Chapter 131: Giddy-Up, Horsey! p1
Lin Jiayao, while checking the outside through the gaps in the vines, waited for her sister to wake up. Yesterday’s fire, having consumed everything flammable, had finally died down, leaving a thick layer of ash. The affected area was completely devastated, not a single building left standing. How did I sleep through all that?, she wondered.
Taking advantage of the quiet, she opened the Hideout and clicked on the [Zombie Loot Box]. Yesterday’s events had been so sudden; she hadn’t had a chance to use it after the last extraction. Seeing twelve blood crystal stones in the warehouse, she took two and put them in the Loot Box. She saw the 12-hour extraction time, but before the zombie projection could appear, a faint sound from the real world, detected by Bone Spike Lurker, interrupted her.
She quickly closed the interface and saw Huayibai, sitting up groggily, rubbing its eyes.
While it was still disoriented from the anesthetic, she picked it up by its collar and placed it in her right palm.
“Eek…” Huayibai’s arms and legs flailed briefly, then, seeing who was holding it, it went still.
“You’ve worked hard.” Lin Jiayao gently nuzzled Huayibai’s head with her finger and placed a blood crystal, larger than Huayibai itself, in her palm.
“Thank you, Mommy,” Huayibai chirped, then immediately began gnawing on the crystal.
While her sister was still asleep, Lin Jiayao asked Huayibai about the situation at the Voodoo Cult’s headquarters. Although she was confident that two B-rank zombies would be more than enough, confirmation was always reassuring.
Huayibai’s responses, slightly disjointed as it focused on the blood crystal, painted a picture of utter chaos.
Both A4 and Mask had had their evolutions interrupted by an RPG, sustaining significant injuries. To fuel their interrupted evolutions, they’d gone on a rampage, indiscriminately devouring everything.
Huayibai had been climbing down a building when the “blonde Mommy,” its evolution complete, had shot into the sky like a crimson meteor, leaving Huayibai behind.
And the “white Mommy,” although slower, had been even more destructive. By the time Huayibai arrived, the area was a forest of bone spikes.
And the “white Mommy” was gone, as if deliberately avoiding Huayibai.
Left alone to clean up, weakened by the lingering effects of the anesthetic in Lin Jiayao’s blood, it had fainted, only waking up just now.
And during its unconsciousness, a few, maybe a dozen, Voodoo Cult members had escaped Chongyu.
Huayibai felt guilty for failing to complete Mommy’s task perfectly.
But Lin Jiayao wasn’t concerned. She patted Huayibai’s head, praising it.
The Voodoo Cult’s headquarters had been destroyed, its foundation shattered, the few survivors no longer a threat. And Chongyu City had become a fungal paradise, populated by Huayibai’s infected.
The Voodoo Cult, annihilated overnight, the news not yet reaching their members outside the city.
Thinking of the Voodoo Cult members still active in Guangdong, Lin Jiayao asked Huayibai, “Do you know where their radio station is? How to use it?”
“Yes!” Huayibai, having consumed the blood crystal and returned to its four-or-five-year-old form, nodded eagerly.
“Go make an announcement. Hmm… let me think…”
Lin Jiayao considered her message.
…
Qingzhou University camp. Dark clouds hung low over the campus. No sun again today.
But for the camp, its water supply poisoned, the overcast sky was a blessing.
Rain meant water.
“Sister Wanzi…” a young woman, holding a sniper rifle, whispered, her chapped lips barely moving. “…Should we… attack the mountain and retake the water source?”
Her hair was tangled, her face grimy; she looked like she hadn’t washed in days.
They had been holding out for several days, the Voodoo Cult, thankfully, without reinforcements, content to maintain the siege.
But the poisoned water supply was taking its toll.
The little remaining water was reserved for the fighters, and even they were severely dehydrated.
They were at their limit; one more day, and they would collapse.
Wan Zi, hearing the girl’s words, remained silent.
This girl, originally an ordinary person, had been given administrative tasks, practicing at the shooting range occasionally, showing no particular talent, her hands even unsteady while holding a rifle.
But during the siege, she’d revealed a surprising aptitude for sniping.
She had even single-handedly taken down one of the Voodoo Cult’s D-rank Awakened, forcing them to abandon their assault and maintain the siege.
Now, Wan Zi had to make a decision.
Abandoning their defenses and attacking the mountain would mean heavy casualties.
Their camp was mostly non-combatants, the elderly, the sick, the children…
She looked back at the faces in the administrative building lobby, their grime-covered faces looking at her expectantly.
They knew she had to make a decision, that sacrifices were inevitable…
Looking at their hopeful eyes, Wan Zi’s hands trembled.
Although she’d always called herself the “temporary leader,” ready to step down if someone more capable appeared, she had grown attached to this place over the years.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have stayed.
And now… ordering them to their deaths, sacrificing most of them to save a few…?
She didn’t know what to do.
She knew they would follow her orders, regardless of her decision, whether to fight or flee.
And that was the burden, the weight of responsibility, that made it hard to breathe.
“Rat-tat-tat—”
A burst of gunfire from the distance, hitting the building, harmless but still making everyone jump.
Some, their resolve weakening, started crying, the despair spreading through the room.
This had been the Voodoo Cult’s tactic from the start, a burst of gunfire every ten minutes, like clockwork, a constant reminder of their precarious situation, wearing down their defenses.
The increasingly oppressive atmosphere made Wan Zi’s decision even more difficult.
If the Voodoo Cult’s reinforcements arrived, they were all dead; even if they broke through and reached the mountain, if the reinforcements arrived, they were still dead.
She didn’t know what she was fighting for, perhaps just the instinct to survive, to protect these people, to keep them alive for as long as possible.
“What time is it?” she asked softly.
The room fell silent, only a few soft sobs breaking the tense quiet.
“9 AM…” one of the male Awakened replied, glancing at his watch.
Wan Zi licked her dry lips. “Bring up the remaining supplies. Tonight, we’ll—”
“Thump, thump, thump—”
Rapid footsteps interrupted her. She looked towards the stairwell.
“Crash—” The door burst open, and a figure, clutching something, tumbled in, scrambling to their feet, then checking whatever they were holding.
A… radio?
Wan Zi looked at the young man who had just barged in. “You better have a good reason for this.”
“Sister Wanzi, Sister Wanzi…” he said, clutching the radio, his voice frantic, close to tears.
But there was no panic in his eyes, only…
…excitement?
Wan Zi was puzzled. What could possibly be worth such excitement now?
Suddenly, realization dawned, and her eyes widened.
The radio… could it be… a retreat order from the Voodoo Cult?
She couldn’t think of any other reason.
Unless… he’d lost his mind.
“Bring him here. Let’s hear what he has to say.”
Several men carried the sobbing, babbling young man towards her.
“Static…”
“Zzzt…”
The rectangular high-frequency radio in his arms sputtered, as if damaged from the impact.
Everyone looked at the radio.
Wan Zi checked the frequency.
As expected… it was the Voodoo Cult’s channel…
“Tap, tap—”
She tapped the radio, a burst of static, and then it started working again.
“Zzzt…”
“123, 123, hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me?”
A childish female voice, startling everyone.
The Voodoo Cult’s broadcasts were usually either a mature female voice or a casual male voice; they’d never heard a child’s voice before.
“Oh… mm… okay, Mommy… sniffle… Yibai is talking to both sides again…”
The girl’s voice lowered, as if speaking to someone else.
And her words confused everyone.
Not just the camp members, but also the Voodoo Cult members outside, listening to the broadcast, were equally bewildered.
The frequency was correct, but the conversation… nonsensical.
Had a child somehow gotten into the radio station? Impossible, that was one of the most heavily guarded locations in the Voodoo Cult.
In the apocalypse, with limited communication, the radio was the Voodoo Cult’s most important tool, a symbol of their power and reach.
Everyone stopped what they were doing, listening intently.
“Zzzt…”
“Ahem—”
The girl’s voice was replaced by a calm, clear, young woman’s voice.
A different person?
Meanwhile, in the radio station in Chongyu City, a little girl knelt on a stool, her hands on the table, wearing a broken headset, speaking seriously into the microphone.
Although she looked like a child, her voice, a carefully crafted imitation, was that of a young woman.
And her simple message, repeated over and over, was enough to shatter the reality of everyone in central and southern China.
“The Voodoo Cult’s headquarters in Chongyu City has been completely destroyed. Voodoo Cult Boss Wu Hejun, B-rank Awakened Anan, and B-rank Awakened Luo have been eliminated in Kun City.”
“All remaining Voodoo Cult members are warned to cease resistance. Two B-rank Awakened from our organization are en route to Guangdong Province. Any remaining Voodoo Cult members will be eliminated on sight.”
“Repeating, the Voodoo Cult’s headquarters…”
Across Guangdong Province, survivors, those still fleeing, those still fighting, heard the message.
They froze, stunned.
What… what was going on? The Voodoo Cult, so powerful just days ago, had been… annihilated?
Was this real? Or some sort of trick?
The faces in the Qingzhou University administrative building mirrored the expressions of countless survivors across the province.
Is this… real?
They listened to the message, repeated over and over on the Voodoo Cult’s frequency.
No cheers, no celebrations, only disbelief and suspicion.
Even Wan Zi frowned.
What was this…?
The Voodoo Cult’s headquarters and all their B-rank Awakened, eliminated? In Kun City?
Were they joking? Had the Voodoo Cult’s B-rank Awakened lined up to be executed in Kun City?
It sounded like a propaganda ploy… and those names… she’d never heard of them.
The Voodoo Cult convoy, however, reacted differently.
They looked at each other, dumbfounded, listening to the broadcast.
Our… headquarters… gone…?
What the fuck?
Initially, they’d thought it was a prank, but after an hour of the same message repeating, their disbelief grew.
They might not know the names of those B-rank Awakened, but the Voodoo Cult members certainly did.
“Big Brother, is this… real?” one of the Voodoo Cult members asked the man sitting in the passenger seat of a jeep, his expression grim, having been listening intently to the broadcast from the radio in his hand.
Even without an answer, just looking at his face, the younger man knew. His heart sank.
“Damn it…” the man cursed. “Someone must have gotten high and messed with the radio while the Boss was away.”
“Then we…?”
“Wait, don’t panic, someone will deal with this.”
One minute passed.
Five minutes.
Thirty minutes.
An hour…
After three hours, the message was still playing on all Voodoo Cult frequencies, even the music channel.
In the Qingzhou University administrative building, the despair lifted, people standing up, peering out the broken windows.
“Stay away from the windows! Sniper fire! Stay away from the windows!”
Wan Zi tried to maintain order, but she couldn’t resist the urge to look as well.
From the administrative building, they could see the distant camp gate, where the Voodoo Cult vehicles were now starting up, their engines roaring, as they sped away.
They hadn’t even bothered packing their tents, a hasty retreat…
“The Voodoo Cult… they’re… running?”
After a long silence, someone finally spoke.
All eyes turned to Wan Zi.
“Is it… true?”
The message continued to repeat on the radio, the same distorted, static-filled broadcast, but no one seemed tired of it.
“I don’t know…”
“Rumble—”
A clap of thunder, a flash of lightning illuminating the building, and then large raindrops began to fall.
“Rain… it’s raining!”
“It’s raining!!!”
They crowded around the windows, reaching out to catch the raindrops, some even leaning out, their faces tilted upwards.
After days of thirst and despair, they seemed to have forgotten about the Voodoo Cult.
Only when someone, weakened, almost fell out the window, and was pulled back by the others, did the atmosphere in the administrative building return to normal.
Even with them so exposed at the windows, the Voodoo Cult snipers hadn’t fired… perhaps they really were gone!
“Pitter-patter—”
Besides the drumming of rain, the only other sound on the fifth floor was the sputtering radio, its static intensified by the storm.
Suddenly, the young woman beside Wan Zi, the grime now washed from her face by the rain, looked at Wan Zi and asked softly, “Sister Wanzi, doesn’t that voice… sound like… Little Sister Lin?”
Little Sister Lin was the camp’s nickname for the younger of the two sisters.
The older one was Big Sister Lin, the younger one Little Sister Lin, partly because she seemed as frail as Lin Daiyu from Dream of the Red Chamber.
Wan Zi, her previous seriousness now replaced by amusement, chuckled and ruffled the girl’s hair. She was about to say that the girl had Awakened only recently, how could it possibly be…
But the more she listened, the more she doubted herself…
It did sound like her…
Beautiful female voices were common before the apocalypse, but a voice this clear, this cold, with a hint of girlish innocence, was rare, unforgettable.
The more she listened, the more convinced she became.
It couldn’t be…
But they’d only met the sisters briefly; it could be a mistake.
Hesitantly, she looked towards a corner and beckoned.
Leave a Reply