Chapter 3: Leaving the Safe Zone

Seeing that Xia Qing stayed silent, Feng Wen got out of bed and wandered over to the door. She reached for the bag of grain Xia Qing had just brought in, but Xia Qing’s hand landed on it first, blocking her.

Feng Wen tugged at the bag, refusing to let go. “That’s way too much food for you—you’ll never finish it before it spoils. Such a waste. Give me half, and I won’t just take it for free. Tell you what, if you manage to stay alive and even grow crops, I’ll take thirty percent of your harvest and have my brother run errands for you. Deal?”

Clutching the food bag, Feng Wen looked smugly at the filthy woman in front of her, who looked more ragged than most men. “My brother’s an Evolver with triple speed.”

Xia Qing shot her a frosty glare. “Can’t afford it. Let go.”

Speed Evolvers can’t beat Strength Evolvers. Unwilling to give up, Feng Wen’s greedy gaze was glued to the bag as she threatened, “Don’t be ungrateful, Xia Qing. My brother’s with the Sufeng Squad—there are plenty of ways to kill outside the Safe Zone. You think quadruple-strength makes you invincible? Three ordinary men could take you down!”

Xia Qing hefted the food and canvas bags, glancing back. Behind the dirt and grime on her face, her bright, clear eyes stood out. “If Tang Lu finds out you like Yang Jin, and that your brother’s been leaking Sufeng Squad secrets, how many days do you two have left?”

Finished, Xia Qing ignored Feng Wen, whose face had gone deathly pale, and breezed out of the suffocating dorm building, feeling refreshed. She hadn’t gone far when the sound of familiar voices at the street corner told her someone was about to rob her.

“With this haul, we’ll eat for two months easy. Careful, though—don’t kill or cripple her. The four of us need her to feed us, remember.”

As the disgusting laughter rang out, Xia Qing stopped at the street corner, both bags in hand, facing the four ordinary men set on robbing her.

Really? Did these idiots just walk right into my hands?

Zhao Jie hesitated for a moment, then, unable to contain his excitement, shouted, “Go!” and charged at Xia Qing.

A woman with quadruple strength has power equal to three healthy grown men. They’ve pulled this kind of thing dozens of times over the past five years. Every time, it was a piece of—

“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Before Zhao Jie could even lay a hand on the food bag, trembling with anticipation, Xia Qing sent him flying with a single kick. He smashed into the wall and tumbled down onto his buddies.

No way—

Zhao Jie stared at the skinny, dark-skinned woman before him, his eyes wide with terror. Impossible. How could this be?!

Hidden on both sides of the street, groups of emaciated ambushers froze. Xia Qing had just flattened four grown men without breaking a sweat. Nobody else dared make a move.

On the third floor of the Evolver dorm, Feng Wen watched in shock as Xia Qing strolled through the danger zone, her arms full.

“Xia Qing, over here! Let me give you a hand!” Zhong Tao had been craning his neck at the Safe Zone gate for ages. When he spotted someone with a green badge reading “Xia Qing” on her chest, he hustled over, hands outstretched, to take the half-height canvas bag from her right hand—almost losing his balance from the weight.

This thing is heavy!

Xia Qing steadied the canvas bag and handed her bag of food to the ever-friendly Zhong Tao. “Tao, what brings you here?”

Zhong Tao, unfazed by the sixty-pound grain bag, hefted it easily. “Our squad picked up a job escorting new landholders. Where’s your plot, sis? I’ll get you there.”

It was crowded at the Safe Zone entrance, so Xia Qing just answered vaguely, “North side of the city.”

“Got it!” Zhong Tao led Xia Qing to a light truck, opened the door, and greeted the driver. He motioned for Xia Qing to get in. “This one’s headed north. Go on up and chat with Kui. Once we’re full, we’ll head out.”

“Thanks.” No way she’d turn down a ride instead of jostling around in the truck bed eating dust. After greeting the driver, Zheng Kui, Xia Qing casually lifted her canvas bag into the truck and stashed it in front of the passenger seat, then sat down hugging her food bag, waiting for departure.

Once she was settled, Zheng Kui pulled out a small tin of shredded tobacco and rolled a smoke with scrap book paper, handing it over. “Want one, sis? Triple-evolved tobacco—serious pick-me-up.”

After the disaster, most survivors lived for the moment—smoking, drinking, casual sex everywhere. Xia Qing waved him off. “That stuff’s too strong for me. Go ahead, Kui, you smoke it.”

Women preferred tobacco that evolved a pleasant scent. Zheng Kui lit up his cigarette, took a deep drag, and asked, “Which plot did you get?”

“Number Three.” Xia Qing hadn’t had a casual chat in ages. Seeing that Zheng Kui fell quiet, she added, “It’s about a hundred and twenty kilometers north, up by Longpan Reservoir. It’s small—maybe you’ve never heard of it, Kui.”

Zheng Kui exhaled a puff of smoke out the window. “Not bad. That’s close to the army’s headquarters.”

“Yeah.” Xia Qing couldn’t hide the joy in her voice. One big reason she chose plot three was that it was near the military. If danger cropped up, she could call for help quickly.

Zheng Kui only asked after he finished his slender cigarette, “So you’re going alone?”

Xia Qing nodded. “Yeah, just me. Peace and quiet.”

Squeezed into the cramped Safe Zone with two million people for nearly a decade, Xia Qing would have gone crazy long ago if she hadn’t gotten to sneak outside for assignments once in a while.

“Eighteen billion people dead, with barely a hundred million left… outside the Safe Zone, it’s empty. Only beasts are left.” Zheng Kui’s voice grew heavy as he rolled another smoke and stuck it between his lips.

Hua Nation was already the country with the highest survival rate on Blue Star. Plenty of smaller countries had vanished altogether in the catastrophe. Xia Qing stared in silence at the ten-meter-high reinforced wall, its patches of dried, dark red blood and the burnt, cracked scars of battles against mutated beasts.

“There you are, girl!” The guy who stood behind Xia Qing in line for land ran to the truck, greeting her with enthusiasm. “Name’s Zhao Ze, plot four. We’re neighbors now.”

Plot four was just east of three, and Xia Qing had seriously considered it. Glancing at the dozen hungry eyes behind Zhao Ze, all staring at her grain, she nodded slightly. “Xia Qing.”

Xia Qing came off cold, but for Evolvers, this was already friendly enough. As Zhao Ze tried to chat her up, Zhong Tao arrived with a crowd, urging everyone aboard. “Load up, or night will catch us halfway there!”

Zhao Ze and the rest scrambled for spots in the back. Zhong Tao climbed in between Xia Qing and Zheng Kui, and as soon as the doors shut, Zheng Kui floored the gas and they sped off.

Before the disaster, highways crisscrossed the land, but now, acid rains and mutant plants had ruined them all. The route the truck took was pieced together over the past few years—a rough dirt track. With so many people crammed in, the truck slowed down soon as they left the flat roads near the Safe Zone. They set out at ten in the morning, but only stopped under the sign for Plot Three after five in the afternoon.

When the truck turned back, Xia Qing—last passenger out—grabbed her bags and dashed madly across her new field. She tripped on a tree root, landed flat on her back, and spent a moment lying there grinning at the sky before finally climbing up and heading to her new place.