Chapter 101: Strange Zombie Horde

Four vehicles crept slowly along a ruined street, their wheels occasionally crushing corpses they could not avoid, and at times smashing aside zombies that lunged at their bumpers; each vehicle bore varying degrees of damage, but none hindered normal movement.

They reached another intersection; the road ahead was Jianshe Road, where the Yileiwen Convenience Store stood.

Zhang Su turned right naturally—this familiar route had once been one he walked twice daily, but now it looked utterly alien.

As he turned right, he instinctively glanced left, as if checking for oncoming traffic; the sight froze him, making his hand jerk.

He was heading west toward the intersection, but two or three hundred meters east, along the same road, a countless horde of zombies clustered thickly, filling the entire lane and even the sidewalks on both sides!

The entire street was choked with zombies, like sardines packed in a can; the most terrifying thing wasn’t their sheer number, but that they were moving.

Moving toward him.

“What the hell is going on…?”

Zhang Su nearly shouted aloud—he wanted to stop and examine the zombies more closely, but nearby zombies were already drawn by the vehicles’ noise; if he stopped, he’d have to deal with the ones swarming around them, and a chain reaction could be disastrous!

Reluctantly, Zhang Su suppressed his damned curiosity and kept driving forward.

Besides Zhang Su, others in the other vehicles had also noticed the anomaly, making the already tense atmosphere even more strained.

“Why are the zombies clustering? Nothing seems to be drawing them—if it were, they wouldn’t be moving this slowly…”

Zhang Su couldn’t help pondering, but he wasn’t a zombie; no matter how hard he thought, he found no answer, and could only attribute it to zombie instinct.

“Fine, they cluster—but why move? Are they like locusts? When a group reaches a certain size, individuals just… hmm?”

As he pondered, Zhang Su suddenly spotted a familiar figure curled up on the sign of a hot pot restaurant beside the road.

“Wu Lue?!”

Zhang Su blurted out involuntarily.

His main purpose in coming to Yileiwen Convenience Store was to retrieve weapons, though he’d also hoped to find Wu Lue and Zhao Xue; he never imagined he’d spot him just four or five hundred meters from the store, and his condition was bizarre.

Zhang Su quickly scanned the surroundings and saw dozens of zombies gathered at the hot pot restaurant’s entrance, their hands clawing upward like demons from hell, as if trying to drag the living figure on the sign down through the air!

“Damn it! Can’t he hear the car?!”

Zhang Su frowned inwardly, hesitating whether to rescue him; after two or three seconds of thought, he decided to save Wu Lue.

He turned on his left signal and, amid the stunned stares of the drivers behind him, drove straight onto the curb.

“What the—holy shit, Brother Su’s gone mad!”

Lu Yu was at the rear of the convoy; he’d been instinctively following the other vehicles’ turns, but now he saw Zhang Su’s van suddenly accelerate, plowing straight into the dozen zombies at the hot pot restaurant’s entrance!

Thud-thud-thud…

Zhang Su slammed the accelerator; the zombies at the entrance tumbled like bowling pins.

Puff!

Something unexpected happened: the battle-hardened van’s airbag finally deployed in this collision, spraying white powder all over the cabin…

“Puff, pfft, spitting… damn it, Lue, you’re paying for my van!”

Zhang Su spat repeatedly; though sodium azide was non-toxic and tasteless, swallowing it was still nauseating.

Just as he prepared to reverse and hit the zombies again, he noticed most of them were already lying motionless on the ground.

Zhong Xiaoshan had seen Zhang Su ramming the zombies and mimicked him; behind her, the H6 and Prado followed suit, and the scene instantly cleared.

“Good teamwork!”

Zhang Su grinned, then frowned again—he noticed Wu Lue, still curled on the sign, hadn’t reacted at all.

“Damn it, my airbag exploded and this guy’s still zoning out!”

He slammed the brakes, grabbed his axe, and jumped out.

Several others from the other three vehicles also got out and silently finished off any zombies still twitching.

“Wu Lue! What the hell’s wrong with you, hey!”

Zhang Su dispatched one zombie and ran to the sign beneath Wu Lue, waving his hand; Wu Lue remained oblivious.

The others, seeing Zhang Su’s actions, realized he knew the motionless figure on the sign.

They knew Zhang Su’s nature—he never rescued anyone without reason; if he’d stopped specifically to save him, the man must be important.

Wu Lue sat on the sign with vacant eyes, his face caked in grime, hair and clothes a mess; had it not been for Zhang Su’s long familiarity with him, he’d never have recognized him.

“Brother Su… what’s wrong with him?”

Zheng Xinyu asked curiously.

“Scared stiff…”

Zhang Su glanced around, picked up a few broken stones from the ground, and hurled them at Wu Lue.

Crack.

One stone struck Wu Lue’s head; he let out a hiss, his eyes suddenly brightening as he looked down—just as he opened his mouth to speak, he lost balance and tumbled straight down.

“Oh my god!” Zhao Dechu reacted swiftly, stepping forward to catch Wu Lue alongside Zhang Su.

The two of them steadied Wu Lue as he stood on the ground.

“Su-su-su, Su…”

Wu Lue’s feet touched the ground, but his legs trembled violently, his whole body shaking, lips uncontrollably twitching—he couldn’t even form a complete sentence.

At that moment, faint voices reached Zhang Su’s ears.

“Damn, everything others do needs his approval, but when he rescues someone, he doesn’t even ask anyone else—dragging us along too, so annoying.”

“Can you shut up? If you want to stay in the group, stop complaining!”

“If you hate Zhang Su so much, why not just leave and do what you like?”

Zhang Su didn’t turn around—he knew who was whispering. He pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to Wu Lue. “Don’t get all worked up. Here, drink some water. Bo, keep watch on the zombie horde behind us.”

“Don’t worry, Brother Su, they’re far off—we can’t even see them!” Lu Yu Bo glanced back and said.

Zhong Xiaoshan stepped forward, snatched the water bottle from Wu Lue’s hand, and said: “You haven’t eaten in days—drinking too fast will overload your system. Sip slowly!”

She poured water into the cap and fed it to Wu Lue’s mouth, repeating this over ten times; Wu Lue’s trembling gradually subsided.

“Lue, what happened to you?”

Zhang Su, seeing Wu Lue finally calming down, asked urgently.

Wu Lue’s lips quivered, tears welling in his eyes. “Brother Su, save Sister Xue, save her, please, waaah…”

Zhang Su knew “Sister Xue” meant Zhao Xue. He frowned. “What exactly happened? Tell me slowly.”

“That day… that day the zombies broke out…”

“Start from when you left the store!” Zhang Su cut him off—this idiot going from the beginning would take until nightfall.

“Oh, okay—two days ago, morning, the staff and cooks from Da Tielu stormed into the convenience store. Me and Xue, we didn’t dare resist. I was thrown out, but they wouldn’t let Xue go… Brother Su, save her!”

Wu Lue collapsed from exhaustion; Zhao Dechu caught him before he fell.

“Da Tielu…”

Zhang Su murmured. He knew the restaurant—it stood just a hundred or so meters away on another street beside Yileiwen Convenience Store, three stories tall; he’d eaten there before.

“Everyone, get back in the vehicles. Come on, Lue, tell me the full details!”

Zhang Su helped Wu Lue toward the van, casually glancing at Kuang Miao and the others along the way.

“You’ve lost weight in less than half a month—perfect, you’ll fit.”

Zhang Su opened the passenger door, cleared a narrow space, and helped Wu Lue inside.

“There’s some shāqímǎ in the box beside you—take some, but don’t eat too fast!” Zhang Su climbed in, pulled out a cloth, wiped the blood off the windshield, then yanked out the deflated airbag and tossed it out the window.

“Brother Su, I thought I was dead—never thought I’d see you again. Thank god… let’s hurry and save Xue! I’m afraid those bastards will rape her!”

Wu Lue chewed as he spoke, his face filled with urgency.

“You’re in this sorry state and you want to go rescue someone? Damn it, if I hadn’t needed to grab supplies from the store, you’d be dead right now. Didn’t you know the warehouse below had weapons? Why didn’t you take them?”

Zhang Su looked at Wu Lue’s frail form—angry yet amused. Logically, the weapons he’d left at Yileiwen should’ve been enough for both of them to defend themselves.

“Damn it, we got tricked! That little nobody who always came to the store—forgot his name—pretended he was fleeing alone. Me and Xue thought it over and opened the roller shutter… then six of them burst in!”

Wu Lue recalled the scene, his face twisted in pain. “We didn’t even have time to react—we were both overpowered. Those bastards… they’re not even human!”

Zhang Su sighed. “So you two have been trapped in the store ever since?”

“Yeah.” Wu Lue nodded. “There was food and water—we thought we could hold out for a month or two until rescue came. But no rescue arrived… only a pack of beasts.”

Zhang Su shook his head. “No wonder you fell for it. If you’d known the outside world’s state, you wouldn’t have been so naive. Honestly? The whole damn world’s like this now. No rescue coming—human civilization’s already collapsed.”

“Guh!”

Wu Lue’s neck stiffened, as if choking, his eyes bulging as he stared at Zhang Su, speechless.

Slap!

Zhang Su smacked Wu Lue hard on the back of the head.

“Cough-cough-cough…”

Wu Lue convulsed in coughing, spraying shāqímǎ crumbs everywhere.

“If this had happened before, I’d’ve charged you two hundred for car cleaning. Fuck.” Zhang Su brushed shāqímǎ crumbs off his arm guard.

“Brother Su… you’re not lying, right? The whole world’s like this?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Zhang Su nodded. “Your teachers are all gone now. You’ll have to teach yourself.”

“Forget useless stuff—tell me about the people at Da Tielu!”

There’d be time for idle chat later; right now, the priority was resolving the situation at the store and rescuing Zhao Xue.

Wu Lue set down the shāqímǎ and recalled: “There were six of them—I saw six bastards. From their talk, I learned four were servers, two were kitchen staff, and the leader was a chef.”

“Those guys were brutal. Me and Xue didn’t resist—they beat me up…” Wu Lue sounded deeply wronged.

“Did they find the stuff I hid?”

Zhang Su asked anxiously.

“They definitely searched everywhere—I don’t know if they found it.” Wu Lue was uncertain.

"Fine, assume they’ve found it and are dealing with it! As long as they haven’t left, we can get it back! They haven’t gone, right?" Zhang Su cared deeply about the weapons he’d left at Yileiwen—each one a top-tier piece.

Wu Lue thought for a moment and said, "I heard them say they planned to wait in town for ten to fifteen days. If no rescue came, they’d head to Funing County—apparently one of them had parents who ran strawberry greenhouses there."

"Good. These bastards are dead."

Zhang Su nodded, glanced at the time—it was already four in the afternoon—and the sky had darkened. He turned to look back at the street behind them, faintly seeing a dark, dense mass in the distance.

The emergence of the zombie horde was strange and suspicious, but fortunately their movement was extremely slow, making evasion easy—though their purpose remained unclear.

"A zombie horde has appeared to the west. Let’s head to Xiangyang Road first to find a place to rest and avoid the passing horde. We’ll figure out how to rescue Zhao Xue tonight!"

After speaking, Zhang Su started the vehicle and led the way forward.

Wu Lue was startled to see the other three vehicles following behind. "Brother Su, are all these guys with you? You’re insane—how’d you pull together a team so fast?"

"Stop sucking up. I don’t want a team—I just want to go back to how things were!"

Zhang Su smirked, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a cigarette.

Wu Lue immediately took the lighter from his hand, struck it a few times, and lit the cigarette—just like back in Yileiwen.

"Yeah, life before was so good… sigh. By the way, Brother Su, any news about our boss? Thanks to the store’s supplies, me and Sister Xue made it through. Hehe."

As they reached the intersection, continuing straight for another fifty meters led to Yileiwen Convenience Store; turning left or right led to a side street beside the main road.

Zhang Su took a deep drag, gave Wu Lue a scornful look, and said, "Stop grinning. I’m the boss. You idiot!"

He slowed the car, glanced left and right, then turned left toward the side where few zombies could be seen.

"Cough, cough, cough…" Wu Lue burst into another fit of coughing, staring at Zhang Su in shock, then suddenly understood. "Holy shit, Brother Su—you’re the real deal! Damn, I’m impressed!"

In that moment, all Wu Lue’s lingering questions clicked into place. No wonder Zhang Su always scolded him for taking things from the store. No wonder he muttered whenever Wu Lue wasted water or electricity. No wonder every move he made during his shift was watched…

"Stop talking nonsense, Luezi. The world’s changed now—no one can protect you except yourself. I might save you once, but I won’t necessarily save you again. You need to adapt—got it?"

"How do I adapt… Brother Su?"

Wu Lue asked, naive as ever.

"You got kicked out by those guys—how many zombies have you killed?"

Wu Lue’s face twisted in discomfort. "Kill zombies? I just ran. Those things are terrifying—get scratched and you’re infected. I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Didn’t look like you could run at all, weak as you are… Right, the zombie virus is terrifying—but that’s not an excuse to be scared. First rule of adapting to this world: you must be able to kill zombies alone!"

As he spoke, Zhang Su spotted a dry cleaner’s with an intact storefront and pulled over.

Wu Lue nodded reluctantly, knowing Zhang Su wouldn’t lie. He spoke with little confidence: "I’ll try my best…"

"What the hell is this ‘try your best’ crap? It’s not ‘try’—it’s give everything you’ve got. Come on—watch how we do it!"

Zhang Su stepped out of the car, kicked out with a thud, toppling a zombie emerging from a nearby ramen shop, then swung his axe-hammer—clang, clang, clang—and finished it off.

"See how to kill a zombie now?"

Zhang Su turned to Wu Lue, whose face was filled with shock.

"Y-yes, I saw…" Wu Lue nodded rapidly, like a sparrow pecking grain. So the zombies he’d feared like tigers weren’t that hard to kill!

Without being told, the others had already formed a basic understanding—get out of the vehicles, eliminate nearby threats, then regroup.

"Everyone saw that zombie horde earlier. They seem to be moving straight along the road. We’ll rest here for now—first, eat."

Zhang Su gave the order.

Everyone nodded and returned to their vehicles to fetch food and drink.

As agreed, the four students had only two portions of supplies—but since half the convenience store’s stock belonged to Kuang Miao’s group, Song Yijun and Pei Lan could still eat their fill.

Yu Wen’s group was also fine—they received two portions from Zheng Xinyu, enough to stretch among three if they rationed, especially since Yu Qing had little appetite.

"Xiaoshan, quickly give the medicine to Teacher Yu. Use a strong dose. Also… give her two braised eggs. Sick people need nutrition."

Zhang Su realized brute force alone wouldn’t work—only a balance of mercy and authority could win people’s loyalty.

"Thanks, big brother! You’re truly a top-tier good person, haha!"

Zhao De smiled broadly.

"Thank you, Mr. Zhang."

Yu Wen nodded repeatedly in gratitude. After brief observation, he judged the young man’s abilities—he didn’t carry the biased lens Song Yijun did. From Zhang Su’s actions, he saw meticulous planning, decisiveness, depth, and ruthlessness.

Yu Wen made his decision: he would stick close to this man—never fall behind.

Thanks to the reader who donated 100 coins on 20220522191734726, and to the always wordless 100-coin donor.

IVs really work faster than pills—after just one day, I already feel much better. With today and tomorrow left, I think today’s dose is enough. I’ll ask later if I can return tomorrow’s medicine—Little Nian’s suffering in the clinic is too painful. Readers, don’t rush—I’ll reward you with a 10,000-character update once I’m feeling better!

(End of Chapter)