Chapter 5
Everything was ready.
Ye Xuan pressed himself tightly against the door, gripped the handle, and nodded at Xia Chenxi before opening it.
Xia Chenxi leaned half his body out and threw a water cup onto the ground. The sound immediately drew the nearest zombies over.
Three meters.
Two meters.
One meter.
Just as a gaping bloody mouth was about to bite Xia Chenxi, he quickly withdrew into the room. But the zombie was fast too. One of its hands had already reached inside.
Ye Xuan pushed against the door with all his strength. This zombie was far stronger than he had imagined.
Crack.
Ye Xuan looked to the left. Xia Chenxi had one hand braced against the door, and the zombie’s severed arm was now lying quietly on the floor.
His strength was astonishing too.
“Stop having unrealistic fantasies. The result is obvious. Take your things. Get ready to move.” Xia Chenxi kicked the severed arm aside and picked up the bed board.
Although Ye Xuan was a little disappointed, this result was within his expectations. If the zombies did not attack Xia Chenxi, their plan to escape the dorm building would have been much easier.
“I’ll clear the way in front later. You watch the back,” Xia Chenxi said to Ye Xuan.
Ye Xuan put his backpack on again and picked up the bed board and broom handle.
Xia Chenxi stood in front of the door and gripped the handle.
Click.
The door opened.
Xia Chenxi took the first step outside, and Ye Xuan followed closely behind him.
The severed-arm zombie from earlier charged wildly toward them. Behind it were three other zombies.
Xia Chenxi grabbed Ye Xuan and ran toward the stairwell, while Ye Xuan was practically dragged forward by him.
The bed board in his hand was heavy and blunt. Ye Xuan simply threw it away and desperately kept up with Xia Chenxi’s pace.
But the zombies were even faster. In just a few steps, they had already reached behind Ye Xuan.
He could even smell that thick, rotten stench.
The severed-arm zombie opened its mouth and pounced at Ye Xuan.
Xia Chenxi pulled Ye Xuan behind him with one hand, while swinging the bed board at the zombie with the other.
Bang.
The zombie was violently smacked into the wall. It twitched a few times, then the sound of its bones cracking rang out. It bent down and charged at them like a dog.
Fortunately, Ye Xuan had already reached the corridor. Using the momentum, he pulled Xia Chenxi inside. The two of them each pushed one side of the door, trying to shut it before the zombie rushed in.
The severed-arm zombie was extremely fast. Its head had already poked inside, and its mouth, stained with sticky blood, kept snapping shut.
Xia Chenxi was quick-eyed and swift-handed. He raised the bed board in his hand and slammed it down, actually smashing the zombie’s head apart directly.
The two of them took that chance to shut the door. The severed-arm zombie’s body and the other zombies were locked outside just like that.
The remaining zombies seemed unwilling to give up and were still scratching at the fire door, making a sharp, piercing noise.
Ye Xuan did not even have time to catch his breath. He lowered his voice and said to Xia Chenxi, “We have to close all the fire doors in the stairwell immediately.”
The whole stairwell was connected from top to bottom. With these zombies making such a loud noise, they would attract even more zombies sooner or later.
“There are fewer zombies upstairs. You go up. Hurry and meet up with me.”
After saying that, Xia Chenxi ran downstairs.
Ye Xuan tightened his grip on the stick and ran upstairs.
There were no zombies in the stairway from the fifth floor to the sixth floor. He immediately locked the sixth-floor fire door.
When he turned back and was about to run to the seventh floor, he saw a zombie standing at the stairway entrance.
Ye Xuan’s hands and feet went cold, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably.
As long as he destroyed the zombie’s central nervous system, it would be fine. Then it would not be able to move.
Use the stick in his hand and stab through its brain.
The zombie lurched down from upstairs.
Ye Xuan felt his throat go dry. In his eyes, there was only the zombie in front of him.
Now.
Ye Xuan raised his hand and thrust the broom handle forward, piercing through the zombie’s brain.
This should work, right?
Before Ye Xuan could even feel happy, he saw the zombie struggling forward without caring at all.
In that instant, Ye Xuan’s mind went completely blank.
It was not dead yet.
The zombie was about to bite his hand. Trembling, Ye Xuan forcefully pulled the broom handle out and stabbed it again. Afraid that he would not kill the zombie, he stabbed back and forth several more times, only stopping when the zombie lay motionless on the ground.
The zombie’s face on the floor had been stabbed into a mess of flesh.
Ye Xuan’s stomach churned. He covered his mouth and held onto the handrail as he walked upstairs. His legs were now weak and limp, as if he were walking on clouds.
He locked the seventh-floor fire door, then went to check the door to the rooftop.
The rooftop door was locked. Ye Xuan cursed inwardly.
If the door had been open, then if Xia Chenxi’s actions failed, they could still hide on the rooftop for a while.
Now he could only hope Xia Chenxi had closed all the doors downstairs.
Ye Xuan braced his hands on his legs, took a breath, and ran downstairs.
There were more zombies below. No matter how strong Xia Chenxi was, he might not necessarily be able to handle them. Ye Xuan had to hurry downstairs to help him.
While going downstairs, Ye Xuan saw several bodies lying on the ground. From the way they looked, they seemed to have been smashed apart in an instant.
This was definitely Xia Chenxi’s work.
Ye Xuan did not stop. He ran all the way to the second floor in one breath. There were even more zombies lying on the second floor, and their deaths were the same as the other zombies he had just seen upstairs. He heard movement from below and hurriedly ran to the corner. There, he saw Xia Chenxi fighting three at once, using a piece of bed board to hold back three zombies.
Xia Chenxi was gasping heavily and looked as if he was about to be unable to hold on. Ye Xuan ran over with the stick and stabbed hard at one of the zombies. But after only one stab, he pulled the broom handle out and quickly ran back up the stairs.
The other two zombies were attracted by Ye Xuan’s movement and turned around to chase him. However, they moved much more slowly on the stairs than on flat ground.
Ye Xuan’s brief harassment was enough. Xia Chenxi caught up and smashed all three zombies to pieces.
The two of them looked at each other in the stairwell, both panting. The broom handle in Ye Xuan’s hand fell to the ground, and his body collapsed.
“Ye Xuan.”
Xia Chenxi crossed the distance to Ye Xuan in a few large strides, then crouched down to check on him.
Ye Xuan shook his head and stared hollowly upward.
“I’m fine. First time fighting zombies. Too nervous. I just ran out of strength.”
“Heh.” Xia Chenxi ran a hand through his hair and leaned against the wall beside Ye Xuan.
“Has your strength always been this great?” Ye Xuan turned his head to look at Xia Chenxi, only then noticing that Xia Chenxi’s forehead was covered in sweat.
“Mm. I was already pretty strong before.”
So he had been born with monstrous strength. Ye Xuan turned his head back.
“But it probably wasn’t to the point where I could easily smash zombies apart.”
Hearing Xia Chenxi’s words, Ye Xuan sat up and faced him.
“What do you mean by that?”
“That night, my head was very dizzy, and I couldn’t control myself. When I smelled the scent on your body, I really wanted to bite you. After I endured that night, I found that the urge to bite you had disappeared. Instead, my strength became very great.”
Xia Chenxi clenched his fist.
“So, you’ve mutated now.”
“Probably.”
This was the first piece of good news Ye Xuan had heard in all these days. Since Xia Chenxi could mutate into a “half-zombie,” then could he do it too?
Ye Xuan’s eyes lit up, and he stretched his hand out in front of Xia Chenxi.
“Xia Chenxi, bite me.”
