Chapter 20: Sweeping the Supermarket
Just then, they suddenly heard a short, sharp cry of alarm. Zhan Yun immediately recognized Song Chengshu’s voice and hurried toward the car.
Song Chengshu’s vehicle was surrounded by two zombies. One was a little girl, with no obvious injuries—she was likely from the first batch of the dead who had risen again. Her crimson eyes were wide as she clung tightly to the car door, her throat emitting a low, beastlike growl. The other was a female zombie with a huge hole bitten out of her neck, her limbs torn open with flesh hanging loose. She had clearly been attacked and killed by other zombies before mutating. Now she was pounding dability userately on the window with her bloody, mangled arms, scaring Song Chengshu pale.
Still, he was an attending surgeon who had wielded a scalpel before. He’d seen plenty of blood and organs in his line of work, so his mental fortitude was far stronger than that of ordinary people. After being startled into shouting once, he immediately covered his mouth and made no further sound, afraid of attracting more zombies.
Worried that the two zombies might smash the windows, he was frantically searching the cabin for something he could use as a weapon when he saw Zhan Yun and Su Ruizhe run out from the gas station. They must have come after hearing his cry.
As soon as Zhan Yun and Su Ruizhe approached, they caught the zombies’ attention. The two creatures immediately turned around and charged toward them with mouths open, their movements stiff and jerky.
Su Ruizhe easily dodged the little zombie’s attack, spun around, and brought his knife down into the back of her head. With a thud, the small zombie collapsed to the ground.
On Zhan Yun’s side, it was just as swift—one decisive strike, and the other female zombie was dealt with.
Song Chengshu immediately unlocked the doors and waved for them to get in.
“Go—to the supermarket!” Zhan Yun said. He was referring to a large one-stop shopping supermarket not far from the gas station, built to serve nearby residential communities. It was an international chain—cheap, with a huge variety of goods—perfect for a raid.
Song Chengshu glanced at the blood smeared on the window, swallowed hard, then slammed the accelerator and sped off.
The supermarket wasn’t far; it took only a little over ten minutes by car. Late at night, there weren’t many people on the streets—only a few scattered zombies wandering stiffly about, sent flying when the jeep rammed into them without mercy.
When they arrived, they found the supermarket’s doors tightly shut, with no lights inside. Judging by the time, the employees had already gone home.
The three of them drove around half the building and finally found a ventilation window that hadn’t been properly secured. They decided to enter through there.
Because the supermarket was large and they expected to be inside for a while, Zhan Yun had Song Chengshu get out as well, and Su Ruizhe stored the jeep away.
Zhan Yun lifted Su Ruizhe up first to send him inside, then boosted Song Chengshu up. Finally, using his height advantage, Zhan Yun jumped straight up, grabbed the edge of the vent, and pulled himself in with ease.
Inside the supermarket, it was pitch-dark. They didn’t dare move rashly. Su Ruizhe took a flashlight out of his space. When the beam clicked on, they realized they had entered through a restroom on the first floor.
Su Ruizhe handed two more flashlights to Zhan Yun and Song Chengshu, and the three of them carefully made their way toward the exit.
The moment the restroom door opened, all three of their hearts clenched, afraid there might be zombies outside.
Fortunately, luck was on their side—the area outside was empty.
The first floor was lined with small shops: women’s handbags, branded shoes, mobile phones, clothing, gold and jewelry. They didn’t spare any of it a glance and headed straight for the second floor.
The second and third floors were the supermarket itself, shelves neatly arranged and packed with goods of every kind. Su Ruizhe’s eyes lit up as he rushed forward, sweeping drinking water, beverages, coffee, beer, milk, bread, snacks, biscuits, chocolate, candy, toilet paper, tableware, disposable tablecloths, gloves, garbage bags, instant noodles, vacuum-packed cooked foods, refrigerated items—everything—straight into his space, leaving only the fresh fruits and vegetables behind.
Wherever Su Ruizhe passed, it was like a swarm of locusts—nothing left but bare shelves. If not for the fact that the shelves took up too much space and couldn’t be folded, he might have taken those too.
Just as Su Ruizhe was happily looting, a zombie in a security guard’s uniform suddenly appeared from nowhere, lunging at him with bared teeth.
Zhan Yun, who had been following closely behind on high alert, immediately stepped in, chopping off the zombie’s outstretched arm with one strike. With his other hand, he grabbed a pot and smashed it down hard on the zombie’s head. By then, Song Chengshu was already behind it, plunging his knife into the back of its skull and finishing it off.
Su Ruizhe turned back and smiled at the two of them, then dashed off toward the third floor. The second floor specialized in food and daily necessities; the third was for clothing, bedding, and home appliances.
Without hesitation, Su Ruizhe collected clothes, shoes, socks, and pants—everything they might need from head to toe.
He also took plenty of summer essentials like bamboo mats. On top of that, he stocked up on down comforters, down vests, thermal underwear, and the like, for use during the winter.
Suddenly, they heard the crisp sound of shattering glass from somewhere in the distance. They rushed to the window and looked down, spotting two or three cars parked below, their headlights cutting through the night.
They could clearly see many dark figures beginning to sway and converge from afar. All three of them frowned.
In the span of a single night, the entire world seemed to have been turned upside down, plunging into extreme chaos. People panicked and floundered, but some remained relatively clear-headed, knowing exactly what they needed now.
Food—always the most important thing, the foundation for human survival.
These people were clearly here for food as well. But they shouldn’t have smashed the supermarket’s glass…
Zombies were extremely sensitive to sound and smell. The commotion those people had caused was more than enough to draw in a horde of zombies. And with the supermarket’s doors no longer intact, the undead would have an unobstructed path inside. Those people were like chunks of fresh meat, luring the starving zombies in for a feast.
“We need to leave. Now,” Zhan Yun said in a low voice.
“How?” Song Chengshu asked in surprise.
“We’ll use ropes to climb down from the west-side windows on the third floor. Those people are on the east side—it’ll take them some time to come up here, so they shouldn’t notice us.” More importantly, the zombies were gathering from the east as well. If they went down from the west, they might still make it out in time.
“And them…?” Song Chengshu hesitated.
Zhan Yun suddenly turned to look at him. “Old Song, we’re not superheroes. We can’t save everyone.”
Song Chengshu’s pupils contracted. After a moment, he clenched his teeth and followed Zhan Yun toward the west-side windows.
As for Su Ruizhe, he hadn’t said a single word the entire time, sticking close behind Zhan Yun. He was someone who had come back from the apocalypse—he had long since seen through many things.
Setting aside whether they even had the ability to save those people, they had just taken half the supermarket’s supplies. If they stepped in to help, they would very likely expose the secrets they were carrying.
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