The sudden noise startled Huo Mian so badly that her whole body jolted, and her heart seemed to skip a beat.
Once she recovered, she gripped the rope tightly and gave it a forceful swing. Using the momentum of the rope, she let her body sway a short distance toward the platform.
She landed steadily on the air-conditioning unit platform on the seventeenth floor.
Huo Mian gripped the windowsill with both hands and anxiously peered into the room.
She saw Xu Mingfan frantically bracing the door with both hands, his feet desperately pushing against the floor. His flip-flops had been kicked aside.
Beside him, a blue-gray arm suddenly thrust through the gap in the door.
Its stiff fingers flexed and curled, clawing wildly at the air.
Xu Mingfan caught sight of Huo Mian out of the corner of his eye, as if he had just seen a lifeline.
“Xiao Mian, hurry and move that wardrobe over here to brace the door! There are two zombies outside!”
His voice trembled slightly, and he spoke extremely quickly. Clearly, the situation had become critical.
Huo Mian hurriedly braced herself against the windowsill and quickly climbed inside.
When she jumped down from the window, she stumbled and nearly fell.
But she had no time to steady herself. She hurriedly untied the rope around her body and rushed over to the wardrobe.
Huo Mian grabbed one side of the wardrobe with both hands and put all her strength into trying to move it.
The veins on the back of her hands bulged, yet the wardrobe didn’t budge an inch.
Huo Mian gasped anxiously for breath and glanced to the side, only then discovering that the back of the wardrobe had already been firmly secured to the wall with several nails.
There was no time to think. She hurried to the door and braced it alongside Xu Mingfan.
“The wardrobe is nailed to the wall. I can’t move it. Why don’t you move it instead? I’ll hold the door here!”
Upon hearing this, Xu Mingfan’s brows furrowed so deeply they could practically crush a mosquito.
The two zombies outside were slamming into the door with tremendous force. Even a grown man like him was struggling to hold it back, let alone Huo Mian, a delicate girl.
There was no way she could keep it up.
Xu Mingfan sighed dejectedly. “Xiao Mian, let’s think of another way. You can’t hold back these two zombies by yourself.”
Hearing this, Huo Mian pressed her red lips together and fell silent.
She lowered her eyes and glanced at the zombie’s arm only inches away. The stench filled her nostrils, while piercing growls rang in her ears.
Huo Mian immediately felt her scalp go numb and the hairs on her body stand on end.
Just as she was about to look away, her eyes inadvertently landed on the door lock. An idea suddenly flashed through her mind, and her eyes lit up.
“Brother Mingfan, why don’t you try using your ability to see if you can weld the lock to the door frame with a metal bar?”
Upon hearing this, Xu Mingfan suddenly felt like an idiot.
He had only thought about melting metal and had completely forgotten that he could create metal as well.
A spark of hope ignited in his eyes, and he said excitedly, “I’ll give it a try!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Mingfan immediately activated his ability.
A faint metallic sheen appeared across his right palm. Carefully avoiding the zombie’s arm, he placed his palm over the doorknob.
Before long, a metal bar as thick as an adult’s thigh firmly welded the lock mechanism to the slot in the door frame.
Xu Mingfan withdrew his ability and motioned for Huo Mian to slowly stop bracing the door.
The two of them stared intently at the door. Even under the zombies’ violent pounding, the metal bar remained firmly in place, keeping the door securely shut. They both breathed a little easier.
They remained on edge for a while longer. Only after confirming that the metal bar was still as solid as ever did their tightly wound nerves finally relax.
With the crisis temporarily resolved, Huo Mian finally had time to ask Xu Mingfan what had happened after he entered the room.
Xu Mingfan’s expression stiffened for a moment before he recounted what had happened.
It turned out that the moment Xu Mingfan entered the room, he discovered that it was a walk-in closet.
Knowing that the journey ahead would undoubtedly be filled with danger, he wanted to find a weapon he could use for self-defense.
However, after searching the room, he couldn’t find anything that could serve as a weapon.
So Xu Mingfan went into the living room. It was extremely spacious, and after one sweep of his eyes, he couldn’t find any useful tools there either.
With no other choice, he decided to search the other rooms.
When he reached the door of a bedroom, he saw that it was tightly closed.
Although he had mentally prepared himself beforehand, the moment he pushed the door open, a female zombie let out a hoarse “Grrr” and lunged at him with a hideous expression.
Xu Mingfan was still frightened enough to stagger backward in panic.
His slippers slipped beneath his feet, and his entire body uncontrollably toppled backward.
The back of his head slammed hard against the floor, making his vision swim.
By the time he dazedly pulled himself back up, the female zombie was only a few steps away.
In his terror, Xu Mingfan caught sight of another door opposite him out of the corner of his eye. Without thinking, he rushed over and flung it open.
His bad luck struck again. There was actually a male zombie behind that door.
He frantically tried to shut the door, but the female zombie behind him lunged at him again.
Xu Mingfan hurriedly twisted sideways, narrowly dodging the attack, but he didn’t have time to close the door.
In a panic, he hurried back toward the room he’d originally entered.
As he passed through the living room, he caught sight of a space heater. Without time to think, he grabbed it and swung it hard at the zombies behind him.
Unfortunately, Xu Mingfan was too panicked and missed his aim. The heater merely grazed the zombie before flying off, without hitting it at all.
By the time he reached this room, he was still a step too late. The male zombie had jammed one hand into the gap in the door, making it impossible for him to close it.
Huo Mian had witnessed everything that happened afterward herself.
Xu Mingfan secretly glanced at Huo Mian and saw that she was staring intently at the door, seemingly deep in thought.
There was no trace of blame on her face.
He pressed his lips together, a sense of shame rising in his heart. He realized that he had acted far too recklessly earlier.
After hesitating for a long while, Xu Mingfan’s lips trembled slightly as he tentatively asked,
“Um… Xiao Mian, why don’t we climb down to the sixteenth floor through the window?”
Huo Mian’s heart tightened when she heard this. She glanced at him and countered, “What if there are zombies on the sixteenth floor too?”
After saying this, she calmed herself and her expression darkened.
“There might even be more zombies downstairs than there are here!”
Seeing that Huo Mian seemed to know something about the situation downstairs, Xu Mingfan hurriedly asked, “Xiao Mian, who lives on the sixteenth floor?”
Huo Mian frowned slightly and thought for a moment before slowly replying, “I only know that there are three children in that household. They often make a racket inside, and I can frequently hear them shouting and playing around even from upstairs.”
She turned her head toward the window and continued, “From bits and pieces of their everyday conversations, I’ve heard them mention their grandparents, their parents, and their aunt.”
Xu Mingfan immediately understood what Huo Mian was implying.
Today was Saturday. The children didn’t have school, and the adults didn’t have work. And the zombie outbreak had occurred at night.
If everyone in that household had unfortunately turned into zombies, wouldn’t that make the place a nest of zombies…?
At the thought of this, Xu Mingfan’s expression instantly became extremely grim. He blamed himself bitterly.
“It’s all my fault. Why did I have to open random doors? Now I’ve let two deadly zombies out and gotten us trapped here.”
As he spoke, he suddenly raised his left hand and slapped his right hand hard.