Gunshot

A sudden gunshot rang out, traveling from the third carriage all the way to the eighth.

It had been a long time since any gunfire had echoed through the train.

Xie Xu, standing guard by the glass door, heard the unexpected shot and turned his deep gaze toward the front.

But aside from the endless swarm of aberrants, there was no way to see what was happening up ahead.

The bullet pierced through the glass door.

Leaving a small hole behind.

Then it tore through the glasses-wearing man's forehead.

Dragging a streak of brain matter with it.

The people in the second carriage froze in shock.

They hadn't expected Tu Ran to actually pull the trigger.

"Open the door!" Tu Ran said coldly.

The people blocking the door inside immediately stepped aside and frantically opened it.

Tu Ran turned and shouted at the burly man, "The door's open, get in quick!"

Hearing this from within the ring of aberrants, the burly man let out a fierce roar, flexed every muscle in his body, and swung his cleaver, slicing the surrounding aberrants in half at the waist.

Stepping onto the corpses of the aberrants, he squeezed toward the opened glass door.

The aberrants followed close behind.

Tu Ran reacted quickly and shut the glass door.

One aberrant's arm was caught in the gap, its long nails clawing desperately to pry the door open.

Tu Ran raised her curved blade and brought it down in a single stroke.

The arm was severed cleanly, and the door slammed shut with a bang.

"I finally made it in," the burly man said, tossing aside his heavy cleaver and slumping to the ground. "That nearly killed me!"

With such a massive figure sitting there, the crowd shuffled back, no one daring to approach him.

He suddenly noticed a body at his feet. On closer look, wasn't it the glasses-wearing man who'd refused to let him in?

Immediately, his anger flared, and he kicked the man's already-dead face several times.

"You little bastard, you nearly got your grandpa killed out there. Have a whiff of grandpa's stinky feet—let that stench choke you down below!"

Tu Ran sent all of what had happened here to Xie Xu.

In less than a minute, Xie Xu replied, "You did the right thing. Don't worry, the Federation won't punish you."

Tu Ran's hanging heart settled.

Truth be told, when she'd aimed at the glasses-wearing man, she hadn't felt entirely confident.

Watching his increasingly arrogant demeanor, she'd known that if she didn't kill him to establish her authority, that door was never going to open.

So she'd taken the risk and fired.

Her thoughts snapped back to the present.

The aberrants began slamming into the glass again.

The glass door trembled behind Tu Ran.

She turned around, and the aberrants' assault grew even more frantic.

Tu Ran noticed the small hole left by the bullet.

This pane of glass probably wouldn't be as sturdy as before!

She quickly said, "Get to the first carriage now—this one isn't safe."

The crowd immediately moved toward the carriage behind.

There weren't many people in this carriage to begin with; those left behind were all able-bodied young men who'd stayed with the glasses-wearing man to fend off the aberrants.

They moved quickly.

Tu Ran and her five companions withdrew last.

The moment the door to the first carriage shut, the glass door of the second carriage shattered.

Aberrants scrambled through the debris, pouring in eagerly.

But they discovered that the food in this carriage was gone.

They shuffled forward aimlessly, ears pricked for the faintest sound.

Nothing. There was nothing at all.

One zombie wandered unconsciously toward the glass door leading to the first carriage.

Through the bright carriage, it saw the empty corridor in the first carriage.

Not a single human.

Its food had vanished.

Without a target in sight, they became wandering ghosts.

Their frenzied aggression burned out, and they stopped slamming against the glass door.

Meanwhile, inside the first carriage, everyone pressed themselves flat against both sides, standing in a radiating pattern.

They covered every blind spot.

And in the spots visible from the zombies' angle, no one stood at all.