Su Qianqian’s scream, edged with a cracking hysteria, exploded through the space thick with the stench of blood and medicine.
The heavy metal thermos tore through the air, carrying all her strength—and all her disgust and revulsion—as it smashed viciously toward that rotting, pus-dripping head.
“Puch!”
A dull, teeth-grating thud rang out.
The hard base of the thermos struck the “Doctor” zombie squarely in the temple.
The tremendous force snapped the head violently to the side, a crisp sound of bone shattering echoing out.
Thick, blackened foul blood mixed with gray-white brain matter burst out like a ruptured abscess, spraying from the cracked skull and ear holes, splattering all over Su Qianqian’s arm.
“Ah!!!”
The suffocating stench engulfed her instantly.
“Ugh…” Her stomach churned violently. Su Qianqian’s vision went dark as a powerful urge to vomit surged up her throat.
But her body’s instincts were faster than her nausea. She saw that although the zombie’s head was badly deformed, its movements had only become sluggish. One leg dragged along the ground.
Those hollow, murky eyes were still fixed on her, and its blood-smeared claws continued to grope forward instinctively.
It wasn’t dead!
Fear instantly overwhelmed her nausea.
Almost reflexively, Su Qianqian raised the filthy, heavy, slippery thermos again with both hands.
With a hysterical ferocity, she struck the already caved-in, misshapen head again without hesitation.
Once!
Twice!
Three times!
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
The dull blows sounded like a death knell, each strike accompanied by the crisp crack of bones breaking and the wet splatter of fluids.
Only when the head had been reduced to an unrecognizable, sticky mass smeared across the ground did the body finally stop twitching and collapse limply.
Su Qianqian gasped violently for breath. Her hands trembled uncontrollably from exhaustion and extreme tension, and the thermos slipped from her grasp with a loud clang.
She stared at her arm, splattered with warm, viscous black-red filth, and inhaled that nauseating stench.
She couldn’t hold it in any longer.
She bent over abruptly, bracing her hands on her knees as she retched violently, tears and mucus pouring out uncontrollably.
“Watch your right!”
Lin Chen’s urgent warning, laced with heavy breathing and a suppressed groan of pain, pierced through Su Qianqian’s chaotic mind like an ice spike.
She jerked her head up, her vision blurred by involuntary tears.
She saw only a zombie in a supermarket cleaner’s uniform, dragging a broken leg, lunging at her from the gap between the shelves at her side!
It was right there—close enough that the foul, reeking claws were about to seize her shoulder!
Su Qianqian’s pupils shrank sharply, and it felt as if all the blood in her body had frozen in an instant.
She had already exhausted all her strength in that frenzied assault just now. Her body was stiff, unable to move!
At that critical moment—
A figure charged in from the side with a sharp rush of wind.
It was Lin Chen!
At some point, he had already dealt with the two cleaner zombies on his side (one with its head smashed to pulp, the other with its neck twisted at a grotesque angle).
Now, reeking of blood and breathing heavily, he slammed his shoulder hard into the broken-legged zombie lunging at Su Qianqian!
“Bang!”
The zombie staggered backward from the impact.
But Lin Chen himself was thrown off balance by the recoil. Coupled with the weakness from severe blood loss in his injured right arm, he let out a muffled groan as his body swayed violently.
His face turned even paler than paper, and large beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.
“Quick! The door!”
He forced out the words through clenched teeth.
His left hand clamped tightly over his right arm, which was wrapped in thick bandages, yet the dark red stain was spreading rapidly across the white fabric, visible to the naked eye.
Clearly, the intense fight had torn his wound open again.
Su Qianqian snapped back to her senses. A surge of guilt and lingering fear crashed over her like a tide.
She had almost gotten him killed just now!
“This way!”
Suppressing her urge to vomit, her voice hoarse, she grabbed the filthy thermos from the ground again (at this point, it had practically become her emotional lifeline).
Whether it was dirty or not… that could wait.
Staggering forward, she rushed toward the inconspicuous green iron door in the corner of the Pharmacy Section—the employee passage.
She reached the door and twisted the cold metal handle with force.
It didn’t budge.
Locked!
“Damn it!”
Behind her, the broken-legged zombie that had been knocked away had already regained its footing. It let out an enraged roar and lunged again.
Farther away, from the direction of the Pharmacy Section entrance, new dragging, sticky footsteps were beginning to sound!
“Move!”
Lin Chen’s low voice carried a hoarse note of resolve.
He stepped forward in one stride. His tall body swayed slightly from weakness, but his eyes burned with the last of his strength.
His injured right arm hung uselessly, while his left hand moved like lightning to draw something from behind his waist—so fast that Su Qianqian didn’t even see where it came from.
A folding knife?
The blade flashed with a cold glint in the dim light.
…Ah… in this situation, ending oneself was indeed better than being eaten alive by zombies…
Su Qianqian thought he was truly clever.
The “clever” Lin Chen didn’t hesitate in the slightest. Without even glancing at the approaching zombie, he gripped the knife in reverse in his left hand and drove it with all his strength into the wooden doorframe beside the lock!
The blade sank in more than halfway!
Huh?
“Creak—” A teeth-grating metallic friction sounded.
Veins bulged on Lin Chen’s left hand as he pressed all his strength onto the handle, prying downward with force.
His injured right arm trembled violently from the exertion, and the blood seeping through the bandage spread wider and wider.
Dark red droplets fell from his fingertips onto the ground, blooming into small, glaring flowers.
“Clang!”
With a sharp crack, the latch inside the lock was forcibly pried apart.
“Go in.”
Lin Chen yanked the folding knife out. His body lurched backward from exhaustion, nearly falling.
He braced the tip of the knife against the door and shoved hard.
The heavy green iron door creaked open just enough to reveal an even darker space inside. A musty smell of dust and cardboard boxes wafted out.
Without the slightest hesitation, Su Qianqian scrambled and crawled inside…