Chapter 37: The Gunslinger of Fire
“Beep—”
A whistle blew, and seven or eight gang members began unloading supplies from the truck.
The entire gang, about thirty people, had arrived and were now systematically collecting the loot.
Almost all of them had shaved heads or long, dirty hair.
Their arms and backs were covered in large tattoos.
And except for seven or eight who looked emaciated, the rest were incredibly strong.
Even before the apocalypse, this group would have been intimidating.
Now, armed, they were even more so.
Anyone driving past their territory would undoubtedly trigger a chase, with a predictable outcome.
These gang members were Lin Jiayao’s primary targets for elimination.
To everyone else, they were useless parasites—no, maggots were at least edible. These people were worse than maggots.
But one figure stood out among the busy workers.
Cheng Lu, still wearing his helmet.
No one paid him any mind; he sat alone by the barrier wall.
They had all heard his “heroic tale” countless times in the past ten minutes.
Spooked by a zombie head while trying to slack off?
He hadn’t even taken off his helmet yet, too embarrassed to show his face, right?
Hilarious.
If they had made such a fool of themselves, they wouldn’t be able to show their faces in the gang anymore.
What they didn’t notice was that Cheng Lu, who had been quietly checking his rifle and magazine, suddenly stood up.
He walked towards the truck.
“I’m going to take a piss,” one of the younger gang members, who had been carrying supplies between the truck and the van, suddenly left the group and ran towards Cheng Lu.
“Brother Lu, I’m going to take a leak,” he said to his leader.
He didn’t receive a response. It seemed his leader wasn’t feeling well.
Even though his leader had embarrassed himself, he still had to stick by him and learn how to ride and shoot. Brother Lu had been a real biker before the apocalypse.
Others could mock him all they wanted, but he couldn’t. He considered Brother Lu his mentor.
Seeing no response, the younger man didn’t press further. “Brother Lu, I’ll piss on that head for you,” he said, walking towards the other side of the highway.
He reached the spot where his leader had fired the shots and jumped onto the half-meter-high barrier, unzipping his pants.
“Whew~”
Whistling, he aimed his stream at the mangled “zombie” head.
But his precise aim faltered, urine dripping onto his shoes as he froze, like a statue.
Because he saw that the mangled head’s ears were relatively intact.
The slightly pointed, bloody ear, adorned with three small black earrings and a silver skull pendant on the lobe.
He’d often stared at the back of Brother Lu’s head when they rode together without helmets on sunny days.
He knew exactly what his ears looked like, the shape of his earrings.
And now, the owner of that ear had become a mangled head…
Then…
The “Brother Lu” he had just walked past… was…
His hands trembled uncontrollably. He fumbled with his pistol, trying to draw it.
Finally, holding the gun in his hand, the fear subsided slightly.
Wiping his sweat-streaked eyes with his sleeve, the younger man looked back towards the truck.
He saw “Brother Lu,” who usually loved to slack off, surprisingly climbing into the truck bed and carrying out a jerrycan of gasoline.
It seemed like he was going to help unload.
“Gulp—”
He swallowed hard.
Only he knew that “Brother Lu” probably wasn’t unloading anything… because he wasn’t Brother Lu!
“Bang—”
“Everyone!!!” He fired a shot into the air, shouting at the top of his lungs to get everyone’s attention.
“What the fuck, idiot? Showing off your little birdie?”
“Birdie? Where’s the birdie? That’s an earthworm!”
“Hahahaha—”
“Hahaha!”
Laughter erupted from the crowd. No one noticed the terror on the younger man’s face.
And now, he noticed that while the others were distracted, “Brother Lu” had opened the jerrycan and tossed it casually into the air, gasoline splashing everywhere.
“What the fuck?”
“Are you stupid? Playing with gasoline?”
“Protecting your apprentice made you lose your mind?”
Gasoline rained down on the group, eliciting curses.
But “Brother Lu” remained unfazed. He walked towards the leaking fuel tank of the overturned truck, his body now drenched in gasoline.
He took out the lighter he had used for his cigarette.
“Click—”
The flame ignited the gasoline dripping from the truck’s fuel tank.
“He’s a zombie!” the younger man shouted, but it was too late.
“Boom—”
Flames surged up the fuel tank like a venomous snake, instantly engulfing it in an explosion.
The flaming gasoline splashed onto the spilled fuel on the ground, igniting a raging inferno.
And “Brother Lu,” the instigator, was also on fire.
“Holy shit!!!”
“What the fuck? A zombie?”
“Fire extinguisher! Quick!”
“AAAAH! Brother Sun, I’m on fire!”
Chaos erupted, their panicked movements only spreading the flames faster.
But “Brother Lu” at the center of the inferno seemed completely unaffected.
He calmly took out his Type 95 rifle and pulled the still-intact polymer charging handle.
“Click—”
The rifle was chambered.
To the younger man’s horror, “Brother Lu,” engulfed in flames, raised his weapon.
“Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—”
Calm, controlled bursts of gunfire tore through the fleeing crowd.
Even the E-rank Awakened leader of the gang, who had just climbed out of their truck, was shot between the legs—it looked like a missed shot—but it effectively incapacitated him.
“Bang—Bang—Bang—”
The younger man frantically raised his pistol and fired three shots at the blazing figure.
The bullets hit “Brother Lu” in the back, the heart, and the collarbone.
The accuracy gave him a sliver of hope.
Even if they weren’t fatal, those shots would incapacitate him!
He aimed at “Brother Lu’s” helmet.
But his shots seemed to have alerted “Brother Lu.”
The flaming figure turned 180 degrees, the dark visor staring directly at him.
“Crack—”
A bone spike, trailing a chain, burst through the visor and pierced his throat, hooking into his spine.
“Snap—”
In agony, he saw a white head, almost untouched by the flames, rapidly approaching along the bone chain.
The next second, his head hit the ground.
His last sight was his own body raising the pistol, aiming at the remaining dozen or so survivors of the gang.
Leave a Reply to ddsadsa Cancel reply