mchenry-crisis.org Chapter 302 Wave 2
Chapter 302 Wave 2
However, Lin Fan did not expect this.
The news that Dawu relayed to him came much faster than he had imagined.
The United States, its former capital, is now just a name.
The once-white palace was razed to the ground in the first wave of disaster, half of the dome of the Capitol Building collapsed, and the banks of the Potomac River were covered with gray and white mycelial vegetation, which looked like a shroud for the entire ruined city from a distance.
There is no government, no army, and no order in these ruins.
Now, all that remains are groups of survivors, living like rats huddled in the cracks of the ruins.
Some people gathered together and set up a small settlement around a few relatively intact buildings, using sheet metal and concrete fragments to build a wall, barely maintaining a semblance of civilization.
But many more people choose to become homeless.
Because a fixed place means fixed danger, and in this world, the faster you run, the longer you live.
The "Wanderers" team is just such a group.
It was called a convoy, but it was really just seven dilapidated cars.
Two pickup trucks, a school bus, three civilian SUVs, plus an armored cash transport vehicle that appeared out of nowhere.
The armored truck is the lead vehicle and also the most valuable asset of the entire team.
The convoy consisted of 47 people.
There were eleven elderly people, eight children, fifteen women, and only thirteen able-bodied men. Of them, no more than five were truly capable fighters.
The team leader was named Victor, 52 years old, a retired army sergeant.
He has an old knee injury and can't run too fast, but his mind is clear and his hands are steady.
He had a Colt 1911 with him for thirty years; the barrel was worn smooth, but it still fired exactly where he pointed it.
At this moment, the convoy is traveling northwest along the dilapidated road of Interstate 81.
Victor sat in the passenger seat of the armored truck, clutching a map that had been folded countless times and covered with red crosses and circles.
A cross indicates a place you've been to, and a circle indicates a location where supplies might be found.
The map shows more and more crosses and fewer and fewer circles.
"Victor."
The driver was a young man named Danny, in his early twenties, with a few pimples still sticking out on his face.
"That grove of trees over there... looks a bit different."
Victor looked up.
The roadside is originally lined with typical Virginia broadleaf forests, which should be deep green at this time of year.
But now, the color of those trees is wrong.
The leaves had an indescribable dark purple hue, as if they had been soaked in dye.
Some irregular bumps can be seen on the tree trunk. From a distance, they look like tree burls, but upon closer inspection, those bumps are slightly wriggling.
Victor frowned.
He picked up the walkie-talkie:
"Attention all vehicles, be vigilant, close your windows, and speed through this forest area. Repeat, close your windows and speed through."
Several "Received" messages came through the walkie-talkie.
The sound of a child crying came from inside the school bus, but the adults quickly soothed him.
The convoy sped up, the roar of its engines echoing across the empty highway.
Victor's gaze remained fixed on the trees on either side.
The dark purple canopies swayed gently in the stillness of the wind, as if they were breathing.
"Hurry up," he said to Danny.
Danny stepped on the gas, increasing the speed to eighty.
Then, they heard a sound.
It wasn't the sound of wind, nor the sound of an engine.
It is a low, continuous buzzing sound, like hundreds of bees flapping their wings at the same time, or like the noise of a transformer overload.
The sound came from deep within the woods and grew louder and louder.
Victor gripped the Colt tightly in his hand.
"Victor!"
Just then, the walkie-talkie suddenly blared. It was Garcia, the pickup truck driver bringing up the rear, his voice filled with obvious terror.
"Something's coming out of the woods! Behind us! Behind us!"
Victor turned his head to look in the rearview mirror.
Soon, he saw a group of people rush out of the woods on the right side of the road...
Is that a deer?
He looked at the swarm of creatures that had rushed out first, and could hardly believe his eyes.
After all, this thing was completely different from the deer he remembered.
Although those creatures still retained the general outline of deer.
But its size swelled to three times its original size, with a shoulder height of nearly two meters. Its skin turned into a grayish-black carapace-like texture, as if it were wrapped in a layer of dry tree bark.
The antlers are no longer bony forks, but have become two forward-curving spikes covered with dark red patterns.
Its eyes are pure white. They have no pupils.
Behind those giant deer were some other animals, which he could only vaguely discern from his memory as possibly being raccoons or foxes.
These animals are now completely unrecognizable.
Their bodies were elongated, their limbs became thinner and longer, and they moved faster.
Those mutated animals had mouths split open to their ears, revealing two rows of fine, inward-curving teeth.
There were also birds.
Or rather, it used to be a bird.
Several flying creatures, about the size of vultures, swept past the treetops, their wingspans reaching three meters. Their wings were devoid of feathers, replaced by a translucent, membranous structure, like bat wings, but covered with purple vein-like patterns.
These things seemed to be attracted by the sound, and they all rushed towards the convoy.
high speed.
"Full speed ahead! Don't stop!" Victor yelled into the walkie-talkie.
His decision was swift, but it was too late.
The mutated deer caught up with the last pickup truck at a speed far exceeding that of an ordinary deer.
It lowered its head, its two sharp horns piercing the back of the pickup truck, and then suddenly flipped upwards.
The pickup truck, fully loaded with supplies, was completely overturned.
Garcia and another young man named Frank were thrown from the truck. The pickup truck rolled twice on the highway, crashed into the roadside guardrail, and billowed black smoke.
When Garcia got up, the mutated deer was already standing in front of him.
It lowered its head, its white eyes staring at him.
Without any hesitation, the giant stag thrust forward, its antlers piercing through Garcia's chest.
Garcia's intermittent screams came through the walkie-talkie, then turned into static.
The elderly, women, and children on the school bus were all visibly shaken by the bloody scene, and the children were so frightened that they burst into tears on the spot.
"Don't look!"
A mother hugs her child, pressing the child's face against her chest.
Victor gritted his teeth. He wanted to stop the car, to go back. But he knew what stopping meant.
"Keep going!" His voice sounded like it was being squeezed out of his throat. "Don't stop! Nobody is allowed to stop!"
Danny had the accelerator floored. The armored truck's engine roared to life.
But those mutated creatures are faster than cars.
The second vehicle that was overtaken was a civilian SUV.
Three mutated creatures pounced at the same time, tearing the metal panel on the roof of the car with their claws, as easily as tearing paper.
Then I heard gunshots from the car, followed by screams, and then nothing.
This scene undoubtedly further agitated everyone.
Victor picked up the walkie-talkie, his voice trembling, but his tone was steady:
"Anyone who can shoot, roll down the car windows and shoot at the pursuing target. Shoot for the head, shoot for the eyes. Every second counts."
Upon hearing his words, the firing ports at the rear of the armored truck opened, and the few combat-capable men in the convoy began firing at the pursuing mutated creatures.
However, when the bullets hit the giant mutated deer, they only managed to scatter a few sparks on its gray-black carapace.
"Damn it, that monster's hide is too thick, we can't get through it at all!" A shooter shouted in terror upon seeing this.
"Shoot him in the eye!" Victor roared.
Upon hearing his words, the archers stopped firing randomly and each aimed at the leading giant deer.
Fortunately, the target was large enough that after several rounds of firing, a bullet finally hit Julu's left eye.
The white eyeballs burst open, spurting out gray liquid.
At the same time, the giant deer let out a piercing neigh and staggered, but did not fall.
It shook its head and continued the chase like a drunkard, but it had clearly already distanced itself from the convoy.
However, before the convoy could even rejoice, several flying creatures swooped down from the sky and crashed into the windshield of the school bus.
wow-
In an instant, the glass shattered, and a mutated bird squeezed half its body inside, its membranous wings flapping wildly inside the carriage.
The car was immediately thrown into chaos.
Inside the vehicle was a 180-pound Black woman, who, in a panic, grabbed a fire extinguisher and smashed it on the strange bird's head.
The first blow didn't kill him.
The second time, it was slapped onto the dashboard.
The third time, his head was flattened.
"Close the windows! Block them up with clothes!"
The school bus driver, recovering from his shock, kicked the still-convulsing body aside with his foot, then steadied the steering wheel and continued driving.
The convoy continued to surge forward amidst the chaos.
But soon another SUV's tires were bitten through by the mutated creatures on the ground, causing it to spin off the road and crash into the ditch beside the road.
The car door was deformed from the impact and couldn't be opened; the people inside were banging on the windows and shouting for help.
But no one in the convoy stopped.
It's not that they don't want to.
Rather, it's not possible.
Victor closed his eyes, then opened them again.
"There's a bridge ahead," Danny's voice trembled. "A bridge across the river, about a kilometer away."
"Will they still chase us after we cross the bridge?"
"How would I know?"
"Once we cross the bridge, we'll blow it up," Victor said.
"What should we use to blow it up?"
Victor pulled a military green metal box from under his seat.
Open it up, and inside are three plastic explosive blocks and a detonator.
Danny glanced at him: "You've been carrying this with you the whole time?"
"I told you from the beginning that it would be useful."
After Victor finished speaking, he thought for a moment and then added,
"Slow down as we cross the bridge, then I'll jump off and plant the explosives. You lead the convoy and keep running. I'll detonate it after we've run about 200 meters."
"Then what are you going to do?"
"I run slowly."
Victor bent down to check the detonator. "My knees aren't working. You're in charge now."
Upon hearing this, Danny fell silent. He knew very well what it meant, but he also knew that he had no power to change anything.
"Damn it." After a long pause, he cursed.
But before he could say anything, the shape of a bridge appeared in front of him.
A four-lane concrete bridge spans a river more than fifty meters wide.
The bridge surface has some cracks, but it is still passable.
Soon, the armored truck crossed the bridge, followed by a school bus and the last working pickup truck. The entire convoy consisted of only these three vehicles.
Of the forty-seven people, how many were left? Victor dared not think about it, nor did he want to.
He had simply seen far too much.
He had witnessed far too much death during this period of time.
The armored truck gradually slowed down.
Victor opened the car door without hesitation and hugged the explosives box to his chest.
"Keep driving. Don't look back."
After saying that, he jumped down without waiting for Danny's reply.