novelden Chapter 51 Gunshots
Chapter 51 Gunshots
Life quietly passed by in this daily routine of self-cultivation, vigilance, and relatively uneventful preparation and maintenance. During this time, snowflakes fell again, but not heavily, lasting only half an afternoon before stopping.
But since that day, the thick, leaden-gray clouds in the sky have never dispersed, remaining low and heavy over the horizon, like a dirty cotton wad soaked with water, brewing something even more violent.
Xu Mo was unusually sensitive to changes in the weather, and this persistent low pressure and gloom made him wary. He took the time to carefully check all his supplies again—food filled half the storage room, drinking water and fuel were enough for three months, medicines were neatly categorized and stacked in the medicine box, and ammunition was plentiful.
Only after confirming that everything was sufficient and even more than enough did Xu Mo feel a little relieved. No matter what happened outside, as long as the shelter was secure and supplies were plentiful, he had the confidence to cope.
That noon, Xu Mo was practicing his resistance to blows in the training room on the first floor. The heavy thumping sounds echoed in the room. Suddenly, his movements froze.
A faint yet unusually sharp sound pierced through the thick walls and the howling wind, reaching his ears.
It was gunfire!
In this desolate town where he was the only one left alive, any sound not of nature stood out like a lighthouse in the darkness. Xu Mo was extremely confident in his hearing and knew he couldn't possibly be mistaken.
Something's up!
Xu Mo instantly stopped his practice, and the surging blood and qi in his body quickly calmed down. Without any hesitation, Xu Mo quickly put on his combat uniform, slung his machete over his shoulder, grabbed the AWM, and rushed up the stairs to the rooftop.
Standing on the edge of the cold rooftop, Xu Mo raised his binoculars and strained to look in the direction from which the gunshots came—the area where he had previously spotted the powerful zombies and the wolf pack.
At first, because of the distance, Xu Mo could only hear sporadic gunshots intermittently, but could not see the specific situation. The gunshots sounded somewhat chaotic, as if the shooters were in a panic.
Xu Mo adjusted his breathing and waited patiently.
A few minutes later, movement finally appeared in the telescope's field of view.
A small team of about seven or eight survivors was seen struggling across the snowfield. They were in extremely poor condition; some had torn backpacks, their belongings scattered along the way; some moved frantically, clearly frightened; and others limped along, obviously injured. The makeshift snowshoes they wore were practically useless in the deep snow, sinking deep with every step, requiring them to struggle to pull themselves out, making their progress extremely slow.
About several dozen meters behind them, seven or eight gray-black wolves were following closely behind.
However, Xu Mo felt something was off about the wolves' behavior.
They were indeed chasing the survivors ahead, their limbs digging through the snow powder, relentlessly pursuing them. But their behavior also seemed hesitant and anxious, glancing back every now and then, as if wary of something behind them.
The feeling wasn't like that of a hungry wolf relentlessly pursuing its prey; rather, it was more like a flock of frightened birds driven from their nest by something far more terrifying, running blindly and unwilling to give up on the "food" before them. This indecisive state made their pursuit seem somewhat hesitant and sluggish.
At the rear of the column, a middle-aged man in a worn-out military overcoat and a young woman with a ponytail were bringing up the rear. They were carrying guns; Xu Mo was too far away to see the specific models, but judging from the sound and appearance of the gunshots, they seemed to be hunting rifles or old rifles. The two men were backing up to keep up with the column, occasionally turning back to fire in the direction of the wolf pack.
In Xu Mo's view, the "precision marksman" had no method or technique to speak of. The bullets were flying off into the distance. It was less of an attack and more of an attempt to intimidate and drive away the wolves with the sound of gunfire, hoping to scare them away.
The wolves were indeed affected by the gunfire and dared not get too close. They just hung at a distance, baring their teeth and emitting low, threatening howls, maintaining a dangerous and eerie balance with the survivors as they slowly moved toward the town.
Perhaps it was luck, or perhaps the distance had closed, but with a slightly muffled gunshot, a smaller wolf in the pack suddenly let out a mournful howl, rolled a few times on the snow, splashing up a cloud of snow, and struggled but couldn't get up immediately, clearly having been shot.
The moment the wolf fell, the other wolves, who had been hesitant and baring their teeth, abandoned their pursuit of the survivor without hesitation and quickly surrounded their wounded companion. Two wolves grabbed the wounded wolf's back fur, while the others stood guard around the perimeter. Then, without looking back, the entire pack fled the scene in the opposite direction from the town, quickly disappearing into the undulating snowfield.
They abandoned the pursuit so decisively, as if chasing the survivors was not their primary objective; preserving their population and leaving the area as quickly as possible was their top priority.
However, the survivors did not relax. On the contrary, they were whipped into the town even more desperately, as if something terrible would happen if they were slowed down.
"Hurry! Get into town!" the middle-aged man urged hoarsely, glancing back in fear every now and then.
Seeing this, Xu Mo put down his binoculars, his eyes becoming incredibly sharp and profound.
He already had a general idea in his mind.
The wolves' bizarre behavior, and the survivors' continued desperate flight even after driving them away, all point to one possibility: something is simultaneously pursuing both the wolves and the survivors.
That thing instilled a fear in the wolves far deeper than that of human firearms, forcing them to hesitate even when faced with food, ultimately giving it up decisively. That thing also made these survivors, even after temporarily escaping the direct threat of the wolves, dare not linger.
And this "thing"...
The answer popped into Xu Mo's mind almost instantly: it was a mutated zombie, and it was very likely that, like the one he had encountered last time, strength-type zombies and agility-type zombies would appear together.
Watching the group of survivors stumble and tumble into the ruins on the edge of town, Xu Mo stopped paying attention to them. His gaze, sharp as a hawk's, was fixed on the direction they had come from, on that vast, desolate snowfield, awaiting the arrival of the true "protagonist."
Time ticked by, and the cold wind swirled snowflakes across the open space. After about ten minutes, at the edge of the telescope's field of view, a large and familiar figure slowly appeared on the horizon with heavy steps.
Its bluish-gray skin stood out against the snow, its bulging, exaggerated muscles, its nearly naked upper body, and its signature, oppressive, slow gait—it was a power-type mutated zombie.
"Only one?"
A question arose in Xu Mo's mind, and his vigilance increased rather than decreased. Based on his previous encounters, strength-type and agility-type zombies were likely to appear together. Now, he only saw this huge creature swaggering towards him, but where was the elusive agility-type zombie? Was it lurking in some blind spot, waiting to launch a fatal attack?
Xu Mo carefully moved his binoculars, meticulously searching every snowdrift around the strength-type zombie, not missing a single rustling sound. In his view, while a strength-type zombie was troublesome, it wouldn't be enough to make a team of armed survivors so miserable, unless there was a more insidious hunter lurking in the shadows.
This is actually a misconception on Xu Mo's part. His own strength is formidable; his superb defense and power, coupled with excellent weapons and precise marksmanship, give him a significant advantage when facing a single mutated zombie. He fails to fully empathize with the perspective of ordinary survivors—for them, a zombie that is impervious to blades and bullets, possesses immense strength, and relentlessly hunts is an insurmountable nightmare capable of wiping out the entire group. They lack effective means of breaching its defenses, have limited physical strength and ammunition, and their fear amplifies the threat infinitely.
Xu Mo waited patiently for a while longer, scanning the area several times, but still found no sign of any agile zombies.
"It seems there really is only one?" Xu Mo muttered to himself. Although he still had some doubts, he couldn't wait any longer. This strength-type zombie was still moving towards the town. If it entered the town, it would be troublesome to clear it out, and the team of survivors would probably be doomed.
"Forget it, let's just deal with it."
Without further hesitation, Xu Mo steadily pressed the crosshairs of his AWM sniper rifle onto the slowly swaying head of the power-type zombie.
"Whoosh—Bang!"
The familiar, muffled gunshots rang out once again.
In the distance, the head of the power-type zombie exploded like a smashed watermelon, and its massive body crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of snow dust, before becoming completely still.
Xu Mo did not relax immediately, but remained in a shooting posture, carefully observing the area where the zombies had fallen and the surrounding area through the scope, capturing any unusual sounds.
After another five or six minutes, and confirming that there was no further movement and that everything on the snowfield was normal except for the newly added mutated zombie corpse, Xu Mo slowly put away his gun and stood up.
"Looks like I was overthinking it." Xu Mo shook his head, realizing he might have been a bit too cautious. But in this apocalypse, caution is never a bad thing.
He turned and went downstairs, ignoring the situation outside. The threat was over; whether the survivors lived or died, stayed or left, was none of his concern. He didn't want any unnecessary interaction with them.
Back in the training room on the first floor, Xu Mo resumed his stance and continued his interrupted training in resilience. It was as if the sniping incident on the rooftop was merely a trivial interlude. For him now, improving his own strength was the only constant theme. The outside world's disturbances, as long as they didn't actively provoke him, were nothing but fleeting clouds.