"Op...open the door, knock, knock, knock..."
Outside was a drunk man.
He was carrying half a bottle of baijiu, his clothes soaked by the rain, and he was trembling as he knocked on the windows.
If no one paid him any mind, he'd probably freeze and get sick by tomorrow morning.
"......"
Xu Wanli had an impression of this drunk man.
The guy's backpack was filled with several catties of cucumbers, tangerines, a large box of cold mixed pig ears, braised beef, and some peanuts and other drinking snacks. He had been drinking and eating non-stop throughout the journey, filling the car with the smell of baijiu and food.
"What a hassle."
He shook his head, speechless.
He got up, preparing to get off the bus and pull the man inside.
Suddenly, a figure with disheveled hair burst out of the thick fog behind the bus.
That figure, like a leopard hunting a lamb, pounced on the drunk man, dragging him several meters, pinning him to the ground, and opening her mouth to tear and bite.
Ah!!
The intense pain instantly sobered the drunk man.
He instinctively pushed the Woman pressing down on him, raising his right hand to stop her from biting.
At the same time, he turned his head to Xu Wanli in the driver's seat, pleading for help.
But his throat was damaged, preventing him from making a sound, and a piece of flesh had been torn from his face, revealing his upper and lower gums, bloody.
Vaguely, one could even see the stark white bones of his cheek...
"Hmph hmph!"
The sound of chewing raw meat kept coming.
The drunk man's half-raised arm, cheek, and throat were all targets of that figure's tearing and gnawing. In less than ten seconds, crimson blood stained the ground, spreading along the water flow to the surrounding low-lying areas, gathering with the dirt into small puddles.
"Ho~ Ho~"
The drunk man's mouth spat out bloody foam, and his throat made a "ho ho" sound.
The main artery in his neck was bitten through, his blood was rapidly draining, and his right arm lost the strength to resist, falling limply...
"Hiss~"
Before Xu Wanli's brain could react, his fingers frantically pressed the door-closing button.
He didn't know if it was safe to stay on the bus.
But witnessing the drunk man's tragic state, he couldn't even think of escaping!
"Ho!"
The slight sound of the bus door closing startled the figure who was eating.
She suddenly turned her head, her eyes with dilated pupils staring intently in the direction of the bus, her body poised to strike.
"!!!"
This scene startled Xu Wanli, and he subconsciously reached for his lamb horn hammer.
Before he could make a move,
Within his sight, that figure bit the drunk man's collarbone and dragged him deep into the thick fog, disappearing without a trace.
"Phew, calm down! I must calm down!"
It took a full few minutes for Xu Wanli to regain his ability to think. He sat back in his seat, breathing heavily.
Feeling uneasy, he pulled out the wrench from his handbag and jammed the bus door.
Only after trying multiple times and confirming it couldn't be opened did he feel a sense of security.
It was impossible not to be scared when a living person was brutally murdered right before his eyes.
Moreover, the killer was the Woman who had been riding with him for several hours—the one who had been coughing severely earlier and had cracked her forehead when she got off, showing no change in expression.
Xu Wanli didn't understand.
Why was that Woman's speed and strength several times higher than the drunk man's, allowing her to complete the brutal killing in an overwhelming manner?
If he had been the one outside just now, he probably wouldn't have had time to react either.
This was the real reason for his fear!
The feeling of powerlessness when facing a life-or-death threat, yet being unable to struggle, brought a deep sense of despair.
"Call the police!"
Xu Wanli calmed down considerably, took out his phone, and dialed for help.
But no matter how many times he dialed, the phone on the other end only gave the mechanical sound of being busy.
Busy signal!
"Are there similar attacks in other places as well?"
He opened a short video app and searched for keywords.
The result was no relevant videos found.
He didn't know if there were no attacks or if uploading was restricted.
"No, wait."
"Why am I calling the police?"
"The Great Ice Age is a global disaster. The Service Area needs help, and the situation will only be worse in densely populated areas."
"I need to find a way to save myself..."
Xu Wanli put down his phone and thought seriously.
He couldn't place his hope on rescue; he had to be prepared to deal with various crises.
Currently, besides the continuously dropping temperature, the Woman who treated humans as prey was the biggest crisis.
"Is she a zombie?"
Xu Wanli carefully recalled the process of the drunk man's attack and the Woman's bizarre behavior of dragging the body away. He found it difficult to associate her with the zombies in his impression.
If not a zombie, then what was she?
The drunk man's body was dragged away, so he couldn't verify whether the drunk man would be infected.
If he wasn't infected, that would be fine; he would only need to deal with one monster, and he could always come up with a foolproof plan.
If he was infected...
Then his situation would be dangerous.
Given the speed and strength the Woman displayed, almost no one could escape from her.
"First, collect food and observe for two days."
Facing the unknown, it was better to remain still than to act hastily.
Xu Wanli decided to lay low for two days.
He walked towards the drunk man's seat according to his memory and successfully found his backpack.
Inside, only a few cucumbers remained...
"Tuntun Mouse, store food."
With the mindset that even a mosquito leg is meat, he chose to store it.
"Ding, detected three fresh cucumbers (returns double in three hours). Do you want to store them?"
"Store."
"Storage complete."
Watching the items in his hand disappear, Xu Wanli breathed a slight sigh of relief.
This small amount of food wasn't much, but it could quench thirst and fill his stomach, barely allowing him to live a few more days.
"Should I tell them?"
He glanced back at the other passengers.
Yu Sihan was lying on her side in the last row of seats, covered with a wool coat; Lin Xiaoling and Xiao Hao were sitting in the front, leaning against each other and resting, and everyone else was sleeping in their respective seats.
Under the double cover of rain and thick fog, they were completely unaware of the drunk man's attack.
"Let's observe first."
The monster had dragged the body away, and the bloodstains had been washed away by the rain. If he told them, others might not believe him.
Xu Wanli didn't want to do something thankless.
He chose a middle seat.
This time, not by the window, but next to the aisle, he lay down on his side. He decided not to sleep tonight, to stay up and see if that monster would come out and attack others...
......
The next day, a little past eight.
Xu Wanli was woken by a gust of cold wind.
Opening his eyes, he saw several energetic female college students taking photos outside through the transparent bus window. They posed in various cute, sexy, or playful ways for their phone cameras, and a girl was also framing a shot by the bus door.
"Hmm?!"
Seeing the open bus door,
Xu Wanli's sleepiness vanished instantly!
The scene of the drunk man being attacked last night was vivid in his mind.
The cheek missing a large piece of flesh, the gurgling blood from the neck, the broken arm...
Just thinking about it made him shiver with fear!