Footsteps began coming up from downstairs.
“Thud, thud, thud…”
Su Nian’s ears immediately perked up. She walked to the door and listened carefully.
“They’re upstairs. Hurry up and follow!”
“I’m going to kill that woman!”
The footsteps did not stop on the tenth floor. They continued upward.
Su Nian let out a small sigh of relief.
“I didn’t see anyone leave. Search! Search every room!”
Then came the sound of doors being kicked open. The doors slammed against the walls, making loud bangs.
Someone was rummaging through things and cursing loudly.
Su Nian took two steps back and stared at the ceiling above her.
The footsteps moved back and forth on the twelfth floor, running from one end of the corridor to the other.
The sounds of doors being kicked stopped.
Someone shouted: “There’s no one upstairs! She must be downstairs.”
The footsteps began moving toward the eleventh floor.
Su Nian’s palms started sweating. She switched the machete to her other hand and wiped it against her pant leg.
The footsteps grew closer.
They stepped across the floor of the eleventh floor, walking from one end of the corridor to the other, then returning again.
Su Nian held her breath, her eyes fixed on the iron door.
The footsteps stopped on the eleventh floor for a while, then began moving downward.
They were coming toward the tenth floor.
Su Nian stood behind the iron door, gripping her machete tightly and staring through the gap.
The footsteps reached the tenth floor and moved closer through the corridor.
Su Nian’s heart rose to her throat.
The footsteps passed by her door without stopping and continued toward the other end of the corridor.
Someone shouted again:
“There’s movement downstairs, go check!”
The footsteps moved downstairs once more, gradually fading away.
Su Nian’s shoulders relaxed slightly, but she still did not move.
She waited for a while.
The footsteps reached the first floor and stopped.
After waiting a little longer, there was no sound at all.
She slowly crouched down and was just about to relax when the iron door was suddenly kicked from outside.
“Bang!”
Su Nian’s entire body jolted. Her back slammed against the wall.
The latch behind the door was kicked loose. The chain tightened, and the lock swung inward, hitting the wooden door.
Someone outside laughed.
“Did you think we really left? Hahaha…”
“I knew you were still here.”
Su Nian gritted her teeth and placed a wardrobe from her storage space behind the wooden door.
The iron door was kicked again.
Someone outside shouted: “Break it open!”
The iron door was kicked repeatedly. Cement fragments fell from the door frame, and the chain was pulled out of shape.
Su Nian glanced at the window.
The tenth floor.
Below was a narrow alley, completely dark, making it impossible to see the ground.
The kicking suddenly stopped.
“I don’t believe we can’t open this door.”
“Drag that new guy over here. Let’s make him bleed a little.”
After a scream, there was the sound of something heavy falling.
Su Nian’s heart suddenly tightened.
A strong smell of blood seeped through the gap beneath the door.
It was thick and overwhelming.
Then came the sound of something being smeared across the iron door, again and again.
The people outside were laughing.
“Hahaha… Let’s go. The zombies are coming. We’ll come back later and watch the show.”
The zombies downstairs began to howl.
One! Two!
Then a whole group.
Their roars traveled upward from the floors below.
They were using blood to attract the zombies.
Su Nian stepped back to the bed and picked Xingxing up. She wrapped him tightly in the blanket.
She pressed Xingxing’s head against her shoulder, holding him with one arm and gripping the machete with the other as she stared at the iron door.
The blood seeping through the gap beneath the door continued increasing, forming a small dark red puddle on the ground.
A zombie slammed into the iron door from outside.
The chain rattled again.
“Grrr…”
“Bang!”
Even the wardrobe was shaken and moved slightly.
Su Nian closed her eyes.
She thought about her previous life.
She thought about the scene of zombies rushing toward her and tearing her apart.
She thought about Xingxing turning into a zombie.
She opened her eyes.
A decision formed in her heart.
She placed Xingxing on the bed and silently said:
“Go inside.”
Xingxing disappeared from the bed.
Inside the storage space, Xingxing lay on the black soil, breathing steadily.
That row of numbers appeared again.
60:00.
The countdown began decreasing.
Su Nian took a rope from her storage space. She tied one end to the bed leg and threw the other end out of the window.
After putting on gloves, she climbed over the windowsill and grabbed the rope to slide down.
Even with the gloves on, the friction made her palms burn.
When she was still more than one meter above the ground, her arms became too weak to hold on.
She fell heavily onto the ground.
Her knee struck the broken stones, and she let out a muffled groan from the pain.
She got up and hid behind the wall. Just as she caught her breath, flashlight beams swept over from the alley entrance.
Someone shouted: “That woman escaped! She’s in the alley!”
Perfect! She did not need to go looking for them.
Su Nian turned and ran.
The footsteps behind her grew closer.
“Don’t let her escape!”
She turned a corner and found a road ahead.
The streetlights had long gone out, leaving everything pitch-black.
Su Nian ran to the middle of the road and stopped.
She turned around.
The flashlight beam shone directly onto her face, making it difficult for her to open her eyes. She raised her hand to block the light and saw more than ten people running toward her.
All of them carried machetes.
One of them was even holding a hunting rifle.
Su Nian stepped backward.
She had not expected them to have a gun.
But she did not run.
She stood there and waited for them to approach.
Ten meters.
Eight meters.
Five meters.
Three meters.
“Bitch, you finally stopped running…”
“Ah!”
Stones, trash cans, wardrobes, old bed boards.
Everything came crashing down from above.
The objects slammed into the people with heavy impacts. The sound of breaking bones mixed with their screams.
In an instant, several people fell in the middle of the road. Some were motionless and were probably dead.
Three or four others were still struggling but could not get up.
The leader was trapped beneath a metal wardrobe but was still alive.
Su Nian stood in front of the pile of objects, breathing heavily.
Her hands were trembling.
She walked over and crouched down in front of him.
The man’s face was covered in blood. One eye was swollen shut, while the other stared at her. His lips trembled.
“Spare… spare me…”
Su Nian did not move.
She stared into his eyes.
She thought about the girl whose clothes had been torn away.
She thought about how they had cut their own teammate and used his blood to attract zombies.
She thought about the pool of blood that had seeped beneath her door.
“You…”
Before the man could finish speaking, Su Nian took out another pile of objects from her storage space and threw them down.
The man’s body twitched once.
Then he stopped moving.
The remaining few people also fell silent instantly.
She stood among the corpses.
Blood surrounded her from all directions.
The wind blew past, carrying such a strong smell of blood that she felt like vomiting.
But she did not.
She crouched down and collected the objects that had not been stained with blood back into her storage space.
She also stored the hunting rifle.
Then she stood up and walked into the alley.
After walking for a while, she stopped, crouched beneath the wall, and breathed heavily.
Her legs were too weak to stand, so she simply sat on the ground, leaning against the wall, with the machete beside her.
She closed her eyes and sank her consciousness into the storage space.
Xingxing was lying on the black soil, breathing steadily.
The numbers had changed to: 40:23.
The countdown was still decreasing.
Su Nian watched him for a while, then withdrew her consciousness.
The smell of blood had already attracted all the nearby zombies.
Su Nian avoided them and ran all the way back to the tenth floor.
She knocked on the door.
There was no response inside.
She knocked three more times and lowered her voice.
“It’s me.”
The door opened slightly.
Doctor Han’s face appeared.
When he saw Su Nian covered in blood, his eyes widened.
His wife covered her mouth and pulled their daughter into her arms.
Doctor Han stared at Su Nian for several seconds before asking hoarsely:
“Y-you’re injured?”
Su Nian shook her head.
“This isn’t my blood. Those people won’t come back anymore.”
She placed two large bags of supplies on the ground.
“I’m leaving. Take care of yourselves.”
Doctor Han’s wife’s lips trembled for a long time, but she could not say anything. Tears kept falling from her eyes.
Doctor Han nodded with red eyes, his voice choked.
“Miss, thank you.”
Su Nian said nothing else and turned to leave.
In this apocalypse, Su Nian felt that maintaining a good relationship with a doctor was still beneficial.
After going downstairs, Su Nian headed directly toward Building 10.
She needed to find a safe place to sleep for the night.
Tomorrow, she will return to Shuixi Village.
Just as she arrived at Building 10, she saw someone standing downstairs.
It was a man, a very tall man.