Chapter 339 - 168: Exchange

Chapter 339: Chapter 168: Exchange

During the day, Xu Mo drove through two towns.

The first town wasn’t large, mostly consisting of single-story houses with the occasional two-story building. Much like the places he’d passed before, the streets were empty, with no active zombies in sight. However, the faint roars of zombies could be heard coming from within the buildings.

Some of the sounds were close, coming from houses right by the road. Others were distant, originating from deep within the town. But not a single zombie rushed out.

Xu Mo glanced at the black holes of the windows and doorways, a theory forming in his mind.

’It’s probably the sustained high temperatures. It must have pushed their bodily functions to a critical point. They don’t want to move, or rather, they can’t. They can only hide in the cool shade of the buildings, letting out meaningless roars as they wait for the sun to set.’

Xu Mo even felt the urge to find a hiding spot and observe them. ’Will they completely dehydrate and die in this heat? If they do, that would be great news for survivors. We’d just have to get through the hottest months, and maybe we could clear out large safe zones.’

But the thought only lingered in his mind for a moment before Xu Mo suppressed it. He didn’t have the time.

He couldn’t afford to waste time here on an uncertain observation.

The second town was a bit larger than the first, but the situation was the same. The roars of zombies echoed from within the buildings, yet not a single one emerged. Xu Mo even saw a blurry figure moving behind the window of a two-story building, but it never once stepped into the sunlight.

Seeing this, Xu Mo looked away and continued driving. The weather was so hot, it seemed even the zombies had abandoned their instincts.

Xu Mo recalled the scene he had witnessed before: hundreds, even thousands of zombies rushing into a river to drink. They got thirsty, too; they needed water. In extreme heat, a zombie’s survival instinct would be triggered, driving it to find a water source at all costs.

As evening approached, Xu Mo found a secluded spot early and prepared to make camp.

It was an abandoned farmhouse, far from the road and surrounded by an open stretch of wasteland.

Xu Mo set up his tent in the open area outside the farmhouse and built a campfire.

Xu Mo had spent the first half of the previous night fleeing a wildfire and the second half listening to radio stories. After driving all day today, he desperately needed some rest.

As he tended to the campfire, Xu Mo calculated how much sleep he might get tonight.

Then, he felt a gaze upon him. It was faint and distant. If Xu Mo’s perception weren’t far beyond that of an ordinary person, he would never have noticed it.

However, Xu Mo didn’t stop what he was doing. He continued to tend the fire, fiddling with the firewood, but his peripheral vision had already swept in that direction—behind a dead tree in the distance, he could faintly make out the silhouette of a head.

’A human! And a pretty amateur observer at that.’

Xu Mo’s heart tightened slightly. In the apocalypse, humans were sometimes more terrifying than zombies or mutated creatures. Zombies had no reason; they only lunged and bit. Mutated creatures had only instinct; they only hunted. But humans could think, could plot, and could stab you in the back when you weren’t looking.

But the prying gaze didn’t last long. After about a minute or two, it vanished. Xu Mo’s peripheral vision swept over the dead tree again; the head was gone.

’They’re gone?’

Xu Mo was a bit suspicious. ’If they had malicious intentions, they wouldn’t have left after just a brief observation. But if they didn’t mean any harm, why were they spying on me so furtively?’

Xu Mo didn’t let his guard down. He continued to build the fire, placing the Barre where he could grab it at a moment’s notice.

The minutes ticked by. The sun set completely, and the sky began to darken.

The campfire’s glow illuminated Xu Mo’s face as he sat beside it, holding a water bottle and slowly drinking from it.

Just then, Xu Mo saw three people.

Two adults and a child: a man, a woman, and a little girl who looked to be five or six years old. A rifle was slung over the man’s shoulder, while the woman held the child, who was draped over her shoulder, seemingly asleep. They approached from a distance, making no effort to hide as they walked straight toward the campfire. He recognized one of them as the person who had been spying on him earlier.

A flicker of movement in Xu Mo’s eyes. ’Walking over so directly is a pretty clear sign of goodwill. If they were really up to no good, they wouldn’t have shown themselves so openly.’

Xu Mo set down his water bottle and watched the three of them draw closer.

The trio stopped about fifty or sixty meters away. They stood there, hesitating, as if unsure whether to approach any further.

Xu Mo watched for a moment, then raised a hand and gave them a wave.

The man visibly relaxed. He turned and said something to the woman, and then the three of them resumed walking toward the fire.

As they got closer, Xu Mo could make out their features.

The man was in his early thirties, with dark, weathered skin and deep wrinkles on his face, looking like he had endured a great deal of hardship. He wore a faded old shirt and tattered pants. The shoes on his feet were nearly worn through. The rifle on his back was an old model, its body showing signs of rust, but it seemed reasonably well-maintained.

The woman was younger, maybe in her twenties. She had an average appearance, but her eyes were very clear. She wore a floral dress, though it was so dirty its original color was impossible to tell. The little girl slept soundly in the woman’s arms. Her small face was smudged with dirt, but her breathing was steady; she seemed fine.

Xu Mo sized them up, saying nothing.