Chapter 129
Chapter 129
Xu Wenlie shot to her feet.
“Go!” Her voice was so hoarse it nearly tore apart, Li Chong’s final words still echoing in her mind. “Hurry, go!”
Everyone stood up.
Then Xu Wenlie abruptly froze, as if nailed to the spot. The hand gripping the walkie-talkie began to shake violently.
“No…” Her voice changed, trembling beyond recognition. “No, I can’t…”
Wen Lianfeng whipped around.
“Xu Wenlie! What are you saying?!”
Xu Wenlie raised her head, the scar across her face looking especially vicious. But something in her eyes had shattered.
“I can’t go with you.” She forced out each word through clenched teeth. “He’ll find me. I know he will.”
Chu Jingchu rushed over and grabbed her arm.
“Are you insane? If you stay, you’ll die!”
Qingshui seized Xu Wenlie’s wrist as well. Her expression remained placid, as though she had no idea how horrifying the words leaving her mouth were.
“I’ll go with you.”
Xu Wenlie’s lips curved, somewhere between a smile and a sob.
“You kill him,” she said. “Then what?”
Qingshui did not answer.
“Then you drive that truck back,” Xu Wenlie continued, “and run into that helicopter again on the road. Are you betting it won’t spot you? Betting that it’s blind?”
“Or that it’s already flown far away?”
Someone had to stay behind.
Someone had to stay and slow those Madmen down. Someone had to clean up the mess.
Qingshui’s fingers remained locked around her wrist. “I owe you.”
You saved me. Let me repay you.
Xu Wenlie looked at her, then suddenly smiled. “Then you’ll learn that not every debt of gratitude gets the chance to be repaid.”
“Just consider this the second time I’ve saved you. If you really want to repay someone, repay the Director… She’s a good person. She saved me.”
The absolute resolve to die in Xu Wenlie’s eyes rooted Qingshui to the spot. Her grip involuntarily loosened.
“You need to go back. All of you do.”
“Li Suqin. Wen Lianfeng. Chu Jingchu.” Xu Wenlie named them one by one. “You’re such a good shot. You can protect them. I know you can. You can get them and all this grain safely back to the base.”
The driver who always kept half her face hidden behind her collar went still, then lowered her head in an even deeper silence.
“Everyone at the base… is waiting for this grain.”
“But-”
“No buts.”
Xu Wenlie lowered her head and shoved the walkie-talkie into Wen Lianfeng’s hand.
“Take it.”
Wen Lianfeng looked at her. Something shimmered in those eyes that had weathered countless storms.
In that moment, an unspoken understanding passed between the two women.
“Xu Wenlie.”
“You’ll survive.”
“All right.” Xu Wenlie merely looked toward the warehouse doors. “Get them home. Get the grain home.”
She turned away without hesitation and disappeared from their sight.
Xu Wenlie walked out of the warehouse.
The pickup truck was parked in the yard. She passed it and walked step by step toward the grain depot’s entrance.
The gates stood wide open. Beyond them lay the clearing Li Chong and the others had been guarding. Li Chong and the two women had been responsible for scouting ahead and drawing enemy fire. They were supposed to hold this position, then all go home together once the mission was complete.
Now, no one was there.
There was only a pool of blood, scraps of flesh, and other unrecognizable things scattered across the ground.
Xu Wenlie stared at the pool of blood for a long time.
Then she looked away, straightened her back, and raised her gun.
She waited.
After an unknown length of time, a figure finally appeared at the far end of the road. It moved slowly, staggering from side to side.
Gradually, the figure came into focus.
More than a dozen figures trailed behind it.
At last, that face emerged beneath the moonlight.
Delicate and clean-cut. The same face that had once looked down at her from the roof of the truck and said, “Sister Lie, go inside. I’ll keep watch.”
Now, it was covered in blood.
His forehead was split open. His lips were torn. Blood smeared every inch of his face. Yet those beautiful eyes remained fixed on her.
Crimson and crazed, burning with an almost pathological longing.
He had not driven here. He had come one step at a time, still clutching the walkie-talkie tightly in his hand.
“Wenlie…” he mumbled, his words slurred. “Wenlie… Wenlie…”
His lips peeled back, revealing bloodstained teeth.
“I really want to run you over with a car… Hee-hee…”
He laughed in broken bursts, giggling like a Madman and a child all at once.
“I love you, I love you, I love you… I want to tear you apart… you bitch… Stay with me forever…”
He spoke through his laughter, the words tangling together-sweetness and venom, tenderness and madness-until Xu Wenlie felt her soul being ripped to shreds.
Xu Wenlie tightened her grip on the gun.
She stared at that once-familiar face and at the Madmen following behind him.
This guy had lured the Madmen away so many times before. Why couldn’t he manage it this time?
She drew a deep breath and began backing away in another direction, raising her gun and aiming at the approaching figures.
Li Chong’s face swayed within her sights, coming closer and closer.
Her finger rested on the trigger. All it would take was the slightest pressure.
But the moment she met those twisted eyes, the primal instinct to survive suddenly surged up from the depths of her heart.
With that came a flicker of hope. Maybe the Madman flying the helicopter had already left. Maybe she could take a chance after all.
The truth was… she still wanted to live.
Xu Wenlie’s finger trembled. She spun around and ran.
She headed for the small grove.
She plunged into the trees. Low branches raked across her face, leaving bloody scratches, but she paid them no mind. She simply pumped her legs with everything she had.
Behind her, the laughter drew closer and closer.
“Wenlie… don’t run… wait for me…”
It was Li Chong’s voice.
“Where are you…?”
“Come on out…”
“I see you…”
The voices came from every direction. Gritting her teeth, Xu Wenlie kept running, but the deeper she went, the darker it became.
She could see nothing in the darkness. Her foot suddenly caught on something. A dead vine had tangled around her ankle!
Thud!
She crashed to the ground!
Before she could get back up, a figure lunged at her and slammed her down.
A deathly pale face loomed inches from hers, its mouth stretched into a wide grin. The Madman raised a sharp knife and brought it down on her!
Xu Wenlie’s pupils contracted!
Bang!
She jammed the muzzle beneath the Madman’s chin and pulled the trigger. The Madman collapsed. She shoved the corpse off with all her strength and scrambled up, but before she could find her footing, the ground vanished beneath her!
She had stepped into empty air. Her body tumbled uncontrollably down the slope.
The world spun around her. Rocks, branches, and dirt blurred together, battering her body, tearing open her skin, and jarring her bones until she felt as if she might fall apart!
As she rolled, she suddenly saw… a white light.
That deathly pale beam was back! The Madman really hadn’t left!
There was truly… no way out.
Xu Wenlie dragged herself to her feet. Her face was covered in blood, her body riddled with injuries. She could barely stand, but she stood anyway.
She looked at the beam, at the shadows pouring in from all directions, at the pairs of bloodred eyes gleaming in the darkness.
She raised her gun and aimed at the sky.
Bang!
The gunshot rang through the night. The beam whipped around and swept toward her position.
The gunshot only excited the Madmen further. Chuckling under their breath, they surged toward her.
“She’s here! Get her!”
Xu Wenlie charged into an apartment building.
The front door was broken. She barreled through it, her footsteps pounding through the pitch-black stairwell. Behind her, the laughter and thundering steps stayed close on her heels.
The stairs were narrow, barely wide enough for two people to pass, and the steep steps were almost impossible to see in the gloom.
Xu Wenlie stopped at the landing, pressed her back against the wall, and raised her gun.
The first Madman to charge up had barely shown its face when a bullet punched through its skull. Its corpse tumbled down the stairs and crashed into the Madmen rushing up behind it.
She fired with steady precision, dropping one with every shot. The narrow staircase formed a natural barricade. No matter how many Madmen there were, they could not swarm her all at once. They could only come up one by one to die.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The gunfire made her eardrums ache. Gunsmoke filled the air, and the reek of blood hung thick around her.
At last, one final figure appeared around the landing.
Li Chong.
He stood there, drenched in blood and grinning from ear to ear.
Xu Wenlie stared at him, the muzzle of her gun trained between his brows.
“Wen… lie!” He reached out a blood-soaked hand to her.
Her eyes brimming with grief, Xu Wenlie looked at that hand. Then she pulled the trigger without mercy!
Bang!
The shot rang out.
He fell. The walkie-talkie in his hand clattered to the floor. Xu Wenlie bent down, picked it up, and pulled out its antenna. Static crackled from the speaker.
“The Madman is still here, just as I thought.”
Her voice was calm as she spoke into the walkie-talkie. “You should go.”
Only the sound of quiet breathing came from the other end.
Xu Wenlie said nothing more. She continued upstairs.
She pushed open the door to the roof.
Wind rushed in, whipping her hair wildly around her face. She merely turned her head aside, hiding every trace of emotion.
In the night sky, that deathly pale beam continued sweeping back and forth.
Xu Wenlie watched it.
Then she suddenly raised her gun and aimed at the sky once more.
Bang! This time, the beam pinpointed Xu Wenlie’s position.
It swung toward her, moving faster and faster until it finally engulfed her completely!
Deathly pale light poured down from above, swallowing her whole.
It was so blindingly bright that she could see nothing. All she could hear was the roar of the rotors drawing closer and growing louder, shaking the entire rooftop!
Xu Wenlie stood within the beam, every inch of her bleached white by its glare.
She threw back her head and, summoning every last ounce of strength, roared at the searing white light, at the helicopter bearing down on her, at the Madman sitting inside and piloting it:
“Come on!”
Her anguished scream tore through the night.
“Come on!”
She screamed as if she meant to unleash everything inside her. All her love, all her hatred, all her resentment, all her despair. Everything.
Something welled in her eyes.
Tears.
But she refused to let them fall.
Grief over the lover she had lost closed in around her. Death, already upon her, cast its shadow over her. Yet she stood her ground and faced every last one of her fears.
Come on!