Doomsday Awakening GL - Chapter 5

The next morning, a faint chill permeated the air.

Seeing the sun slowly appear in the sky, An Yimu breathed a sigh of relief. The sun, which she usually took for granted, was now like hope in her heart. Seeing it brought comfort to her soul, a sign that things weren’t too bad; the sun was still there.

She woke up the few people who were asleep, and after a simple wash-up, the five of them started walking back.

Everyone was silent on the way.

An Yimu had been so terrified that she fled in haste when she couldn’t see clearly at night, but she never imagined how horrifying the sight would be in broad daylight.

Their car was enveloped by densely packed red tendrils. Wang Guoqiang’s family of three, who were closer to the fields, had all been drained of bl00d. Their mouths and noses were full of these red tendrils, and their faces were peaceful, suggesting they had not struggled much before death. Zhang Shan was lying on the ground in an extremely twisted posture, his withered face showing an expression of disbelief and terror, and his whole body was also covered in these red tendrils.

An Yimu sighed internally. It seemed the car could not be retrieved.

Just then, Gao Jingwen suddenly screamed and ran back.

“Jingwen!” Song Xuezhi turned and shouted.

But Gao Jingwen couldn’t hear her. He ran back desperately as if he had gone mad. The four people immediately chased after him. Song Xuezhi was full of worry, but no matter how she called out, Gao Jingwen did not respond.

Suddenly, Gao Jingwen tripped and fell onto the ground, convulsing all over.

The four people took this opportunity to run over to Gao Jingwen.

A jaw-dropping sight occurred: Gao Jingwen’s exposed lower legs were trembling violently. Suddenly, a small red spot emerged from his skin and began to grow at a visible speed, little by little wrapping around his lower legs. But Gao Jingwen was completely unaware, rolling his eyes and convulsing all over.

Song Xuezhi was terrified. Tears streamed down her face, and she reached out, preparing to tear off the red tendrils.

An Yimu quickly pulled her back. “He can’t be saved. We have to leave now!”

In the blink of an eye, the red tendrils had wrapped up to Gao Jingwen’s waist. The tendrils themselves began to pulse slightly, and Gao Jingwen’s skin slowly became pale, devoid of any color.

Crying, Song Xuezhi forcefully shook off An Yimu and rushed to hug Gao Jingwen.

The red tendrils instantly wrapped around her body. More tendrils shot out rapidly from Gao Jingwen’s body and immediately plunged into Song Xuezhi’s mouth, nose, and ears, causing bl00d to splatter everywhere.

An Yimu watched in shock, unable to utter a single word. This entire sequence of events took less than a minute.

The talkative but cheerful Zhang Shan, the steady and reserved Gao Jingwen, and the sweet-singing Song Xuezhi—they had been laughing and chatting together just last night, and today they were separated by death. Even seeing the mummies was terrifying, but it was not as terrifying as witnessing the process firsthand.

A living person lost all signs of life in a short while, leaving behind only skin and bones.

An Yimu swallowed, grabbed the equally stunned Nuan Qianyu and Ling Qiuyu, and ran towards Lingxia Town.

Their car was behind them, the bodies of Gao Jingwen and Song Xuezhi were in front, and the fields were to the right, so they could only run toward Lingxia Town on the left. Since they didn’t know how this red thing entered Gao Jingwen’s body or how it clung to the human body, and there might be other strange things in the fields, running towards Lingxia Town seemed relatively safer. An Yimu quickly made this decision despite her shock.

The three of them did not dare to stop and ran straight into the town.

An Yimu did not dare to go further inside, as no one knew where those terrifying-looking zombies might emerge from.

Just then, a rustling sound came from behind them, like chalk being scraped vertically down a blackboard.

“It’s those red tendrils!” Ling Qiuyu took a deep breath. The existence of this thing was completely unscientific and truly baffled her.

An Yimu was shocked. She had initially thought the thing could only attach itself to a human body, but she never expected it could move on its own. At this point, she had no time for hesitation.

The small path behind them and the lower buildings were densely covered with this creature. This red monster was slowly advancing, like a patient hunter, and the three of them were the prey!

The three people ran all the way in. The streets were littered with mummies and the remains of zombies.

In front of them, this red thing also appeared and was spreading towards them, crisscrossing like human bl00d vessels.

“I wonder if this thing is afraid of fire. Damn it, I don’t even have a lighter!” Nuan Qianyu searched her body but couldn’t find anything to light a fire. She glanced at An Yimu with her beautiful eyes. “Little An An, if you hadn’t forced me to quit smoking, maybe we could fight this today. Now look… my beautiful face is going to turn into a mummy!”

An Yimu felt a pang of sadness. Nuan Qianyu’s tone wasn’t accusatory; she understood that Nuan Qianyu was joking to lighten the mood so they wouldn’t be so nervous and scared.

“Xiaoyu, you’ll be very pretty even as a mummy,” Ling Qiuyu said softly.

Nuan Qianyu made a gesture as if she couldn’t stand it, rubbed her arm, and chuckled, “Stop, you’re giving me goosebumps. Who wants to turn into that thing?”

Just as An Yimu was racking her brain trying to figure out how to escape, a man suddenly ran out of a shop on the side.

“Quick, follow me!” the man said calmly, glanced at the three of them, and then turned and ran into the shop.

The three quickly followed. After a few twists and turns behind the man, he opened a basement entrance and went down first. “Cover the stone slab after you come down.”

An Yimu covered the stone slab as she went down last. The slab was very cold, and she had a strange feeling when her hand touched it. She secretly shook her head, assuming she was overthinking things.

Once downstairs, they found that many people were gathered there, sitting on the floor with indifferent expressions.

An Yimu thought for a moment, walked over to the man who had brought them there, and asked, “What are those red things? How did they spread so widely?”

The man sighed, “We don’t know either. By the time we found out, many people had already died. We gathered here in this basement to take shelter. That thing only becomes rampant in the early morning and at midnight. We will leave here around noon.” They had tried many methods: insecticide, burning it with fire, dissolving rat poison into liquid, and even sulfuric acid, but the thing’s regenerative ability was too strong. These methods had little effect and only caused the thing to cover a wider area each time.

It was a good thing to be able to leave this place. An Yimu felt relieved and walked over to Nuan Qianyu and Ling Qiuyu, casually placing her hand on Ling Qiuyu’s forehead to check. Thankfully, she didn’t have a fever.

Ling Qiuyu chuckled softly and took An Yimu’s hand away. “I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

Nuan Qianyu grinned and said, “That’s what they call ‘Heaven favors the beautiful!'”

More or less, the deaths of Song Xuezhi and the six others had an impact on them. This was no longer the age of peace… human life had become so worthless.

Close to noon, a group of people, at least 30 men and women, emerged from the basement.

The group scattered, each heading their own way, leaving only nine people who said they would travel with An Yimu and the others, as they all wanted to return to Chongming City.

After leaving Lingxia Town, almost everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Facing the unknown, powerful creature, their minds were on the verge of collapse under the stress of life and death.

After getting off the highway, the old roads often passed many villages. Fearing something might be lurking, no one stopped, and they traveled for nearly four hours before reaching the next county. An Yimu recalled the map markers: after this county, they were only one more county away from Chongming City. If they continued traveling without rest, they could arrive in three days at most.

As it got darker, everyone’s nerves became tense, as they didn’t know what might suddenly appear and kill them. Furthermore, they hadn’t encountered many zombies so far.

So, they finally decided to settle down in this county and find some food along the way.

Among the nine people were seven men and two women. The men were Yin Xiaoqiang, Tian Feng, Zhao Rushang, Tang Nengping, Zhang Jianshe, Li Zihua, and Wang Dali. The two women were Li Ziyue and Su Mo.

Wang Dali (whose name literally means ‘Wang Great Strength’), was a fat man with immense strength, just as his name suggested.

Li Zihua and Li Ziyue were siblings. They looked like university students, still retaining their youthful naivety.

Tang Nengping was the leader of the group because he was the oldest, around 40 years old.

They were still on the outskirts of Cangxian county, where there were scattered farmhouses, now all deserted. So, they effortlessly found a two-story farmhouse.

After assigning people to keep watch, the few women found some ingredients in the farmhouse kitchen and prepared a decent meal. After eating, the watchmen divided their shifts, and the rest went to rest. Having traveled for half a day, everyone was extremely tired. The men stayed on the first floor, and the women on the second.

This was the first hot meal An Yimu and her two friends had eaten in two days; they were sick of the instant food.

At 11 p.m., just as most people were about to fall asleep, the ground suddenly began to tremble violently. The entire house swayed like a small boat on the ocean, and rumbling sounds were everywhere.

An Yimu was jolted awake, feeling the world spin. Before she could react, the house seemed to collapse. Something struck the back of her head, and her vision went black as she passed out.