Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Grandmother zombie before his eyes did not sense the danger though. Since it could not grab Tang Ling, it greedily stuffed the red flesh of the iron-toothed mole into its mouth.
“Stop eating!” Tang Ling bellowed He raised his hand but never curled it into a fist to punch the zombie into smithereens. Instead, he watched his grandmother stuff the hairy iron-toothed mole into its mouth. His heart was painful and source, he snatched the iron teeth mole and tossed it aside.
“Wuuuur!”
Grandmother zombie was even more furious after Tang Ling snatched the food away from its hand. It growled louder and sharper, and the amassing zombies moved quicker than before.
“Grandmother…” Tang Ling looked at his grandmother’s bloody face, really wanting to cry her name out. His soft calling and grieve could no longer summon his family back to his side.
However, he still could not go with the most logical option, which was to kill the zombie before his eyes.
He even thought of holding the zombie tightly, wiping the blood at its mouth away, and tidying its messy and dirty clothes, but…
In the end, Tang Ling threw the carcass away, and at that exact moment, he wiped the blood on its dirty face quickly before turning around to run.
…
Other than running away, Tang Ling had no other option left. He could not strike or kill his grandmother even though she had become a zombie.
However, the most terrifying thing was that Tang Ling could not shake the zombie off at all.
After discovering a live human being, how could it simply give up on such a potential meal? Even with half of its body missing, it did not fall behind the transformed Tang Ling much in terms of speed.
Tang Ling sprinted madly, disregarding the fact that should he run deeper into the forest there would be countless more horrifying dangers than a zombie waiting for him.
‘Just let me die. Just let me die reasonably. Then, I won’t hate myself for not avenging them.’ It was the only thought left in Tang Ling’s mind amidst all the messy turmoil and agony in his heart.
In Tang Ling’s mad sprint, Countless trees were rammed down. The bramble bushes that he stepped over left little cuts on his body, yet he noticed none of that.
Did something like despair have an end?
Tang Ling stopped as he strenuously looked at the group of people who abruptly appeared in the forest.
Looking at their clothing, every one of them had scars on them, yet their eyes were filled with unusual excitement and hope.
There were several children who were walking in front of them as well.
When Tang Ling, a muscular and tall ‘monster’, whose physique far surpassed the common man combined together with the huge black bloodstains on his body, appeared before the group of people, they were utterly frightened and stopped moving.
The Drifters.
Tang Ling never thought he would run into them at such timing!
Tang Ling was no stranger to the Drifters. Back when the settlement still existed, they would accept a few hundreds of the Drifters into the camps every single year.
Based on Tang Ling’s limited knowledge of this world, if there was someone who had it worse than the people of the settlement, it would undoubtedly be the Drifters. They had no place to stay and were forced to live in packs in order to counter the dangers of the wild.
Their biggest wish was hoping that the settlement around the Safety Sector could accept them yet they always had a difficult time to make such wish a reality.
The reason why the Drifters here were so excited was that they had finally gotten near Safety Sector No. 17.
Alas, unbeknownst to them, the settlement outside Safety Sector No. 17 had become hell!
The encounter was sudden and abrupt. Tang Ling could not even spare a moment to think about what to do as the growls from the zombies were catching up with him.
It was his grandmother!
Tang Ling instinctively did a side roll, dodging the zombie’s leap.
The group of Drifters certainly noticed the zombie at the same time when Tang Ling got up from the ground.
The moment ‘Grandmother’ saw that much food, it charged towards the group of Drifters without a second thought.
“Zombies! Everyone, ready for combat! Women and children, stand in the middle. Get the kids back!”
The Drifters were combat-ready the moment they saw the zombie. Facing off against something like a zombie, anyone alive would never be able to deal with it easily, even if there was only one.
However, ‘Grandmother’ was much quicker than the other zombies. Before the Drifters were fully prepared, it had made its way up to less than 10 meters from them.
Several children who stood in front were obviously stunned, the adults who tried to get them back were also not as fast as ‘Grandmother’.
According to Tang Ling’s Precise Instinct, when the adults got to the children, ‘Grandmother’ would have enough time to bite at least one of them already.
“Big Brother.” Right at that moment, a little brown-haired girl with freckles over her dirty face nervously pulled the shirt of the little boy beside her.
Endless courage seemed to have exploded in the little boy because of how she called him ‘Big Brother’. He stood in front of the little girl with his arms opened wide.
“Nooooo!” A lady among the Drifters screamed in despair.
Tang Ling made a move. Following the painful growl, he stood in front of the young siblings. He grabbed ‘Grandmother’ and strongly pushed it away.
‘Grandmother’ fell into a bush further away. Although it tried its best to get up, its broken body was not as nimble as before.
“Kill the zombie!”
“Hurry up! There might be more in the area.”
The Drifters did not even have the time to ask why the ‘monster’ would help them. After they overcame the immediate danger, they would have to kill the zombie that attacked them.
“Stop!” Tang Ling suddenly turned around and looked at the Drifters coldly. No one understood how anguished his heart was. Even at this very moment, he was holding back the urge to help his grandmother up, because the zombie before his eyes was the matriarch who had raised him up.
Holding their makeshift weapons, the Drifters were stunned by Tang Ling’s voice and looks. Somehow, they stopped what they were doing.
Should he bear the burden of someone else’s life? Tang Ling had no idea, but he could not watch the pair of brother and sister behind him die like that because he saw himself and his sister in them.
As the sun set in the Safety Zone, that petite figure behind him was pulling the edge of his clothes.
“Big Brother, will it be dangerous if we go too far?”
“Are you scared?”
“No I am not. Big Brother, you will protect me.”
Yes, protect her. Just like the little boy just now, but… A despairing grudge rumbled fiercely deep in his heart. He finally thought of it!
Being surrounded by zombies, her helpless eyes, and that last word that escaped her mouth. “Big… Brother…”
Tang Ling clenched his fists as he headed to ‘Grandmother’ who was still struggling to get up.
One step, two steps…
The clouds rumbled in the sky, interrupting his footsteps.
Meeting and departing were never constant. They ultimately ended and returned to nothingness, so why should he leave a trace of it in his heart?
Could he only be reborn thoroughly in the black flames of hatred?