“Speaking of which, why didn’t we just kill all those men? Why keep them around?”
A companion laughed. “What’s the fun in killing everyone at once like before? You have to leave a few for the newcomers to kill as a pledge of loyalty.”
“What about that woman in the room? There’s been no sound from inside. She couldn’t be dead already, could she?” the buzz-cut man asked suspiciously.
Brother Scar turned to the man with the axe. “Send two guys to check. If she’s dead, dispose of her. Don’t let her rot and foul up the place; it took us long enough to find a spot this good.”
Sensing footsteps outside, Song Jinhe signaled for Zhang Yi to hide back in the closet and prepare herself.
As the door creaked open, a draft of cold air swept in through the gap.
Song Jinhe kept her eyes half-closed, watching the man approach cautiously to observe her. Suddenly, he stepped on a rat trap and let out a sharp cry of pain.
She threw back the covers instantly. Before he could react, she lunged forward and buried her knife deep into his body.
Hearing his companion’s scream, the other man realized it was a trap and charged forward, brandishing a machete.
Song Jinhe rolled across the bed to dodge the attack. A second later, Zhang Yi emerged from behind and stabbed him in the back.
“Argh!”
Wincing in pain, the man violently flung Zhang Yi away, sending her crashing to the floor. He raised his foot, intending to stomp on her.
A cold glint flashed in Song Jinhe’s hand. Like a woman possessed, she stabbed him repeatedly. Feeling the warm blood flow over her hands, she twisted the handle to maximize the damage.
The ringing in her ears and the screams of the dying swirled in her head. At this moment, she had only one thought: she had to kill these thugs to survive.
She didn’t know which strike had severed an artery, but blood splattered across the ceiling.
Song Jinhe’s face was covered in gore. The bloodshot veins in her eyes seemed to flow toward her pupils.
Seeing this, the young man with the injured abdomen pried off the rat trap and began to crawl away for his life. Song Jinhe stood up unhurriedly, took a Molotov cocktail from Zhang Yi, and smashed it against him.
The beer bottle shattered, and the young man’s back burst into flames. His pig-like squeals echoed throughout the entire corridor.
Before they split up to move, Song Jinhe gave Zhang Yi two more Molotov cocktails. She then pulled out a new backpack and wore it in front to provide cover for her space as she hurried toward the main hall.
The enemy moved quickly. Human speed couldn’t outrun a bullet, but it could dodge a muzzle. Every time she threw a Molotov, Song Jinhe immediately ducked back, never leaving her head exposed.
After a burst of gunfire, the decorative painting behind the service desk was riddled with holes, but not a single shot hit her.
“Dammit! How many Molotovs does she have in that bag?! That’s not a patient, that’s a bomber!”
Song Jinhe calmly pulled out another Molotov. Although she could sense the enemy’s movements in time, her energy was limited; her body wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.
These people knew about those with talents, and their leader was likely one of them. Judging by his physique, he wouldn’t be easy to deal with.
Boom—
A sudden sound interrupted Song Jinhe’s thoughts.
Zombies were getting in. If they had broken through the bath center’s defenses, their numbers had to be significant.
“Big brother, zombies! And… that group escaped!” a lackey rushed over to report.
“Guard the exit,” Brother Scar said, his face darkening, his entire being radiating murderous rage. “Kill every last one of them.”
He had actually suffered a setback at the hands of such a ragtag group. Three of his men were dead, and another was so severely burned he was beyond saving. If he didn’t kill them all, he wouldn’t be able to hold his head up back at the camp.
The smell of charred flesh drifted from further inside; Cheng Yan and the others had successfully killed their guards and reclaimed part of their essential supplies along with Song Jinhe’s crowbar.
The commotion and the scent of blood in the bath center acted like a dinner bell for the zombies. In an instant, screams broke out everywhere.
Some of the zombies were soaking wet, their skin swollen and ulcerated. They carried a stench of sewers mixed with rotting corpses—absolutely revolting. The Molotov cocktails had very little effect on them.
“Why do they look like that…” Peng Zhixue stared in a daze.
“They migrated from the flooded areas,” Cheng Yan said, taking a sharp breath. “It means there are even more zombies nearby than when we arrived. Find Jinhe first!”
Song Jinhe ran into some trouble. While she was deadlocked with the thugs, a “sneaky bastard” of a zombie lunged from behind. Its bloated flesh looked like a corpse in the late stages of decomposition. Without her crowbar, her kitchen knife wasn’t as effective. She was pinned down and nearly lost her life before she managed to kill it and crawl out.
Fortunately, the thugs were also occupied by zombies and had no time to deal with her.
Watching Brother Scar slice through zombies as easily as cutting vegetables, Song Jinhe guessed his talent.
Most talents weren’t strong at the beginning, especially in terms of survival—Strength Enhancement was the exception.
The early stage of the apocalypse was the era of those with Strength Enhancement.
The gunshots and fire attracted more and more zombies, and everyone was running for their lives.
Wu Dayong walked out of a room clutching his supplies, completely failing to notice a man with a row of bloody teeth marks on his arm approaching from behind. Caught off guard, he was struck with a blunt object and collapsed.
“You ruined me, and you think you can just leave? Dream on! Hahaha… die! Let’s all die together! My family is gone…”
Wu Dayong struggled desperately, but the other man held onto him with a death grip, letting Wu Dayong’s fists rain down on him without letting go. The zombies were very close. “Are you crazy?! If you want to die, don’t take me with you! Let go!”
“What are you standing there for? Get over here and help!” he shouted frantically at his wife. Seeing that didn’t work, he began to plead. “Wife, quick, help me get this crazy woman off me! We can leave this place together! I was wrong before, I’ll change, I promise!”
Shen Yingxiu looked at him, her eyes filled with nothing but cold tears. “It would have been better if you had never come back.”
As she spoke, screams and blood erupted together.
Song Jinhe blocked the man with the axe with a Molotov cocktail. “Where are the keys?”
“You think a broken bottle can scare me?” The axe-man curled his lip and pulled out the keys. “Let’s see who’s more ruthless. What if I throw these keys toward the zombies?”
He expected to see urgency or hesitation on Song Jinhe’s face, but he had miscalculated. Reclaiming the keys was secondary for her; killing him was her primary objective.
“Fine, let’s throw them at each other then!” The physical discomfort made her emotionally unstable. Song Jinhe raised the Molotov cocktail.
Suddenly, a side door flew open. Cheng Yan bolted out and put the man in a chokehold while Peng Zhixue scrambled to grab his gear.
The keys hadn’t been thrown far. The Molotov Song Jinhe threw blocked the zombies rushing from behind, and then she stepped forward and buried her knife in the axe-man.
Having reclaimed her keys and crowbar, Song Jinhe led them away from the zombies. “The back and side paths are already overrun. We’ll go up one floor first, then circle back to the mall the way we came.”
“Okay.”
As the four of them headed out, someone suddenly called out to them.
“Wait! Can you take me with you? Please, I don’t want to die! If you leave me here to die, how can your conscience bear it?!”
Song Jinhe didn’t even turn her head. From the fire doors to the hallways, there was an endless swarm of zombies. The once-clean bath center was now filled with the stench of rot. She couldn’t even guarantee her own safety, and she had no intention of playing the hero.