Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Across the way at the women’s dormitory, a girl plummeted from the seventh floor. The tremendous impact shattered her body on the pavement. Even more horrifyingly, several infected people leaped after her, slamming into the ground one after another like dumplings dropped into a pot.
A chill shot down Qingshui’s spine. Just moments ago, one of those lunatics had locked eyes with her in midair!
“Inside! Hurry!”
Qingshui shoved everyone back into the dorm room.
Sure enough, a shrill, piercing cackle rang out the very next second. “Piglets! There are piglets across the way! Ahahaha! Tear them apart! Tear them apart!!”
An Xiaolin collapsed to the floor, trembling uncontrollably. “What do we do…? What do we do…?”
Chen Yuhui was hardly any better. She sat on the edge of the bed, clutching her hair as she desperately waited for her call to connect.
Eyes red, Li Wei’an tapped frantically on her phone, repeatedly warning the other students in the dormitory to lock their doors.
Before long, screams erupted throughout the building, each more harrowing than the last. Just hearing them made the hair on their bodies stand on end.
“Aaaah!!”
“Help me!”
“Don’t make a sound!” Qingshui warned sharply.
An Xiaolin clapped both hands over her mouth as tears streamed down her face. The other two huddled in a corner, hardly daring to breathe.
Pressing herself against the wall, Qingshui listened intently to the noises outside. Following the intermittent shrieks of laughter and screams, she finally determined that the lunatics were searching the first and second floors.
And they were on the fourth floor!
Qingshui’s instincts told her they couldn’t stay here any longer.
Li Wei’an held up her phone, her gaze vacant and her voice trembling. “They’re saying in the group chat… those lunatics… are breaking down the doors…”
“Fuck!”
Chen Yuhui couldn’t stop herself from cursing. “Then where the hell can we hide?!”
Qingshui abruptly rose, grabbed a backpack, and began stuffing food into it.
“We can’t stay here. We need to move, or they’ll catch us too!”
An Xiaolin broke down sobbing. “Where else can we go?! We can’t outrun them, and we can’t fight them! Those things are even scarier than zombies!”
Chen Yuhui muttered in despair, “Those lunatics are too smart. Where can we hide…? Where would be safe…?”
Where should they go?
“Downstairs.”
Without pausing, Qingshui filled two backpacks, then looked up at the three girls still standing there in a daze. Her expression was grave. “Trust me.”
Li Wei’an took a deep breath. She quickly changed into clothes that would be easier to move in, then joined Qingshui in packing the food.
“Xiaolin, Yuhui, pull off all the sheets and blankets and tie them into a rope. We’ll climb down from the balcony.”
An Xiaolin stared at her in disbelief. Red-eyed, she and Chen Yuhui began stripping the sheets from the beds. “Qingshui, why are we going downstairs? Aren’t those lunatics down there right now?”
“They’re smart. There’s a seventy percent chance they won’t go back and search somewhere they’ve already cleared.” Qingshui sped up as she explained. “My guess is they’re about to reach the fourth floor!”
She expertly knotted the sheets together, checked the length, and, after confirming it was enough, said in a somber voice, “But this is still a gamble. I’m betting they won’t double back.”
The girls fell silent. In the end, Li Wei’an was the first to pick up a backpack. “I trust you. We’ve come this far, and either way, we could die.”
Chen Yuhui shouldered a backpack as well and nodded. “Me too.”
An Xiaolin clenched the hem of her shirt, fighting to keep herself from falling apart. “M-Me too.”
Just then, the lunatics’ obscene jeers sounded from outside the door.
“Hurry!”
Qingshui dashed onto the balcony and tied the makeshift rope to the railing.
“One at a time!”
Li Wei’an and the others stared at her blankly. Only then did Qingshui remember that they weren’t the battle-hardened teammates from her previous life.
“I’ll go first,” Chen Yuhui said, biting her lip. “What do I do?”
Qingshui looped the sheet around her body, then had her step onto the drainpipe outside the balcony.
“Don’t be afraid. Slide down the pipe a little at a time. When you reach the second floor, hide on the balcony and tug the rope a few times.”
Chen Yuhui looked into Qingshui’s eyes and swallowed the question on the tip of her tongue: What if there were lunatics down there?
Summoning all her courage, she let go.
The sensation of falling struck instantly, and terror flooded her heart. Being supported by nothing but a bedsheet felt horrifying. All she could do was grip the fabric for dear life and inch her way down.
From the balcony, Li Wei’an encouraged her in a soft voice. “Don’t be afraid. You’re almost there. I’ll hold on to you.”
The screams nearby were drawing closer and closer. Those lunatics would probably find them soon!
An Xiaolin realized how dire the situation was as well. She stared fixedly at the door, desperately praying that those demons would spend a little longer tormenting the others.
Qingshui kept her eyes fixed on the girls’ dorm across from them. Fortunately, the lunatics over there were still lost in their bloody revelry and hadn’t noticed what they were doing.
Chen Yuhui’s palms had been rubbed raw and red, but she didn’t dare stop. At last, her feet found the drainpipe outside the second-floor balcony.
From there, all she could see was blood and chunks of flesh strewn across the ground. Breathing hard, she gritted her teeth and climbed over the balcony railing. She hurriedly shut the balcony door in terror, then gave the bedsheet rope a firm shake.
After receiving the signal, Qingshui turned to the other two. “Who’s next?”
Li Wei’an looked at An Xiaolin, who was trembling uncontrollably, and sighed. “I’ll go.”
Qingshui held her hand and said softly, “Don’t be afraid.”
Li Wei’an managed a stiff smile, then abruptly let go and slid down.
Thud.
Qingshui’s heart lurched. Someone had knocked on the dorm room door!
An Xiaolin’s face instantly turned deathly pale.
Thud, thud.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!!
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!!!
The knocking, measured at first, quickly became a crazed pounding accompanied by a torrent of filthy curses. Qingshui could practically picture the lunatics’ twisted faces on the other side of the door!
“Open the door… Hurry up and open the door… Open the damn door, you bitches!!!”
“Open up, don’t be scared, don’t be scared. I’m just a little hungry… Hee-hee… Hurry and open the door. If you don’t, I’ll tear your bodies apart with my bare hands, aaaaaaah! Open up! Open up!! OPEN UP!!!!”
“Where do you little bitches think you’re going? Why don’t you wait for me to slit your throats? Heh… heh-heh-heh!!”
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The pounding abruptly turned into violent crashes. Qingshui was grateful she’d barricaded the door ahead of time. It would buy them a little more time.
She looked down at Li Wei’an, who was still dangling in midair. “Don’t panic.”
Li Wei’an could faintly hear the violent impacts from upstairs. Realizing what was happening, she desperately sped up her descent.
Crash!
The lock gave way, and the door slammed hard into the bed frame with a deafening bang!
Qingshui turned and shouted at An Xiaolin, “Keep an eye on her!”
With that, she rushed back into the dorm room, dragged another bed frame over with all her strength, and wedged it tightly against the one blocking the doorway.
“Qingshui!” An Xiaolin clutched the sheet rope, despair written across her face.
Without looking back, Qingshui shouted, “You go first!”
Her voice completely enraged the lunatics outside, and their curses grew even more frenzied.
“Bitch… BITCH!!!! You filthy bastard! I’ll rip out your eyes and stuff you inside my stomach…”
“Don’t be scared. Hurry and open the door… Come play with me…”
Hands trembling, An Xiaolin looped the sheet rope around herself, then followed Chen Yuhui and Li Wei’an’s example and stepped onto the drainpipe.
She glanced at Qingshui, who was desperately holding the barricade in place, then gritted her teeth and slowly lowered herself. For the first time, An Xiaolin hated how weak she was. She bit down hard on her lip, forcing herself not to look below.
At last, her feet found the drainpipe outside the third-floor balcony. She could already faintly hear Chen Yuhui and Li Wei’an calling to her. But just as she tried to move farther down, there was a loud rip from the sheet rope.
No. No! An Xiaolin’s pupils constricted.
Go slowly. It won’t snap. It won’t snap. Just take it slow.
She moved again, and the tearing grew louder.
“Wei’an, Yuhui.” An Xiaolin’s face was bloodless, her eyes filled with absolute terror, yet her voice was almost eerily flat. “The rope… is going to snap.”
She was going to die.
Li Wei’an and Chen Yuhui instantly went pale.
Chen Yuhui quickly regained her composure and forced herself to sound calm as she reassured her. “It’s normal for it to tear a little, but it won’t snap. Come down slowly. We can grab your legs.”
“Come on. We’ll catch you.”
An Xiaolin’s mind went completely blank. Gritting her teeth, she continued sliding down, but her legs suddenly gave out and her body plummeted!
The sky surged upward at dizzying speed. Countless images flashed through her mind before finally settling on her parents.
She smiled in despair. She couldn’t believe that even at a time like this, they were still the ones she thought of.
Then, in the next instant, she stopped falling.
Someone had caught the sheet rope and was hauling her up inch by inch!
Li Wei’an and Chen Yuhui used every ounce of strength they had and finally pulled An Xiaolin onto the balcony. Chen Yuhui swiftly untied the rope from around her, then tugged it hard to signal Qingshui upstairs.
Qingshui, who was on the verge of losing her hold on the barricade, finally breathed a sigh of relief. She sprinted to the balcony, sliced through the sheet rope, and immediately scrambled down the drainpipe along the wall.
Gathering strength in both legs, she pushed off and dove into the second-floor balcony under the other three girls’ horrified gazes.
The entire descent had taken less than thirty seconds.