The next day...
"Geez, you guys were so loud last night."
Yueyue complained as she sat at the dining table across from Yuqi and Leyan, with Lily and Nami sitting right next to her.
"Sorry, sorry, we got too carried away." Yuqi apologized, her face looking a little shy as she didn't expect her to bring it up.
"I bet Yueyue was touching herself when she heard both of us." Leyan jokingly said out loud.
"Hey, Shut up!"
As her face turned more and more red, it was clear to everyone that it was indeed what had happened last night.
"Can you guys have some privacy? Lily and I are eating here." Nami complained as she grabbed a piece of toast from the bag.
"Sorry."
All three of them apologized at the same time as they shyly looked down in embarrassment before somebody finally decided to show up.
"Good morning, everyone... Why are you all looking down at the table?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"Shut up! This is all your fault, you dummy."
Seeing them looking a little angry, Xiaoyun quickly sat down before sipping his coffee to avoid their anger.
After a minute of silent eating, Xiaoyun's face turned serious as he finally got the chance to speak up again.
"Ahem, I need to go out today again to pick up the survivors from the city and bring them to the town.
Yuqi, I'm going to need you to be ready to place people into their new homes. And Yueyue, you don't have to go this time.
I will probably be back later tonight for dinner... Oh, snap, I'm late."
Before they could say anything back, Xiaoyun quickly grabbed a piece of toast and ran out of the house.
---
When Xiaoyun got to Luoping's gate at nine, Renqin was already inside the bus, with Yezi and the five new soldiers standing outside.
"Where are Jixi and the soldiers from yesterday?" Xiaoyun curiously 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?"
"Well, I'm not a soldier, and my position is a part of the civilian government, so he has nothing over me."
Xiaoyun didn't think too much about it as he entered the bus, with Yezi and the soldier following right behind.
"Renqin, you can start the bus now."
After sitting for twenty minutes on the bumpy road, the bus finally arrived at the hotel across from the casino.
Wuli was standing right outside, waving her hand at the bus to stop near the hotels' entrances.
The bus slowly came to a stop, and everyone inside quickly exited before Xiaoyun stepped out himself.
"How many people are there again?" Xiaoyun asked, following Wuli into the hotel as the soldier started securing the nearby areas.
"Around eighty people."
"Wait, I thought you said around sixty or so? How did it almost double?"
"Well, more people joined after seeing us beat up those casino gangs... I'm sure your town can handle it, right?"
Wuli suddenly moved a little closer, their body almost touching as if she was trying to bribe him with her body.
"Ahem. Yeah, of course... Where is everyone, though?"
Xiaoyun asked as he slowly took a few steps back, shifting the conversation back on topic, as he only saw ten people inside the hotel.
"They are further inside the hotel lobby right now... Let's go see them now."
Wuli quickly grabbed onto Xiaoyun's hand, not giving him the chance to resist as she guided him further into the hotel.
As soon as they arrived at the hotel's main lobby, his mind quickly began to calculate the crowds of people to the bus's capacity.
"I think the bus's maximum occupancy is around thirty people. We might need three trips instead of two."
Wuli suddenly lets Xiaoyun go as they approached closer and closer to the crowd of people in the lobby.
"It's okay. Hey! The first group and the second group follow me. We are heading to the bus out of the city."
The moment Wuli yelled it out, twenty people stepped up from the crowd, following Wuli and Xiaoyun back to the bus.
After loading them into the bus, there were still ten empty seats, so Xiaoyun decided to let Wuli bring ten more people in.
With the bus now full, there were still fifty people left, not to mention the soldiers whom he accidentally forgot to include in the bus itself.
"Crap... Can you guys cram each other a little bit? Let the soldier sit in the back, don't block them from shooting their guns."
As Xiaoyun directed the kids to sit on top of their parents' laps and let the soldiers in, Wuli quickly ran back out of the bus.
"You guys go to the second floor to wait there. We'll be back to pick you guys up."
Wuli waved goodbye as she entered the bus, with all the civilians inside also waving goodbye through the glass windows.
---
A minute later...
Just as the bus began to drive through the same way they had come from earlier, an entire zombie horde suddenly appeared right around the corner.
"Shit!"
Renqin immediately hit the brake and started reversing, trying not to run headfirst into the massive zombie horde.
With the bus halfway turned back around, the zombie horde had already noticed them, running towards them at full speed.
"Everyone shut up! I don't want to hear anyone screaming."
As soon as Xiaoyun yelled out loud and lifted his pistol, the bus fell into dead silence as the sounds of zombies' howling got louder and louder.
"Fuck fuck fuck."
Renqin started to panic a little as he could see the zombie horde through the reflection in the mirror, but his bus was only halfway through the 180-degree turn.
"Everyone, fire your gun!'
The soldiers immediately opened fire with their rifles, shooting back at the zombies as they all held down the trigger.
Waves of zombies fell, but it was all quickly replaced by a new wave right behind as more and more started getting closer.
Just as the zombie horde began to get within a few hundred steps, Xiaoyun knew he had to do something.
With no time to think, he yanked Wuli's backpack aside before pulling out several packs of explosives straight from it.
After lighting it up, he threw it as far as he could, landing it just far enough away from the bus as the zombie hordes ran right past it.
"Cover your ears!"
As the loud bang went off, the loud shockwave sent the ground shaking for a second as the entire front row of zombies collapsed onto the cement road.
"Renqin, how the hell is the bus still not turning yet?"
"I'm trying——Here we go!"
The bus finally turned enough to drive forward as it ran at full speed within just three seconds.
Yet, despite going as fast as he could, the zombie horde was still within a hundred steps, following right behind them.
"What the hell... how are they running this fast?" Yezi commented as all of the soldiers began to reload their weapons.
After reloading, the five soldiers started tapping their triggers, trying to finish twenty zombies off behind them.
But the bumpy road was way too hard to aim, leaving ten zombies in the end that still chase after them.
"Fuck, it's a dead end! I need to slow down to turn the bus around the block." Renqin yelled out as the bus began to decelerate.
Xiaoyun immediately rushed to the back again, joining alongside the soldiers as they all fired at the zombies at once.
Fortunately, as soon as the bus came to a complete stop, the soldiers steadied their aim and easily killed them all.
"Whew."
Everyone on the bus let out a sigh of relief as all the zombies were now out of sight, at least for now.
"Renqin, do you know the way back from here?" Xiaoyun asked as the road seemed a little unfamiliar from earlier.
"Um... I can try."
Renqin started driving again until he finally saw a familiar building. With the landmark, he finally brings the bus back to its original route.
---
An hour later, they finally arrived back at the town, much longer than the expected thirty minutes.
Leyan and a few workers quickly came up to give the newcomers a tour, with Yezi and the few soldiers joined in to maintain safety.
Meanwhile, five new soldiers, or those who got discipline, finally showed up to take their place as they all sat in the back of the bus.
Just as Xiaoyun and Wuli entered the bus and were about to signal him to start the trip, Renqin brought them some bad news.
"Xiaoyun, the bus is about to be completely out of gas," Renqin warned.
"Just refuel it... What's wrong?"
Xiaoyun asked, his mind remembered that he had restocked the gas at the store and at the generator just a few days ago.
"Well, this long-distance bus takes diesel. You only have gasoline... We haven't refueled it since we left the city."
"Oh crap... How about we drive toward a gas station? I remember there's one down the road, right?"
"Okay then... But I'm not leaving the bus."
"That's fine."
Renqin quickly started the bus back up and drove out again, heading out of town once again.
---
After driving for three minutes, they were finally at the gas station. From the outside, they could see that the convenience store was completely smashed.
Renqin parked the car at the diesel pump before everyone headed out to secure the perimeter.
Much to everyone's disappointment, putting in money didn't make the gas station work at all.
"Shit, there's no electricity. The gas pump doesn't work," Renqin stated after pressing the gas trigger several times in a row.
"Let me go inside the store to check if there's spare diesel cans... You guys, come with me."
Xiaoyun quickly 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 his typical bat.
The moment Xiaoyun stepped foot inside the convenience store, they could all hear a hint of a crying sound coming from somewhere.
"The fuck is that?" Xiaoyun murmured as it was too dark to see what was within the aisles of the store.
"I don't know, sir."
Just as Xiaoyun was about to take out a flashlight, a soldier behind him took out a flashlight before pointing it right at the dark.
To their surprise, just a few steps in front of them was a skinny figure, almost looking like a little girl lying on the floor, crying.
"Hello? Are you alright?" One of the soldiers asked, slowly walking up to check.
"W-wait!"
The soldier stopped as the skinny figure immediately turned around, revealing its face filled with deformity and corrupted flesh.
Its sudden lunge caught everyone off guard as no one could raise their rifle fast enough to fire at it.
But just within the nick of time, Xiaoyun was able to pull out his pistol, firing a bullet right into its head as its brain matter spewed all over the closest soldier.
"Holy shit!"
The first soldier fell in shock as he quickly tried to wipe everything off, unable to believe what had just exploded in his eyes.
"What the fuck was that?" Another soldier questioned.
"That zombie was a mutant. Stop standing here. 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 scrambled to leave after noticing the black dot in the distance.
"Wait, the diesel gas is right there."
One of the soldiers yelled, pointing at the single gas canister right near the dead mutant's body.
"Shit!"
Xiaoyun quickly turned back around, grabbing it before catching up with the rest of the soldiers, waving Renqin to come out.
"We found a diesel can! Refuel it fast!"
Renqin quickly grabbed the diesel can, popping the lid open before pouring as much gas into it as possible.
When the diesel can was emptied, everyone was already inside the bus, but the two of them rushed back in.
Renqin quickly hopped into the driver's seat, starting up the bus as Xiaoyun quickly took a seat in the front.
As the bus began to drive away, they could see a massive zombie crowd rushing toward the gas station.
"Shit, that was close... how much gas do we have?" Xiaoyun asked as he wiped sweat from his forehead.
"It's almost full. It's enough for at least a few days, or a hundred kilometers nonstop." Renqin replied.
"Good, let's go back to that hotel now... Take a detour first."
---
After driving for thirty minutes, they finally arrived back at the hotel.
Several strangler zombies ran towards them, but Xiaoyun stepped out and killed them with his bat alone.
Wuli and Xiaoyun quickly entered the hotel and walked up to the second floor. Right before them, fifty people were still around.
"Ah, fuck it. I'm not doing two more rides of this. Everyone, just get inside the bus. Drop all your luggage and everything that you don't need."
After seeing some of them still carrying luggage and not listening to Xiaoyun's order, Wuli quickly spoke up next.
"Anyone who doesn't listen to him will stay here by themselves. We are not coming back to get you guys." Wuli warned.
After several grunting complaints, the fifty people folded and got inside the bus, all empty-handed except a few who had small backpacks.
Some of the adults were forced to sit on top of each other, but there was no other way around it, with the soldier needing the space in the back.
"Can you start the bus?" Xiaoyun asked as Wuli gave him the signal to go.
"Why are there so many people? This is way over capacity!" Renqin complained, refusing to start the bus.
"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. I don't want to hear a no from you right now."
After a short silence of staring at each other, Renqin backed down in the end as he nodded in agreement.
"Fine. But if something goes wrong, don't blame me." Renqin argued as he started the bus once again.