Chapter 96: Zombies (2)
There was a reason Everly asked the driver to go to the park instead of leaving the city limits of Radyard directly.
Radyard was a city with a very unusual layout. It sat against mountains and beside water. To the west and north lay the tail end of the Abanayaqi Mountains, one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world. To the east and south flowed the mighty Chata River.
The L-shaped bend of the river and the winding mountain range enclosed Radyard in the middle. Anyone wishing to leave the area—without getting lost in the deep forests—had only one option: travel through the eastern or southern sides of the city and cross one of the three bridges built over the Chata River.
These three bridges were Radyard’s only land connections to the outside world, aside from air and water routes. The earliest settlers who established themselves here had relied on this natural barrier to stay far away from the flames and gunfire of the Civil War. However, after the shadow of war faded, the inconvenient land transportation also caused Radyard’s economy to stagnate, preventing it from developing for a long time.
Before setting out on this trip, Everly had downloaded and studied the city map of Radyard. Jack Feld Airport was located in the northeastern corner of the city, beside the Chata River, but it was still more than twenty kilometers away from the eastern bridge.
It might not sound far, but that route passed through several residential areas and commercial districts. The many traffic lights meant cars couldn’t move quickly. More importantly, crowded areas meant a higher probability of encountering infected people. If even a few infected individuals appeared in the crowd and began attacking passersby indiscriminately, the streets would soon descend into chaos—car crashes, traffic jams, or even explosions could follow.
And after finally overcoming all those obstacles to reach the eastern bridge, they might still run into massive congestion on the bridge itself.
An assault had already occurred in the city center this morning, and by the afternoon the virus had spread to the airport. At this rate, there were probably quite a number of infected people in the downtown area already. Frightened by them, residents in the central districts would very likely choose to flee the city by car.
When everyone rushed over at once trying to escape the city, yet there were only three bridges leading out, traffic congestion was inevitable.