Time Was Running Out, I'll Drive

Fifteen minutes later, a row of furtive figures slipped out of the school's back gate. Russell turned on the school bus lights and gestured for them to get on the bus quickly.

Jill, Alice, and LJ are all acquaintances. The little girl you haven't seen before must be Angela. She's incredibly lucky to be alone in a school full of zombies and not get bitten.

The most likely reason is that Angela was injected with too much T-Virus, and the zombies mistook her for one of their own, thus ignoring her existence.

Otherwise, there's no way to explain how a young daughter with no guns and no fighting ability could survive until now.

Besides these people, there were two unfamiliar faces, dressed in black special tactical uniforms, and judging from the insignia, they were soldiers from the Umbrella Corporation.

Carlos and Nikolai are mercenaries for the Umbrella Corporation. They were ordered to join the main force to clear out zombies in Raccoon City. All their teammates were killed, and the two have now been abandoned by the Umbrella Corporation and left to fend for themselves.

As long as the fangs are still there, the wild dog still has value!

Dr. Ashford contacted the two, promising to help them leave Raccoon City if they found their daughter Angela. That's why the two met Jill at school and Alice rushed over.

Logically, with Alice, the enhanced individual, Dr. Ashford had no reason to seek other assistance. However, having witnessed the incompetence of Alice's allies, he dared not gamble with his daughter's life and thus sought out another group to mitigate the risk.

It's fair to say that everyone on the bus was in the same boat, fighting for their lives, and no one could stand aside.

With this passive relationship, it was easy for them to trust each other, and at least before leaving Raccoon City, they were close comrades.

Carlos asked, "Gentlemen, whose idea was to broadcast messages from the police cars at the school gate?"

"What's wrong?"

"Well done. The zombies were drawn away by the sound, and we easily brought Angela out."

As they were talking, Carlos's phone rang. He took a deep breath and pressed the speakerphone button. On the other end was Dr. Ashford.

"Mercenary, let me speak to my daughter."

"That won't do. You have to tell me first how to leave Raccoon City!"

Ashford didn't insist and decided to keep the group calm for now. "There's a helicopter on standby, it'll take off in an hour, it's the last transport plane to leave Raccoon City before the nuclear bomb is detonated."

Alice frowned and interjected, "The plane you prepared?"

"No, it has another mission. If you want to get it, you'll have to take it from us."

"Place?"

"Let me speak to my daughter first..."

"..."

After finishing his call with his daughter Angela, Ashford smiled and told everyone that the helicopter was parked at the city hall and that they should hurry over as there wasn't much time left.

Jill walked to the driver's seat and beckoned to Russell, who leaned closer and asked, "Captain, what are your orders?"

"Time is running out, I'll drive!"

Russell shook his head decisively and said seriously, "That's right, time is running out, so the steering wheel must be in my hands."

"Ha?"

"You give directions, I'll drive..."

Russell, looking confident, turned to the group of people in the car and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the car will be going very fast. There are no seat belts, so I advise you to hold on tight to the handrails so you don't fall."

"Hehe..."

"How fast can it be? I've flown planes before!"

"What a coincidence, I've driven one too."

"Hahaha----"

"I'll take the risk if I touch the handle!"

Hearing the commotion inside the carriage, Russell raised an eyebrow, put his hands on the steering wheel, and said to Jill beside him, "Captain, what about you? Want to sit on my lap?"

The instant Russell gripped the steering wheel, Jill felt a chill run down her spine, sensing a powerful and unsettling aura emanating from him. For a moment, her vision blurred, as if she were seeing an insurmountable, towering mountain. She swallowed hard, her survival instincts kicking in, and gripped the crossbar beside the driver's seat tightly.

"Russell, you don't even know the location, so... I'll drive!"

Sitting on someone's lap is definitely out of the question. Jill may dress extravagantly, but she's quite discreet about her private life... At least a candlelight dinner is necessary, otherwise she won't consider sitting on someone's lap.

Russell gave him a meaningful look. "Don't worry, I'm not just fast when I drive, I'm also... steady!"

As they were talking, Russell shifted into first gear and started moving. The car moved smoothly and seemed to be running without any problems. Just as Jill breathed a sigh of relief, the school bus sped off.

At 40 km/h, Russell shifted into fifth gear. Since it wasn't his car, he didn't care at all.

As the train accelerated, Jill's face turned pale. Then, the other passengers in the carriage also became uneasy, gripping the handrails tightly, because it was going faster and faster...

At the intersection ahead, the end was blocked by a congested, burning car. The school bus continued its unrestrained and frantic acceleration, and everyone who could see the road conditions through the windshield turned pale.

"Sigh, we're going to crash!"

"Quick, step on the brakes!"

"Please, please move your leg!"

Russell nodded, shifted his leg, and floored the accelerator. As they approached the intersection, he swerved sharply, sending a plume of acrid smoke billowing from the rain-soaked ground. Accompanied by heart-wrenching screams, the school bus drifted sideways, veered sharply to the left in the center of the intersection.

Jill managed to suppress a scream, but the centrifugal force pulled her onto Russell's lap. Then she was horrified to discover that Russell was only holding the steering wheel with one hand, while the other hand was spread out on a city map, his eyes never leaving the map.

This guy wasn't even looking at the road while driving!

Finally, Jill couldn't hold back any longer and joined the screaming crowd, screaming along with them.

"Ah..."

Under the cover of night, a yellow school bus with its headlights off sped recklessly through the streets and alleys, creating a whirlwind as it maintained an extremely high speed.

Russell glanced at the map and tossed it aside. He gripped the steering wheel with both hands, smiled slightly at Jill in his arms, and then shouted at the top of his lungs, "Attention everyone, I'm about to accelerate!"

"Shit!"

"Damn it, this is already the fastest speed you can go! How much faster do you want to go?!"

"￥convex%...#`Д&*.~"

"Open the door! Please, I miss my mom, I don't want to go to the city hall, I want to get off..."

Admittedly, the speedometer needle had reached its limit, but in Russell's eyes, the school bus had not yet reached its limit; the restless roar of the engine indicated that it had its stubbornness and pride.

Ahead lay another stretch of road blocked by abandoned vehicles. Russell swerved the steering wheel and, amidst the terrified screams of the crowd, sped into a narrow alley.

The school bus's side mirrors were broken by the wall, and the bus knocked over trash cans one after another. The distance between the left and right sides and the concrete wall was less than a hand's width.

The alleyway was suddenly illuminated by a bright light. The people who had narrowly escaped death were all crying out in grief, thankful that they hadn't just run headfirst to their deaths.

The next second, the school bus sped out of the alley and shot into the air like an arrow, the road below disappearing and replaced by a not-so-wide river.

It's over!

Between life and death, the crowd was eerily quiet. The city hall was not far away, yet they had boarded a fast train straight to hell. A series of images flashed before their eyes, each person wearing a smile, as if they had seen through everything.

No one noticed that several streams of water were surging beneath the bus, supporting its underside and propelling the school bus sideways across the river before it landed with a thud on the opposite side of the road.

Sizzle!

Russell stopped the school bus, took a cigarette from Jill's tube top, lit it, took a light puff, flicked off the ash, and said, "We've arrived!"