2: Underneath A Thousand Skies

201 Vixen Above, Mensao Below (15)

There were no lifeboats left.

The moment Song Jia stepped out onto the promenade deck of Deck 8, also called the lifeboat deck, she immediately saw the empty space where the lifeboats were supposed to be. It was windy, cold, and the only light came from the fluorescent lights shining above them.

The ship was swaying gently, and Song Jia started to run across the narrow deck, wanting to see if all of them were truly gone.

Ye Minzhe pulled her back. "Jia, let me go first, there might be zombies here."

She looked at his serious expression and nodded.

Sheng Li, Wen Yan, and Gu Yuan soon caught up. Gu Yuan looked at the empty space where the lifeboats were supposed to be and all the blood drained from his face.

"If they used the lifeboats to get off the ship, why didn't they tell us? Shouldn't there be alarms? Where are the staff and crew?"

His trembling voice was nearly covered by the howling wind as his cold hands grabbed the brass railing for support.

At this point, Song Jia knew that panic was starting to set in. They were still far away from land, and by the look of things, they couldn't get off the ship even if they wanted to.

"All ships exceeding five thousand tons are equipped with a GPS system capable of tracking their current location down to the number of meters and even the direction that they're facing," Song Jia said. "So it's not as if we can vanish and they can just leave us missing for a long period of time. Even if they did, the lack of communication would immediately alert the port that something is wrong."

After hearing her words, their expressions eased up a bit. Song Jia didn't tell them that from the start, there was something suspicious going on. Had this been a normal cruise ship, even if there was a zombie outbreak, it shouldn't be this chaotic and disorganized.

Ye Minzhe led the way as they walked forward upon the promenade deck, on guard for any stray zombies. Because the cruise ship was large, it took them a while before they came to a pair of sliding doors that directed them to the forward lobby. Ye Minzhe stopped just before the sliding doors and held back Song Jia.

She looked up at him with a puzzled look.

Ye Minzhe slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her back against his chest, taking a step back away from the sliding doors. He turned his head and placed a finger against his lips to warn the others.

"There are about ten zombies inside the lobby," he told them in a low voice. "I can take them down, but I'll need some help."

He looked at Gu Yuan, raising a silent question.

Gu Yuan shivered. He paled and said, "Let's not go this way then. We can just go back the way we came, it'll be safer."

Ye Minzhe snorted. "We need to take a look at the lifeboat deck on the opposite side of the ship too. It'll be faster if we go through here."

Song Jia struggled out of his hold.

"Let me go, I know how to fight."

Ye Minzhe looked down at her and pinched her nose. "Of course you know how to fight, you're a Ye. But never in a million years, Ye Jia. Never mind, I think I can do this alone."

Song Jia pursed her lips. Of course she knew that he could probably do it alone, and she wasn't really needed. However, if he got bitten...

Song Jia remembered the sparse details of the transmigration mission Nova had given her. A zombie outbreak on a cruise ship, with the male god as one of its passengers. In fact, the zombie outbreak wasn't really the most important point, since it wouldn't be long before the outside world would be overrun with zombies as well.