Chapter 146: Return to the Apocalypse
Gu Ning washed her face with cold water, propped her hands on the sink, and looked at herself in the mirror. She spoke word by word, “Gu Ning, wake up. Now is not the time to think about these things.” Then she watched as the turbulent emotions in her eyes gradually subsided, finally returning to calm. She glanced at her wristwatch—1:30 PM. She stood up, opened the door, and walked out. She tiptoed downstairs and only took out her phone after leaving the house. She edited a text message to Ji Jiuzhe, saying that a friend in the capital had invited her out, and she might not return tonight. After hitting send, Gu Ning let out a long sigh and quickly walked out the gate, hailing a taxi on the roadside.
She booked a room at a small hotel, paying for three days in advance, just in case.
After locking the door, Gu Ning sat on the bed, closed her eyes, and concentrated—only to open them again in frustration. She angrily punched the mattress, then stubbornly closed her eyes again, focusing hard, desperately imagining that door in her mind. After countless repetitions… finally, a flash of golden light passed by. Gu Ning’s eyes snapped open, and she sat up from the grass, looking around the space with surprise.
She habitually scanned the area but didn’t see the big black bear. It was probably either fishing in the ability sea or at the waterfall. Not wanting to disturb it, Gu Ning opened the door and walked out.
In the apocalypse, it was still around 9 AM, and the sky was as dark as ever. Gu Ning instinctively looked toward the bed, only to break out in a cold sweat. Her parents, who should have been sleeping there, were gone. Not only were they missing, but the bedding and pillows were also gone. The wardrobe was empty, and the emergency luggage bags were missing. The floor was a mess. Just as Gu Ning was about to open the door to leave, it made a clicking sound—they must have locked it when they left. She quickly checked the living room and the other two rooms in the house, only to find them in the same state as her bedroom. All the luggage bags were gone, and even the kitchen utensils had been taken. They must have left in a hurry, as many non-essential items like bedding and sheets were left behind. Gu Ning glanced at her electronic watch to confirm the date—it was still the day she had left. There was only one possibility for such a hasty departure.
She walked to the living room door, unlocked it, and carefully opened it a crack to peek outside. As expected, she saw several zombies wandering in the hallway. Before they could notice her, she quietly closed the door and hurried to the window, lifting a corner of the curtain to look down… Zombies. The entire street below was filled with zombies. Even in the distance, she could see the faint figures of those shambling monsters. The bonfires on the roadside had been knocked over, and the entire base looked like a ghost town, with the overturned bonfires resembling ghostly flames… What had happened in the few hours she was gone? Where had the zombies come from? How had the entire base been overrun?
Gu Ning felt a cold sweat break out, her damp clothes clinging uncomfortably to her back.
She looked toward the grass opposite the dormitory building, where their two cars had once been parked. They were gone now, likely driven away. Although they had left in a hurry, they had taken the luggage bags, guns, ammunition, and even kitchen utensils. This suggested that it hadn’t been the most critical moment yet. Given their vigilance, they would have noticed the danger and evacuated immediately.
After realizing this, Gu Ning quickly calmed down. Just then, the living room door suddenly made a loud “bang!” followed by frantic pounding. The zombies outside must have caught her scent and were trying to break in.
There was no time to waste. She had to leave as soon as possible.
As they had previously agreed, if anyone in the team went missing, they would leave supplies and weapons at the disappearance point. Gu Ning returned to the room and indeed found a backpack filled with supplies, a gun, and plenty of ammunition. Most importantly, she found their note.
It read: Head north toward the river.
They must have left this message after seeing her disappear.
Gu Ning tried to use her spatial ability to store some bullets in her space, and to her surprise, it worked! She then attempted to return to her space, and with a single thought, she succeeded! It seemed she could now freely enter and exit her space again! Even more surprising, her special ability was also usable again! Gu Ning returned to the apocalypse, but to prevent her space from acting up again, she didn’t store everything inside. She carried as much as she could, and although the supply backpack was heavy, it wasn’t a burden for her, so she carried it herself.
With the pistol holstered at her waist and a knife in hand, Gu Ning walked out of the room. The zombies were still pounding on the living room door. The hallway and stairs outside were likely already filled with zombies. She hurried to the window and looked down again—there were at least a dozen zombies below. The wall was about a hundred meters away, and the area between here and the wall was swarming with zombies. If she tried to climb over the wall to escape, she would have to pass through the zombie horde, and there was a high chance of alerting nearby zombies. If she got surrounded and her space suddenly closed again… Gu Ning didn’t want to risk her life.
She quickly walked to the balcony at the back of the house. There were fewer zombies here, as most had been drawn to the bright flames of the burning tent area nearby.
Without hesitation, Gu Ning decided to descend from here first.
A vine sprouted from the ground, and Gu Ning grabbed the other end. Standing on the balcony, she let herself drop, the vine extending as she descended. When her feet touched the ground, she quickly grabbed a zombie that had turned toward her, silently driving her knife into its temple. She slowly lowered the zombie’s body to the ground without making a sound, then swiftly moved into the shadows. She calmly observed the surrounding terrain. In fact, she, Third Brother, and Jia Daozhang had discussed multiple times how to deal with a zombie siege, including escape routes and plans. But they had never imagined that Gu Ning would be the only one left in a base overrun by zombies. The front was densely packed with zombies, so she would have to take a detour along the lake.
Gu Ning hid her tracks as she ran through the darkness. Her speed was incredible, her footsteps light and almost silent, like a panther darting through the night. Several times, she came within meters of zombies but moved to another spot before they could notice her. The night air was thick with the stench of decay, and zombies roamed everywhere. Many of them still had relatively intact faces, preserving their human appearance. They knelt before fresh corpses, tearing open the bodies and frantically digging out intestines and organs, stuffing them into their mouths as if they were delicacies.
Everyone who could escape had likely already fled. Those who couldn’t had either turned into zombies or been devoured down to their skeletons. In the vast base, it seemed Gu Ning was the only living person left. A sense of despair and loneliness seeped into her mind with the night wind, chilling her to the bone.
Gu Ning’s pupils suddenly contracted! Her rapid footsteps came to an abrupt halt, and she immediately retreated! In the next moment, she heard the sound of something falling from above. With a loud “thud,” accompanied by the sound of bones cracking and brains splattering, a woman landed right where Gu Ning had been about to step. Bright red blood quickly pooled from her shattered body. She had died instantly upon impact, her lifeless eyes filled with terror, staring straight at Gu Ning in the darkness. Gu Ning looked up and saw several zombies leaning over the railing on the seventh floor, reaching down in frustration—
Gu Ning sighed inwardly, then warily watched the zombies drawn by the noise. She stepped over the woman’s body without expression and quickly left the area.
She hadn’t run far before she was forced to stop again. She swallowed hard, her eyes fixed on a little girl in a white dress about ten meters ahead. The girl stood with her back to Gu Ning, and a chill shot up from Gu Ning’s feet to the top of her head. Almost instinctively, her body froze for a moment. The nearest cover was ten meters away. She watched as the little girl turned around. Just as Gu Ning was about to charge forward and fight the mutated zombie to the death, she was suddenly tackled to the ground by a zombie that had appeared out of nowhere! As Gu Ning prepared to draw her knife and slash at its neck, the “zombie” suddenly spoke!
“Shh! Don’t move. It’s me.”
A low voice whispered in Gu Ning’s ear. She opened her eyes in shock—how could it be… Ji Jiuzhe?
Though utterly stunned, Gu Ning immediately held her breath, relaxed her body, and lay still beneath Ji Jiuzhe, not daring to move. It felt like an hour passed, with the stench of decay filling her nostrils—coming from Ji Jiuzhe’s body.
A faint dragging sound approached… The mutated zombie was coming this way!
Gu Ning couldn’t help but tighten her grip on the knife…
The suffocating footsteps slowly approached Gu Ning’s side. She felt goosebumps rise all over her body, but she suppressed the urge to jump up and slash the mutated zombie. Instead, she held her breath, playing dead…
The suffocating footsteps slowly passed by Gu Ning and continued forward.
Ji Jiuzhe didn’t move, and neither did Gu Ning.
Zombies occasionally passed by, walking straight past without noticing the two living people lying on the ground, pretending to be zombies.
After what felt like an eternity, Ji Jiuzhe rolled off Gu Ning and said succinctly, “Follow me!”
Gu Ning quickly got up and followed closely behind Ji Jiuzhe. Only then did she notice that Ji Jiuzhe was wearing a raincoat covered in disgusting blood and other fluids from zombies. That was where the stench was coming from.
As if sensing her confusion, Ji Jiuzhe said without turning back, “This was Yi Shaoqing’s idea. If we cover ourselves with enough zombie scent, they’ll think we’re one of them… We’re here.” Ji Jiuzhe suddenly stopped.
Gu Ning looked ahead and saw a bus parked on the road. The bus was in a horrific state, with its windows and body smeared with zombie blood, intestines, and other organs hanging from the roof. Even the back of the bus had severed limbs dangling from it.
A few zombies wandered near the bus but didn’t approach, as if they couldn’t see it.
“Stay close,” Ji Jiuzhe said before darting toward the nearest zombie. With a swift motion, he slit its throat and then stabbed another zombie through its open mouth—Gu Ning followed closely, her knife cutting through the darkness, easily decapitating two zombies. Ji Jiuzhe and Gu Ning silently took out the dozen or so zombies around the bus.
Ji Jiuzhe watched as Gu Ning calmly pulled her knife from a zombie’s throat and gently lowered its body to the ground without making a sound. His eyes flickered slightly, then he knocked on the bus door three times. The door opened, and Zhuang Chen, sitting in the driver’s seat, asked, “Any more survivors?” Then she saw someone peek out from behind Ji Jiuzhe. Zhuang Chen was clearly shocked, her voice cracking, “Gu Ning?!”
Gu Ning was equally stunned. Why was Zhuang Chen still here? Shouldn’t she have been among the first to escape?
Once on the bus, Gu Ning saw that Yi Shaoqing was also there.
Not just the three of them—the bus was already full, with people even sitting in the aisles. The bus was dark, so the others didn’t notice who had just boarded. Gu Ning, however, could see the entire bus. The people seemed still trapped in the shadow of death, their faces filled with fear and anxiety. Even the children clung tightly to the adults, not daring to make a sound.
“No more survivors,” Ji Jiuzhe said as he took off the foul-smelling raincoat and handed it to Zhuang Chen in the driver’s seat. “We need to go.”
Both Gu Ning and Zhuang Chen knew now wasn’t the time to ask why the other was still here.
“Alright. Everyone in the back, hold on tight!” Zhuang Chen said, then flipped a switch. The bus’s headlights turned on, illuminating the road ahead. The zombies wandering on the road immediately turned toward the light.
“Turn off the lights,” Gu Ning suddenly said, stepping forward.
Zhuang Chen, though confused, didn’t hesitate and turned off the lights. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
Gu Ning paused, then said, “Light attracts more zombies. I have night vision. I’ll drive.”
Zhuang Chen didn’t immediately move but looked at Ji Jiuzhe. Gu Ning also turned to Ji Jiuzhe, who gave a slight nod. Zhuang Chen then got up from the driver’s seat and moved to the back. Gu Ning took the driver’s seat and skillfully started the bus, slowly pulling away—
Apologies for not reaching the promised word count. I’ve done my best. The rest will be continued tomorrow.