Chapter 55: Pick Up and Gas Station
"Sorry, sorry, we got too carried away." Yuqi apologized, her face looking a little shy.
"I bet Yueyue was touching herself when she heard both of us." Leyan joked.
"Hey, Shut up!" Yueyue yelled back, and her face turned red as if that was really the case.
"Can you guys have some privacy? Me and Lily are eating here." Nami finally decided to speak up.
"Sorry." All three of them said out at the same time as they looked down in embarrassment.
"Good morning. Why is everyone looking so down?" Xiaoyun asked as he arrived at the kitchen last.
"Shut up! This is all your fault, you dummy, " all four of them yelled.
"Okay, okay, geez."
As Xiaoyun drank the cup of coffee, his face turned back to serious mode.
"Anyway, I need to go out today again to pick up the survivors and bring them to the town.
Yuqi, I'm going to need you to be ready to place those people into their new homes.
And Yueyue, you don't have to go. I will probably be back later tonight... Oh, snap."
Xiaoyun quickly ran out of the house after he finished eating a piece of bread, noticing it was already time.
Lily watched as the four of them wanted to say something, but they ultimately chose to remain silent.
---
When Xiaoyun got to the gate at nine, Renqin was already inside the bus with Yezi and only half of the soldiers inside.
"Where are Jixi and everyone else?" Xiaoyun asked.
"They went back to Yiming to accept punishment for being disarmed by those survivors," Yezi replied.
"Oh, good luck to them then... Wait, how, why are you here then?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"Well, I'm not a soldier, and my position is a civilian one, so he has nothing over me."
"Whatever, Renqin, you can start the bus now," Xiaoyun stated after sitting down inside the bus.
After sitting for twenty minutes on the bumpy road, the bus finally arrived at the hotel.
Wuli was already outside, waving at the bus to stop at one of the nearby hotel's entrances.
The bus slowly came to a stop, and everyone inside quickly exited before Xiaoyun stepped out himself.
"How many people is there again?" Xiaoyun asked, following Wuli into the hotel.
"Around eighty people."
"Wait, I thought you said around sixty or so?"
Xiaoyun quickly realized the number didn't add up with the last one that she gave off.
"Well, more people joined after seeing us beat up the hotel. I'm sure your town can handle it, right?"
Wuli moved a little closer as if she was trying to bribe Xiaoyun to accept it with her body.
"Ahem. Yeah, of course. Where are they, though?"
Xiaoyun asked as he moved back away from Wuli before turning his attention to the people in the hotel.
There were clearly only around ten people inside, which confused Xiaoyun a little.
"They are further inside the hotel lobby right now. Let's go see them now."
Wuli quickly grabbed onto Xiaoyun's hand, bringing him into the back of the hotel lobby.
As soon as he saw the crowds of people, he quickly began to calculate the bus capacity.
"I think the bus's maximum occupancy is around thirty people. We might need three trips instead of two."
Xiaoyun quickly pointed out as her face blushed a little before letting go of his hand.
"It's okay. The first group and the second group, follow me."
The moment Wuli yelled it out, twenty people stepped up from the crowd before following them into the front of the hotel.
After loading the entire bus, there were still ten empty seats, so she had the people in the front lobby to also go inside as well.
With the bus full, there were still fifty people left, not to mention the soldiers who had to stand on the bus.
"Okay, you guys go to the second floor to wait there. We'll be back." Wuli waved goodbye as she and Xiaoyun got inside the bus.
Just as the bus began to drive towards the city outskirts' exit, an entire zombie horde suddenly appeared right around the corner.
"Shit!"
Renqin immediately hit the brake and started reversing, trying not to run head-first into the crowd.
With the bus halfway turned back around, the zombie horde was already starting to run towards them.
"Everyone shut up! I don't want to hear anyone screaming." Xiaoyun ordered as he lifted his gun.
Within seconds, the entire bus fell into silence, with not a single person speaking up.
"Fuck fuck fuck."
Renqin started to panic a little as he could see the zombie horde through the reflection mirror.
Meanwhile, the five soldiers on the bus had already begun firing their rifles, but they barely made a dent in the horde.
Just as the zombie horde began to get within a few hundred steps, Xiaoyun knew he had to do something.
Within seconds, he grabbed Wuli's backpack before pulling several packs of explosives that appeared out of thin air.
Lighting it up, he threw it as far as he could, landing it just far enough away from the bus.
A loud bang sound, almost quadruple the sound of the firecracker, caused everyone to cover their ears.
The ground even shook as the explosives blew off almost an entire front layer of the horde.
With the time brought, Renqin finally turned the bus around as he floored it, reaching max speed within a few seconds.
Yet, despite going as fast as he could, the zombie horde was still within a hundred steps.
Although the horde was becoming much smaller, with only around twenty zombies chasing after them.
"What the hell... how are they running this fast," Yezi commented as all of the soldiers began to reload.
After reloading, the five soldiers moved to the back before trying to finish the zombies off.
But the bumpy road made it extremely hard for them to aim, causing ten zombies still chasing after them after all the firing.
"Fuck, it's a dead end! I need to slow down to turn the bus." Renqin yelled out as the bus began to decelerate.
Xiaoyun rushed to the back and joined the soldier's firing squad, firing his pistol at the zombies.
Fortunately, as soon as the bus came to a complete stop, the soldiers steadied their aim and killed the one that was chasing them.
"Whew." Everyone on the bus let out a sigh of relief as all the zombies were now out of sight.
"Renqin, do you know the way back from here?" Xiaoyun asked as they seemed to be somewhere else, completely unknown.
"Um... I can try."
Renqin started driving in a random direction until he saw the familiar building and finally returned to his original route.
An hour later, they finally arrived at the town, much longer than the expected thirty minutes.
Yezi and the three groups quickly got off the bus to tour the town as he began to explain the rules.
Meanwhile, five soldiers headed over with Yezi to be his bodyguard, and five fresh soldiers came in to take their place.
Just as Wuli and Xiaoyun entered back inside the bus, Renqin brought him bad news.
"Xiaoyun, the bus is about to be completely out of gas," Renqin warned.
"Just refuel it. What's wrong?"
Xiaoyun asked, remembering that he stocked gasoline in the store and the storage room.
"Well, this long-distance bus takes diesel. We haven't refueled it for a while now," Renqin explained.
"Oh crap... How about we drove toward a gas station? I remember there's one down the road." Xiaoyun suggested.
"Okay, let's do that."
Renqin quickly started the bus back up and drove out again, heading out of town once again with five soldiers and the two leaders.
---
After driving for three minutes, they were finally at the gas station.
From the outside, the convenience store next to the gas pumps was completely smashed.
Renqin parked the car at the diesel pump before everyone headed out to secure the parameter.
Much to Renqin's disappointment, putting in money didn't make the gas station work at all.
"Shit, there's no electricity, and the gas pump doesn't work," Renqin stated after trying to press the gas pump trigger.
"Let me go inside the store to check. You guys, come with me."
Xiaoyun signaled the five soldiers to follow him, leaving Renqin and Wuli in the bus to guard it.
"Use melee weapons only. The rifle is too loud. We are still on the city outskirts."
All of the soldiers quickly switched to their melee weapons of choice, with Xiaoyun taking out a bat.
As soon as they stepped inside the convenience store, they could suddenly hear a hint of a crying sound.
"The fuck is that?" Xiaoyun murmured as it was too dark to see what was around the corner.
"I don't know, sir."
The second soldier behind the front pulled out a flashlight to check what was in the darkness.
To their surprise, just a few steps in front of them was a skinny figure lying on the floor crying.
"Hello? Are you alright?" One of the soldiers asked as he stepped up to check.
"W-wait!"
Just as Xiaoyun took out his pistol, the skinny figure immediately turned around and lunged toward the nearest soldier.
Within seconds, he immediately opened fire before the skinny figure got close enough to hit the first soldier.
"Holy shit!"
The soldier fell in shock as blood splashed all over his face and clothes, still unable to believe what was in front of her.
"That zombie was a mutant. We need to get out right now! That gun sound is way too loud."
Xiaoyun quickly pulled the soldier back up as the other four soldiers began to notice a black dot forming in the distance.
"Wait, the diesel gas is right there." One of the soldiers yelled, pointing at the single gas canister near the dead mutant.
Xiaoyun turned back and quickly grabbed it, catching up with the soldiers before waving Renqin to come out.
"We found a diesel can!"
Renqin quickly pulled the gas cap, and Xiaoyun poured as much gas into it as possible.
When it was all finished, everyone was already inside the bus besides the two standing outside.
Renqin quickly got inside his driver seat, starting up the bus as Xiaoyun quickly took a seat.
Just as the bus drove away, they could see a massive zombie crowd rushing toward the store.
"Shit, that was close... how much gas do we have?" Xiaoyun asked as he wiped down a sweat from his forehead.
"It's almost full. It's enough for at least a few hundred kilometers nonstop." Renqin replied.
"Good, let's go back to the hotel now... Take a detour first."
---
After driving for thirty minutes, they finally arrived at the hotel.
Several strangler zombies ran towards them, but Xiaoyun stepped out and killed them with his bat alone.
Wuli and Xiaoyun entered the hotel and walked up to the second floor. Right before them, fifty people were still around.
"I'm not doing two more rides of this. Everyone, just get inside the bus.
Drop all your luggage and everything that is not important. We got everything in the town," Xiaoyun ordered out loud.
"Anyone who doesn't listen to him will stay here by themselves," Wuli warned.
After several grunting complaints, the fifty people folded and got inside the bus almost empty-handed beside a few small backpacks.
Fortunately, some of them were kids or elderly, who could just double up sitting on their relatives.
Still, the bus was full now, with barely any space to move.
The five soldiers were in the back of the bus, with Xiaoyun and Wuli last standing in the front.
"Why are there so many people? This is way over capacity!" Renqin demanded an answer as he refused to start the bus.
Even though the bus wouldn't be affected that much, he didn't want to be responsible for it.
"You want to do another trip back and forth from the town to the hotel? I already told them to throw all their luggage away.
I'm sure the bus can still start, right? Please tell me it's a yes," Xiaoyun asked as he looked at him in the eye.
After a short silence, Renqin nodded in agreement.
"Fine. But if something goes wrong, don't blame me." Renqin argued as he started the bus back up.