by N. Heller
She suppressed her excitement and jogged to the front of the shelves. She could not help softly touching the boxes of mineral water with her hands. Last night, after her ability was discovered, the three of them started from the scratch and counted the amount of food and water they had. They had to concede that what they had left was an aftermath of a pillage. Even though there was quite a significant amount of goods left, but after what they had consumed, there were only enough supplies for another two weeks.
When she would go back, she would have to think of a method to store all these things in the warehouse.
The bottles of “life source” wrapped in a pink hard case glowed under the light of the flame. As she saw the full shelf of mineral water, Lin Sanjiu opened a box and took a bottle as she was feeling thirsty.
Just then, she heard Marcie’s and Luther’s voice from the other side of the staff room door once again, “Xiao Jiu, what are you doing now? Can you think of a way to get back?”
“I am okay! I found the supermarket’s warehouse…” Lin Sanjiu replied. She sat outside the staff room entrance deciding to rest for a while to regain her energy. There were confidence and resilience in her voice as she said, “I will definitely find a way to get back, don’t worry.”
There were a few more muffled sentences from the other side as if the other two of them were trying to tell her some instructions, but thereafter there were no other sounds. Lin Sanjiu snapped the lighter shut, and the warehouse returned to its original dark silence.
[At this time, Wang Sisi must also be thinking of a strategy behind that door, right?] Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly as she drank a mouthful of water, enjoying the cool fluid going down her throat. She really could not underestimate that little desiccated corpse. She made a lot of noise and movements when she was pulling out her the keys to open the door, but Wang Sisi purposely kept very silent, so Lin Sanjiu totally did not suspect that she was opening the back door of the staff room. If she had not smelled the rotting stench that wafted out once the door opened, she would not have been alert enough to dodge Wang Sisi’s attack.
Now, the two routes back to the supermarket were blocked, similar to how their paths were blocked by the broken down Land Rover. In the large hall, there was a weird, unpredictable forest; if she chose the path through the staff room, she had to bypass Wang Sisi.
In any case, she had to vote for the lesser evil. After she waited for an unknown amount of time, Lin Sanjiu finally made her decision. She stood up silently in the dark and placed her light, water bottle, and other random things aside. She wrung her hands and gave a soft sigh. It was time to test out how powerful her Overall Physical Enhancement ability was.
She slotted the key lightly in the keyhole and turned left once. The metal lock made a tiny sound. In the absolute silence, that small sound was so loud that it was shocking. It was impossible that Wang Sisi did not hear it, and almost immediately, as if to prove her right, a chain of “gugu” sounds ranged out. Lin Sanjiu could sense something walking closer.
The heavy darkness remained silent, and it was as if even the flow of air had stopped. Almost abrupted, a black shadow suddenly shot out from that gap in a swoosh. It targeted the area right behind the door handle. The speed was too fast, even with her body enhancement, Lin Sanjiu definitely wouldn’t be able to dodge it…
However, the attack which was supposed to certainly hit missed its target.
“Huh?” Wang Sisi made a human sound after some time. She shook her mouthpart around the door area and realized that Lin Sanjiu had disappeared all of a sudden and was nowhere to be seen
Hesitating for a moment, Wang Sisi walked two steps toward the door cautiously. A sweet voice came out from her mouthpart, “Big Sister, where are you? Sisi doesn’t want to fight with you. Can you just let Sisi go, okay?”
Nobody replied her. Outside the half-opened door, it was still that same silent darkness. She could not see Lin Sanjiu’s figure or hear any movement. It was like there had never been a person that at all.
A hand, so dry that it no longer resembled a human's, peeked from the door as if to push it open. It paused and retreated. After a while, a horrible looking thing crept out stealthily from the room. That was Wang Sisi. After they had not seen it for days, it had become more shriveled, similar to security guard, its skin now layered on top of each other. Due to Luther’s kick, there was a deep impression on its c.h.e.s.t; thus even the last human-like vestige was lost. The gap was not wide, but it was sufficient for Wang Sisi.
“Big sister! Big sister! I am out. Don’t be afraid, okay? Sisi just wants to go home to look for mommy…”Its two white eyeballs rolled around searching the warehouse, but it couldn’t spot Lin Sanjiu at all. It spun its mouthpart nervously. She could smell the scent of a live human’s blood, but it could not tell where it was from. This made Wang Sisi, who had not eaten for days, rash and jittery. The child-like voice that was generated from its mouthpart was filled with a sobbing tone: “Big Sister, if you don’t come out, I will take it as your consent. Sisi is leaving, she is going home…” the little girl’s voice reverberated in the dark. She stabbed her mouthpart towards the back of the door—the only place that a person could hide!
Her mouthpart which shimmered with a metallic light stabbed into nothing.
“Are you going to suck your mother dry?” a plain, mocking voice came from above her.
Seeing that the corpse was motionless, Lin Sanjiu gave a sigh of relief. She had been crouching on top of the narrow ledge of the door. She remained silent before choosing an opportunity to jump down from the door. This was an extremely difficult feat—she never imagined that she would be able to execute such ninja-like action sequence before the New World descended.
She pinched her nose as she carefully walked past the dead body and went to open the other door in the staff room.
As the door opened, the silver light resembling the moonlight, which the Ability Polishing Agent emitted, shined on Lin Sanjiu’s entire body. The shelves, used for block the door have, have already been removed by the two other outside. Luther was standing, and Marcie was sitting as they waited quietly for her to return. “Welcome back!” Luther greeted cheerily, leaning on the wall, as he held the Ability Polishing Agent in one hand.
Chapter 22 - Starting a Journey!
If one only used their n.a.k.e.d eyes to look at the scenery, the intense sun that hung high in the sky was no different from any other summer. The dazzling sunlight shined down from the blue skies and only revealed its unspeakable malice when it blazed over the earth.
Shriveled dead bodies covered in burns were found on every single street. Buildings split open under the high heat, and houses made of inferior materials had long disintegrated into small hills of rubble. There were cracks on the ground and occasionally, one could spot a considerably healthy duoluozhong moving around the ruins.
In the short two months, the temperature continued rising every day; and on this day, it was as if all traces of humankind had melted under that heat, it was difficult to believe that this was once a highly developed human civilization.
The air was dry and hot; no one knew where all that moisture went when the lakes and rivers evaporated. As far as their eyes could see, there was not a single bit of greenery left. Every path that it took, the truck would stir up a thick cloud of yellow dust which reached half the height of an a.d.u.l.t, making it difficult to see much at all.
Lin Sanjiu was sitting in the driver’s seat and could not resist taking a look at the rearview mirror. Right behind her vehicle was a similar type of large goods truck and then another long public bus, but that was not the focus of her gaze. She narrowed her eyes and looked carefully at the thick column of smoke, in the distance, rising to the air. The place where the smoke rose from was exactly the shopping mall which had housed them for a month.
After living there for such a long time, they finally had to leave… Lin Sanjiu’s train of thought involuntarily drifted back to their situation a month
before.
Back then, Lin Sanjiu had unintentionally found the supermarket warehouse which was packed with supplies. They were really ecstatic—even without counting, they knew at one glance that the food and water in the warehouse were certainly sufficient for them to survive for fourteen months. In addition to that, living in that underground supermarket meant that they did not have to worry about the problem of being under direct sunlight, they could even call it a totally ideal situation!
The only problem they had was still that patch of tropical forest in the middle of the mall.
Humans coveted for comfort after all. After the few of them had discussed for a while, they considered their situation and concluded that if there were to lock themselves in the supermarket, that abomination of a tropical forest outside should not be able to do anything to them. Since they had experienced a few days of tense, hair-raising incidents, they had used up a lot of their strength. In the name of recuperation, they decided to make the supermarket their home.
The “recuperation” lasted for two to three weeks. As they did not have to worry about the lack of sustenance, while the shutter door kept out any threats of external enemies, the three of them had the first taste of a somewhat comfortable life in a New World. It was to the extent that after a month, Lin Sanjiu found that she became fatter when she randomly pinched her waist. Honestly speaking, the amount of fats wasn’t that much, but it instantly evoked in her the image of fattened livestock. During that period of time, she did not develop a single new ability, and her movements had also slowed down considerably. Without any sense of crisis, she had even spent a few days just sleeping in the darkness.
If they continued on like this, she knew that it would be detrimental for all of them. After they had discussed about it, they decided that they had to go and patrol the place. Firstly, it was for them to check the situation nearby, and next for them to train themselves. The idea seemed pretty good, but when they opened the metal shutters, the three of them froze.
Luther was speechless. Suddenly, Marcie pointed upward yelling, “Look!” Lin Sanjiu and Luther looked in the direction that she pointed and their guts sunk at once.
They observed a sudden slight movement from the portion of darkness that was covering the escalator as if a reaction from a stimulus. The movement wasn’t their main concern. A little sunlight immediately seeped in revealing the underside of the cover which was an intricate green network of branches, tendrils, and leaves. The three of them finally realized why it was pitch dark outside the metal shutters, it was because the entire area was covered by plants.
Subsequently, there were more movements in the shadow. All sort of large and small, densely-packed green vines started stirring one by one as if they could smell the scent of a human. They crept slowly toward the metal shutter. They did not know who yelled first, but the three of them did not dare to tarry even for a second. They turned and rushed for the supermarket and pulled the shutters down with a clang.
The green vines slammed noisily on the metal shutter. Unexpectedly, multiple bulges appeared on the heavy metal shutter. If they went out a few more times, it certainly wouldn’t hold up much longer.
Once they returned to the supermarket, there was a grim expression on all their faces. None of them expected that their position would change from them making the decision to isolate themselves from the world to becoming trapped here so quickly.
“We can’t stay here any longer…” Lin Sanjiu smiled bitterly, “What should we do now?”
“Even if we leave, we have to bring along the supplies from the warehouse,” Marcie said gritting her teeth tightly.
“It is not difficult to bring those items with us. We can find a few large trucks outside, and we can try to pack as much as we can. The problem now is… how we can actually get out? The only exit had been entirely blocked by those vines,” Lin Sanjiu asked worriedly.
The three of them remained silent for a while. Suddenly, Luther exclaimed, “Ah!” and leaped up like a rabbit. He turned and ran toward the back of the supermarket, yelling at the same time, ”The escalator exit isn’t the only way! Xiao Jiu, bring your keys along! There is still a back door behind!”
Within a few seconds, they were standing at the back door of the supermarket. Ever since Lin Sanjiu had appeared in the staff room, Luther and Marcie had both completely forgotten about the back door. This was the first time that Lin Sanjiu even knew of the existence of this back door which opened to who knows where.
She prayed silently as she opened the door with her key. The heavens were on their side. The door opened to a narrow slope. Walking down the slope, the few of them found themselves beside a row of large rubbish bins. They were standing at the back side of the shopping mall. Apparently, this was the place where the staff washed their equipment and dispose of their rubbish. After they walked further down, they quickly saw a small road.
When they looked back into the glass windows at the shopping mall now covered in green vines and plants, for the first time in their lives, they could not understand how that small road covered with cracks could look so… cute.
They knew what they had to do next.
Firstly, they had to look for three vehicles. That wasn’t hard at all since 80% of the human population had all died, leaving a city full of abandoned vehicles with empty tanks and working keys in their ignition switch. Without much effort, the three of them found two large freight trucks and a public bus.
They got some batteries from an automobile repair shop and changed those in the vehicles, then they filled up a few jerrycans of petrol. They eventually got the vehicles to work. They drove the three large vehicles into the small road and parked them in a straight line after much difficulty navigating within the narrow confines.
They managed to fill up their vehicles to the brink with food and water. Even after that, there were still a lot of supplies in the warehouse. As the three of them were not greedy, after figuring out that the amount in their vehicles should be sufficient, they laid both sides of the walkway with the remaining supplies for any possible lucky survivors.
Before they left, Lin Sanjiu carried with her a few jerrycans of petrol; Luther and Marcie prepared a full carton of wine.
“Are you ready?” Lin Sanjiu, who had grabbed a piece of brick, grinned at her companions. Seeing their nods, she yelled, “Okay! Let’s start throwing!”
A series of bright clear sounds could be heard along half the street as glass fragments fell from mid-air like rain. The dark night was suddenly filled with the shimmering reflections from the glass.
The tendrils and vines that were leaning against the windows suddenly dangled in mid-air as if they were unable to decide who to attack. But before those vines could trace the human scent back to the culprits, bottles after bottles of strong alcoholic beverages, and cans after cans of petrol flew into from the broken windows. In an instant, the plants were splashed with all that accelerants.
The final step of setting the fire required a little more technique. Among the three of them, Marcie was the fastest and lightest. She held four to five lit matches in each hand and raced to the entrance of the shopping mall like a hare. She flung the matches, and they flew and landed into the large patch of greenery.
The flames spread out, hissing and crackling, it was not quick but steadfast. In a short time, the first floor was fully lit up by a sea of red burning flames. Before even burning for five minutes, they heard a sharp shrill from the center of the large hall in the middle of the shopping mall. It sounded as if something was in pain. All the leaves started flailing around crazily.
For whatever reason, Lin Sanjiu suddenly felt a sort of long-awaited ecstasy. She laughed out loud a few time and waved to the two people beside her saying, ”Let’s go!” After that, she turned and was the first person to run out of the road.
After the few of them had ran out of that street, they heard a large “Boom!” The glass ceiling situated on the top floor of the shopping mall collapsed down to th
e ground due to fire, following which, half the building was totally buried in flames.
They had parked the truck and bus far away from that location earlier. Each of them now drove a vehicle under the remaining starlight just before the sunrise. They hit the road starting on their unknown journey.
Shaking her head, Lin Sanjiu banished the memories of the events that happened last night. She looked at her rear mirror once again with a serious look. She then turned on her tail light, slowed down her vehicle and stopped.
“What’s wrong? Why aren’t we continuing?” Luther winded down his window and shouted loudly in Lin Sanjiu’s direction. Lin Sanjiu opened the truck door and jumped down. She stood in the middle of the road and held a police baton in her hand.
Chapter 23 - Gaining a New Member
The scorching sun overhead roasted everything with its intense heat. Once she stepped out of the vehicle, the torrid heat immediately made her breathing difficult. There was still wind in this Hyperthermal Hell, but it would be better if there weren’t. Every bout of wind was as if a pot of red hot coal had been thrown at their face.
After they had got out of their vehicles, Luther and Marcie’s brows furrowed deeply as they covered their noses and mouths. Ever since all the plants and trees have died out, the soil degraded into sand under the high heat due to desertification. The wind stirred up thick clouds of yellow sand wreaking havoc upon the land. Their eyebrows and eyelashes were all covered with sand particles, so it was difficult for them to open their eyes. They could only squint as they looked around.
Once Marcie opened her mouth to speak, she started coughing due to the sand before she managed to say a few words, “Are you sure? I was at the back; but I didn’t spot any other cars behind us.”