Apocalypse: I Can See Health Bars
Chapter 39: Survivors in the Gas Station

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Survivors in the Gas Station

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

After a two-day lull, Lin Fan could once again hear his own heartbeat, loud and clear.

"1, 2, 3, 4..."

"Four zeroes..."

"..."

ROAR!

Lin Fan slammed his foot on the accelerator, pushing it to the floor!

The minivan’s engine roared, erupting with unprecedented power as it shot forward!

The roar shattered the "membrane" of the Invisibility Crystal. Attracted by the sound, nearby zombies lunged toward Lin Fan’s van.

But he was going so fast that the few zombies that crashed into the side of the van were sent flying to the roadside with a THUD. The minivan didn’t slow in the slightest, leaving them in the dust...

Only when the park and the patch of fog had completely vanished from his rearview mirror did Lin Fan gradually slow down.

As the engine noise faded, the zombies that had been drawn to the van gradually lost their target. They stood in place, blankly searching for any sign of their prey.

"I..."

Lin Fan gripped the steering wheel, panting heavily.

His back was soaked in a cold sweat, and a tingling numbness ran up his entire spine to the back of his head...

’What the hell was that thing?’

’Ten thousand HP?’

The moment he saw the health bar in the black fog, he clearly sensed something pierce the "membrane" of the Invisibility Crystal and meet his gaze.

He felt as if he were locked in by some inexplicable gaze, a sensation that made his scalp crawl.

If he hadn’t decisively slammed on the gas, something terrible would have happened in the very next second!

’In just... a few days... How could such a terrifying monster appear...’

Even now, Lin Fan was reeling with lingering fear, his mind racing with anxious thoughts.

’This place is less than ten kilometers from home, and there’s a monster that terrifying!’

’Damn it, I can’t stay in the city anymore...’

For the first time, the thought of leaving took root in Lin Fan’s mind. He had to get out—at the very least, he needed to make it to a quarantine zone.

’Damn it, the quarantine zones have been breached too!’

Lin Fan suddenly remembered the radio broadcast. A wave of helplessness seized his heart, and he was struck by the feeling that for all the world’s vastness, there was nowhere left for him to go.

’From now on, I have to stay far away from that park whenever I go out. I got lucky this time, but I might not be so lucky again...’

His hands were still trembling slightly. He quickly focused on two distant zombies to recover some SAN. Compared to the 10,000-HP monster, these 300-HP zombies seemed almost harmless...

After killing the two walking XP packs, Lin Fan’s nerves finally settled. He got back in the van, gradually picked up speed, and headed for the gas station up ahead.

’First, I need to get fuel. It’d be even better if I can find a generator to solve this pressing problem!’

After driving for a while longer, the Tianshui Road gas station, a place Lin Fan had often passed, finally came into view.

Since Lin Fan had been honking continuously as he drove past, even the zombies on this side of the road had been lured some distance to the south.

As a result, this stretch of road was almost clear of zombies.

The moment Lin Fan pulled the van into the gas station, he heard a commotion.

The gas station’s convenience store was divided into an outer retail area and an inner section, which was partitioned off as an employee break room.

The glass doors and windows of the retail area were shattered. Puddles of congealed blood, thick and turning black, mixed with broken glass on the floor.

The employee break room inside was blocked by an overturned shelving unit. The wooden door was shut tight, its interior a mystery.

There were no corpses in the main area, only a few zombies wandering about. Two of them were clambering on the overturned shelves blocking the inner room, slapping at the wooden door and howling ceaselessly.

He hadn’t expected that his honking from across the street failed to lure them away. It seemed there was something inside that room that held a stronger attraction.

Several cars were parked by the pumps, including two RVs. Their doors were all open, and they were empty.

’What... what’s going on... Is someone in there?’

’No matter what, I have to go in and check. It’s just that dealing with them clustered together like this will be tricky...’

’1, 2, 3, 4, 5...’

Five zombies in total.

’Maybe I can lure one or two of them out first...’

Lin Fan reached into his pocket, pulled out a metal nut, and threw it at the head of one of the zombies.

[-1]

The zombie, which had been slapping at the inner door, was suddenly struck on the back of the head. It spun around in a rage, its cloudy eyes scanning the spot where Lin Fan stood several times.

But it found nothing. After letting out a few guttural rasps, it turned back and resumed scratching at the door...

"..."

He was so tense he’d forgotten he was still equipped with the Invisibility Crystal. Lin Fan sighed and, with a mental command, unequipped the crystal.

...

"A car’s here!"

In the corner of a window in the gas station’s inner room, a disheveled young woman peeked out, peering at the scene outside.

Besides her, there were three other people in the room.

Every one of them was just as disheveled, sitting on the floor with terrified looks on their faces, as if they had suffered a great shock.

One of them, a middle-aged woman in a uniform, was presumably an employee of the gas station.

The room, once a break area for employees, was now covered in filth. A thick stench of sweat, the acrid smell of excrement, and the stale odor of blood filled the small space.

Two single bed frames were propped diagonally against the door, barricading it against the zombies outside.

Hearing the young woman say a car had arrived, the other two men scrambled to the window to look out.

"A car? Which one?"

one of the young men asked.

"That one... Yes, that’s the one!"

The young woman who had first seen the vehicle pointed a hesitant finger at a silver-white minivan parked by the roadside at the entrance to the gas station.

"The driver? Where’s the person in the car!"

the other man asked anxiously.

"The driver?" Hearing his question, the woman’s eyes suddenly clouded with confusion. She ran her hands frantically through her already messy hair. "The driver? I didn’t see anyone..."

Hearing this, the two men looked completely deflated and slumped back into the corner. The only sounds in the room were the zombies crashing against the shelves outside and the occasional SLAP of a hand hitting their door.

"A driver? There’s no one..."

After a moment of silence, one of the men said numbly,

"Zhaozhao, you’re delirious from hunger. The sound of that car horn was heading south. All those zombies chased after it. How could anyone possibly make it back?"

The young woman at the window, Zhaozhao, shot back, "You don’t believe me either, Brother...? Fine. Whatever!"

As she spoke, she frowned and glared at the man, then turned her head away to ignore him, her gaze returning nervously to the world outside the window.

The other man leaning against the wall didn’t join their conversation, just muttered to himself, "I should have just let Li Tian and the others bite me... It would have been better than starving and dying of thirst in here..."

As he finished speaking, he slumped over and fell to the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling as if he had sunk completely into despair.

The middle-aged woman in the gas station uniform never once looked up, merely sitting in silence on the floor off to the side.

Every so often, she would pull out her phone and press a few buttons, but the screen remained black. It had long since run out of battery and died.

The young woman named Zhaozhao still refused to give up, remaining perched at the windowsill and peering out.

She was sure she had seen someone get out of the van, but she had no idea where they had gone.

Just as she was beginning to think the terror was making her see things and she had been mistaken, the ceaseless crashing of the zombies outside suddenly stopped.

It was followed by a series of sharp clangs and bangs...