The stench of blood in this dorm was overwhelmingly intense.
The smell shot straight up my nostrils, assaulting my brain and making my head throb.
"Whoa..."
I held my breath, carefully stepping over the puddle of blood at the entrance that had congealed into a black jelly-like substance, and entered this hell on earth.
Fortunately, there were no living zombies in this dorm.
The dorm door was half-open, the lock violently broken, the latch hanging askew, and the door covered in scratch marks.
The "Sailor Moon" zombie stuck on the balcony next door was still howling, drawing most of the attention away, so I was temporarily safe here.
I quickly pushed the door closed. Although the lock was broken, the bolt was still intact.
This death-filled dorm had temporarily become a closed-off safe space.
I began to scour the blood-stained room.
Since there was no one here, and no zombies, it should logically be an untouched resource point.
However, after rummaging through all the desks and wardrobes, I found nothing but some bloodstained clothes and cosmetics—not even a decent pack of cookies!
The cabinets were ransacked, drawers pulled open, and empty chip bags and crushed drink bottles littered the floor.
"Fuck, is this place really that poor? Or have other survivors already looted it?"
I kicked aside an empty can in frustration, cursing under my breath.
All this blood, and not a single useful thing to show for it.
"Damn it!"
I spat, unwilling to linger any longer. The place was too eerie, and I feared staying too long would drive me insane.
I returned to the balcony, my next stop being the final destination, Li Wenli's hideout.
As soon as my feet landed firmly on the balcony of Dorm Room 3023, I felt utterly exhausted.
"Zhou Peiyu!"
Before I could steady myself, the glass door of the balcony was yanked open.
A slender figure rushed out, bringing a fragrant breeze, and crashed into my arms.
"You scared me to death! You scared me to death!"
Li Wenli was trembling violently.
Earlier, I had been outside luring zombies, jumping off buildings, and disappearing, while she hid alone in this death-filled dorm, listening to the howls outside, likely on the verge of a mental breakdown.
I froze, still holding the bag of snacks, my hands awkwardly suspended in mid-air, unsure where to place them.
Honestly, aside from my mom, I had never been hugged so tightly by a woman. Although the circumstances and atmosphere were off, I still felt a rare warmth.
"It's okay, it's okay."
I sighed, gently patting her trembling back, trying to make my voice sound steady, "I'm back, aren't I? I'm too stubborn to die, the Grim Reaper thinks I'm too poor to take."
However, in the next second.
She suddenly sprang away from me as if scalded, retreating several steps until her back was against the glass door of the balcony.
"You... you..."
She pointed at me, her finger trembling, her face turning deathly pale, "Where did you just go? Were you bitten?"
I looked at her rollercoaster-like change in attitude, from throwing herself into my arms one moment to treating me like a plague the next.
But I understood what she was afraid of.
That hug was an instinctive emotional release, but once rationality returned, she immediately realized I was a walking virus source. I'd been out, going through dorms and climbing balconies, who knew how much mutated syphilis virus I had on me.
If I carried the virus, that hug was practically a death embrace.
"Don't panic, don't panic."
I raised my hands to show I wasn't a threat, "The dorms I went to were either empty or the zombies were stuck. I didn't have any physical contact with them."
I paused, adding to reassure her, "And you know I have antibodies. Even if I had some virus on me, the wind and sun probably killed most of it. That hug at most got a bit of dust on you."
Li Wenli listened to my explanation, seemingly assessing whether I was lying.
After several seconds, seeing my clear eyes and no signs of mutation, she finally breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing.
"You scared me to death... If you brought the virus back, we'd both be screwed."
She patted her chest, still complaining, but her body honestly leaned back toward me, maintaining a half-meter "safe social distance."
At this point, her gaze finally fell on the pile of loot at my feet.
In that instant, her eyes lit up like two hundred-watt bulbs.
"Fuck..."
Li Wenli looked at the box of milk, the half-box of AD Calcium Milk, and the bag full of chips, spicy sticks, cookies, and self-heating pots, her mouth forming an "O," even cursing.
"Zhou Peiyu, did you rob a supermarket?!"
She squatted down, touching the box of AD Calcium Milk like it was a treasure, showing the brightest smile since the apocalypse began, "Amazing! Absolutely amazing! I thought you'd bring back two bottles of water at most, but you went on a shopping spree!"
Seeing her so thrilled, I couldn't help but smile, scratching my head sheepishly, "Got lucky, found a few 'wealthy' dorms. Especially that girl's boyfriend, he was a hoarder, but unfortunately..."
"Unfortunately what?" Li Wenli asked while opening a bag of chips.
"Unfortunately, he didn't live to eat it." I sighed, "Alright, stop showing off on the balcony, let's get inside. That shout just attracted the zombies downstairs, I managed to lure some away, but it's still not safe."
With that, I picked up the stuff, pushed her into the room, and then shut the balcony glass door tightly, drawing the heavy curtains to block out the sunlight and those terrifying faces outside.
The dorm returned to its dim and quiet state.
Li Wenli, like a miser, dumped all the supplies onto Wang Yanli's clean bed.
"Clatter—"
The snacks piled into a small mountain.
She sat cross-legged on the bed, excitedly counting the loot, planning as she went: "Twelve boxes of milk, sixteen bottles of AD Calcium Milk, three self-heating pots, five bags of chips, two boxes of cookies, one bag of beef jerky... and these bottles of water." This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
She looked up, her eyes sparkling at me, "Zhou Peiyu, do you know what this means?"
"It means we're going to get fat?" I joked, opening a bottle of AD Calcium Milk and downing half of it in one go, the sweet and sour taste was heavenly.
"Get lost!" Li Wenli rolled her eyes at me, "It means if we ration carefully, these food and water supplies can last us two whole weeks! Maybe even longer!"
Two weeks.
Before this, we didn't even know if we'd survive the night.
"Two weeks..." I leaned back in the chair, staring at the ceiling, "In two weeks, maybe rescue will really come. The country won't abandon us."
Li Wenli nodded, munching on a chip with a loud crunch, "There will definitely be rescue. With such a large-scale outbreak, the military must have been deployed. We just need to hang in there, don't do anything stupid, and we'll survive."
Seeing her eat so contently, I felt a weight lift off my heart.
Now that survival supplies were temporarily secured, I could finally sit down quietly and review what I saw outside, analyzing the characteristics of those creatures.
"Li Wenli," I put away my smile, my expression turning serious, "Even though we have enough supplies, there's a problem we can't ignore."
"What?" Li Wenli stopped chewing, looking at me.
"Those zombies... their combat power is off the charts."
I recalled the scene I saw on the balcony earlier, still feeling a chill.
"You saw it too, Zhang Yuman took three headshots before dying. Regular headshots or dismemberment aren't fatal to them; you have to destroy the central nervous system."
I held up one finger, then a second:
"Secondly, their strength, the severed waist corpse in Room 3016, its spine was forcibly broken. The basketball zombie outside the door, when it hit the door, it felt like being rammed by a bull. This kind of strength is definitely beyond normal human capability."
"And the most terrifying thing..." I took a deep breath, my voice low, "They have a group consciousness, or instinct. They can form human walls."
"Human walls?" Li Wenli was taken aback.
"Yes." I pointed towards the balcony, "Earlier, to catch you, they climbed over each other's bodies. This old building has low floors; if enough of them gather, even the second, third, or fourth floors aren't absolutely safe."
I imagined a scene: in the dead of night, a survivor on a low floor snores in their sleep, attracting zombies. Then those creatures silently stack up outside the window until a rotten face appears at the third-floor window, staring through the glass at the sleeping person...
"Fuck..." I shivered, "If you don't close the window while sleeping, you wouldn't even know how you died in the middle of the night."
Li Wenli, hearing my words, also got a bit spooked, the chips in her hand losing their appeal.
But she was a mentally tough fringe person, quickly adjusting. She put down the snacks, looking at me with a determined gaze, offering comfort:
"Don't overthink it. We're on the third floor, and the balcony doors and windows are locked. You lured some away earlier, so the zombie density downstairs isn't as high now; they can't stack up for the time being. As long as we stay quiet and don't do anything stupid, they won't find us."
She paused, adding, "And now we have food and drink, like you said, we just need to hang in there. Whether it's human walls or strongmen, as long as we don't go out, they can't tear down this building, can they?"
I nodded in agreement. At this time, excessive anxiety would only drain our energy; blind optimism was necessary for survival.
"Right, we're just two turtles hiding in our shells now, not opening the door for anyone."
The atmosphere eased a bit.
I looked at her, suddenly remembering the survivors I saw in Room 3018.