Chapter 82
Chapter 82
The group burst out of cover, only to skid to an abrupt halt.
Dogs with human skin stitched onto their bodies were scattered across the hillside. Their bodies twisted into unnatural postures, they stared fixedly at the group.
“Grrrr…”
The nearest dog lowered its front half, an angry growl rumbling in its throat. Its cloudy eyes were locked firmly on Qingshui.
Qingshui tried edging half a step to the side.
“Rrrwoof!”
The dog immediately bared its stark white fangs, its snarl rising sharply. In an instant, every dog on the hillside turned to stare at her.
No one wanted to be bitten.
As the tense standoff dragged on, the stench of blood in the air grew stronger. Faint rustling sounds came from somewhere nearby.
“Run!”
Before Qingshui had even finished speaking, two gray shapes lunged from either side. They were faster than expected. Acting almost entirely on instinct, she raised her arm and pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang!
The two gunshots nearly overlapped. Both bullets struck their targets squarely in the head. One dog went rigid in midair and crashed to the ground, while the other was knocked off course and slammed into a boulder, its limbs still twitching.
“Down the slope! Move!”
At Qingshui’s barked command, everyone wheeled around and charged down the steeper side of the hill. Dirt and loose stones slid beneath their feet.
“Awoooo!”
At the highest point of the ridge, a dog threw back its head and unleashed a shrill howl.
Then came a wet slice as a flash of cold steel severed its head from its body. The head tumbled to the ground.
A pair of blood-soaked hands picked it up. Their owner wore a revolting expression of delight, laughing maniacally while using the severed head to indulge their urges.
“You mangy bastards! You think you can run?! I’ll chop off every last one of your filthy legs!”
Louder rustling erupted from every direction, accompanied by pounding footsteps. Shadows writhed along the top of the slope as pale, bloated, smiling faces crowded into view.
The faces were grotesquely swollen, their mouths crudely stitched upward at the corners, trapping them in exaggerated grins.
They were a pack of Madmen dressed in human skin.
“Heh-heh… What are my precious doggies doing running wild all the way out here…?” A rasping voice chuckled as one of the Madmen staggered out from behind a boulder. The figure dragged a blackened sickle in one hand and carried half of a bloody human leg in the other. “So you smelled fresh meat and rounded up some piglets for me.”
“Dahuang, you’ve been a bad girl, hee-hee-hee…” A shrill voice drifted from behind a tree on the left. It belonged to a skeletal woman holding a severed head whose mouth had been split all the way to its ears. “Bad dogs who don’t listen… I’ll dig your pups out of your belly and crush them one by one…”
More figures emerged. They carried hoes and machetes, their bodies caked with blood, mud, and bits of grass. Their fanatical gazes seemed hot enough to scorch the air as they fixed on Qingshui’s group, panting with excitement.
Without the slightest hesitation, they hurled themselves straight off the edge of the slope several meters above!
Some brandished farming tools in midair. Others spread their arms like hunting birds. They hit the ground, rolled twice, and sprang back up without losing speed, vile curses pouring from their mouths.
“Chop them up! Chop these bastards to pieces! Fertilizer for my garden! Oh, oh, meat! Fresh meat!”
“Bastards! You can’t get away, you bastards! Skin them! Stitch new ones!”
Cold sweat instantly soaked Qingshui’s back.
By a terrible stroke of luck, they had run into an entire horde of Madmen!
“Stay together!” Qingshui, An Xiaolin, and Ji Feifan swiftly closed ranks back-to-back, aiming their guns at the twisted figures surging toward them from three directions.
They opened fire with everything they had.
The first few Madmen jerked violently as blood burst from their bodies, but they merely stumbled before lunging forward again with shrill laughter.
They leaped and crawled among the rocks and bushes with unnatural speed and agility, making it difficult to land fatal shots to the head.
At the top of the slope, three or four Madmen laughingly hoisted a smaller Madman into the air, tore the body apart, then began hurling chunks of the corpse down the hill.
“Fall back!”
Forced away by the shower of blood and flesh, the group raced frantically downhill.
The slope was already treacherously steep, and one of the Madmen charging in from the side forced An Xiaolin to tumble down it.
“Leave me!” Her voice carried a tremor so faint it was almost imperceptible. Gritting her teeth, she rolled over. At that exact moment, the branches of a small tree ahead of her suddenly burst apart!
An exceptionally small, scrawny figure hurtled down the slope, straight at An Xiaolin’s head!
It was a naked child, no more than seven or eight years old. Wisps of hair clung to his scalp, while his young face was utterly consumed by twisted malice, his grin stretching almost to his ears.
“Come play with me, big sister!” The childish voice spoke the most vicious words imaginable. “I’ll stuff a puppy into your belly… You’ll be my mommy… and give birth to lots and lots of dogs… Hee hee hee hee hee!”
An Xiaolin’s pupils contracted. There was no time to swing her gun around.
Bang!
A bloody hole appeared in the center of the child’s forehead. His tiny body dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, the crazed grin still frozen on his face.
A short distance away, Chen Yuhui knelt on one knee, her outstretched gun arm trembling slightly from the strain.
Qingshui swept her gaze across the surrounding area. More and more Madmen were charging down the slope.
Her fingers closed around the cold grenade hanging at her chest.
No. Not yet. They were too close. The blast could trigger a landslide and bury them all.
But if they stayed here any longer, they would die anyway! She made her decision in an instant.
“Keep moving down! Find cover!” Qingshui roared, her voice cutting through the crazed din.
The others immediately broke off their attack and sprinted toward the area behind them. Qingshui covered their retreat, backing away as she fired calm, measured shots.
The distance between them was shrinking.
The stench of decay and the cloying reek of blood were almost blasting her in the face. Those twisted, exhilarated faces were now clear enough to make her sick. Behind her, she could hear her companions’ ragged breathing and stumbling footsteps.
Now!
“Get down!”
With a furious shout, she yanked out the safety pin and hurled the grenade up the slope with all her strength.
Everyone threw themselves flat, clamping their hands over their heads and ears.
BOOM!
The deafening blast seemed to detonate inside their skulls. A scorching shock wave erupted in every direction, carrying dirt, shattered rock, vegetation, and chunks of flesh.
Then came a series of even more terrifying crashes.
The entire hillside collapsed in an instant!
The ground abruptly vanished beneath Qingshui, and she plunged downward with the torrent of earth and rock. The world spun wildly around her, filled with tumbling yellow-brown dirt. Fist-sized stones battered her back and legs, while fine grit poured into her mouth, nose, and ears.
The world became nothing but roaring, impacts, and the terror of suffocation.
She had no idea how much time passed. It might have been only a dozen seconds, but it felt as long as a century.
The violent tremors gradually subsided, leaving only a vast cloud of dust hanging in the air.
Half of Qingshui’s body was buried in cold rubble and soil, but because she had been farther from the blast, she was not trapped very deeply. She coughed violently, spitting the grit from her mouth.
Within the swirling gray-yellow haze, several mangled figures staggered upright once more!
Gritting her teeth, Qingshui raised her gun and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The bullet tore through the dust, and the silhouette dropped.
Nearby, An Xiaolin struggled out from beneath a pile of rubble, her head and face covered in dust and blood. She retrieved the gun lying beside her, braced herself against a boulder, and began firing as well.
Ji Feifan shoved the tree trunk pinning his leg aside. His face ashen, he silently changed magazines and joined the fight.
Lin Hao dragged the nearly speechless Zhou Yaping behind a relatively stable boulder, then dropped to one knee and supported the others alongside Chen Yuhui.
As the dust slowly cleared, the staggering figures toppled one after another and lay still.
At last, the last Madman pitched face-first into the dirt and ash.
The world abruptly fell into an eerie silence.
Qingshui pushed herself upright, took An Xiaolin’s offered hand, and struggled to her feet.
Supporting one another, they rose from the devastation. Every one of them was dressed in rags and smeared with mud and blood, exhaustion etched across their faces.
No one spoke. There was no relief at having survived, no words of comfort.
Only a crushing heaviness.
They had barely traveled a fraction of the way.
And already, they had burned through far too many bullets.