Chapter 132: A Bizarre Scene

"Damn it!"

The slightly chubby man in the lead wore a pair of glasses with a crack in the left lens. He said with an exaggerated expression, "This is too much, isn't it? Doesn't that mean we have no way to leave the city?"

Zhang Su shrugged and said, "There are other bridges to the east and west. Change to another road. You guys take your time to figure it out, we're heading off first."

He had no intention of continuing to chat with them. It was already getting late, and they needed to find a safe place to rest as soon as possible.

"Don't, wait, brother. You guys are looking for a way to head north anyway, so why don't we go together? Let us tag along, how about it? Your big convoy is just too imposing, hehe, please, please."

The bespectacled man had a very affable smile on his face.

Another tall man took out a few unopened packs of cigarettes from his bag, walked up, stood on tiptoes, and handed them up to Zhang Su: "Buddy, here, these cigarettes were just found in a supermarket. Have a heart, just let us follow along. We guarantee we won't cause trouble, and we can help if something comes up!"

Seeing that Zhang Su had no intention of reaching out to take the cigarettes, the tall man threw them directly at the car window. Two packs went in, but one hit the glass and bounced back. He caught the pack that bounced back, laughed awkwardly, and didn't force the gift again.

Zhang Su looked at the three of them. The other party was polite enough and didn't make any excessive demands, so if they wanted to follow, they could follow.

"Then let's go, head back to the city first."

"Alright, alright, thanks a lot!"

The few of them returned to their car with great joy and began to turn around.

"Brother Su, are they... okay?"

Zheng Xinyu wasn't naturally suspicious, but after all the encounters in recent days, she felt that any stranger she saw was a bad person...

Zhang Su stepped on the gas and carefully drove the car onto the provincial highway, shrugging: "These guys look like old office workers. As for whether they are good or bad, you can assume there are no purely good people now, it just depends on whether there is a conflict of interest... But I couldn't refuse their request."

Zhao Dezhu leaned out to look at the Tiguan following at the very end, then pulled back and closed the window, saying, "Big brother is right. People are just following us; we can't just kill them. What would that make us..."

Crack.

As the cars drove onto the provincial highway toward the city, a bolt of lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, followed by rumbling thunder that echoed through the heavens. Everyone felt the entire car body trembling slightly.

"Why is it thundering in this cold weather... It's too abnormal."

Pang Dakun leaned against the window and looked at the sky. Dark clouds were gathering, and bean-sized raindrops were already slapping down.

Pitter-patter, pitter-patter, the raindrops made a crisp sound against the car glass.

"Oh my god, it's raining heavily!"

Zhao Dezhu's expression was excited, as if he had seen something extraordinary.

Qincheng had little rainfall. In some years, the total number of rainy days didn't even add up to two months, mostly concentrated in the summer. Thunderstorms like this in October were extremely rare.

"Look at what the world has become now. It's not strange for it to thunder and rain in late autumn."

Yu Qing stood by the window, pressing her face against the glass. Rainwater streaked down the glass, revealing a touch of unique desolation.

Zhang Su turned on the wipers, glanced at the sky flashing with electric light, and muttered, "This rain is really not small..."

Huge raindrops slapped against the windshield, and the wipers moved at high speed, pushing the rainwater to the sides, where it was blown by the wind and flew past along the drainage channels.

"God senses that something has happened in the human world and is raining to purify demons and evil spirits!" Zheng Xinyu clenched her fists, looking like a little shaman.

Zhang Su smiled and shook his head, saying, "I think God is playing a joke on us."

"Playing a joke? Why..."

Zheng Xinyu asked, puzzled.

"We spent so much effort filling two cars with water, and as a result, it hasn't even been half a day, and it's raining!" Zhang Su laughed at himself.

Zheng Xinyu tilted her head and thought for a moment, then said, "That doesn't count as a joke. Rainwater is very dirty; how can it be as clean as groundwater? And didn't we find so much food? This wave isn't a loss!"

"Brother Su, zombies!" Zhong Xiaoshan suddenly pointed to a shop by the road and said, "Look quickly, the zombies are so strange!"

As she spoke, Zhang Su slowed the car down and turned his head to look at the zombie standing in the torrential rain. He saw it standing still like a fool, lifting its head slightly toward the sky, its mouth wide open, like a ladle catching the rainwater falling from the sky.

The car drove forward slowly, and then they saw zombies walking out of several dilapidated shops, making the same movements as the previous zombie, as if the rainwater had allowed the zombies to gain some kind of consciousness...

The sky was dark and gloomy. This bizarre scene made everyone in the car feel a chill, and a sense of ominous foreboding lingered in their hearts.

"Bi, big brother, could it be that the souls of the dead have returned to the zombies?"

Zhao Dezhu said, his voice trembling slightly. Fearless as he was, he never dared to watch ghost-themed horror movies; that was his childhood trauma, one that would take a lifetime to heal.

Zhang Su turned on the air conditioner's warm air to blow away the fog on the windshield and said, "I don't know the specific situation, but in any case, it's very strange. There are too many things we don't understand about the zombie virus. We must always maintain a cautious attitude!"

Beep, beep.

As he spoke, Zhang Su deliberately honked the car horn, trying to attract the zombies' attention. As a result, the zombies in the heavy rain turned a deaf ear to the sound of the horn, not even moving an inch. They just stood there in the rain, as if they were seedlings enjoying the nourishment of sweet dew.

"Damn, these things are brain-dead. Big brother, if we went to give it a slash right now, would it not react at all?"

Zhao Dezhu had an eager expression on his face.

"We aren't zombie hunters. It's enough to know this habit of theirs. It might be useful in the future, but there's no need to go out of our way to kill them."

Zhang Su said.

Zhong Xiaoshan frowned and said, "Brother Su, I think... I feel like they are more like they are replenishing energy!"

"Hmm?"

When Zhong Xiaoshan said this, everyone in the car was stunned.

"Ms. Zhong's guess has given us a broader line of thinking. I also think it's very possible." Yu Wen nodded in deep agreement.

"Then we're screwed." Zhao Dezhu slapped his thigh and said, "I was secretly thinking before that with so many zombies, not every one of them could get food, so would they slowly starve to death? Wouldn't we just win by lying down? If they can replenish energy from rainwater, then dragging this out is useless!"

"That's right, but... Zhuzi, why were you secretly thinking?" Zhang Su caught the keyword in Zhao Dezhu's words.

Zhao Dezhu scratched his head, a bit embarrassed: "Saying such strange and bizarre thoughts out loud would definitely invite ridicule, hehe."

"It's not strange or bizarre at all. Any guess should be spoken out so everyone can pool their wisdom. Besides, I think Xiaoshan's guess is very apt. All of a zombie's behaviors are based on instinct. Since they enjoy the rainwater, then the rainwater must be helpful to them!"

Zhang Su said heavily.

"Just like the phototropism and hydrotropism of plants..." Yu Qing added.

Regardless of what help the rainwater provides to the zombies, it will definitely make the situation for humans even more difficult.

Without further discussion, Zhang Su drove the car earnestly, the scene of the zombies catching water to drink in the rain deeply imprinted in his mind.

The rain poured down. After a while, a shallow stream gathered in the lower areas on both sides of the road, and the rain from the sky showed no sign of stopping at all.

Zhang Su stared intently at the road ahead. The sky was already dim, and the rain made the view even hazier. It was better than heavy fog, but visibility had already dropped to a dangerous range.

"We can't keep going!"

Zhang Su saw a landmark building and knew that continuing forward would mean entering the more congested city area. The road conditions would become complex, and accident vehicles would appear one after another on the road. With the current visibility, it would be very dangerous.

He decisively turned on the right turn signal and slowed down. Without a walkie-talkie, they could only use car lights to communicate.

Under the rain curtain, the car lights were very clear, and the five cars stopped one after another by the side of the road.

"It's good that it's rain. If it were ten degrees lower, it would be snowing. I can't even imagine such heavy snow..."

Zhong Xiaoshan slid her finger along the traces of rainwater on the window.

"Heavy snow..."

These words made Zhang Su's heart skip a beat. The ubiquitous zombies were already enough of a headache. If they were to encounter heavy snow sealing the city, the difficulty of survival would rise in a straight line, unless the cold could have a negative impact on the zombies.

"We must find a secure foothold as soon as possible..."

Zhang Su pondered secretly, but unfortunately, plans couldn't keep up with changes. Accidents happened every moment, and too many uncertain factors slowed their pace.

The heavy rain continued, and the small streams gathering rainwater on both sides of the road grew thicker. Slowly, water began to run across the entire road, and at the same time, some messy floating objects appeared. Occasionally, one could see severed limbs floating from who knows where...

Even with the luxurious and sturdy RV as a shelter, everyone couldn't help but feel a little panicked. Zhang Su simply led everyone to train, using muscle fatigue to dilute the panic in their hearts.

"My goodness, this water is rising so fast..."

An hour passed, and the sky remained dark. Zhao Dezhu looked out from the window. The water flowing by was already half a foot deep. If one were walking on the road, the water would already be over the ankles, and the fields in the distance had already accumulated into ponds, stretching as far as the eye could see!

Zhao Dezhu sat by the window, puffing on a cigarette, and suddenly said, "Oh my god, it's fortunate the bridge broke. Such heavy rain would definitely trigger a mountain flood. If we had successfully crossed the river, we would have arrived at our destination by now, and wouldn't we have been washed away by the water?"

According to Zhang Su's plan, they would have arrived at a resort at the foot of a mountain less than ten kilometers from Qincheng yesterday afternoon. If it hadn't been occupied by others, they would have cleared it out to use as a safe base.

Yu Wen shook his head: "Five years ago, there was a small-scale mountain flood at Yuemajian. Later, the Qingxian government spent two years focusing on renovating the drainage systems of various scenic spots, so it's already very difficult for the situation you mentioned to occur."

Natural disasters are terrifying, but they are not completely unavoidable.

"I hope those tourist attractions are okay... I feel like the precipitation of this rain could catch up to several months of precipitation in Qincheng in the past!"

Zhang Su opened the window a little and threw the cigarette butt out. Before it even hit the ground, the cigarette butt was extinguished by the rainwater, landing in the rolling water and floating into the distance.

After the heavy rain continued for another half hour, it finally showed signs of slowing down. By this time, the water level on the road was already over a foot deep, and it might even be approaching half a meter!

This water level posed no pressure at all for the two RVs.

The hardcore off-road Mercedes G-Wagon and Prado also had no difficulty. The wading depth of the two cars could reach seventy centimeters, which was more than enough to handle a water level of less than half a meter, not to mention the G-Wagon equipped with a snorkel.

However, the Tiguan at the very back was a bit uncomfortable. A water level of half a meter had already reached its limit. The three people in the car were already turning green, feeling the water flow scouring the car's chassis, like ants on a hot pan.

"Big brother, should we continue moving forward?"

Zhao Dezhu asked with worry.

Zhang Su glanced at the still-dim sky and pondered for a long time, feeling a bit conflicted. In the face of the power of nature, humans seemed too small, and even a rainstorm could become a stumbling block.

Seeing that Zhang Su couldn't make up his mind, Yu Wen said, "Mr. Zhang, there is scientific research indicating that in a crisis, if you don't know how to choose, staying put is usually a good way."

A large update is presented, hehe... close to 8K =. = Thanks to all the book friends for the votes, but I really didn't say one vote per chapter, I guarantee to update as much as possible!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 133 =====