Chapter 65—Gold

by Bocchan13

After finishing up in the fabric store, they left and headed down the main street. The roads were easily navigated as they checked the smaller stores. However, they were without luck as the more desirable items in the apocalypse like mechanic equipment, glass panes, and car parts were taken quickly. Miscellaneous things were still strewn about.

Song Yu and Lan Zhou found a mattress shop and eagerly went in. Song Yu sensed the presence of a zombie and tailed Lan Zhou into finding it. Lan Zhou wasn’t too concerned about it and found it trapped under collapsed doors. With a flick of a wrist, the zombies head was dismembered.

Song Yu went to observe if the mattresses could be used and found that this shop too had been swept clean, leaving only the broken ones.

This was his luck. If he had all of the mattress parts, he could fix them in his space. Making sure Lan Zhou didn’t see it, he brought several mattresses inside as well as springs he found on the floor and padding.

“There’s not much here. Let’s go further into the alleys.”

“Okay.”

They ran into a few more zombies, but they were low level and easily handled. The more they reached into the heart of the city, the more this disconcerting feeling Song Yu felt. He felt as if someone was watching them.

Observing the abandoned streets and buildings, the overwhelming feeling got bigger and bigger.

“It’s almost been 3 hours. We should head back,” Lan Zhou gently said.

“You feel it don’t you? Someone’s been watching us.”

“Not someone.” Lan Zhou’s blue flame ignited instantly causing the dim alleyway to brighten tenfold. Song Yu’s hand was grabbed.

“It’s something.”

In a split second, something crashed out of one of the buildings. It’s blurry visage was extremely fast as it disappeared as quickly as it came.

“The zombies underground are probably being controlled by something. We should take every precaution.” Lan Zhou nodded and led the way back to the car. They met up with Yu Ci, Wang Cheng and Wu Ding.

“Did you find anything?”

“Yep, we got a few ready-made clothes from the shopping district and straw hats! We came back because we felt like being watched.”

Lan Zhou nodded and turned to Song Yu.

“The city isn’t safe at night. There is a reason the zombies are underground in the daytime.” Song Yu thought carefully. He had never heard of this phenomenon either. Zombies liked the heat and sun, so going underground which was cold and damp was not ideal.

Now that their initial shopping was over, they had time to worry about this. Xiao Zi and Lu Jingxiu also came back, their experiences similar. Despite not having a space ability user, Lu Jingxiu got quite the haul, everything strung on his back towering over him.

“You guys also felt that too. I think it would be safer to get out of the city and come back in during the day.”

“Do you think it’s a high level zombie?”

“Probable. But if it’s a high level zombie, why would it hide underground?”

Song Yu took out the heat sensor and surmised the general location of this zombie hoard. The subway and sewage tunnels were big enough to accommodate an entire city. Seeing the big red blob migrating throughout the city, he could only concede.

At this point, Wang Cheng spoke up, “It’s not a human zombie, but an animal zombie. Probably a mole or bat that is sentient.”

Everyone fwipped around to stare at Wang Cheng. He blushed lightly and stammered.

“Hey, I’m smart too.”

Song Yu pondered a bit and nodded. “Wang Cheng is right. It’s most likely a nocturnal animal. Lan Zhou and I saw it for a brief bit and it looks to be as big as a car. I think the zombies underground are under its control.”

Everyone agreed to sleep outside of the city and moved everything into Song Yu’s and Wang Cheng’s space. In less than 30 minutes they were hightailing it back to out of N City. Just as night had fallen, the car heard a piercing screech before it dwindled down to a long echo.

“Shit. I think we have to go farther than the city outskirts.” Xiao Zi looked at the back seat window and saw that N City that looked like an abandoned city suddenly come alive.

The sewer vents had been ripped apart years ago and now zombies were pouring out of the streets orifices. These zombies were low level and had little running ability, but the massive amounts of them scared the crew into driving faster.

“We still have to go back for another scavenge, so let’s drive a for a little while longer. I don’t think the high level zombie likes to leave N City, so the zombie hoard won’t go far.”

Lan Zhou pointed at a location on the map.

“We can stay here, barricade in the bank and wait for early morning. Now that we know that we have at least 8 hours of access in the city we can go in and get out before sunset.”

Everyone agreed with this plan and Wang Cheng drove off to Lan Zhou’s specification. In less than an hour, they reached the suburbs and followed the route to a small bank. It had already gotten dark, so the car lights were turned off.

Relying on the red moon, they finally reached the bank. There were several zombies of level 1-2, but nothing too bad. Wu Ding and Lan Zhou dealt with them from the sun roof. The cars parked at the bank looked disassembled and out of order, the entryway filled with abandoned cars in various states of disrepair.

Yu Ci got out, spotted by Lu Jingxiu and easily moved the cars using his super strength. The cars groaned quite a bit, getting the attention of a few zombies. Lu Jingxiu silently sliced them with ice needles, neatly avoiding drawing more attention. When the entry path cleared, Wang Cheng easily parked the car.

Getting out, everyone was vigilant as they entered the bank. The bank was quite large with rows of clientele windows, a few ATM windows and fax/copy machines in the back. Song Yu was interested to see if the machines were still usable.

Suddenly, three zombies came out from behind the counter. Their deathly pale faces, eroded by rot and disease gave everyone the heebie jeebies and Song Yu who hadn’t killed in a while used his spatial blade to cut off their heads.

He stretched his arms out and cut it cleanly, their heads thudding on the linoleum floor. The thud brought out a few more zombies from hiding, so Song Yu excitedly cut to and fro. When they checked all of the rooms, they decided to go to the bank deposit boxes that were guarded by a large bank vault.

Song Yu had never seen the insides of a bank before and was curious, so he took Lan Zhou’s hand to look around.

The bank vault was unexpectedly closed. Looking at the scorch marks, clumps of dirt, and small holes on the bank vault, it seemed that people had tried to pry it open to no avail.

Yu Ci cracked is knuckles and smiled.

“Leave it to me guys.”

Yu Ci didn’t approach the vault lock instead moving opposite to where the hinges where. He gripped the top pieces, and under its extreme pressure, the metal bent, and like unscrewing a cabinet; the giant bolts were taken off.

Yu Ci smiled at the rest of the group, his teeth gleaming in the darkness.

“ Got in!”

Everyone laughed quietly and were led into the vault.

Eyes all widening, Wang Cheng’s mouth dropped open, Xiao Zi rubbed his eyes and Wu Ding directly gasped.

In the center…was a giant pyramid of gold!!!