Chapter 318: The golden fruit 29.

The dog stared back.

Bai Li pointed toward the nearby shelter sign.

"Go there."

The dog tilted its head.

Yan Cijin laughed.

"It does not understand you."

"It should."

"Because?"

"Because I spoke clearly."

Yan Cijin shook her head.

They left the dog near the shelter entrance, where several bowls had been placed under an awning.

Bai Li glanced back once.

The dog was following them with its eyes.

Yan Cijin noticed.

"You are worried."

"No."

"You looked back."

"I was checking the road."

"Of course."

Bai Li accelerated.

Yan Cijin smiled quietly.

Before the final three kilometers, they passed a long avenue lined with wrecked buses.

One of them still had its doors open.

A child-sized handprint marked one of the windows from the inside.

Yan Cijin stared at it.

Bai Li noticed.

"Do not think about it."

"I was not."

"You were."

Yan Cijin sighed.

"You know me too well."

Bai Li’s answer came without thought.

"Maybe."

The single word hung between them.

Yan Cijin looked at the back of Bai Li’s head.

She wanted to ask what that meant.

She did not.

The motorcycle passed the buses.

At the next intersection, they found an old apartment gate blocking the road.

A handful of survivors had reinforced it with furniture.

A man stood on the roof with binoculars.

He saw the motorcycle and raised one hand.

Bai Li stopped.

"Are you heading to the mall?" he called.

"Yes."

"Do not go through the western road."

"Why?"

"There is a nest."

Yan Cijin asked, "How many?"

The man hesitated.

"Enough that we stopped counting."

Bai Li nodded.

"Thanks."

She turned the motorcycle toward the western road anyway.

Yan Cijin looked at her.

"You did that deliberately."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"The other road takes longer."

Yan Cijin shook her head.

"You are unbelievable."

The nest appeared three hundred meters later.

The entire road was covered in sleeping zombies.

Hundreds of them lay across the asphalt, piled against storefronts and under cars.

At the center was a giant cocoon made of black crystal.

Something inside it was breathing.

Yan Cijin slowly drew her blade.

"Should we wake it?"

Bai Li looked at the cocoon.

"No."

"Then what?"

"Go around."

The motorcycle moved quietly through the edge of the road.

For once, Bai Li did not attack.

They reached the far side.

Then one zombie opened its eyes.

Green light filled its sockets.

Yan Cijin stopped breathing.

Bai Li whispered, "Do not move."

A second zombie opened its eyes.

Then a third.

The cocoon pulsed once.

Thousands of eyes opened.

Bai Li calmly twisted the throttle.

The entire nest woke.

Yan Cijin laughed despite herself.

"You said not to move."

"I changed my mind."

The motorcycle exploded forward.

They raced along the road.

The horde followed.

It was one of the largest chases of the night.

Zombies poured from every alley.

Some ran across rooftops.

Some leaped between cars.

A mutant landed directly on the road ahead.

Bai Li lifted the front wheel.

The motorcycle passed beneath it.

Yan Cijin stabbed upward.

The creature fell behind them.

Another jumped from the side.

Bai Li drifted around it.

Yan Cijin cut it in passing.

Three more crowded the road.

Bai Li released a burst of force.

The horde was pushed aside.

The motorcycle broke through.

Ahead, the road finally cleared.

The zombies stopped at the edge of the mall district.

They did not enter.

Yan Cijin looked back.

"They will not cross that line."

Bai Li nodded.

"Interesting."

"What is?"

"The mall."

"You think it is protecting itself?"

"Maybe."

The final stretch suddenly felt much quieter.

Neither woman spoke again until the mall came into full view.

The district before the mall had once been a busy commercial area.

Now every storefront was dark.

A restaurant had collapsed onto a bank.

A bus had been driven through the front of a clothing store.

An old fountain still stood in the center of a small plaza, though the water had long since dried up.

Yan Cijin looked around.

"This place must have been crowded before."

Bai Li nodded.

"Very."

"There should have been thousands of people."

"There were."

"And now?"

Bai Li looked at the empty streets.

"Now there are us."

Yan Cijin smiled faintly.

"Then I suppose it is not completely empty."

Bai Li looked at her in the mirror.

"No."

For some reason, the simple agreement made Yan Cijin’s chest feel warm.

She looked away before Bai Li could notice.

They passed another survivor shelter, this one built beneath an overturned city bus.

Several people watched them from behind a sheet of metal.

One young man raised a hand.

Bai Li raised hers in return.

The young man shouted, "Are you going to the mall?"

"Yes."

"Do not go inside after dark!"

Yan Cijin looked toward the sky.

"It is already dark."

The young man looked confused.

Bai Li said, "We will be fine."

The shelter people watched them go.

A woman whispered, "Those two must be crazy."

An older man shook his head.

"No."

"Then what?"

He watched the motorcycle disappear.

"They are the kind of people who make everyone else feel safe by being there."

Farther ahead, the rain stopped completely.

The clouds remained green above the mall, but the rest of the city had fallen into a strange calm.

No wind.

No screams.

No engines.

Even the distant moans of zombies had disappeared.

Bai Li slowed again.

Yan Cijin leaned closer.

"Something is wrong."

"Yes."

"What?"

Bai Li stared at the road ahead.

"All the zombies have gone quiet."

Yan Cijin looked around.

"That is not normal."

"No."

Bai Li could sense them now.

Thousands of creatures were still nearby.

But every one of them had stopped moving.

They were facing the same direction.

The mall.

Waiting.

Yan Cijin’s hand rested on her weapon.

"Maybe they are waiting for us."

Bai Li smiled faintly.

"Then we should not keep them waiting."

She accelerated.

For a short stretch, Bai Li deliberately reduced the speed.

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TO BE CONTINUED.