Chapter 371

Chapter 371: Chapter 371

At this moment, only Suzy’s RV and Tina’s vehicles occupied the empty gas station.

Tina stepped out of her car, carrying a flashlight over to the fuel pumps, and bent down to inspect them.

Standing back up, she shook her head. "It’s completely dry. Drained empty long ago."

She didn’t display any obvious disappointment, simply shining her flashlight around the area as if scanning for anything else that might be useful.

In the distance, her teammates also got out of their cars. One walked toward the gas station’s convenience store and pushed against the door—it was locked tight—before circling around to check the side.

Moments later, faint voices rose in hushed conversation, low enough to sound like muffled whispers against the open expanse of the night.

Suzy stepped out of the RV as well, standing by her vehicle without rushing to draw near.

After a beat, she walked up to Tina and asked softly, "Miss Becker, what do you think that was back there?"

Tina glanced at her and shook her head. "I really don’t know. It looked... like a person?"

That hand reaching out had been structured no differently from a human hand; the sole distinction was its stark, unnerving skin tone.

"A person? But a living person’s skin wouldn’t turn that color," a voice chimed in.

One of Tina’s teammates came walking around from the side of the station, carrying a rusted iron pipe he had likely scavenged from some hidden corner.

Walking over to the two women, he leaned the pipe against a tire, casting a lingering glance back toward the road behind them, even though the void was long gone. "That color... didn’t look like anything alive."

"Maybe a mutant," another teammate offered as he walked over empty-handed from the convenience store.

The eyes of the group turned toward him.

Instead of dwelling on the topic, he pointed toward the convenience store behind them. "The front door’s locked, and the side windows are boarded up tight. We can’t get in."

Stepping up beside Tina, he added, "What haven’t we seen since the apocalypse started? But something popping up out of thin air like that... tsk, yeah, that’s definitely a first."

Tina didn’t argue, remaining silent for a brief moment.

After running their words through her mind, she spoke up firmly: "Whatever it was, it’s behind us now. Let’s focus on finding fuel first. If there’s none here, we keep moving forward."

With those words, she looked back at Suzy. "Do you have enough fuel left in your tank? If not, once we find some, we can spare a portion for you."

A swell of warmth brushed through Suzy’s heart once more. She shook her head and answered softly, "I have plenty of fuel, so don’t worry about me."

Tina nodded. "Alright, I’ll stop bugging you then. I’ll search around a bit more—you head back inside to rest." 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

"Okay." Suzy turned and walked back toward the RV.

They would still be traveling along the same route as Tina and her group for roughly another thirty kilometers before parting ways.

Once aboard, Suzy called out a quick greeting to Mark before stepping into the bathroom.

Locking the door behind her, she flashed directly into her spatial realm.

At this point, the odds of Tina’s group finding gasoline were practically zero.

So much time had passed since the apocalypse began; a precious commodity like fuel had long been stripped bare by scavengers. Judging by the state of this gas station, their chances of finding anything here were nonexistent.

Not that it mattered to Suzy. She had fuel—and a substantial amount of it, too.

When the apocalypse first hit, Suzy had spent most of her time holed up inside her safehouse, barely driving anywhere. She hadn’t even consumed one percent of her stored fuel supplies.

Recalling Tina’s warmth and goodwill toward her, Suzy decided to set aside a canister for them. It wasn’t that she was unwilling to give more; giving any more than that would simply be too difficult to explain.

Suzy walked over to the section of her spatial realm where fuel was stored, filled up a generous 30-liter gas canister, and stepped back out.

When she emerged from the bathroom, she realized the RV had already left the gas station.

"That was fast." Suzy walked over and took her place in the passenger seat.

Mark cast a brief glance at her. "Yeah, they said there was nothing in the station, so they decided to move on."

Suzy didn’t press the matter. Pulling out her hand-drawn map and her tablet from the drawer, she scanned their upcoming route.

Spreading the paper out, her finger traced slowly along the drawn path.

Tina’s team needed to keep heading north, whereas she and Mark would be veering east. After driving roughly thirty more kilometers, both parties would hit a fork in the road where they would officially part ways.

Mark drove at a steady, moderate speed along the smooth pavement. He occasionally glanced at the road conditions ahead, asking no questions.

Suzy folded up the map and placed it back into the drawer.

Leaning back against the seat, she gazed out the window. The night remained pitch-black, with only a small patch of asphalt illuminated by their headlights.

After driving a while longer, the road ahead broadened. The vague silhouettes of a few trees emerged in the distance, swaying gently in the night breeze. The fields on either side were left behind, replaced by low shrubs and scattered patches of desolate land.

Her fingers lightly tapped against her knee as she pondered an appropriate moment to speak up.

After a moment, Suzy turned her head and said to Mark, "Pull over up ahead when you find a spot. I have something to give them."

Mark didn’t ask what it was; he simply nodded and eased off the gas, scanning ahead for a suitable turnout.

About two or three minutes later, a relatively flat, open patch of land appeared by the roadside, free of heavy debris or potholed trenches.

Mark turned the wheel, smoothly pulling the RV off the main road and bringing it to a stop on the open ground.

Unbuckling her seatbelt, Suzy pushed the door open and stepped out.

Tina’s car had already slowed down a short distance ahead and pulled over as well. She leaned half her body out of the passenger window, looking back as if to check why Suzy had suddenly stopped.

Seeing Suzy step out, Tina pushed her door open, hopped down, and walked over a few steps with a tinge of concern in her voice: "What’s wrong? Engine trouble?"

"No, I just have something for you."

Suzy dragged a heavy canister from behind the vehicle down to her feet, setting it onto the ground with a dull thud. "It’s gasoline. You’ll probably need it on the road."