Chapter 32 The Worst Nightmare

After moving to the village several times and getting all the necessary items ready, Gao Yuan and his companions were prepared to set out on their long journey.

Indeed, it was a long trek since the straight-line distance was forty kilometers, but the road was far from smooth; it was almost impossible to stick to the path continuously. If they had to detour around every village they encountered, the actual distance they needed to travel was anyone's guess.

Calculated this way, walking there and back would take at least three days.

For those accustomed to traveling by car, plane, or train, the pain felt when resuming travel on foot was particularly intense. This is what is meant by "it's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but difficult to return from luxury to frugality."

"Let's do a final check of our equipment: food, water, tools, weapons, and vehicle."

It was just getting light; although they had prepared everything the day before, according to Xiang Weiguo's habit and rule, all items had to be checked again to ensure nothing was forgotten when it was time to leave.

"Everything's ready."

"Let's set off."

Luo Xingyu was carrying quite a lot of stuff, as this was her first time traveling far, and she was quite excited. At the start, she walked very fast, even hopping and skipping along.

The first stop was the village they had turned into a storage facility, which meant a walk of over two hours to reach it first.

Why climb over hills to get to the village instead of going directly downhill? Because the village had bicycles and tricycles, as well as tractors.

Diligence is certainly a great driving force behind human technological progress.

After a strong electromagnetic pulse, cars were no longer an option; modern cars undoubtedly have computers and various electronic components which were now unusable.

However, those hand-cranked farm tricycles and tractors could still be used.

Gao Yuan and his party had turned the whole village upside down, shamelessly hauling anything useful back home, and of course, that included making use of tricycles and tractors whenever possible.

Gao Yuan had no desire to walk the entire way on foot, so he preferred to detour when encountering a village, breaking the journey into segments, and ensuring they had a means of transportation whenever possible.

Upon arriving at the village, there was a tricycle parked outside someone's house, just lying there.

Conditions in the countryside were now better, and many families owned cars. While it couldn't be said that every household had a tricycle or a tractor, at least half of them did.

The tricycle Gao Yuan and his companions had chosen was the best one they could find. It had a canopy in front and was spacious enough for two people; even three could squeeze in. Although it was an electrically started farm-use tricycle, it also came with a hand crank.

They had the key, which was found inside the house. The electronic ignition switch was certainly broken, so how to start the tricycle was up to Xiang Weiguo's skills.

Xiang Weiguo fiddled around in the driver's cabin for a bit, then handed a hand crank to Gao Yuan, saying, "Crank it up."

Gao Yuan had seen how to use the crank to start the tricycle, but this was his first time actually doing it.

The crank started to turn, faster and faster, until Xiang Weiguo pressed the accelerator repeatedly. Finally, with a roar, black smoke billowed from the exhaust pipe of the tricycle.

Accompanied by the putt-putt sound, Gao Yuan exclaimed with joy, "It worked!"

It was very cold, and Luo Xingyu, who had been keeping herself warm by rubbing her hands and stomping her feet, was just excitedly about to climb aboard the tricycle when Xiang Weiguo poured cold water on the situation.

"Don't get too happy too soon, wait."

No sooner had Xiang Weiguo finished speaking than the tricycle that had just started suddenly stalled.

Gao Yuan was taken aback for a moment, while Luo Xingyu asked incredulously, "What happened?"

Xiang Weiguo looked at Gao Yuan and said, "Your turn to think, what happened?"

Gao Yuan slapped himself on the forehead, his face full of chagrin, "Ah, careless mistake! I forgot diesel can freeze!"

Luo Xingyu asked in surprise, "What do you mean?"

Gao Yuan said helplessly, "This tricycle runs on diesel. When the disaster struck, it was autumn, so they would have added Number 0 diesel. But now it's too cold, the diesel can freeze. To keep it from freezing, we need to use minus 30 diesel, Uncle Xiang, you must have thought of that already, why not say so sooner?"

Xiang Weiguo chuckled, "When you face difficulties, you solve them. This is a minor issue. Think about how to solve it."

Gao Yuan said with a helpless expression, "How to solve it? Surely you're not suggesting we use fire to thaw it."

Xiang Weiguo smiled, "That's exactly right, we'll use fire to thaw it. The machine's fine. Let's get a fire going and thaw out the frozen fuel so we can get going."

Luo Xingyu said with a look of astonishment, "But won't using fire cause it to explode?"

"No problem with diesel vehicles, we've got plenty of experience using fire to thaw them out."

Xiang Weiguo seemed unconcerned. He lay down on the ground himself, and after finding the fuel line, he said, "You guys light the fire, and I'll do the roasting. It'll be fine in a while."

Once the fire was lit, they had to roast it for over half an hour before the farm trike could be started again.

Gao Yuan was a bit worried and said, "Uncle Xiang, won't it freeze again halfway? Unless we switch to lower grade diesel, it's still going to freeze."

Xiang Weiguo laughed and said, "If it freezes, we'll just roast it again. It's about twenty kilometers from here to the next village on the road. By the time it freezes there, we'll probably have to abandon the vehicle anyway. We'll use it when we come back. Let's go."

Luo Xingyu's face had turned red from the cold. She jumped into the vehicle and said, "The south is better, even though they don't have heating. At least their diesel doesn't freeze."

After a long time, Gao Yuan and Luo Xingyu felt the convenience of civilization's inventions once again—well, even if it was just a farm trike, the warmth from the engine still made the cabin cozy after it started.

The trike could move quite fast; what would take two to three hours to walk could be covered in a maximum of twenty minutes by trike.

From time to time, they would see a stranded car on the highway. Luo Xingyu's face changed at the sight of the first stranded car, and when they passed a small bridge, at the end of the bridge on the slope of a mountain, there was a car that seemed to have lost control and crashed into it.

Seeing that car, Luo Xingyu's body suddenly began to shake violently, and she quickly lowered her head.

Gao Yuan certainly noticed Luo Xingyu's abnormal behavior. He asked anxiously, "What's wrong with you? Are you feeling ill? Speak up, what's wrong with you!"

Luo Xingyu slightly raised her head, covering her eyes with her hands. Her voice trembling, she said, "My mom... is there! She's right there! Stop the car, I want to see her, let me see her..."

Gao Yuan and Xiang Weiguo looked at each other, then Xiang Weiguo sighed, stopped the trike, and turned it around on the road, slowing down as he headed back toward the small bridge they had just passed.

When they were four or five hundred meters away from the small bridge, Xiang Weiguo stopped the trike and said in a grave tone, "Take all your belongings. You two stay here. I'll go check it out first. Xiaoyu, there's something in the car... um, nevermind. Open the walkie-talkie, and I'll call you over when it's time."

Luo Xingyu didn't make a sound, but she was already crying her eyes out.

Luo Xingyu wanted to get out of the car, but Gao Yuan forcefully held her back. After Xiang Weiguo got out of the car with a stick, he slowly walked towards the car that had crashed into the mountain.

Needless to say, the car was obviously a luxury vehicle—a large SUV.

Observing from a distance, the doors of the car were all closed, and it was impossible to see the situation inside. This led to a harsh reality that Luo Xingyu's mother might still be inside the car.

And she might be alive, in one way or another, or, she could be dead in a special way.

To put it simply, Luo Xingyu's mother might have turned into a zombie and could still be inside the car. That being the case, the most heartbreaking and unacceptable outcome would be for Luo Xingyu's mother to be alive as a zombie within the vehicle.

So Xiang Weiguo had intended to ask Luo Xingyu how many people were in the car, but in the end, he didn't ask.

Gao Yuan had only asked Luo Xingyu how she came to the villa they had taken refuge in. He never asked about what happened before, nor did Luo Xingyu ever bring it up voluntarily.

It was the same with Gao Yuan, who never wanted to remember how his parents had met their fate, so he never asked Luo Xingyu what she had gone through.

But now, he had no choice but to ask.

"I sort of knew you came through this way. I didn't know it was like this, I'm sorry."

Luo Xingyu was sensible, so she had stopped struggling to get out of the car a long time ago. After hearing Gao Yuan's words, she just shook her head and remained silent.

Gao Yuan asked in a soft voice, "So... how many people were in the car?"

"There were two more, my mom and Uncle Li, the driver," answered Luo Xingyu, finally speaking up. She took a deep breath and continued in a weak voice, "Uncle Li was driving, and my mom was in the passenger seat. She told me to sit in the back because it was safer. She fell asleep, and then... not far from the front, my mom suddenly got up, turned around and bit Uncle Li, without any warning. She seemed mad, Uncle Li crashed the car, he yelled at me to run, just run. I was so scared, I tried to pull my mom off, Uncle Li was holding her back to stop her from biting me, and he was crying, telling me to run..."

As if reliving the most terrible nightmare all over again, Luo Xingyu began to shake violently. Gao Yuan wrapped one arm around her and picked up the walkie-talkie with the other, saying softly, "Stop it, stop it!"

After comforting Luo Xingyu, Gao Yuan spoke into the walkie-talkie, "Uncle Xiang, there are two people inside. Xiaoyu's mom... started to show symptoms first. Be careful. Over."

"Understood. Keep an eye on Xiaoyu. Over."

No more needed to be said, nor could more be said, yet Luo Xingyu continued to tremble and said, "My mom was covered in blood, Uncle Li kept shouting. He told me to get out of the car, and I did. Uncle Li told me to close the door, so I did. Then I felt... I thought... I didn't know, I was outside calling for my mom, I tried to pull the door open, but it was locked. Uncle Li had locked it. I watched my mom bite Uncle Li's bones out, and while she bit, she looked at me..."

"Stop it!"

Gao Yuan gripped Luo Xingyu's shoulders and shook her fiercely, then he raised his voice and said, "Don't say that! It was a dream! A nightmare! Now you're awake! You're alright, the nightmare is over, understand? It's over!"

Luo Xingyu looked at Gao Yuan and then cried out as if her heart was tearing apart, saying, "I can't wake up! I can't wake up!"

Gao Yuan was almost yelling when he said, "You are awake! It was just a dream! It's over, forget it! Just forget it!"

Just then, the walkie-talkie suddenly rang out, and Xiang Weiguo's voice was filled with surprise and uncertainty, "Is it this car? There's no one inside."