Rotting Land: Survive

The sudden, strange noise made Tang Xiaoquan’s body stiffen. Xu Renjie saw Tang Xiaoquan’s peculiar expression and instinctively asked, "What’s wrong? Xiao Tang, you..."

Seemingly startled, Tang Xiaoquan suddenly raised a hand in a silent gesture and then bent his arm outward, indicating for Xu Renjie to listen carefully.

Xu Renjie, following the directive, slightly furrowed his brows and leaned in to listen, but outside the car, there was only the howl of the north wind; he heard no unusual sounds.

Unlike Xu Renjie, because Tang Xiaoquan was on the ground, he could very clearly hear the "huffing" noise coming from outside the car.

Moreover, after some time listening, Tang Xiaoquan was certain that the sound most likely came from a creature’s mouth.

Could there be someone outside the car? This thought lingered for just a second before Tang Xiaoquan dismissed it from his mind.

Without a doubt, in this pitch-black, freezing environment, even robbers had no reason to choose this godforsaken place to carry out operations.

Since it’s not human, it must be some other creature, the first thought that came to Tang Xiaoquan’s mind was Zombies.

At present, only such beasts wouldn’t care about the cold weather or dim lighting and move around.

"There are Zombies!" Tang Xiaoquan pointed outside the window, his lips murmuring.

From Tang Xiaoquan’s moving lips, Xu Renjie deciphered his meaning.

Still, he couldn’t hear the odd sound from outside. He had just started to rise when Tang Xiaoquan pointed at the tablet under him.

Xu Renjie immediately understood, pulled out the first generation Papaya, pressed the start button, and after 3 seconds of waiting, the interface appeared before Old Xu’s eyes.

Flipping pages to find the Bluetooth surveillance software written by Li Zhong, Xu Renjie could not have imagined that the device mentioned just that evening would prove useful on the same night.

Since Old Xu, Old Zhao, and Old Lin had all previously received direct guidance from the brothers "Zhong" and "Guo," they were somewhat familiar with the software applications.

Old Xu swiftly pressed the "Infrared Night Vision" button, and as Old Xu’s fingers moved, the originally pitch-black screen suddenly became green.

Once the screen turned green, Old Xu’s eyes swept quickly across the split screens, and soon, what appeared on screen 2 made Old Xu gasp.

"Hiss~" In the image, the red blood eyes seemed particularly sinister when contrasted against the green light; even through the screen, Old Xu could still feel a bone-chilling coldness.

There was no need to verify what kind of creature possessed blood eyes; Old Xu instinctively reached for the cleaver under him and then cautiously stood up, crouching back into the compartment.

Due to the car having tinted windows and special curtains blocking them, there’s no immediate concern about the outside creatures discovering the situation inside the car.

But this can’t go on for long because as those creatures roam, they’ll sooner or later hear the loud snoring of people sleeping in the middle car.

"There is something out there!" As Xu Renjie joined Tang Xiaoquan, he handed over the tablet in his palm.

Tang Xiaoquan took it and immediately saw the flashing red eyes on the split screen.

The creature was unfortunately close to the car’s body panel, causing the camera to only capture half of it, leaving Tang and Xu unable to distinguish its kind.

"What do you think it is?" Tang Xiaoquan asked softly.

After all, Old Xu had undergone special wilderness survival training, and when it came to understanding creatures, he was certainly more knowledgeable.

Hence, Tang Xiaoquan hoped Old Xu could offer some insights, because to deal with mutated species, the best method is first to understand their original habits.

But Tang Xiaoquan hadn’t considered that, no matter how skilled, Old Xu was just a soldier; he didn’t possess a biologist’s keen "sense," relying on a blurred camera silhouette alone to identify the species.

However, based on reality, Old Xu pondered for a moment and still provided an answer: "Could it be a Zombie Dog?"

The reason for saying this is primarily because, from the outbreak until now, it’s been over five months.

Still, aside from Zombie Dogs, they hadn’t encountered anything else.

Upon hearing this, Tang Xiaoquan instinctively nodded, evidently agreeing with Old Xu’s conjecture.

With the type of mutated creature confirmed, the next step was to ascertain their numbers.

Because of the fixed camera blind spots, what’s displayed on the split screen currently doesn’t represent what’s actually outside the car.

Tang Xiaoquan utilized the green glow from the screen and found the "360-degree" sliding operation knob under the function menu.

Before moving it, Old Xu tapped lightly on screen 4, causing the original small screen to scatter and expand, eventually occupying the entire display.

"Li Zhong taught me this." Old Xu casually explained, then signaled Tang Xiaoquan to operate the camera.

Taking a deep breath, for some reason, Tang Xiaoquan felt his next actions would determine the entire team’s fate; his right hand trembled slightly, and the palm holding the tablet was instinctively sweaty.

Hope the truth isn’t as terrible as imagined!

With hopeful wishes, Tang Xiaoquan finally touched the circular sliding wheel, and as it glided, the screen began showing signs of image distortion.

After rotating for 20 degrees, Tang Xiaoquan stopped his hand because this angle allowed a clear view of the left side of the bus.

"Oh my god!" Exclaimed almost instinctively, Tang Xiaoquan’s half-opened mouth remained agape for a long time.

What did he see? A group of at least 7-8 green shadows lingering beside the bus.

From their behavior, they seemed to have detected movement inside the car.

However, they hadn’t initiated any actions, appearing to wait for something.

As Tang Xiaoquan was stunned, Old Xu suddenly uttered a sentence that further plunged Tang Xiaoquan’s heart into despair.

"Those aren’t dogs... they’re wolves! Mutated wolves!"

"Buzz!" Tang Xiaoquan’s head resonated as if struck by lightning, followed by images of a wolf pack hunting flashing in his mind.

Tang Xiaoquan seemed to understand why those creatures hadn’t taken action; they were likely waiting for other companions.

This concept... to know that, ordinarily, whether it’s Zombies or Zombie Dogs, for the sake of seizing food, they’re essentially self-centered; they don’t care about their companions’ stance; as long as they are full and satisfied, that’s sufficient.

But this wolf pack, if Tang Xiaoquan’s inference is correct, and Zombie Wolves indeed possess the ability for coordinated attacks, then the outcome could be...

Tang Xiaoquan dared not think further because, based on his previous assumption that the infected could inherit the host’s lifetime characteristics, Zombie Wolves themselves were a social species; their past hunting lifestyle involved cooperation and assistance, so the possibility of inheriting this trait was very high.

Tang Xiaoquan could imagine the terrifying assault those beasts would launch when they attacked.

Meanwhile, evidently, the cars around hadn’t yet noticed the impending danger.

"Hey, Xiao Tang, Lieutenant, what are you two doing crouched on the ground? What’s going on?"

Awakened by Tang and Xu’s whispered discussions, Li Xiaoxin got up, his face full of confusion, looking at the two on the floor. But he didn’t realize his words were about to bring unwarranted disaster to the whole team. (To be continued. If you like this work, please go to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations, monthly tickets, your support, is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)