Chapter 69
Chapter 69
Meanwhile, An Xiaolin and Ji Feifan came sprinting after the drone. They skidded to a halt and ducked behind a thick clump of bushes. The moment they saw what was happening in the clearing ahead, their hearts sank.
There were too many!
As far as the eye could see, crazed figures surged and swayed, packed in layer upon layer around the exercise equipment.
Qingshui was balanced precariously atop a set of parallel bars, struggling to evade the attacks coming from below.
“Fuck…” Ji Feifan sucked in a sharp breath, his face deathly pale. Almost on instinct, he reached for a grenade in the case. “Let’s just blow them up!”
“Are you trying to blow her up too?!” An Xiaolin shrieked, grabbing his hand.
“Then what are we supposed to do?! Charge in there and get ourselves killed?! Neither of us knows how to use a handgun. What if it goes off and we shoot ourselves?!”
Ji Feifan kept his voice low, sweat streaming down his temples.
An Xiaolin bit her lower lip so hard she nearly drew blood. Her mind raced faster than ever before as her gaze swept over Ji Feifan’s backpack, the drone, and then everything she had on her…
We might not know how to use one, but Qingshui… maybe she does?
The thought came to her out of nowhere.
She thrust a hand into the side pocket of the backpack where she had haphazardly stuffed her things earlier and felt something hard and cold.
She yanked it out, tore off her own mask, then reached for Ji Feifan’s. He froze for a moment before instantly realizing what she had in mind. Working as fast as they could, they knotted the ear loops of several masks together, forming a crude but sturdy cord.
An Xiaolin secured one end around the handgun and fashioned a slipknot at the other.
Then she waved frantically at the drone circling anxiously overhead, gesturing for it to descend.
Lin Hao! Please understand! Hurry!
An Xiaolin screamed silently at the drone.
It hovered in place for a beat. The next second, it nimbly dropped lower, skimming past them just above the ground.
An Xiaolin seized the moment and looped the slipknot around a protruding part of the drone.
The drone rose unsteadily with the handgun dangling beneath it, then flew toward the trapped Qingshui.
An Xiaolin’s heart leaped into her throat as she prayed Qingshui would notice it.
Qingshui had already climbed onto the roof of a nearby covered walkway, and her breathing had grown ragged. Just as she caught sight of another dark figure clambering up from the corner of her eye, an unusual buzzing sound drew her attention.
The drone!
It was flying awkwardly. Was something hanging beneath it?
A gun!
But before Qingshui could breathe a sigh of relief, her expression stiffened the instant the handgun landed in her grip.
Too light!
She immediately ejected the magazine and checked it.
Empty!
Fuck!
Even with her usual composure, she couldn’t help cursing inwardly.
The two waiting at the perimeter grew even more anxious.
“We can’t wait any longer!” Ji Feifan’s eyes were bloodshot as he yanked another grenade from the case. “We’ll have to risk it!”
An Xiaolin stared at the densely packed figures. She knew Ji Feifan’s plan was their only option, even if it was barely an option at all.
“…Be careful.”
Ji Feifan gauged the distance and angle, pulled the pin, and counted two seconds in his head. Then, using every ounce of strength he had, he hurled the grenade toward a relatively densely packed section at the edge of the Madmen’s ranks!
The grenade sailed through the air in an arc.
As Qingshui climbed toward higher ground, she spotted the tiny black object hurtling toward her.
A grenade!
Her pupils contracted. There was no time to judge where it would land. Acting almost entirely on instinct, she threw herself to the side, perpendicular to the grenade’s trajectory!
“BOOM!”
A scorching blast wave and a storm of shrapnel slammed into Qingshui’s back.
Thud!
She hit the mud in a breakfall and rolled several times. Every bone in her body felt as though it had come apart, and her back burned with searing pain. She had temporarily lost her hearing, and her vision was a blur.
Yet just as she struggled through the dizziness to get back on her feet and evade the Madmen, the dirt-covered corner of a vaguely recognizable crate entered the edge of her blurred vision.
It was the supply crate!
The Madmen might have buried it, only for the blast wave to unearth it!
In an instant, hope overwhelmed her pain and dizziness.
Qingshui scrambled over to the crate. Calmly locating the latch, she pressed it. With a beep, the lid sprang open.
The sight inside made her heart pound. Beneath two handguns, the crate was packed with boxes of ammunition. There were even three round grenades lying beside them!
Her hands moved so fast they became a blur. She tore open a box of ammunition, pulled out an unloaded handgun, ejected the empty magazine, filled it with rounds, and slapped it back into the grip. Her left hand immediately racked the slide.
Click.
A round entered the chamber.
The first of the Madmen to charge up to her had a soot-blackened face and was brandishing the severed limb of its own kind. A spray of blood erupted from its forehead, its grin froze in place, and it toppled onto its back without a sound.
Qingshui’s eyes were cold and utterly unruffled. Half-kneeling behind the crate as makeshift cover, she held her gun perfectly steady.
Shift, aim, fire. Shift again, aim again, fire again…
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Not a single bullet was wasted.
Eight rounds fired. Reload. Qingshui moved without the slightest panic, and the gunshots resumed. The entire sequence flowed without interruption.
She was like a machine, every movement precise and necessary.
Within a dozen seconds, the seven or eight Madmen at the head of the charge had become corpses on the ground. The Madmen behind them only laughed even more gleefully. Trampling over the bodies of their own kind, they continued surging toward her in a frenzy.
“You little bitch, Daddy’s so damn good at this! Faster, you bastard, faster! I’m about to explode! Harder! Make me feel even better! Hahahahahaha!”
“I’m gonna shove this gun up your *** and blow a hole through you, you whore!”
Qingshui’s expression did not change. She emptied her second magazine and reloaded once more.
In just one or two minutes, an eerie fan-shaped clearing had formed around her and the crate. More than thirty mangled corpses lay strewn across the ground.
The gunfire ceased. The last of the Madmen still standing swayed, a bullet lodged between its eyebrows, then crashed to the ground.
The air was thick with gunsmoke and the stench of blood.
Moonlight spilled down once more, illuminating the blood-soaked ground.
In the distance, An Xiaolin and Ji Feifan stared at the scene in stunned disbelief. Only now did they dare emerge slowly from behind cover and hurry toward the center of the corpse-strewn clearing.
Qingshui slowly lowered the hot handgun and looked at them. “Let’s go.”
Without wasting time on pleasantries, the three of them rushed back toward the cement plant.
Anazu
epic..