Hyperthermal Hell || Apocalypse Paradise #1 [Complete]

28: The Names of These Worlds Are Too Weird

"What the hell happened?"

As a female voice cursed angrily, she gave a violent kick to the door of the bus with her boot-covered foot. The exit door of the bus immediately rattled in its frame. The bright red "1" above it still hung steadily.

Behind Lin Sanjiu was Marcie, who sighed with a lowered head, and Luther, who had just calmed down from his fury.

"Does this mean that we only have one chance left?" Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath. Her bloodshot eyes glowered, and her unfathomable fury grew. "Who are the people responsible for all that fuckery behind our backs!"

"Xiao Jiu, don't be so mad. If we looked at it from another perspective, perhaps we were saved by that countdown. Otherwise, we would have all been dead," Marcie consoled her softly, although she was still at a loss as to what they would do next.

Even though it might be true, Lin Sanjiu momentarily found it difficult to accept. She could not help but feel as if someone was toying with them... She tried her best to curb her anger as both her hands clenched the sides of her pants tightly.

After some time, she suddenly stood up. "I'm going out for a walk."

Luther massaged his temples as if he had a headache; his expression was not much better.

She walked a few steps away from the bus as the night wind spat waves of sand at her. The slight pain made Lin Sanjiu deeply aware that she was still alive. Silence surrounded her, without a single hint of noise. It was so quiet that she could even hear the blood flowing through the vessels in her ears. This was perhaps the reason why her intense emotions gradually waned.

'It's so quiet. But, isn't it a little too quiet?'

She kept getting the feeling that something was amiss.

Lin Sanjiu knitted her brows as her gaze drifted to the dirty Citroën a short distance away from her.

'That's right... During the previous couple of times, Voley would have already gone over to wake us up by this time. But why didn't we hear his phone's alarm? Could it be that he hasn't woken up?'

Just as that thought occurred to her, Lin Sanjiu quickly strode to the Citroën and began calling out a little worriedly, "Voley! Are you awake?"

After waiting for a while, she still heard no activity from within the car.

She could not wait any longer. She wiped the car's dirt-covered windshield with her sleeve then bent over and peeked inside.

The front passenger seat was reclined backward into a make-shift bed. There were packets of half-eaten food, empty water bottles, and some dirty clothes. The only thing missing was Voley himself.

Lin Sanjiu felt herself getting anxious. She surveyed the area as she circled the group of parked vehicles. There was only a vast emptiness around them. The trees had long turned to ashes, so she had an unobstructed view that stretched as far as she could see. Unfortunately, even after she had walked two rounds around the area, she still couldn't spot a single footprint of Voley.

Coincidentally, Luther and Marcie were also getting off the bus while chatting. When Lin Sanjiu heard them, she quickly ran over to them and yelled, "Voley is not in his car! He's missing! Should we go look for him?"

They were stunned, never having expected for Voley to go missing. Marcie opened her mouth and was just about to speak when they heard a lethargic voice come from the roof of the bus.

"I'd say, you shouldn't look for him. You probably won't find him anyway."

The three of them were shocked by the voice and instinctively took a couple of steps back before looking up at the roof. Against the large silver-white moon that hung in the night sky, they could see two dark figures: one of them was standing while the other was sitting down. They were not aware of when these men had arrived. The torrid night wind swept past the two figures, and it was difficult to make out their faces as their shadows melted into the moonlight.