Chapter14: Taoyuan Town's Secret

Taoyuan Town sat on the edge of the city, a lonely and desolate place far from the hustle and bustle. As they drove farther away from the urban sprawl, the scenery turned more and more eerie. David's car had been battered beyond recognition, dents and scratches covering the body. The left front and windshield were both cracked severely, and it wouldn't take much more to shatter them completely. Along the roadside, rats scurried into broken sewers, while scattered limbs—arms, legs—lay abandoned like discarded potatoes. Corpses, too, were as numerous as they were grotesque.

Jack's earlier carefree attitude had disappeared. He had once believed that a life without books could be pleasant, but the brutal deaths on the road made him reconsider everything. The people lying in the streets, some of them might have been Jack's future friends, or perhaps they were already gone, victims of this strange world. Maybe the next to fall would be him.

Looking out the window, Jack spotted some black, broken stones on the ground, as if they were remnants of some impact. Tom peered outside, scanning for any clues that might explain what had happened here. The silence was unnerving, not a single person in sight—no survivors, no zombies.

"I see a piece of metal over there. It looks like it came from some sort of equipment," Jack muttered.

The group got out of the car, guns ready, even though there was no immediate threat. They were prepared for anything.

"This looks like an airplane wreckage," Bob said, spotting the remains of a cockpit. It was dark inside, the blackened ruins of the interior were suffocated by the smell of death and burnt metal.

"Is this the meteor the radio mentioned?" Lily asked, finding a massive black rock in a corner. It had clear cut marks on its surface. "It looks like something was transporting it, but why is only part of it here?"

Tom walked over, almost reaching out to touch the stone, but hesitated. "This doesn't look right. It could be toxic, or even radioactive. Whatever it is, it doesn't belong here."

"What exactly is it?" Bob wanted to touch it too, but after seeing Tom's hesitation, he thought better of it.

May looked around at the wreckage, then back at the stone. "Could a meteor have brought down a plane?"

Jack snorted. "Honestly, the chances of that are about as likely as me winning the lottery."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "I think the meteor could've been in transit when something went wrong and caused the crash."

"What kind of thing could cause that?" Tom asked.

"From a conspiracy perspective, pretty much anything," Lily replied with a slight smile. "Maybe someone saw the meteor and hijacked the plane."

"Or maybe the passengers were infected with the zombie virus, but that mutation was incredibly fast. How long could a plane even fly under those conditions?" Jack added, his voice turning serious.

"Twenty-something hours," Tom said, looking at a burned body with a nose too straight to belong to an Asian.

"Looks like it's not a matter of nationality," Jack interrupted. "What matters now is that the crash happened, part of the meteor is here, and yet, there are no zombies in sight."

May stepped closer to the body, squinting. "Did you see? This guy has six fingers."

"Could it be congenital?" Lily asked, confused.

Jack was already processing the clues. "Right now, we've got three things: part of a meteor, a six-fingered person, and a plane crash."

"Anything else?" Tom continued to search the area.

"Is this a camera?" Lily asked, finding something black and camera-shaped in the corner. It had burn marks on the lens housing.

Jack took it from her, removing the memory card. He inspected it briefly. "No damage, but it seems dead. Can't power it on."

"Let's go. This place feels wrong," Bob said, a sense of unease creeping over him. The air was heavy, smelling faintly of something burnt, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Jack quickly stuffed the rock into a bottle, along with the camera, and rushed back to the car. As they drove further away from the wreckage, the night seemed to grow darker. Through the rearview mirror, Jack saw two pairs of glowing green eyes in the distance, shining from the dark like the eyes of wolves. They stood perfectly still, not approaching, but neither running away. Perhaps Jack and his group had simply grown far enough for them to lose interest?

"We're about to be bombed," Jack shouted, his voice laced with urgency. "If you can understand me, get out of here, fast!"

"Didn't you see it?" Jack asked, still shaken. "There were two pairs of green eyes. They didn't blink once."

"Green eyes? Four eyes?" May asked, her voice puzzled.

"Yeah, four. Two people," Jack replied, his words faltering.

"But no human has eyes like that," May said, her voice laced with doubt. "If they were mutations, or even aliens, those four eyes might belong to one creature."

Suddenly, the car jolted backward, as if something heavy had fallen behind it. The sound was dull but undeniable.

"What was that?" Jack asked, his voice tense.

"We don't have time to check," Bob said, his tone cold and pragmatic. "We need to leave, now. Once it's light, we can come back to investigate and find a place to rest."

The car sped off into the darkness, the weight of the unknown pressing down on them. They knew that whatever they had just uncovered was only the beginning of something much larger.