I lowered the compound bow in my hands, cold sweat soaking through my undershirt.
Zhao Qian's body lay quietly in a pool of blood, her eyes wide open, staring at me as if questioning why I had killed her.
I had killed someone.
Even though I knew she would soon turn into a monster, the feeling of taking a fellow human's life made my stomach churn violently.
"Ah—! Ah! You killed her! You killed her!"
Wang Yanli, after a few seconds of silence, suddenly let out a hysterical scream.
She clutched her head with both hands, cowering in the corner.
"Shut up!"
Li Wenli rushed over, kicking her and hissing in a low voice, "Do you want to attract everything outside? If you want to die, jump out yourself, don't drag us with you!"
Wang Yanli, her face smeared with tears and snot, finally stopped screaming under Li Wenli's fierce gaze. She stood up, leaning against the desk, her eyes unfocused as she stared at the two bodies on the ground.
Li Wenli let out a long sigh, releasing her grip and leaning wearily against the balcony door frame.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The pounding on the door continued, the wooden door shaking violently in its frame, each impact sending dust cascading down.
Our hearts were in our throats. Although the crisis inside the room was temporarily resolved, if that door was breached, we would still be trapped like fish in a barrel.
Fortunately, screams from other dorms seemed to draw the attention of the creatures outside, attracted by the louder prey.
After about ten minutes, the pounding gradually subsided, leaving only a few distant growls and dragging footsteps.
The room returned to silence, the air thick with the stench of blood and urine.
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Originally, there were seven living people in this six-person dormitory.
In just a few minutes, only three remained.
Li Wenli and I exchanged a glance, tacitly avoiding the bodies and filth on the floor, and found two relatively clean stools to sit on.
"Huff... huff..."
I took deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart, but the air I inhaled was filled with that nauseating smell, making me cough violently.
"Here." Li Wenli pulled a squashed lollipop from her pocket and handed it to me.
I took the candy, unwrapped it, and popped it into my mouth. The sweet taste slightly diluted the bitterness lingering there.
"Li Wenli," I looked at her, "you went to the infirmary today to get medicine for Zhang Yuman, right?"
Li Wenli nodded, "Yeah. When I got back, the other roommates weren't around. Zhang Yuman kept saying she felt unwell, had a fever, and was in pain. She looked pretty miserable, her face all flushed, so I thought I'd get her some fever medicine from the infirmary. Who knew..."
She glanced at Zhang Yuman's shattered head on the floor and sighed, "Who knew I'd almost lose my life."
At this, Li Wenli suddenly remembered something, her eyes sharply turning to Wang Yanli, who was huddled in the corner.
"Hey," Li Wenli's voice turned cold, "you weren't bitten, were you?"
The scene had been chaotic earlier, and it was hard to see if Zhang Yuman had injured her when she lunged at Wang Yanli.
Wang Yanli, her hair disheveled, sat on the floor. Hearing this, she jerked her head up, glaring fiercely at Li Wenli.
"No!" Wang Yanli gritted her teeth, "Don't you dare curse me! I'm fine! But you, Li Wenli, you were hiding on the balcony, watching Zhang Yuman mutate, watching Zhao Qian get bitten to death! You're a cold-blooded animal! You want us dead!" Read the latest chapters at novelping dot com.
Li Wenli sneered, too lazy to argue.
I knew Li Wenli's situation in the class and dorm. These roommates usually isolated her, thinking she was unsociable and sharp-tongued. Now, faced with life and death, their usual dislike was magnified by fear, turning into illogical blame and accusations.
The issues between the girls were not something I could meddle in, and I didn't have the energy to play peacemaker right now.
I sat quietly, lighting a cigarette.
"If you're going to smoke, get out! Smoking in the girls' dormitory!" Wang Yanli yelled at me again.
I ignored her and stepped out onto the balcony.
Li Wenli didn't pay any more attention to Wang Yanli's madness. She stood up, her gaze falling on Zhao Qian and Zhang Yuman's bodies, her brow furrowing deeply.
"Zhou Peiyu," she pointed at the bodies on the floor, "we can't just stay here with these two corpses. It's too creepy. We need to get rid of them."
I glanced at the two gruesome bodies, my stomach churning again. Zhao Qian's neck was half gone, and Zhang Yuman's head was like a smashed watermelon.
"How do we do that?" I was at a loss, "Opening the door is suicide. If there's a zombie listening outside, we'll be delivering ourselves on a platter."
Li Wenli shook her head, then turned to look at the open balcony window.
"No need to use the door." She pointed outside, "We're on the third floor, and there's a flowerbed below. We can throw them off the balcony."
I hesitated for a moment, then nodded. It was indeed the only option right now.
Though it was a bit inhumane, given the situation, the living were more important than the dead.
Li Wenli was a doer. She walked over to Zhao Qian's body, kicking her leg with disgust, then turned to Wang Yanli, still huddled in the corner:
"Hey, stop playing dead. Come help! These bodies are heavy, and Zhou Peiyu and I can't move them alone. Do your part, and we can all survive."
"Get lost!" Wang Yanli screamed hysterically, "I'm not touching them! They're filthy! You killed them, you move them! Don't think you can order me around!"
With that, she turned away, plopping down on a nearby chair, burying her head in her knees, as if saying, "Even if the sky falls, don't bother me."
Li Wenli was so angry she wanted to kick her, but she held back, looking at me helplessly and shrugging.
"Alright, let's do it ourselves." I had no choice. I couldn't really get into a fight with her now.
I put down the bow, stood up, and walked over to Zhao Qian's body.
"I'll take the shoulders, you take the feet," I said to Li Wenli.
Li Wenli nodded, bending down to grab Zhao Qian's ankles.
Just as Li Wenli's fingers touched the cold skin of the corpse, "Cough! Cough cough! Cough cough cough!"
A violent coughing fit erupted behind us.
The sound was all too familiar.
Just minutes ago, Zhang Yuman had turned, making the same phlegm-filled cough.
Li Wenli and I froze, a chill running up our spines.
We turned stiffly.
Wang Yanli, who had been sitting on the chair cursing, was now curled up, clutching her chest in pain.
"Cough cough... ugh—!"
Her coughing intensified, her face turning red, then she suddenly opened her mouth, spewing a large amount of yellow-green liquid onto the desk in front of her.
This was definitely a sign of infection!
I jumped back to my seat, grabbing the compound bow I had just set down.
"No... don't... ugh..." she waved her hands, struggling to stand, "I'm not... I'm not infected... just... just scared... my stomach's upset..."
Li Wenli also realized what was happening, retreating to the door, gripping the mop handle tightly, and demanded:
"Wang Yanli! Be honest! Were you bitten earlier? When Zhang Yuman attacked Zhao Qian, did you get scratched?"
"No!"
Hearing the accusation, Wang Yanli suddenly screamed like a madwoman.
"Fuck you! I said I wasn't! I wasn't bitten! Why do you want me dead? I don't have a single wound on me! You murderers! Are you trying to kill me to silence me?"
She screamed hysterically, her voice deafening.
"Shut the Fing Hell up!" I was sweating bullets, aiming the bow at her, "Do you want to bring all the zombies in the hallway back here?"
Wang Yanli wasn't listening, still raging, vomiting violently.
"No way... I wasn't bitten... I wasn't bitten... no way..."
After a while, Wang Yanli seemed to lose clarity, her eyes unfocused, her body collapsing to the floor like a boneless heap, mumbling incoherently.
I cautiously approached, observing her closely.
She wasn't lying; her clothes were disheveled, but her exposed skin showed no obvious bite or scratch marks.
However, when I looked at her neck and hands, I saw that her once smooth, pale neck was now erupting with purple-red pustules at a visible rate.
The same was happening on her hands, which were clutching the desk leg, her nails turned a sickly gray, the skin on her hands looking like it had been boiled, covered in blisters.
These symptoms were identical to those on Zhu Jiajia and Zhang Yuman.
"Li Wenli..." I swallowed hard, my voice trembling, "look at her neck."
Li Wenli craned her neck to see, her face turning ashen.
"She's infected! And... without being directly bitten."
What did that mean?
It meant the virus wasn't just spread through blood and bodily fluids; it could be airborne, or through droplets, or perhaps from the tiny particles when Zhang Yuman's head exploded.
Whatever it was, Wang Yanli was now a ticking time bomb.
"Ugh... kill... kill... you..."
Wang Yanli suddenly stopped mumbling, slowly lifting her head, her mouth stretching into an exaggerated grin, revealing teeth covered in vomit.
"Zhou Peiyu! Do it!" Li Wenli shouted.
Now was not the time for hesitation.
She was no longer Wang Yanli.
I raised the compound bow, the laser dot steady on Wang Yanli's grotesquely twisting head.
"Bang!"
The steel ball, packed with immense kinetic energy, slammed into her temple at close range.
With a crisp crack, Wang Yanli's head burst like a squashed tomato, red and white matter splattering across the desk. Her body convulsed violently, then collapsed heavily to the floor, completely still.