Chapter 156: Explosion

The wheels struck the rails, producing a monotonous, rumbling sound.

The zombies in the rear half of the train were surprisingly quiet, their presence underscored only by the pungent stench radiating from them and the rich, lingering scent of blood left over from their previous feast.

Holding his sword, Yichen sat upright and completely motionless. Because he maintained this posture, the others had nothing to say, and gradually their eyelids grew heavy.

Everyone knew this was no time to sleep leisurely, but after a day of torment, their bodies and minds were already utterly exhausted. As soon as their minds relaxed slightly, drowsiness crept in, impossible to ward off.

Bai Ge was one of the few who could remain awake under these circumstances, a resilience forged by the rigorous training she had undergone at the police academy.

She looked out the window, then glanced at her watch. It was already nighttime; the sky was pitch black, and the rain was still falling.

She dialed the conductor to inquire about the current status of their contact with Xijing.

"We are ten minutes away from the Minjiang River Bridge, but... the communication line equipment seems to have some trouble, and we can't reach Xijing temporarily!" The conductor’s voice was filled with anxiety, bordering on tears.

Bai Ge was taken aback. This was truly terrible news!

The Minjiang River Bridge was the agreed-upon location for rescue and rendezvous. Since it was almost time, how could they suddenly lose contact?

There were many mountains in the vicinity, which might affect the signal of the dedicated line, but since she could still use her phone on the train and hear the conductor's voice clearly, it proved this was not the issue.

Ruling out equipment malfunction, it was highly likely that Xijing had deliberately cut off communication with them.

"Do you think they agreed to launch a rescue and then went back on their word?" The conductor was on the verge of a breakdown.

"Calm down! Even if they don't come to rescue us, we can still hold on. We've already traveled a third of the way, haven't we?" Bai Ge said.

"Hold on? Relying on that infected person to control the zombies?" The conductor let out a bitter, mocking laugh, asking, "Miss Bai, can you guarantee that he will always stand on humanity's side? Are you sure the zombies in the back won't attack us?"

Bai Ge was left speechless. She truly could not make such a guarantee.

"Maybe the communication equipment is just broken... It's not time yet. Once we pass that large mountain tunnel ahead and reach the Minjiang River Bridge, we'll know what's going on." The conductor took a moment to adjust his emotions, his tone smoothing out slightly.

He had not completely given up hope. Rather than placing his trust blindly in an unlucid infected individual, he preferred to continue believing in Xijing.

The worst-case scenario was just as Bai Ge had said—no rescue, just waiting for the train to drive itself to Xijing. If it truly came down to that in the end, whether Yichen could consistently stay on their side would be a matter of fate.

In short, this train could not stop.

Bai Ge hung up the call and found that Yichen was staring straight at her.

Bai Ge offered him an apologetic smile. Given his acute hearing, he must have heard the entire conversation between them. The conductor did not trust him; she just hoped this realization hadn't provoked him.

The train jolted, rumbling into the mountain tunnel, and the sound of the wheels striking the rails was magnified manifold.

Those who had been dozing off gradually woke up. Whether it was her imagination or not, upon entering the tunnel, they felt the lights inside the train dim by a fraction.

The passage through the mountain was extremely long, and Bai Ge felt an unprovoked sense of palpitation, as if something was about to happen.

At that moment, Yichen suddenly stood up.

Everyone involuntarily broke out in a cold sweat, unsure of what his next move would be.

Keeping watch over him placed a heavy psychological burden on them. Even though Yichen was a companion they had been through life and death with, a trusted ally they relied upon, he remained extremely dangerous in the face of the zombie virus outbreak!

He made no further movements, merely standing there quietly. Finally, the train cleared the lengthy tunnel, and everything returned to normal.

Nothing happened. They looked at each other in bewilderment and breathed sighs of relief; it seemed they had worried needlessly.

Ahead lay the Minjiang River Bridge. Bai Ge pressed against the glass window, looking outward, but saw no rescue train, nor any helicopters in the sky.

That meant they had indeed been played for fools by Xijing.

"Those people in Xijing are absolute bastards. If they made a promise, they should keep it! If they couldn't do it, they shouldn't have given people hope!" Ling Lan slammed the table in anger.

"The higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. I suppose the minds of the people in the front half of the train have completely collapsed by now..." Zhu Youzheng sighed.

"So what if they've collapsed? Life still has to go on, doesn't it? If others won't save us, we must save ourselves." Bai Ge remained relatively calm. Since things had truly come to the worst possible outcome, there was nothing else to be done.

The train rolled onto the bridge, crossing the halfway mark, when suddenly there was a deafening roar and towering flames!

The middle section of the Minjiang River Bridge had exploded!

The front of the train was instantly swallowed by raging fire, and the carriages in the front exploded one by one, plunging from the breach in the bridge!

The sudden explosion instantly annihilated the living people crammed into the front half of the train! Bai Ge and the others, located in the middle section of the train, were thrown off balance by the shockwave, crashing down and suffering bloody head injuries!

No one had anticipated that this bridge, which had once held people's hopes, would turn out to be a fatal assassin!

Bai Ge gripped the table tightly, steadying herself first, and shouted Xue Man's name.

Affected by the blast, the windows of their carriage had been shattered!

Understanding instantly, Xue Man immediately caused all the surrounding damaged windows to bloom with frost, sealing the breaches and just in time to prevent the black rain from drifting inside.

The crisis was not yet over. The piercing roar continued, and the train had derailed, sliding sideways due to momentum.

Just as everyone was battered and bruised, struggling to keep their balance, Yichen had already darted forward like an arrow released from a bow.

With the flash of Shengxie, he slashed horizontally across the coupling between the carriages, cleanly severing them!

The rear section of the train slid another few meters before finally coming to a halt. Thanks to Yichen's timely action, the saved carriage had only derailed without tipping over.

A dull thud echoed from afar—the sound of the front half of the train plunging into the river.

Yichen stood erect with his sword at the severed end of the carriage, his half-long white hair dancing wildly in the night wind.

Less than three meters away lay the blown-up gap of the bridge; had he been even a few seconds late, even he would have been powerless to turn the tide!

The slightly chilling night wind poured into the carriage, snapping everyone out of their shock and pain.

They looked at Yichen, whose solid back possessed the imposing aura of a lone warrior holding off a thousand men.

Everyone's heart was filled with deep emotion and the fortune of having survived a catastrophe: Thank goodness for him!

"The people from Xijing really were here. Only, they didn't come to save people, but to plant explosives. They wanted to make this train vanish completely, which is why they chose this spot. Even if any zombies survived the blast, they would plummet into the river along with the train wreckage," Bai Ge analyzed.

"Why would they do such a thing?" Zhu Youzheng found it truly hard to accept the truth.

"Probably to contain the virus. After all, since they couldn't be certain whether anyone among the survivors was infected, it was safer to eliminate them all," Ling Zhe said in a deep voice. He could understand such a rationale.

Yet, the ultimate irony was that this train now consisted solely of themselves and a pack of zombies.