Chapter 24
Chapter 24
The trunk was packed almost to bursting. Cases of instant noodles, chocolate, bottled water, and all kinds of canned food were crammed into every available inch.
Qingshui, Ji Feifan, and An Xiaolin were still pushing and squeezing with all their might, trying to free up even the smallest sliver of space. Every extra item they could take seemed to give them a little more hope of survival.
Suddenly, a faint but distinct cry reached their ears.
“Hey! Hey, you down there! Please!”
They froze and jerked their heads up, looking toward the voice.
Several faces could be vaguely seen peering from the third and fourth floors of a dingy gray apartment building nearby.
Their features were blurred by the dim light, but the fear and longing in their eyes were painfully clear.
The ones calling out to them were a man and woman on a second-floor balcony. The man was gaunt, the woman’s hair was disheveled, and both clung tightly to the railing.
The moment they saw Qingshui and the others look up, their faces twisted with a mixture of wild joy and despair.
“Please! Give us something to eat! Just a little! We’re starving to death!” the woman cried, her voice choked with tears.
The man hurriedly joined in, babbling incoherently. “Yes! Just a little! We don’t dare go down… There are monsters down there! Please, have mercy!”
As he spoke, they threw down a makeshift rope fashioned from bedsheets and duvet covers tied together. One end dangled toward the street, swaying gently in the night breeze.
“Tie it to the rope! We’ll pull it up! Please!”
An Xiaolin’s gaze lingered on the couple’s pleading faces and the dangling rope for less than a second before she glanced discreetly at the other two.
Qingshui and Ji Feifan’s expressions were cold. The three exchanged a look, then lowered their heads almost simultaneously. Not only did they keep working, they moved even faster.
No one looked at the rope. No one answered their pleas.
A brief, deathly silence followed.
The humble supplication on the couple’s faces shattered like fragile glass, replaced by the crazed resentment of people who had been utterly ignored.
“You cold-blooded animals! You’re leaving us here to die! You’ll get what’s coming to you!” the man began cursing, the veins in his neck bulging.
The woman joined him with shrill abuse. Obscenities and vicious curses echoed through the silent street. “Take your food and go to hell! I hope the monsters fuck you all to pieces! I hope they eat your flesh and drink your blood! None of you will get away!”
The hatred in her voice was so intense it made the blood run cold.
Qingshui was stuffing the last few bottles of liquor into the car. Without even looking up, she quickly said to An Xiaolin beside her, “Let’s get more alcohol! The high-proof stuff!”
An Xiaolin nodded. Without hesitation, the two turned and dashed back into the depths of the convenience store, quickly disappearing into its blood-soaked darkness. They needed more supplies and had no time to waste on pointless entanglements.
Ji Feifan was shoving a heavy case of canned food into the deepest part of the trunk when he heard the couple’s venomous curses. His brow furrowed sharply.
Without drawing attention to himself, he turned his head and glanced toward the convenience store, confirming that shelves were blocking Qingshui and An Xiaolin’s view.
A surge of nameless anger, mixed with irritation at being threatened, flared inside him.
He mentally calculated the distance.
He could make the shot.
Expressionless, he quietly raised the crossbow he had set down. Concealed by the car’s shadows, he adjusted the bolt’s tip and aimed at the man shouting the loudest on the second-floor balcony.
He pulled the trigger.
Whoosh!
The bolt tore through the air and punched through the man’s neck before burying itself in the wall behind him with a dull thunk.
An instant kill.
Warm blood streamed down the side of the man’s neck. He instinctively raised a hand to cover the wound, but his fingers found only the cold, rigid shaft of the bolt. He tried to curse, but all that came out was a breathy, gurgling rasp.
Ji Feifan did not stop. While the woman was still frozen in shock, he quickly switched to another crossbow and fired again.
This time, however, he was not so lucky.
At the sight of the merciless bolt flying toward her, the woman’s legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor. The bolt, originally aimed at her neck, merely grazed her face.
“Aaaah!”
Her ear-piercing scream split the night.
She lunged toward the balcony’s edge, leaning half her body over the railing. Her face contorted like a demon’s as she screamed with all her strength, “Trying to kill me?! Come on, then! Bastard! None of us will make it out alive!”
The woman snatched up a rock beside her and hurled it at an electric scooter below.
A moment later, a shrill alarm blared.
The electric scooter’s hysterical wail rang through the entire street.
Ji Feifan’s face instantly went deathly pale.
“Shit,” he thought.
Almost the instant the couple’s screams rang out, rustling noises came from several nearby apartment buildings that had been deathly silent until now.
One head after another slowly emerged from behind the pitch-black windows. Pairs of eyes gleaming crimson in the darkness all swiveled in their direction.
Then came the sound of more windows shattering.
“Hee-hee!!!! I heard youuuuu…”
“My little piggies!! Come show me a good time!!… Fresh little piggies are squealing…”
“Downstairs… There are little piggies downstairssssss!”
At first, there were only a few scattered inhuman giggles and whispers. Then they rapidly swelled into a deafening chorus of hysterical laughter!
The overlapping waves of sound were suffocating.
Qingshui had just rushed out from the back of the convenience store, carrying a case of cola and several bottles of high-proof liquor, when the horrifying uproar reached her ears. Her heart sank. She instantly realized what had happened and cursed under her breath. “This is bad!”
She sprinted to the entrance of the convenience store, and the sight before her stole her breath away.
The apartment building across the street seemed to come alive in an instant. Crimson figures clambered out of windows and over balconies on every floor, all fighting to be first as they rained down from the building!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Thump! Crash!
Some hit the ground and went still at once, their limbs twisted at grotesque angles. Others seemed incapable of feeling pain. They staggered back to their feet, flailing broken arms and mangled limbs as they let out even shriller cackles and charged straight at them!
“Come play with me, you bastards! I’ll use my huge #$ to ## you apart, hee-hee-hee, ha-ha-ha-ha!!!”
“Aaaaaah, let’s play, let’s play! I’ll tear them all open and shove it inside!!!”
“Back to the car!” Qingshui screamed with all her strength, but her voice was nearly drowned out by the deafening frenzy.
The three of them bolted toward the SUV. Ji Feifan and An Xiaolin were closer to it and scrambled into the back seat and driver’s seat respectively. Qingshui hurled everything in her arms into the back, then lunged for the front passenger door.
But it was already too late.
In just over ten seconds, the lunatics pouring in from every direction had surrounded the SUV like a school of piranhas scenting blood!
A dense mass of dark figures churned around them. Countless arms battered the vehicle, unleashing a rapid, terrifying barrage of thuds. The entire SUV rocked violently.
Several lunatics had already climbed onto the hood. They pressed their faces against the windshield, pounding it with their fists and smashing their heads into it. Blood smeared across the glass, leaving trails of revolting stains.
Their features were contorted, their gums bared. Their crimson eyes remained fixed on the prey inside the vehicle as low, muffled chuckles escaped their throats.
Upstairs, the woman responsible for this disaster watched the SUV disappear beneath the crimson tide. Far from showing the slightest guilt or fear, her face twisted into a deranged grin of vindictive satisfaction.
She slapped the railing and pointed below, doubling over with laughter. The vicious malice on her face seemed ready to spill over. At that moment, she bore a startling resemblance to the lunatics below.
“Hahaha! Serves you right! That’s what you get for refusing to give us food! Die! All of you, die!”
“Let’s see you run now! Monsters, eat them!”
Lost in her sick delight, she failed to notice that several equally malicious pairs of eyes had silently turned toward the noisy “new toy” from windows on the floors above her.
“Hee-hee… There’s a little piggy here too…”
Inside the SUV, An Xiaolin clutched the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Her face was utterly bloodless as she slammed the accelerator to the floor.
She had to break through! She had to get out!
But everywhere she looked, there was no escape. Ahead, the narrow street had been completely blocked by even more lunatics drawn by the noise. Behind them, a mass of dark figures had already cut off their retreat. To the left was the wall of a building. To the right, more crazed figures rushed toward them amid piles of toppled debris…
Everywhere they looked, frenzied figures writhed and swayed.
Layer upon layer, they packed around the SUV so tightly that not even water could seep through.
In mere moments, the lunatics’ numbers had swelled to a truly despair-inducing level.
Curses, slaps, impacts, and howls completely engulfed the small vehicle.
The SUV was like a tiny boat caught in raging waves, its engine roaring and chassis trembling in vain, unable to move an inch.
Despair, like the icy waters of a lake, flooded every last inch of the cabin.