Following the plank set up on the scaffolding, a group of people easily made their way onto the elevated highway. Jack noticed that this expressway was actually nearing completion; aside from not yet connecting to the ring road, the first layer of asphalt had already been laid. Standing on the bridge and gazing into the distance, the black highway, surrounded by the Marcus sand, looked like a large belt lost in the desert—straight yet lonely.
Scattered around were numerous fasteners and exposed steel bars, and the scenery was monotonous and desolate. What met the eye were either towering sand piles or collapsed factories, along with a few wandering living corpses. Walking on the highway under the blazing sun was indeed a terrible idea.
Before long, the originally frail young ladies began to sigh, but they could only grit their teeth and lean on each other to move forward. Even though it was already an apocalypse, the girls with sunscreen in their bags still applied it as they walked, fearing that the scorching sun would damage their delicate skin.
Pregnant women were undoubtedly the most susceptible to dehydration and heatstroke among the group. To fulfill his promise, Thomas Xu genuinely cared for Lu Jia. After walking about five or six kilometers, he noticed that a lot of sweat was starting to bead on Lu Jia's forehead. Thomas Xu hurriedly found a small cart used for transporting cement from the roadside. Ignoring Lu Jia's attempts to refuse, he placed his backpack at the bottom, picked Lu Jia up, and set her on the cart, then happily pushed her forward.
"Look over there, it seems like the gathering place set up by the authorities!" Gao Chujing pointed to a refugee camp-like area in the distance from the edge of the highway. A large area was enclosed with simple barbed wire, and many blue tents had been set up inside. However, most of the tents had long been crushed and buried by the Marcus sand, leaving only a few that were still standing at odd angles, faintly visible with the words "Earthquake Relief" painted in white on them.
The official gathering place was now desolate, with hardly any living corpses in sight. Thomas Xu pushed Lu Jia to Jack's side and used the binoculars hanging around his neck to take a look. He stepped on the guardrail and said with some regret, "Setting up the gathering place in such a godforsaken place, I wonder which bastard came up with this idea. The view is terribly narrow, and it seems like there aren't many people here, but once the workers from those factories come out, the living corpses will be enough to scare you to death. Just look at the bloodstains on those tents; they must have been disturbed by the horde!"
"It's an official gathering place, so they probably never expected things to escalate to this point!" Hu Laoda, carrying his gun, walked over and said with a sneer, "I once went to a gathering place like this, which the authorities called a shelter. Even at that time, those damn officials still had the nerve to invite reporters to write articles. It was a gathering place for over ten thousand people, and later, they caused a living corpse virus outbreak right in the center of the gathering place. Luckily, I was lucky enough to survive; otherwise, I would have been killed by them!"
"Brother Lin, I see several machine guns at the entrance, but I wonder if they still work!" Thomas Xu adjusted his binoculars to the maximum magnification and stared intently at the sandbag pile in front of the gathering place.
"Man, don't even think about it. They've been exposed to the wind and sun for over a year. Even if it's American weaponry, it probably won't fire. Besides, even if the guns work, those bullets are likely damp and ineffective!" Gao Chujing patted Thomas Xu on the shoulder, looking quite helpless, and then said, "Let's go. This elevated road leads directly to the Jiang Tunnel. If we're lucky, we might find some useful weapons in the tunnel!"
"Sigh~ I'm really envious. In our gathering place, the only two machine guns we had became legendary artifacts. Truly, when a machine gun appears, who can compete!" Thomas Xu shook his head in disappointment, turned, and tossed his broken binoculars into the small cart where Lu Jia was sitting. He then carefully wrapped Lu Jia's little head with a scarf to protect her from the sun before continuing to push her along the road.
As the crowd slowly walked forward, the midday sun nearly left everyone feeling lethargic. After about forty minutes of walking, despite being on an elevated road that was not yet open to traffic, Jack and the others had already killed no fewer than twenty zombies. Judging by the tattered clothing on the incomplete corpses, these zombies were no longer construction workers; they were actually civilians who had turned into the undead.
Gao Chujiang took Jack's binoculars and looked around. The tall buildings in the vicinity were becoming denser and more prominent. He said heavily, "We can't go any further; if we do, we'll enter the city. Look at how the zombies are increasing below!"
"How far is it to the river tunnel from here?" Jack frowned and looked down from the elevated road. Indeed, the few scattered zombies at the beginning had now turned into a sight everywhere, as if they were slowly stepping into a zombie paradise.
"Do you see that collapsed billboard? The entrance to the river tunnel is right below it!" Gao Chujiang pointed at a very obvious red billboard in the distance and continued, "We can go down from this ramp; if we get to the elevated road on the right, we can reach it. But as you can see, that elevated road is already open to traffic, and there are many zombies up there!"
Jack focused on the area Gao Chujiang pointed to. The elevated road they were on connected to an old elevated road that had been in use for many years, which was packed with various vehicles of all sizes, almost completely blocked. Many of the initial victims had long since turned into zombies, and they could be seen wandering aimlessly on the elevated road from a distance.
Jack thought for a moment and turned to the people behind him, saying, "Bai Ru, give your gun to Thomas Xu. Jiao Jiao, your gun goes to Lao Gao. Cao Mei, you and Michael are responsible for protecting the women here. The rest of the men, follow me!"
"Brother Lin, I... I don't need to go, right?" William Peng, who had a sprained ankle, looked at Jack with a troubled expression while leaning on a crutch. His right foot was now swollen with a large blood blister. If Jack hadn't deliberately slowed down to wait for him, given his timid appearance, he probably would have been ignored even if he fell behind.
"You stay here!" Jack glanced expressionlessly at William Peng, turned around, and threw the gun that Bai Ru handed him to Thomas Xu. Thomas Xu lowered his head to check it, then picked up Lu Jia from the cart and handed her over to Jiang Yan and the others for safekeeping before jogging to follow Jack.
The four men carefully climbed over the obstacles set up on the ramp, bumping down onto the old elevated road. Overall, there weren't too many zombies on this elevated road because it was almost entirely occupied by a large number of cars. The zombies had little room to move, and many cars had caused widespread chain fires after accidents; the zombies either burned to death or crowded and fell off the elevated road.
Jack led the way and jumped onto a severely burned car. With no clear path, they could only step on the wreckage of the cars to move forward. Even though this disaster on the elevated road had passed for more than a year, the air was still filled with a strong burnt smell. Sometimes, stepping down would stick to an unknown substance, which was extremely disgusting.
"Wow! Look, it's Sister Ru!" Thomas Xu excitedly pointed at a nearby office building, where a huge spray-painted advertisement almost covered the entire wall. The ad featured a stunningly beautiful woman with a radiant smile, who was none other than Miss Bai Ru, who almost had her innocence taken by Jack last night!
"How come she looks more mature with makeup? She looks better without it!" Jack stepped forward curiously, staring at the large advertisement featuring Bai Ru, smiling with great satisfaction.
"Of course, Sister Ru is naturally beautiful! Hehe~ I'll get her to sign my back later; it would be a shame not to!" Thomas Xu chuckled, but after he saw the content of the advertisement, he said with confusion, "Supreme Yongsheng Golf Course? It's strange that such a big international star like Sister Ru would endorse a small place like this. I wonder what kind of background the owner has to be able to invite her!"
"Why don't you just ask her yourself later? Come on, let's go; it's so hot on my head I could fry an egg!" Boss Hu impatiently walked over to urge them, stepping on the roofs of abandoned cars and jumping forward with a "crackling" sound.
On the left side of the elevated road, besides a construction site, there was a large building materials wholesale market. Standing on the bridge and looking far into the empty yard, apart from a few scattered trucks, it seemed very quiet. However, if one looked closely at a five-story building among them, the sight of thousands of moving "living corpses" would immediately make one's scalp tingle. At the same time, these many "living corpses" were also sending out a dangerous signal, clearly telling Jack that this place was not just a simple edge of the city!