Chapter 352 - 172: Man in the Sand

Chapter 352: Chapter 172: Man in the Sand

The SUV maintained a steady speed through the desert, only slowing slightly on the uphill sections. The dunes varied between gentle and steep slopes. He could power up the gentle ones in one go, but the steep ones required caution, or he risked getting stuck.

Xu Mo had learned a few things from experience. When he encountered a steep dune, he would slow down and drive diagonally across its face to avoid getting bogged down. With his hands on the wheel, he scanned his surroundings vigilantly.

There was nothing but sand in every direction, with rolling dunes stretching to the horizon. Initially, Xu Mo had assumed he wouldn’t encounter any living creatures in the desert.

After all, there was no water, no vegetation—nothing for any creature to survive on. The zombies had all died of thirst, and the Mutant Beasts probably wouldn’t wander into a godforsaken place like this either.

But Xu Mo was wrong. Just a moment ago, as his gaze swept over a relatively flat patch of sand ahead, he spotted something unusual.

On a stretch of what had been flat sand, a small mound had suddenly appeared. It was about the size of a washbasin, bulging up from beneath the earth and causing the sand on top to rise slightly.

Xu Mo saw it clearly. The mound was moving, heading toward his SUV.

The mound wasn’t moving fast, but its pace was steady, like an unseen snake slithering beneath the sand.

Xu Mo frowned.

’What is that?’

He couldn’t see what was under the sand, only the outline of the moving mound.

Xu Mo’s first instinct was to stop and investigate, but he thought better of it.

The thing wasn’t moving quickly. Xu Mo estimated its speed to be about that of a person’s slow jog—much slower than his SUV. As long as he didn’t stop, there was no way it could catch him.

So Xu Mo paid it no mind and kept driving.

In the rearview mirror, the mound was still moving across the sand, chasing after the SUV. But as the distance between them grew, it quickly vanished from sight. He didn’t know if it had given up or was simply obscured by a dune.

Xu Mo looked away and continued driving, but soon the phenomenon started happening more and more frequently.

He hadn’t driven much farther when he saw another mound. This one appeared on the slope of a dune to his front left, emerging from the sand and beginning to move toward the SUV. Xu Mo glanced at it, paid it no mind, and kept driving.

After another stretch of driving, one appeared to his right. Then another in front, then one behind, and soon they were appearing from all directions.

The mounds seemed to have been disturbed by the sound of the SUV, emerging from beneath the sand one after another. They were all roughly the same size and moved at about the same speed, all of them chasing after the vehicle. Their speed was no match for the SUV, however, and they were always left behind in the dust.

Xu Mo observed the mounds as he drove. He realized they seemed to be agitated by the sound of his engine. They would emerge from the sand and move toward the sound, trying to locate its source.

But they were simply too slow to catch the SUV.

And so, Xu Mo drove on. Every now and then, he would see more mounds emerge from the sand and move toward his vehicle. None of them caused him any trouble. They would appear in the distance, give chase from afar, and then be left far behind.

But as their numbers grew, Xu Mo’s interest was piqued.

Judging by the mounds’ size and movement, they had to be some kind of creature. There were a lot of them, too, spread over a wide area. They normally lay dormant beneath the sand, perfectly still, but would emerge to track any disturbance they sensed.

Once his curiosity was piqued, it was hard to suppress. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Xu Mo mulled it over and decided to find an opportunity to see exactly what was causing these mounds.

After another ten minutes or so, the SUV crested a relatively high dune and descended to a flat stretch of sand at its base.

On this flat expanse, Xu Mo saw another mound moving toward him. This one wasn’t far, only about thirty or forty meters away.

Xu Mo stopped the car, grabbed the AK47 from the passenger seat, pushed the door open, and got out.

The mound was still moving. It seemed to sense that the SUV had stopped, because it picked up its pace, moving slightly faster than the others had. The bulge on the surface grew more pronounced, as if something was about to erupt from the sand.

BANG!

Xu Mo pulled the trigger.

The gunshot echoed across the empty desert. The bullet struck the mound, kicking up a spray of sand and dust.

SKREEE—!

A sharp cry of pain erupted from beneath the sand. The sound was difficult to describe—part insect-like screech, part the shriek of a stepped-on rat.

The sand churned violently, and then Xu Mo saw something black leap out.

It was a pitch-black, disk-shaped creature the size of a washbasin. It shot out of the sand, leaping a good half-meter into the air. The moment it was free, it hurtled straight toward Xu Mo.

Xu Mo was ready. The moment the creature leaped out, his AK47 was already aimed at it. While it was still in midair, Xu Mo pulled the trigger again.

BANG!

Another shot rang out.

The bullet struck the creature dead center. It shuddered violently in midair and let out an even more bloodcurdling SKREEE—! before its body went limp, tumbling from the sky and crashing heavily onto the sand.