Chapter 48: Call for Help
Luna Dawson squinted into the distance. When she made out one of the zombies, she almost fell apart right then and there.
She wished she could stab her own eyes out. An old man—stark naked—was swaying unsteadily right toward her.
She was going crazy inside. ’Having good eyesight really is a curse!’
’That old guy must have turned while sleeping naked, right?’
’Such a handsome man, his whole life’s reputation ruined by this... getup.’
Luna Dawson cleared her throat, deciding to skirt the issue. She sidled up to Evan Olson. "Switch spots with me, switch spots. You go deal with the ones on my side."
The two of them originally had a clear division of labor. Seeing this, Evan Olson immediately grew wary, his tone laced with suspicion.
"What’s wrong?!"
Luna Dawson deliberately lowered her voice, her face a mask of embarrassment. "It’s nothing. The feng shui over there just doesn’t suit me."
Suspicious, Evan Olson followed her gaze. When he saw what she was looking at, his expression instantly froze. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he gave a couple of awkward coughs.
Kevin Keane, overhearing their conversation, glanced over and laughed out loud.
Luna Dawson awkwardly looked away, saying nothing. She mentally skipped past the little incident and took out submachine guns from her space, handing one to each person.
She warned, "There are a lot of zombies here, which means more mutated ones too. Keep your guns ready and stay alert at all times."
She had Rhonda Dawson walk in the middle of the group for protection, and they continued forward.
As they crossed the parking lot, the zombies on the ground grew denser. The stench of rot was overpowering, and the ground beneath their feet was slippery and difficult to traverse.
Around the next corner was the food street next to the mall. Luna Dawson extended her spiritual power, carefully sensing the surrounding movements, not daring to let her guard down for a second.
"Stop. There are at least tens of thousands of zombies inside and outside the mall."
Luna Dawson said with a grave expression, "I don’t know what’s going on over there. It’s like something is attracting them, and they’re just circling around it."
Rhonda Dawson asked happily, "Luna, your Space Ability can also be used for external detection?"
Luna Dawson nodded. "It consumes a lot of spiritual power."
Just as Luna Dawson was speaking, people in the apartments of the surrounding buildings saw them fighting their way through, accompanied by such a large mutated dog. They all opened their windows to stick their heads out and watch.
A young man suddenly shouted, "Are you a rescue team? Are you here to save us?"
An older woman yelled, her voice choked with tears, "Yes, please save us! We’ve been trapped here by these zombies for almost two months!"
"Luna, what should we do? Do we save them?"
Rhonda Dawson asked in a low voice. She had always been sensible and kind-hearted, and seeing outsiders trapped like this stirred her compassion.
Evan Olson’s expression was grim. "If it were a few hundred zombies, we could give it a shot. But there are over a hundred thousand now. Going in would be suicide!"
Kevin Keane raised a pair of binoculars and looked toward the food street. The street and the mall entrance were swarming with a sea of heads. The sheer density of the zombies was enough to make one’s scalp tingle.
At that moment, a clamor of shouts suddenly erupted from the apartment building next to the mall.
"Save us!"
"I’m not even married yet!"
"My child is still so young, save him!"
The people upstairs saw Luna Dawson’s group but only muttered amongst themselves from where they were, making no further moves.
Up on a higher floor of the apartment building, someone couldn’t take it anymore. A middle-aged woman suddenly grabbed a bottle of soy sauce from her kitchen and hurled it forcefully in their direction!
"SMASH!"
The glass bottle landed precisely at Miles Dawson’s feet, instantly shattering and splashing dark brown soy sauce all over his pant leg.
"Good throw!"
"If you won’t save us, then we’ll all die together!"
Miles Dawson was startled by this sudden turn of events and shuddered.
Everyone present was also shocked, and they all turned to look toward the apartment building.
The woman leaned out, spewing filthy curses: "It’s the apocalypse and you’re still keeping a damn dog! You see your fellow countrymen trapped and do nothing! Are you going to save us or not!? If I can’t live, don’t think you’ll get off easy!"
The moment she finished speaking, two more glass bottles came flying toward the group in quick succession.
"Get back!"
"Move!"
Kevin Keane and Evan Olson were the first to react, pulling people back into a nearby shop.
After ducking inside, Miles Dawson cursed angrily, "Fuck, that crazy woman almost killed me!"
A flame ignited in Luna Dawson’s eyes. She reached out to stroke Rollo, who was beside her, then stored him in her space.
Rhonda Dawson grabbed Luna Dawson and Miles Dawson, the usual gentleness in her eyes replaced by icy coldness. "These people are truly vicious!"
Luna Dawson quickly comforted her sister. "Sis, you have to get used to it. There will be more and more people like this in the future."
Miles Dawson exploded with rage, shouting, "And they still want us to save them! What a joke! I really want to throw something back at them!"
With a thought from Luna Dawson, a brand-new SUV appeared out of thin air by the roadside. She gestured to the others. "Let’s get in the car and take cover for now."
When the people in the apartment building saw Luna Dawson’s group conjure a car out of thin air, the situation exploded. They all clung to their windows, screaming for them not to leave.
"You’re Superpower Users!"
"That must be the Space Ability from the informational broadcasts!"
"You’re so strong, why won’t you save us?!"
The street was filled with a mixture of desperate pleas and vile curses.
The noise made the zombies even more frenzied. They looked up, roaring, trying to locate the source of the sound.
But Luna Dawson paid them no mind. She drove everyone back to a safe distance, then got out and walked with the others to a shop on the opposite side of the road.
The moment she got out of the car, Luna Dawson pulled a Barrett sniper rifle from her space. Her tone was calm but carried a chilling edge. "I want that woman dead."
"I’ll do it."
Kevin Keane stepped forward, took the sniper rifle, and quickly set it up on the hood of the car, taking aim.
Within a few breaths, a muffled "BANG!" echoed.
In the high-rise across the way, the middle-aged woman who was still leaning out and shouting fell back. A few heart-wrenching screams immediately followed from inside the apartment.
Luna Dawson lifted her chin, signaling for everyone to watch out for the zombies gathering around them.
There had been a horrific car crash in front of this shop. Several zombies were pinned in the gap between the storefront and the vehicles, still reaching out feebly toward Luna Dawson’s group.
Luna Dawson had just put her gun away when a zombie with a crushed lower body crawled out from under a box truck. It stayed eerily close to the ground, using its arms to drag itself forward at a surprising speed.
Its lower half was completely mangled, with shattered leg bones exposed. Sticky, blackish-red rotten flesh mixed with ice and debris, leaving a long, filthy smear in its wake.
It was a female zombie. The remnants of her makeup were peeling from her face. A sharp shard of glass was embedded in her left eye, while her cloudy right eye stared intently at the group, gleaming with a greedy and excited light.
"GURGLE! ROAR!"
"SHLICK!"
A Triangular Bayonet plunged accurately into its head. Luna Dawson, holding the weapon, deftly rummaged around and flicked out a peanut-sized Crystal Core.
Rhonda Dawson exclaimed, "It can crawl that fast with only half a body!"
"That was a speed-type. They’re the trickiest in the early stages. Everyone, be careful."
Seeing Luna Dawson’s efficient movements, the others also put more effort into clearing the zombies in front of them.
The survivors in the surrounding high-rises heard the gunshot and someone dying. They were all scared into silence, terrified of provoking the gods of death and drawing their attention.
Luna Dawson’s group fought as they retreated, slowly moving away from the commercial district. They only dared to collect Crystal Cores on the periphery, where the crowds were thinner.
By a little after three in the afternoon, the six of them had killed three to four hundred zombies.
If it weren’t for the constant supply of spirit spring water to restore their stamina, they would have been too exhausted to even lift their arms long ago.
Seeing that it was getting late, the group prepared to head back.
Just then, the thrumming of a helicopter’s rotors came from the distance, the sound growing closer and closer.