Chapter 82: Successful retrieval
Large chunks of flesh torn out from its entire left arm all the way to its shoulder, yellowish-white bone peeking out from under rotting meat, the undead clad in a tattered suit suddenly pounces out from behind a small van. Sidestepping the sneak attack and its flailing claws, the blade in Huo Zaiyuan’s hand swings downwards, neatly slicing through cartilage and bones. The body of the now-headless zombie gives a violent twitch before collapsing to the ground.
"Litte Yuan's skills have really improved a lot." Long Zhanye says as he lazily lifts his own sword horizontally to block a pair of clawed hands, leg lashing out to crush the undead's lower jaw before a fist to its face sends it flying backwards a good few meters. It hits the highway's railing at an angle, flips over the edge and plummets downwards.
"Compared to you, I still have a long way to go." Glancing from the now out of sight zombie to Long Zhanye, his eyebrows rise.
That one move from older brother Long is really vicious. If that zombie still retains its nerve receptors and perception of pain, who knows how much agony it must be in right now.
Cleaning up undead left and right as they make their way forward, it doesn't take long to reach that large truck. Huo Zaiyuan pulls open the driver-side door to check the interior when a shadow suddenly charges out.
"Little Yuan, watch out!" With extremely fast reflexes, Long Zhanye delivers a ferocious kick aimed at the door, slamming it shut.
Blocked by the door, one can only see the greyish-green face of the zombie as it plasters itself on the glass window, bloody mouth wide open as it scratches the barrier to get to the living humans on the other side.
"This zombie…should be the driver of this truck." Huo Zaiyuan's expression is calm as he looks at the undead currently pounding on the glass with both hands as though wishing the window will break if it clawed hard enough.
"Un, you go pull open the door. I will cut it down." Long Zhanye instructs as his fingers wrapped tightly around the hilt of his sword.
"Be more careful when you kill it. Try not to get any zombie blood on the truck." Huo Zaiyuan says as he prepares to open the tightly shut door.
"Of course. Believe in my ability." Long Zhanye nods his head once. "Open it."
Wrenching the car's door open and ducking out of the way in one fluid movement, the zombie immediately pounces towards Long Zhanye who is directly in its line of sight, ignoring Huo Zaiyuan completely.
Long Zhanye's eyes narrow, a foot smashing into the undead's chest before sweeping the unsteady zombie off its feet. It lands heavily on its back and before it could struggle upright again, a blade removes its head.
"Hmm, cleanly executed." Standing to the side, Huo Zaiyuan nods with a pleased expression before peering carefully into the truck once more. He crouches down beside the corpse and frisks its clothes, nicking the truck's key from its trouser pocket.
"Then you should bestow upon me a reward." Dragging Huo Zaiyuan into his arms, Long Zhanye smirks rougishly, pointing a finger to his own lips.
A firm glare surfaces at Long Zhanye's brazen behaviour. Turning around, Huo Zaiyuan stalks towards the back container of the truck, resolutely ignoring the older man.
"Rascal."
"Only towards you." Long Zhanye chuckles as he follows.
Refusing to answer, Huo Zaiyuan opens the compartment's door only to find it empty and no suspicious things lurking around. Satisfied, he nods and lays his hands on the truck, putting it straight in his space.
"Let's go." Huo Zaiyuan glances at Long Zhanye standing next to him, expression softening as he mouth curves into a smile before reaching out to hold his hand.
Allowing Huo Zaiyuan to tug on their joined hands and walk forward, a gentle, contented light appears in Long Zhanye's eyes as he stares at that curtain of dark hair floating in the breeze and that pale, delicate face.
It's really rare for this child to initiate intimate contact first ah.
The pair returns back to the place they spotted the first medium-sized truck. This one doesn't contain a zombie like the larger one they took earlier, for there is not a single trace of the driver or any passenger within. Fortunately, the key is in the ignition, and when the back container is opened, Huo Zaiyuan discovers more than ten different fruit tree saplings.
Despite the fact that these saplings look to be on the brink of death after being closed inside the truck for over ten days, Huo Zaiyuan still feels glad and immediately places them carefully in his space. In any case, under the little tree spirit's care, these near withered plants should be able to be nursed back to life.
After the saplings disappear, the truck follows. Bringing out the off-road vehicle, the two men climb in and drive away. So long as they remove both trucks and place the off-road vehicle into the back of one when they near the village, everything will be fine.