When the bright beam of a tactical flashlight hit Deputy Miao’s eyes, his pupils contracted sharply. Through the rain, the shouting was hard to make out—he could only catch fragments like “hurry” and “fast.”
But the other side’s urgent tone, and the frantic waving of the flashlight, put him on high alert.
“Alert!” Deputy Miao shouted.
The people in front and behind immediately relayed the command.
At that moment, a rapid “da-da-ka-ka” sound came through the gaps between the rain and thunder. The rhythm felt strangely familiar to Deputy Miao—he had heard it before when the SWAT team visited the K9 base. It was the sound of dogs sprinting, their paws striking concrete.
In an instant, images flashed through his mind: torn dog legs, cat and dog corpses hanging limp on the roadside.
The moment the cries of cats and dogs rang out, he finally understood the message he had barely heard earlier: retreat to higher ground!
More than twenty red-eyed cats and dogs were launching a coordinated attack from all directions!
These animals had not been hiding along the roadside. Instead, they followed their instincts from life, lurking behind concrete-brick houses. That was why the first team’s thermal imaging had failed to detect these “awakened” animals.
Infected cats and dogs were far harder to deal with than infected humans.
Faster. Smaller. Sharper teeth and claws. Stronger hunting instincts.
Team Two quickly tightened formation, riot shields snapping up in unison. Deputy Miao immediately ordered:
“Open fire!”
Crossfire poured through the gaps in the shields, bullets striking concrete walls and sparking.
Under heavy fire, many of the cats and dogs were hit—but like the infected humans, they did not stop just because they were wounded.
They kept charging forward, dragging broken bodies behind them. One infected dog had already lost its hind legs, yet still used its front limbs and spine to drag itself forward, slamming straight into a riot shield.
It leaned crookedly against the shield, one blood-red eye already blind, its sharp teeth still filled with flesh and gore—impossible to tell whether it had bitten humans or other animals.
Behind the shield, a SWAT officer switched to a handgun and quickly finished it with a shot to the head.
In the dark rain, visibility and hearing were both impaired. The only light came from auxiliary officers on the opposite second floor shining strong flashlights.
But those same flashlights were also stimulating the infected villagers behind them into increasing agitation.
Suddenly, several cats leapt from rooftops nearby. Their hoarse meows were no longer cute or soft; instead, they were sharp and eerie amid the low growls and barking.
They landed directly among the clustered SWAT officers, bodies arched as they frantically clawed and bit at anyone nearby.
Even though everyone wore protective gear and wouldn’t be easily scratched, the sudden intrusion still caused chaos.
Cats were smaller, faster, harder to see. In the crowd, officers hesitated to fire guns, and melee weapons couldn’t be swung freely without risking friendly fire. The formation began to destabilize.
At that moment, more “ka-ka-da-da” sounds erupted. The second wave of cats and dogs was even larger. Seeing the formation already disrupted, Deputy Miao immediately ordered:
“Fall back to the small building!”
Thirty men rapidly retreated upstairs. Team One, including Li Qingfeng, also pulled back.
From upstairs, Wang Song saw it clearly. He immediately turned off the strong flashlight and shouted to the guard at the door, Liang Huai:
“They’re retreating upstairs!”
Knocking sounded at the door. Liang Huai still asked, “Who is it?”
“County SWAT!” “I’m Jiang Tao!”
The door opened—and Liang Huai was nearly knocked over. His leg was injured, and he couldn’t withstand the impact of these highly trained, adrenaline-fueled officers. He quickly hobbled to the wall.
The SWAT officers, still in combat mode, rushed inside and charged toward the balcony high ground. Wang Song, inexperienced, failed to dodge in time and was pushed into a corner, nearly falling off—only to be grabbed by a nearby officer at the last moment.
Director Jiang rushed in, scanned the room, and didn’t see Liang Huai. Instead, he spotted Wang Song standing stupidly near the balcony. Furious, he slapped Wang Song hard on the head, snatched the flashlight, aimed it downward, and kicked Wang Song back into the living room.
Wang Song: “……”
What is wrong with this guy? Why hit and kick me for no reason?!
Officers still downstairs who hadn’t made it up yet turned and opened fire. They couldn’t let the cats and dogs rush upstairs—tight spaces were unsuitable for shooting.
Those on the upper floor, however, had no such concerns. With no teammates in the way, they unleashed firepower.
Assault rifles and light machine guns swept crossfire downward.
Deputy Miao’s earlier instruction to “conserve ammo and use controlled bursts” was largely ignored. Within a short time, many had already emptied their magazines.
Spent shell casings clattered all over the floor.
Fortunately, like infected humans, these cats and dogs only relied on instinctual charges. Once the firepower became dense enough, they fell in waves.
Whether or not they were headshots, they lost combat ability.
When the gunfire paused, Team Three had already arrived. They mercilessly finished off any remaining twitching cats and dogs.
At this point, the village office gate was already on the verge of collapse. The infected villagers drawn by light and gunfire crowded at the entrance. But a closer look revealed internal chaos among them.
The four infected people who had been standing at the gate seemed to retain some obsession—they pushed inward, bit at others, yet were also constantly distracted by outside noise, turning back and forth in confusion.
Captain He ran at the front of the group, with Deputy Secretary Wang panting behind him.
Along the way, Wang rushed straight to a battered police car parked by the roadside. He peeked inside—the keys were still there—and immediately got in.
A former police officer, he was extremely familiar with old patrol cars. He nearly jumped while pressing the clutch, started the engine, honked the horn, turned the wheel sharply, reversed, drifted, and accelerated away.
There were too many people. So many elderly, so many children…
He couldn’t let the infected out.
Captain He almost got hit by the car and immediately understood what Wang was trying to do. He shouted:
“Fall back! Let the police car through!”
“Raise shields! Prepare for impact!”
On the second floor, Deputy Miao pushed toward the reinforced door and shouted:
“Downstairs, move the debris out! Block the village office entrance!”
The iron gate shook violently, rattling against the vehicle. Finally, under the pressure of hundreds of bodies, the bolts in the cement walls snapped. With a crash, the entire gate was torn off.
And at that exact moment, the battered police car once again played its role.
Deputy Wang’s driving skills and the “soul” of the old Santana patrol car resonated. At an impossible angle, they skidded to a stop right beside the gate—just enough to wedge and hold up the falling iron structure.
The surging infected crowd was momentarily blocked, with only small gaps on the sides spilling people through.
SWAT officers seized the opportunity, raising shields and advancing, pushing the snarling infected back.
At the base of the yellow-tiled building, officers carried tables, chairs, and cabinets upstairs, jamming them into the entrances.
Downstairs, everyone worked together to push the infected back into the village office while reinforcing the doors and walls, all while staying alert for further cat-and-dog attacks.
Fortunately, after two waves, most of the infected animals were already dead, and no new immediate threat appeared.
Upstairs, Director Jiang finally found his subordinate officer. His emotions were complicated as he stepped forward and hugged Liang Huai.
But Liang Huai was in poor condition—his left leg had been bitten by an infected dog.
“This is…” Director Jiang had already seen Deputy Qiu’s corpse earlier, and now seeing Liang Huai limping like this, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. But before he could finish, a baby’s cry came from the room next door, followed by a mother’s soothing voice.
Wang Song opened the door and looked out. The SWAT officers in the living room had all gone downstairs to reinforce the building, leaving more space.
“Is there a baby inside?” Director Jiang asked, stretching his neck. “Aunt Guifang doesn’t have a second child!”
Liang Huai sat down on the sofa, his expression exhausted but strangely proud, like Deputy Qiu before him:
“Big Niu and I rescued them. The child’s father was bitten when he went downstairs, ran back upstairs and locked the door. Because he slept separately from the child’s mother, only the elderly at home were bitten.”
“We went upstairs. The mother was crying in the bedroom, the door was about to be broken down by the infected family members… We saved the mother and daughter. Pretty impressive, right? Worth a second-class merit, right?”
Liang Huai held onto his badge tightly, feeling a heavy sense of satisfaction.
He believed it was worth it.
Director Jiang frowned. “Where’s Big Niu?”
Liang Huai looked at him, sadness and helplessness in his eyes.
“We brought the mother and daughter out and ran into infected cats and dogs on the village road…”
No further explanation was needed.
The corpses of dogs on the road, the cats with crushed heads—everything already told the story.
Director Jiang slapped his own forehead hard, overwhelmed with frustration and grief.
“But downstairs… we only saw Deputy Qiu’s body. We didn’t see Big Niu,” he said.
Liang Huai said nothing. He didn’t know either. At the time, he had been focused on protecting the mother and daughter while fleeing to the small building, and his leg had already been bitten.
After delivering them upstairs, he had lost sight of Big Niu.
The women insisted on treating his wound themselves, saying even a dead horse should be treated like a living one.
They used a heated knife sterilized with a lighter, cut along the bite wound, bled him, rinsed it with boiled water, and sprayed alcohol everywhere. The old woman even burned the knife red-hot and pressed it onto the wound to cauterize it, nearly sending him into shock.
Then Guifang applied medicine, wrapped it in cloth, and the old woman forced antibiotics and antiviral drugs into him.
Wang Song even gave him painkillers.
When the pain subsided, Liang Huai thought:
Maybe Big Niu was infected. Maybe he was torn apart. Or maybe he deliberately led the cats and dogs away.
In truth, Wang Song had seen everything from upstairs—but he said nothing.
Just as Liang Huai suspected, when more than twenty infected dogs rushed in, Big Niu stayed behind to cover the retreat, deliberately drawing them into another house.
Soon after, the dogs scattered and returned to their old hiding places behind the houses.
The number of dogs hadn’t decreased much.
So Big Niu was most likely doomed.
“Director Jiang, I think the urgent priority isn’t evacuating the villagers,” Wang Song suddenly said, clearly uneasy.
Director Jiang didn’t dismiss him. “Go on.”
“Dogs and cats can be infected… what about other animals? Rats, for example?”
“We should collect all the corpses—human, cat, and dog—and burn them immediately. The sooner the better.”
“Burn them. Right now.”
Author’s note: Hurry and burn them! Even though burning them won’t necessarily solve everything that comes after.