Apocalypse Survival Guide for a Beta [GB] - Chapter 40

Lou Tiannan and his group did not have a smooth journey to Southern District One.

The closer they got, the more zombies appeared, forcing them to halt.

“Grrr… Hisss…”

Perhaps due to the scent of living humans, even though they were hiding in a sanitation station filled with garbage, zombies gradually started gathering outside.

Lin Bai peeked through a crack and, without turning her head, said, “If you guys don’t hurry up, Xi Ya is going to be zombie food.”

Xi Ya, who was hugging her doll, looked up in confusion. “?”

Zhou Yu, peeking through a drainage pipe while gagging, asked, “Is this the only underground passage?”

Lin Bai kept her eyes on the zombie horde outside and replied indifferently, “If you can find another one, then no, it’s not the only one.”

Zhou Yu slumped in defeat. He couldn’t find another way.

“It’s ready, come down quickly,” Song Yan’s voice echoed faintly from the tunnel.

“You two go first, I’ll cover the rear,” Lou Tiannan gestured for Lin Bai and Xi Ya to go ahead.

Lin Bai reached out to pick up Xi Ya, intending to hand her to Zhou Yu first.

But when Xi Ya saw Zhou Yu who was covered in foul-smelling grime and unknown sticky stains, her small face scrunched up like a steamed bun. Clinging tightly to Lin Bai’s neck like a koala, she made it clear she was not willing.

Zhou Yu felt a pang in his chest. “Fine, fine!” He sneered at Xi Ya. “Just wait. Soon you’ll be a smelly, filthy little kid too!”

Hearing this, Xi Ya turned her head and stuck her tongue out at Zhou Yu before carefully tucking her doll into her arms for protection. She also clutched her small bag to her chest, her most treasured belongings.

Since Xi Ya was holding onto her tightly, Lin Bai didn’t bother adjusting her grip. She simply looked down at Zhou Yu and said, “Go down.”

With a huff, Zhou Yu withdrew his head into the tunnel.

Once he had gone in, Lin Bai secured her hold on Xi Ya and swiftly jumped down after him.

Each district had sanitation stations and beneath them lay an intricate network of underground tunnels used for transporting wastewater and city waste. Those waste materials would then be sent to different underground processing centers.

Some of those centers were within the same district, while others were located elsewhere. In the Central-Southern border zone, which had been highly developed before the apocalypse, the waste processing facilities were generally farther from the urban areas.

They were lucky to have found the sanitation station before the zombies noticed them. However, the underground tunnels beneath it were a vast, unknown network. No one knew exactly where they led, so they had no choice but to feel their way forward in the dark.

Fortunately, the underground garbage tunnels in prosperous districts were built solidly and spaciously. Even Lou Tiannan, who was nearly 1.9 meters tall, could walk upright inside, though everything below his knees was submerged in trash.

The tunnels had automatic ventilation systems but they had probably been inactive for a long time. The stench inside was so overwhelming that it could easily knock someone out.

Lu Jia and Song Yan walked ahead with flashlights, manually opening the overhead ventilation hatches as they moved, making the air slightly more bearable.

Not long after entering the tunnel, Xi Ya said to Lin Bai, “Mom, I can walk by myself now.”

Zhou Yu, walking ahead, overheard and scoffed, “With those little legs of yours? The trash here could swallow you whole.”

Xi Ya glanced at the garbage-filled tunnel. Zhou Yu wasn’t wrong.

Just then, someone extended a hand and said, “I’ll carry her.”

It was Lou Tiannan.

Lin Bai handed Xi Ya over and she wrapped her arms around Lou Tiannan’s neck, cheerfully saying, “Thank you, Big Brother.”

Lou Tiannan suddenly paused mid-step. His gray eyes locked onto Xi Ya as he said, “You can’t call me ‘big brother.'”

His voice echoed in the tunnel. The others ahead all heard his words and turned back in confusion.

In the dim light, Lou Tiannan’s expression was unreadable. His low, husky voice reverberated through the space, “I’m about the same age as your mom. We’re equals. You should call me ‘uncle.'”

“Uncle?” Xi Ya was puzzled. She didn’t understand generational ranks. White-haired men were grandpas, men with beards were uncles, and Lou Tiannan had no beard and looked young, so she had always called him ‘Big Brother.’

Zhou Yu was quick to react. He slapped his thigh and exclaimed, “Hey! That’s right! Xi Ya, if you call us ‘brother,’ then your mom is technically a whole generation above us! Lin Bai’s been taking advantage of me all this time and I just realized it now!”

Lin Bai shot him a glare. “Who’s taking advantage of you?” She didn’t understand why Lou Tiannan was suddenly so hung up on this. Were Alpha males with superiority complexes always so obsessed with seniority?

The group quickly resumed their march through the tunnel.

“If that’s the case, then Xi Ya can’t call me ‘big sister’ anymore. She should call me ‘auntie,'” Song Yan mused as she walked. “I’m only 22 and I’m already an aunt?”

Zhou Yu teased, “She could keep calling you ‘big sister’ but then she’d have to call me ‘uncle’ and you’d have to call me ‘uncle’ too! Hahaha!”

Song Yan raised her hand, forming a finger gun. She made a sound effect, “Bang!”

The small exchange lightened the tense atmosphere. Amid the stench and darkness, the group of five adults and one child continued pressing forward.

After walking for a long time, they had all become numb to the awful smell. Zhou Yu turned his head slightly and glanced at Lin Bai. “How come you don’t have any reaction at all? You’re not struggling with the smell?”

Lin Bai, who had long since disabled her sense of smell, simply replied, “No, I’m fine.”

Because I can’t smell anything.

Zhou Yu, thoroughly impressed, gave her a big thumbs-up.

The group traveled for what felt like an eternity before Song Yan, who was leading, suddenly stopped. “Which way now?”

They had reached a fork with five separate tunnel paths. No one knew which way to go.

Suddenly, someone spoke, “The second one on the left.”

Song Yan and the others turned to look at Lin Bai.

Zhou Yu asked, “Are you just guessing, or do you actually know?”

“Take a guess.”

The classic ‘take a guess’ response. The three of them turned their eyes to Lou Tiannan. He glanced at the five tunnel entrances and said, “Take the second one on the left.”

After entering the branch tunnel, the passage became much narrower. Song Yan and Lin Bai, who were relatively shorter, had to lower their heads to walk. As for Lou Tiannan and the other taller men, they had no choice but to hunch over and move forward.

They hadn’t gone far when they reached another fork. This time, the tunnels varied in size and each was labeled with a Roman numeral from I to V.

Lin Bai, without hesitation, said, “Take the one marked ‘I’.”

Zhou Yu hesitated. “Are you sure? The ‘I’ tunnel is half the size of the ‘V’ tunnel.”

“Listen to her,” Lou Tiannan said.

So the group entered the ‘I’ tunnel.

This time, Xi Ya wanted to walk on her own. Since the passage was so narrow that everyone had to crawl through, Lou Tiannan didn’t let her down. Instead, he used his belt to secure her to his chest.

As Zhou Yu continued forward, his confidence wavered. Was this really the right path?

That was until Song Yan, who was ahead of him, suddenly stopped and said, “Look down.”

A section of the tunnel floor was made of a special transparent material, allowing them to see the space below. There, two large tunnel exits were clearly labeled ‘IV’ and ‘V.’ Beneath them was a row of sharp blades, with several large pieces of unprocessed garbage stuck between them. The machinery had stopped running but the gleaming edges of the blades sent a chill through the group.

“So this is a garbage shredding center. Good thing we didn’t take the ‘V’ tunnel!” Zhou Yu realized. Even the unprocessed trash at the tunnel entrance showed signs of being cut. That meant there were blades inside the tunnel as well. If they had taken that path, they might have lost half their lives.

From that point on, no one dared to question Lin Bai’s navigation. At each fork, they followed her directions without hesitation.

After crawling and walking through the tunnel for over an hour, they reached another split. But this time, Lin Bai stopped. She knocked on the tunnel wall.

A hollow echo responded.

“Are we here?”

“Yes.”

“But even if we’re here, how do we get out?” The tunnel walls looked thin but were made of extremely strong materials. If they forcibly broke through, it would create a lot of noise and surely attract nearby zombies.

Lin Bai pointed to one of the branch tunnels. “There’s a valve in that one. Turning it will open a vent. It’s a ventilation port used by sanitation robots to monitor waste.”

Zhou Yu and the others looked at the tunnel she pointed to and were stunned. “It’s so small!” It was barely big enough for them to fit their heads in but definitely not their shoulders.

“She can fit,” Lin Bai said.

“She? Who?” Zhou Yu followed Lin Bai’s gaze to Xi Ya.

Lin Bai turned to Xi Ya. “Can you do it?”

“I can! I can!” Xi Ya nodded excitedly. Her mom had given her an important task!

After she agreed, Lin Bai explained, “Crawl through here and you’ll see the vent. On the right side, there’s a round valve. Turn it clockwise. But before that, check if the vent is open. If it is, there might be zombies or bad people. If you can’t fight them, crawl back as fast as you can.”

“Okay! I got it!” Xi Ya nodded obediently.

Lou Tiannan set her down and handed her a small flashlight.

Xi Ya glanced at Lin Bai for reassurance and then crawled into the narrow tunnel.

Zhou Yu, still worried, asked, “Is she really up for this?”

Lin Bai shot him a look. “You want to go instead?”

…Fair enough. Zhou Yu shut up.

Song Yan, concerned for Xi Ya, crouched by the tunnel entrance, listening for any sounds from the other side.

“Mommy?”

Xi Ya’s voice suddenly came from inside the tunnel.

“Hurry up,” Lin Bai said, expressionless, speaking directly into the tunnel.

The tunnel fell silent.

Time passed, minute by minute. Zhou Yu and Lu Jia couldn’t help but crouch by the tunnel entrance, staring into the dark passage, worried about Xi Ya. After all, she was just a seven-year-old child.

“Is this tunnel really that long? Why hasn’t there been any sound from Xi Ya?” Song Yan muttered as she called into the tunnel, “Xi Ya, are you okay?”

There was no response from Xi Ya. Instead, faint clinking sounds echoed from within.

“She didn’t run into trouble, did she?” Song Yan asked anxiously. But then she noticed Lin Bai calmly wiping the dirt off herself with a towel from her bag. Unable to hold back, she asked, “Aren’t you worried about Xi Ya?”

“What’s the use of worrying?” Lin Bai’s response was cold and indifferent. “I’m not by her side right now.”

Lou Tiannan’s gaze flickered. Not by her side right now? Something about Lin Bai’s words struck him as strange.

“I mean, you’re not wrong but…” Song Yan knew Lin Bai had a point, yet she still felt that such a detached attitude toward her own daughter was too heartless.

Lu Jia had always known Lin Bai to be indifferent but he hadn’t expected her to be so unfeeling toward her own child. His impression of her worsened even further.

Lou Tiannan checked the time. Almost twenty minutes had passed, far too long. Meanwhile, Lin Bai simply leaned against the tunnel wall with her eyes closed, saying nothing.

“We should—” Lou Tiannan had just opened his mouth to suggest forcing their way through when they suddenly heard a faint movement above them.

Moments later, a weak light seeped into the tunnel as the vent above them was pushed open.

Zhou Yu and the others lit up with excitement. Xi Ya had done it!

They quickly pulled themselves up onto the ventilation platform and rushed toward the direction where Xi Ya had crawled in.

At the end of the platform, under the dim light shining through the vent, they finally saw her.

Xi Ya’s hair was messy and her small figure was curled up, covered in dust. She was gripping a valve nearly the size of her head, struggling to turn it with all her might.

As their eyes shifted, they noticed the two fallen zombies beside her and all of them sucked in a sharp breath.

The zombies’ bodies bore scorch marks, with red and white fluids slowly seeping from their wounds. It was clear they had just been killed.

“Xi Ya…” Song Yan called out softly.

Xi Ya’s small body trembled. When she turned her head and saw the group standing on the platform, her eyes instantly turned red.

Lu Jia swung a vine to pull Xi Ya up. As soon as she got onto the platform, she ran straight to Lin Bai and hugged her leg tightly, her whole body shaking.

Lin Bai sighed, crouched down, and picked Xi Ya up. As she patted her back, she muttered, “So dirty.”

Xi Ya buried her face in Lin Bai’s neck and finally let out a sobbing cry. “Wuuu… Mommy—I was scared. There were zombies—wuuu…”

“Then why didn’t you come back?” Lin Bai asked.

“I wanted to help Mommy… wuuu… I can help you…” Xi Ya hiccupped between sobs, her young voice filled with determination.

Lin Bai awkwardly patted her head. “Not bad.”