What Just Flew By?

Nearby, Madison was gathering toiletries and razors into plastic bags when he heard the chewing. He quickly poked his head out and called to Gavin.

"You're really enjoying that, buddy. Don't forget about me!"

"Mhm, it's heating up. Have a Coke first and cool off."

Gavin flicked his wrist and tossed over an ice-cold Coke with the cap screwed on. Madison immediately caught it with practiced gentleness.

For football players, throwing and catching things was practically their profession. Even if you threw them a soft pile of shit...

Fine, nobody could catch that, and no normal person would throw something like that.

Anyway, after gulping down the ice-cold Coke, Madison immediately let out a satisfied breath.

"Ah, fuck, this feels so goddamn good!"

"Even if you told me to empty out this whole store, I wouldn't lack the strength right now. What a rush!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Madison hurriedly took another big gulp of Coke.

But while he was chugging away, Gavin suddenly frowned and looked toward the shattered glass.

From over there, he seemed to hear the faint sound of an engine?

Gavin immediately set down his military knife, switched the burger to his left hand, took a vicious bite, then drew his pistol with his right hand and headed for the entrance.

"Madison!"

He gave a warning before pushing open the convenience store door and making his way toward the gas pumps.

Inside, upon hearing his name, Madison silently set down the Coke and plastic bag, then stood at the entrance with the shotgun in hand.

As the two stood on alert, a Ford F-150 suddenly came roaring past toward Dallas at no less than 160 kilometers per hour.

Whoosh!

The engine noise tore past the front of the gas station.

Madison clung to the convenience store door in stunned disbelief and said, "Fuck, what the hell just flew by?"

"Ha, nice joke."

Watching the Ford's retreating rear, Gavin backed up a few steps with his gun in hand and came to Madison's side.

"But now isn't the time for jokes. We need to move fast. I'm worried that car might bring back the zombies that were drawn away from the gas station earlier, or even more zombies."

"Uh..."

Hearing that, Madison narrowed his eyes hesitantly and asked Gavin tentatively, "That car was way too fast. It's much faster than we are. Even if the zombies heard it, they couldn't catch up, right?"

"Yeah, they can't catch it. But have you tested how long zombies will chase a sound after they notice it?"

As he replied, Gavin holstered his pistol and took another hard bite of his burger.

Convenience store burgers weren't exactly delicious. The buns were much thicker than those from KFC and the other fast-food giants, while the cheese and beef patties were smaller.

But Gavin still ate with relish.

It wasn't because he was hungry. It was because alcohol was tormenting his stomach.

Feeling the burger settle in his stomach, Gavin continued speaking to Madison.

"At the estate, whenever a sound attracted zombies, they would quickly gather at its source."

"Because those sound sources were fixed in place."

"But if you replaced a fixed sound source with a moving one, and it moved too fast for the zombies to catch up..."

"Would zombies that could never reach the source eventually stop because they'd lost the sound, or would they keep moving in the direction where the sound disappeared?"

At that, Gavin patted Madison on the shoulder.

"Before we see something with our own eyes, we shouldn't base our actions on guesses and luck. This is survival, not a Mark Twain wish-fulfillment novel. I don't like taking ris—"

"You don't like taking risks. I know, I get what you mean."

Madison cut him off and nodded heavily.

Gavin smiled in relief, then returned to the store and poured himself a Coke as well.

He wasn't worried about Madison's brains. After all, football was one of the most tactical sports in the world.

Any big guy who had made a name for himself in football, even without a genius-level mind, could at least memorize and understand tens of thousands of different plays and make split-second decisions amid the ever-changing flow of a game.

As long as Madison didn't get overly nervous, he rarely made mistakes, just like when he played.

After swallowing the last bite of his burger whole, Gavin took a large gulp of ice-cold Coke, then gathered all the raw patties and buns in the store, including the lettuce, into three large bags.

At the same time, the microwave gave a ding.

When Gavin took out the burger, Madison was loading four bulging bags into the truck bed.

When Madison came back into the store, he found Gavin waiting for him with a burger in hand.

"Woohoo, I'm honored. The team captain is actually handing me a burger. Next time I twirl a towel by the water cooler, it'll have a lot more force behind it~"

Madison teased as he took the burger and bit down hard.

After wolfing down more than half the burger in one bite, Madison glanced behind Gavin and said with a bitter smile, "Just one?"

"Eat enough to take the edge off. Or do you want to stuff yourself full, then have it all mixed with ice-cold Coke while we're on the road, forcing us to pull over into the roadside grass so you can shit your guts out with zombies risking a bite out of your ass?"

Gavin clicked his tongue and continued ransacking the convenience store.

Madison neither agreed nor disagreed, merely flicking his tongue before swallowing the whole burger in his second bite.

After finishing the burger, he took his empty Coke cup to the soda machine and filled another huge cup to the brim.

He lifted the cup and chugged away. After a good long rehydration session, Madison let out a fizzy belch and said contentedly to Gavin, who was packing cigarettes.

"This is the most Coke I've had in a day since college."

"I love football because it's given me so much, but I also hate football because it took all my happiness away. Shit!"

After saying that, Madison slung the shotgun over his back and headed to the storage room at the very back of the convenience store.

Looking at the closed door in front of him, he knocked on it heavily and made sure there was no sound of zombies stirring behind it.

Then he opened the storage room and swept his gaze over it, his eyes settling on the neatly stacked empty fuel cans against the wall.

These spare fuel cans were very common in America. They appeared in plenty of games too—the kind with square bodies and a hose extending from the opening.

Madison reached out with his huge hand, grabbed four fuel cans at once, and carried them to the pumps, determined to drain them dry.

The two searched in an orderly fashion. Gavin wasn't lazy, and Madison wasn't slacking off either.

Before long, the bed of the Tyrannosaurus pickup was packed full of supplies.

As Madison carried four cans of diesel to the truck bed, he looked at everything inside and said miserably, "Shit, so many cans. Tomatoes, corn, beans, fruit, canned meat, canned soup, canned fish, canned shrimp..."

"Do I have to spend the rest of my goddamn life living with these cans?"

"And more than a dozen cans of oatmeal that look like shit?"

After saying that, Madison didn't expect Gavin to answer his complaint. He set down the fuel cans and was about to go back for more.

But just as he started toward the convenience store, the sound of a car in the distance made him stop abruptly.

"Gavin, there's a car coming from the Dallas direction!"

He hurriedly called out to Gavin while taking the shotgun off his back and holding it in his arms.

Inside the convenience store, Gavin heard Madison's warning, set down the plastic bag full of work gloves, socks, and underwear, drew his gun, and walked outside.

After exchanging a glance with Madison, Gavin listened for a moment, then said to him with an odd expression, "Old Mac, doesn't that sound a little familiar?"

"Familiar?"

Madison listened for a moment, then widened his eyes in surprise.

"It's that Ford from earlier!"

As Madison reached that conclusion, the Ford that had previously been traveling at least 160 kilometers per hour came roaring back from the direction of Dallas.

Once the vehicle drew closer, Gavin couldn't help rolling his eyes.

It had gotten even faster. It was now going at least 180 kilometers per hour!

As the truck sped toward the gas station, a hoarse roar drifted from inside, growing louder and closer.

"Shut your stinking mouth, William! I don't need you reminding me!"

"I just fucking ran over an entire film crew's cast! Do you think I dare kill one more of you? At the very least, I'll chop off your broken foot and stuff it into your mouth!"

Whoosh!

The Ford sped past the gas station, leaving only its echoes circling beneath the dim night sky, lingering for a long while.

Listening to the rapidly fading engine, Gavin swallowed and exchanged a speechless look with Madison.

Under Gavin's gaze, Madison swallowed too and said quietly, "I bet when he was driving toward Dallas earlier, he still didn't know the zombies had come."

"I bet you're right..."

Screech!!!

Before Gavin could finish replying, a piercing sound of brakes suddenly rang out in the distance.

That car had slammed to an emergency stop!