Chương 148: The Unfading Frequency

The headwind blowing against her grew stronger and increasingly searing. Zoe sprinted southward, vaulting across the rooftops of the commercial buildings lining the street. Carefully ducking under a cluster of power lines bridging the roofs, she skidded to a halt near the parapet of a building and took a few heavy pants. At the edge of her vision, a colossal, thick pillar of black smoke and fire erupted from the horizon, churning and rolling like some apocalyptic monument.

The bright orange at its base glowed like a titanic bonfire. Tongues of flame constantly licked upward along the column of smoke, boiling against the night sky. A deep, muffled rumble rolled in from the distance, sounding like a massive flag whipping violently in a hurricane." Dage..." Thinking of Vince, she took a deep breath, sucking the acrid, scorched air into her lungs. She didn't stop moving, continuing her sprint south along the edge of the roofs.

She triggered her telekinesis rhythmically, allowing the heavy spear in her hand to propel her across streets and the gaps between buildings. As she closed the distance, every terrifying detail of the inferno became agonizingly clear. The churning vortex of plasma and the massive showers of white-hot embers raining down were an undeniable testament to the flesh-melting temperatures at the heart of that hellscape.

The low rumble had escalated into a deafening roar, as if a colossal dragon was trapped within the flames, screaming in endless fury. Everything in the surrounding blocks was illuminated by this singular light source. The shadows of the buildings were stretched out long and warped, twisting grotesquely against the pavement as the fire clouds surged.

The air was so choked with toxic ash that Zoe had to use her Flying Blades to slice a strip of cloth from her jacket lining, tying it tightly over her nose and mouth as a makeshift filter. The further she pushed, the hotter the ambient temperature became. The radiant heat from the firestorm baked the entire southern hemisphere of her body. She had to constantly twist and rotate as she ran just to keep her skin from blistering. She felt like a bamboo rat slowly rotating on a spit-roaster.

She pushed south until she hit the absolute boundary of the thermal radiation zone. She couldn't take another step forward. The commercial buildings directly ahead were too close to the blast epicenter. The intense thermal radiation had ignited them entirely. Fanned by the superheated wind, the flames licked greedily at the sky, seeming to answer the titanic fire-tornado raging in the park across the street. Countless charred, smoking chunks of debris littered the avenue.

Among the rubble lay the grotesque, burnt husks of what looked like thick cables or pipelines; the outer layers had been completely incinerated, leaving only blackened, foot-thick remains scattered intermittently across the asphalt. Wandering restlessly around the outer perimeter of this apocalyptic crater was an ocean of zombies. They were drawn by the deafening roar of the firestorm, but the sheer, flesh-melting heat forced their primal instincts to keep them back.

Unable to approach and unwilling to leave, they formed a massive, slow-moving, ash-covered blockade just outside the thermal "safe distance." Zoe could clearly see that the halves of the zombies facing the fire were either entirely desiccated by the heat or straight-up charred black. Looking at them, it was highly likely that some of the carbonized chunks of "debris" littering the street had recently been part of that horde.

Piled against the outer walls of the burning street-facing shops were rows of twisted, blackened corpses. These zombies had been physically blasted away by the shockwave and crushed against the obstacles, forming a macabre ramp. Some were still "alive," weakly reaching out with snapped arms, their desiccated throats straining, unable to produce a single sound.

Zoe hunkered down, hiding in the recessed shadow behind a raised architectural wall on the roof, feeling as if she were trapped inside an active blast furnace. The radio she had kept in her pocket was hot to the touch, but the green indicator light proved it was still stubbornly functioning." Da... cough, cough... Dage... can you hear me..." She pressed the push-to-talk button, her voice warped and frantic from the choking heat as she called out." Cough, cough..."

Staring at the literal purgatory in front of her, her mind reeled. She couldn't help but hesitate—could Vince really have survived an explosion like this? Spit, spit, spit! She violently shook her head, forcing herself to stabilize her mind and banish the dark thoughts. It's not even guaranteed he was here when it blew. Besides, with how ridiculously cautious and insanely strong he is, he definitely outran it like a rabbit. She could feel the ambient air temperature continuing to rise.

It was getting hotter by the second. At this rate, the building beneath her feet might spontaneously combust from the radiant heat soon. The sky-piercing firestorm was, in its own way, physically forcing her to retreat. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I'll wait just a little longer. What if he passed out again? I was the one who had to drag him into the gas station last time...

Clinging to her optimism, Zoe couldn't help but peek out from her cover again, scanning the inferno. Aside from an "iron tank" (APC)—similar to the one back at the gas station—sitting abandoned on the street not too far away, the entire area was just a barren wasteland painted in furious orange light. There wasn't a single living soul in sight. Is he inside that armored vehicle? Zoe thought to herself. She decided to give it a few more minutes.

If the radio stayed silent, she would fly over and check it out herself. It's insanely hot over there... but I should be okay, just for a quick look...... Static..."' Dage'? Who is this? Are you survivors?" Just as Zoe hunched over, pressing her ear to the radio speaker and praying for Vince's response, a woman's voice filtered through the static. Immediately following that, a man's voice crackled through the speaker:"... Zoe? Where are you?"

Even though it was raspy and exhausted, Zoe recognized Vince's voice instantly! In a fraction of a second, all the anxiety, terror, and grief evaporated. A massive wave of sheer joy washed over her like cool spring water, making her so ecstatic she almost leaped entirely out of cover! Subconsciously ignoring the random woman's voice from a moment ago, she excitedly shouted into the mic:"Wah! Dage, you're okay! I'm on the roof! Right across the street from the fire pillar!"

"... You're across the street!?"

"... You're across the street!?" Vince and the unknown woman's voices echoed from the radio simultaneously, both laced with almost identical, utter shock. Annoyed by the omnipresent, fly-like woman's voice, Zoe held down the button and snapped: "Who the hell are you?! Why are you eavesdropping on us! And you keep interrupting!" Before the woman could answer, Vince cut in: "Zoe, ignore her. Stand up..." The woman's voice relentlessly followed right after his: "How did you get over there!?"

But Zoe, following Vince's orders, completely ignored her. In her mind, establishing contact with Vince was the greatest news possible. As long as he was safe, nothing else mattered! Zoe immediately stood up from her cover, braving the blistering, skin-searing heat, and scanned the area. But she still couldn't spot Vince's silhouette anywhere. Just then, his voice came through the radio again: "I see you. Get down, I'm coming to you..."

The two of them exchanged short, rapid communications, completely disregarding the woman on the channel. Yet, she kept persistently demanding:"Who exactly are you people!?" Meanwhile, Raven was standing inside a second-floor partition of a street-facing shop closest to the firelight, staring at her radio in absolute bewilderment. Uncle Wang and Uncle Zhang had parked their vehicle about a kilometer back; she was the only one who had pushed this far in.

Her ability, under extremely precise manipulation, allowed her to actively suppress her body's bio-electricity, altering her energy field to a certain extent. This alteration caused a synchronized drop in her speed, strength, and perception, but came with an astonishing side effect: zombies would not attack her. She had discovered this by accident, but maintaining this state was incredibly taxing on her mind. It felt like she was constantly struggling on the verge of drowning.

Because of this, she couldn't hold the suppression for long—a few minutes at most per use. Consequently, her scouting range was severely limited, directly correlating to her stamina. It was generally impractical for large-scale operations. But right now, it was proving to be an invaluable asset. Slipping through the front and back doors of the commercial shops, she bypassed the hordes.

Using her night-vision goggles to avoid the infected where she could, she activated her bio-suppression to slip right past the ones she couldn't avoid. Enduring the agonizing stealth run, she had finally reached the intact shop closest to the blast zone. The commercial buildings directly ahead were completely engulfed in flames, and the superheated air made further advance physically impossible. Forced to stop, Raven hid on the second floor of the shop immediately adjacent to the burning block.

Peering through the shattered windows, she observed APC One across the street. The vehicle's tires had been completely incinerated. Fortunately, the remaining fuel tanks were mostly dry; although internal munitions had cooked off, the APC hadn't entirely disintegrated. However, the fact that the rear hatch was blasted wide open—combined with the apocalyptic environment—confirmed one brutal reality: there wasn't a single survivor left inside.

"Uncle Zhou..." Raven fully understood that even if the silhouette on the drone footage was Joseph, and no matter what method he used to trigger that cataclysmic explosion, there was zero chance he survived it. Still, clinging to protocol, she switched through the encrypted military channels, broadcasting one last call. She received no response. She sighed heavily and instinctively switched the radio dial to the civilian frequency sweep function.

It was a standard feature on military disaster-relief radios, designed to automatically cycle through all open civilian channels, capturing and locking onto active signals so rescue teams could coordinate effectively. The civilian channels were a sea of static. But just as she was preparing to climb the fire escape to the roof for a better vantage point, the radio in her hand suddenly spat out a woman's voice:" Da... cough, cough... Dage... can you hear me..."

"What... is wrong with these people? Why is this survivor completely ignoring me?" Raven was utterly baffled by their exchange. In her worldview, any survivor in the apocalypse who made contact with the military reacted with hysterical, desperate relief. Treating her like an annoying telemarketer and just ignoring her was a first. Then she realized she hadn't actually stated her official affiliation.

Suppressing her frustration, she pressed the PTT button and spoke with stern authority:"This is the military escort convoy en route from the Jishan Quarantine Zone to Linjiang University. Are you survivors? We are currently stationed at the Tianshui Road gas station to the north. If you need assistance, head to the gas station. You can join our convoy and head to the Quarantine Zone together..." But before she could finish her sentence... THUD!

A heavy, muffled impact echoed from the ceiling directly above Raven, shaking a shower of dust and sand through the floorboards and startling her so badly the words caught in her throat. The building's floorboards, already baked brittle by the firestorm, groaned under the impact, new cracks spider-webbing across the plaster. What was that? Debris from the explosion? Hearing the noise, Raven abandoned her argument with the two bizarre survivors on the radio.

She immediately raised her assault rifle and scrambled up the fire escape, only to find the roof completely empty. There was nothing there. There were no explosives, and no sign of the woman who claimed to be on the commercial rooftop just moments ago.

"What the hell...?" Raven frowned, scanning her surroundings. But feeling the ambient temperature steadily climbing to dangerous levels, she abandoned the investigation. Whatever those weird survivors wanted to do, they were on their own! She walked to the edge of the roof, staring at the ruined APC in the distance for several seconds. She gave a slow, silent bow in that direction, then stood at attention and rendered a crisp, textbook military salute despite the blistering heat radiating against her face.

Turning on her heel, she climbed back down the fire escape without looking back. She adjusted her radio channel and pressed the button.

"Uncle Wang, Uncle Zhang. I'm heading back. Confirmed... Colonel Zhou and his crew... have been KIA..." As she forced the final words out, her voice cracked, trembling with a suppressed sob. The man who had watched her grow up. The man who always kept a stern face and lectured her, yet always pleaded with her grandfather when she was punished with standing drills. Just like the uncles and aunts she had been told were KIA the day she woke up from her coma. Just like her grandfather. He was gone. Forever.