BC Chapter 22

Apparently, eliminating zombies isn’t easy and consumes a lot of physical strength, but Wu Hao has no intention of changing his mind. Of course, when the number of zombies increases, he won’t choose to sit and wait for death. And Yin Zhouhang, who habitually jokes around, won’t just watch his driver get eaten.

Actually, for Wu Hao, the zombies in front of him, although a bit difficult to deal with, are still relatively acceptable. After all, they have no intelligence and only act on instinct. It’s simple to deal with them, just destroy the brain that issues commands, or the central nervous system that transmits body signals – the cervical spine.

But the living are different, not only because they might accidentally be bitten and turn into zombies later, but also because you have to be constantly vigilant about the unpredictable nature of people. In this dangerous environment, who knows what they will do when their original selfish hearts run wild. Moreover, what’s more terrifying than zombies is that living people have intelligence, scheming, and know how to disguise themselves.

As the three of them traveled while cleaning up zombies, their speed wasn’t fast, but their tacit understanding was gradually improving. As time passed, the main problem facing the trio became the approaching dawn. The district where they were had been basically ‘cleaned up’, and Wu Hao planned to find a safe place to stay and rest.

The food they had collected was enough to last two or three days, and Wu Hao’s phone still had some power. He had previously used the map to search for the nearest 4S store, and there was one on Fuxiang Street, three blocks away.

Although there were some abandoned cars on the street, most of them were broken, and the keys were mostly on the car owners who had become zombies. At this time, the only place to find relatively intact test drive cars with keys was the 4S store. The trio’s original plan was to find a test drive car that could be driven away and drive straight to the east exit of Qingshui City on the already cleared streets.

It took the group several hours to walk this street, mainly because Wu Hao chose to confront these wandering zombies head-on. But doing so obviously took a huge toll on their physical strength.

“Hey, hey, I’m done! Whew… let’s rest! Let’s rest, okay!” Yin Zhouhang was so tired he couldn’t stand anymore, and without caring about how dirty the ground was, he plopped down, drooping his head and panting heavily.

Wu Hao, who was in front of him, was also breathing rapidly, but he was still standing steadily. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, “It’s almost dawn, let’s find a place to rest…”

“Let’s go.” Yin Suna, who hadn’t exerted much effort and only had a slight sweat on her cheeks, kicked the slumped Yin Zhouhang, put away her dagger, dabbed her face with a tissue a few times, and walked ahead.

“Ah–” Yin Zhouhang gritted his teeth and howled softly in frustration, but still struggled to get up from the ground and staggered behind the two.

The three had dealt with almost all the wandering zombies on this street, so they found a noodle restaurant with fewer zombies, pushed the door open, and quickly killed the male and female zombies that lunged at them. Then, they dragged the two corpses into the kitchen and closed the kitchen door. All the ingredients in the back kitchen had rotted, and a stench wafted out as soon as the door was opened. The three couldn’t possibly cook anything in the back kitchen, so they simply sealed it off.

Yin Zhouhang took a D-shaped bicycle lock from his backpack and cautiously locked the shop door from the inside.

“Yo, kid, didn’t know you had this brain? Where did you swipe the bike lock from?” Yin Suna took a sip of water and asked leisurely, standing behind Yin Zhouhang.

“I felt it would be useful when I was searching for supplies in the building, so I took it.” Yin Zhouhang shook the lock, confirmed that the door was locked, and turned to answer Yin Suna, but as soon as his eyes met his sister’s, he noticed the water in her hand. “Mineral water? Where did you find it? I want to drink too!” Yin Zhouhang said, reaching for the water bottle in Yin Suna’s hand, but Yin Suna dodged to the side, and Yin Zhouhang almost fell flat on his face.

“If you want to drink, go get it from the refrigerator over there. Are you sick, trying to steal mine!” Yin Suna frowned and scolded.

“Huh? There’s more?” Yin Zhouhang, who had been dodged, wanted to angrily question whether Yin Suna was really his sister, but when he heard Yin Suna’s words, he instantly lost his temper. He quickly ran to the standing refrigerator next to the noodle shop’s cashier counter, grabbed a bottle of water and a bottle of cola.

“Wow, cola, non-nutritious but still a scarce resource.” Yin Zhouhang excitedly pried open the bottle cap with a “hiss” sound, wiped the sweat that was already dripping down his forehead in small streams with his sleeve, and then contentedly drank half a bottle of cola in one go, chasing Yin Suna around the room to show off his burping skills.

“…” Only Wu Hao was still dutifully gathering the tables and chairs in the shop to one side, and then removing several tabletops to use as bed boards for the three of them tonight.

…

Zhou Yuanyuan’s high fever didn’t last long. Lu Ziming’s care played a part, lying down to rest played a part, and the main reason was that Zhou Yuanyuan was young and had good resistance.

When she woke up from her dream, she found Lu Ziming sitting beside her, using a flashlight to illuminate and fiddling with things in her hand, putting any useful things into her backpack.

“Awake? How are you feeling?” Lu Ziming felt Zhou Yuanyuan’s movement, turned to look at her, and asked.

“…” Zhou Yuanyuan wanted to say she was okay, but before she could say the words, she opened her mouth and realized that her throat was so dry that she couldn’t speak. She sat up and coughed hard to feel a little better, and said in a hoarse voice, “I should be fine.”

Lu Ziming zipped up the backpack she had packed, turned and reached out to touch Zhou Yuanyuan’s forehead, then put her other hand on her own forehead to feel it, and said, “Mm, no fever. Drink more of the water I gave you earlier, pack your things, we’re leaving soon.”

Touched by Lu Ziming’s dry, warm palm on her forehead, Zhou Yuanyuan’s small face flushed almost imperceptibly in the dim environment of the warehouse. She blinked her eyes obediently and nodded, “Mm.” Then she picked up the mineral water bottle, drank half a bottle, got up, and packed her things as well.

Dai Qianya had already carried her son Jin Shengzhe on her back, using her coat to hold the child and tying a knot tightly in front of her. When she followed Lu Ziming to this place, she didn’t bring much, and tonight she was going to follow Lu Ziming to hide in the supermarket, so she didn’t need to carry any extra baggage. Just carrying a little boy on her back for this trip was already enough for her.

“Is everyone ready?” Lu Ziming put on her backpack, handed a self-made long knife to Zhou Yuanyuan, held another one in her hand, and tied the last one to her backpack. She held a flashlight and shined it around the warehouse, looking at Zhou Yuanyuan and Dai Qianya.

“Mm.”

“Ready.” The two answered together, their eyes serious and firm as they looked at Lu Ziming. Zhou Yuanyuan was able to remain so calm because she had experienced several dangers with Lu Ziming, and Dai Qianya was also able to remain calm because as a mother who had to protect her child, she had to be strong. Now only she could protect her son, and if she was still crying, Lu Ziming might abandon them and run away on her own.

“Let’s go. Stay close behind me, don’t fall behind, don’t talk, if there’s a problem, watch my gestures.” Lu Ziming turned off the flashlight, stuffed it into the side pocket of her backpack, put her hand on the warehouse door handle, and took a deep breath.

There were wandering zombies on the lower floors of the building, but Lu Ziming and Zhou Yuanyuan had always used the fire escape stairs to get here, and each floor of the stairs had a heavy fire door. Since zombies couldn’t open doors, it saved them a lot of trouble. Going down the stairs on this side led to the parking lot where Lu Ziming had killed the security guard before. By bypassing some vehicles, they could reach the parking lot entrance/exit that connected to the outside. This place was relatively safe when Lu Ziming and Zhou Yuanyuan had passed by before. After all, there usually weren’t many people in the parking lot besides cars and security guards.

The group carefully made their way down the stairs, and fortunately, they didn’t encounter any accidents in the stairwell. When they finally reached the fire door of the parking lot, Lu Ziming was still the first to go. She tentatively poked her head out and looked into the dark parking lot for a while, and after confirming that there were no wandering zombies, she pushed the door open to let the two adults and one child behind her pass through first.

Unexpectedly, just as she was about to gently close the fire door, she accidentally slipped, and the door closer dutifully pulled the opened thick fire door back with force, and the door slammed shut with a “bang”.

Zhou Yuanyuan and Dai Qianya, as well as the little boy Jin Shengzhe, were startled by the noise, and Zhou Yuanyuan and Dai Qianya both turned back to look at Lu Ziming with disbelief.

Lu Ziming’s heart also tightened. The sound of the fire door colliding was already loud, and after being reflected by the empty and huge space of the parking lot, the sound was even louder, like a thunderclap in the parking lot. The group of four froze in the darkness, listening quietly. Soon, as expected, dragging, scraping, and disordered footsteps, as well as muffled whimpers, gradually came from the direction of the parking lot entrance/exit.

Dai Qianya and Zhou Yuanyuan immediately retreated towards Lu Ziming, their hands and feet turned ice-cold, and the hairs on their bodies stood on end.

“Follow the gaps between the vehicles on the right, watch your step, don’t trip over the parking barriers, run!” Lu Ziming made a decisive decision, took two steps forward, went directly to the two of them, and gave a low, calm instruction.