C112 In the Wilderness They Built a New House Worriedly Looking for the Team(2)
Tang Bing gazed at the distant chaos, his entire body tensing with anxiety.
Yet he fiercely reminded himself that since he had left the team, their fate was no longer his concern. His only priority was to look after himself and survive. What did it matter to him if they lived or died?
But the faces of Zhao Dagang, Qin Mengli, Sun Meng, and the others kept haunting him, their gruesome deaths at the hands of zombies replaying in his mind. Despite his deep resentment for these inept teammates, Tang Bing, in his solitude over the past five days, found himself incessantly reflecting on every moment spent with them before sleep.
His thoughts flickered like scenes from a film until he could no longer deny the truth to himself. Overcome by urgency, he floored the accelerator, barreling toward the scene.
The zombies were overwhelming, with at least sixty or seventy swarming around the bus. The desperate pleas for help from inside grew fainter by the second.
To Tang Bing, the bus seemed like the double-decker used for storing supplies, and the thought that they might have already fallen victim to the undead unleashed an inexplicable surge of power within him, propelling him forward.
"Dagang! Is that you?!"
"Qin Mengli! Talk to me!"
"Sun Meng! Teacher Lin! Liang Hui!"
With a silenced pistol in his left hand and a spiked club in his right, Tang Bing leveraged his speed to launch a frenzied assault on the horde.
His arrival only fueled the zombies' frenzy, as they turned en masse to attack him.
Tang Bing was consumed with concern for his team's safety, battling the zombies with reckless abandon. He paid no mind to the rapidly deteriorating scrap armor, which left him vulnerable to several scratches and bites.
He had resolved to abandon the team, yet faced with their peril, Tang Bing found himself incapable of indifference.
He had convinced himself time and again of the virtue in selfishness, that his sole objective was to stay alive.
But ultimately, it was for their sake that he fought with every ounce of his being.
"Crazy fool!" he berated himself internally, yet he couldn't stop the ferocious combat.
When the final zombie fell, Tang Bing stood drenched in blood—a macabre mix of his own and that of the undead.
He had been afflicted with the zombie toxin for some time, bleeding and draining his strength in the midst of battle. Gasping for breath, Tang Bing swallowed an antibiotic and treated himself with a medical kit and painkillers before shakily making his way to the bus.
"Qin Mengli!" he called out, spotting a figure among the mountain of zombie corpses that seemed all too familiar. But upon turning the body around, he realized his mistake. It was a female survivor who bore a striking resemblance to Qin Mengli in stature and hairstyle, yet she was a completely different person—and she was lifeless.
She wasn't Qin Mengli. A wave of relief washed over Tang Bing, but it was quickly replaced by concern. The bus looked identical to the one he had been searching for. Could Qin Mengli and the others be inside?
Frantic, he boarded the bus and scoured it from top to bottom, but no one he recognized was to be found. Then it hit him—this wasn't the modified bus from his team; he had stripped the seats from the upper level of that one himself!
Tang Bing exhaled deeply, his brief moment of relief giving way to a tight knot of anxiety. He had been away from the group for five days. Without him, what had become of them? Had zombies overrun their hideout? Or had other survivors taken them captive?
The more he dwelled on the possibilities, the more his fear grew. Despite his insistence that they were not his concern, he couldn't shake his worry. The thought of them being dismembered by zombies, like the unfortunate survivor on the bus, or captured and subjected to indignities by other survivors, was too much to bear.
Without further hesitation, he floored the accelerator of the pickup truck and tore through the streets toward the city center. After five days, he couldn't suppress his hardened heart any longer.
Yes, he could be ruthless with any foe, but for some reason, when it came to these seemingly useless teammates, he found it impossible to remain indifferent.
Sprint! Sprint! Sprint! The truck hurtled forward, plowing through hordes of zombies and down street after street, even sending several stumbling undead flying without a second glance.
At last, he arrived back at the city center, at the gates of the factory once more.
After stepping out of the car, he dashed to the gate only to discover it stubbornly locked. The bus inside the factory was still there, yet not a soul was in sight.
"Dagang! Mengli! Sun Meng!" He threw caution to the wind, no longer mindful of attracting zombies, and bellowed into the factory, "Teacher Lin! Liang Hui!"
He called out repeatedly, but silence was the only reply.
Fear gripped him, knowing they would never ignore his cries if they were inside.
Had he returned too late?
The bus loaded with supplies remained untouched, so it was unlikely they'd been taken by other survivors. And with the gate still secured, zombies breaking through was not the case.
Could it be... mutant zombies?
He could conceive of no other explanation.
Had he truly arrived too late? Tang Bing stared into the eerily quiet factory, his mind numbing with shock.
The icy rain lashed his face, chilling his drenched body to the bone, yet it was nothing compared to the icy dread in his heart.
Dead... They were all dead... He turned numbly and trudged toward the pickup truck.
Isn't this what you secretly desired? Why the sorrow? Tang Bing shut his eyes, tormented by the thought.
Wouldn't it be easier if everyone were gone? To live unencumbered, free from the weight of others...
He repeated this mantra internally, yet why did he feel such profound emptiness, such sorrow?
His eyes blurred, unable to distinguish between the rain and his tears.
It was over... From this day forward, he was truly alone.
Time to leave...
He listlessly opened the pickup truck's door, ready to depart like a zombie in flesh.
"Bing?" A familiar voice pierced the distance, rooting him to the spot.
A hallucination? He turned mechanically, looking up to a building a hundred meters away.
From the third-floor balcony, a slim figure clad in scrap metal armor, wielding a mace, emerged.
"Bing!" The figure glanced his way, then let out a sharp cry and vanished from the balcony.
One by one, several figures in scrap metal armor appeared. Each cast a brief look his way before disappearing just as quickly.
Tang Bing rubbed his eyes, trying to discern whether he was seeing a mirage. Yet his keen senses quickly assured him that five survivors were sprinting towards him at breakneck speed.
"Bing!" The smallest and swiftest member of the team darted toward him like a swallow, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist. Tears laced her voice as she cried out, "Why did it take you so long to come back? I was afraid I'd never see you again!"
"Ms. Meng..." Tang Bing was still in a daze, reeling from the belief that his team had perished. The unspeakable sorrow he had felt was now being shattered.
"Bing! You've been gone for five days; you had us worried sick!" Sun Meng clung to Tang Bing as if letting go would mean losing him again. "Please, don't go away again—I'm begging you!"
Tang Bing turned to see Qin Mengli, Zhao Dagang, Lin Leyan, and Liang Hui approaching. He opened his mouth to speak, feeling a mix of relief and joy, yet his words came out icy, "I was just passing through."
"Tang Bing!" Qin Mengli stepped forward, "We all heard you calling out just now!"
"Yes! At first, I thought I was hallucinating, but it really was you!" Sun Meng looked up at him, her eyes brimming with tears, "I nearly jumped off the balcony!"
"Bing, please don't abandon us again! We realize our mistakes," Zhao Dagang implored, joining the group. "Since you've been gone, we've tried to take on the zombies outside, to avoid being a burden to you. Even though we haven't taken down a single one yet, at least we're not hiding indoors anymore!"
