BC Chapter 11

“Huff… huff…”

“Huff… damn it…”

Lu Ziming, pulling the person behind her, finally made it to the first-floor exit of the east side passage after a thrilling run. The two leaned against the wall, panting heavily. The person Lu Ziming had unintentionally saved seemed to have a fiery temper. Even before she could catch her breath, she blurted out a curse. Though her voice was clear and pleasant, the words she spoke made Lu Ziming feel awkward – it seemed… she had saved someone who was completely at odds with her?

It was only now that Lu Ziming had the time, while catching her breath, to properly size up this burden – she looked to be around twenty, but it was hard to guess her exact age because of the heavy makeup on her face. It was definitely a woman; that yell just now wasn’t something a man could pull off. Her hair was permed into a spiky “mat-killer” style and tied into a ponytail at the back of her head. From a distance, it looked like she had a black cotton candy stuck to her head. The thick layer of eye shadow or foundation on her face had long been soaked and smeared by sweat – this made Lu Ziming subconsciously take two steps back – she even wondered if she had been dragging a living person all the way or a zombie? This girl’s makeup skills were so advanced that she could go to an international Halloween costume party.

“What’s going on?” Finally catching her breath, the non-mainstream girl asked Lu Ziming, puzzled, as if her near-death experience was just an incomprehensible game.

Lu Ziming only glanced at the girl and didn’t answer her question. Instead, she went to the first-floor entrance on her own, opened the fire door a crack, and cautiously peered outside.

Outside the door wasn’t the scenery outside the building, but a small shopping mall’s attached parking lot. It was connected to the building. The parking lot wasn’t like the completely dark stairwell. Even with the building’s power outage, the parking lot’s emergency lights were still on, casting a ghastly green light, making the entire space seem like some ghostly netherworld, making people’s hairs stand on end involuntarily.

Just then, the space that should have been silent was filled with rustling sounds, like something heavy being dragged. Then came faint chewing sounds.

“Sss… sss… crunch, crunch…” The intermittent sounds echoed in the empty parking lot, making the heart grow colder as one listened.

The crack in the door was too small, and Lu Ziming could only see a small part of the space. As for what those sounds were, Lu Ziming didn’t want to delve into it. However, she needed to scout the road ahead – to find out if there were any zombies blocking the way from this door to the parking lot entrance. Of course, Lu Ziming knew that this little gangster girl beside her was useless. Scouting and observation could only be done by Lu Ziming herself. Besides, she didn’t have any expectations of this girl.

While the girl was still reacting, Lu Ziming had already held her breath and slipped through the door.

“Hey, hey? Hey–” The girl hadn’t recovered when she saw Lu Ziming had already gone out, her mouth still half-open, making unintelligible noises. She couldn’t understand why this woman saved her and then abandoned her. Hadn’t they become temporary ‘companions’?

The next second, the girl finally reacted and followed Lu Ziming’s example, going out.

You think you can get rid of me so easily?! No way!!

However, the girl didn’t know that she was ultimately too reckless – she followed out without knowing what was on the other side of the door. It was simply an act of looking for death.

Lu Ziming’s movements out the door were swift and decisive, and she made sure not to make any particularly noticeable sounds, like a cat accustomed to moving in the night. She hunched over, using the vehicles parked in the parking lot to hide herself, and moved lightly toward the parking lot entrance.

But what Lu Ziming didn’t expect was that the only zombie in the parking lot – the parking attendant – had naturally keen hearing. After turning into a zombie, although the virus had damaged most of his vision, it had also enhanced his hearing. So the sound Lu Ziming thought she made was small, but it had already attracted the attendant’s attention. It was only because Lu Ziming’s subsequent actions were careful and cautious and she carefully avoided the attendant that she escaped.

But the girl behind her was different. As if she didn’t see Lu Ziming’s cautious attitude, she pushed the door open forcefully and entered the parking lot ostentatiously. It just so happened that the zombie attendant, who was dragging a dead person as a snack, was also wandering over, looking around to check his ‘territory’. A fresh, living person ran right into him.

At this time, the unsuspecting Lu Ziming had already walked more than halfway and the entrance was close in sight. But then she heard the girl’s high-pitched scream behind her.

“Ah–” As the scream rang out, Lu Ziming quickly stood up from behind the vehicle where she was hiding.

“Crap.” Lu Ziming thought to herself. Following the direction of the scream, she saw the zombie in uniform had thrown down the dead person in his hand and lunged at the girl she had just saved.

Fortunately, the girl wasn’t experiencing her first encounter with zombies. After screaming, she wasn’t scared stiff, waiting to be eaten. Instead, she followed her instinct and dodged away from the side where the zombie was lunging. But she didn’t expect that at that moment, being only focused on dodging the zombie, she tripped over the zombie’s fast food – the headless corpse.

“Ah.” The short exclamation couldn’t change the situation. The girl still fell to the dark ground.

“Splatter,” the girl’s hand pressed into something. At the same time, a sweet, bloody smell hit her face. The girl subconsciously took her hand back and, using the dim green emergency light, only saw a black mess. But the sticky feeling between her fingers and the nauseating sweet smell made the girl understand – it was blood, the blood of the headless corpse!

“Ah ah – ah -“. Unlike before, this time the girl was so close to the zombie that her neck seemed to feel the cold aura of the Grim Reaper’s scythe. Death was at hand, and she was powerless to resist.

She neurotically shook the sticky blood from her hands, but this foolish action made her lose her balance and fall directly into the pool of blood. Some of the blood splattered on her face, and a few drops even splashed into her mouth. The taste of blood quickly spread along her tongue, making her vomit desperately, as if she was going to throw up her bile.

At this time, the zombie attendant who had missed his lunge had regained control of his stiff body and was slowly getting up from the ground. Although his movements were clumsy, it didn’t hinder his obsession with fresh flesh and blood.

And Lu Ziming, in the next instant after getting up, ran back from her hiding place. She didn’t even understand why she was running back to her death. But before her brain could figure out the pros and cons of this matter, her body had already moved. The long knife in her hand was already in the most suitable position. Her legs accelerated rapidly as she ran, running towards the direction of the girl and the zombie.

“Don’t! Don’t come over!!” The girl, who had fallen in the pool of blood and was vomiting, seemed to have finally regained her ability to speak. She used her hands and feet to retreat, not caring how much dirt and dead corpse blood was on the ground. She just moved around haphazardly on the ground. But the more flustered she was, the more mistakes she made. The girl moved for a long time, but the actual distance she covered was less than three meters.

Seeing the attendant rolling his eyes, wobbling, and gradually approaching the girl, his outstretched hands reaching out to grab her, at the moment when the girl closed her eyes in despair, waiting to be grabbed by the zombie, she heard footsteps behind her.

“Thump”. It was Lu Ziming who had come running at full speed. Seeing that she was about to miss the zombie attendant’s attack on the girl, she took two large strides in the last two steps, then jumped up with force, her right foot kicking out with great force, hitting the stooping attendant’s face squarely. The already slow-moving attendant was kicked, and he fell backward. Lu Ziming also lost her balance because of this kick and rolled to one side like a gourd. She stopped her momentum after rolling twice. Not bothering to look at herself or the girl, she stared at the attendant and, getting up from the ground, waved her long knife towards the zombie attendant on the ground not far away.

The light in the parking lot was too dim, and Lu Ziming was also a little dizzy from rolling on the ground, so this attack wasn’t accurate at all.

“Clang…” As Lu Ziming expected, most of the long knife hit the ground, and only a small part of the blade hit the zombie’s calf.

But the zombie attendant had already lost most of his sense of pain at this time. This attack didn’t have much of an effect on him. He still got up slowly.

But Lu Ziming wasn’t easy to deal with either. She took advantage of this attack to get a feel for things. She stood up abruptly and charged diagonally towards the dark figure not far away who was about to stand up.

“Swish,” the long knife swished through the air, making a gust of wind. Then it heavily cut hit the zombie attendant’s shoulder. The attendant, suffering this attack, once again changed from kneeling to lying on his stomach, half-lying on the ground.

This time, Lu Ziming didn’t stop. She pulled back the long knife that had cut into the flesh with force, stepped out diagonally, and once again mustered her strength to cut towards the zombie’s head and neck.

“Crack.” The long knife cut into the zombie’s neck, seemingly cut cutting off some bone, making a clear sound of bone cracking.

After the sound of bone cracking came a long silence.

…Dead…dead? Lu Ziming waited for a long time before realizing that the zombie attendant had finally stopped moving. She let out a long breath. Only then did Lu Ziming have time to look back at the girl still sitting in the pool of blood. The girl was already frightened, sitting there blankly, not moving at all.