“Speaking of which, why don’t we kill all those men? Why keep them alive at all?”
A companion laughed. “What’s the point of killing them all at once like before? We still need to leave a few as a ‘surrender gift’ for the newcomers.”
“What about the woman in that room? It’s been quiet the whole time, did she die?” the buzz-cut man asked suspiciously.
Brother Scar turned to the axe man. “Send two people to check. If she’s dead, just dispose of her. Don’t make a mess, we finally found this place.”
Sensing footsteps outside, Song Jinhe signaled Zhang Yi to hide back in the cabinet and get ready.
With the sound of the door opening, cold wind slipped through the crack.
Half-lowering her eyes, Song Jinhe watched as the intruder cautiously approached to inspect the room, then suddenly stepped on a mousetrap and let out a sharp cry.
She threw off the blanket in an instant. Before he could react, the knife in her hand plunged into his body.
Hearing his companion’s scream, the other man realized they had been tricked and rushed forward with a machete.
Song Jinhe rolled onto the bed to dodge the attack, and in the next second, he was stabbed in the back by Zhang Yi.
“Aah!”
In pain, the man violently threw Zhang Yi aside, sending her crashing to the ground, then raised his foot to kick her.
Cold light flashed in Song Jinhe’s hand as she went berserk, stabbing him repeatedly. Feeling the warm blood flow over her hands, she twisted the blade to deepen the wound.
The buzzing in her head and the screams echoed wildly in her mind. At that moment, she had only one thought: kill these attackers or die herself.
Somewhere among the blows, an artery was severed. Blood sprayed across the ceiling.
Even Song Jinhe’s face was splattered with it; the red veins in her eyes seemed to crawl inward toward her pupils.
The young man with the abdominal wound saw this and frantically pried himself free from the mousetrap, crawling and rolling toward the exit in a desperate attempt to escape. Song Jinhe stood up calmly, took the Molotov cocktail from Zhang Yi, and threw it.
The glass bottle shattered. Flames ignited on the man’s back, and his pig-like screams echoed through the entire corridor.
Before they split up, Song Jinhe gave Zhang Yi two more Molotov cocktails. Then she took out a new backpack and wore it in front of her chest as cover for her storage space, heading toward the lobby.
The other side moved quickly. Humans can’t dodge bullets with speed alone, but they can avoid the line of fire. The moment Song Jinhe threw the Molotov cocktail, she immediately pulled back and never exposed herself.
After a burst of gunfire, the decorative painting behind the reception desk was riddled with holes, yet none of the shots hit her.
“Damn it, how many Molotovs does she even have in that backpack?! That’s not a patient, that’s a walking bomb!”
Song Jinhe calmly pulled out another Molotov cocktail. Although she could detect their movements in time, her mental and physical stamina were limited; if this dragged on, her body wouldn’t hold up.
They knew about ability users, and the leader was very likely one himself, judging from his build, he wouldn’t be easy to deal with.
Boom—
A sudden explosion interrupted her thoughts.
Zombies had broken in. For them to breach the bathhouse defenses meant there were definitely a lot of them!
“Boss, zombies! And… those people escaped!” a subordinate rushed to report.
“Guard the exits,” Brother Scar said with a dark expression, his entire body radiating violent killing intent. “Kill anyone you see.”
He had actually suffered a loss at the hands of this group, three of his men were dead, and one was severely burned and beyond saving. If he didn’t wipe them all out, he wouldn’t be able to hold his head up when he returned to the base.
The smell of burning and charred flesh drifted out from inside, it was Cheng Yan’s group successfully taking down the guards and retrieving part of the important supplies, along with Song Jinhe’s crowbar.
The chaos and the smell of blood in the bathhouse were like a dinner bell for the zombies. Screams erupted everywhere in an instant.
Some of the zombies were soaked through, their skin swollen and decayed, giving off a stench of sewage mixed with rotting flesh, utterly nauseating. Molotov cocktails had very limited effect on them.
“What the hell are they…” Peng Zhixue froze in shock.
“They’re migrating from flooded areas,” Cheng Yan sucked in a sharp breath. “That means there are even more zombies nearby than when we arrived. Go find Jinhe first!”
Song Jinhe ran into a problem.
She was locked in a stalemate with that group when, suddenly, a zombie “sixth man” came out of nowhere from behind. Its waterlogged, bloated flesh looked almost like a giant cadaver. The kitchen knife wasn’t as easy to use as the crowbar, and she was instantly tackled, nearly losing half her life before she managed to kill the zombie and crawl free.
Fortunately, the others were also occupied with zombies and had no time to deal with her.
Watching Brother Scar, their leader, cut through zombies as easily as chopping vegetables, Song Jinhe immediately deduced his ability.
Most abilities were not strong at the beginning, especially in terms of survival, strength enhancement was the exception.
In the early stage of the apocalypse, it was also the period of strength-enhancement ability users.
Gunfire and flashes of fire attracted more and more zombies, and everyone was running for their lives.
Wu Dayong came out of the door carrying supplies, completely failing to notice the person behind him with a row of blood-red bite marks on their arm. He was suddenly struck from behind with a blunt blow and fell to the ground.
“You ruined my life this badly and you still want to leave? Dream on! Hahaha… die, let’s all die together! My family is gone anyway…”
Wu Dayong struggled desperately, but the other person clung tightly to him, taking his punches without letting go. The zombies were already very close.
“Are you crazy? If you want to die, don’t drag me with you! Let go!”
“What are you standing there for? Help me!” he shouted frantically at his wife. When that didn’t work, he quickly changed his tone. “Wife, quick, help me pull this crazy woman off! Let’s get out of here together! I was wrong before, I’ll change!”
Shen Yingxiu looked at him, her eyes filled only with cold tears. “You shouldn’t have come back at all.”
As soon as she spoke, screams and blood burst out together.
Song Jinhe used a Molotov cocktail to block the axe man. “Where’s the key?”
“You think a broken bottle can scare me?” the axe man sneered, pulling out the key. “Let’s see who’s tougher. How about I throw the key into the zombie horde?”
He expected to see panic and compromise on Song Jinhe’s face, but he had misjudged the situation. She hadn’t come for negotiation at all, she had come for the key, and killing him was just as important.
“Fine, let’s throw them together!” Her unstable condition made her emotions volatile as she raised the Molotov cocktail in her hand.
Suddenly, a side door opened. Cheng Yan rushed out in a flash and locked his arm around the man’s neck, while Peng Zhixue moved in to grab his equipment.
The key wasn’t thrown far. The Molotov cocktail Song Jinhe threw blocked the zombies rushing in behind them, and she stepped forward to stab the axe man.
After retrieving the key and crowbar, Song Jinhe led them away from the zombies. “The back and side routes are both overrun. We’ll go up one floor first, then circle back to the mall the same way we came.”
“Okay.”
As the four of them were leaving, 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, can you really live with your conscience?”
Song Jinhe didn’t even turn her head. From the fire door to the corridor ahead, zombies packed densely with no end in sight. The once-clean bathhouse was now filled with the stench of decay. She couldn’t even guarantee her own safety, she had no intention of being a good person.