Transmigrating into a Wasteland Cannon Fodder Slag A [GL Yuri] - Chapter 26.2

After the call ended, Yan An habitually took Gu Xia’s hand and walked toward the building’s interior. It was a residential building, and they had landed on a second-floor balcony. All the zombies had gone to investigate the explosion.

Gu Xia squeezed her hand, signaling for her to let go. “Will Hei Ye and the others help?”

Helping meant taking a risk. Staying silent would attract no zombies. But with them, their team’s chances of leaving Pingzhou City would increase.

“A friend is someone who helps you,” Yan An said. She had no desire to play the savior. In the apocalypse, you had to look out for yourself. Gu Xia understood and agreed. Survival was the number one priority.

The two of them cautiously walked down the stairs. They were only on the second floor, so they quickly reached the first, where they came face-to-face with a zombie in a wheelchair. This zombie was the epitome of “disabled but determined,” as it still lunged at them to bite. Yan An didn’t hesitate and shot it in the head.

“Pingzhou City has too many people.” Which meant a lot of zombies. From the flying car, Yan An had seen the hordes of zombies below and was glad she didn’t have a fear of crowds.

Gu Xia chuckled. “It’s an A-tier city, after all. Medical care, education, and elderly care are all top-notch.” People placed great importance on a dignified end. Even though a lot of online posts about the apocalypse said it was better to become a zombie than to live in fear and starve to death, when it actually happened, people’s will to survive was instantly ignited. They would rather die a spectacular death than become a zombie. A-tier cities like Pingzhou placed high value on education, and having a good life, and so before the apocalypse, everyone wanted to move there. Cities were divided into four tiers: A, B, C, and special-tier. The conditions to become a special-tier city were extremely strict, making A-tier cities the top choice for people. But the zombie virus outbreak had turned their choice into a disaster, leading to a swifter death.

The once-thriving city was now a kingdom of zombies, destroyed everywhere, no longer the paradise people had dreamed of. Yan An shook her head with regret. “If only I had come two months earlier, I could have experienced the charm of this world.” With the high technology in this world, playing games would be so much fun. Her past self’s memories included a game pod that allowed a person’s consciousness to enter, with realistic pain sensations that made the experience immersive.

There was a gaming store in the mall, but it was probably useless now. Even if it worked, she wouldn’t dare use it. What if a zombie or someone with bad intentions suddenly showed up while she was playing? It would be a sure death.

Yan An turned to Gu Xia with a smile. “My dear Sister Xia, with our relationship, how about you treat me to a game when we get to an untainted city?”

Gu Xia: “… You’re risking your life to escape just to play games?”

“Of course not!” Yan An said, standing tall and proud. “I’m doing this so I can stay with Sister Xia for a long, long time.”

Her smooth-talking mouth made you want to beat her up. But Gu Xia was used to it. “Enough talk. Let’s get out of here.” A thousand meters didn’t seem far. It was only a few minutes’ run, but with zombies everywhere, even a hundred meters was difficult.

Yan An giggled. “See what this is?”

“A screwdriver.” What could a screwdriver do? Gu Xia was confused.

Yan An didn’t explain, walking straight to where the electric scooters were parked.

 “Keep an eye out for me.” Yan An wasn’t asking her to watch for people. It was the apocalypse, so she was obviously asking her to watch for zombies.

She chose a medium-sized scooter, unscrewed the panel below the handlebar with the screwdriver, then found the wires and re-connected them. The scooter immediately turned on. She pushed it out and tested it, finding that it worked perfectly.

“Get on,” she called out to Gu Xia.

Gu Xia was stunned by this series of actions. “You can do that?”

“What are you looking at? This is called being a professional.” That’s how simple and unpretentious a mechanical repair master is.

Yan An also reminded her, “Sit facing backward and watch out for the zombies.”

The moment Gu Xia got on, Yan An twisted the handlebar, and the scooter shot forward. She wasn’t going fast. Riding too quickly would make too much noise, and since the zombies in this area had finally been lured away, she couldn’t risk bringing them back.

However, the explosion had only been a single sound, drawing away only some of the zombies. There were still a lot left, especially when they were only two hundred meters from the mall. At that point, they had no choice but to abandon the scooter. The area around the mall was swarming with zombies, blocking the entrance. There were so many that even with a loud noise, it would be difficult to draw them all away. Their current firepower was not enough to eliminate them.

What should they do? Yan An’s mind raced. Even if they had a loud speaker, they wouldn’t be able to find a place to put it; there were simply too many zombies everywhere. The two of them were currently hiding in a store not far from the mall, with two dead zombies lying on the floor. A few days ago when they were here, many of the stores didn’t have zombies, but now every single one did. Their current location was still on the outskirts. They ran into zombies from time to time, but the closer they got to the mall, the more they saw. There were thousands of zombies, all gathered in one place.

“Something’s wrong inside the mall,” Yan An thought. It couldn’t be a coincidence that so many zombies had suddenly gathered near the mall. This area had already been cleared of zombies two or three times. Where were they all coming from? These zombies seemed to be unconsciously drawn by something, only wanting to enter the mall.

Gu Xia suddenly had a thought. “There’s something inside that’s attracting them.”

That was it. Something must be attracting the zombies; otherwise, they wouldn’t have gathered like this. It was just like when they were at the factory. Once there were no more living people in the area, the zombies unconsciously started to gather there. Was the mall the same?

“It’s just like the factory,” Yan An agreed. They came to a consensus. No wonder zombies wandered around in small groups in places without living people, but always gathered where there were survivors. Were they that sensitive to the smell of living people? A question mark appeared in Yan An’s mind. Given their current situation, they had to put this question aside for now and figure out how to get into the mall.

“We have two options. One, we wait outside for them to come out, and we break through the siege together. Two, we find a way to get in ourselves.” As for how, she glanced at the scooter. “See that building? I’ll ride the scooter and lure the zombies there. You take the opportunity to get into the mall and then drop a rope from the roof so I can climb up.”

Gu Xia looked in the direction she was pointing. The building was about twenty meters from the mall. It would be impossible for them to get across without attracting zombies, so Yan An thought, why not just lead them over there? It would then be a race between her and the zombies.

“No, that’s not an option,” Gu Xia immediately refused. “There are so many zombies, you’ll be completely surrounded. You won’t even be able to get close to the mall, let alone catch the rope I drop.”

Yan An let out a little chuckle. “Are you worried about me?”

“Be serious.”

Gu Xia was helpless. Why wasn’t this girl ever serious?

“I am serious. If we don’t lure the zombies away, we can’t get in. There are zombies everywhere, no matter where we go. Even if we hide here, they’ll eventually smell us and find us.” If the two buildings weren’t so far apart, Yan An would have tried her old trick of tying a rope between them and just climbing across.

She continued, “That building is an office building. If I can find the control room and activate the alarm, all the zombies will be drawn to it, and the mall will be free.” Every high-rise building had an alarm system. If the alarm went off, the zombies would definitely be drawn to it.

Gu Xia still shook her head. “But you still haven’t said how you’re going to get out of there. If you can’t get to the bottom of the mall, the rope I drop will be useless.” It wouldn’t be that simple. The risk was too great.

Yan An knew Gu Xia was worried about her, but they couldn’t just stay there. Even if they chose to leave now, they would still have to deal with countless zombies on the way, especially at the Pingzhou Island dock. It was safer to work with a team. But Gu Xia was being stubborn. “How about this? We go to Building A together. You can use the submachine gun to suppress their firepower. The plan is the same as I just said.”

“However, once we’re fifty meters from the mall, we’ll decide whether to enter or leave.” After all, they would have at least tried. Building B, which was fifty meters from the mall, was closer than their current location and easier to escape from. If the people inside didn’t come out to meet them, they would have done everything they could.

“The two of us together?” Gu Xia no longer hesitated and nodded. “Okay.” No matter what, she wouldn’t let Yan An do something so dangerous alone. If they went together, at least they could watch each other’s backs. Yan An had come home with her, so she wouldn’t let Yan An go on a dangerous mission alone either.

Yan An felt a warmth spread through her. “Then… let’s move!”

She got on the scooter, and Gu Xia sat behind her with a submachine gun ready. They were going to charge right through the zombies. A hint of madness flashed in Yan An’s eyes. She twisted the handlebar all the way, and the scooter shot forward. Reaching a speed of sixty or seventy kilometers per hour was fast. The cold wind whistled past her ears, making her mind even clearer.

Finally, as they neared Building A, they passed a speed bump. The loud vibration attracted the attention of the nearby zombies. One, two… as one of them let out a roar, it drew the attention of all the others, who immediately started chasing after them.

Gu Xia quickly turned sideways and pulled the trigger. The gunshot rang out, and the zombie in front of Yan An fell to the ground. Yan An had no intention of stopping. She rode the scooter straight into the lobby of Building A. The zombies inside began to come out to intercept them. She immediately reminded Gu Xia, “Get off.”

They got off at the same time. The scooter rolled forward a few more meters before stopping, and Yan An shot its electrical box. With a crackling sound, the scooter’s circuit caught fire and then exploded, though the blast was small. It still hit two zombies.

Yan An shouted at Gu Xia, who was wildly firing her submachine gun, “I’ll close the door! You be careful!” Her ears were ringing. Gu Xia had fired so close to her ear that she couldn’t hear what she was saying, but she could see her mouth moving. Thankfully, her restoration ability was working automatically, or she would have gone deaf.

She didn’t care what Gu Xia had said and just closed the door. She took out a rope from her space and tied the two doors shut. There was also a revolving door in the middle, but it had stopped working when the power went out. However, this wouldn’t hold the zombies for long. There were so many of them that they could push the door down, but it would buy them some time.

Once she was done, Gu Xia had already dealt with most of the zombies in the building. Yan An’s eyes scanned the fire escape map on the first floor. Her vision was already good, and after the restoration, she could see clearly unless something was very far away.

She memorized the map and immediately said to Gu Xia, “Let’s go inside.”

Yan An killed two more zombies and ran past the front desk towards the elevators. Based on her experience, the control room was usually on the first floor. Gu Xia followed behind her, switching her submachine gun to a pistol to save ammo. Although the Gu family was wealthy and had left a lot of bullets—thousands of rounds were piled up in Yan An’s space, which should have been enough. The zombies were too numerous, and the bullets were being used up too quickly. It was better to be conservative.

The zombies inside the building were already heading for the mall, so there weren’t many left to deal with. Pistols were enough. They ran around a corner, took a few more steps, and spotted an equipment room with the control room right next to it. Yan An tried to push the door, but it wouldn’t budge. It seemed to be locked from the inside.

Meanwhile, Gu Xia had already opened the fire escape. They planned to go to the third floor from here and cross to Building B. Seeing the control room door was stuck, Gu Xia shouted, “Forget it! Let’s just go!”

Just then, the door suddenly opened. Thinking it was a zombie, Yan An immediately aimed her gun inside, but a woman emerged instead. The woman saw the gun and yelled, “I’m a human! I’m a human!”

Yan An saw that she was clear-minded and lowered her pistol, getting straight to the point. “We need to activate this building’s alarm and run to Building B. You can choose to help us, or you can choose not to.” They had no time to waste, so she gave them a direct choice. Gu Xia carefully watched their surroundings, worried a zombie might appear at any moment.

“Can you take us with you?” the woman asked, glancing nervously at the guns in their hands.

“You all?” Yan An glanced into the control room and saw another woman. From their scent, she could tell both were betas. She had no idea how long they had been hiding in there. Some of the monitors in the control room were still working, showing nothing but zombies. A zoomed-in feed on the main console showed a camera directly above their location. Yan An looked up at the camera and realized the women had been watching them the whole time. She looked at Gu Xia, silently asking for her opinion. As partners, she wouldn’t make the decision alone.

CRASH! The glass door to Building A shattered. Time was running out.

Gu Xia immediately nodded. “Yes, but they’re on their own.”

The two female betas didn’t hesitate. Looking at their chapped lips, it was clear they hadn’t had water in a long time, let alone food. They were at their wits’ end. Following Yan An and Gu Xia was their only chance at survival, better than starving to death. After holding out for a month, the two betas simply couldn’t endure any longer.

Yan An spoke up to give instructions, “Activate the building’s alarm, then follow us now.” The beta woman in the control room hurried to the console and pulled the alarm. Building A instantly filled with a piercing wail. The whole building was blaring. The zombies trying to get in became even more frenzied, desperately searching for the source of the noise.

Gu Xia had already gone up the stairs first. Yan An motioned for the two betas to go in front of her, while she took the rear. She wasn’t about to entrust her and Gu Xia’s safety to two strangers, even if they looked completely harmless. The moment the fire escape door closed, zombies came after them, but with the alarms blaring throughout the building, they couldn’t pinpoint their exact location and couldn’t immediately give chase. It wouldn’t be long, however, before they started heading upstairs, searching for every blaring alarm. There were also zombies on the upper floors, just not as many as downstairs. With so many office workers in the building, there were bound to be plenty of zombies.

Yan An looked up at Gu Xia, who was walking ahead, and called out, “Sister, you go to the back, I’ll take the lead.” The zombies behind them wouldn’t chase them for a while, but there was no telling when one would jump out from the front. Compared to Gu Xia, she had more experience with wilderness survival and a faster reaction time to the unexpected. Gu Xia looked at her with a complicated expression, then quickly switched places. She knew with complete certainty that Yan An was protecting her.