14: Chapter 14 Bus Bait

At 4:17 AM, the main east-west thoroughfare of Beiling City shimmered with a pale, cold light under the moonlight.

Commander Lin Dong lay prone by the windowsill on the second floor of a street-front shop, his right eye pressed against the eyepiece of a monocular.

The crosshairs in the lens were firmly fixed on the windshield of a No. 12 bus—the vehicle was wedged diagonally in the center of the intersection, its doors wide open, and the hand straps inside the cabin still swayed gently in the wind.

Distance: 147 meters.

He lowered the monocular, his left thumb quickly tracing lines in the dust on the windowsill as a set of data automatically generated in his mind: with the bus as the center, within a radius of 50 meters, the density of F-Class Zombie was approximately 4.3 per 100 square meters.

The peak noise from the vehicle's horn was expected to reach 110 decibels, and based on the zombies' sensitivity threshold for sound—which the panel data showed to be 65 decibels—the effective attraction radius would be approximately 300 meters.

"Company Commander, do we really have to do this?"

Li Na's hushed voice came from behind him.

The Communications Soldier's face looked exceptionally pale in the moonlight, her right hand unconsciously gripping the sling of the type 95 rifle hanging across her chest.

She had been in the army for two years and had participated in three live-fire exercises, but she had never actually fired a shot at a living creature—even one that was already dead.

Commander Lin Dong did not turn around.

His gaze continued to drift across the cluster of buildings at the intersection; every pitch-black window, every haphazardly abandoned Private car, and every alleyway that might hide a Mutant was marked, categorized, and assigned a threat coefficient in his brain.

"Do you have any other ideas?"

His voice was very soft, devoid of any emotion.

Li Na opened her mouth, but in the end, she said nothing.

Three hours ago, they had broken out of the military camp's armory.

According to Commander Lin Dong's plan, they were originally supposed to advance along the eastern green belt toward the military gas station on the outskirts of the city—it held a reserve of at least 20 tons of fuel, enough for a humvee to travel 3,000 kilometers continuously.

But the plan had been completely disrupted fifteen minutes ago.

They had just crept to a construction site 200 meters from the intersection when Zhang Liguo, a former scout, was the first to notice something unusual: curled up under the bus in the middle of the intersection were three living people.

To be precise, two adults and one child.

Commander Lin Dong observed with the monocular for a full five minutes.

The two adults were a man and a woman; the man lay under the bus chassis, peering outward, while the woman held a five- or six-year-old boy tightly, the child's face covered in dried tear tracks.

They had no weapons, their clothes were torn in many places, and the woman's left ankle was swollen like a steamed bun.

At least 400 zombies were wandering around aimlessly.

"We can't save them," Zhang Liguo shook his head immediately, "Four hundred against four; we only have seven people and five guns."

Li Na didn't say anything, but her eyes betrayed her—the child's age reminded her of her little nephew back home.

Commander Lin Dong stared at the image in the monocular, silent for thirty seconds.

Then he put the monocular away and said one sentence:

"Calculate the route, prepare the bait."

Now, Zhang Liguo and the other two surviving soldiers—Private Battalion Commander Wang Hu and Private Captain Zhao Lei—were making final preparations in the alleyway behind them.

Their task was to push a scrapped van to a designated position and fill the cabin with empty soda cans scavenged from the roadside.

Commander Lin Dong's plan sounded simple to the point of insanity: use the bus horn to attract the zombies, and utilize the zombies' tendency to chase sound in a straight line to lead them along two preset routes.

One was the real bait route—the van filled with soda cans would start making noise before the zombies reached the bus, drawing some of them away in advance.

The other was their escape route—using the buildings and vehicles at the intersection as cover to slip through the zombies' visual blind spots and reach the underside of the bus.

However, this plan required extremely precise timing calculations.

The zombies' movement speed was 3.2 meters per second, and after the bus horn was triggered, it would take about two minutes for the zombies within a 400-meter radius to reach the intersection.

The van had to start moving thirty seconds after the horn sounded to create crossfire in two directions—no, cross-attraction.

"Is Zhang Liguo in position?"

Commander Lin Dong asked in a low voice.

Li Na pressed her earpiece and nodded after three seconds: "In position. There's half a tank of gas left in the van, and they've started the engine."

Commander Lin Dong glanced at the military watch on his wrist.

This was a leftover he had scavenged from the ruins of the military camp; the luminous hands showed: 04:23.

A faint, indistinct gray-white was already beginning to appear on the eastern horizon.

Sunrise was expected around 5:30; once it was daylight, their concealment advantage would vanish completely.

"Start the countdown," Commander Lin Dong said, his voice as calm as if he were discussing the weather, "In five minutes, Plan No. 4 begins."

Li Na felt these five minutes were longer than any guard duty she had ever stood in the military camp.

She lay prone two meters to Commander Lin Dong's right, observing the distribution of zombies at the intersection with the monocular according to his instructions.

The twisted figures in the lens made her stomach churn—one zombie had likely been a white-collar worker in a suit; half its face had been gnawed away, leaving only the jawbone, yet it still dragged a broken leg while slowly crawling on the ground.

Another female zombie was wearing a cleaner's orange vest, with a huge penetrating wound in her abdomen; gray-white intestines dragged on the ground, stepped on again and again by her own feet.

They had no sense of pain, no fear, only an instinctive craving for the scent of living things.

"Don't stare for too long," Commander Lin Dong's voice suddenly came, "Watch for ten seconds, close your eyes for five. Conserve your vision."

Li Na was stunned for a moment, then immediately followed suit.

She suddenly realized that from last night until now, Commander Lin Dong had barely rested.

Breaking out, gathering supplies, planning routes, observing the enemy—this man was like a machine that never stopped, precisely operating every link.

"Company Commander..." she couldn't help but ask, "Were you previously..."

"Don't talk," Commander Lin Dong interrupted her, "Two minutes left."

Li Na immediately shut her mouth.

She adjusted her breathing and refocused her attention on the monocular.

Just then, she noticed a detail—at the entrance of a shop on the southeast corner of the intersection, one zombie's movements were different from the others.

It was... looking up?

Li Na rubbed her eyes and looked again.

That's right, the zombie was tilting its neck back, facing the night sky, as if it were... smelling something?

"Company Commander!" she whispered, exclaiming, "Southeast direction, that zombie—it seems to be sensing something!"

Commander Lin Dong's monocular turned instantly.

He stared at the zombie for five seconds, then took a deep breath.

The panel data showed: Target type, F-Class Zombie.

Abnormal status: Suspected threat detected, perception radius exceeds standard value by 23%.

"It's a Mutant," Commander Lin Dong slowly lowered the monocular, "To be precise, an F-Class about to mutate. The panel shows its 'mental threshold' is fluctuating."

Li Na's heart jumped into her throat.

They had seen a Mutant before—that Lv.3 speed-type monster; if Commander Lin Dong hadn't set up directional mines in advance, the four of them would have been done for in the underground passage.

"What should we do? Should we postpone the plan?"

Commander Lin Dong didn't answer.

His brain was calculating at a rate of dozens of times per second: the probability of the Mutant's appearance, its sensitivity to sound, its threat radius, the risk coefficient of adjusting the plan...

Seven seconds later, he spoke: "The plan remains unchanged."

"But—"

"That Mutant hasn't fully transformed yet," Commander Lin Dong's voice remained calm, "The panel shows the transformation progress is at 73%. Although its perception range has expanded, its mobility has decreased by 21%—it is molting, and its current movement speed won't exceed 2.1 meters per second."

Li Na was stunned.

She subconsciously looked at the panel hovering before her eyes—she could see those numbers, but she had never thought they could be used this way.

"Continue the countdown," Commander Lin Dong said, "In thirty seconds, Zhang Liguo will start the van. In forty-five seconds, I will fire to puncture the bus's natural gas tank."

He paused, then added: "Remember, after we go down later, stay close to me. No matter what you see, don't stop."

04:28:17.

Zhang Liguo took a deep breath and stepped on the van's accelerator.

The engine let out a hoarse roar, sounding exceptionally jarring in the silent early morning.

Immediately afterward, the soda cans strung together with rope in the cabin began to rattle frantically; the sound of metal colliding echoed through the empty street like a string of exploding firecrackers.

He looked ahead through the dirty windshield—at the alley entrance thirty meters away, zombies had already begun to turn around.

One, two, ten...

Zhang Liguo gritted his teeth and floored the accelerator.

The van, like a dying old ox, wheezed and charged out of the alley, driving east along the predetermined route.

In the rearview mirror, those twisted figures began to move—at first, a stumbling walk, then an increasingly fast, staggering trot.

"The fish has taken the bait," he whispered into the earpiece, then jerked the steering wheel and turned into the second alleyway.

At the very same moment the van disappeared into the alley, a crisp gunshot rang out over the intersection.

Commander Lin Dong knelt on one knee, the stock of his type 95 rifle firmly pressed against his shoulder pocket.

He completed the actions of ejecting the shell and changing positions the moment he pulled the trigger—a sniper position must not be exposed for more than three seconds; this was the basic discipline of a scout.

The bullet precisely punctured the bus's rear-mounted natural gas tank.

A ball of orange-red flame exploded in the center of the intersection, and the shockwave shattered all the car windows within twenty meters.

Immediately after, the bus began to emit a continuous, ear-piercing wail—it was the alarm system triggered by a short circuit, the sound so sharp it almost tore at their eardrums.

Li Na covered her ears tightly, but she still couldn't help letting out a muffled groan.

She looked toward the intersection through the gaps between her fingers and saw the zombies turn in unison, as if pulled by an invisible thread, and begin to gather toward the bus.

Ten, fifty, one hundred...

Soon, the entire intersection was filled with dense, crowded figures.

They crawled out from the shops, from the alleyways, and from under the abandoned Private cars, merging into a gray-black river as they surged toward the center of the sound source.

"Go!"

Commander Lin Dong pulled Li Na up, and the two vaulted out of the second-floor rear window, fast-roping to the ground along a pre-tied rope.

As soon as their feet hit the ground, Commander Lin Dong dragged her into a gap less than a meter wide—this was a fire escape passage between two buildings, so dark it was almost pitch black.

Li Na stumbled along after him, her ears filled with the sound of her own violent heartbeat.

The gap was filled with a stench of rot, and from time to time, she stepped on something soft and squishy; she didn't dare look, only gritting her teeth as she continued to run.

Thirty seconds later, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

They emerged from the gap and arrived at the western edge of the intersection.

They were less than fifty meters from the bus, but a row of abandoned vehicles with shattered windows stood between them.

The zombies passed by just three or five meters in front of them—gray, decayed skin, empty eyes, twisted limbs—so close they could see the dried blood on their faces.

Li Na's breath hitched, and she slowed her pace by half a step.

[part:gemini-3.0-flash]

"Don't stop."

Commander Lin Dong's hand gripped her wrist like a steel pincer, dragging her forward along the body of an SUV. His steps were extremely light and fast, his heels touching the ground first before quickly transitioning to the balls of his feet—this was a scout's standard infiltration gait, capable of minimizing the sound of footsteps.

Li Na couldn't learn it, but she gritted her teeth hard, trying her best not to make a sound.

A zombie less than two meters away from them suddenly stopped.

It slowly turned its head, its hollow eye sockets facing their direction. Li Na's heart nearly jumped out of her throat; she saw the zombie's nose twitching—it was sniffing.

Commander Lin Dong's hand slowly released her wrist and reached for the dagger at his waist.

At that exact moment, a rapid honking came from the east—it was Zhang Liguo's van, accelerating through a potholed section of the road. The zombie's head immediately turned toward the sound; it hesitated for two seconds before dragging its feet toward the east.

Commander Lin Dong didn't move. His gaze remained fixed on the zombie's back until it merged into the horde and completely disappeared from sight.

"Move."

Three minutes later, they reached the location of the bus.

That Route 12 bus was now a complete wreck: the front windshield was entirely shattered, several small fires burned inside the cabin, and the hissing of a natural gas leak intertwined with the sound of alarms. However, it was precisely this constant noise that kept the surrounding zombies facing away from them, like a crowd of spectators attracted by stage lights.

Commander Lin Dong lay prone on one side of the bus chassis, with Li Na close beside him. Through the gaps in the wheels, they could see three people huddled under the bus.

The man was the first to notice them. A flash of surprise crossed his eyes, followed immediately by wariness—when his gaze fell on the rifle in Commander Lin Dong's hands, he instinctively moved to shield the woman and child behind him.

"Don't move," Commander Lin Dong said in a low voice. "We are soldiers. How long have you been here?"

The man's Adam's apple bobbed. "Since... since last night. We were hiding in the bus, but then more and more zombies came, and we didn't dare come out. This morning the bus exploded, so we..."

"How is the child?"

The woman spoke with a tremble, "He... he has a fever. He was scratched by a zombie, but it only broke the skin, he wasn't bitten—"

Her voice grew smaller and smaller, as if she herself felt the explanation was weak and futile.

Commander Lin Dong's eyes sharpened. His gaze fell on the child—a boy of five or six huddled in his mother's arms, his face flushed and his breathing rapid. The sleeve of his left arm was torn, and the skin exposed beneath showed three scratches that had already begun to turn black.

Panel data showed: Human, Male, Age 5-6. Status: Early stage of zombie virus infection, transformation countdown approximately 47 minutes.

Commander Lin Dong was silent for a second.

"He won't last an hour," his voice was flat, without any emotion. "Unless there's an anti-toxin serum, but we don't have any."

Tears instantly surged from the woman's eyes. She hugged the child tightly, as if trying to pull him into her own body. "Please... please save him... he's only five..."

The man's eyes were red, and his lips trembled, unable to speak.

Li Na turned her face away, unable to bear the sight.

Commander Lin Dong stared at the child for three seconds, then looked away toward the man. "Who are you?"

"I... my name is Zhou Haiqiang, I work at the Beiling City Construction Company. This is my wife, Liu Yun. The child is named Zhou Xiaobao. We ran out from home last night, wanting to escape to the outskirts, but then..."

"How much do you know about the situation outside the city?"

Zhou Haiqiang froze and shook his head. "I don't know... we've been hiding here the whole time, we don't know anything..."

Commander Lin Dong nodded, as if he had long expected this answer. He lifted his wrist to check his watch—six and a half minutes had passed since the honking started; the noise from the van could last another three minutes at most.

"Listen," he said in a low voice, "I'm going to draw the zombies' attention away in a moment. Follow the woman behind me closely; her name is Li Na. Wherever she goes, you go. No making sounds, no falling behind, and no looking back."

Zhou Haiqiang nodded frantically. "Yes, yes... but, but Xiaobao..."

"He can't be saved." Commander Lin Dong's four words were like blocks of ice, leaving the Zhou couple instantly pale. "Follow me, and you still have a chance to live. Bring him, and all three of you will die here."

Liu Yun let out a suppressed sob and held the child even tighter. Zhou Xiaobao opened his eyes groggily, looked at his mother, and called out in a raspy voice, "Mom... it hurts..."

Li Na's eyes reddened instantly.

Commander Lin Dong stood up without giving them another glance. He looked toward the east side of the intersection—the sound of the van was weakening, and some zombies were already starting to turn back, reconverging on the bus.

"Make a decision within ten seconds," he said. "I'm leaving in ten seconds. You choose for yourselves."

Time ticked away, second by second.

Zhou Haiqiang looked at his wife and then at his child, the muscles in his face twitching violently. His mouth opened and closed, then closed and opened again, like a fish thrown onto the shore.

The ninth second.

Liu Yun suddenly released her hold on the child. She gently placed him on the ground, pressed a kiss onto his forehead, then stood up and grabbed her husband's hand.

"Let's go." Her voice was as raspy as sandpaper on glass. "We... let's go."

Zhou Haiqiang's whole body trembled, and tears finally escaped his eyes.

Commander Lin Dong didn't look back. He bent down, pulled the last grenade from his waist, yanked the pin, and threw it forcefully toward the west side of the intersection.

The grenade drew an arc through the air, landing next to a fuel tanker.

Three seconds later, the roar of the explosion shook the night sky.

At 5:03 AM, the group of six finally broke free from the zombie encirclement.

They hid in the underground parking lot of an office building, using the cargo bay of a box truck as a temporary shelter. Zhang Liguo, Battalion Commander Wang Hu, and Captain Zhao Lei were already waiting there—they had successfully ditched the van and walked through two blocks to reach the rendezvous point.

The Zhou couple huddled in the innermost corner of the cargo bay, shivering. Liu Yun's hands were clenched into fists, her nails digging into her flesh, causing thin trails of blood to seep out.

Li Na leaned against the wall of the cargo bay, not saying a word. That image replayed repeatedly in her mind—the child lying on the cold ground, calling out "Mom" in a raspy voice.

Commander Lin Dong sat at the entrance of the cargo bay, using the faint light filtering in from outside to record data in his notebook:

Bus Decoy Operation.

Time: 04:28-05:01.

Number of zombies attracted: Approx. 400-450.

Mutant sighting: 1 (In transition, Lv.3 incomplete).

Ammunition consumed: 2 rounds of 5.56mm, 1 grenade.

New survivors: 2.

Casualties: 0.

He finished writing the last digit and closed the notebook.

"Company Commander," Zhang Liguo lowered his voice and glanced at the Zhou couple, "That child..."

"He couldn't be saved," Commander Lin Dong's answer remained brief.

Zhang Liguo opened his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately swallowed it back. He had been a soldier for five years, had performed flood rescue operations, and had seen dead people, but he had never seen—never seen a living child being left behind.

"You're thinking I'm cold-blooded," Commander Lin Dong said suddenly.

Zhang Liguo froze, not daring to respond.

Commander Lin Dong looked up at the rusty iron sheets on the ceiling of the cargo bay. His voice was very soft, as if he were talking to himself:

"The child's transformation time had thirty-five minutes left. If we ran while carrying him, his scent would have continuously attracted nearby Mutants. From our current position, we are still nine kilometers from the city outskirts. Within thirty-five minutes, we would have been caught three times."

He paused.

"The first time, one person would die. The second time, two people would die. The third time, everyone remaining would die."

Zhang Liguo fell silent.

"I know it's inhumane," Commander Lin Dong said, "but it's math."

A long silence fell over the cargo bay.

After an unknown amount of time, Liu Yun suddenly looked up. Her eyes were red and swollen, yet she stared directly at Commander Lin Dong.

"Can... can you tell me, will Xiaobao... will he be in pain?"

Commander Lin Dong looked at her, and after three seconds, he gently shook his head.

"F-Class Zombies have no pain receptors," he said. "That is the only piece of data on the panel that could be considered 'merciful'."

Liu Yun's tears surged again, but she nodded desperately, as if thanking him for this insignificant comfort.

Li Na turned her head away and bit her lip hard.

Just then, Commander Lin Dong suddenly stood up, his movements as fast as a hunting cheetah. His hand pressed against the grip of his gun, his gaze fixed on the depths of the underground parking lot—

There, in the darkness, two clusters of eerie green light were floating.

"Someone's there." He lowered his voice. "No, it's... something."

Everyone held their breath.

The two clusters of green light moved slowly, getting closer and closer. The moment it entered the range of the light, Zhang Liguo sucked in a breath of cold air—

It was a zombie, yet not entirely one.

Its body was twice the size of an ordinary zombie, its limbs as thick as tree stumps, and its grayish-black skin was covered in a layer of patterns resembling a carapace. But the most bizarre part was its head—its mouth was chewing on something.

The outline of that thing looked like a child's shoe.

Li Na covered her mouth, forcing herself not to make any sound.

Commander Lin Dong's pupils constricted suddenly.

Panel data expanded before his eyes—

[Lv.5 Devourer (Mutant/Feeding)]

HP: 850/1200

Threat Rating: E+

Special Ability: Accelerates evolution by devouring its own kind or humans. Current evolution progress: 87%

The zombie stopped chewing. Its head slowly turned toward the cargo bay, the two green lights locking directly onto their hiding spot.

Then, it smiled.

That's right, it smiled—on that rotting face, a bizarre expression actually squeezed out.

Commander Lin Dong's finger slowly tightened on the trigger.

At that exact moment, the roar of an engine suddenly came from the other side of the underground parking lot. Two beams of brilliant headlight sliced through the darkness as a modified off-road vehicle charged toward them at extreme speed.

The zombie turned its head toward the light source and let out a piercing roar.

"Jump! Scatter!"

Commander Lin Dong roared, pushing open the door of the cargo bay.

Gunshots, roars, and the rumble of the engine intertwined into a chaotic din within the underground parking lot.

And in the final moment as Li Na jumped out of the cargo bay, she clearly saw a person wearing a gas mask sitting in the driver's seat of the off-road vehicle.

That person was also looking at them.

To be precise, they were looking at Commander Lin Dong.

[End of Chapter]