Chapter 23: Gaining a New Member
Translator: Pluto Editor: Tehrn
The scorching sun overhead roasted everything with its intense heat. Once she stepped out of the vehicle, the torrid heat immediately made her breathing difficult. There was still wind in this Hyperthermal Hell, but it would be better if there weren’t. Every bout of wind was as if a pot of red hot coal had been thrown at their face.
After they had got out of their vehicles, Luther and Marcie’s brows furrowed deeply as they covered their noses and mouths. Ever since all the plants and trees have died out, the soil degraded into sand under the high heat due to desertification. The wind stirred up thick clouds of yellow sand wreaking havoc upon the land. Their eyebrows and eyelashes were all covered with sand particles, so it was difficult for them to open their eyes. They could only squint as they looked around.
Once Marcie opened her mouth to speak, she started coughing due to the sand before she managed to say a few words, “Are you sure? I was at the back; but I didn’t spot any other cars behind us.”
When Lin Sanjiu got down from her truck, she conveniently grabbed a T-shirt and tied it to her face using it as a mask, so she felt much better compared to the other two. Tolerating the pain from the scalding yellow sand which lashed continuously at her exposed skin, Lin Sanjiu said quietly, ”I am certain. That car had been following us for some time. But the sandstorm is really bad, and it is quite some distance from us, so it was only visible at times… Wait, it’s coming!”
When she finished her sentence, they indeed spotted a car some distance away stirring up a trail of dust. A Citroën so dirty that its color was indistinguishable, drove out of the churning storm of sand.
Unexpectedly, when the driver saw that the three large vehicles had stopped, and Lin Sanjiu and her gang were in the middle of the road, the person braked sharply and turned his head as if he planned to escape. Unfortunately, the distance between the car and the three vehicles was too near, so this wasn’t up to the driver. Lin Sanjiu sprinted forward and sped up and, before the Citroën could turn away, she leaped onto the hood of the like leopard.
The hood of the car dipped which shocked the driver of the Citroën. Its wheels made an ear-piercing screech, and the driver inside shouted vaguely. Lin Sanjiu was rocked by the movement of the car, so she quickly laid low on the hood stabilizing herself before she yelled toward the car interior, “Get out!”
Within a blink of an eye, Luther and Marcie also rushed forward and surrounded the Citroën together with Lin Sanjiu. The car stopped, and its engine was cut.
Through the dirty windscreen, Lin Sanjiu could see the vague outlines of a person. She could not tell if it was a male or female, young or old. It was incomprehensible how that person could still drive with such visibility. She had waited for a while before she knocked on the windscreen with her police baton impatiently, signaling for the driver to get out of his car.
If she was not wrong, the car had been following them since they had left the shopping mall.
The car door at the side of the driver seat opened. A man wearing a crumpled western suit wiped his forehead as he stepped out.
The man looked like he was only about twenty plus. He wasn’t tall, and his skin was tanned. He had a round fleshy face, and the white shirt that he was wearing was now a dirty, blackish yellow. Lin Sanjiu did not know why, but she felt that if he had some whiskers, he would certainly look like a vole. Even though his suit looked like it was made from a good material, it did not seem to fit him well. His pants, far too long for him, were rolled up, revealing his ash-grey, knee-length socks.
“Who are you? Why are you following us?” Marcie questioned with a frown.
The vole-like man moved his tar-black little eyes and looked at the three of them panic-strickenly before he stammered, “ It… It wasn’t on purpose.”
Luther scoffed at him, “So you accidentally followed us all the way here?”
Lin Sanjiu jumped down from the car. She gripped the police baton and stood in front of the car not saying a word. The man appeared to be very afraid of Lin Sanjiu. When she got off his car, he immediately shifted a few steps away from her, putting some distance between himself and her. At the same time, he anxiously explained, “No, no. Listen to my explanation. I’ve actually seen all of you much earlier. I don’t mean any harm. I am a salesman for medical devices. That night, I had just finished entertaining my client. When he was driving me back, there was a sudden power outage, and we were stuck in the jam at the shopping mall…”
“Get to the main point!” Marcie shouted in a sterner tone, probably losing her temper as they were tormented by the sand.
“Ahh… yes, yes. Anyway, we were stuck in front of the shopping mall, and we did not dare to get down from the car. We relied only on the carton of drinks in the car for two days… I saw the few of you a couple of times, entering and exiting. You seemed to have adapted so quickly, it was impressive!” when the man explained to this point, he even remembered to flatter them. Noticing that they did not react, he spat out the sand in his mouth, embarrassingly. Then, he continued, “After that, on one night, a rather good-looking woman came to us. She said that she had water at home and told my client to get down to accompany her to get some water. I was distracted for a moment, and suddenly, my client disappeared! The women left and continued to the next car!”
The three of them were stunned for a short moment. Obviously, Kong Yun did not show mercy to the survivors who were on that street outside.
When the man saw their expression, he pushed his luck and continued, “I did not dare to remain in the car, so I ran to the convenient store that was across the road. I managed to survived till today… This morning, I saw all of you leaving. I was afraid too, so I followed behind…”
“What’s your name?” Luther was starting to feel a little annoyed as the man was so long-winded.
“My name is Tian Minbo. Everyone calls me Voley,” the man smiled and replied hurriedly.
Apparently, she was not the only one that felt that way. Lin Sanjiu chuckled inwardly, but her cold expression remained the same as she asked, “What do you want?”
Voley was startled and quickly replied, “I really mean no harm. I have my own supply of food and water. I just want some companions. And, I wanted to give you an advice.”
“An advice?”
“You have been driving your vehicles for some time right?” Voley asked as he eyed the vehicles. “I advise all of you to stop driving now. You should wait till night comes.”
“Why?” Luther looked around, still frowning. The spot they were at was not very safe. In the past, the area was a famous park. It was originally a vast expanse of greenery and the best part of the city. However, after this one month, any remnant of the original park had long disintegrated. All that remained was just sand as far as the eye could see and the blacked charred remains of countless trees, along with the mixture of this combination stirred by the wind. They could even see the indistinct outlines of a few duoluozhong wandering around. The sky was a hopeless mustard yellow accompanied by a scalding sun.
“This weather is really abnormally hot. If you continue driving, you will burn out the engines. You better believe me. I have already damaged one car, and that was a Mercedes Benz. Still, it broke down! It nearly burst into flames! Let alone your trucks and bus…” Voley wiped the sand off his face showing a sincere look. “It’s true. If you don’t believe it, you can try to touch your engines.”
Hearing this, Lin Sanjiu sighed and stopped Marcie who was heading back to check, “You don’t have to go. It’s true. Even his Citroën is hot to touch.”
When Voley heard what Lin Sanjiu said, he immediately moaned and turned to open his hood. A white smoke accompanied by a burnt scent drifted out. It almost instantaneously dissipated due to the sandstorm. Voley fiddled with the engine nervously, he finally lifted his head with a face still filled with lingering fear, “That was close. It nearly broke down.”
The three of them exchanged looks. They were at a loss. If even that France-manufactured Citroën was going to break down soon, what more could be said of their normal vehicles, they were certainly in a worse state. It seemed like that had no choice but to wait here with Voley for their engines to cool down. The only thing was that Lin Sanjiu was opposed strongly to staying here due to the surroundings.
Their surroundings were too empty. After the park which covered the area of a few thousand square meters had become destitute of vegetation, there was an almost boundless, unobstructed view of the area. That is to say, if they met any danger, they wouldn’t be able to find a place to hide.
Marcie sighed, “It looks like we’ll have to wait.”
“That’s right. Besides, it is too hot outside, so it is not a good place to chat. Why don’t all of you come into my car, we can chat in the car? Let’s be friends!” Seeing that the others were convinced by him, Voley quickly opened his door eagerly, even offering Marcie a bottle of water. “I don’t have a specific place that I want to go, I just want to find a few companions. Where are you all heading? If you don’t mind, let me go along with you?”
The three of them looked at each other and did not reply for a while.
After that whole incident with Kong Yun, they knew that they had to be more cautious; on the other hand, they knew that they could not let the incident affect all their future decisions. No matter what, they would definitely need to interact with other people. When Lin Sanjiu thought of this, she said, “You can come along with us, but you need to tell us what’s your ability.”
Voley made an “O” shape with his mouth.
“Don’t tell me that you don’t know anything about abilities after this one month?” Lin Sanjiu gave a cool expression and purposely used a threatening tone. “How are we supposed to trust you and be your companions if we don’t even know what you can do.”
Even though she put it that way, Luther and Marcie looked at each other with some unease. They could not blame him if he did not want to reveal his ability, it wasn’t really wrong...
But they did not anticipate that Voley would nod his head with little hesitation, “So you already knew that… Okay, I will show you.”
After he had said this, he took out a mobile phone from his pocket. The mobile phone was in a cheapskate plastic casing, making it look very unfashionable. Voley pressed a few buttons on the screen then showed the screen to the three of them. The screen showed an ongoing call, and the party on the other side was actually 110[1].
“This mobile phone is my ability. 110 is the only number that I can call right now. If I was under attack, I could dial 110, and in the time frame of 5 to 10 minutes, I will be impervious to all attacks. Of course, it works faster than my demonstration.” Voley looked a little timid as he asked, “Is this okay?”
While Lin Sanjiu was still considering, with knitted brows. Marcie had already taken the first step, turned to look at her for confirmation, “I think that is enough, right? Xiao Jiu?” After that, she gave Voley her outstretched hand and smiled, “Let’s help each other out in the future.”
Translator notes:[1]1-1-0, the emergency telephone number used to reach police services in Iran, Germany, Estonia, China and Japan. Also used to reach the fire and rescue services in Norway and Turkey. -Wikipedia