Chapter 269 - 147: Gas Station

Chapter 269: Chapter 147: Gas Station

After taking a detour, Xu Mo drove back to the gas station on the east side of Mori Town. He peered through the filth-caked windshield and couldn’t help but frown.

Compared to when he left, the zombies here hadn’t completely dispersed.

There were still over a dozen ordinary zombies wandering aimlessly around the open area of the gas station, like lost souls without a purpose.

Some pawed blankly at the air, while others stood motionless, their tattered clothes stirring only when a gust of wind blew past.

Trying to refuel silently without alerting these zombies was practically impossible.

Besides, who knew how many more zombies were lurking in the dark corners? The lesson from the earlier chase was still fresh in his mind.

"Looks like I’ll have to do it again," Xu Mo muttered to himself.

Without much hesitation, Xu Mo reached out again and slammed his hand down on the horn in the center of the steering wheel.

"HONK—!!! HONK—!!!"

The shrill, piercing blare shattered the area’s tranquility like a stone thrown into a calm pond.

The effect was immediate.

All the wandering zombies froze at almost the same instant, then turned in unison toward the source of the sound—Xu Mo and his SUV.

A low, excited growl rumbled in their throats, and a greedy light seemed to flicker in their murky eyes. They began to converge from all directions, their steps shambling yet determined.

Moreover, Xu Mo could clearly see in his rearview mirror more figures staggering out from the winding alleys deep within the town.

Among them was a figure moving with noticeably greater speed, even dropping to all fours to accelerate. The sight made Xu Mo’s heart skip a beat—another Agile Zombie had been alerted!

’Could you even survive this apocalypse without a car?’ Xu Mo couldn’t help but complain to himself as he drove, a mix of self-mockery and lingering fear in his thoughts. ’I just got this car a while ago. If only... ah, but a certain company didn’t pay up, so I’ll just stop there...’

Done with his rant, Xu Mo stomped on the gas. The SUV roared out of the gas station’s perimeter and began its kiting job again, following the outer road he’d come from.

Behind the vehicle, the newly gathered horde of zombies, along with the newly joined Tier-1 mutants, gave chase frantically, like hyenas that had scented blood.

Xu Mo carefully controlled his speed. He didn’t dare drive too fast, for fear of losing the ordinary zombies and having them return to the gas station too quickly. Nor did he dare drive too slow, as that would just be asking for trouble.

The SUV maintained a speed that kept the Agile Zombies from easily catching up, while also ensuring the ordinary horde didn’t fall too far behind.

As he drove on, the edge of the recent battlefield appeared up ahead.

From a distance, Xu Mo could see a dense circle of ordinary zombies gathered around the corpses of the Agile and Power-type zombies he had killed.

It was as if they were attending a gluttonous feast. They scrambled to pounce on the mutants’ corpses, tearing and gnawing madly. Dark red blood and shredded tissue flew everywhere, and the air was thick with a nauseatingly foul stench.

The comparatively tougher muscles and bones of the mutant zombies were disappearing at a visible rate, torn apart by countless withered claws and rotten teeth.

The scene made Xu Mo somewhat uncomfortable, but more than that, it put him on high alert.

This wasn’t the first time he had seen zombies devouring their own kind, but it was the first time he’d witnessed such a large-scale, concentrated feeding frenzy.

On the outskirts of the horde, a few zombies seemed to have eaten their fill or were uninterested in their feasting companions. Noticing the roar of the SUV’s engine, they slowly turned and began to shuffle in Xu Mo’s direction.

Most of the zombies, however, were completely engrossed in their feeding frenzy, paying no mind to the SUV.

Xu Mo wasn’t foolish enough to drive straight into the center of this frenzied horde. He quickly spun the steering wheel, veering the SUV off the main road and down the embankment. The wheels crunched over dirt and weeds as he drove off in another direction. He needed to lead this new batch of followers away from this powder keg and buy himself a large enough window of time at the gas station.

Sure enough, the horde behind him changed direction, growling as they gave chase. The Agile Zombies charged at the front, attempting to flank him, but Xu Mo maintained a relatively safe distance, carving a wide arc across the wasteland.

Judging the distance to be sufficient, Xu Mo picked off the Tier-1 zombies and then raced toward the gas station.

About ten minutes later, the SUV pulled into the gas station once again. As expected, it was much quieter now. The only sounds were the faint roars of the distant horde and the whistling of the wind through a broken sign.

Xu Mo parked the vehicle as close as possible to a manual fuel pump, ensuring he could make a quick getaway at any moment. He didn’t get out right away. Instead, he waited quietly in the car for half a minute, his sharp gaze sweeping over the surroundings.

After confirming there were no active zombies in sight and no other unusual movements, Xu Mo quickly pushed the door open and got out.

Just as Xu Mo walked over to the fuel pump and was about to bend down to inspect the nozzle—

"CLANG!"

A sound, not loud but piercingly clear in the silence, suddenly came from the pitch-black convenience store next to the gas station!

Every muscle in Xu Mo’s body tensed instantly. With a SWISH, his right hand drew the Mountain-Cutting Saber. He angled his body slightly, the blade pointed diagonally toward the ground, his gaze darting like lightning to the convenience store’s entrance!

The next moment, the store’s broken glass door was carefully pushed open a crack from the inside. Then, three figures emerged one after another from behind the door, looking flustered, wary, and with a glimmer of hope.