Chapter 71
Chapter 71
“Little piggy, where are you hiding? Hehehehe…”
The syrupy singsong voice echoed through the deathly silent store.
It came from a completely naked figure with its head cocked to one side. In one hand, it dragged what appeared to be part of a human thighbone, scraping it across the floor with a teeth-grating screech.
“La la la~ Where’s the little piggy hiding? I’ll peel off your skin nice and gently~ Don’t be scared, don’t be scared~”
In the narrow space behind the counter, a young woman clamped both hands tightly over her mouth and nose.
Sweat streamed down her temples.
Her body was pressed almost flat against the floor. Through the gap beneath the counter, she could see several pairs of feet caked in mud and dried blood shuffling aimlessly nearby.
“Could you be under the table? Hehehe…”
The footsteps drew closer, accompanied by quiet laughter.
The young woman’s heart hammered wildly. Using both her hands and feet, she crawled across the floor as slowly as she could, desperately keeping away from the searching footsteps.
Finally, beneath a collapsed shelf at the very back of the store, she spotted a silver-white case!
A supply crate!
Its surface was splattered with dark blood and some kind of murky slime.
Hope instantly jolted her fraying nerves back to life. Intense delight flared in her eyes as she dragged the heavy case out from beneath the debris.
Remembering the tips people had shared online, she leaned close to the latch with trembling hands and brought her eye up to it.
“Beep-”
A soft chime sounded, and the latch actually sprang open!
She flung back the lid. The neatly arranged items inside made her hold her breath.
Weapons! Real weapons!
The desperate will to survive and the exhilaration of finally gaining the means to fight back sent tremors through her entire body.
Just then–
“Hehehe, little piggy! There you are!!”
The shrill, excited cry rang out almost directly behind her! One of the Madmen had somehow circled around to her rear flank. Its head poked over the ruined shelf, a smile stretched nearly to its ears, brimming with the cruel delight of a predator finding its prey. The rusty machete in its hand was already raised!
She had been found!
Overwhelming terror wiped the young woman’s mind blank, but her body reacted on its own. Almost entirely on instinct, she snatched a grenade from the case, hooked a finger through the ring, and pulled with all her strength!
The safety pin came free.
She hurled the grenade toward the figure, one of the Madmen, peering over the shelf, then threw her arms over her head.
“BOOM-!!!”
The deafening explosion nearly tore the entire store apart. A violent blast of air swept through everything, carrying shrapnel and a crushing shock wave. The counter shook violently. Blood poured from the young woman’s ears and nose as the impact left her dizzy and disoriented, her organs feeling as though they had been knocked out of place.
Several seconds later, amid the relentless ringing in her ears, she struggled to raise her head. The area where the shelf had stood was now a scene of utter devastation. Her attacker, one of the Madmen, and two other nearby figures were gone, leaving only severed limbs scattered across the floor.
Run! She had to run now! An explosion that loud was bound to draw hordes of Madmen!
Ignoring her dizziness and nausea, she grabbed the case and stumbled toward the entrance.
Sure enough, the moment she burst onto the street, a chorus of frenzied laughter and pounding footsteps sounded in the distance!
Shifting figures were closing in from every direction, drawn by the blast!
The young woman’s face went deathly pale. Clutching the case, she ran for her life. The crazed laughter behind her grew closer and closer, and the sickly sweet stench in the air became increasingly overpowering.
She could feel their malicious gazes boring into her back.
Just as they were about to catch her, she spotted a sedan parked sideways along the road ahead. Without hesitation, she used the last of her strength to squeeze into the narrow gap beneath the car.
Determination flashed in her eyes. She pulled out a second grenade, yanked the pin, and rolled it hard out from under the car!
“BOOM-!”
Another tremendous explosion shook the ground.
Taking advantage of the chaos, she crawled out from the other side of the car. But the moment she rose to her feet, she was met with a scene straight out of hell.
The successive explosions had completely roused the countless dark figures inside the apartment buildings on both sides of the street. They rained down from balconies and windows like dumplings dropped into a boiling pot. Some shattered their legs on impact and crawled along the ground. Others rolled, sprang back to their feet, and charged toward the young woman, laughing madly.
The sight was terrifying beyond description.
Her lungs felt ready to burst, and her legs nearly buckled beneath her.
She had to find somewhere to hide immediately!
An endless tide of giggling and laughter came from every direction. With red-rimmed eyes, she had no choice but to rush into the building ahead. The footsteps behind her followed like a shadow, so dense and thunderous that the very ground seemed to tremble!
Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!!! Stop chasing me! Stop! Aaaaahhh!!!
She hurled herself through a half-open door and flung her last grenade outside with all her strength!
Then she slammed the door shut.
Before she could even breathe a sigh of relief, low laughter sounded inside the room once more.
The girl’s face went deathly pale. Scrambling farther into the room on all fours, she hurriedly locked the door behind her.
Once that was done, she collapsed against the icy wall and began dry-heaving violently. All she could hear was her own thunderous heartbeat and ragged breathing, along with the shrill laughter outside as something frantically pounded on the door and walls.
“Piggy! Come out and play! Hehehe! We’ll fuck you up, you little bastard!”
“Open the door! Open up! Let us in! Hehehehe!”
Don’t panic, don’t panic! I still have a gun! I have a gun!
Trembling, she fumbled the instruction manual out of the case and desperately tried to read it. Fear and urgency blurred her vision. She blinked hard, her shaking finger moving between the diagrams and text.
“Magazine… bullets… loading… safety…”
She struggled to make sense of it, then grabbed an empty magazine and a box of ammunition. The bullets were small and slippery, and her fingers were trembling too badly to cooperate. She dropped them several times, hurriedly picked them up, and kept trying to press them into the magazine.
The pounding outside abruptly stopped.
Three seconds later, there was a click.
Motherfuckers!
These Madmen were using a key to open the door!!!!
“Faster! Come on, faster!” Tears nearly spilled from her eyes. Fear made her stomach spasm violently, and her entire body shook uncontrollably.
At last, she forced the final bullet into the magazine, her fingers nearly cramping. She picked up a handgun and, recalling the instructions, tried to insert the magazine into the grip.
Then, imitating what she had seen in movies and TV shows, she wrapped both hands around the grip and placed her finger on the trigger. The trembling muzzle pointed toward the door that was about to open.
“Click.”
The door opened, and three deathly pale, grinning faces slowly emerged through the gap.
“Found you… Piggy…”
The girl squeezed the trigger with her eyes almost completely shut.
“Bang!”
The gunshot exploded through the cramped room, sending a bolt of agony through her wrist. The bullet missed the Madmen entirely. Instead, it ricocheted off the wall beside her, spraying chips of stone across her face with a searing sting.
She had nearly shot herself!
“Piggy can shoot… Piggy can shoot! Aaaaahhh!”
“Shoot me, Piggy! Aaaaahhh, shoot me in the ***!”
The gunshot only made the Madmen outside even more excited. They stood in the doorway with machetes in hand, grinning as though they were in no hurry to carve up their prey.
The girl forced her eyes open. Panting heavily, she raised the gun again, aimed at one of the Madmen shrieking in the doorway, and pulled the trigger.
“Bang!”
This time, the bullet hit, but only in the shoulder. The wounded Madman paused, then burst into even more deranged, delighted laughter. “Hahahaha! Hehehe! Harder! That feels so good, you bastard!”
The girl froze. Fear and rage drove her to pull the trigger again and again.
“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Most of the bullets struck the door or the walls around it. Two seemed to hit one of the Madmen, but all that followed was an even denser chorus of laughter.
The magazine was soon empty. Ice flooded the girl’s veins. In despair, she ejected the empty magazine, her hands shaking so badly she could barely hold it, and reached into the case for another one. Before she could finish reloading, the Madmen seemed to lose patience.
One of the Madmen, riddled with bullet wounds and streaming blood, charged in first. Its face was twisted into a manic grin of pure exhilaration, and it raised a bloodstained fire axe high overhead.
“Out of bullets, aren’t you, you little bastard?” it rasped with laughter. In a single stride, it reached the girl where she lay helpless on the floor and severed her lower leg.
The girl let out a bloodcurdling scream. She tried to raise the gun with its magazine only halfway inserted, but one of the Madmen kicked it from her hand. The handgun struck the wall and clattered back to the floor.
She tried to throw herself toward the nearby case or backpack, where another gun was waiting. But one of the Madmen had already bent down, seized her by the hair, and slammed her viciously against the floor.
“Aaaah! I’ll #%** you, you monster!”
The girl screamed, kicking and thrashing with all her strength.
One of the Madmen paid no attention to her curses. Instead, its gaze settled on the handgun lying on the floor. Tilting its head, it picked up the weapon and held it clumsily, turning it over and over to inspect it. Then it even imitated what the girl had done moments before, swinging the dark muzzle around and aiming it at her as she lay on the floor.
The girl saw the muzzle of the gun, and her pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints. Every curse died in her throat.
The Madman watched her terrified expression as if it found the sight amusing. It burst into excited laughter and squeezed the trigger at random.
“Bang!”
The gun bucked violently. A searing heat exploded in the girl’s chest, overwhelming every one of her senses.
She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. All she could do was lower her head and watch the bright red stain spread rapidly across her chest.
The sounds of the world swiftly receded. The Madman’s shrill laughter and even the pain faded into a blur.
Seeing the girl abruptly go rigid, the Madman seemed both confused and displeased.
It stepped forward and planted a foot on the motionless girl.
“Scream,” it muttered. Tossing the handgun aside, it bent down and picked up the axe it had discarded earlier. “Piglet… hehehe…”
It raised the axe high and brought it down on the girl’s body.
The expected scream never came. There was only the dull thud of the blade striking flesh.
“Scream! Screeeam! Hehehehehe!” The Madman hacked at her even harder. Gradually, however, its movements slowed and weakened until it collapsed to the floor with a thud.
“Hehehe… dead… It’s dead, hehehe…”
“Tear off their skin! Tear off their skin! I want to wear it!”
The other two Madmen shrieked with laughter as they lifted the two corpses from the floor.
…
“Do you think they’ll get their hands on guns?”
An Xiaolin stood before a makeshift target, gripping an unloaded handgun in both hands as she practiced her aim and stance. Sweat trickled down her temple, but her gaze remained intensely focused.
Chen Yuhui sat on a mat nearby. Her injured leg kept her from standing for long, but she was also holding an unloaded gun. At the question, she replied, “They will.”
“They’re insane, not stupid. If they wanted to, they could capture someone alive and force her to scan her eye at a supply crate’s biometric lock. Then they could open it and take the guns, couldn’t they?”
On the other side of the room, Lin Hao looked up, worry written across his face. “Now that we have guns, our odds of survival have theoretically gone up… but when you put it that way, it feels like the danger we’ll face in the future has gone up too. If Madmen really do get guns…”
He did not finish, but everyone understood what he meant.
Qingshui was correcting Ji Feifan’s rifle stance. Hearing this, she spoke in her usual even tone, though her words offered the group some reassurance.
“I believe that, at this stage, most Madmen will still prefer more primitive methods of torture and killing.”
Ji Feifan maintained his aiming stance, focusing on the way the stock fit against his shoulder as he followed Qingshui’s line of reasoning.
“That’s true… The ones we’ve encountered seem to prefer knives, axes, clubs, or even their bare hands. The longer it takes and the more agonized their victims’ screams are, the more excited they become. Guns…”
He paused.
“Guns kill too quickly. One bang and it’s over. To them, that might actually be… less satisfying.”
An Xiaolin listened in silence, then suddenly raised an even more horrifying question.
“Then… what about soldiers?”
She slowly lowered her aching, numb arms and turned to the others, dim light reflected in her eyes.
“What if soldiers were on duty when the infection broke out? Or if they were infected afterward? Once they become Madmen, will they instinctively keep using guns, or… will they become like the others and prefer knives?”
The atmosphere in the room froze.
Everyone, including Qingshui, fell silent for several seconds.
Chen Yuhui pursed her lips and eventually shook her head. “…There’s no way to know. Maybe… it depends on what instincts they retain.”
Qingshui offered no further speculation. She merely patted Ji Feifan on the shoulder to signal that his stance was correct, then walked to the center of the room.
“Let’s focus on practicing for now.”
She brought the currently unanswerable discussion to an end and drew everyone’s attention back to the task at hand.
“Remember how it feels to hold and aim an unloaded gun. Once the gun is loaded, the recoil will force the muzzle upward the instant you pull the trigger. Beginners can easily miss their target or even injure themselves or someone else.”
She walked over to An Xiaolin, reached out, and gently took hold of her wrist to adjust the tension in her grip.
“Your wrist has to remain steady. Lock it firmly in place, and keep your shoulders braced…”