Chapter 82: Corpse Birds of the Wasteland (2)
Lost in thought, Lin Jiayao tapped on the window, waiting.
But then she realized something was wrong.
Hadn’t her sister been gone for too long?
Almost five minutes?
Had something happened?
Worried, she quickly placed her hand on the window and activated Bone Spike Lurker.
Within a 150-meter radius, she only heard the rustling of the tall yellow grass in the wind.
Even the heartbeats, only three.
Where was her sister?
Bone Spike Lurker’s range was 150 meters.
Where had she gone? Why was she outside that range?
A 3D map of the surrounding terrain formed in Lin Jiayao’s mind. She searched for any trace of her sister.
But besides the flattened grass where her sister had relieved herself, there was nothing.
Just as she was about to drive towards her sister’s last known location, she heard a screech from the sky.
“Screech—”
Followed by a heavy thud on the jeep’s roof.
“Thump—”
The entire vehicle shook, the roof dented inwards. Lin Jiayao’s Bone Spike Lurker finally registered what was happening above.
It was her sister!
And… a massive bird, its wingspan exceeding four meters, its feathers ruffled and matted.
Its face was a grotesque tumor, dripping viscous fluid, which pulsed and opened like a flower, revealing rows of sharp teeth and a gaping maw.
Its claws were sunk deep into her sister’s waist, blood flowing freely as she struggled.
Several boxes of bread on the roof were crushed, a bloody mess.
“Haaa—”
Lin Xiwan, blood dripping from her mouth, gripped the monstrous bird’s head and slammed its tumor-like face against the roof.
“Screech—”
The bird shrieked in pain, its powerful wings creating a gust of wind that flattened the surrounding grass as it tried to lift off, carrying Lin Xiwan with it.
In a split second, Lin Jiayao chambered a round in her rifle and flung open the car door.
“Thump—”
She tumbled out onto the grass, her back flattening a patch of weeds.
Aiming at the monstrous bird, now lifting into the air, she shouted, “Sister! Let go!”
Hearing her sister’s shout, Lin Xiwan released her grip. As the bird raised its head, Lin Jiayao fired.
“Bang, bang—Bang, bang, bang, bang—”
The first two shots didn’t stop the bird’s struggle.
Without hesitation, she fired four more. Six bullets embedded themselves in the bird’s tumor-like head, the gunshots echoing through the wilderness.
There wasn’t time to use pheromones to try and control it; she had to protect her sister.
Finally, without even a cry, the bird’s wings stilled, and it collapsed onto the roof, its massive body crushing Lin Xiwan.
“Haa…”
Lin Xiwan pushed the corpse off, pulled the claws from her waist, and kicked the body off the roof.
The roof was now a bloody mess; she couldn’t tell which blood was hers and which belonged to the bird.
“Cough, cough—”
She coughed up blood, then, with a tremendous effort, rolled off the roof and onto the ground.
As she crawled towards the car door, Lin Jiayao had already holstered her rifle and was scrambling into the back, towards the medical supplies.
She grabbed a first aid kit and returned to the passenger seat.
“Rip—”
She tore open the kit: a vacuum-sealed pack of bandages, medical scissors, a stapler with the Voodoo Cult’s logo, several tourniquets of varying sizes, a bottle of antiseptic spray, liquid bandages, a bottle of Yunnan Baiyao, and a syringe filled with what looked like adrenaline.
It seemed like a makeshift kit assembled from whatever was available, lacking many of the items found in a standard first aid kit.
But there was no time to search for more. Her sister, breathing heavily, had managed to climb into the driver’s seat.
After closing the door with a grunt, she leaned back, panting.
With every tremor, blood seeped from her blood-soaked clothes.
Lin Jiayao didn’t waste any time. She ripped open her sister’s shirt with the medical scissors.
Her sister’s skin, completely covered in blood, made it impossible to see the wounds clearly.
But her sister, surprisingly conscious despite her injuries, took some tissues and started wiping the blood.
“Let me do it.”
Lin Xiwan took the first aid kit, sprayed antiseptic around the wounds, and then, using the stapler, began closing them.
“Click—”
“Click—”
Each click of the stapler made Lin Jiayao’s heart clench.
But in contrast to Lin Jiayao’s anxiety, Lin Xiwan was remarkably calm.
After treating the wounds, applying Yunnan Baiyao, and bandaging them, she leaned back against the seat and sighed softly.
She knew the claws had pierced her internal organs; there was no hope of natural healing.
And there was no way to perform surgery in the apocalypse. She was as good as dead.
“Screech—”
Before she could even finish bandaging, another screech from above… There was more than one of these monstrous birds.
“Thump—”
The bird slammed into the roof, its claws piercing the metal, the two little girls, now awake, screaming in terror.
“Yao…”
Lin Xiwan’s voice trembled.
She hadn’t expected to be attacked on her way back to the car, a mere ten meters. The bird hadn’t even made a sound until she’d punched it.
But now, it was too late.
If this continued, they would all die.
“Bang, bang, bang, bang—”
Four gunshots from inside the car, and then silence. The bird fell heavily from the roof.
“What happened, Sister…?” Lin Jiayao’s voice was close to tears. Although her sister had acted calmly, she knew how serious her injuries were.
“Can you… protect us… until I wake up?” Lin Xiwan reached into the back and pulled out a bag of magazines, placing it in front of Lin Jiayao.
As she moved, a few staples came loose, and blood flowed again.
Without waiting for an answer, Lin Xiwan took two blood crystals from her waist pouch and crushed them in her hands.
“Crack—”
“Sister… is going to sleep for a while.”
She mumbled.
The blood crystal fragments, instead of scattering, clung to her hands and then, like butter melting on a hot surface, seeped into her skin.
More fragments moved towards her wounds.
Her veins glowed with a red light, spreading from her hands towards her heart.
The process seemed incredibly painful; she gritted her teeth, leaned back against the seat, and lost consciousness.
“Bang, bang—”
Lin Jiayao quickly shot two birds that were diving towards the windshield.
Their momentum carried their bodies into the glass, shattering it.
“Shhh—”
Her bone spikes pushed the bird corpses aside, and she saw more of the tumor-headed monstrosities rising from the grass under the moonlight.
The Corpse Birds, having hidden in the grass during the day, were now awake.
They had unknowingly entered a Corpse Bird nesting ground, and, ironically, the area within 150 meters of where Lin Xiwan had parked had been clear.
Lin Jiayao gripped her rifle, looking at the circling birds.
She hadn’t encountered any airborne zombies before, except for insects.
Now, facing them, she realized how limited her aerial combat capabilities were.
Even releasing pheromones was too slow; their claws would reach her before the pheromones took effect.
She opened the bag of magazines, grabbed a full one, and reloaded.
“Cough, cough—”
Her sister coughed, snapping her attention back.
Lin Xiwan’s shirt was torn open, revealing the spreading red veins of blood crystals.
The veins extended from her hands towards her heart, stopping at her armpits.
Not enough blood crystals.
Lin Jiayao quickly took a blood crystal from the warehouse, held it near her sister’s hand, and tried to crush it, mimicking her sister.
But she wasn’t strong enough. She placed the crystal against her sister’s shoulder.
“Crack—”
The blood crystal shattered on its own, its contents seeping into her sister’s skin.
And the red lines on her right arm finally reached her heart.
“Thump—”
A powerful heartbeat, audible even to Lin Jiayao, echoed from her sister’s chest.
The blood-red glow of the blood crystals spread outwards from her heart, through her veins, reaching every part of her body in a second.
The evolution had begun.
Shooting from inside the car would limit her field of vision and risk injuring her sister.
Lin Jiayao’s bone spikes extended, hooked onto the bag of magazines, and then, carrying her, climbed out of the car through the broken windshield and onto the roof.
Sitting on the roof, her back against a crushed box of bread, she aimed at the diving Corpse Birds.
“Bang, bang, bang—”
“Thud—”
She fired rapidly, impaling any that got too close with her bone spikes.
She even used pheromones to control some of the injured birds, their broken bodies now fighting alongside her.
For ten minutes, she repeated the same actions: shoot, reload, impale. Her earlier practice in the Training Grounds, honing her skills against moving targets, proved invaluable; otherwise, she would have been torn apart.
As the number of corpses around her grew, the metallic scent of blood intensifying, an earsplitting screech echoed through the wilderness.
“SHRIEK—”
Hearing the piercing cry, Lin Jiayao’s breath caught in her throat.
All the Corpse Birds in the sky descended, disappearing into the tall grass.
Were they… hiding?
As if afraid of something.
“Thump—”
“Thump—”
Heavy footsteps, approaching rapidly, entering the 150-meter range of her Bone Spike Lurker.
This… this size… it couldn’t be a bird…
Something this heavy couldn’t fly.
As the figure emerged from the darkness, Lin Jiayao’s jaw dropped.
A massive, four-meter-wide tumor, perched atop a featherless, pustule-covered bird’s body.
The grotesque tumor and the smaller, featherless bird body were a disturbing contrast.
Three gaping maws opened on the tumor, revealing long, curved red teeth, like the buds of a spider lily.
“SHRIEK—”
After screeching at the sky, the monstrous head slowly lowered, its gaze fixing on Lin Jiayao.
No, not on Lin Jiayao, but on Lin Xiwan inside the car.
As if Lin Xiwan, her body glowing with blood crystal light, was some sort of delicacy.
“Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—”
A burst of gunfire, hitting the monstrous bird’s tumor, small bloody spots appearing on its surface.
“Shit…”
Lin Jiayao cursed, inserting her last magazine.
She finally understood why the Voodoo Cult carried RPGs; she wished she had one now.
A rifle’s power was insignificant against such a massive monster.
If this last magazine didn’t work, she would have to resort to infecting it with spores.
Hopefully, she would retain her sanity after experiencing the monster’s five years of accumulated human memories.
Just as she raised her rifle to fire again, her Bone Spike Lurker detected a sound from inside the car.
Her sister?
She quickly retracted her bone spikes. Before she could hear clearly what was happening, a curved bone spike whistled through the air towards her.
It was too fast to dodge!
“Thump—”
A loud crash as the bone spike pierced the jeep’s roof. A hand, glowing with blood crystal light, reached out from the hole and caught the bone spike before it could reach Lin Jiayao’s chest.
“Crack—”
With a squeeze, the bone spike shattered.
Lin Jiayao stared at the broken spike, her heart pounding.
She’d known the monstrous bird had bone-related evolutions, but she hadn’t expected a ranged attack.
No wonder the other birds had been so afraid of it.
“Boom—”
The driver’s side door of the jeep was kicked open.
A familiar figure emerged.
Lin Xiwan, clad only in her black underwear.
Her body, covered in blood, like crimson war paint, showed no signs of her previous injuries.
Her muscles hadn’t changed much, but the veins beneath her skin pulsed with a blood crystal glow.
Lin Xiwan slowly raised her head, her blood-red eyes fixed on her sister, and smiled.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“Whoosh—”
Another bone spike, this time aimed at Lin Xiwan. But without even looking, she shifted slightly, dodging it.
The heavy footsteps of the monster approached.
“Get back in the car,” she said, ignoring the approaching monster, and extended her arms towards her sister.
Lin Jiayao, seeing the monster closing in, didn’t hesitate. She jumped into her sister’s arms.
Lin Xiwan caught her, placed her in the driver’s seat, and, as always, kissed her forehead.
“Wait for me.”
Then, she turned towards the monster, now less than ten meters away, and picked up the jeep door from the ground.
Her muscles coiled, feeling the surge of new power coursing through her veins, a smile playing on her lips.
She felt powerful enough to destroy anything.
And the giant, featherless Corpse Bird was her first target.
She lunged forward, leaped into the air, and hurled the car door like a discus.
As the monster raised its wings to block, she landed on its wing, her fist, after the deflected door, slamming into the bone beneath the flesh.
Nothing happened?
“Thump—”
A powerful heartbeat, a flash of crimson light from her heart, surging through her veins and into her fist.
The light seemed to penetrate her skin, instantly covering the bird’s wing with a network of blood-red cracks.
“Boom—”
A full second after her punch landed, the sound of the impact finally reached her ears.
The entire wing, even the parts she hadn’t hit, shattered.
“Screech—”
The monster shrieked, as if in unimaginable pain.
But Lin Xiwan showed no mercy.
Landing, she leaped again, her fists a blur, raining blows on the monster’s tumor-like head.
“Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump—”
More than twenty punches in two seconds, the monster’s head cracking like glass, blood-red lines appearing on its surface.
“Boom—”
The monstrous head exploded in a shower of gore, like a watermelon hitting concrete.
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