Chapter 383: Returning 13.

Yan Cijin smiled.

"You really are hungry."

Bai Li nodded.

"Very."

Luo Ren stood.

"Wait."

Bai Li looked at him.

"What?"

He pointed toward the motorcycle.

"You were planning to ride that?"

Bai Li walked toward the Ninja 400.

"Yes."

Luo Ren stared at the bike.

Then at the dragon.

Then back at Bai Li.

"I think I understand why the dragon didn’t scare you."

Yan Cijin smiled.

"Don’t flatter her. It’ll make her worse."

Bai Li swung onto the motorcycle.

The engine came alive.

The deep sound rolled across the square.

Several survivors on the rooftops looked down.

One young man shouted, "That’s so cool!"

Another called, "They came here on that thing?"

A woman beside him answered, "I think so!"

The motorcycle’s headlight cut through the dust.

Yan Cijin climbed onto the pillion and held the side rails for a moment.

Then she settled closer behind Bai Li.

Bai Li looked into the mirror.

Their eyes met.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

Bai Li turned the throttle.

The Kawasaki Ninja 400 surged forward.

The survivors watched it disappear down the ruined avenue.

Behind them, the great red festival dragon remained standing in silence.

Its final performance was over.

And that was the end of the strange little incident.

Nothing followed them from the square.

No mysterious voice called their names.

No hidden creature emerged from the engine.

No new enemy waited for them down the road.

The ancient machine was simply an old piece of history that had finished

one last performance after the apocalypse had already forgotten it.

Bai Li and Yan Cijin left it behind.

Neither woman knew the names of the people who had built it.

Neither needed to.

It had been strange.

It had been dangerous.

It had taken up far too much of their morning.

And now it was over.

The city opened ahead of them again.

The road home was waiting.

The first few streets after the festival square were almost empty.

Bai Li kept the motorcycle at a steady speed rather than pushing it

immediately. The road surface was uneven in places, and several

abandoned vehicles had been left at awkward angles across the lanes. The

front wheel of the Ninja 400 moved smoothly around them.

Yan Cijin sat behind her, one hand holding the side rail and the other

resting lightly near Bai Li’s waist whenever the bike leaned through a

turn.

The morning air was cool.

After everything that had happened at the mall and then the strange

incident in the festival square, the quiet felt almost unreal.

For several minutes, neither woman said anything.

There was no need.

The engine filled the silence for them.

Bai Li looked into the mirror.

Yan Cijin was watching the road behind them.

Her hair moved in the wind.

Bai Li looked forward again.

The ruined city passed on both sides.

A burned-out bus.

A collapsed storefront.

A line of abandoned cars.

A small fire still smoldering near a broken gas station.

The world looked exhausted.

But the road was open.

That was enough.

They had another long stretch to cross before they reached the Riverside

Apartment.

Bai Li knew the route.

Not every street was usable anymore, but she remembered enough of the

city to avoid the worst areas.

The motorcycle accelerated.

The Ninja 400’s engine note rose.

They shot down a long straight avenue.

A group of survivors appeared at the entrance of a half-collapsed

supermarket.

One man saw the bike first.

He elbowed the person beside him.

"Look."

The others turned.

The motorcycle raced toward them.

Bai Li wore a dark jacket with dust still clinging to the shoulders from

the mall. Whisperfang was secured at her side, and the revolver was

holstered near her waist. Her expression was calm, almost bored, despite

the fact that she had spent the last several hours fighting monsters and

a living tree.

Yan Cijin sat behind her with her crossbow strapped across her back.

The pair looked less like two exhausted survivors and more like they had

stepped out of some impossible action scene.

The survivors stared.

One boy lifted both hands.

"That’s a Ninja!"

Another laughed.

"Who rides like that during the apocalypse?"

The first boy shouted after them.

"Apparently they do!"

Bai Li heard them.

She smiled slightly.

Yan Cijin heard them too.

"They’re staring."

"I know."

"You like it."

"Maybe."

Yan Cijin laughed quietly.

Bai Li increased the speed.

The survivors’ voices disappeared behind them.

A few minutes later, they entered a broad boulevard that had once been

one of the busiest roads in the district.

Now it was almost completely abandoned.

Traffic lights still hung above the intersections.

Some were frozen on green.

Others were dark.

Bai Li slowed near the first crossing.

A zombie stood in the middle of the road.

It looked at the motorcycle.

Then another appeared near a bus stop.

Three more came from a side street.

Yan Cijin raised her head.

"How many?"

"About fifteen."

"Should we stop?"

Bai Li looked at the road.

"No."

She accelerated.

The zombies rushed toward them.

At the last second, Bai Li shifted the bike slightly to the left.

The first zombie lunged and missed.

The second reached for the handlebar.

Bai Li tilted the motorcycle just enough to avoid its hand.

Yan Cijin drew her revolver.

Bang.

A zombie fell.

Bang.

Another.

Bai Li continued forward.

The remaining zombies were left behind.

Yan Cijin holstered the revolver.

"You’re getting better at riding through them."

"They’ve gotten worse at moving."

"That’s also true."

The road opened again.

Bai Li looked at the fuel gauge.

The system-fueled energy was still holding, but she knew the bike had a

limit. The crystal cores had given the engine a strange endurance that

ordinary fuel could not explain, but it did not mean she could ride

forever.

Still, the remaining energy was more than enough to reach home.

Yan Cijin leaned slightly closer.

"How far?"

"A little over ten kilometers now."

"Only ten?"

"Maybe less if we can take the river road."

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TO BE CONTINUED.