Chapter 14
Chapter 14
There were no lights at the entrance to the underground parking garage. The darkness was enough to make anyone’s skin crawl.
Chen Yuhui and An Xiaolin raced down the ramp, the flashlights on their phones illuminating only a small patch ahead.
The beams swept across the floor, revealing dried, blackened bloodstains, scattered human body parts, and one or two mutilated corpses.
“The car… the car…” An Xiaolin’s voice trembled uncontrollably. She stayed close behind Chen Yuhui, her eyes darting frantically over the silhouettes of the surrounding vehicles.
“Check the plates. Last three digits are 739. Black SUV.” Chen Yuhui forced herself to remain calm, even as her heart hammered against her ribs.
The garage was too quiet. Unnaturally so. Apart from their muffled breathing and footsteps, the only sound was a faint, intermittent dripping somewhere in the distance.
As they passed between two rows of cars and approached the center of the garage, a wet, halting murmur drifted toward them.
Chen Yuhui stopped dead, yanked An Xiaolin behind her, and switched off her phone’s flashlight.
Holding their breath, the two women slowly peered through a gap between the cars.
The garage was not empty.
Seven or eight figures had formed a circle in a wide-open area. A body lay on the ground between them, so badly mutilated that it was no longer recognizable as human. Its organs had been hollowed out, leaving behind nothing but torn flesh and bone.
And those lunatics… Some were crouching, others kneeling, all of them frenziedly indulging their vile urges.
Their twisted, sickening grins made Chen Yuhui’s stomach clench. Cold sweat trickled down her spine.
They had to find a way around them. The SUV was probably parked farther inside.
Chen Yuhui motioned for An Xiaolin to move through the shadows along the opposite row of cars. Like two mice, they crept forward without making a sound.
But just as they were about to slip past the lunatics’ “party,” a nearby car suddenly blared without warning.
“Beep! Beep! Beep!”
Every lunatic froze at the exact same instant.
Their heads slowly tilted to one side, necks contorting as their eyes rolled toward the sound. Saliva continued dripping from their mouths. They moved like broken dolls, or corpses twitching back to life.
Their gazes locked unerringly onto the two rigid figures hiding beyond the cars.
“Hello there…”
No one knew which of them spoke first. In the next instant, the silence shattered.
“Piglets! Fresh piglets!”
“We found you! We found you!”
“Organs! I want their organs! Warm ones! Hee-hee-hee!”
The lunatics tossed aside their toys and charged at Chen Yuhui and An Xiaolin on all fours, cackling madly.
“Run!” Chen Yuhui screamed hoarsely. Grabbing the petrified An Xiaolin, she spun around and bolted.
The panting behind them made their scalps prickle. Fortunately, the garage’s maze of vehicles and concrete pillars created obstacles that also gave them brief cover.
They tore through the rows of cars, swerved around concrete pillars, and slammed through a half-open car door.
But there were too many lunatics, and they seemed to know the garage far better than the two women did. They began closing in from both sides.
“The keys!” Chen Yuhui skidded to a stop and shoved the keys she had been clutching into An Xiaolin’s hand. She spoke rapidly. “Find the car! Plate ending in 739! Black SUV! Once you find it, drive over here and honk!”
“What about you?!” An Xiaolin’s face was streaked with tears as she grabbed Chen Yuhui’s arm.
“I’ll lure them away!” Chen Yuhui tore herself free, her eyes fierce. “Unless you want us both to die, go! That’s an order! You need to find the car and stay alive so we can pick up Qingshui and the others!”
With that, Chen Yuhui darted out from behind the car before An Xiaolin could react. As she ran, she slammed the back of her knife against the cars beside her, creating a deafening racket.
“Come on, you bastards! Come and get me!”
It worked. Drawn by the blatant provocation and noise, most of the lunatics cocked their heads, changed direction, and chased after Chen Yuhui.
An Xiaolin watched Chen Yuhui disappear among the rows of cars, then looked down at the cold key in her hand. Overwhelming fear clenched around her heart.
She bit down hard on her lip until she tasted blood. Then, mustering every ounce of strength she had, she sprinted deeper into the garage, toward the area where the cars were packed more densely.
Her phone’s flashlight came on again, its beam sweeping frantically across one license plate after another.
“739… 739… Where are you? Please…” she sobbed as she ran. Tears blurred her vision, and she wiped them away with frantic swipes of her hand.
At last, she spotted the outline of a black SUV not far ahead. Her heart began pounding with hope, but just then, two lunatics lunged out from the side!
They seemed to have been examining a corpse in the corner before An Xiaolin’s light and footsteps disturbed them.
“Hee-hee… you little bitch… Why are you running? Come on… let me have some fun!” A lunatic in a tattered shirt cocked his head, staring fixedly at An Xiaolin.
“Your skin… heh… so tender… It’ll feel so good to tear it open… Ha-ha…” The other lunatic held a strip of blood-red flesh as he sauntered toward her.
An Xiaolin nearly fainted from terror. She spun around to run, but the lunatic in the shirt grabbed her backpack strap and yanked her backward!
She screamed as she crashed to the ground. Both lunatics threw themselves on top of her, their heavy bodies crushing the air from her lungs.
“Get off me! Get off!” An Xiaolin kicked and thrashed with all her might, but it did nothing.
The lunatic in the shirt straddled her, clamping one hand over her mouth while the other began savagely tearing at the waistband of her pants.
“Mmph!” An Xiaolin’s pupils dilated with utter terror and humiliation. Despair engulfed her like an icy tide.
She didn’t want to die like this… She didn’t…
No!
Just as the lunatic in the shirt was about to rip her pants open and the other lunatic wrapped his hands around her throat, An Xiaolin’s right hand, fumbling blindly across the floor, suddenly brushed against a discarded fruit knife!
There was no time to think. Only the hysterical strength of pure survival instinct remained!
She clenched the handle and drove the knife with all her strength into the side of the lunatic’s neck!
Squelch!
Warm liquid sprayed across her face.
The lunatic in the shirt froze. A strange gurgle rose from his throat as his body convulsed. Clutching his neck, he rolled off An Xiaolin.
At the same moment…
Whoosh!
There was a barely audible sound of something slicing through the air, followed by a muffled thud.
The weight pinning An Xiaolin down abruptly vanished.
Something had appeared directly between the eyes of the lunatic who had been choking her.
An arrow!
Its head was buried deep in his skull.
An Xiaolin’s mind went completely blank. Dazed, she sat up, her face and body covered in blood. She stared at the arrow that had appeared out of nowhere, then looked around.
“Ah… ah…”
She wiped the blood from her face, then let out a desperate scream. More blood splattered across her face, and she couldn’t tell whether any had gotten into her eyes.
Despair, fury, and helplessness churned together inside her.
“Aaaaaaaaaah!”