Chapter 107
Chapter 107
When Qingshui crawled out of the water, she had no idea where she was.
Her mind was still submerged in the murky floodwaters, even though her body had already been spat out.
The flood had expelled her from an underground pipe.
The instant the bright sky appeared before her, her mind was still trapped in the pipe’s eternal darkness. The light stung her eyes.
She instinctively squinted, a single thought filling her mind.
The gun…
Her fingers clenched, and the familiar cold hardness pressed against her palm.
She still had the gun.
She lay sprawled on the rough ground, soaked to the bone. Water continued to trickle from her ears, the warm liquid running down their curves and into her collar. A relentless ringing drowned out every other sound.
All she knew was that she was coughing, and she couldn’t stop. Every breath took all the strength in her body, forcing a sliver of blood-tainted air through her burning throat.
She couldn’t stop.
Qingshui struggled to push herself upright and raised her head. Then her entire body went rigid.
A city.
Not the suburbs. Not an abandoned factory. Not some desolate stretch of farmland.
A city.
The heart of a genuinely prosperous metropolis.
She was kneeling at the edge of a broad street. Behind her yawned a massive rupture in the ground. The drainage pipe that had spat her out was more than two meters across, its pitch-black opening like an enormous mouth. Water still seeped from it, carrying the fishy stench of decay.
Before her rose the city’s skyscrapers.
Prosperous towers built from glass and steel.
Dozens of office buildings, each several dozen stories tall, stood silently beneath the gray-white sky, packed one after another. Their once-pristine glass facades were now riddled with cracks. On some floors, entire panes were gone, leaving only dark, gaping windows.
Sunlight leaked through gaps in the clouds and fell across the cold buildings, but it could not penetrate those dark openings.
A human city, utterly desolate.
Wreckage, blood, ruin, and deathly silence mingled together, leaving behind nothing but the suffocating scent of despair.
Hide… Hide!
Qingshui staggered to her feet. She didn’t know what city this was or how long the flood had carried her. All she knew was that the road beneath her feet was unfamiliar, and the bloody stench in the air was stronger than ever.
But she had no time to think. Sounds were coming from nearby.
“Scritch… scritch…”
At the other end of the street, several Madmen connected head to tail crawled along the ground in grotesquely contorted poses. Joined together, they formed a writhing centipede that was creeping straight toward her.
The one in front held its head up. Its face was bloated, its mouth split into a grin that stretched all the way to its ears. Drool dangled from one corner of its mouth in a glistening strand.
“Hee-hee-hee-hee! Fresh… Fresh!”
Run!!!
Qingshui couldn’t think. She just ran. Running was all she could do!
She sprinted down the broad street with everything she had, her feet landing on slick, soft things that might have been corpses or spilled organs.
When abandoned cars blocked her path, she vaulted over their hoods. When a fallen streetlight lay across the road, she turned sideways and squeezed past it.
Behind her, the pounding footsteps multiplied.
One.
Five.
More than a dozen.
“The little piggy got out! Hee-hee! Hurry, catch her!”
“Grab her! Grab her! Rip out her guts!”
Maniacal laughter surged in from every direction, making her eardrums throb.
Left or right?
A seething black mass was pouring in from the left. Draped in tattered human skin, the Madmen ran with unsteady, swaying gaits, brandishing rusty blades and even human leg bones.
They spotted her and let out a collective howl of excitement, charging crookedly toward her!
The road to the right was a dead end.
An overturned tanker truck completely blocked the street. Its enormous tank lay across the road, cutting it in two. Countless fragments of cars burned down to charred shells were scattered around it.
“Bastard! Aaaaaaargh!”
Laughter, howls, and ringing filled her entire world.
All Qingshui could see was the silent skyscraper standing ahead. Its revolving door had long since shattered, leaving only an empty frame. Without the slightest hesitation, Qingshui rushed inside.
There was no other choice.
She charged toward the entrance.
The Madmen’s footsteps drew closer behind her. She could smell their sickly sweet rot and feel their blood-reeking breath, almost hot against the back of her neck.
Get inside!
A massive crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. Only a broken remnant remained of the turnstile’s barrier, with shards of plastic scattered across the marble floor. Qingshui raced through and sprinted toward the escalator leading upward.
The escalator had long since stopped running, its black treads motionless. Qingshui stepped onto it, only for the slick fluid beneath her shoe to send her skidding. She nearly fell, but caught her balance and sprinted upward.
Her footsteps echoed through the cavernous lobby, each one pounding against her heart like a hammer.
The second floor!
Beyond the top of the escalator lay an even larger lobby.
Sofas and coffee tables of every style were scattered haphazardly across the floor, some overturned, others still upright. Enormous decorative paintings hung on the walls, their images rendered unrecognizable by splattered blood.
Qingshui planted one foot on a sofa and launched herself over a row of coffee tables. Her knees buckled when she landed, so she rolled with the impact, sprang back to her feet, and kept running.
Behind her, the Madmen’s laughter had already reached the second floor. They knocked over sofas and shattered glass underfoot, filling the lobby with deafening crashes.
“I see her! Hee hee hee! She ran that way!”
She raced through an open doorway.
A vast open-plan office stretched out before her. Dozens of individual workstations stood in neat rows, while floor-to-ceiling windows covered one entire wall. Sunlight illuminated every inch of the room-and every trace of the carnage.
Dried black blood stained the floor, the partitions, and even the ceiling. In some places, complete handprints remained, five fingers splayed as if someone had clawed desperately at the surface before the blood hardened in place.
“Hee…”
Two deathly pale faces suddenly appeared in the corner.
The Madmen had been crouching behind several desks. Now they slowly rose in unison, their mouths stretching into matching grins that revealed the same broken, incomplete teeth.
They charged her head-on!
Qingshui faltered for a split second, then stepped onto the nearest desk and sprang into the air, driving the sole of her shoe into the chest of the Madman in front!
The tremendous impact sent its deformed body flying backward. It toppled two desks behind it before crashing into a heap of debris.
The other Madman lunged at her.
As Qingshui landed, she twisted sideways and let it sail past her. Without stopping or looking back, she leaped onto the next desk.
Tables, counters, cubicle partitions, and sofa backs became her footholds.
She bounded through the densely packed workstations like an agile cat, leaping from one desk to the next.
There was a glass door at the far end!
She rushed over and shoved it open.
A corridor lay beyond.
Countless identical glass doors lined both walls in orderly rows.
Conference rooms, a break room, an archive… Every door was tightly shut, and the footsteps hot on her heels left her no time to try any of them.
All she could do was sprint down the corridor.
At the end, another spacious hall opened before her.
This floor seemed to be a recreation area, complete with a bar, stools, and a pool table blanketed in dust. The floor was a mess, with dried black stains among the overturned tables and chairs.
Qingshui charged inside, her gaze sweeping frantically around the room until it landed overhead.
Up there!
A green sign!
The words “EMERGENCY EXIT” shone like a beacon in the dim space.
The emergency stairwell!
She picked up speed and raced toward the entrance. Behind her, the Madmen’s crazed laughter flooded into the hall.
“Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh!”
“Run, run, run, run, run, run, run! Don’t let us catch you! Don’t let us catch you!”
Qingshui threw open the fire door to the emergency stairwell.
Beyond it, a flight of stairs led upward.
She forced herself to move faster and squeezed through as the hysterical laughter closed in behind her. The fire door slammed shut with a clang, temporarily sealing off those deranged voices.
Keep running up.
Don’t stop.
Never stop!!
First floor, second floor, third floor.
Her figure disappeared into the dim stairwell, her footsteps amplified within the enclosed space.
Fourth floor, fifth floor, sixth floor.
Her oxygen-starved mind was barely functioning. Her heart felt ready to burst from her chest, pounding louder than her footsteps.
Seventh floor, eighth floor, ninth floor.
Other footsteps began to echo through the stairwell. The Madmen had entered the emergency stairwell and were climbing after her.
And they were climbing much faster than she was.
Their deformed bodies knew no fatigue. The sight of the fleeing “piglet” ahead only excited them more. They drew closer and closer.
Don’t stop! Don’t!
A landing.
Bang!
Qingshui slammed headfirst through the fire door.
She had no idea what floor she was on. She only knew she couldn’t keep running up the stairs. They were too close. She needed to lose them somewhere on this floor.
Beyond the door was yet another corridor.
The corridor stretched straight ahead, long and narrow, its floor covered in dark gray carpet. Large patches of blackened flesh and blood littered the carpet. Closed doors lined both sides, and the overhead lights had long since gone dark. Only the gray-white daylight filtering through the window at the far end illuminated the corridor, making it look all the more sinister.
Run!
Qingshui shoved open a door at random and squeezed through, then slowly eased the glass door shut behind her without making a sound.
It appeared to be a lounge. The room was spacious and uniquely designed, with a semicircular counter at its center.
Sofas lay overturned, a water dispenser had toppled to the floor, and miscellaneous objects were scattered everywhere. In one corner, a desiccated corpse in a business suit and skirt lay curled up, its shriveled fingers still clutching the employee badge pinned to its chest.
Qingshui didn’t spare it a second glance. She quickly vaulted over the counter and hid in the shadows beneath it. Holding her breath, she gripped her gun so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
A moment later, several sets of frenzied footsteps echoed through the corridor.
They were no longer as tightly packed as before. Only a few scattered footsteps could be heard.
The Madmen had lost track of her exact location and split up to search. One by one, they pushed open the glass doors lining both sides of the corridor.
“Hee hee hee… Come out, little mouse…”
“Where are you hiding…? Where are you…?”
One door after another opened, the sounds drawing closer and closer.
Qingshui lay in the shadows beneath the counter, holding her breath as she desperately tried to recover her strength. Beyond the door, she could just make out a distorted shadow swaying back and forth.
The shadow stopped directly outside her door. Then the glass door slowly swung open.
“Hee…”
A Madman poked its head inside.
Its face was deathly pale, its eye sockets deeply sunken, and its mouth stretched into an unnaturally wide grin. It staggered into the lounge and began wandering around.
Qingshui couldn’t see its upper body.
From her angle, all she could see were its unsteady feet.
They shuffled slowly around the room.
Drip.
A drop of liquid struck the floor.
Blood dripped steadily from the Madman, running down its trouser leg and splattering against the floor. Each drop spread into a small dark stain, creeping closer and closer to where she was hiding.
Qingshui kept circling the counter to stay out of its line of sight. The moment the Madman turned away, she rolled toward the rear door, slipped silently through it, and crawled into the room across the way without making a sound.
The room beyond was deathly still. Unlike the other rooms, it hadn’t been extensively wrecked. Qingshui crawled cautiously beneath row after row of desks and chairs. Everything was arranged neatly, and documents still lay open on the desks.
Then, without warning, a pair of bloodred eyes entered her field of vision.
A Madman in blue work clothes hung suspended in midair, a safety rope secured around its body. One leg was already inside the room, while the other still dangled outside the window.
Its mouth gaped open, its eyes gleaming scarlet. Drool ran from the corner of its mouth as a strange rasping noise rattled in its throat. It seemed to recognize her.
“Ah… ha ha…”
“You bitch! Aaaaaaah!”
It suddenly let out a shrill scream filled with excitement and lunged at her. The safety rope snapped taut with a harsh creak.
The world behind her fell silent for a split second.
Bang!
Qingshui fired.
The bullet tore through its twisted face, blasting a cloud of blood from the back of its skull. Its rigid body convulsed twice before finally going still. Like a real corpse, it hung in midair, swaying gently.
Then came a thunderous rumble.
Footsteps and shrill laughter erupted once more, denser and more frenzied than before. Drawn by the gunshot, the Madmen were surging toward her.
Stay calm.
Qingshui’s gaze darted wildly around the room. Outside the window stretched the city skyline, and across from her stood another equally silent high-rise. Dozens of meters of empty air separated the two buildings.
As Qingshui stared outside, an idea flashed through her mind. She strode forward and frantically began untying the safety rope from the Madman. The knot was tight, and her fingers were trembling violently.
The footsteps behind her drew closer and closer.
Crash!
The conference room door burst open, revealing several deathly pale faces.
At that exact moment, the knot came free!
Qingshui grabbed the rope, wrapped it twice around her waist, and tied it into a dead knot.
“Hee hee hee hee! Found you!”
The Madmen charged at her, laughing maniacally.
Qingshui drew a deep breath and sprinted toward the window. Behind her, the Madmen’s hands were a hair’s breadth from seizing the hem of her clothes!
Smash!
She leaped through the window.
Wind howled past her ears as the world rushed away before her eyes. Like a kite with its string cut, she plunged toward the ground, only for the safety rope to snap taut and jerk her to a halt, leaving her suspended in midair.