Su Nian looked around.
She spotted a residential building across the street. The entrance door to the stairwell stood open, revealing a pitch black interior. There might be an empty apartment upstairs where she could hide someone.
She had to find a relatively safe place as quickly as possible, hide Xingxing there, then go to the clinic alone to search for medicine.
Su Nian backed away until she reached the nearest apartment building.
Several abandoned bicycles were piled up at the entrance. Their rusted wire baskets were stuffed with garbage. Stepping over the clutter, she entered the stairwell.
It was dark inside. The air was damp and moldy, mixed with the pungent smell of urine. Broken glass and scraps of paper were scattered across the stairs, and someone had spray painted words on the walls, though they were too faded to make out.
Slowing her breathing, she gripped her machete and carefully climbed the stairs.
Tap… tap…
Something fell upstairs.
Su Nian immediately tightened her grip on the machete, took several steps back, and held her breath.
Only after about a minute did everything finally fall silent again.
She let out a quiet sigh of relief and cautiously continued upward until she found a ping pong ball lying on the floor.
It wasn’t a zombie.
She climbed all the way to the tenth floor without encountering a single zombie. Some apartment doors were tightly shut while others stood open, but every unit was empty.
Not until the tenth floor did she find a suitable apartment.
The front door stood open, protected by a heavy iron security door. Su Nian stepped inside. The place had clearly been ransacked. A wardrobe had been knocked over, and clothes were scattered across the floor.
After checking every room, including the kitchen and bathroom, she confirmed there were no zombies.
She carried the clutter off the bed into the living room, untied Xingxing from her back, and gently laid him on the bedroom bed.
His face was burning red. His eyes were only half open, and his dry lips were cracked. He grabbed Su Nian’s fingers and held them tightly.
“Mommy… don’t go.”
Su Nian’s nose stung, and her eyes instantly filled with tears.
She gently pried his fingers loose and placed a small teddy bear into his hands.
“Mommy is going to get medicine for you. I’ll be back very soon. Stay here, don’t make a sound, and don’t open the door no matter who comes.”
“Mommy… love you.”
Xingxing said nothing more. Tears quietly streamed from the corners of his eyes into his ears.
Su Nian wiped them away with her sleeve before standing up and closing the bedroom door.
The lock on the iron security door was broken. After shutting the wooden inner door, she took an iron chain and a brand new padlock out of her space and locked the iron door from the outside.
Wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes, Su Nian hurried downstairs and ran into another apartment building.
This building was the closest one to the clinic.
Walking to a window, she looked down.
The group of zombies was still gathered at the intersection.
There were far too many to pass through directly.
The first floor of the building across from her was right beside the clinic. If she climbed down the back of this building and crossed the street, she would arrive at the clinic.
Su Nian tucked the machete into her belt, took a deep breath, climbed out through the window, stepped onto the awning below, then jumped from the awning to the ground.
Her landing made a little more noise than she had hoped.
She crouched and waited for several seconds.
The nearest zombies were over thirty meters away, and none of them turned around.
Keeping low and hugging the wall, she ran toward the clinic.
Fifty meters.
As long as she crossed the street and made it through the clinic door, she could get the medicine.
Su Nian broke into a run.
Her footsteps were light, but the zombies at the intersection still heard them and turned their heads.
They charged toward her.
She immediately spun around and sprinted toward the clinic, keeping close to the wall.
The stench of rotting flesh behind her grew stronger with every step.
She dared not look back.
All she could hear was the pounding of her own heartbeat, her footsteps, and the zombies chasing after her.
The clinic door was only ten meters ahead.
Su Nian rushed over and grabbed the handle, pulling it toward herself.
It wouldn’t budge.
She pushed. It still didn’t move.
It was locked. She kicked the iron door with all her strength.
It rang out with a loud clang but didn’t move an inch.
Instead, the noise attracted zombies from another street.
The growls behind her were getting closer.
Turning around, she saw the leading zombie was now less than ten meters away.
Its entire face had rotted away. Black saliva dripped from its gaping mouth as it reached toward her with filthy fingers, black mud packed beneath its nails.
Su Nian dodged aside, avoiding its grasp, and ran around to the other side of the clinic, where there was a narrow alley.
Keeping close to the wall, she sprinted toward the corner.
The moment she looked up, she spotted an open second floor window.
Half the glass had already shattered, and a white curtain fluttered outside.
Su Nian took an aluminum ladder out of her space, one she had bought before the Apocalypse.
She propped it beneath the window and started climbing.
The ladder wobbled violently.
Her palms were soaked with sweat.
Her hand slipped on one of the rungs, causing her body to drop several steps.
Clenching her teeth, she grabbed hold again and continued climbing while the ladder creaked beneath her feet.
A zombie started climbing after her.
Then another. Then another.
Su Nian gritted her teeth and climbed faster.
Even so, one of the zombies managed to grab the leg of her pants.
Her heart nearly stopped.
She shook her leg violently several times, but the grip only tightened.
Holding onto the ladder with one hand, she pulled out her machete with the other and swung it hard at the zombie’s arm.
The arm was severed.
Taking advantage of the opening, Su Nian climbed upward as fast as she could.
As she climbed through the window, a shard of broken glass scraped across the back of her hand.
It didn’t draw blood, but it left a burning white mark.
She had no time to deal with it.
Several zombies continued climbing the ladder.
Su Nian grabbed the ladder and shook it violently from side to side, but the zombies still clung to it.
Just as they were about to reach the windowsill, she quickly glanced around.
The alley was deserted.
Gripping the ladder firmly, she used her mind to pull it back into her space.
The zombies instantly crashed to the ground.
Su Nian climbed inside and collapsed onto the floor, gasping for breath.
The sharp smell of disinfectant filled her nose, mixed with a sour odor of mold.
It was an examination room.
An examination bed stood against the wall, its bedsheet left in complete disarray.
Medicine boxes and prescription slips covered the desk, while cotton swabs and broken glass littered the floor.
Su Nian stood up, took a flashlight from her space, switched it on, and swept the room with its white beam.
Walking over to the desk, she began flipping through the prescriptions.
The handwriting was so messy that she could barely recognize any of it.
She could only make out a few numbers and medicine names.
She wasn’t familiar with medications, and most of them meant nothing to her.
When she reached the third prescription, she saw a line of information.
Song Kexin, 6 years old, high fever…
Below it was the prescription.
This was it.
Su Nian gripped the paper tightly.
For the first time in days, the anxiety and unease weighing on her heart eased a little.
But after reading it twice…
She still couldn’t understand it.
What dosage? How should the medicines be mixed?
Her heart tightened all over again.
“Roar…”
The zombies downstairs suddenly became restless.
There was no more time.
Su Nian began stuffing every medicine she could find into her space.
Medicine boxes, bottles, prescription slips, everything inside the drawers.
She would sort it all out later.
The clinic was fairly large, with two floors.
In less than ten minutes, Su Nian swept through every room.
She collected several large boxes of medicine containing all kinds of drugs.
She deliberately left some of every type behind instead of taking everything.
The zombies below roared louder and louder.
One of them slammed into the iron door with a loud bang, making it shudder violently.
Su Nian walked to the window and looked down.
Seven or eight zombies had gathered at the clinic entrance, repeatedly ramming the iron door.
The lock groaned and creaked under the impact.
The noise also attracted zombies from nearby streets.
At that moment, Su Nian heard something else.
Uneasy, she moved to another window, which gave her a partial view of the apartment building where Xingxing was hiding.
She heard the growls of zombies.
Then a human screams.
Su Nian’s heart clenched violently, and she nearly dropped the flashlight.
The scream lasted only a few seconds before stopping abruptly.
Standing on the windowsill, Su Nian stared toward the apartment building.
She couldn’t see clearly.
But the zombies’ growls continued without pause, echoing one after another from the stairwell entrance.
Her hands began trembling.
Her palms were soaked with sweat.
She turned around, took out the ladder again, and started climbing down.
The moment she stepped onto it, it swayed violently.
She and the ladder tipped backward together.
Su Nian caught the windowsill in midair and hung beneath the window.
She glanced down.
The zombies on the ground heard the noise, looked up, and reached toward her.
She released her grip.
When she landed, she bent her knees to absorb the impact.
The zombies lunged at her.
She kicked away the nearest one, pulled the machete from her space, and found even more zombies closing in.
Su Nian suddenly took out a loudspeaker from her space, turned the volume to its maximum, and left it on the ground.
Then she climbed back up to the second floor.
The zombies were immediately drawn toward the blaring sound.
With fewer zombies remaining at the intersection, she climbed down from another window and sprinted toward the apartment building.
She rushed straight into the stairwell without stopping.
Zombie growls echoed from upstairs.
Fresh bloodstains stretched across the stairs, as though something had been dragged, leading all the way from the first floor upward.
Her heart sank.