NOVEL NEXT Chapter 496: Zombie Baby
The sky was a flawless blue.
As evening came, the sky was clean and transparent, as if devoid of any impurity.
After more than ten days of torrential rain, the sunset of this day appeared exceptionally pure.
After leaving the prison, they directly bypassed the provincial capital city and headed south on the national highway.
The evening glow illuminated the woods on both sides of the highway. Through the car windows, Li Tie and the others could even see the vivid green of the leaves.
They drove on, with Li Tie at the wheel and Third Uncle checking the map, contemplating where to camp later.
Next to Third Uncle, Qin leaned over to look at the map. There was a tunnel about a thousand meters long on this national highway, which had lighting inside before the apocalypse. But since the apocalypse, the lighting in the tunnel had become inoperative.
Third Uncle looked at the map; if they went straight on this road, they could get on the highway and return to the base at least an hour faster.
But there was a certain risk. After all, who knew whether zombies might be lurking inside the tunnel?
"Don't go through the tunnel; it's just stopped raining, and zombies are likely hiding. It's very possible they're concealing themselves in there. Let's take another route," Third Uncle told Li Tie, who was driving in front.
Next to the driver's seat where Li Tie was, was an iPad with a pre-downloaded map of the whole country, including offline maps of various cities. It also offered navigation capabilities.
However, the navigation feature was currently indicating to pass through the tunnel.
"Alright, let's take this way then," Li Tie said.
Upon hearing his father's words, Li Tie immediately adjusted the navigation's planned route and took an alternative road.
This alternative road took a detour through a small town.
The following vehicles closely trailed the Unimog Li Tie was driving in.
The air was fresh after the rain; everyone rolled down the windows a bit to let the fresh air into the car, driving away the stuffy, turbid atmosphere.
Since the apocalypse, although they had experienced various natural disasters, nature's ability to heal itself proved to be extremely strong. Now in spring, life was thriving, with many plants lush and leafy.
On both sides of the road, in the woods, they could still see some zombies. When these zombies spotted the passing vehicles, they followed in pursuit.
But the vehicles were moving quickly, and the scattered few zombies soon gave up the chase.
Under the sunset, the vehicles' shadows stretched very long.
Half an hour later, they passed the small town they had just noticed on the map.
At this moment, the sun was just hanging on the edge of the mountains, about to set.
Third Uncle looked ahead to some houses at the edge of the road a few hundred meters away. These were three- to four-story residential buildings, and to the right of these buildings was a small villa.
This small villa was also on the edge of the road, but unlike the houses, it was about thirty meters away from the asphalt road.
The other houses were only about ten meters away from the asphalt road, some even only seven or eight meters.
The villa had a yard, which encircled it.
Third Uncle's eyes lit up, and he said to Li Tie: "Let's go to that villa over there."
Li Tie also noticed the villa and felt a flicker in his heart.
He nodded his head and agreed.
As the vehicle approached, they could see the small villa more clearly; it was European-style architecture. In the yard, there were some messy things, seemingly soaked by the water, making their original appearance somewhat indiscernible.
Thump, thump, thump―
They passed a few speed bumps, and after another ten meters or so, they arrived outside the villa.
Third Uncle was the first to get out of the car. Although they hadn't encountered any people along the way, it couldn't be guaranteed that there weren't any in the town they had just passed.
In the apocalypse, if there were no zombies, then areas with lots of buildings were obviously more suitable for survival.
However, this was unlikely. Zombies needed to avoid the sun, so they would look for some dark corners to hide, besides caves, and these human-made structures were also places they liked to stay at.
The reason for not choosing to stay in the town just now was to avoid encountering a large group of zombies, and Third Uncle did not want to interact with any survivors there if any existed.
With their strength, they of course were not afraid, but during the apocalypse, the mindset of the surviving people was too unpredictable.
It's better to avoid trouble when possible, so leaving the town and moving about five kilometers away from it was a better choice.
After Third Uncle got out of the car, he surveyed the surroundings and found nothing abnormal, then said to the others: "Dapao, Tianlong, take some people to check the villa. If there are zombies, take them out.
Old Lü, Qin, you two scout around and see if there's any large zombie nests.
The rest of you, drive the vehicles into the yard. Then start setting up our camping gear for the night."
Their past experiences of staying outside had given them some know-how.
The first point: check the safety of the location you're in.
The second: inspect the surrounding zombie situation. If there are many zombies, that's a risk at night, too. Before Lü joined Big Camphor Tree Base, he once stayed in a small town in Xin City and made this mistake.