Transmigrating into a Wasteland Cannon Fodder Slag A [GL Yuri] - Chapter 15

But Gu Xia’s van was already speeding away, not even a trail of exhaust left behind.

Yan An had no choice but to rely on the mental map she’d memorized, picking out the fastest route to Gu Xia’s neighborhood.

Back at the convenience store, Gu Xia had pulled up her navigation app to check the “living presence” density around her home.

On the map, any living being would show up as little red dots. Right at the location of her house. There really were a few.

Dead zombies were cold; they wouldn’t appear. So those red dots meant someone alive was still there. Even if it was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, Gu Xia had decided that if her family might be inside, she had to go back.

Yan An had only glanced at the screen, but that was enough for her to remember Gu Xia’s address.

Since she’d chosen to chase after her, she just hoped Gu Xia had taken the same route she did.

Knowing Gu Xia’s way of thinking, she probably had. After all, this was the optimal route. Whether they crossed paths or not would depend on their timing.

Yan An pressed the gas all the way down, the SUV shooting forward like it had grown wings, but still, she couldn’t catch up.

Did Gu Xia take a different road?

The closer she got to the city center, the harder it was to drive. No one had cleared the roads. Cars were overturned everywhere, abandoned when the outbreak struck, and the streets swarmed with hundreds upon hundreds of zombies.

And this was only the outskirts. What would the heart of the city look like?

Yan An thought about switching to a motorcycle, but without a car’s metal shell as protection, the risk was too high. With so many zombies packed together, if one managed to grab her… she’d be done.

As she neared downtown, spotting hordes of zombies roving the streets, she swerved into a narrow alley instead, planning to continue on foot.

But the moment she stopped, she noticed a familiar van up ahead.

Gu Xia?

Yan An quickly jumped out and hurried over. Peering inside, she saw the van empty. No Gu Xia. She had taken her things with her.

So, she’d made the same choice.

Yan An pressed her palm to the hood. Still warm. She’d only just left.

A guttural roar cut through the air. Yan An whipped around. Zombies, drawn by the sound of her SUV, were starting to pour into the alley.

“Damn it!”

What, did these things have a personal vendetta against her? Gu Xia parked and nothing happened. She parked, and suddenly a welcoming committee of zombies showed up.

No time to dwell on it. She darted deeper into the alley, choosing the quieter back routes.

It was slower going. Even weaving through the winding alleys, zombies still lurked around every corner.

She kept her steps light, dispatching the occasional straggler with quick precision. But this wasn’t sustainable. Night was coming, and she’d need a place to hole up soon.

If Gu Xia didn’t stop to rest, she’d only pull farther ahead.

Yan An ducked into a recessed nook along the wall, her back pressed against the cool concrete, hidden from view.

Blindly stumbling around like this was pointless. She pulled a phone out of her spatial storage and brought up the navigation app.

On the map, red dots marked living humans. If any were moving toward Gu Xia’s house, that could be her.

This was tech developed after the outbreak to aid rescues and help survivors group up. The stronger the numbers, the better their odds of reaching a base.

So long as you carried a phone, or your heat signature registered in a public area, you’d show up.

Her phone only had two bars of power left. No telling how long it would last.

Plenty of red dots lit the screen. Three of them were moving in Gu Xia’s direction but Yan An doubted those were her.

Too fast. She and Gu Xia had entered this district practically at the same time. For someone to cover that much distance in so little time, they’d need a vehicle, not their own two feet.

Which meant… maybe Gu Xia had gone silent, conserving her strength until dark.

She zoomed in. A dozen dots clustered inside a nearby mall. Some grouped together, some alone. Survivors hiding out.

When the outbreak first hit, the Federation had launched two rescue missions. The first had gone smoothly. They’d saved plenty. But by the second, the swarms were too overwhelming. The military had taken heavy losses and withdrawn, leaving civilians to fend for themselves.

They’d only given one order: make it to the designated evacuation points. After that, survival was a matter of luck and skill.

After those two missions, the number of people left in Pingzhou had plummeted. Most were dead or infected.

Before, this city had over ten million residents. Even if only half turned, that was millions of zombies.

Gu Xia’s trek into the city was a death trap. Yan An had to catch her.

Her battery dipped lower. She didn’t have many phones left either. One had already died yesterday. To recharge, she’d need a power source or portable batteries.

And malls usually had plenty of those. If she could get inside, she’d stockpile as many power banks as she could.

There were three mall entrances: the main doors, a side door, and the parking garage.

The front was swarming with zombies. No way.

The side was quieter, but any noise would bring hordes down on her.

So the parking garage it was.

She crouched behind cover, slipping silently toward the ramp leading down.

But as she got closer, her stomach tightened.

The zombies that should have been guarding the garage? All down. Heads blown apart.

At least twenty corpses sprawled on the ground with bl00d still wet. They’d been killed less than half an hour ago.

Whoever had done this, dead-on headshots, one after another—wasn’t ordinary. A federal soldier? A professional?

Yan An descended cautiously, step by step, until she spotted more stragglers deeper in the garage.

Cars cluttered the space, some overturned, some smashed against walls. Not much better than the streets above.

As she squeezed through gaps, her eyes caught on a scrap of fabric snagged on a car.

Normally she’d ignore something like that garages were littered with stray cloth. But this piece… she knew it.

Gu Xia’s jacket.

Their school required uniforms, different badges marking each department. Even at university, students had to wear them on certain days.

That spring-autumn jacket. Gu Xia had been wearing it that morning. She always kept it neat, even a month into the apocalypse.

And this piece had a distinctive flower-shaped stain. What were the odds of another identical mark?

Yan An scanned her surroundings. Behind another car, she spotted keys still in the ignition.

She slid inside, pulled the dashcam, and checked the recording.

Sure enough ten minutes ago, Gu Xia had passed through here.

The footage showed her dodging zombies, axe in hand, before disappearing toward the emergency stairwell.

Relief loosened Yan An’s chest. She was alive.

Now she just had to catch up. Knowing Gu Xia, she was probably after the same thing she was. 

Power banks.