Chapter 95: Zombies (1)

After estimating the travel time on the road and the adjustment period needed after arriving at the university, Everly decided to set out seven days in advance.

Misha’s parents were unable to leave because of other matters, so the original plan was for Everly, Misha, and Old John to make the trip together. However, two days before departure, Buddy suddenly fell ill.

She was already a very, very old dog. Her eyes had grown cloudy with cataracts, and both her kidneys and heart had developed problems to varying degrees.

This time, thanks to being taken to the hospital in time, Buddy was saved. But after the examination, the doctor said that Buddy probably had only a little over a month left to live. Old John had originally planned to leave Buddy in Misha’s parents’ care while he was away from home, but after this happened, he could no longer bring himself to leave her side.

“This may be the last stretch of Buddy’s life. Grandpa, you should stay and take care of her. On the way to school, Misha and I will look after each other.”

Everly hugged Buddy in front of the doghouse. Resting her forehead against the softly whimpering dog’s head, she stayed there quietly for a while before speaking, holding back her tears.

Old John stood silently beside them and gently patted his granddaughter’s head.

Without realizing it, Everly had grown from that tiny, fragile baby into someone healthy, strong, and full of life.

And now, like a fledgling whose wings had gradually grown strong, the time had finally come for her to leave the nest and spread her wings.

“Go on, my girl. You will always be your grandfather’s pride.”

…

Early morning, August 18.

Driving his Wrangler, Old John personally took Everly and Misha over the towering Iramore Mountains and delivered them to the entrance of Sunken International Airport.

“Goodbye. Stay safe and take care of yourselves on the journey.”

“Goodbye, Grandpa. And you too, my dear Buddy…”

Everly hugged her grandfather and the dog—who struggled to stand up on the car seat—to say their goodbyes.

After going through security and a long wait, the plane took off at 14:20 in the afternoon. Outside the window, the scenery on the ground quickly shrank. Soon, thick clouds blocked Everly’s view. After eighteen years, she was leaving the land where she had grown up for the first time, and a faint yet lingering homesickness quietly stirred within her.

At 17:48 in the evening, after a brief bout of turbulence, the plane landed smoothly.

By the time Everly and Misha wheeled their suitcases out of the airport, the city that greeted them was completely unfamiliar.

The next flight from Radyard to Concord would not depart until forty hours later. Everly and Misha would need to stay in Radyard for a day and a half. The hotel had already been booked in advance. It was a four-star hotel near the airport that partnered with the airport itself, and a double room cost 350 US dollars per night.

The hotel wasn’t far away. After sitting on the plane for so long, Everly and Misha wanted to stretch their legs, so instead of taking a taxi, the two of them slowly followed the navigation on their phones, dragging their suitcases along the road.

When they passed a crossroads, Everly turned her head and, by chance, caught sight of a somewhat familiar face in a car waiting at the red light.

Blond hair, blue-gray eyes, pale skin, and elegant manners—he was a young man who carried the unmistakable air of an old-fashioned Brittanian aristocrat. Everly had the vague feeling she had seen him somewhere before, yet no matter how hard she racked her brain, she couldn’t remember when, where, or under what circumstances.

Could he be some kind of celebrity…?

Before long, the light turned green. The low-key black sedan started moving and quickly disappeared down the road. Everly withdrew her gaze and continued forward, pulling her suitcase. Not long after, they arrived at the hotel.

Their reserved room was on the third floor. As usual, before settling in, Everly first took a photo of the indoor evacuation map and saved it on her phone.

Horror Movie Survival Rule #3: Always familiarize yourself with the escape routes in advance.

Since the journey had been exhausting, the two girls simply had dinner at the hotel restaurant, tidied up a bit, and went to sleep.

The entire next day would be free for them to explore.

The airport was some distance from the city center, and Radyard itself was a small city with few attractions. After discussing it for a while, Everly and Misha decided to visit the nearby Radyard State Park.

The park had free admission, though activities such as the cable car, sightseeing boats, and horseback riding required additional fees.

Since it was a weekday, and the park was located far from the city, there weren’t many visitors. Everly and Misha—two girls with excellent stamina—played their way from the foot of the mountain all the way to the top, then took the cable car down to the pier. From there, they boarded a sightseeing boat and made a big loop along the river called Chata.

By the time they returned to land, aside from being a little hungry and having slightly sore calves, the two of them were still full of energy.

They found a hot dog stand and sat down for a late-afternoon snack.

Misha had the habit of scrolling through her phone while eating. In the middle of their snack, she suddenly handed her phone to Everly, gesturing for her to watch a video on the screen.

The video’s background appeared to be a bustling downtown district, seemingly during rush hour. Traffic packed the streets, horns blared endlessly, and pedestrians hurried along the sidewalks with laptops or bags of bread tucked under their arms, moving quickly through the crowd.

Yet in such a busy place, a brutal attack suddenly erupted.

The victim was a white-collar office worker wearing a shirt and tie. He had been walking normally along the street when, from the side, a ragged-looking homeless man suddenly rushed out. Without a word, the man grabbed the office worker’s shoulders with both hands and lunged forward, biting toward his neck.

“Ah! Aaaah!”

The homeless man bit down with terrifying force. From the angle of the recording, one could even see a large spray of blood shooting out from the office worker’s neck like a red ribbon, splattering onto nearby pedestrians.

“Help! Somebody help him!”

“Hey, what are you doing?! Let that man go!”

“Police! Where are the police?!”

Screams erupted everywhere. Drawn by the horrifying scene unfolding on the street, people quickly rushed forward to intervene, while others began dialing the police.

Unexpectedly, although the homeless man looked thin and frail, his strength was astonishing. Two burly men over six feet tall rushed up and tried to pull him away, yet they still couldn’t free the office worker from the homeless man’s jaws. One of the tattooed men was even bitten by the attacker during the struggle.

The chaos continued for a while. Just as the office worker seemed about to lose consciousness, the police finally arrived at the scene. After repeated warnings proved useless, an officer shot and killed the homeless attacker.

The video Misha showed Everly ended abruptly the moment the homeless man collapsed after being shot.

“What is this?”

“This is an assault that happened in downtown Radyard a few hours ago. It’s spreading like crazy on the local forums. It’s terrifying. Good thing we didn’t go hang out downtown today.”

“What happened to that homeless man? Why would he suddenly bite someone?”

“No idea. It just happened not long ago, so the investigation results haven’t been released yet. But some people say he might’ve gotten high on drugs…”

Was it really that simple…?

Everly took the phone and replayed the video. When it reached the moment the homeless man rushed out, she slowed it to 0.5 speed, examining it frame by frame.

She noticed a conspicuous scratch mark on the arm the homeless man had extended. His pupils looked pale and cloudy, his eyes filled with blood vessels. Rather than resembling a drug addict, he looked more like someone infected and mutated by some kind of virus.

After all, Everly had never seen a drug addict whose eyes looked like they had cataracts.

Of course, there was another possibility: perhaps the homeless man already had cataracts. But that would be far too coincidental.

After finishing her analysis of the video, Everly was about to hand the phone back to Misha when her gaze accidentally swept across a black car in the upper-right corner of the video.

Her hand suddenly froze mid-motion.

Everly took the phone back, tapped screenshot, and slowly zoomed in on that corner of the video.

It was a very low-key black sedan, parked by the roadside not far from where the attack had happened. Although the windows were covered with privacy film, making it impossible to see who was inside, Everly recognized the license plate immediately—she had seen it just yesterday, and the impression had stuck in her mind.

It was the car the blond man had been riding in yesterday.

Who was that man? Could he have something to do with the homeless man who had suddenly gone berserk? And that homeless man—what exactly had happened to him? Was it some kind of infectious disease, or was this practically the opening act of a zombie outbreak?

The moment the keywords infectious disease and hospital crossed her mind, a sudden flash of realization struck Everly.

She finally remembered where she had seen the man in the car before—

He was Grant Megan, the missing descendant of the founder of the Megan Medical Group, who had disappeared after the “Butterfly Falling Incident.”

Horror Movie Survival Rule #1: Pay attention to the clues.

Anything connected to the Megan Group, which had previously caused both the “Teeth Case” and the “Butterfly Falling Incident,” was never good news. Based on that principle, Everly had good reason to believe that Radyard would soon become unsafe.

And in horror stories involving infectious diseases or zombie viruses, staying in crowded places was extremely dangerous.

Everly glanced at the tourists passing around them, then stood up and extended her hand to Misha.

“There might be danger here. Let’s go back first.”

“Okay.”

Everly felt immensely relieved that Jack Feld Airport had been built in a remote area far from the city center. That gave her and Misha some buffer time.

The two of them ran out of the park, hailed a taxi, and hurried back to the hotel.

On the way, Misha continued browsing the forums on her phone. Sure enough, following the news about the homeless man biting someone, several more similar attacks had occurred in the city center. People in the comment section were already speculating that a new infectious disease outbreak might be happening, and some were considering leaving the city.

After entering the hotel, the two girls locked the door, fastened the security chain, and quickly began packing their luggage.

Before leaving home, Everly and Misha had carefully separated their belongings. Important travel necessities—such as driver’s licenses, credit cards, and cash—were all kept in their backpacks, which they rarely touched so they could leave immediately just by grabbing them. Their suitcases, on the other hand, contained less important items that wouldn’t matter much if lost, like spare clothes or souvenirs bought during the trip.

Everly had come back to the hotel specifically to retrieve her backpack. Since they were heading out to a tourist attraction that day and she wasn’t familiar with the local public security, she was worried about pickpockets. So aside from the panacea, she hadn’t brought anything else important with her—no documents or credit cards.

As for the suitcases, whether they took them or not didn’t really matter.

The room had been booked online, and the hotel fee had already been paid in advance. Now that every second counted, the two girls didn’t bother checking out. They simply slung on their backpacks, left through the hotel’s front entrance, and hailed a taxi to the airport.

On the way back from the park earlier, Everly and Misha had already booked the nearest departing flight on their phones. As long as they could reach the airport and endure the wait before takeoff, they would be able to leave Radyard immediately and arrive in a safer new city.

However, things did not go as they hoped.

Just as the taxi pulled up at the airport entrance, a piercing scream rang out from inside the check-in counter area.

Everly rolled down the window and looked through the glass doors.

At the center of the commotion, a short, heavyset man in a white T-shirt was roaring loudly, as if he had gone completely mad. He had pinned a young woman to the ground and was savagely gnawing at her neck.

Beside the young woman lay a man in a suit, his neck covered in blood, barely clinging to life.

The moment Everly’s gaze landed on the man in the white T-shirt, her expression suddenly changed.

Her danger radar was going off.

Was it an infectious disease, or the start of a zombie scenario?

The infected attacking people in a frenzied biting frenzy, with the infection spreading through wounds—it felt far more like a zombie outbreak. But honestly, it didn’t matter what genre it was.

They absolutely could not stay in this airport.

There was still an hour before the flight was scheduled to take off. With that much time left, the chances of something going terribly wrong here were far too high.

“Hello, we’d like to change our destination. Please take us to Radyard State Park.”

Everly turned her head and gestured for the taxi driver to leave immediately.