The closer he got, the stronger the smell of mold got, and it was accompanied by the growing smell of rot. The number of mutant bees in the surrounding rose again as well. There was a constant humming noise that grew louder. At a crossroad, Lius.h.i.+ finally laid his eyes on the hive. It was an organic ma.s.s seemingly growing from 2 buildings. It was mainly brown and grey in color, with some dark red sections that made him think of dry blood, and some dirty yellow patches. There were a few openings where windows should be, with some mutant bees going in and out. The rotten smell came from the ground around the hive. It made him think of an infested terran building in Starcraft.

There was a layer what was obviously organic matter, with thousands of flies buzzing around. He could even recognise broken bones here and there. What he though was some patches of s.h.i.+mering liquid on the ground was in fact maggots. The idea of sneaking into the place became highly unattractive, and he got the urge to torch the place down and bury the remains. Lius.h.i.+ still decided to look around the hive before deciding wether to move forward or retreat.

With the amount of activity around the hive, he had to move at a snail pace. As he circled around the hive, he got to see another side of it. This one was clearly still under construction, and the sight almost made him throw up. He had to stop and hide under a car to take the time to recover. He was too disturbed to stay still while in the open.

'Now I know why they brough people and zombies back. They are the main material for the construction of the hive... I should have guessed it! After all, normal beehives are basically made from processed plants materials. With these mutants beasts interests in humans rather than plants... I should have guessed it...'

The front was made of corpses stacked together, and seemingly held together by melted and merged parts. There were mutant bees working on it, and sprayed something from their mouths on the corpses. Lius.h.i.+ guessed that the liquid reacted with the flesh to turn the corpse into an organic building material. Part of the corpse melted down to the ground where it would rot. The rest would swell and solidify. The innards of the corpses were visible, and due to the reaction with the mutant bees sucs, some were pulsating. It reinforced his previous image of an infected terran building, but with dead infected terrans on the wall. It made him want to throw up, but he had to hold it in. It took him a few minutes to regain his composure and resumed his scouting.

[Energy core detected] the Sta.r.s.eed announced in his head.

Lius.h.i.+ froze. It was what he was waiting for. When he encountered the mutant boar, the Sta.r.s.eed had detected its core before he was even able to see it. He could use the Sta.r.s.eed to detect fully matured mutant beasts. He could locate them.

'Below ground level... That hive doesn't extend just outward. Did it reach the sewer system? How many entrances are there anyway?'

Lius.h.i.+ sat there for a few minutes, pondering what to do. He wondered how to get inside without getting swarmed, how much light was available inside, if it was wide enough to stand or if he would have to crawl, how much flammable was the hive.

'I can't really do anything right now. I had enough informations and equipment for a scouting mission, not an infiltration mission of this type. I wish I could ram a truck full of fuel on the place and watch the fireball. It would certainly help kill quite a few of them, drive the other away, and reveal the hive master if it didn't burn with the rest of the hive... Should I light some of the surrounding buildings on fire? Then I could try to light fires at the entrances of the hive. Won't the smoke lead Xiaotian here? She would be swarmed by angry mutant bees, and her and her sister would get killed, and my truck damaged.'

"s.h.i.+t, I didn't think to prepare a means of communication between us" he whispered to himself.

[A communication channel was already etablished during the construction and programming of the computer of the host vehicle. A message can be transmitted and displayed on the c.o.c.kpit screen at any time, so long as the vehicle is within range, which it is right now. Do you wish to send a message to the guests now?]

'... I'm an idiot! If I can remotly direct it, of course I can send a message...' "Message start" he whispered. "I have put a building on fire so the wind would carry the smoke toward the hive and help conceal myself. I have located the hive. The zombies, and possibly the captured humans, have been used as material to build the hive. I see no safe way to enter the hive, and I'm unsure of how well it could burn. I plan to light up a few of the surrounding buildings on fire to smoke the area, then retreat to the first building I burned. End message."

[Message sent.]

In the Doomsday Ride, Xiaotian was at the wheel, with her sister next to her. She was really worried about Lius.h.i.+. It was the first time since their meeting that they got separated. Xiaotian had shown her sister how to check the cameras feeds, so Lu helped not only keep track of their surroundings in case another group of survivors showed up, and also to check the sky for signs of fire. The burned cars were the only signs she had that Lius.h.i.+ was fine.

Ping!

Lu was startled not only by the sound, but also the change in the screen. Xiaotian looked curiously at her sister.

"It's a message sister. From brother Jiang" she said as she turned the screen toward her.

"What? He had a means to communicate and he didn't tell me anything about it?"

She already didn't like that Lius.h.i.+ went alone in a dangerous zone. Now she was annoyed because he didn't tell her about communication. She kept her reaction to a mild scowl, while promising herself to have a talk with him later. The sister read the message, and their skin lost color at the content.

Lu's eyes got wet, and a single tear ran down her face. She turned her face away from Xiaotian and hastly wiped her face and eyes while her sister was focusing on the message. She realised that, if her parents were taken by the mutant bees, they would most likely be part apart of the hive then.

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"We should find the biggest smoke cloud and go there now. He said he used it to further hide himself so he must have though of the wind direction. Let's get out and check, it will help us narrow where to look."

Lu was worried about her sister. Of the 2, Xiaotian had always been the more sensitive, while she was the tougher one. She didn't want her to think about the possible gruesome state of their parents before reaching the rendez-vous point. She was trying to distract her. As for the hive, she fully supported Lius.h.i.+'s idea. She wanted to burn it to cinders. If only so her parents and friends bodies may no longer be part of it if they got caught.

After checking the wind direction, which had picked up, they got back in the truck, and within a few minutes, located the dense smoke cloud made by theburning building. They realised Lius.h.i.+ had made a small detour. She diverted her sister attention by wondering how he sent the message to them. After all, they were with him when he prepared himself. He didn't take any communication devices, the internet and mobile phone network were down, and that custom truck didn't seem to have any specialised communication application.

While the girls moved, Lius.h.i.+ slowly checked the buildings surrounding the hive. As expected, they were all empty of living beings, and so long as he avoided the windows he could move unhindered. The problem was that it was risky to force open locked door, it could attract mutant bees with the noise. It also meant he couldn't properly set the fires, it would take longer to spread, and it was already reaching mid-afternoon. Lius.h.i.+ want to be done with the hive by evening so he could rest that night and leave the next day in the morning. It would also give him a bit of time for one last search for the Wen sister's parents.