Chapter 10 – Rainy Night in Hua City (2)

◎ More terrifying than zombies ◎

Jiang Rui appeared to be the leader of this group of high school students, with everyone else in the team obeying his every word—except for Song Ke.

Song Ke had a carefree attitude, not quite understanding the twists and turns of social interactions. When Jiang Rui asked her to join him, she unreservedly stood by his side, paying no attention to the people behind her and their varied expressions.

The atmosphere remained quiet throughout the journey, and the two of them only exchanged a few words after a long while. Song Ke was not one to speak much; she had always been of few words. Jiang Rui, on the other hand, was acting unusually. In the past, he had been bold and unruly, making it impossible to ignore his existence. Almost three years had passed, and his recklessness had mellowed considerably. His entire demeanor had transformed as if he had undergone a profound change, almost as if he had completely forgotten the past grievances when facing Song Ke. He even took the initiative to explain the current situation.

“On the day of the solar eruption, it happened to be the day students returned to school. Many people suddenly fainted. At that time, no one realized the severity of the situation. They thought it was just ordinary heatstroke and took them to the medical room. The first zombie appeared that evening, followed by the second, the third… In less than two days, the school was completely overrun.”

“You mean, there are people with special abilities among you.”

“Yes, there are three individuals with special abilities.”

“And how many normal people were there?”

“One hundred and twenty-three. Two days ago, there were nearly two hundred, but some didn’t want to stay at the school and found ways to escape—either back home or to nearby shelters. After they left, we lost all contact with them… so there have been fewer people leaving these past few days.”

At this critical juncture, students who lost contact were probably facing dire circumstances. Song Ke tactfully refrained from further questions.

“Song Ke, how… have you been?” Quite abruptly, Jiang Rui turned to her and asked.

Song Ke glanced at him in bewilderment. This question was quite out of the blue, and she didn’t know how to respond. If she said she was doing well, it would be a lie. With her family gone and nowhere to belong, how could she be considered “well”? If she said she wasn’t doing well, she would have been bitten by zombies long ago on this journey and wouldn’t be standing here conversing with Jiang Rui.

Jiang Rui seemed to realize that his question was ill-timed. After a moment of silence, he changed the subject.

…

Several minutes later, they found a Western-style restaurant and managed to pry open the locked curtain at the entrance. The group was preparing to split into two teams for a search.

“We haven’t been to this restaurant before. I’ll take a few people to the main hall and the second floor. Zhang Hao, you and your group go to the kitchen to look for food.”

“Keep it quiet and don’t attract any zombies.”

Jiang Rui quickly organized the teams. There were twelve people in total. He took seven with him, leaving the remaining five with Zhang Hao. Cao Yiyi was assigned to Jiang Rui’s team, and she wisely refrained from engaging in conversation with Song Ke, keeping her head down and lost in thought.

When it was Song Ke’s turn, Jiang Rui hesitated for a moment. “Song Ke, go with Zhang Hao to the kitchen.”

Zhang Hao, who had received this hot potato, didn’t voice any objections upon hearing this. He cast a lingering glance at Song Ke before complying.

The main hall faced the street, and the second floor had numerous outdoor balconies. Compared to the kitchen, which was situated deep within the restaurant, the danger level was naturally higher. By assigning Song Ke to Zhang Hao’s team, everyone understood that they were looking out for her.

Song Ke didn’t mind. She was fine with going wherever. Since the teams were already divided, she simply agreed and stood behind Zhang Hao.

The kitchen was located deep within the Western-style restaurant. They crossed the main hall and walked along the corridor for a while. Someone exclaimed in excitement, “There’s a cold storage room here!”

Zhang Hao immediately decided, “Let’s go check it out.”

When Song Ke tried to follow them inside, Zhang Hao reached out and stopped her. “Wait here, classmate. Don’t move around.”

Zhang Hao had already come out for the third time. He was more cautious than the others, and the addition of a fragile girl to the team, especially one who had a connection with Jiang Rui, didn’t sit well with him. If this girl started causing trouble with tears and complaints, it could jeopardize their lives. At the moment, he just hoped that Song Ke would stay put like a fragile doll, not offering assistance and not causing any disruptions.

Song Ke sensed his rejection and slowly retracted her raised foot. “Oh.”

Zhang Hao and another boy continued to carry out beef, mutton, fruits, and vegetables from the cold storage room. They handed the items to the round-faced girl in their team, who squatted on the ground, organizing the various foods and packing them into the backpacks of several people.

Song Ke was left standing aside, and the girl didn’t show any intention of asking for her help. She ended up sitting on a table, watching them work.

Inside the narrow kitchen, two boys entered one after the other, searching for supplies with curiosity.

“Wow, this restaurant’s kitchen is so small. There probably isn’t much here.”

“So should we go back outside?”

“Why rush? Going out now means helping with carrying things.” Some of the potatoes in the basket had started to sprout. The taller boy picked up a small one, mimicking a basketball shot, and playfully threw it into the chubby boy’s hooded T-shirt. “Three-points! Nice shot!”

The chubby boy wore a distressed expression. “Kongzi Qi, stop messing around!”

Kongzi Qi ignored him and continued, “It’s fine. Brother Jiang and the others are outside. Hey, Tian Yi, don’t dodge!”

Chubs was afraid of pain, twisting and turning to evade. The small potato’s aim was off, and it missed him, bouncing off the counter with a few thuds, seemingly hitting something with a muffled sound. Both of them were surprised and simultaneously turned their heads to the point of impact. Several zombies stood up unsteadily, one of them wearing a white chef’s hat and being as round as a small hill.

Kongzi Qi was dumbfounded, staying frozen for several seconds. These zombies were holding spatulas and knives in their hands!

“Oh my god! Tian Yi, run!” Since he was close to the door, Kongzi Qi rushed out in a few steps, gripping the doorframe and shouting, “Quick, come over, Tian Yi!”

Tian Yi was positioned closer to the inside. He was facing the head chef zombie directly and, in his panic, stumbled. The head chef zombie reached out and grabbed his leg. Tian Yi desperately kicked and stomped on its face, shouting in terror, “Help! Help!”

The commotion quickly reached the outside, and Zhang Hao’s group hurriedly rushed out of the cold storage room, even Jiang Rui’s team arrived in haste.

Kongzi Qi’s voice was trembling with urgency. “Brother Jiang, save Tian Yi!”

The kitchen’s door was narrow, allowing only one person to pass at a time. Inside the confined space, Jiang Rui hesitated while rubbing the ring on his right hand. He wasn’t particularly skilled in close combat. However, as he lifted his head and faced the expectant gazes of everyone around him, his breath caught, and with a voice hoarse with resolution, he finally ordered, “Once I’m in, all of you retreat.”

But someone acted even quicker than him.

Song Ke had been idly watching, swinging her slender legs, as the girls packed the food. Suddenly, she heard a scream from the kitchen. Soon after, a boy stumbled out, disoriented.

Without much thought, she used one hand to support herself on the table and leaped out. Like a whirlwind, she rushed into the room. Delivering several swift kicks to the chubby chef zombie’s belly, she forced it to retreat. Then, she grabbed a bucket from the sink with lightning speed and slammed it down on the zombie’s head. When it staggered in confusion, flailing its limbs, she caught hold of the chubby boy’s collar, pulling him up, and swiftly instructed, “Run, now.”

The slightly chubby boy, Tian Yi, weighing around 160 pounds, was flung out of the kitchen by her like a ball. The pursuing zombies followed suit. Song Ke targeted their vulnerable joints, attacking with cracking bone sounds—snap, snap.

The movements of the zombies were disoriented, and she then picked up the baseball bat that Tian Yi had dropped. With a heavy thud, she struck the head of the head chef zombie who had just managed to free itself from the bucket. It fell backwards in confusion, its bulky body resembling a bowling ball. It collided with the other zombies, creating a clattering commotion.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Song Ke swiftly shut the door, locked it, and pushed tables against it.

Turning around, she faced a group of teenagers, their jaws dropping in shock as they looked at her.

Song Ke kindly informed them, “It’s taken care of. We should, we should leave.”

Silence—a eerie silence. After a while, someone couldn’t hold back their amazement.

“It feels like…” Kongzi Qi supported Tian Yi, swallowing hard, “she’s more terrifying than zombies.”

Jiang Rui stood at the front of the crowd, looking at Song Ke’s slender figure. The old scar on his brow seemed to throb slightly. He couldn’t help but smile wryly to himself. Indeed, he had been overthinking things. Back in the day, Song Ke could handle an entire class on her own. Why had he ever thought she needed his protection?

“Pack up, let’s go quickly.”

The journey back to the school went surprisingly smoothly, perhaps because Jiang Rui’s group had become familiar with the route and didn’t encounter any more zombies along the way.

The high schoolers whispered behind Song Ke’s back, no longer daring to mock her openly. Lin Xia, the round-faced girl who was previously in Song Ke’s group, tugged on Cao Yiyi’s sleeve and said with surprise, “Yiyi, what’s the deal with your classmate? She’s amazing.”

Cao Yiyi lowered her eyelashes, her voice soft and hard to read. “Is that so? She’s always liked to fight.”

As they approached Hua City No.1 Middle School, Song Ke finally voiced the question that had been on her mind for a while.

“I have… a question.”

“What’s the question?”

“Tell me, if the school is, is infested with zombies, why is there still a, a safe zone?”

“Well… you’ll find out soon.”

Instead of entering the school through the main gate, they took a detour around a side hill. When they looked down from the slope, the sight before them left Song Ke momentarily speechless.

Hundreds and thousands of zombies dressed in Hua City No.1 Middle School uniforms had taken over the playground, dormitories, and teaching buildings. Their dense presence was enough to make one’s scalp tingle. They wandered everywhere like ghosts, their heads twitching nervously as they turned, sniffing the scent of living humans in the air.

This was the largest zombie horde that Song Ke had seen since the apocalypse, and also the most chilling.

After all, these were once lively boys and girls in their teens, with bright futures ahead of them, the hopes of the Alliance. Now, they had become lifeless walking corpses.

The expressions of everyone grew heavy.

Tian Yi’s sadness was about to overflow from his face. “In our class, except for me and Kongzi Qi, everyone… Our homeroom teacher was bitten by the zombies while trying to protect us.” Even Kongzi Qi, who had always been jovial, had red eyes as he turned away.

Jiang Rui pointed in a direction. “There’s the safe zone.”

He was referring to a storm-proof, enclosed stadium near the edge of the school, built using the latest seismic and fire-resistant materials provided by the Alliance. Behind it was a high-voltage electric fence.

Song Ke gazed at the tightly packed zombies outside the stadium. “How do we get in?”

“Through here.” Jiang Rui took the lead, and the others followed him. They went around the slope behind the stadium. When they got closer, Song Ke noticed a hole in the high-voltage electric fence. It looked as if it had been burned open by intense heat, just large enough for an adult to pass through. However, two or three zombies were wandering nearby.

“Step back.” The group halted in the woods not far from the zombies. Jiang Rui’s voice was stern.

Everyone else took two steps backward, and Song Ke hesitated for a moment before falling back in line with them. She looked left and right, took small steps, and aligned herself with the others on the same level.

Jiang Rui took off his ring and walked towards the zombies. Song Ke’s sharp eyes noticed a faint red mark around the base of his middle finger. Just then, Jiang Rui raised his hand, and a two-meter-long flame snake burst from his palm, instantly transforming into a fiery whip. He lashed it at several zombies, the smell of burning flesh and skin quickly spreading. The zombies emitted cries of agony and soon fell to the ground.

It finally dawned on Song Ke—Jiang Rui was actually an ability user!

After dealing with the zombies, Jiang Rui turned back and glanced at Song Ke. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but the others had already burst into cheers.

“Brother Jiang is amazing!”

“That AOE skill, it’s so satisfying to whip those zombies!”

After eliminating the minor obstacle blocking their path, the group passed through the gap in the electric fence and soon arrived beneath the wall at the back of the storm-proof stadium.

Jiang Rui took out his phone and typed out a message.

Two minutes later, something unbelievable happened. The wall in front of them rapidly dissolved, revealing the shape of a door, jutting out abruptly!

A transforming… door?

“Song Ke, welcome to the safe zone.” After Jiang Rui finished speaking, he pushed open the door without hesitation.

The group filed inside, and the door closed again, existing for about ten seconds before suddenly disappearing.

Song Ke turned around, only to see that the wall was as smooth as before.