Chapter 41: Going Out Alone
"Uh... We... We’re sorry, too. You don’t look very well. We apologize for the noise. It’s cold out here, why don’t you go back and rest?"
Even after Luna Dawson finished speaking, the man showed no sign of letting go of her hand.
Luna Dawson struggled to free her wrist. With a sharp glance, Kevin Keane pried their hands apart, pulled her back, and stepped in front of her protectively.
The moment her hand was free, the man paused, then lifted a hand to remove his sunglasses.
The midday sun lit up his eyes, revealing a pair of pink pupils beneath stark white eyelashes.
He was panting, his voice catching as he spoke, yet the corners of his lips curled into a smile. "My name is Ian Young. I’d love to get to know you. Can you tell me your name?"
His gaze passed right through Kevin Keane, as if he couldn’t see—or was simply ignoring—everyone else. He stared intently at Luna Dawson, as if trying to burn a hole through her with his eyes.
"My name is Luna Dawson. It’s a pleasure to meet you. You’re... very beautiful..."
Luna Dawson found herself genuinely complimenting him as she looked into his eyes.
"Boss, I’m hungry. It’s time to go back for lunch."
Lynn Shelby reminded Luna Dawson loudly, his arms crossed and his tone hostile.
’The moment I saw this guy, my skin started to crawl. It’s like he can see right through all of us without even trying, and it’s making me really uncomfortable. Plus, Luna’s been acting sluggish ever since he showed up. It’s a no-brainer—we need to get away from this person.’
Luna Dawson seemed to snap back to her senses. "Oh, right! We should get going. Goodbye, Ian Young."
Ian Young didn’t say anything, simply waving goodbye. He remained standing motionless at the door, gazing in the direction they had gone long after they disappeared from view.
As the group walked further away, Luna Dawson remarked casually, "He had a point, you know. We were only thinking about ourselves and didn’t realize we were disturbing the peace."
Kevin Keane picked up Luna Dawson’s "paw" and examined it. "Is that Ian Young guy really that good-looking?"
"Uh... he’s alright, I guess."
"He’s not even that great-looking..."
Kevin Keane’s tone was full of disdain. "He’s got that skinny pretty-boy look. Who’s better looking, him or me?"
Luna Dawson was speechless. She snatched her hand back. "You are, Mr. Long-Lashes! You’re the best-looking one!"
"So pale and dressed all in black... you can tell he’s no good just by looking at him..."
"Right, because you’re such a pillar of respectability..."
Luna Dawson felt like she was watching a peacock at the zoo. Having spent more time with him, she’d realized Kevin Keane was constantly comparing himself to others over every little thing...
Listening from the side, Evan Olson chuckled. "Childish."
Lynn Shelby spoke up calmly. "That guy is no simple character. He must be from the Spiritual System. He nearly had Luna completely mesmerized."
"PFFT!" Rhonda Dawson burst out laughing. "It’s true, Luna! You looked completely smitten."
Luna Dawson’s face instantly turned beet red. "Huh?! Really? Was I?"
Evan Olson glanced at Luna Dawson and continued his analysis. "It’s true. The heads of the zombies in his yard were all intact, with no external injuries. It’s best we don’t provoke someone like that."
Hector then piped up, asking loudly, "Mommy, what does ’smitten’ mean?"
"Hahaha!"
"Haha!"
Everyone burst out laughing, leaving Luna Dawson at a complete loss for words.
---
Back in the villa, everyone returned to their rooms to rest after lunch. Luna Dawson, however, called Evan Olson, Miles Dawson, and Mrs. Dawson into her room.
Luna Dawson announced, "I need to go out for a while. Alone."
Hearing this, Mrs. Dawson instinctively grabbed her hand. "Go out? Where to? The outside is crawling with zombies!"
"Mom, the apocalypse has started. From now on, there will only be more and more zombies. You’ve seen what I can do; I can protect myself. Besides, I need a plausible explanation for the supplies in my storage space. Since there’s still time this afternoon, I’ll go out and ’scavenge’ some things to bring back."
Miles Dawson was very worried. "There are too many zombies out there. Sis, why don’t you let Brother Evan go with you?"
Luna Dawson patiently explained to reassure them, "Even if I run into danger, I can just hide in my space. Bringing anyone else along would just complicate things."
"Alright," Evan Olson said with a solemn nod. "I’ll hold down the fort. Go on, don’t worry about us."
He knew that if Luna Dawson was this set on it, she must have a solid plan.
Ultimately, they had all heard Luna Dawson speak of the horrors of her past life and understood the stakes. They didn’t try to stop her further, only reminding her again and again to be careful.
She bundled up, putting on gloves, a hat, a mask, and goggles, then got into an SUV and drove off. Seeing a familiar vehicle leave, Kevin Keane and his group came over from next door to see what was going on.
Evan Olson explained that Luna Dawson had gone to pick up some stashed supplies. Having witnessed her skills, the group didn’t press for details. They seemed to understand the unspoken meaning, gave a nod, and returned to their own villa.
Luna Dawson drove the SUV through the main gate of the villa community, following the road out.
Wandering zombies in the area heard the engine and lunged toward the vehicle. Her eyes went cold. Without so much as a turn of the wheel, she plowed right over them.
A series of sickening thuds echoed as the front of the SUV was instantly smeared with dark red gore and shredded flesh, which glistened grotesquely in the dim, gray light.
Hearing the loud commotion, many of the surviving residents peered out of their windows. They watched from a distance as a massive SUV relentlessly crushed zombies, looking like some ferocious beast clawing its way out of a sea of gore. The sight was so terrifying it made their skin crawl.
Shay Kramer stood at her second-floor window, staring at the SUV. She gritted her teeth, her eyes burning with resentment. ’It’s the Dawsons again. Why does she love showing off so much?’
When she was fetching water from the community lake, she’d overheard other residents talking. She learned that the Dawson family was not to be trifled with and that they seemed to enjoy hunting zombies.
’It drives me insane! Before the apocalypse, I was the one everyone talked about!’
Meanwhile, Luna Dawson drove out of the villa community and onto the main road, which was already a scene of total chaos.
Many zombies were trapped inside abandoned vehicles. Some clawed at the windows, roaring madly, while others had their torsos wedged in mangled car doors, their limbs flailing in vain.
She had no intention of wasting time clearing them out one by one. Whenever a path was clear enough, she floored the accelerator and smashed right through.
When she encountered a complete blockage of abandoned vehicles, she would instantly retract the SUV into her space, nimbly climb over the wreckage, and then summon the vehicle again once she was clear, continuing toward an auto mall more than twenty kilometers away.
This was the very beginning of the apocalypse. The vast majority of the global population had already turned into zombies.
Even more lethal, in the coming one to two months, nearly twenty percent of the remaining survivors would also become infected from bites and scratches. The human population would plummet, dropping to less than a tenth of what it was before the apocalypse.
From now on, humanity’s numbers would only continue to dwindle.
At this moment, most ordinary people were still reeling from the sudden catastrophe, either hiding in panic or simply unable to adapt to this new world.
This chaotic, brief window was the golden age for scavenging.
The SUV came to a steady stop at the entrance of a large auto mall. A chorus of roars echoed from within the complex, where hundreds of zombies wandered aimlessly through the display area. They were likely mutated residents from the surrounding neighborhood who had shuffled over.
In the distance, she could see the massive crater and wreckage left by a meteorite that had struck the parking lot. The scene was truly devastating.
Some zombies had great patches of skin torn away, with beads of blackish-red blood dripping constantly from their ruined limbs to form foul-smelling pools on the ground.
Others had half-caved-in skulls, with a murky eyeball hanging loose from its socket, swaying with every movement. Their jaws snapped open and shut, revealing bone-white teeth smeared with gore.
Still others were pinned beneath overturned vehicles, their shinbones jutting out, yet they continued to twist their torsos madly, clawing uselessly toward any sound as their desiccated fingers scraped shrilly against the concrete.