouth as she sobbed.
Before Luo Xun and Yan Fei could react, several zombies pounced— And the tiny bundle disappeared beneath their claws.
“…Not human.” Luo Xun’s lips were pressed tightly together. He took a deep breath and suddenly swerved left at the next intersection. The car behind—driven by Li Tie and the others—hurriedly followed in alarm.
He knew this scene all too well—it was a common sight during escape runs in the apocalypse. Not only uncontrollably crying babies but also elderly people, menstruating women who might attract zombies because of the blood, and half-grown kids who didn’t know better and wailed loudly—all of them were the first to be thrown out of the car.
Many even threw out “bait” along the way—anything to buy a few extra seconds for their own vehicle to escape. It was cruel, but by now, all too normal.
Those who got pushed out were mostly the weak—the elderly, the sick, the disabled, women, and children. In peacetime, they were the ones society protected first; in the apocalypse, they were the first to be abandoned.
Luo Xun thought he had already seen plenty. Things like this were rare when the world had just ended, but as time went on, they became more and more common. When he escaped north to the Southwest Base of City A in his previous life, hadn’t he seen the same things? …He really wasn’t suited for missions outside the base.
Suddenly, the usually silent Yan Fei placed a large, steadying hand on Luo Xun’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry. Don’t overthink.”
Luo Xun glanced sideways in surprise. The man’s expression was calm as ever—cold and composed. Clearly, Luo Xun was the one who’d been reborn and had lived through this before, yet somehow he was less calm than this man beside him. Could it be that an esper’s power also stabilized the mind?
He exhaled slowly, nodded, and then stepped hard on the accelerator, ramming into a zombie that was running straight toward them. “I’m fine. But those people have already lost their sanity. Traveling with them would be too dangerous.”
That was why he had turned off onto another street. Of course, he would never admit that the real reason was simply that he found those people disgusting.
Yan Fei’s lips curved faintly. “Do you like children?”
The question caught Luo Xun off guard. After a moment, he shrugged, a trace of melancholy in his eyes. “I wanted to adopt a child someday… if I ever had the chance. But—”
In his past life, he’d been too lonely. Even though there were plenty of people in the base, trust among survivors—trapped in a cage surrounded by zombies and mutant beasts—had long withered away. He had shut himself off partly out of choice, partly because the world left no room for trust.
But humans can’t live entirely alone. Eventually, everyone breaks.
On his journey north, there had once been someone who said they wanted to team up with him. Even though Luo Xun knew that once they reached City A, they probably wouldn’t stay together, that small connection had given him a flicker of hope—that maybe he didn’t have to be alone forever.
Though now, he couldn’t even remember that person’s full name, or their face.
In the end, the reason he’d bought that child was because he couldn’t stand the solitude anymore. After a long day of struggle, he would return to an empty home with no one to talk to. He had simply thought—raising a kid was better than dying alone in the basement, with no one ever finding his body.
But the child ran away.
His face clouded with sorrow, and Yan Fei’s heart grew heavy at the sight. Still, he didn’t miss the key detail. “Adopt, huh?” he said with an amused look. “Why not marry and have your own kid?”
Even in the apocalypse, if Luo Xun really wanted to find a woman, it wouldn’t be hard. He had a well-stocked, cozy little “hamster nest.” For someone to skip marriage and children entirely—and think of adoption this early—there could only be one explanation: he knew perfectly well that he’d never have children, and maybe didn’t even want to marry a woman at all.
Luo Xun chuckled dryly and shook his head. “Can’t afford to marry. Can’t afford to raise one.”
He obviously couldn’t say he’d already been “bent” by life itself—nor could he explain that living alone with a dog was easier than dealing with people. The world wasn’t ready for that kind of “advanced theory” yet.
Yan Fei smiled again, his eyes glinting. “Then live with me. I’ll find you a son to adopt someday.”
The car, which had been driving smoothly, suddenly executed a wild, graceful “S”-shaped drift. The car behind nearly swerved off the road in panic. When the front car finally straightened out again, Li Tie looked around in confusion.
“What the hell was that?” he asked the passenger, He Qiankun.
He Qiankun wiped cold sweat off his forehead. “Uh… wrong turn?”
Li Tie exhaled. “Maybe he’s just too tense from driving for so long.”
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