CHAPTER 618: CHAPTER 526: NIGHT ON THE HIGHWAY (TWO IN ONE)_2

Li Yu pondered for a moment and said, "I’ve considered the point you mentioned. There are dangers in Jinxian too, but at least this expressway passes through sparsely populated areas, where there will definitely be far fewer zombies."

Lao Luo was persuaded by Li Yu and nodded, saying, "Then let’s take this road."

Having reached an agreement, Li Yu shared his thoughts with the others in the convoy, and no one had any objections.

The convoy traveled for another half hour, and there was a small town ahead.

Before even reaching the town, Li Yu saw some zombies wandering on the road ahead.

There were no alternative routes, and though there was a small cement path on the right, it wasn’t shown on the map. Taking it blindly could lead them to a dead end, which would only complicate things further.

They had no choice but to bite the bullet and pass through the town.

The houses in this town were built on both sides of the road, and the streets were swarming with zombies.

"Charge through!" Li Yu shouted when he saw Li Gang slowing down the vehicle.

Li Gang gritted his teeth and, seeing that the zombies had already noticed them, floored the accelerator.

Boom—

The speeding tires sent splashes of water all across the road.

Thump thump thump—

It was yet another wave of collisions with zombies.

They increased the engine power to the maximum, knocking the zombies aside.

Following behind the Unimog, Lao Lü and the others in the convoy saw Li Yu’s car clear a path and dared not linger, following closely behind.

Clang—

Another piece fell off the reinforced bumper of the Unimog.

With the previously lost piece, now two pieces had fallen off.

There were five pieces in total, all thick and diamond-shaped, designed to break through zombie encampments or other blockages most effectively.

The vehicle, heavily armored with several layers of plating, had a front that resembled the horn of a rhinoceros.

And it had five layers of such "horns."

After a series of tremors, ten minutes later, they broke through the small town and left the zombie-infested area behind.

Once they had broken through, each vehicle in the convoy reported in.

No one was left behind.

After driving for about 10 minutes, they came to a fork in the road.

To the right was the road that Li Yu had pointed out on the map, leading to the expressway to the neighboring county.

Going straight, it would take another half hour to reach Jinxian.

"Let’s go," said Li Yu to Li Gang.

There was a toll booth at the expressway entrance, with barriers blocking the way.

Instead of getting out of their vehicles to open it, they rammed through it with their trucks.

The Unimog had been through so many collisions that its paint had long been scratched off, but after several modifications.

Its surface was all steel plates, exuding a strong industrial vibe—rough but powerful.

Thud—

The vehicle smashed through the barrier.

The barrier bent in a semi-circle, reaching its apex.

Clang—

The barrier was snapped in half and fell.

It landed on Lao Lü’s car behind them, fortunately not on the glass, but it scraped the paint on the side.

When they got onto the expressway, contrary to Li Yu’s expectations, there weren’t many other vehicles, so they didn’t have to slow down.

...

Meanwhile, on another road leading to Jinxian, around the outskirts of Jinxian County, hordes of zombies wandered.

This was the Corpse Speaker’s base, surrounded by a massive number of zombies, even more than those that had chased them earlier.

If Li Yu and his group had come through this way, the consequences would have been imaginable.

However, they were unaware that their group had narrowly escaped a disaster.

After entering the expressway, there were also some zombies on the road, but they were not in groups, mostly scattered in twos or threes, with even more inside the cars.

It was raining at the time, and these zombies were extremely agitated.

But the ones trapped inside the vehicles, lacking the intelligence, couldn’t open the doors to get out.

Li Yu checked the time; it was four in the afternoon.

They had laid an ambush for the Corpse Speaker around 1 p.m., fought at 2 p.m., and it took just over an hour to make their way here, yet it felt like a long time had passed.

Mostly because the rush to clean the battlefield and break out from the zombie siege consumed a lot of energy.

Now, they were relatively safe.

Li Gang checked the iPad for the time; it would take about six hours to get back to the base from here.

The journey had taken longer than usual due to the detour—two extra hours.

"Let’s look for a place to stay ahead. We definitely can’t make it back today, especially since it’s raining. Traveling at night would be even riskier," said Li Yu.

Hearing Li Yu’s words, everyone in the vehicles, except for the drivers, took out maps to look for a place to stay, with others peering out of the windows to find a suitable spot in the environment outside.

After driving on the highway for nearly an hour, passing several interchanges, they could have taken those exits, but the areas were too built up, and there were more zombies.

Five in the afternoon.

The sky slowly started to brighten a little, the dark clouds gradually dispersed, and the rain had significantly lessened.

Yet, they still hadn’t found a suitable place to camp for the night.

Li Yu was getting a bit anxious.

Half an hour later, at five thirty.

The sky that had just brightened was now starting to darken again.

Li Yu looked around; the surroundings were all mountains and wilderness, and the nearest town was several kilometers away.

So, he said to Li Gang, "If we see an interchange to get off the highway later, let’s take it. It’s about time, and it’ll be bad if we wait any longer."

They could only go and search.

Five minutes later.

Another interchange appeared, and Li Gang turned the wheel, heading off toward that exit.

The vehicles behind closely followed.

After taking the exit, they found that the road below was flooded, and the way ahead was blocked by seven or eight cars.

Even farther ahead, several rotten trees lay across the ground.

There was also a construction sign standing, indicating a pit in front—probably from when they were repairing underground pipelines or the like, as the apocalypse was breaking out.

But regardless, the road ahead was impassable.

Behind them was another barrier, which read: Road under construction.

It seemed that no one had been here for a long time.

Seeing this, Li Yu cursed in his heart.

Damn it!

"Back to the highway," Li Yu said.

Reversing, a line of vehicles struggled to turn around in the narrow space.

Due to the large size of the heavy trucks, it took them half an hour to make it back onto the highway.

By then, it was already 6 o’clock.

The sky had completely darkened.

The grey sky still drizzled with thin rain.

Li Yu looked at the highway, rolled down the car window, and then said to Li Gang, "Keep driving forward, just stay on the highway."

He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

Now, it was dark.

There was no way to exit the highway.

To get off ahead, they would have to drive another dozen kilometers or more.

He exhaled a cloud of white smoke and gazed at the elevated highway.

This highway was an overpass, dozens of meters above the ground.

Below was full of mountains and forest.

An overpass??

Cough cough cough—

A spark of inspiration hit him.

Li Yu choked on the smoke, adjusted his breathing, and said, "Got it, we’ll camp on the highway tonight.

Gangzi, drive another two kilometers, then find a spot to stop ahead."

Li Gang felt this was also a plan and continued driving the vehicles.

Minutes later, when Li Yu saw some cars ahead, he immediately said to Li Gang, "Stop ahead."

After reaching the spot, Li Yu got out of the vehicle.

He switched on his flashlight, and seeing a few zombies next to the cars, he drew his cold weapon and dealt with each one.

These vehicles had been left in the wind and rain for over a year and were already scrapped.

Their bodies were covered in dust and mud.

After getting out of the car, Li Yu said to everyone, "We’ll rest here tonight. On the overpass, far from the ground, we don’t need to worry about being surrounded by zombies, and...

As for the highway, Lao Lu, you take some people up front, move a few cars from the roadside, and block the road ahead.

Dapao, you take some people to block the road behind.

Tonight, we sleep in the cars."

After hearing this, everyone observed the surrounding environment, densely forested and certainly not harboring many zombies, and thought the plan was sound.

They proceeded to execute the plan.

Li Yu stood on the edge of the overpass and lit another cigarette.

He watched the distant forests which resembled phantoms in the night, and felt how the post-rain weather had cooled considerably.

A cold wind blew, making him shrink a little.

The wind carried the smoke he exhaled far away...