Chapter 125: Nocturnal Buffs

Several passengers were thrown off their seats by Aadav’s sudden braking. Some people slammed their foreheads into the plastic headrests in front of them, while others scrambled wildly, barely catching themselves before tumbling down into the narrow aisle.

However, no one screamed or panicked. A chilling, dead silence dropped over the interior, because above the groaning engine, everyone could hear what was waiting outside.

Growls.

A lot of them.

Deep, wet, and echoing through the night.

It was common knowledge among survivors that the infected grew far more ferocious and physically capable after the sun dipped below the horizon, and now was the time to see that horrific rule play out in real time.

Fredrinn surged to his feet, flanked immediately by Jenny and Rose. Behind him, Andrea kept her wits about her.

Without hesitation, she retreated from the middle aisle and hurried toward the rear, slipping into the cluster of seats beside Naomi, Rhea, and Vivienne.

All four of them were regular humans without Awakened abilities, and crowding the front would only turn them into dead weight.

Near the middle, Max shot up from his seat, his broad frame tense and crackling with raw, dark static as he shoved his way forward.

Up in the driver’s cabin, Aadav kept one heavy arm firmly braced across the navigator’s seat, successfully preventing the twin-tailed high school girl from crashing headfirst into the hard plastic dashboard.

The girl was hyperventilating, her small hands shaking violently as she gripped the armrest, her eyes wide with terror. Right outside the spiderwebbed safety glass, half a dozen rotting silhouettes were shambling directly through the cone of the high beams.

"Fredrinn," Aadav called out, whipping his head around to look at the strongest man aboard.

"What’s wrong? How many are there?" Fredrinn asked back, stepping up to the driver’s partition.

"No clue. The main problem isn’t how many there are right now, but that they’re going to keep coming. They get stronger at night. How much stronger, I don’t know, but we still shouldn’t risk trying to plow through miles of this," Aadav said hurriedly. He grit his teeth hard, watching several blood-stained hands scrape against the yellow paint, clawing frantically against the reinforced folding hydraulic doors.

Rose stepped up beside Fredrinn, her pink, heart-shaped pupils glowing faintly in the dim light of the cabin. She leaned toward the windshield and parted her lips.

"Freeze," she commanded smoothly.

Her voice rippled out with heavy authority, but a split second later, she clicked her tongue in blatant annoyance.

The ordinary Tier 1 zombies locked up on the spot like frozen mannequins, but the stockier, muscular Tier 2 variants only staggered, their lunges dragging to a crawl without stopping entirely.

It was just like before: during peak conditions her commands were absolute, but against boosted variants or under nocturnal buffs, higher-tier threats could still fight through the mental pressure.

Fredrinn observed the slowed horde and realized the reality of their situation. "We should just park somewhere safe and take a rest for tonight. Let’s make sure that we only travel during the days and rest somewhere safe during the nights."

A wave of nods passed through the Awakeners. It was simply the most rational play.

Fredrinn then turned his gaze toward the front row, his eyes landing on Charlie and Selene. "Rose, your powers aren’t working that well on the zombies outside, so are we sure that these two are safe?"

Even though both Charlie and Selene remained completely motionless with their heads bowed, having an undead brute and an infected girl trapped inside a crowded bus was an undeniable hazard.

"It’s safe," Rose replied calmly, offering him a serene smile. "Rose has used another power on them to turn into her slaves, not the kind she uses on the masses."

"I see. As long as you’re sure." Fredrinn let go of the topic with ease, trusting her word. He shifted his attention to Jenny, who was leaning over the dashboard to inspect the cracked road ahead. "Do you know where we are and where we can take a shelter for tonight?"

"I know a hotel nearby," Jenny replied immediately, pointing toward an upcoming intersection. "About four blocks down, take a hard right. It has a sturdy drop-down security gate and an underground garage."

"That works."

He handed the navigation over to Jenny, who began calling out directions to Aadav, while Fredrinn and Rose stood guard at the front of the bus.

Aadav mashed his foot flat on the accelerator, trying to force the heavy machine through the thickening wall of flesh. But it was brutal going.

The number of infected was rapidly increasing with every passing second, slamming their rotten torsos against the hood and pounding on the glass.

In the back, several students sobbed quietly, shivering as they pressed their knees to their chests, curling up in terror as bony fingers shrieked down the metal siding.

The commotion was a beacon in the night. The loud roar of the struggling engine and the wet thuds of impact pulled more wanderers from the side alleys.

Several corpses were caught beneath the massive rubber tires, their shredded torsos wrapping around the axles and acting as pure drag, drastically cutting down their speed.

Rose was forced to repeat her order to "Freeze" every few moments as fresh packs lunged toward the headlights, but shaking off the swarm was proving nearly impossible.

Seeing the coach grinding to a halt, Max lost his temper. He shoved a side window open, leaned out, and unleashed several crackling bolts of brilliant blue lightning into the mob.

Half a dozen bodies were instantly charred into smoking, blackened husks, the smell of cooked flesh washing into the cabin. But it made no difference; for every corpse he fried, three more scrambled over the ashes, pressing forward with rabid hunger.

’Hmm... This won’t work. We either need to reduce the zombies or accelerate so fast that these bastards cannot catch up to the bus...’ Fredrinn thought grimly, realizing they were practically crawling at walking speed.

Aadav was standing on the pedal, but the sheer physical mass of the horde was choking the wheels.

Fredrinn closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Deep within his chest, his Level 9 Magical Circuit flared to life, reaching outward to test the environment.

’I guess time to check how bad Earth’s mana really is...’