Lin Qing slamd her boot down on the gas pedal.
The SUV launched forward, its tires tearing up the gravel as it rocketed toward the edge of the cliff at seventy kiloters per hour.
"Harvest the dark!" Han Ye roared.
Through the floorboards, an ocean of liquid shadow energy erupted from Han Ye’s core. Capitalizing on the dense, pitch-black shadows stretching across the deep canyon walls, he forced the darkness to manifest outward through the front grille of the accelerating SUV.
Liquid black tendrils, thick as tree trunks, shot across the twenty-five-ter void like organic harpoons. They wrapped around the twisted steel rebar, broken iron support girders, and dangling suspension cables of the southern cliffside, tensioning instantly into a tight, vibrating suspension bridge of pure shadow energy.
"Gu An! Now!" Han Ye scread, a line of blood instantly leaking from his nostril as the imnse physical weight of the structural tension began to compress his infant five-year-old skeleton.
Gu An’s eyes flared with a brilliant, blinding blue light. She tapped into the absolute depths of her tabolic spark, pulling every ounce of caloric energy from her cells. BZZZZT! A massive, horizontal kinetic barrier snapped into existence outside the windshield, laying itself flatly and seamlessly over Han Ye’s vibrating shadow tendrils like a sheet of solid, transparent blue glass.
The timing was flawless. The front tires of the SUV shot off the concrete edge of the northern cliff, launching the vehicle directly into the empty air of the chasm.
THUMP!
A violent shockwave rippled through the chassis as the heavy rubber tires slamd onto Gu An’s kinetic runway. The transparent blue barrier humd fiercely, throwing off bright microscopic sparks as it fought against gravity to support the crushing weight.
Lin Qing didn’t blink. She kept her foot pinned to the floorboards, keeping the steering wheel perfectly straight as the SUV glided across the impossible, horizontal void, halfway over the roaring river below.
But the toll of the maneuver was catastrophic.
"Ahhhhh!" Gu An let out a piercing, agonized shriek. The physical feedback of supporting a moving, multi-ton vehicle over an empty chasm was tearing her muscles apart. Capillaries in her eyes shattered simultaneously, staining her sclera a terrifying, bloody crimson. Blood began to pour freely from both of her nostrils, splashing onto her vest as her body rapidly converted her remaining cellular reserves into defensive force.
Beside her, Han Ye was in no better condition. His small body was shaking violently, his veins turning a dark, bruised purple against his pale skin as his core began to web with microscopic fractures under the strain of anchoring the bridge. He bit his lower lip so hard it split, his vision blurring as his consciousness teetered on the absolute edge of blacking out.
"Hold... the line!" Han Ye growled through his crimson-stained teeth, forcing his small hands deeper into the floorboards.
Twenty ters. Twenty-two ters.
The far side of the cliff was right in front of them, but the makeshift bridge was failing. Gu An’s kinetic runway began to web with thick, violent cracks, the humming sound shifting into a high-pitched, dying shriek. Beneath the barrier, Han Ye’s shadow tendrils were snapping one by one, dissolving into harmless black mist as his core hit absolute zero.
Right as the rear tires began to slip into the opening void, the front wheels of the SUV slamd violently onto the solid, pristine concrete of the southern cliffside.
Lin Qing steered the vehicle forward another ten ters before slamming on the brakes, bringing the heavy rig to a safe stop on the southern road.
The mont they touched solid ground, the synergy collapsed. The remaining shadow bridge and kinetic runway vanished into thin air.
In the backseat, the sudden, violent release of pressure caused both children to lose consciousness instantly. Gu An slumped sideways against the door panel, her face entirely devoid of color and sared with blood. Beside her, Han Ye fell backward against the leather seat, his eyes rolling back as his exhausted body shut down into a deep, comatose sleep to repair the damage. They were completely out of the fight.
Inside the front cabin, the absolute silence of the southern valley returned, broken only by the panting breaths of Lin Qing. She adjusted her rearview mirror, confirming that the children were breathing and their vital signs were stable, though they were entirely unresponsive.
She let out a slow breath, her steady fingers reaching down to flip the toggle switch, turning off the interior red tactical light. She needed to evaluate their new surroundings.
Lin Qing reached over to click on the SUV’s high-beam headlights to pierce through the thick, creeping morning fog of the southern province. Two blinding lanes of white light cut through the gloom, illuminating the cracked asphalt of the new highway ahead.
The mont the light illuminated the road, Lin Qing’s hands froze flat against the steering wheel. Her special forces radar spiked with an intensity she hadn’t felt since the very first day of the collapse.
Standing exactly twenty ters ahead, directly in the center of their singular path, was a lone figure.
It was a humanoid infected, but it bore absolutely no resemblance to the fast, mindless beasts they had slaughtered on the road. This creature stood over two ters tall, its posture unnaturally straight and oozing an aura of absolute, terrifying dominance. It was clad in the shredded, blood-stained remnants of a high-ranking military officer’s tactical uniform. Its skin was a mottled, leathery gray, but its eyes—wide, intelligent, and completely focused—glowed with a deep, predatory crimson light that proved its evolution had transcended the common plague.
In its left hand, the creature casually held a severed human head by the hair, the blood still dripping slowly onto the asphalt. It didn’t flinch under the blinding glare of the SUV’s high beams. Instead, it slowly tilted its head, its crimson eyes locking directly onto Lin Qing through the front windshield.
Then, the monster did sothing truly horrific. Its gray lips peeled back into a wide, unnatural, and intelligent smile, revealing rows of jagged, razor-sharp black teeth. It let go of the severed head, letting it thud carelessly onto the road, and slowly raised its right hand—which had mutated into a massive, three-pronged bone blade—pointing the tip directly at Lin Qing’s chest.
It was an explicit, calculating challenge. It wasn’t hunting for at; it was hunting for her.
Lin Qing’s face turned into an absolute sheet of ice. She reached down with her right hand, her fingers gripping the handle of her rifle resting across her lap. She smoothly pulled back the charging handle to chamber a round, ready to blow the abomination to pieces.
CLICK.
The bolt snapped forward against an empty chamber.
Lin Qing’s eyes narrowed as she looked down at the weapon’s breach. In the absolute chaos of the gas station ambush and the rush to siphon the fuel, she had completely expended her active magazine. The rifle was bone dry. Her extra ammunition clips were securely packed away in the heavy tactical crates inside the rear trunk—and the keys to the trunk were outside.
Behind her, the two children who possessed the power to shatter monsters were completely unconscious, their evolutionary cores burned out. Ahead of her stood a hyper-intelligent, mutated executioner waiting to rip the cabin open. And her primary weapon was empty.
The crimson-eyed predator took its first slow, heavy step forward, its bone blade scraping against the asphalt with a terrifying tallic hiss.
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