Zhang Xin, Zi Jiang, and Chu Yi found several cardboard boxes inside the building and gathered the scattered food, water, and drinks from the floor.
They packed the lightweight food into plastic bags, while the remaining food and the water and drinks that were too heavy to carry were placed directly into the boxes, which they would later load into the car’s trunk.
Zhang Yu took Zheng Ying to refuel. Zheng Ying opened the car’s fuel cap, and Zhang Yu found an employee card on a corpse and tried to operate the fuel pump.
Tang Siqing went into the Cashier’s Room briefly but came out quickly, saying that the shelves inside were a mess. She suggested that Zhang Yu and Zheng Ying both go inside to help organize the supplies, select what to put into their backpacks, and sort out what should go into the trunk.
Zheng Ying’s White Compact Car was a hatchback with a very small trunk.
Since the back seats had to be occupied, the trunk couldn’t fold down, severely limiting both internal and external width. Only by going over there herself could she figure out how large the cardboard boxes needed to be to pack everything.
Tang Siqing saw Zhang Yu still fiddling with the fuel pump’s screen and said, “Let me handle this; I know how to refuel.” With that, she naturally took over, skillfully tapping the screen, selecting the fueling method, fixing the amount of fuel, and starting the refuel process.
The car and the Cashier’s Room were on opposite sides of the pump, so once they moved around the pump, neither could see what was happening on the other side. Tang Siqing had entered the room earlier looking for the computer and monitors. To be safe, she had directly cut the connection cables of the surveillance monitors.
At that moment, she stood between the pump and the car, in a blind spot out of the cameras’ sight. Without hesitation, she took out a 50L portable fuel tank from space.
Each fuel pump had four nozzles, two of which were on the same side as her blind spot. She quickly completed the screen operation, and the second nozzle—positioned at the portable tank’s fuel inlet—began automatically filling the tank.
The generator didn’t care about the specific gasoline model, as long as it was above 90 octane. Filling the 50L portable tank took about three minutes. She took two steps back; from this angle, she could keep watch on the gas station’s surroundings while also observing the Cashier’s Room.
Though a bit nervous, Tang Siqing wasn’t afraid of being discovered. She had her excuse ready: she had found a portable fuel tank nearby and wanted to fill an extra tank for the car.
Before she went inside, she had seen the chaotic state of the shelves—food, drinks, and water scattered everywhere, with the floor covered in debris. The most filling items like various cookies and instant noodles were abundant. Their small car definitely couldn’t carry everything, so they had to make rational choices.
For example, deciding how much water and food to take, which types of food to grab, which to put in backpacks, which to load into the trunk, and which could be unpacked from large outer packaging and compressed to save space…
They also needed to rearrange toppled shelves. Even if they moved quickly, Tang Siqing estimated it would take around 20 minutes.
In 20 minutes, if lucky, she could fill six 50L portable fuel tanks.
But in fact, the situation was even better than she expected.
Three minutes later, she swapped out the empty portable tank for a full one. Since the car’s fuel tank was also full, she took out another portable tank and filled two simultaneously.
Fifteen minutes passed, and she packed away the eighth and ninth filled tanks, took out the last empty 50L portable tank, and a 30L portable tank.
The 30L tank filled quickly, and the tenth full 50L portable tank was also stowed away.
While halfway filling the third 30L tank, footsteps came from the building. Tang Siqing reacted quickly, unlocking the nozzle from the fuel pump and storing the tank in space.
The fuel nozzle lying on the ground leaked a tiny bit of gasoline, but she calmly picked it up, returned it to the pump, removed the fuel card, and turned to open the car’s trunk.
Zheng Ying and the others had packed four boxes of supplies, stacked two by two, perfectly filling the trunk.
Two of the boxes were heavy, filled entirely with water and drinks. Although the Beauty Salon also had supplies, at the time they had to descend using Safety Ropes and dodge monsters, making it impossible to carry those.
The other two boxes contained food that had been unpacked from outer packaging and consolidated. Their backpacks were also stuffed with plenty of food.
Zhang Xin, walking at the rear, carried a bulging plastic bag and handed it directly to Tang Siqing, saying it contained small packets of food unpacked from larger packages and asking her to put it in her backpack for convenience.
“No need. I took a little when I went inside.” She really had taken just a little—two packs of cookies and a cup of instant noodles. Not taking more might raise suspicion.
But Zhang Xin insisted, saying everyone had packed quite a bit in their backpacks, and since they were all escaping together, it should be fair.
Chu Yi glanced at Zhang Xin, pursing his lips and looking somewhat displeased.
Tang Siqing noticed this but wasn’t sure if it was because Zhang Xin was giving her more food than others or because she hadn’t helped organize the supplies earlier. Since he didn’t say anything, she chose to ignore it.
After all, they were just fellow survivors traveling together and couldn’t expect too much reliability from each other. No matter what, she would stay alert—just like earlier in the parking lot when she noticed something was wrong and went back to close the door.
The sky darkened as they hurried back to the city, looking for a sturdy building to spend the night.
Though the gas station was deserted, it was still relatively close to Shopping City. The Cashier’s Room door wasn’t very strong, and there were no windows at the back.
They were afraid to stay here overnight; if the monsters from Shopping City wandered over again, they could easily trap them inside.
Zhang Yu took over driving. He was more familiar with the city roads, quickly getting the hang of Zheng Ying’s car.
As they drove deeper into the city, abandoned vehicles gradually appeared on the roads, similar to the situation near the overpass. These were likely cars involved in accidents caused by monsters suddenly appearing in the Gray Fog.
Cars were parked haphazardly, many with shattered windows. Once the monsters appeared, broken glass no longer protected the occupants, leaving bodies inside. Even through the car windows, they could smell the stench of blood in the air.
Zhang Yu carefully maneuvered between cars, occasionally startled as a wandering monster lunged out from the roadside. The red tongues struck the car bodies, making their hearts race.
The intact car windows held up a bit longer, and the White Compact Car’s small size was a major advantage now. After driving some distance, they slipped into the slow lane, bypassing the most congested sections.
Approaching the city center, Zheng Ying suddenly spoke from the passenger seat, “Don’t you guys think there are fewer eerie building fragments and black substances here compared to the suburbs…?”
Tang Siqing had been watching the outside as well. The city’s corruption was indeed less severe than in the suburbs. She recalled the Gray Fog like a barrier on the opposite side of Dead Water Lake. Could the city’s distance from there be why the corruption was milder?
They quickly noticed that in the city center, not only was the urban corruption less intense, but the Red Tongue Monsters were also less frequent than near the suburbs.
Occasionally, they saw other cars on the road. Shops along the street were either tightly shut with doors and shutters closed or left wide open with broken glass and scattered goods. The streets sometimes showed dried blood and fallen bodies…
At a street corner, they saw the first person since entering the city—a man rushing out from a shop carrying several bags of supplies. He tossed the supplies into a car parked by the road, cautiously looked around, then quickly got in and drove off.
Several others ran out of a small supermarket with supplies and dashed into a nearby residential building.
From time to time, a monster suddenly sprang out from a shadow or among the haphazard cars. People screamed and fled, while some drew kitchen knives to fight. The monsters’ red tongues were extremely agile, sliding off blades even when struck. Some used these moments to escape; others tried to keep fighting but were quickly pierced by the tongue, falling instantly.
Turning a corner, someone suddenly leapt toward the window, banging on the glass, asking if they were leaving the city and if they could be taken along. Seeing the car packed with people, they knocked a few times and, receiving no response, quickly gave up and ran toward a car stopped nearby.
That car had crashed into a roadside flower bed, its front crumpled heavily. The door was half open; it was unclear if it was still drivable.
Besides cars, the city streets were cluttered with electric scooters blocking the road. The rough road conditions kept Zhang Yu tense, cautiously weaving through.
After driving for about ten minutes, their car was forced to stop at an intersection. It was a two-lane road without barriers separating the fast and slow lanes, and the road was narrow. Many monsters lay dead neatly piled along the roadside, clearly arranged by people.
Several metal barricades were placed on the road ahead, blocking the entire stretch both forward and backward.
The barricades were stacked in two layers, tied together to reach nearly three meters high, making passage impossible for cars or people.
On the other side of the barricade, a small fire truck was parked. Several people wearing Explosion-Proof Suits and helmets jumped down, holding various weapons—rifles, silenced submachine guns, unlit homemade Molotov cocktails, fire axes, explosion-proof forks…
Two others on the fire truck carried a Water Gun, with a long hose attached, seemingly ready to unleash a high-pressure water spray for crowd control.
Everyone inside the White Compact Car stared at the scene in shock. Were they… saved?
***
Tang Siqing never imagined she would spend the night in a Safety Zone hotel patrolled by the Self-Defense Force.
The entire Safety Zone wasn’t large, covering about half of the Ancient City District. The roads here were much narrower than other areas, making it easier to set up roadblocks to keep monsters out. After clearing the monsters in this area, the safe zone was quickly established.
Western City was small, with a permanent population of about three hundred thousand. There weren’t many police stations or Fire Stations, and the Ancient City District had even fewer. Many police and firefighters had died on the first night the Gray Fog appeared.
After the fog cleared, police and firefighters quickly learned the monster’s nature and immediately began clearing and rescue operations.
The Safety Zone had only just been established that afternoon. All communication signals were down. They couldn’t request outside help or contact colleagues in other areas, so conditions in the suburbs were even more uncertain.
In the past two days, some residents had dared to leave their homes and flee—these were mostly people with private cars that were still intact and drivable. But most were heading outward from the city; very few cars were traveling from the suburbs toward the city center.
They had no way to notify others to seek refuge here. With limited personnel and weaponry, their priority was to hold their area, then find ways to expand the Safety Zone outward and recruit more police and firefighters, gradually growing the Self-Defense Team.
Inside the Safety Zone, Tang Siqing checked the windows in a standard third-floor hotel room along the street, ensuring they were locked before closing the curtains and turning back inside.
This was a small, unstarred hotel that wasn’t currently operating. Aside from those who had sheltered there when the disaster struck, the Self-Defense Force had arranged for stranded people like them—whose residences were outside this area—to stay here.
Most others only emerged after the Self-Defense Team cleared the Red Tongue Monsters from the streets, so they were even less informed about the Gray Fog, monsters, and the outside situation than Tang Siqing’s group.
After Zhang Yu and Zhang Xin settled in, more people arrived. They wanted to ask about the situation but found everyone equally clueless, and soon the newcomers bombarded them with questions instead.
Zheng Ying was luckier. The dormitory for the Beauty Salon where she worked was inside this temporary safe area. Though she had already rented her own place, Zi Jiang and Chu Yi still lived there. The two pleaded with her, and in the end, Zheng Ying gave up on staying at the hotel and decided to drive back to the dormitory with them.
She had lived in the dormitory before; it was in the same residential complex, same building, just different units. The conditions were decent, and there were vacant beds.
Before leaving, Zheng Ying asked Zhang Yu and the others to divide some of the supplies. Chu Yi, who had long felt uneasy about the supplies, finally spoke up.
He pointed out that over the past few days, Zhang Yu, Zhang Xin, and Tang Siqing had been consuming the Beauty Salon’s food. Now, with their backpacks full and Zheng Ying’s car bringing them back to the Safety Zone, technically it was the three of them who owed him and Zi Jiang. They shouldn’t expect to get a share of the supplies in the trunk.
Tang Siqing didn’t care and ignored him, turning to enter the hotel.
How the others discussed the matter afterward was unclear. About half an hour later, Zhang Yu and Zhang Xin knocked on Tang Siqing’s door and placed a cardboard box in front of her. They said Zheng Ying had given them a box of food and a box of water and drinks. This was one-third of the food and one-third of the water—her share.
Zhang Xin had distributed the supplies evenly. Tang Siqing initially wanted to refuse but the others had anticipated this and said they lived on the same floor. Given the circumstances—who knew what tomorrow would bring—if anything happened later, they hoped to look out for each other.
Compared to Chu Yi, the brother and sister were indeed more reliable. Being locals, they knew the roads better. If they had to flee again, at least with them around, they wouldn’t worry about getting lost.
So Tang Siqing accepted the supplies and nodded.
This small hotel was similar to Shopping City—water and electricity were available, but that was all. City order had long since collapsed.
After the air raid siren sounded, aside from those lucky enough to be home or who managed to rush into nearby shops or public places to lock themselves in, most people had died within the first few hours of the Gray Fog’s arrival.
Red Tongue Monsters weren’t contagious like zombies, making them somewhat easier to control. But this was only discovered a day or two after the disaster.
Many people had died before figuring this out.
Though the Red Tongue Monsters didn’t spread infection after attacking humans, they wouldn’t stop devouring flesh either.
Like wild beasts, they would continue to chase living prey, binding, stabbing, drilling into bones, and tearing flesh apart. Once fresh flesh became lifeless, the monsters immediately locked onto the next target.
Tang Siqing’s group didn’t hide anything. They handed over the “Red Tongue Monster Experiment” report to the Self-Defense Force and explained the changes in Western Suburb and the situation at Dead Water Lake.