Chapter 61

Chapter 61

Shrill laughter. Ragged gasps. The heavy stench of blood. The despair of teetering on the brink of death.

The combined onslaught made Qingshui’s consciousness flicker for an instant.

In the next second, daylight flooded her vision.

She was still standing at the edge of a high-rise. Beside her was that familiar figure, her face smeared with blood and her short hair in disarray. The machete clutched in the woman’s hand was chipped and curled at the edge, while behind them, zombies surged forward like a roaring tide.

The stench of decay struck her full in the face.

“Captain!” Qingshui heard her own trembling voice.

“Look closely!” The woman laughed. Grabbing Qingshui by the shoulder, she forced her to look down. “Never forget to observe your surroundings! What do old apartment buildings have? Look at the windows, the security grilles, the outdoor AC units! Anywhere you can find a foothold is a path to survival that heaven has left you!”

Her grip abruptly tightened, her voice firm and absolute.

“Qingshui, jump!”

Jump.

“Jump!”

Qingshui heard herself roar.

She lowered her head. Her mind went blank under the crushing strain, until all she could see was the window awning pressed against the wall.

Jump!

Jump onto it!

The instant the wind exploded in her ears, the brilliantly lit world before her was swallowed by darkness once more.

The sensation of weightlessness lasted only a moment before her body slammed hard onto the window awning. The force of her fall made the metal structure groan under the strain.

“Ah!” An Xiaolin’s scream came from above. She had failed to land fully on the awning and was dangling in midair, both hands desperately locked around the bars of the security grille as her body swayed dangerously in the wind.

“Hold on!”

Before Qingshui could move, a dark figure flashed past her eyes. It was Gao Yizhou!

His angle was off. He failed to grab hold of anything and plummeted like a kite with its string cut!

Qingshui lunged and caught him!

“Hook yourself onto the window below!” Her roar tore through the wind.

Gao Yizhou’s mind was completely blank. His survival instinct overwhelmed everything else, leaving only the crisscrossing iron bars in his vision.

He twisted desperately in midair, using the momentum of his fall to reach forward!

Bang!

He crashed heavily against the edge of the awning below and wrapped both hands tightly around its protruding metal frame.

Almost at the same time, another figure came crashing down beside Qingshui. It was Ji Feifan. He landed on the edge of the awning and barely managed to steady himself, panting heavily, his face utterly drained of color.

Thud, thud, thud!

Above them, frenzied footsteps and shrill laughter were already closing in on the edge of the rooftop. The first of the Madmen leaped off without hesitation, waving an iron club and laughing wildly as he plunged straight past them.

Then came the second. The third…

One dark figure after another dropped past them in a steady stream, brushing against their bodies as they fell amid peals of excited laughter.

Crash!

An Xiaolin finally used the momentum of her swinging body to fling herself sideways onto a security awning one floor below. Her body slammed into the iron bars with a deafening clang.

They couldn’t stop!

Qingshui spotted the railing outside another window diagonally below her and leaped with all her strength, catching it firmly with both hands. Without pausing, she swung herself like a pendulum, then let go and used the arc of her momentum to throw herself toward a more distant security grille farther down.

Crash!

Crash!

One heavy impact followed another. The agony of flesh striking metal and the terror born of despair were all drowned out by the piercing ringing in her ears.

Mechanical movements and the instinct to survive drove them downward, then farther downward.

On the street below, the roaming Madmen had been alerted by the commotion. They gathered together and tilted their heads back, erupting into excited laughter. Then they began trying to climb the protruding bricks and pipes along the building’s facade, even using the mangled bodies of their fallen companions as footholds. They rose like a black tide flowing upstream.

“Stop!”

Hanging from a swaying security grille, Qingshui rapidly scanned the area below. Her gaze suddenly locked onto something.

“See that billboard? Jump onto it!”

About four floors below them, a massive billboard printed with a brightly colored beverage advertisement was mounted at an angle between the buildings.

There was no time to hesitate.

Qingshui let go first.

Her body traced an arc through the air before she crashed into the canvas at the center of the billboard, causing it to sag beneath her.

The moment she landed, Ji Feifan jumped after her and struck the canvas not far from her side.

An Xiaolin followed close behind. Not daring to stop for even a second, she scrambled forward on all fours to make room for Gao Yizhou, who had yet to jump.

Clang!

An especially heavy impact shook the entire billboard violently!

An Xiaolin instinctively looked back.
Gao Yizhou had landed on the outermost support of the billboard. His body swayed precariously as he desperately tried to climb back up.

But before An Xiaolin could do anything, the next second–

Gao Yizhou raised his head.

An Xiaolin’s pupils contracted sharply!

On that familiar face, the corners of his mouth were stretching toward his ears at a horrifying angle, forming a huge, grotesque grin.

Every trace of humanity had vanished from his eyes, leaving behind nothing but bloodred malice!

“Meat skewers… meat skewers… I want meat skewers…” Its voice became shrill and distorted. “Bastard… bastard… I’m gonna fucking kill you!!”

“Don’t leave me here all alone… I’m going to skewer… every last one of you… hehehe…” Laughing wildly in an inhuman voice, it scrambled toward them on all fours with terrifying agility. Only then did An Xiaolin see the bloodstained knife buried deep in its left arm.

The truth was obvious. During the fall just now, Gao Yizhou had already been stabbed by one of the Madmen!

“Qingshui! An Xiaolin! Ji Feifan!! Don’t leave-!!!” it shrieked, suddenly accelerating and lunging at them!

An Xiaolin’s mind went completely blank, but her body reacted before she could think. Fear transformed into explosive strength. With a scream, she put every ounce of power she had into a vicious kick to Gao Yizhou’s chest just as it reached her!

“Fuck you!! Get away from me!!”

The kick sent it flying off the billboard!

An Xiaolin then scrambled toward the edge on her hands and knees. Amid Qingshui and Ji Feifan’s furious shouts, she bent her knees, gathered her strength, and leaped!

She tumbled onto the balcony of the building opposite them.

“Go!”

The three of them rushed inside, not daring to slow down for even a second. The stairwell reeked of decay. The walls were spattered with blood that had long since turned black, and several mutilated corpses lay slumped at the landings, ignored.

“Down! Don’t stop!” Qingshui whispered urgently.

The stairs were far from clear. Some floors were completely blocked by debris, while doors had been twisted out of shape, forcing Qingshui to lead the other two on detours.

They crossed shattered balconies and climbed down fire escapes. With no time to clear the obstacles, they could only scurry like terrified rats, desperately burrowing downward through the concrete maze.

After passing through an unknown number of floors and avoiding several groups of wandering figures, they finally burst through a half-collapsed rear door and stepped onto open ground once more.

They had reached the border between the residential district and the commercial street.

The street was even more… chaotic than they had expected.

Cars had crashed into one another at every angle. Almost none of the storefront windows along the road remained intact, and dark figures milled around a plaza in the distance.

“This way!”

Qingshui ducked into a bubble tea shop by the street.

The inside was a complete mess, but it was safe.

The three squeezed into the farthest corner and pressed their backs against the cold wall. Only then did they dare to gasp for breath. Sweat had soaked through the backs of their clothes and clung coldly to their skin.

The feeling of solid ground beneath their feet… was almost unreal.

That death-defying escape high above the ground, leaping between security bars and billboards, felt like a nightmare. Yet the vivid pain radiating from every part of their bodies mercilessly reminded them that it had been real.

They had also lost a companion, but they had no time to surrender to fear or grief. Ji Feifan raised his face, drenched in cold sweat, and said hoarsely, “There… the pharmacy.”

Fifty meters away, a green sign stood out.

The pharmacy.

Their objective.

But their original plan had been completely derailed. Under the agreed division of roles, Qingshui and Ji Feifan were supposed to sneak inside and search for medicine, while An Xiaolin and Gao Yizhou stayed outside to draw away the Madmen with a Bluetooth speaker and keep watch.

Now Gao Yizhou was gone.

“We stick to the original plan. Ji Feifan will take Gao Yizhou’s place,” Qingshui decided swiftly. “It’ll be faster if I go in alone. You two activate the speaker as planned and turn it off after three minutes. If the situation looks bad when I come out, adapt as needed. If necessary, ignite the Molotov cocktails to create an opening for us to retreat.”

An Xiaolin looked at Qingshui and opened her mouth, but in the end, she merely nodded firmly.

Dawn was approaching.

The three carefully slipped out of the bubble tea shop and advanced close to the walls. Ji Feifan placed the Bluetooth speaker in a concealed spot near the shop.

Then they darted into the jewelry store across the street as quickly as possible. From there, they had a clear view of the pharmacy entrance and part of the street.

An Xiaolin and Ji Feifan held their breath and hid behind the counter. Ji Feifan took out the phone connected to the speaker and played the recording they had prepared in advance.

“Three… two… one…”
He pressed the play button.

“Help me!”

“Help! Is anyone there?!”

Chen Yuhui’s faint cries for help rang out, mixed with Lin Hao’s muffled, urgent voice in the background. Amid the bizarre clamor filling the street, the recording sounded especially jarring.

The groups of Madmen reveling in the street all froze at once. A moment later, countless heads turned toward the source of the sound, their blood-red eyes blazing with excitement.

“I’ll save you, I’ll save you… I’ll do it, I’ll do it, hehehehehe…”

“We’re coming to save you. We’re coming, you little bastard…”

The nearest Madmen chuckled under their breath and staggered toward the bubble tea shop. More Madmen, drawn by the actions of their kind and the ceaseless cries for help, poured out from every corner and storefront, converging into a twisted, frenzied tide.

For a brief moment, a gap opened in the street outside the pharmacy.

Now!

The instant the Madmen surged toward the bubble tea shop, Qingshui darted out from the shadows beside the jewelry store. Using the cars and debris along the way as cover, she rapidly closed in on the green storefront.

She stopped again beside the pharmacy and quickly hid the second Bluetooth speaker in an inconspicuous spot.

Then she took a deep breath and slipped through the pharmacy’s half-open glass door.

The interior was dim and in complete disarray. Shelves lay toppled in every direction, while medicine packages were strewn across the floor, many of them crushed underfoot. The sharp smell of pharmaceuticals mingled with a faint scent of blood.

Antibiotics… antibiotics… gauze… rubbing alcohol…

Qingshui’s gaze swept rapidly over the fallen shelves and the mess on the floor. She moved on tiptoe, avoiding the shards of glass underfoot. At last, behind a relatively intact counter, she spotted what she was looking for. She lunged over and quickly read the labels on the boxes: amoxicillin, cephalosporins… These were the ones!

She frantically swept every antibiotic she could find into her backpack, then searched for gauze, rubbing alcohol, iodine solution, and painkillers.

The backpack quickly grew heavy.

As she tore through the pharmacy, an almost imperceptible shuffling sound came from the back of the store.

Every muscle in Qingshui’s body tensed. She instantly dropped low, nearly flattening herself against the cold floor, as her combat spike slid soundlessly into her palm.

“I think… I heard a rat…” A hoarse, slurred voice drifted over, unmistakable excitement in its tone.

“A rat… hee-hee… Let’s tear the rat apart… and dry it out…” another voice chimed in, equally full of malicious glee.

Two swaying figures emerged from the depths of the store. Their white coats were stained red, and they were batting a spherical object around in their hands. Cruel smiles stretched across their faces as they looked around.

Qingshui held her breath and melted completely into the shadows beneath the counter. She could smell the sickly sweet stench of blood wafting from them, mixed with the odor of antiseptic.

Closer and closer they came, until they were practically standing right above her. Just as Qingshui prepared to strike first, they abruptly continued straight toward the pharmacy entrance.

Bzzzz…

The familiar hum of the drone sounded once more.

Only after their footsteps had faded outside did Qingshui rise. Her gaze swept across a nearby shelf and landed on box after box of unopened surgical masks. Without hesitation, she tore open a pack, quickly put one on, and stuffed the rest inside her clothes.

Her backpack was full. This was enough.

She quickly opened the group chat on her phone and sent two words:

[Mission complete]

Then she pressed play. The familiar cries for help rang out once more.

Almost the instant her message arrived, Ji Feifan and An Xiaolin made their preparations in the jewelry store. Once the Madmen had moved away, they immediately retrieved the speaker they had placed in the distance.

Half a minute later, blood-red figures staggered into view one after another. Qingshui stopped the recording, snatched up the speaker, and silently slipped beneath a car parked by the roadside.

She pressed herself into the deepest shadows under the vehicle. The moment the Madmen passed, she slid out from beneath it and moved swiftly and precisely through the patches of roadside shrubbery. Within moments, she had slipped back into the jewelry store without making a sound.

In the shadows behind the counter, An Xiaolin and Ji Feifan both let out sighs of relief.

“I got them.” Qingshui patted her bulging backpack. “We should head back.”

The drone hovered silently not far above them.

And at that moment, dawn broke.