Stuffed Cab

City S

In the basement, the thin body of a boy could be seen fallen on the ground. His body was shivering as he mumbled some incoherent words with his eyes closed.

A thin trail of blood escaped from the corner of his lips onto the ground.

It had been 2 days since Li Jin was unconscious in the cold basement of his new house. The temperature of this night was colder than ever; in his dream he wondered if he had fallen on a block of ice. The pain in his body was numbed by the cold but it was still uncomfortable.

Soon, the eyelashes of the unconscious guy stirred and he opened his eyes in confusion. Looking around the strange area, his heartbeat increased for a minute before he realized that he was in the basement of his new house.

Taking in deep breaths, he struggled to get up from the ground. His veins were horribly aching as if they were short in length for him to stretch himself.

Bearing through the pain, Li Jin successfully got up from the ground. He casually wiped the tears that again escaped from his eyes without his permission.

"I was too greedy."

Li Jin choked as he broke down into sobs after saying these words.

One of his energy veins had burst as a result of excessive pressure, it was even a surprise that he could survive. But what was the benefit of him surviving? To get eaten by zombies?

He did not know how he would survive this apocalypse in this condition and protect himself from that organization now.

'Apocalypse…' Suddenly, Li Jin's eyes widened as he thought of something.

With shivering hands and wobbly legs, he searched around the place for something like a madman. Soon, in one carry bag kept on the corner, he found his phone.

XX/XX/XXXX, Sunday, 10:30PM.

Oh no! He was unconscious all the time!

Tomorrow was the trip!

He needed to reach the designated place by early morning.

Trying to get his balance, he stumbled towards boxes kept on the corner of the basement.

He opened one packaging of food and sealed water and had some food. God knows how he would have climbed out of the basement in this state; maybe he would have been killed by the traps he himself set. What an irony.

With a weak laugh, Li Jin ate some of the food and laid down to gain some energy.

Now rather than being the ace card, he was instead a liability for the group of seniors. And he had no choice but to depend on them to survive in this state.

Anyway, what had happened had now happened, and now he would only harm his mental-health if he overthinks.

Tomorrow, the world will change, and he will once again go back to that life of endless struggle and fights; he did not know how he should react. Better to just go on with the flow.

Getting out of the basement, Li Jin packed his bag and booked a cab to City M. He once again checked the locks and windows, made sure the basement was well hidden, and left.

On his way to City M, he stopped the car and bought two high quality portable radios and put them at the bottom of his luggage. They would be helpful to know about the situation when the government restored the satellite connection.

With the remaining money, he bought some winter coats, phones, food supplies, water bottles for a month, many packets of candies, and some new blankets. At the end, the cab was almost fully packed with different luggage he bought.

He already had some wildlife survival kits, but he still went to buy long and sharp knives which could be handy in different situations, and could be used by the seniors for weapons.

He was doubtful if they would even bring a simple knife to protect themselves from danger.

At last he bought 20-30 pen drives full of entertainment books, movies, songs, that could be useful in the future, a gift by him for the young boys who would be traveling with him.

Many shops were open 24x7 so he did not have any problem finding the things he needed. Although, they seemed to have less stocks than expected and the prices were a rip-off.

Oh! He almost forgot gas masks. It would be a whole struggle for him to get used to the rotting stench of corpses once again, not to mention his companions who never saw the apocalypse.

Once again he stopped the cab and went to buy five to six high quality gas masks.

After he paid the cab driver three times the ride cost, he no longer looked at him in the judging way as he did earlier, and co-operated easily.

When Li Jin reached Fang Bai's parking lot, the assigned place to meet up, it was already 4AM, the decided time. They had all planned to start the journey in the morning as the traffic would be less, so they could reach the border of the city without any traffic.

*

"Ge-ge, I got Li Jin's message. He has reached the basement." Fang Bai checked the message on his phone and spoke to Junjie who was packing lunch boxes for them."

"Oh, he's so punctual! Xiao- Bai, go and put Li Jin's luggage in your car and bring him up. All of you will have breakfast before leaving." Fang Junjie spoke from the kitchen. "Ah-Wei! Rong-Rong! Have you asked Qing-Qing where she has reached?"

Duan Wei sprayed his favorite cologne on himself and packed it into his bag. "Yeah, she just told me she is also reaching."

"Okay. Xiao-Bai, bring Qing-Qing for breakfast too. I'm sure she has eaten nothing."

"Okay ge-ge." Fang Bai went to pick up the keys of the cars.

Tang Rong got out of his room with his laptop equipment and put it in a carry bag and said, "Xiao-Bai, take the keys of another rover with you. We might need more cars in case there is more luggage." He was barely holding in his laugh.

Fang Bai raised his eyebrows and did as Tang Rong said.

'Rong Rong must have checked the surveillance.'

He was a bit curious as he left home.