Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Chen Yuhui and An Xiaolin, who had stayed behind to provide backup, were huddled in the bushes outside the Administrative Building. At night, the bushes made an excellent hiding place. Unless they made a sound, no one would ever spot them from outside.

From here, they could just make out the Administrative Building, as well as the edge of the plaza they had crossed on their way over.

Embers still flickered there in the darkness. Smoke twisted into the air, and inhuman whoops rang out from time to time.

Time seemed to have frozen, crawling more slowly than a snail.

“Fourteen minutes.” For what felt like the thousandth time, Chen Yuhui lit up her phone screen, then quickly turned it off again. Her voice was barely more than a breath. “They’ve been inside for fourteen minutes.”

An Xiaolin said nothing. She hugged her knees, staring fixedly at the Administrative Building. Her fingernails dug deep into her palms, leaving several bloody red marks.

Despair festered in the silence.

“Do you think…” An Xiaolin suddenly began, her voice hoarse and dry. “Qingshui and Dorm Leader might already be…”

“Shut up,” Chen Yuhui cut her off. Her tone was hard, but her knuckles had already turned white.

How could she not be afraid?

How could she not regret this?

Back in the plaza, when that madman had grabbed her by the hair, Chen Yuhui had watched herself being pinned down and stared into the bloodshot eyes mere inches from her face. What surged through her then hadn’t just been fear. There had also been a cold, bitter resentment toward An Xiaolin, toward this damned world, and toward her own powerlessness.

But now, only the two of them were left. Resentment was useless. She had to hold it together.

As the two of them continued their silent, despairing wait, hurried footsteps suddenly broke the stillness, accompanied by desperate gasps for breath.

The sounds came from the right, near the parking lot in front of the Administrative Building.

Chen Yuhui stiffened and immediately ducked lower, peering out through a gap at the bottom of the bushes.

Under the moonlight, a male student was stumbling toward them at a frantic sprint!

He wore a sweatshirt, and one side of his body was drenched in dark red blood. A dozen meters behind him, four or five madmen gave chase, cackling shrilly like cats toying with their prey.

“Why are you running, buddy? I’m not going to hurt you… Hahahahaha…” One of the madmen stuck out his tongue and slowly ran it around his lips.

The boy’s face was streaked with a filthy mixture of tears and sweat. He looked around wildly before scrambling beneath a car.

The madmen stopped and began searching for him with mocking smiles.

“Heh… heh… hide-and-seek… Better hide well…”

“Hee-hee… Better hide well, you little bastard… Or else, or else I’ll ram my head deep inside your body! Hahahahaha!”

Under the car, the boy clamped both hands over his mouth and even held his breath. Only his body betrayed him, trembling violently beyond his control.

He thought he was safe for the moment.

Chen Yuhui’s heart leaped into her throat. Behind the boy, two more figures had staggered out of the shadows on the other side of the parking lot.

The two madmen seemed to have been drawn by the commotion. They didn’t join the others and merely wandered aimlessly nearby.

But they were heading straight toward the boy’s hiding place!

No!

Cold sweat instantly broke out across Chen Yuhui’s body. Her stomach cramped at the thought of the horror about to unfold. Almost instinctively, she opened her mouth to shout something, even if it was only a warning to run.

A cold, clammy hand clamped tightly over her mouth.

It was too late.

One of the wandering madmen kicked a shard of glass, sending it skittering beside the car.

The madman looked down. Then, as if it had discovered something interesting, it slowly bent over.

Its face lowered toward the gap beneath the car.

Moonlight illuminated its deathly pale, twisted features, making Chen Yuhui’s heart seize with dread.

The boy hiding beneath the car found himself staring directly into its eyes.

Time ground to a despairing halt.

“Wow…” The madman’s murky eyes instantly lit up. Like a cat spotting a mouse, it lunged forward and grabbed the foot of the boy as he tried to flee.

“No!!!” A shrill, distorted scream erupted from beneath the car!

The boy was dragged out by brute force.

The commotion drew the surrounding madmen. They instantly erupted with excitement and swarmed forward. Several bloodstained hands reached beneath the car, seizing the boy by his ankles, calves, and pant legs.
“Come out, come out and play! Don’t be scared, don’t be scared! Hahahahahaha!”

“Hee hee hee, got you!”

The boy struggled desperately, digging his fingers into cracks in the asphalt. His nails split, leaving ten bloody streaks behind, but the difference in strength was too great. He couldn’t fight back at all.

Chen Yuhui could only watch as they dragged him bodily from beneath the car like a dead dog. His screams and pleas for mercy were drowned out by the lunatics’ excited howls.

“Please… don’t… Aaaah!”

One lunatic sank its teeth into his shoulder. With a slight twist of its head, it tore away a chunk of flesh and began to chew.

Another started yanking down his pants.

A third raised a broken length of steel pipe it had picked up from somewhere.

An Xiaolin’s face was ghostly white, her eyes stretched wide and filled with pure terror. She clamped one hand over Chen Yuhui’s mouth with all her strength while gripping Chen Yuhui’s arm with the other, her nails nearly digging into the flesh.

Her lips trembled. “Don’t… don’t make a sound… I don’t want to die!”

Chen Yuhui struggled and knocked An Xiaolin’s hand away, then turned to look at her.

There was no apology in An Xiaolin’s eyes. No hesitation. Only the raw, animalistic urge to survive. She was afraid Chen Yuhui would make enough noise to draw the lunatics over, afraid they would end up just like that boy.

Chen Yuhui stared into those eyes, then looked back at the atrocity unfolding nearby.

The boy’s screams had already faded into faint, wheezing gasps. The steel pipe came down with a dull thud. Laughing, the lunatics began carving up their “spoils.”

Chen Yuhui closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. Air thick with the stench of blood flooded her lungs, chilling her to the bone. She made no further sound.

The boy’s final noises died away. The lunatics’ gleeful chatter gradually receded as well, as though they had taken their “gift” elsewhere to share.

The bushes fell deathly silent once more. All that remained was a large pool of dark crimson liquid and a few scattered scraps of cloth.

An Xiaolin released her grip and shrank back into her former position. She hugged her knees, buried her face in them, and began to tremble.

Chen Yuhui did not look at her again. She simply lowered herself to the ground once more, staring hollowly at the doors of the Administrative Building.

Then she heard another sound.

“Thud.”

A dull impact came from somewhere very close.

Not from the Administrative Building, nor from the parking lot in the distance.

It came from just beyond the bushes to their left, on the path leading to the library.

Both women went rigid. Even their breathing stopped.

“Thud.”

Again. It sounded like something being slammed hard against the stone-paved path.

Very slowly, Chen Yuhui turned her head and peered through a gap in the foliage.

Three silhouettes stood on the path beneath the moonlight.

The one in the middle was rhythmically striking the ground with something in its hand. It was a… blood-soaked bone.

The bone landed in a pool of blood left on the ground, producing a sickening series of thuds.

A lunatic stood on either side of it. Neither moved. They merely tilted their heads, as if listening to the sound-or using it to… probe their surroundings.

They were using sound to find people.

Chen Yuhui felt her blood freeze in her veins.

“Thud.”

The bone struck the ground again, the sound carrying far through the silent night.

The lunatic on the left suddenly whipped toward the Administrative Building, excited giggles bubbling from its throat. But the lunatic in the middle shook its head, then slowly turned its face toward the bushes.

“Heh…”

It let out a quiet, mocking chuckle. Then it pointed the bone in its hand toward the bushes.

They had been found.

“Run!” Chen Yuhui screamed, scared out of her wits, and scrambled out through the other side of the bushes!

The instant they burst from cover, the three lunatics erupted into shrill, obscene cries.

“Over there! Behind that overturned campus bus!” Chen Yuhui pointed to a campus shuttle lying on its side in a nearby flower bed.

The two women sprinted with everything they had. Behind them came animalistic panting and taunting voices drawing ever closer.

“Don’t run, classmates… Don’t run…”

“Hehehehahahahaha! The looks of despair on your faces are so beautiful!”
The school bus was right in front of them, lying on its side with every window shattered. But the triangular space formed by the undercarriage and the side of the bus might provide temporary shelter.

Chen Yuhui shoved An Xiaolin into the gap between the bus and the ground first. Just as she was about to crawl in after her, an icy hand clamped around her ankle.

“Got you! Hee-hee!”

Chen Yuhui’s scalp prickled with terror. Acting on instinct, she kicked backward with all her strength and struck something soft. The hand released her, and she seized the chance to scramble desperately beneath the bus.

“Thud!”

One of the lunatics slammed its head into the bus’s outer shell. It seemed to be trying to crawl inside, but the gap was too narrow, leaving its shoulders wedged in place. All it could do was flail its arms, its long, sharp nails scraping across the ground mere inches from Chen Yuhui’s face.

The other two lunatics began ramming the school bus over and over, trying to lift it or tip it even farther onto its side!

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The sound of buckling metal chilled them to the bone. The cramped space beneath the bus shook as dust and shards of glass rained down.

An Xiaolin huddled in the deepest corner, clutching her head and trembling. With her back pressed against the cold frame, Chen Yuhui gripped her fruit knife and stared fixedly at the arm clawing wildly through the gap.

Suddenly, the pounding stopped. The trapped arm withdrew as well, and an eerie silence fell outside.

Chen Yuhui and An Xiaolin exchanged a glance. Neither dared relax. If anything, they grew even more afraid.

What were those things doing?

A few seconds later, they got their answer.

“Splash… splash… glug, glug…”

Liquid sloshed over the bus, and the pungent smell of fresh gasoline instantly filled the air.

They were… dousing the school bus in gasoline?! Where had they even gotten it?!

“If you won’t come out, we’ll burn you to death. Heh-heh-heh…”

“Roasted meat… must smell delicious…”

The lunatics’ gleeful whispers drifted over, followed by the click of a lighter.

“No… no!” Chen Yuhui screamed in despair. She tried to rush out, but it was already too late!

A small piece of burning cloth was tossed onto the gasoline-soaked bus.

“Whoomph!”

Flames erupted instantly, racing along the trails of gasoline and swiftly engulfing one side of the school bus. Thick smoke and waves of searing heat surged into the narrow space beneath it.

“Cough! Cough, cough!” The smoke sent both girls into violent coughing fits, their eyes burning.

Hot.

The heat was unbearable, and the flames were closing in. But even that was not the deadliest threat. The bus was about to explode!

At that desperate moment, An Xiaolin suddenly began clawing at the dirt and gravel beneath the bus like a woman possessed.

“Help me!” she roared hoarsely, oblivious even as her fingernails split.

Chen Yuhui froze for a moment, then immediately lunged over and started digging with her. As the loose soil came away, it revealed a concealed drain cover beneath them. Working together, the two girls strained with all their might and pried it open.

Below was a dark passage reeking of filth and sewage. There was no telling where it led.

But it was their only way out.

The flames were already licking at the edge of the undercarriage, scorching their backs.

“Get down there! Hurry!” Chen Yuhui urged, pushing An Xiaolin toward the opening.

This time, An Xiaolin did not hesitate. She squeezed her eyes shut and slid straight into the dark drain.

Chen Yuhui followed close behind. At the final moment before dropping down, she looked back through the gap.

Flames towered into the sky, transforming the school bus into a gigantic torch. Illuminated by the fire, the lunatics held hands and performed a twisted dance around the burning bus.

They threw back their heads toward the blood moon and laughed in perfect unison.

“Hee-hahaha! Burned to death! Burned to death!”

Chen Yuhui plunged into darkness.

Icy standing water rose to her calves, and the stench was almost suffocating. The glow of the flames overhead and the lunatics’ jubilant cries quickly faded into the distance, replaced by the endless darkness of the underground pipes.

For now, they had escaped the fire.

Meanwhile, in the world above, Qingshui and Li Wei’an had just knocked on the door of the broadcasting room on the second floor of the Administrative Building.

The night was far from over.