"Holy crap!"
Ironhide's vision blurred. He instinctively hit the brakes, and in the next moment, something pitch-black slammed into the windshield with a bang, exploding into a mass of flesh and blood.
Fortunately, the armored vehicle's windshield was made of four layers of specially reinforced glass. It was designed to stop more than just bullets—it could even withstand missiles.
It seemed to have been a crow, but even after being torn apart, the blackened mass of flesh didn't fall away. Instead, it writhed with vitality, and one could even see individual blood-sucking organs opening and closing within the irradiated flesh.
Ironhide hurriedly turned on the windshield wipers and brushed the thing away.
"Things aren't very peaceful around your home, Fatty."
Fatty Xiang rarely wore anything but a foolish grin, but now he pressed his broad face against the glass. On the asphalt road, cracked inch by inch, corpses appeared from time to time. Most had been gnawed full of holes, and some were visibly rotten. At a glance, they had been dead for many days.
Although the scavenger settlement was outside the oasis, it wasn't far away. If things were already this chaotic here, other places were bound to be even worse.
Ironhide's expression turned solemn as well. More than once, he had seen dark gun barrels and hostile eyes behind nearby cover whenever the armored vehicle passed. It was only the vehicle's heavy protection that had made them abandon their plans to rob it for free.
At last, they reached the settlement entrance without incident. Things were relatively better here; at least there were no corpses on the ground.
Ironhide drove the vehicle a little farther away and stopped. Fatty Xiang was eager to leave.
"Wait. Put your 'clothes' on properly. The boss gave us strict orders. Once we