Chapter 478: Eternity 39.

or that the military

zone would be anything like the official broadcasts promised. But they

were together in the same vehicle, with a plan on the table and each

other’s judgment to lean on. For now, that was enough to keep the wheels

turning.

The first clear sign of trouble came a little after noon, when Yan

lifted her head from the map and asked Bai to slow down.

At first Bai heard only the familiar sounds of the road: the low rumble

of the engine, a loose piece of metal vibrating somewhere near the rear

compartment, and the faint rattle of the map case whenever the caravan

passed over a crack. Then the knocking came again. It was so quiet that

it could have been a branch tapping against a window, but there was a

pattern to it. Three quick knocks, a pause, then two slower ones. After

a longer pause, the same rhythm came again.

Yan put the map down. "Stop here, but leave enough room to move forward

or turn around."

Bai eased off the accelerator and brought the caravan to a slow stop

beside a line of overgrown shrubs. Ahead, an old delivery truck lay on

its side near the edge of the road. Its cargo door faced the sky, and

several plastic crates had spilled across the shoulder. One rear wheel

was still turning slightly in the wind. There were no visible zombies

around it, but the truck blocked part of the drainage ditch, and the

grass nearby had been flattened in several places.

The knocking came again. Three quick taps, then two slower ones.

"Someone’s inside," Yan said.

"Or someone wants us to think that." Bai kept her eyes on the truck. "We

don’t go close until we check the area."

Yan nodded. She leaned toward the rear of the cabin and spoke to Mother

Yan. "We’re stopping for a possible survivor. Keep Lili inside with you.

Don’t open the door unless one of us gives the signal. We’ll look first,

then decide whether we can help."

Mother Yan’s expression changed. "A real person?"

"We don’t know yet," Bai said. "But the knocking sounds deliberate."

Mother Yan immediately moved Lili away from the window. Lili wanted to

see what was happening, but her grandmother told her that helping

sometimes meant waiting safely while the adults checked a danger. The

child was not happy about it, yet she obeyed. She had learned that Bai

and Yan did not give warnings to spoil her fun. They did it because the

world had become full of things that could hurt her before she

understood what was happening.

Bai parked with the front of the caravan pointed toward an open stretch

of road. If they needed to leave quickly, they would not have to

reverse. Yan checked the side camera and then the rear, looking for

movement behind the shrubs. There was nothing close enough to identify.

Bai took Whisperfang and her revolver, while Yan slung the crossbow over

her shoulder and kept her own revolver holstered until she knew what

they were dealing with. They stepped down from the vehicle together.

The air had grown warmer during the afternoon. The ground beside the

road was soft where the rain had soaked it, and the truck’s metal body

creaked faintly as the wind pushed against it. Bai moved along the side

facing the road, careful not to step into the flattened grass until she

had checked it. The first prints she found were human, though most of

them had been blurred by rain. There were several sets leading from the

truck toward a low storage shed behind a row of trees. A different trail

crossed them, deep and irregular, with marks that might have come from a

dragging foot or a heavy object being pulled along the ground.

Yan noticed the same thing. "The human tracks go to the shed. I don’t

see any returning from that direction."

"That could mean they stayed there." Bai crouched beside the truck and

listened. "Or it could mean something followed them and they didn’t come

back."

The knocking sounded again, this time from behind the fallen truck

rather than inside its cabin. Bai lifted one hand to signal that she had

heard it, then stepped away from the wheel. Someone had wedged a strip

of metal between two pieces of the truck’s frame. A hand appeared

briefly in the narrow gap, tapped the metal twice, then vanished.

"Don’t come around the side without saying something," a young voice

called from beneath the vehicle. It was hoarse and frightened, but it

was clearly human. "We have a weapon. If you’re with the people from the

checkpoint, we’re not going back."

Bai looked at Yan. They had found survivors, but the warning about a

checkpoint suggested that the situation had more to it than a simple

vehicle accident.

"We’re not from a checkpoint," Yan replied. She kept her voice calm and

made sure the survivors could hear her clearly. "We’re passing through.

We heard the signal. We aren’t going to approach until you tell us where

you are and whether there are any infected nearby."

There was a pause. Then the young voice asked, "How many of you?"

"Four adults, one child, and a caravan," Yan said. "We can leave if you

don’t want help. But if someone is injured, we can at least bring you

medical supplies."

A second voice, younger and more uncertain, whispered something too low

for them to understand. The first answered with a frustrated hiss. After

another pause, a teenage girl crawled out from the narrow gap beside the

fallen truck. She had tied her hair back with a strip of cloth, and her

jacket was smeared with oil and mud. She held a short length of metal

pipe in both hands. Her eyes moved from Bai to Yan, taking in their

weapons and the way they stood. She looked ready to run at the smallest

sign of trouble.

"My brother is in there," she said.

TO BE CONTINUED.