Chapter 1086: Anomaly on a Snowy Night (Part 2)

Chapter 1086 -1074: Anomaly on a Snowy Night (Part 2)

2 a.m., and the night was already sunk into complete darkness.

Hu Xiaodong and Wang Qiang were each slumped in their seats in the car, zoning out.

The two of them were on duty for the second half of the night. They’d only been up for two hours, so they were still groggy and sluggish.

Bored out of his mind, Hu Xiaodong reached for the tablet. This time he didn’t stupidly go mess with the “China” brothers’ masterpieces, but opened up a card game instead and started the long “tap tap tap.”

He didn’t know how much time had passed. Baptized by Luo Baochun’s snoring, Hu Xiaodong lazily stretched his waist.

He hadn’t thought that this simple relaxing motion would make him faintly catch some noise outside the window.

Because the snoring coming from beside him, from Luo Baochun, was so loud, Hu Xiaodong couldn’t be sure whether his ears were just imagining things.

But he didn’t dare take it lightly. He bent down and pressed his ear to the window.

The window, chilled by melted snow, made Hu Xiaodong’s already flushed face turn even redder.

Forcing himself to endure the freezing touch, Hu Xiaodong listened carefully, trying to pick out that strange sound he’d just sensed.

Sure enough, effort pays off. After a few seconds of quiet listening, Hu Xiaodong heard the odd sound outside again.

This time Hu Xiaodong was a hundred percent sure there was movement outside the car. He quickly jabbed the plump waist of Luo Baochun beside him.

The latter was sleeping soundly. Poked like that by Hu Xiaodong, he very reluctantly squinted his eyes open a crack.

Still half in a daze, he wore a dumb look as he glanced around. When he saw Hu Xiaodong pressed up against the window, he shook his big face, short-circuited for a second, then mumbled, “Oh, Hu-ge, uh, wh-what’re you doing?”

“Shh.” Raising a finger, he signaled Luo Baochun to Silence, then Hu Xiaodong pointed again toward the window.

Seeing how cautious Hu Xiaodong was, Luo Baochun immediately straightened up and asked, noncommittal, “Something up?”

Nodding, Hu Xiaodong answered in a low voice, “There’s movement outside.”

Middle of the night, desolate wilderness, plus this kind of blizzard-from-hell weather—any movement on the road definitely wasn’t a good sign.

So right away, Luo Baochun snapped fully awake, and the right hand resting on his belly instinctively groped for the blade by the door.

“What do we do, Hu-ge?”

Hu Xiaodong could see how nervous Luo Baochun was, and it was hard to blame him. With the road buried in heavy snow, if they really ran into a Zombies attack, even trying to run would be a problem.

But what was happening was already happening; just panicking wouldn’t help.

With that in mind, Hu Xiaodong forced a slight smile and reassured him first: “Don’t panic. Let’s figure out what’s going on before we talk next steps.”

With that said, Hu Xiaodong grabbed the Hand-held Radio, pressed the button, and called, “Qiangzi! Qiangzi! This is Hu Xiaodong. If you hear me, respond. If you hear me, respond. Over.”

“Zzzzzz!” Affected by the weather, when the Hand-held Radio in Wang Qiang’s hand sounded, the static was intense.

But he still managed to make out what Hu Xiaodong was saying.

“Hey, Hu-ge, this is Wang Qiang. What’s up? Over.”

“Listen up, there’s movement outside the cars. You guys stay sharp.”

What!? His head buzzed—Hu Xiaodong’s warning over the mic left Wang Qiang a bit stunned.

He’d been guarding in the car this whole time and hadn’t heard a damn thing outside.

He didn’t dare slack off now, and quickly leaned in to listen. And sure enough, that strange sound from compressed snow was echoing in irregular bursts.

Something’s wrong!! That was nailed-down certain. Wang Qiang was a bit annoyed at himself for being complacent.

But it wasn’t really his fault. First, the wind outside was howling; second, Wei Dazhuang’s snoring was downright terrifying.

The two stacked together, it was perfectly reasonable that those creepy footsteps on the snow were muffled.

“Hu-ge, there is movement. What do we do now?” Wang Qiang asked calmly, not rushing into action.

Back then, with his hot temper, he would’ve absolutely grabbed a blade and rushed out to hack away. But the Wang Qiang of now was no longer that impulsive.

Not only did he not act rashly, he even reached back and grabbed Wei Dazhuang beside him, which made Wei Dazhuang very unhappy.

The latter had just been jolted awake from sleep, stomach full of irritation. Being blocked by Wang Qiang at this moment, he darkened his face and snapped, “What’re you doing, Qiangzi, why’re you stopping me!?”

“Dazhuang-ge, things outside are unclear. If we just rush out like this, it’s way too dangerous! Hold it for now. Let’s see what Hu-ge says first, then we move.”

Wang Qiang’s concern was not unfounded. Going out at this juncture—if the Zombies spotted them, they’d really be screwed.

So for the moment, with the source of the strange sound still unknown, staying in the car was undoubtedly the smartest move.

Anyway, the Zombies hadn’t attacked yet. Even if they did attack, with the cars as cover, the Survivor Squad would still have some fight in them.

Yet just as Wang Qiang was over here trying to talk down Wei Dazhuang, Huo Yuankai had already opened the car door and jumped out.

“Uhh uhh!”

“Uhh uhh ah!” Using gestures, Huo Yuankai signaled the kid to stay in the car and not get out.

Once he’d given his instructions, he raised his Tang Blade and headed out.

Because the snowfall was heavy and it was the dead of night, the limited visibility kept him from seeing what was going on in the distance.

But Huo Yuankai didn’t back off because of that. He moved step by step, carefully, warily scanning his surroundings.

It didn’t take long before he spotted a Black Shadow swaying under the curtain of snow.

First thing he could confirm was that the Black Shadow wasn’t one of their own.

Because the Hand-held Radio warning just now had been clear: before they figured out what was happening, Hu Xiaodong and the others wouldn’t get out of the cars.

So for Huo Yuankai, he suddenly had a little less to worry about.

Raising the blade, he closed in behind the Black Shadow and poked it twice.

Given that he couldn’t speak, this was his only way to communicate with the other party.

Once he jabbed, the Black Shadow reacted immediately.

As it twisted around, a shriveled face came into Huo Yuankai’s view.

Seeing Huo Yuankai, the Black Shadow clearly froze for a second, then started excitedly flailing its claws.

Zombies! As those two words flashed through his mind, Huo Yuankai’s Tang Blade suddenly swung up.

The sharp blade sliced through the beast’s claws like chopping melons, and Blood Sword sprayed instantly.

The miserable Zombies, who’d thought it could pounce its prey, had already lunged forward. With both hands severed and no support, it lost balance and crashed down.

Huo Yuankai truly deserved his reputation as a blade master; his focus and judgment were both outstanding.

He landed one cut, then immediately followed with another. Only this time, he didn’t waste it on useless spots of the Zombies’ body that didn’t hurt or matter—he swept the blade straight across the creature’s neck.

“Splurt!” The neck snapped and blood spurted. The Zombies’ head rolled weakly to the ground.

Huo Yuankai didn’t even spare it a proper glance. He stepped over the corpse and moved on.

Footprints were scattered messily over the ground. Judging from the depth of the impressions, they’d clearly been made not long ago.

In other words, there were still Zombies near the convoy.

He didn’t dare be careless. Huo Yuankai’s eyes swept like radar, alertly scanning. Every step he took was cautious to the extreme.

As a Survivor who’d been fighting to live through the apocalypse for over half a year, Huo Yuankai naturally understood how dangerous Zombies were.

“Splurt!” The blade swept sideways. The Tang Blade truly lived up to its fame; such a simple motion yielded very impressive results.

As expected, the blade once again easily split open the skull of the Zombies hiding behind the veil of snow, waiting to ambush Huo Yuankai.