Zombie Train

Shao Ming pushed open the workshop door, and Lambert hit the accelerator, driving along the railroad tracks. The surrounding mutated creatures, hearing the sound of the car again, became agitated and began gathering towards the train repair factory. Shao Ming jumped onto the truck bed, patted the truck bed, signaling that they could depart.

Lambert made a turn and drove onto the road leading into the city. Shao Ming sat in the truck bed, feeling uneasy about the low guardrail, afraid that he might fall off. Perhaps it was because this road led to a larger city—Birmingham—that few people chose this route out of the city, so the road conditions were relatively good, unlike when Shao Ming left Manchester, where there were cars everywhere.

The truck quickly drove from the suburbs into the city, and the three of them had already outrun the third wave of a horde of over a hundred small mutated creatures. Fortunately, Lambert's driving skills were far better than Shao Ming's, and although the truck hit quite a few mutated creatures along the way, the vehicle didn't suffer any serious damage.

They drove safely into the city center, and the fire station stood quietly at a crossroads. As soon as Lambert parked the truck, over a hundred mutated creatures rushed in from all directions. Shao Ming immediately set up his shotgun in the truck bed and took out two of the closest mutated creatures. The two inside the truck quickly opened the doors and ran toward the fire station.

"Get inside!" Shao Ming jumped off the truck, propped the gun on the engine hood, and fired at the oncoming mutated creatures with the support of the truck's front. Once the two had entered the fire station, Shao Ming put away his shotgun and entered, closing the door behind him. Lambert and Feng Yusheng quickly pushed a table to block the door.

The mutated creatures slammed against the door, and Shao Ming took the baseball bat off his back, wedging it between the door handle.

There were no mutated creatures inside the fire station on the first floor, and no fire trucks in the garage, indicating that all the firefighters must have been deployed when the mutation began.

Seeing that they were temporarily safe, Shao Ming walked over to the floor plan and said, "The cafeteria is behind on the first floor, and there's an equipment room on the second floor."

"Let's check the cafeteria first," Feng Yusheng suggested.

Shao Ming led the way, and the three of them entered the cafeteria.

Since the windows of the cafeteria faced away from the street, there were no mutated creatures outside, but the lighting inside the room was poor.

A shadow flashed through the room and hid behind a cabinet. Shao Ming immediately raised his shotgun, but the shadow didn't appear to be a mutated creature—it looked more like a large dog.

The shadow peeked out from behind the cupboard, and the three of them saw its true form. It was a very thin German Shepherd.

Maybe it was because all they had seen recently were mutated creatures, but this dog seemed extremely cautious. The three of them, along with the dog, stared at each other warily.

"I think this is a normal dog," Feng Yusheng said.

"I think so too," Shao Ming crouched down, puckered his lips, and called out to the German Shepherd, "Come here, come here."

The dog didn't come over, instead, it tucked its tail and took a few steps back.

Feng Yusheng whispered, "Maybe foreign dogs don't understand that..."

Shao Ming called out again in English, "Come here, come here."

The German Shepherd hesitated for a moment but then slowly walked toward them.

"Good dog, good dog." Shao Ming reached out and gently touched the dog's head. It didn't resist and gradually lowered its guard.

Shao Ming looked at the dog's collar pendant, which had several lines of small text engraved on it.

"Hanleni Fire Department."

"Loyal companion."

"Rescue dog Gordon."

Shao Ming petted the dog and said, "Your name is Gordon, right?"

Upon hearing its name, the dog wagged its tail and spun around them.

"It looks so thin," Feng Yusheng crouched down and petted the dog's body.

"Are you guys thinking of keeping it?" Lambert said. "We can barely feed ourselves."

Shao Ming stood up. He wanted to take the dog, but Lambert was right; such a large dog would need a lot of food, and it would be hard to feed all three of them.

"Let's look for food first," Shao Ming said.

The three of them rummaged through the kitchen, but they couldn't ignore the dog, which kept following them.

"Look here," Lambert opened an upper cabinet, where about ten cans of food were neatly stacked. He stuffed them into his backpack, and when Gordon heard the sound of the cans, it ran to Lambert's feet and sat down.

"No, no, no, little guy," Lambert shook his head, "These aren't for you."

Feng Yusheng looked at Shao Ming, and he could only lower his head.

There was nothing else in the kitchen; it seemed Gordon had eaten all the food it could reach.

Shao Ming, holding his shotgun, carefully walked upstairs. The second floor hallway was pitch dark, with no emergency lights on. Lambert pulled out a flashlight from behind and turned it on, allowing them to see where the equipment room door was.

Inside the equipment room, most of the firefighting tools had already been taken by the firefighters, but there were still some tools in the furthest corner behind a wire mesh partition. The cutting machine was not hard to find, and the three of them quickly spotted it in the center.

Now, the wire mesh became the only obstruction. Shao Ming tried to push the door, but as expected, it didn't budge.

"There must be a key," Feng Yusheng said. "I'll go look for it."

As the three of them were discussing how to open the door, Gordon seemed to have noticed their intention. It grabbed Shao Ming's pant leg and tugged on it.

"What do you want to say?" Shao Ming crouched down and petted Gordon's head.

Gordon turned and ran a few steps forward before looking back at them, as if guiding them to follow.

Shao Ming led the way, and Gordon ran ahead a few more steps and stopped, looking back at them.

The three of them followed Gordon all the way to an office opposite the equipment room.

Gordon ran to a desk and started scratching at a drawer with his paws.

Shao Ming approached and pulled the drawer open, where a set of keys lay inside.

"This dog is really smart," Shao Ming said, taking the keys and, almost accidentally, directed his words towards Lambert.

Lambert just shrugged and said nothing.

"Such a good boy, Gordon." Feng Yusheng crouched down and petted the dog's head.

Using the keys that Gordon provided, the three of them successfully opened the equipment room door.

Shao Ming took the cutting machine and handed it to Lambert, then took a fire axe from inside. The baseball bat had been left downstairs, and now he was short of a close-range weapon.

Lambert asked, "Alright, now that we have everything, how are we going to get back?"

Feng Yusheng looked out the window and saw that, although the mutated creatures were no longer agitated, they were still gathered downstairs.

"As usual, they'll disperse by evening," Shao Ming looked at the sky and said, "We'll head back tomorrow morning."