Ambush

Still within the main city, Lin Xian deliberately kept the train slow. The streets were in chaos, and he worried the tracks might be obstructed. He also wanted to avoid making enough noise to stir up trouble.

After merging from the light rail line onto the Jiangyu Main Line, the area beside the tracks gradually opened up. Whenever he encountered wandering zombies or livestock on the rails, he ran straight over them.

Before long, more switches appeared ahead, leading into a broad yard where all kinds of freight trains stood on sidings.

Several were container trains, but every container door had been opened. Survivors had long since stripped them of supplies, leaving only cardboard packaging, plastic bags, and other rubbish scattered across the ground.

The rest were mostly mixed freight trains, with less-than-carload shipments, flatcars, tank cars, and more coupled together. They had fared no better. Several cars had even toppled onto the tracks...

The sidings led to a loading platform and crane workshop in the distance. This was clearly Jiang City's rail freight terminal, the sort usually built before the passenger station. Lin Xian stopped the Infinite at the entrance to the double-track station approach and studied the routes. Then he opened the door, went to the switch motor beside the siding, placed his hand on it, and activated its motor!

Creak!

The switch changed position. Lin Xian returned to the train and drove the Infinite onto the loading siding, stopping beside a platform marked Loading Platform 4.

"Keep your radio with you. Don't open the door, not even for me. I can open it myself."

Lin Xian slung on his backpack and picked up his short blade. "As long as you keep the door shut, no one can do anything to you," he told Chen Sixuan.

Chen Sixuan nodded. She now knew Lin Xian's ability let him operate trains, so she took his instructions to heart.

"Then... be careful," she said with concern.

Hiss—the Cockpit's hatch opened. Apart from the Cockpit hatch and the rear panel of Carriage 3, every door on the Infinite's living cars had been welded shut and reinforced with steel plates. As long as someone stayed inside and did not encounter another eerie White Giant Monster like the one from last night, ordinary people and zombies posed no threat to their safety.

Lin Xian climbed down and shut the hatch. The moment his feet touched the tracks, a biting wind struck him head-on.

He looked up at the blazing sun and cursed the bizarre weather.

With his speed stat increased, Lin Xian moved much more nimbly. Short blade in hand, he crossed several tracks in succession. Each time he passed a train, he looked toward both ends for a suitable locomotive.

He intended to sort out the electric locomotive while it was still light. If he could not get one here, he would scrounge up some supplies, then drive a few kilometers to Jiang City's main station and search there.

Lin Xian checked the cars train by train. Only when he reached the front of a container train did he spot its locomotive: a silver Star 7F electric locomotive. His eyes lit up.

The Star 7F electric locomotive was sixty meters long, with a silver body, blue accents, and sleek lines that made it look futuristic. Nicknamed the "Star Hercules," it delivered up to 58,800 kilowatts of power and was a standard freight locomotive on the Orbital Ring.

The giant needed a connection to the railway power grid to move. With the apocalypse underway, it had lost all practical value and could only sit on the tracks gathering dust. It had neither fuel nor water, and despite its immense size, the space inside was cramped. Few people would bother with it.

The Huanxing 7F was twice as long as the Juying 03E's heavy gas turbine—a true electric monster. Its internal systems were sophisticated, including advanced kinetic-energy recovery and storage equipment alongside its drive motors. It was an excellent choice for the Infinite's temporary battery.

"You'll do."

Lin Xian put his hand on it. Mechanical Heart began scanning and activating the systems, revealing that the locomotive was in good working order and still looked almost new.

He had struck gold.

Thanks to his unusual ability, something other survivors would overlook was a treasure to him.

Just as Lin Xian prepared to start the behemoth and uncouple its cars, a faint, intermittent sound came from behind him.

He turned cautiously. The sound was coming from a warehouse on the platform.

Keeping low, Lin Xian slipped through the gap between two coupled freight cars on the inner track and followed the noise. It came from a warehouse whose doors were marked 14.

Thump, thump, thump—thump, thump, thump.

The steady series of knocks did not sound like anything the mindless zombies would make.

Lin Xian climbed onto the platform and approached along the inside, passing one room after another. The knocking grew louder, and he could faintly hear someone calling out.

"Help! Is anyone there?!"

The voice sounded muffled, as though some kind of soundproof barrier lay between them.

At the doors of Warehouse 14, Lin Xian cautiously peered through the half-open entrance. It was a cold-chain warehouse with two large white freezers inside. But Jiang City had been without power for some time, and an indescribable stench of rot filled the building. One breath nearly made him throw up the canned meat he had just eaten.

Once inside, he finally saw two women through the observation window of Large Freezer 1. One was pounding frantically on the door.

She looked to be in her thirties, her face flushed bright red. The other was an elderly woman in her fifties or sixties, slumped against the wall. She looked barely alive.

The younger woman spotted Lin Xian the moment he entered and cried out,

"Please, open the door! My mother's about to die!"

Lin Xian's expression sharpened. Something's wrong. He lunged forward.

A gunshot rang out behind him a split second later.

Bang!

An ambush!

He saw through the trap almost instantly. A woman locked in a freezer, shouting for help, was far too convenient.

Shouting like that without knowing who was nearby would only draw zombies. She had clearly meant to catch his attention.

Bang, bang, bang! The first shot missed, and a volley of bullets followed.

Lin Xian never stopped moving. Reacting at once, he dashed into the other freezer and slammed its door shut behind him.

Bang, bang! Bullets struck the freezer door, throwing off a spray of sparks.

"Holy shit, this kid's fast!"

"Don't let him get away."

"That dumbass ran into the freezer. Ha!"

Two men hurried over, each armed with a gun—one long, one short.

The man in front looked to be in his early forties. He had a sinister face and a large tattoo on his neck. He rushed up and kicked the freezer door, only to find it locked.

"Huh? That's weird!"

The other man, somewhat thinner, eyed Lin Xian warily through the window. He went to the door and tugged at its handle, but it would not budge.

"Why won't this damn door open?"

Large freezer doors were specially designed. To prevent the low temperature from traveling along a metal handle to the outside, where condensation could form and freeze it shut, the handle could only be operated from outside. For safety, an alarm button was installed inside.

Yet somehow, after Lin Xian entered, the door could no longer be opened from outside.

"Fuck."

The lead man raised his gun and fired twice at the freezer's observation window. The shots echoed through the warehouse. What he did not know was that the window was two hundred millimeters thick. Built to retain cold, the entire freezer was as formidable as a heavy bunker.

"Mom!"

The man called out.

The door to Large Freezer 1 opened. The woman who had pretended to call for help came out, followed by the old woman. They joined the men around Lin Xian's freezer, their expressions hostile.

"This kid's pretty sharp..."