Snake Spirit flicked his tongue and nodded. "There's no way Google Maps could mess up this bad. If the town's gone, then yeah, there's no guarantee it's still two hundred kilometers away."
Monkey immediately objected. "You mean we've gotta walk another fifteen kilometers just to get back to the canal? That's half a day wasted! And we're out of supplies, we need food!
Besides, that place is way too dangerous. The scavenging will go on for days, and it's definitely crawling with their people right now. They just lost more than twenty cargo ships' worth of goods. Imagine what they'll do if they find us! The whole canal's filled with their ships, and if we keep following the river, it's even riskier. What if a chopper spots us during patrol? Then what?"
He wasn't wrong. Go back fifteen kilometers, just for a maybe? And everyone's already starving.
"If we go back, we're guaranteed to reach Luksa along the original route," Jing Shu said coolly. "But if we keep walking forward, can you promise we'll reach it in two hundred kilometers? What if it takes five hundred and we're trapped in there instead?"
She added, "Old Goat ran into the same problem last year. He was already at Wu City but couldn't cross for over a month. You really wanna risk that? If the terrain shifted again, we could lose ten days, maybe half a month. That's a way bigger waste of time! And without enough supplies, once we're stuck in those mountains, we'll be done for."
This wasn't some survival game from before the apocalypse with lush oases and wildlife everywhere. This was the apocalypse, where you could barely find a single edible bug in the dark.
Monkey argued back, "If we backtrack along the canal, there aren't any towns nearby. The Americans barely have people in that area, and there's no way we can grab supplies or a vehicle. Going that route means we'll be walking the whole time, no people, no resources, no cars, and probably a ton of danger. That's four or five days wasted, at least! But if we go this way, we'll pass six or seven towns ahead. There's gotta be people or vehicles somewhere. It's safer."
Jing Shu narrowed her eyes, looking at the huge mountain ahead. With her experience, she could tell this was a massive tectonic shift. That meant they'd not only have to climb it but also deal with all sorts of dangers along the way.
Back in the fifth year of the apocalypse, during the Great Migration, the shifting crust had reshaped the world. From Wu City to southern China, she'd seen how brutal it could get. Without the Tyrant's foresight and decisiveness, half their people wouldn't have made it.
Even now, as strong as she'd become, those towering mountains still cast a shadow over her.
After the third year of the apocalypse, she'd learned one hard truth: it was better to backtrack than to take a new path through some freshly risen mountain range. Inside those mountains lurked Darklife creatures and countless other deadly surprises.
"Then let's split up," Jing Shu said, licking her lips before pulling a bottle of mineral water from her pack. She gulped it down before adding, "You guys keep moving forward. I'll go back along the canal. That's final."
Monkey snorted, scratching Ah Huang's head as the exhausted dog panted heavily. "Fine, then we split up."
Tank dropped his heavy pack with a thud. "Hold up. We're a team, no one acts alone. And we're still on a mission. Old Goat already divided us into two squads, so we can't split again. As acting captain, it's my duty to keep everyone safe. Since we've got a disagreement, we'll vote."
Ling Ling raised her hand. "I'm with Mirror. She's been dead-on about every danger and situation these past few days."
Xiao Hei was almost crying. "I pick Monkey! I don't wanna walk four or five more days on foot, damn it!"
Snake Spirit slithered over to Jing Shu's side. "I trust Mirror's instincts."
Everyone looked at Tank. He hesitated, then sighed. "As captain, I have to think of everyone's safety. Monkey's plan really is safer. I'll side with him."
A tie.
So what now?
Jing Shu's eyes sharpened dangerously. She clenched her fists and said impatiently, "Fine, then let's fight. Winner makes the call."
Monkey instantly took two steps back. If this had been the day they got off the plane, he'd have gladly "taught that chick a lesson." But after spending all these days together, he knew better. This woman wasn't just some support role—she was a walking tank, a full-on human Tyrannosaurus.
Tank coughed awkwardly. "Or maybe we, uh, flip a coin? Anyone object?"
No one did. When no one could convince anyone else, might as well leave it to fate. Only Jing Shu frowned. She didn't like leaving things to fate.
Snake Spirit flicked the coin into the air. It spun wildly before hitting the ground with a crisp clack. He pressed his palm over it as it stopped spinning. Jing Shu narrowed her eyes, focusing every bit of her power to see—but even with all her focus, she couldn't tell heads from tails. Guess she'd have to pick one.
"Heads," she said calmly.
Monkey shrugged. "Then I'm tails."
Snake Spirit lifted his hand. Light glinted off the coin—it was tails.
Jing Shu slung her pack over her shoulder and started walking ahead. Xiao Dou flapped her wings frantically to keep up. Monkey grinned. "Let's go, Ah Huang."
The others followed, deciding to keep going forward. The plan was simple: head straight to Luksa, steal a car if they found one, rob anyone in their way, climb whatever mountains blocked them, and never turn back.
Jing Shu clenched her fists. Damn it, she'd messed up. If she'd shown her true strength earlier, she could've slapped these adorable idiots flat against a wall until they listened.
Then there wouldn't be any stupid coin tosses or "leave it to fate." She'd say they were turning back, and they'd turn back. Like the Tyrant—firm, absolute, unquestioned. People might call her brutal or undemocratic, but no one would dare argue. Anyone who did, she'd just slam them against the wall again.
That'd at least cut down on a lot of unnecessary risks, and maybe she'd finally feel at peace.
For the last time, Jing Shu told herself—she was gonna change how she handled things from now on.
She gazed up at the massive mountain ahead, the silhouette stretching endlessly into the distance. "Guess this is fate's way of messing with me again," she muttered.
The group stepped into the mountains. The air temperature dropped by at least five or six degrees, and everyone instinctively pulled their damp clothes tighter, stomping their feet now and then to fight off the chill. Only Jing Shu, wrapped in her oversized cotton coat, was actually a little warm.
The mountains were bare, scattered with a few blackened, dead trees. Even a light cough echoed like a ghost's whisper. No animals, no birds, just the occasional eerie cry drifting through the still air.
The dirt road turned into slabs of uneven rock. They walked for more than an hour, yet it still didn't feel like they'd actually entered the mountain range, even though it loomed right there in front of them.