To the Start of a New World

2.6

Lu Hao had run deep into the forest, searching out the source of whatever had made that scream. Yet after half a minute, instinct made him stop his steps.

Though he was now in the forest, he couldn't sense the presence of another human being. Even the SG car seemed to have faded from existence.

It was then that Lu Hao realized something was wrong. He turned around in a circle, looking at his surroundings, but all he saw was the outline of trees in the white haze.

Alarms rang in his head. He didn't know of anything that could cause something like this - unless it was a zombie or an ability user with similar strength to his. Either way, it wasn't a great situation.

Lu Hao turned to run back toward the road, but even after a minute of running, he remained in the forest. The ability had trapped him here. Cursing, Lu Hao came to a stop. Running blindly wouldn't get him anywhere, so he closed his eyes and tried to focus his senses.

After some concentration, flicker of a presence made itself known. Though he had the creeping sensation of being led into a trap, Lu Hao steeled himself and walked toward it. With any luck, he would find the source of this fog and get a chance to destroy it.

Lu Hao stepped into a clearing. It was there that he found something that made him stop in his tracks.

"...Who are you?" Lu Hao spoke.

The man standing in the clearing slowly turned around.

"Keep driving," Hong Sheng said.

"What the hell is going on?" the SG driver shouted, hands desperately gripping the wheel. He looked behind at the horde of zombies chasing after the car. "I've been driving for thirty minutes! Why aren't we out yet? The hell's with this fog? Shit, the boss said there were only two zombies, what're all these behind us then?!"

Hong Sheng opened his bag. Everything was sorted into its own compartment, so without even needing to look, he reached in and took out a palm-sized object.

He then rolled down the car window, leaned out, and threw it behind the car. He sat back down and rolled up the window just in time for a loud boom to rock the car.

"Oh shit!" the driver yelled. "You have bombs?!" He looked at the rear-view mirror. "Hell! They're still not dead yet!"

Hong Sheng tightly gripped his bag and pursed his lips, mentally itemizing all of the supplies available to him. It was enough to survive a few level 5 and maybe level 6 zombies, but not enough to take down a horde of them.

"Shit, how are we getting out of here? The car'll be out of gas eventually - can't fill it back up while I'm driving either!"

"How many cans are in the back?" Hong Sheng asked, turning in his seat to look into the trunk.

"One!" the driver shouted.

That was unfortunate. Hong Sheng looked out the window again, noting that the number of zombies was lower than before.

They drove for approximately seven more minutes, the SG driver continuing to curse the entire time. After seven minutes, Hong Sheng interrupted him and said, "Be prepared to use your ability."

"What?"

"We're going in a loop."

"What the hell does that-"

The driver cut off suddenly with a shout. He raised one hand to activate his ability, forming a barrier in front of the car just in time to plow the zombies in front of them out of the way. The car jolted up and down as it ran over the corpses of the other zombies which were dead on the ground.