Last Bus of Route 13

The partition between the compartment and the Driver’s Cabin had been torn open, leaving us completely exposed.

No matter how hard Bun Hairstyle and I tried to open the doors, it was all in vain.

In a fit of desperation, Bun Hairstyle pulled out the Swiss Army knife he had tucked at his waist and started pounding on the car window with the handle.

Whatever was inside the compartment seemed to be getting excited. I watched in horror as a shriveled hand reached out through the gaping hole, clawing wildly at the air. I pressed myself tightly against the car door, trying to stay as far away as possible.

Bun Hairstyle froze at the sight of the hand, completely stunned, forgetting even to dodge.

“Rip!”

In his moment of hesitation, the hand managed to grab him, tearing through his clothes and leaving several bloody claw marks on his arm.

“Use the knife! Cut it off!”

I shouted at him, snapping him out of his daze. He raised the knife, ready to strike.

But before he could bring it down, there was a loud “bang!”

A large rock suddenly crashed into the Driver’s Cabin.

Shards of shattered glass rained down on us, scattering everywhere.

Someone had smashed the car window!

“Bun Hairstyle, get out of here! Run!”

I grabbed a seat cushion and shoved the hand back into the compartment, temporarily blocking the hole.

Bun Hairstyle scrambled out through the broken windshield and then reached back to pull me out.

In just a few minutes, we had gone from utter despair to a desperate chance at survival.

Even though we had escaped the hearse, whatever was inside the compartment was still there. As we got to our feet and prepared to run, we found ourselves face-to-face with two young men in suits standing in front of us.

It didn’t take much to figure out that the rock that had shattered the window must have come from them.

“Thanks, guys,” I said quickly. “There’s a monster in the car. We need to get out of here!”

The man on the left, who was thin with sparse hair slicked up with way too much gel, smirked at me.

“I saw you two flailing around in the car and thought the Driver’s Cabin was on fire or something,” he said with a chuckle.

Bun Hairstyle glanced back at the hearse and said anxiously, “It’s worse than a fire, man. There’s something alive in there! And over by that grave mound, there’s a corpse trying to crawl out!”

The two suit men exchanged a look and then burst out laughing.

“Let me guess,” the thin one said, still grinning. “You two must be holdouts, huh? Trying to squeeze more compensation out of us? Making up ghost stories to jack up the price? Honestly, I shouldn’t have thrown that rock. Should’ve just let you keep putting on your little show in the car.”

Hearing that, I immediately understood. These two were either developers or from the demolition office.

Bun Hairstyle didn’t want to waste time arguing. He grabbed my hand and started running.

Still, no matter what, that rock had saved our lives. Before we took off, I turned back to give them one last serious warning.

“I’m not joking, guys. It’s really not safe around here.”

The two suit men just pointed behind them and yelled, “Get lost!”

I had done my best to warn them. With no other choice, I followed Bun Hairstyle and ran for our lives.

Once we were out of the old housing area, we finally let out a sigh of relief.

Bun Hairstyle, still bleeding from the claw marks on his arm, insisted on going to the hospital for a rabies shot.

We parted ways in the city. I couldn’t shake the feeling that whoever had sent Bun Hairstyle the photo of the hearse had done it on purpose, leading us into that nightmare.

Now that we’d found the hearse, my next step was to find Old Liu and figure out what to do about whatever was still inside the compartment. But when I got to Old Liu’s place, he wasn’t home.

With no other options, I decided to head back to the dormitory and come up with a plan from there.

In the evening, I called Bun Hairstyle and told him about Old Liu’s absence, adding that we had to bring back the car ourselves. Bun Hairstyle sighed over the phone, but later agreed to figure out a way to help.

After the day’s events, Xiao Liu firmly refused to let me drive.

I visited Bai Fan at the hospital, then went home to get a good sleep.

I slept until around two or three in the afternoon. Bun Hairstyle called again, mysteriously saying he wanted to help retrieve the car and that he had made thorough preparations.

We agreed on a time and place and then hung up.

After dinner, I headed to Liuying Road again. Despite the lingering fear from yesterday’s harrowing experience, the car was crucial for Bai Fan’s life, and I had to face my fears.

As soon as I got out of the car, I saw Bun Hairstyle and his group of Little Brothers smoking by the roadside. As I approached, Bun Hairstyle came up to me with a smile, whispering:

“Bro, it’s all set. We’ll definitely bring the hearse back home today.”

Pointing across the street, he showed me a tow truck parked there.

I nodded, still somewhat apprehensive, and said:

“Getting the tow truck is the second step, but I’m not sure if everything inside the car is still there.”

Bun Hairstyle laughed, slung his arm around my shoulders, and led me to the back of a black sedan. Opening the trunk, two long-barreled guns lay inside.

“Holy shit, guns?”

I was so shocked that I couldn’t speak, staring at Bun Hairstyle.

He laughed, handing me one of the guns and said softly:

“What the hell are you thinking? Where would we get real guns these days? These are for birds.”

“For birds?”

It took me a moment, but then I realized he meant shotguns!

Well, even a shotgun provided a great sense of security when held.

Bun Hairstyle cared deeply about his brothers. Fearing for their safety, he told them to wait by the road while the two of us nervously proceeded.

Having been here before, the route was more familiar, and we quickly left the old housing area. From a distance, I saw the white hearse still parked in the same spot as last time.

Relieved that the car hadn’t been moved, all seemed manageable.

Each of us armed with a shotgun, we cautiously approached the hearse. I noticed sweat beads forming on Bun Hairstyle’s shiny bald head.

The hearse’s windshield was shattered, with glass fragments all over the driver’s cabin, and a large dark hole leading to the casket compartment.

Bun Hairstyle whispered:

“The back of the compartment isn’t locked. I’ll open the door, and no matter what you see, give it a blast, got it?”

I nervously nodded and followed him to the back of the compartment.

Bun Hairstyle slung his gun over his shoulder, made a sign, and cautiously opened the compartment door.

I aimed the shotgun at the compartment, my finger on the trigger, heart in my throat. What could leap out from there?

The moment the door opened, a pungent smell of blood hit us, and I almost pulled the trigger. But as the sunlight poured in, I finally saw what was inside.

Two gruesomely mangled bodies!!

Bun Hairstyle tensed his face after opening the door and ran to one side, looking at me puzzled and said:

“Shoot, what are you thinking about?”

Seeing me frozen in place, he too came over to take a look.

“Damn, are these corpses? Died so horribly.”

The two humanoid corpses were lying side by side in the compartment, blood flowing everywhere, their bodies from head to toe drenched in blood, as if they had been skinned!!

I suppressed my nausea and took another look inside the compartment, next to the two bodies, there were many sackcloth strips.

Suddenly, it dawned on me, these two skinned corpses must be the businessmen in suits who saved my life yesterday!!

Bun Hairstyle furrowed his eyebrows and cursed:

“Damn, this is disgusting, what do we do now? We can’t just drag them back.”

I sighed and said:

“There’s nothing we can do, we didn’t kill them, we have to call the police.”

“Call the police? If we call the police, the car will be towed to the police station, how would you save Bai Fan then?”

Bun Hairstyle had a point. Although Old Liu wasn’t home, he should be back soon. If the hearse got taken by the police, then forget about retrieving it.

Bun Hairstyle stared at the two corpses and picked up the phone to call the group of Little Brothers by the roadside.

Although these Little Brothers were all hooligans, they too were quite scared upon seeing the two corpses.

Bun Hairstyle glared and said:

“You guys, quickly drag these two things down and toss them aside.”

The group of Little Brothers were a bit troubled, but they did not dare to offend Bun Hairstyle, circling around the compartment, yet unsure where to start.

The stench was overwhelming, so Bun Hairstyle and I hid in a spot to smoke. He was timid but talkative, and unfortunately brought up yesterday’s incident.

“Brother, what do you think was in the compartment yesterday?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.”

Seeing my displeased face, Bun Hairstyle couldn’t tell good from bad but sneered and continued:

“People can climb out of grave mounds, I bet there were dead people in the compartment yesterday too.”

I didn’t respond.

Bun Hairstyle got even more excited and started theorizing:

“You say, there are dead people in the grave mounds, dead people in the compartment, all moving, could these two skinned corpses move too?”

He shouldn’t have said that, because as soon as he did, I suddenly felt a chill.

I was just about to tell him to shut up when suddenly one of the Little Brothers shouted loudly:

“It moved, the bloody corpse moved!! Ghost!”

With that one shout, the Little Brothers scattered like ants, running towards the roadside.

Bun Hairstyle and I were also startled, quickly raising the shotgun to look.

In the compartment, the two bloody corpses still lay quietly inside, only the blood beneath them flowing more and more.

Bun Hairstyle glanced at me, nervously whispered:

“Did it move?”

I shook my head and said:

“I don’t know, didn’t see clearly.”

The two of us stood there with our shotguns, watching each other for a while, but finally decided to move closer to take a look.

Before we got close, a loud “bang,” and one of the bloody corpses in the compartment actually sat up!!

The bloody corpse’s eyes were filled with blood, eyes bulging widely, and it kept making hissing noises.

Then, it even stood up from inside the compartment.

Bun Hairstyle didn’t hesitate for a second. He pulled the trigger with a loud “bang,” but all that came out of the shotgun was a puff of white smoke.

A dud.

The bloody corpse didn’t seem fazed in the slightest. Instead, it started running toward us, its movements unnervingly fast.

Seeing this, I grabbed Bun Hairstyle and shouted, “Run! Just run!”

Without wasting another second, we turned and bolted. Behind us was a stretch of grassland at the foot of the mountain. As we ran, I fired two more shots over my shoulder, but they were just as useless as the first.

The bloody corpse, barefoot but incredibly swift, left a trail of long, bloody footprints wherever it went.

This useless shotgun-good enough for sparrows, maybe, but against something like this? It might as well have been a toy.

The bloody corpse kept chasing us, its mouth letting out guttural, inhuman howls. Panic-stricken, we ran as fast as we could, the distance between us growing longer and longer.

Before we knew it, we reached a grove of poplar trees.

I recognized this place. It was the same grove Old Liu and I had passed through on our way to the Midnight Library. The grove didn’t look very big, but I remembered it had taken Old Liu and me a good half hour to walk through it back then.

There wasn’t time to think. I pointed toward the grove and shouted to Bun Hairstyle, “Get in there!”

He didn’t need to be told twice. We both turned and dashed into the grove.

The trees were dense, and the undergrowth was thick. For a moment, I thought the bloody corpse might give up the chase, but no-it barreled in right after us, completely undeterred by the terrain.

We zigzagged through the grove, trying to lose it, but the bloody corpse stayed hot on our heels. For over ten minutes, it was a relentless game of cat and mouse. Then, suddenly, the trees thinned out, and the grove opened up.

Just as I remembered from my first trip with Old Liu, beyond the grove was a vast, open field of grass. And in the middle of that field stood an old, weathered building-the Midnight Library.

Bun Hairstyle stood frozen, staring at the sight before him. I grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the library.

Old Liu had told me once that the Midnight Library only opened its doors at 8 PM. It was barely 6 PM now. But Old Liu had some kind of connection with the white-haired old man inside. Maybe, just maybe, they’d make an exception and let us in early to hide.

When we reached the door, I started pounding on it with all my might. I knocked for a good ten minutes, but there was no response.

Bun Hairstyle, growing anxious, asked, “Bro, you think that bloody corpse will find us here?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. But if we can just get inside the library, we’ll be safe.”

I figured the lack of response was because the white-haired old man inside was hard of hearing. So I kept knocking, another ten minutes, still nothing.

Bun Hairstyle kept his eyes glued to the edge of the grove, while I finally gave up, slumping against the door in frustration. I cursed under my breath-was this old man really so stubborn that he wouldn’t open the door a minute before 8 PM?

With no other options, we sat down by the door, praying the bloody corpse wouldn’t find its way here.

Time dragged on. The sky darkened, and the air grew colder. Suddenly, a voice called out from the grove.

“Help! Somebody help!”

Bun Hairstyle’s eyes widened in shock. “What the hell? That bloody corpse can talk now?”

Before I could respond, a figure emerged from the edge of the grove. It was short, its movements jerky and unsteady. But there was no mistaking it-it was the bloody corpse.

The last of the daylight faded, and the night closed in around us. There was nowhere to hide. Cold sweat dripped down my back as I watched the bloody corpse stagger closer.

Bun Hairstyle saw it too, pointing and shouting in terror.

The bloody corpse paused at the edge of the grove, as if listening or looking for us. Then, with a sudden burst of energy, it let out a screech and charged straight toward us, arms flailing wildly.

My heart sank. This was it. We were done for.

But then, with a loud “creak,” the door behind us swung open.

It was 8 PM.