Survivor Camp

"Hmph!" Qian Yu snorted and drew his pistol, aiming it at Lou Shasha's head. "Anywhere else, I wouldn't give a damn if you died. But right now, none of us can get out. We're all in the same boat. If you bring trouble down on us, I'll shoot you and your brother first!"

Lou Hua, who had remained silent, suddenly grabbed Qian Yu's hand. Every one of Qian Yu's men raised their guns at him, but Lou Hua merely forced his wrist down, pinning the hand on the trigger.

"You! Let go!"

Qian Yu stared at him in alarm and struggled to pull free, only to find that Lou Hua was astonishingly strong.

"Brother!" Lou Shasha called anxiously. Clearly, neither sibling wanted a fight.

Only when he heard his sister did Lou Hua release Qian Yu's hand. He continued to watch him with a calm expression.

Qian Yu shook his aching hand, gritting his teeth as he glared at the two of them. He was about to lash out when he spotted Lin Xian and Kiki in the vehicle.

"And who are those two?"

"Unlucky people who wandered in, same as us," Lou Shasha said.

Qian Yu's expression shifted slightly. His gaze swept over Kiki, then he snorted and led his men away.

"Old Eagle, take a few more people and keep an eye on those two."

Qian Yu gave the order coldly on the way back.

"Boss, Lou Hua may be an Esper, but he isn't bulletproof. We could take him out anytime we wanted," the scar-faced middle-aged man said casually from beside him.

"No need."

Qian Yu's face darkened. "If we try to break through, he'll be useful."

Qian Yu was no fool. An Esper's fighting power far surpassed an ordinary person's. He might not be able to bring Lou Hua under his command, but while they were trapped in the fog, he would gladly have a few more useful Espers to serve as cannon fodder. It would give him a better chance of surviving.

The modified pickup rolled into the square and stopped in a corner. Survivors from the other convoys cast strange looks their way, glancing at Lou Hua and Lou Shasha, but focusing even more on the two unfamiliar faces: Lin Xian and Kiki.

Besides Qian Yu's Black Flood Dragon convoy and the siblings' single vehicle, more than a dozen survivor convoys were trapped here.

Most had fled east from nearby cities. The larger groups had over twenty people, while the smallest had only a few. None were as heavily armed as the Black Flood Dragon convoy; most had only a handful of firearms.

The convoys gathered in separate parts of the square. The women and children mostly stayed in the vehicles, while men stood guard around them.

"There were more people when we arrived the day before yesterday. Yesterday, we all tried to push toward the way out of the city together, but dozens died. We had no choice but to retreat."

Lou Shasha jumped down from the vehicle and tossed Lin Xian two cans of food. Then she said,

"You have an ability, and so does my brother. If we work together, maybe we can try to break out..."

Lin Xian and Kiki looked past Lou Shasha at the man built like a tower behind her. The difference in height and build between the siblings really was something.

Lou Shasha was like a fawn, while her brother Lou Hua was built like a bear.

"Hard to say," Lin Xian said seriously. "We could barely handle that spider today. If there are other monsters, I don't think our chances are good."

There were at least two or three hundred people in the square. Qian Yu's Black Flood Dragon convoy had excellent weapons, and with the other convoys, they had at least seventy or eighty guns. If that much firepower had failed to break through and dozens had died in the attempt, adding just Lin Xian and Kiki hardly made another try sound reassuring.

Kiki opened the pickup's tailgate and sat on it, swinging her legs as she stared at the thick fog overhead. "What the hell is with this fog?"

"Who knows? It hasn't shown any sign of clearing for days," Lou Shasha said despairingly.

"So what do we do now?"

Lou Shasha jerked her chin toward the center of the square, where Qian Yu was discussing something with several convoy leaders.

"I think we can only try to break through again. If we can't get out before Polar Night, we won't have much chance of surviving..."

Time passed. Lin Xian checked his watch: 18:05. Only forty minutes remained before dark.

Then again, he thought, the situation now hardly seemed different from what it would be after nightfall.

"Will those monsters attack on their own after dark?" Lin Xian asked Lou Shasha.

"They will." Lou Shasha nodded. "Too much noise draws those Strange Corpses. It's just that those big ones haven't appeared..."

Just then, the roar of several engines and the crack of gunfire sounded in the distance, shattering the peace of the Survivor Camp. Everyone sprang up at once, and the men readied their weapons.

"What's that sound?!"

"Over there!"

"Watch out!"

"Is it another convoy?"

The crowd buzzed with alarm. Lin Xian and Lou Shasha went on guard as well. "Let's take a look!" Lou Shasha grabbed her grenade launcher and ran toward the noise. Her brother Lou Hua took a rifle from the cab, slung it over his back, and followed her.

Lin Xian and Kiki followed cautiously.

Thick fog churned along the street to the northwest. Zombie howls and bursts of gunfire drew closer. Dozens of people spread out across the square with guns in hand. Some climbed onto vehicles; others took cover behind roadside planters.

Soon, several military jeeps burst out of the fog, crushing Strange Corpses beneath their wheels. The people aboard kept firing at the monsters surging in from the roadside and behind them.

Qian Yu's eyes lit up when he saw the military jeeps. Whoever these newcomers were, they had serious firepower. That gave him one more layer of protection.

"Help them!" he ordered at once.

Gunfire erupted across the square, one burst after another, like a full-scale modern battle.

Under the cover of heavy fire, the military jeeps quickly broke through the Corpse Tide and drove into the square.

As the newcomers fell back behind the defensive line, more gunmen from the convoys joined the fight against the Corpse Tide.

Several gray-white Corpse Hounds controlled by black Strange Bugs came howling out of the horde. They pounced on people who could not dodge in time, knocked them down, and tore into them with gaping jaws.

"Ahhh!"

The victims screamed in agony.

"Hold the line!" someone shouted.

The convoys' defensive line began to shrink step by step. Gunfire thundered, but several Corpse Hounds charged straight through the bullets and into the crowd.

"Kill those beasts first!" Lin Xian decided instantly. If he wanted to survive, he had to fight alongside the other survivors.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Several Wind Guns shot out, blowing the heads off the Zombies. Lou Shasha and Lou Hua joined the fight as well.

Lou Hua did not draw the rifle on his back. Instead, he rushed forward, snapped a roadside guardrail post free with one hand, and hurled it. The metal pipe shrieked through the air, pierced a white Corpse Hound, and sent its body flying more than ten meters!

"Whoa, he's strong!" Kiki exclaimed.

"He's an Esper," Lin Xian said.

"What's his ability? Super strength?"

By then, the people in the military jeeps had gotten out and joined the defense.

Lin Xian had assumed they were soldiers, but they were civilians dressed in assorted clothes. Their leader was a balding man who looked to be in his forties. Every one of them, though, carried a Spark Type 26 Automatic Tactical Rifle—military weapons, unmistakably.

"Kill those dogs first!"

Qian Yu roared as his men fell one after another, firing repeatedly at the charging Corpse Hounds.

"I'm helping too!"

Seeing the Corpse Hounds tear into the crowd, Kiki clenched her teeth in anger. She reached out and, before everyone's eyes, lifted an abandoned bus from the roadside into the air. Then she swung her arm!

Boom!

The tremendous force crushed dozens of Strange Corpses and several Corpse Hounds surging up the street, leaving limbs and mangled flesh scattered across the road. The sight made everyone's blood run cold!

Countless astonished eyes turned toward her. No one had expected this newcomer to be such a powerful Esper.

In a single move, she took more than half the pressure off the defenders and gave them a surge of confidence. The remaining armed survivors quickly re-formed their line.

After another barrage of gunfire, the Corpse Tide that had been surging forward moments ago began to retreat. The gunfire on the street gradually died away.

The sudden battle cost the Black Flood Dragon convoy three people. Across the Survivor Camp, more than ten were dead or wounded, and the whole square bore the grim aftermath of the fight.

When they caught their breath, Lou Shasha stared at Kiki with her mouth open.

"Wow, you're incredible!"

Standing behind Lou Shasha, Lou Hua studied the two newcomers with a different look in his eyes.

Qian Yu and Old Eagle of the Black Flood Dragon convoy also looked at Kiki with mixed expressions. The mood turned strange.

New author here—please keep reading and recommend this story!