"Boom..."
The weather, which was originally sunny, suddenly turned overcast. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, startling everyone. Jack, sitting in the passenger seat and fiddling with his gun, leaned out to look at the sky and couldn't help but wonder when the heavens had changed their face and become like before?
"Let's find a place to take cover. There isn't a single tree around here; we might get struck by lightning!" Bai Ru, who was driving, had a pale face. Jack turned around and noticed that the girls in the back also looked pale, probably frightened by the thunder and lightning. Jack nodded, put his gun back in its holster, and pointed to a high dirt mound ahead, saying, "Let's go there; it looks like the old highway service area. Step on it!"
Bai Ru nodded, skillfully shifted the gear to fifth, and accelerated towards the target.
Jack and the others were now driving on what used to be the riverbed. Since the outbreak of the virus, the environment had become unusually strange. Not far to their right was a collapsed section of the bridge, and the riverbed had long since dried up, revealing cracked earth. The car made a loud tire noise as it drove over it, kicking up a long trail of Marcus-colored dust behind.
Jack had thought the girls would feel downcast upon seeing the dry Yangtze River, perhaps even unable to hold back tears. However, it turned out that they had endured so much pain that their mindset was much more resilient than Jack had imagined. Their emotions were indeed low, but thankfully, none of them cried. They all sighed almost simultaneously, silently praying that one day the dry Yangtze River would come back to life, just like humanity, and thrive once again on this land.
After a long time of thunder rumbling, it finally started to rain. Large raindrops pounded on the car, making a crackling sound, accompanied by a stream of dust flowing down the glass, resembling a muddy rain.
The girls cheered as they opened the car windows and stretched their hands out. This rain was truly rare; Jack couldn't even remember the last time it had rained. The girls excitedly extended their fair arms, letting the rain hit their delicate skin, happy like children. This rain had come just in time, washing away the sorrow in everyone's hearts.
The rain has not yet stopped, and it is much stronger than those thunderstorms that seemed to rush to be born in the past. The two cars struggled a bit before finally making it into the service area. Looking up, the service building with its silver exterior still stands relatively intact, but after long exposure to the wind and sun, and with no one to manage it, most of the glass on the outer wall has shattered. Even the parts covered with aluminum-plastic panels have started to discolor and peel off. Moreover, a high layer of Marcus sand has piled up on the eastern side, making it look like a fortress in a desert at first glance.
Just over a year, no one would have thought that a beautiful building could fall into such disrepair.
Since this is a service area on the highway, there is naturally a large parking lot in front of the building. If you don't look at the parking lot, the standalone building might just seem a bit unattractive, but combined with the parking lot, it can only be described as tragic. A large number of cars almost filled the entire parking lot—large trucks, small trucks, sedans, vans, all sorts of vehicles, both common and rare. Without exception, they were all crammed together in the parking lot and at the entrances and exits. Millions of luxury cars were damaged by a few thousand broken-down vehicles, and there were no people left to shout. Some dark red remains mixed with a lot of white bones were visible everywhere.
Seeing this scene, one can imagine the panic of the people at that time. Some wanted to escape, while others were trying to get in. The chaos was almost like a pot of porridge, but whether they wanted to go out or come in, they ultimately could not escape one outcome: the cars turned into a pile of scrap metal, and humans became a heap of dry bones. Of course, in a more tragic scenario, some might even turn into flesh-eating zombies.
Jack and his group drove in from a gravel path behind the service area. Although there were quite a few cars piled up there, they managed to bump and scrape their way to a spot not far from the building. Jack jumped down first, feeling the refreshing sensation of the heavy rain on his body. He cautiously observed the surroundings before clapping his hands and calling out to the girls, "Everyone get down! We'll rest here tonight!"
The girls poured out of the car, and their tense nerves finally relaxed a bit upon seeing the relatively quiet environment. This place was completely different from the zombie town they had encountered earlier. Although the endless Marcus sand world was incredibly irritating, the number of zombies had noticeably decreased. The scenes of them flocking together and parading around seemed like a thing of the past!
The sensitive girls naturally noticed the oddity of the place. They didn't know what had happened here, but the decrease in zombies was certainly a cause for celebration. One by one, they giggled and jumped down from the car, feeling the long-lost rain hitting their bodies. A few impatient girls even opened their tops and stood in place, washing themselves with the rainwater.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't rush! It's not easy for such heavy rain to stop. We can wash up once we get inside; it's not too late! Be careful not to catch a cold!" Bai Ru quickly called out to the impatient girls, led by Jiao Jiao, to put their clothes back on. Only then did everyone tease each other and run towards the building.
The girls rushed towards a small door on one side, but as soon as they reached the eaves of the building, they stopped in their tracks. This service area had fewer zombies, but it didn't mean there were none. There were still quite a few zombies wandering around. However, due to the heavy rain, the surrounding smells were diluted, and visibility was poor, so the zombies, which primarily relied on their sense of smell to hunt, were now standing there, dazed and looking up at the sky. They didn't even notice the humans who were very close. However, the zombies inside the building, sheltered from the rain, were not so oblivious. As soon as the girls got close, they all turned to look at them and charged over fiercely in an instant.
"Get out of the way..."
Seeing the zombies crowding at the small door, ready to rush out at any moment, Cao Mei suddenly shouted. The startled girls quickly retreated back into the rain. Behind them, Cao Mei was hurrying forward, holding two red gasoline cans that she had unloaded from the car. The cans were heavy, and she struggled a bit, but she gritted her teeth and threw the two gasoline cans in front of the small door one after the other. Then she quickly unstrapped her riot gun from her back, pulled the gun bolt with a "click," and without aiming, pulled the trigger on the two gasoline cans.
"Boom..."
The gasoline in the plastic oil drum ignited loudly on the path that the living corpses must pass, and waves of heat hit their faces. Everyone quickly covered their faces with their hands and retreated to a safe area. However, the living corpses, who had no pain and no thinking, still rushed over without knowing whether they were alive or dead. Their withered bodies were quickly ignited by the fire, and the remaining fat in their bodies became The best combustion aid. After only half a minute, the fire in front of the building almost doubled in size. Not a single living corpse that rushed over could be spared. They were all buried in the fire. Even the strongest one among them only rushed out of the fire for more than ten meters. Then he fell down in front of everyone with his body burning with fire and could not get up again.
The fire gradually died down, and the air was filled with a strong smell of burning fat. A large amount of Marcus-colored corpse oil mixed with rainwater flowed to everyone's feet. The girls covered their noses and jumped away in shock. When the fire slowly extinguished, everyone could see clearly that there were at least forty or fifty mutilated corpses lying in front of the door. Some living corpses that had not been fully burned were still squirming back and forth in the charred corpses.
"Haha, burn you sons of bitches to death." Boss Hu wiped the rain off his face excitedly, made a very manly appearance, and stepped forward with the Bayi Bar to break the necks of the living corpses that were not completely dead one by one.
"You are quite good at picking things up off the shelf." Cao Mei crossed her arms and walked past Boss Hu contemptuously. Boss Hu seemed to have expected that this woman would come to make trouble, and was not angry. He glanced at Cao Mei expressionlessly and walked aside with a sinister smile.