Chapter 211: Hospital Zombies
Ji County was a three-hour drive from Lijia Village.
After six months of experience, Liu Rui had become a seasoned driver, able to handle all types of vehicles with ease. He drove while Ning Yuan sat in the passenger seat, sketching a new map with pen and paper. Along the way, he marked every place they passed to help reorient themselves in the post-apocalyptic world.
“There are two main hospitals in Ji County — the People’s Hospital and the Women and Children’s Hospital. They’re not far apart, but according to Zhuzi, there’s a section of the road in between that’s impassable by car. Should we take a shortcut on foot or go around?” Ning Yuan asked, comparing a rough layout of the city drawn by Zhuzi with a pre-apocalypse enlarged electronic map. Then he turned to Lu Weiyi and asked, “By the way, I forgot to ask — are we heading directly to the hospital?”
“No, we’ll assess the situation first,” Lu Weiyi replied cautiously. They had passed through only a few towns so far, and the current level of the zombies was still unclear.
Three hours later, they reached the stone marker for Ji County.
Zombies were now clearly more numerous. After half a year of wind and sun, their clothes were filthy and tattered. Many were missing limbs or had flaps of scalp hanging loose. They wandered aimlessly through the streets, looking more like dying old people than anything else. But the moment they sensed life or the scent of blood, they would transform into marathon runners.
“If we go straight down this road, we’ll reach the end — the People’s Hospital is to the right. That nine-story building over there, you see it? It’s not in the city center, but there are still plenty of zombies. The last time I came was two months ago, so I don’t know if anyone else has cleared it. The Women and Children’s Hospital is in the city center — harder to get into,” Fang Dazhuang said from his car, which had slowed to drive alongside them. Maybe he didn’t trust them, or maybe he just wanted to be helpful.
“Thanks,” Ning Yuan smiled, then asked, “If we want to go to Liucheng later, do we have to head back to that previous junction?”
“Yes, that’s the closest route,” Fang Dazhuang answered. “You planning to go there today?”
“Just asking. Let’s deal with the current situation first,” Ning Yuan replied.
“Alright, we’re heading in first,” Fang Dazhuang said, then sped up and drove to the front of the convoy.
Ning Yuan turned back and asked, “Which way are we going?”
“Toward the hospital,” Lu Weiyi replied.
*
Ning Yuan’s group was a little behind. By the time they entered the county, the first wave of zombies had already been drawn away by the vehicles ahead. They didn’t stop except to use abilities from the windows to kill zombies, speeding through with a trail of undead chasing after them.
They hadn’t noticed it before, but now, in the quiet county, the “putt-putt” noise of those two tricycle engines was loud enough to draw every zombie in the area.
Ning Yuan could see quite a few zombies who had originally been wandering the streets now running after them.
“Truly good Samaritans,” he remarked.
“Ning, we’re here to kill zombies. If they all get dragged off, what are we supposed to kill?” Antonio spread his hands.
“There’ll be more,” Ning Yuan said, glancing at the group of zombies chasing after them. “What level are they?”
“There are B-levels, four or five at least,” Li Zhuang replied.
“Looks like we’ll need to be careful.” As they spoke, Liu Rui had driven them onto a street. This area was clearly on the outskirts — with a hospital nearby, most of the buildings were restaurants. They hadn’t been damaged by the earthquake and were still intact. Many of the doors were wide open, clearly looted.
“Could someone have already been here?” Ning Yuan conjured an ice spike and shot it into the forehead of a charging female zombie. “Collect the crystal core.”
“The shops ahead still have their doors shut,” Antonio noted. He hadn’t even needed to lift a finger for the dozen zombies they’d encountered.
As they neared the hospital, the number of zombies clearly increased. B-levels started to appear among them. Lu Weiyi took over driving from Liu Rui, letting the other five coordinate while he focused on collecting crystal cores.
“I did some rough calculations. In a hospital this big, if each department and every ward were full, there’d be over a thousand people. Are we really just going to waltz in and clean the place out?” Six people versus a thousand — Ning Yuan felt they might be overestimating themselves.
Lu Weiyi gave him a look like he was an idiot, clearly doubting what the military had taught him.
He pulled out a few guns from his spatial storage and handed them to him and Antonio. “These use specially made bullets from abilities. They’re better than normal ones. You two find shooting points, clear out a group from a distance, and report back on how effective it is.”
“Li Zhuang, seal the hospital entrance. Gu Qingji and Liu Rui, go in through the main doors. The four of us will handle the courtyard. You two stay long-range. We’ll clear them in waves. Also, watch for ability zombies in the distance.”
Their car shot straight to the hospital entrance, drawing out the courtyard zombies. A batch had also followed behind.
All five got out at once. A wall of earth shot up in front of the broken automatic gate, clearing the pursuing zombies. Then they entered the hospital in groups.
Lu Weiyi and Li Zhuang went in first. With a mental shield up, it was like they were invisible. They made a quick circuit of the hospital, sealing all entrances before returning to the front gate. In the courtyard, suppressed gunfire was already ringing out — Antonio and Ning Yuan had found their shooting spots.
Lu Weiyi dropped the shield. The scent of two living humans attracted the zombies left in the courtyard, making the entrance less congested.
“Get ready to move in!” Li Zhuang shouted to the two outside. “Three, two, one—” As he finished, the earth wall opened a two-person-wide gap. Liu Rui released a powerful fire dragon, clearing a path. Then the two entered and began close combat.
There were at least a hundred zombies in the courtyard. Everyone used all means necessary to kill. No one had the attention to count how many B-level zombies there were anymore.
Lu Weiyi sealed off the door again, ignoring the fact that zombies had no intelligence and might not even try to use doors in the first place.
The fighting had barely started when zombies began falling from the upper floor windows, the scene looking just like dumplings being dropped into a pot.
The hardness of zombie bones increased with their ability level. They weren’t unbreakable—some fell from higher floors and smashed their skulls open, dying instantly. Others broke their legs and dragged themselves forward, limping toward the humans. Some clearly had broken spines and crawled forward, only to be trampled by the zombies coming behind them.
The miscalculation meant that Li Zhuang no longer needed to open the hospital doors—there was a constant flow of zombies providing “reinforcements.” Behind Lu Weiyi and Li Zhuang was the hospital building, while Liu Rui and Gu Qingji were backed against the entrance Li Zhuang had created.
The four of them stood in fixed positions, never moving from their spots. The only thing changing was the rising pile of zombie corpses in front of them, forming a natural protective wall.
“Gu Qingji, you doing okay?” Lu Weiyi asked. Most of the zombies jumping from above headed toward him and Li Zhuang, but some spilled over toward the other two.
Due to Lu Weiyi’s planning error, both Gu Qingji and Liu Rui—whose abilities restrained zombies—ended up together. Gu Qingji, being of the wood type, wasn’t as powerful as Liu Rui and was more easily affected.
“I’m fine,” Gu Qingji panted, “Liu Rui’s helping me.”
“Once we clear this wave, it should ease up,” Ning Yuan’s voice came through the walkie-talkie. “A lot of windows upstairs are already empty.”
Half an hour later, the hospital courtyard was filled with zombie corpses. The four melee fighters were catching their breath. The overwhelming numbers and barrage of supernatural powers had left all of them bloodied. Blood mixed with corpse fluids covered their clothes and faces.
Li Zhuang’s clothes even had a burnt patch from flames. Lu Weiyi hadn’t noticed how he put it out. With a mental shield to protect him, Lu Weiyi had the fewest injuries. He mostly relied on manipulating a small vine, so his energy consumption wasn’t too high. While the others rested, he gathered a pile of zombie crystal cores.
Ten minutes later, Lu Weiyi finished his round, and Liu Rui threw a few fireballs, burning the piles of corpses into ashes.
Li Zhuang reopened the hospital’s main entrance, which had been blocked earlier. Dozens of zombies surged out—some even got trampled. Unlike fragile humans, these zombies were tenacious enough to climb back up and start running again.
Working together, the group took them down within minutes. The few stragglers that came out after were quickly dispatched.
“Regroup,” Lu Weiyi instructed the other two.
“These bullets are great—one shot to the forehead kills—but the guns suck,” Ning Yuan told Lu Weiyi as he walked over to give his “user feedback.” He showed him the barrel of the gun. “It wears out fast—accuracy drops after about twenty shots.”
Looks like the gun barrels would also need to be reforged with abilities.
Most of the zombies left in the hospital were low-level. The stronger ones had long since destroyed the surroundings and chased after living people. Cleaning up wasn’t difficult.
The hospital had ten floors in total, including the basement. The basement was for exams, the first floor housed the Western pharmacy, the second floor the Chinese medicine pharmacy, and the rest were various departments and wards. What was valuable to them were medical instruments and pharmaceuticals.
Ning Yuan and Antonio handled the combat. Gu Qingji followed behind collecting crystal cores. Li Zhuang and Liu Rui covered the rear, while Lu Weiyi stood in the center, collecting supplies—he even took quite a few hospital beds, not to mention the heaps of bedding.
“I feel like the zombie count doesn’t match my estimate,” Ning Yuan said after Gu Qingji handed over the collected crystal cores to Lu Weiyi. He raised a brow. “Feels like a lot fewer.”
“Zombies level up by consuming zombie crystal cores,” Lu Weiyi explained. It’s like eating the same kind of core—leveling up was faster and safer for zombies than for humans.
Lu Weiyi looked around, then stopped his gaze at the parking lot. “See any car you want?”
“Private cars aren’t good for long travel—they guzzle fuel. We can’t afford to burn gas like that anymore,” Ning Yuan replied.
“If possible, take them all. The metal and tires are useful,” Li Zhuang said.
“…” The others all silently turned to look at him.
With Li Zhuang looking totally unfazed, Lu Weiyi still collected all the cars. After all, Li Zhuang wasn’t wrong. At the same time, he decided he’d need to consume a few more jade space stones. With this scavenger mentality, no amount of space would ever be enough.
