35: Chapter 35 Sofia Steals Food

Sophia turned off the system panel, leaned against the cold tree, and took a deep breath.

Three hours.

She only had three hours.

The vague sound of men's rowdiness drifted from inside the wooden cabin; Andrei and a few of his cronies were celebrating.

Sophia knew that Andrei had just used precious points from the system store to redeem some low-quality liquor.

Although the alcohol content wasn't high, it was enough to make this group of men temporarily forget the cruelty of the apocalypse.

As usual, the women only received a tiny bit of food, and those who were disobedient, like Sophia, didn't even get the scraps.

She touched the three compressed biscuits hidden in her bosom.

They were what she had saved by scrimping and saving; they were as hard as rocks, but they could save her life.

"Sophia?"

The tent curtain was gently lifted, and two slender figures slipped in.

It was Anna and Katya.

Anna was 17, the youngest member of the gymnastics team, with short blonde hair and large, bright eyes, which were currently filled with fear.

Katya was 18, slightly taller than Anna, with long dark brown hair tied in a ponytail and a few fresh abrasions on her face.

Those were left from being pushed when she tried to take an extra biscuit yesterday.

"He agreed. The leader ranked first on the leaderboard agreed to take us in."

Sophia whispered in Russian, her voice filled with irrepressible excitement.

Anna's eyes lit up instantly:

"Really? When? How do we leave?"

"In three hours, at the rendezvous point. But we have to bring sincerity—food, as much as possible."

Sophia pulled a small cloth bag from her bosom, which contained the biscuits she had saved.

Katya's expression changed: "The food is in the tent guarded by Andrei's men. How are we supposed to get it?"

"Steal it, while they're drinking."

Sophia's voice was cold.

The low-quality liquor Andrei had redeemed was their only chance right now.

"It's too dangerous..." Anna's voice trembled.

"Staying here is even more dangerous."

Sophia looked at her.

"Have you forgotten what Lisa looked like walking today after being called to Andrei's tent yesterday?"

Anna's face went pale.

Lisa was another girl from the figure skating team who had been called by Andrei for a talk last night.

When she came back this morning, she had bruises on her neck, was limping, and had hollow eyes.

"I'll do it," Katya said, gritting her teeth.

"Staying here is death anyway."

"Me too." Anna clenched her fists, even though her body was still trembling.

Sophia nodded: "Good. Now listen to me..."

She lowered her voice and quickly laid out the plan.

...

Over an hour later, the camp was in a semi-dormant state.

Hoarse laughter and roars came from Andrei's tent; he was indeed drinking.

The two men guarding the food had also received some, and were dozing off against the wooden stakes outside.

The three of them, Sophia, Anna, and Katya, lay in the grass, waiting for a full twenty minutes.

"Now," she whispered.

The three of them approached the food tent as silently as cats.

The tent was small, built with branches and animal skins, with half a curtain hanging at the entrance.

Inside were all their food reserves: a dozen compressed biscuits, some dried meat strips, and half a bucket of murky stream water.

Katya was responsible for keeping watch, while Anna and Sophia slipped into the tent.

"Take the biscuits and the dried meat."

Sophia gave the order quickly.

Anna's hands were trembling, but she still quickly grabbed a few biscuits and stuffed them into her bosom.

Sophia aimed for the dried meat; this stuff was more filling.

The two of them moved quickly, and in less than two minutes, all their pockets were full.

Just as they were about to leave, Katya's lowered voice suddenly came from outside the tent: "Someone's coming!"

Sophia's heart pounded wildly.

"Hide!" She pulled Anna and rolled behind a pile of animal skins in the corner of the tent.

The curtain was lifted, and a drunken man swayed inside.

He was hiccuping, fumbling for something in the tent, muttering to himself:

"Damn it, what did I come here to find?"

His hand fumbled through the pile of animal skins, less than half a meter away from Sophia and Anna.

Sophia held her breath, her hand pressing on the small knife at her waist—she had found it on that zombie; although it was rusty, it was better than nothing.

The man fumbled for a long time, seemingly unable to find what he wanted, and left while cursing.

The tent plunged back into darkness.

Sophia and Anna waited another half a minute, confirming there was no movement outside, before carefully crawling out from behind the animal skins.

"Go!"

The three of them slipped out of the tent like ghosts and disappeared into the night.

They didn't dare take the main entrance of the camp—there were people on guard duty there, even if they were dozing off.

Instead, they squeezed out through a hole in the broken wooden fence at the back of the camp.

Less than fifty meters out of the camp, a shout suddenly came from behind: "Who? Who's there!"

They had been discovered!

"Run!" Sophia roared.

The three of them took off running.

More shouts and footsteps came from behind, along with Andrei's angry roar:

"Chase them! Bring them back! Damn it, how dare they steal my food!"

They ran desperately through the dark jungle.

Sophia led the way in front, with Anna and Katya following closely behind. Branches scratched their clothes and skin, but no one dared to stop.

"This way!"

Sophia remembered the coordinates on the system map; that was the rendezvous point she had agreed upon with Qi Yun.

The footsteps of the pursuers behind them grew closer, interspersed with the men's curses.

Sophia could even hear the sound of a bow being drawn—someone among them had brought a homemade bow and arrow!

"Swish!"

An arrow grazed Sophia's ear and stuck into the tree trunk in front of her.

"Don't separate! Run together!" Sophia said sharply.

She knew that once they separated, with Anna's injured state, she definitely wouldn't escape.

The three of them had to stay together and look out for each other.

They specifically dove into thorn bushes and low shrubs, using their athletic flexibility and sense of balance to maneuver through the complex terrain.

Sophia led the way, Katya supported the injured Anna, and the three of them formed a tight squad.

The footsteps behind them gradually faded—apparently, the pursuers didn't expect them to dare to run into such difficult terrain.

But the three of them didn't dare to relax and continued to sprint.

...

The rendezvous point.

This was a forest clearing near a stream, where the surrounding environment could be barely seen by moonlight.

Sophia was the first to rush into the clearing and immediately turned to help Anna.

Katya followed closely behind, and the three of them stood back-to-back, vigilantly scanning their surroundings.

The clearing was empty.

There was only the rustling of the wind through the leaves and the babbling sound of the stream in the distance.

"They... haven't come yet?" Anna's voice was filled with unease, the wound on her right leg still oozing blood.

"Let's wait a little longer." She forced herself to stay calm, but her hand holding the small knife was trembling slightly.

The three of them hid behind the bushes on the edge of the clearing, and Sophia pulled out the food from her bosom to count: nine compressed biscuits, fifteen strips of dried meat.

"Enough for us to eat for at least a week," Katya estimated, but her eyes were also scanning the surroundings uneasily.

Time ticked by, second by second.

Five minutes, four minutes, three minutes...

The agreed-upon time had already passed by 10 minutes.

The clearing was still empty.

"They... aren't coming, are they?"

Anna's voice carried a hint of a sob.

"Wait a little longer."

Sophia said, but even she didn't believe it anymore.

Perhaps Qi Yun was just toying with them. Perhaps this was truly a trap. Perhaps Andrei's men would rush out of the forest at any moment.

"How about... we leave?"

"Before the pursuers find this place."

Katya whispered.

"Go where? With this food, where can we go? How many days can we last?"

Sophia smiled bitterly.

The three of them fell into silence.

Despair flooded them like a cold tide.

*

Meanwhile, in the dense forest thirty meters across from the clearing, Qi Yun was quietly squatting on the branch of a large tree.

Space Perception was constantly sensing the changes around him.

Xia Jin was squatting on another lower branch, with her blood-red saber across her knees, her eyes sharp as an eagle's.

Chen Xiaolin was lying in the bushes on the ground, her Yongyi crossbow already cocked, the arrowhead moving slowly with her gaze, sweeping over every shadow where someone might be hiding.

They had been observing here for ten minutes.

From the moment Sophia and the others stumbled into the clearing, Qi Yun had been watching.

Watching their panicked appearance, watching their back-to-back vigilant posture, watching them carefully count the food, watching their eyes become increasingly desperate as time passed.

"There is no ambush within five hundred meters; it has been confirmed repeatedly," Xia Jin said in a breath that was almost inaudible.

"Their expressions don't look faked."

"If it were a trap, they wouldn't be this... desperate," Chen Xiaolin added in a low voice, her eyes fixed on Sophia.

Qi Yun didn't speak, just continued to observe.

He waited another five minutes.

Until Sophia and the others truly began to consider leaving, until Anna's tears finally fell.

Qi Yun leaped down from the tree lightly, landing without a sound.

He made a gesture to Xia Jin, who understood and silently circled to the other side of the clearing, sealing off any possible retreat path.

Chen Xiaolin continued to remain hidden, her crossbow aimed not at Sophia and the others, but at the forest behind them, just in case.

Qi Yun walked calmly out of the bushes and stepped into the clearing under the moonlight.