Dark clouds obscured the moonlight, plunging the entire world into darkness. The wind moaned, carrying faint howls from afar to the half-finished, crumbling building a few hundred meters from the signal tower. Beneath the broken stone slabs in the building, faint specks of dim yellow light flickered, accompanied by soft inhalations.
“Captain… I’m fine… just a fracture, nothing serious.” Da Sheng leaned against the hard, icy stone slab, struggling to breathe.
“Don’t speak.” Kang Cheng wrapped another layer of the strap around his leg.
Da Sheng gritted his molars and pushed Kang Cheng away with all his strength. “You guys go. Fix the machine, then come back for me.”
“Xiao Yao stays. The rest of you, come with me.” Kang Cheng patted his leg.
“No, I can—”
“This is an order!” Kang Cheng lowered his voice and looked up at him.
Da Sheng stared with bloodshot eyes, unable to speak. He knew how dangerous it was near the signal tower. They were already short-handed, yet they had to leave someone behind to watch over him.
“Get ready.” Kang Cheng lifted the backpack beside him. “Check your gear.”
“Clack… clack clack…”
A few almost imperceptible thuds suddenly rang out.
Kang Cheng froze and looked up.
A mutant was clawing through the gaps between the heavy stones, sniffing its way inward.
“——Aaaaaaaah!”
“What kind of screech is that!” Zhu Gaofei kicked the man who was screaming.
“There’s… a sound!” The man trembled and clutched Zhu Gaofei’s leg, collapsing to the ground.
“Where’s the sound?” Zhu Gaofei frowned.
“The bathroom! The bathroom!” the man shouted.
“What kind of cowardice is this? I could scare you just by peeing,” Jiang Xinghuai said, pushing open the bathroom door, his face full of disbelief.
The man froze, then his face turned red, then pale. He stood there for a moment, lowered his head, and walked away.
“Where’s Fu Yan?” Jiang Xinghuai asked.
“Uncle Fu is upstairs polishing shoes,” Zhu Gaofei said, making a face toward the third floor. “At a time like this, still polishing shoes.”
“Oh.” Jiang Xinghuai chuckled, “He really is good at polishing shoes.”
“Wow, polishing shoes is some amazing skill, huh? Look at you admiring him.” Zhu Gaofei poked his chest with a serious face. “Don’t get so close to him. He’s old. You’re young, but you still cling to him?”
“Who’s old? Who’s old?” Jiang Xinghuai scowled, clearly upset. “Can you even talk?”
“Hey! You—” Zhu Gaofei laughed angrily. “Fine, fine. Don’t speak, you little hothead.”
“Who’s a dog? You say who’s a dog!” Jiang Xinghuai jabbed his finger into Zhu Gaofei’s chest, forcing him to step back until someone grabbed the back of Jiang Xinghuai’s neck.
Jiang Xinghuai turned around: “Who’s grabbing me!”
“Want an apple?” Fu Yan released his hand from the back of Jiang Xinghuai’s collar and pinched his cheek.
“…Sure.” Jiang Xinghuai took the apple, rubbing his face. “Where did this come from?”
“I hid it.” Fu Yan said.
“You take some, too.” Jiang Xinghuai bit into the apple and passed it to him.
“You eat.” Fu Yan said.
“You eat.” Jiang Xinghuai replied.
“You eat.” Fu Yan said again.
“You eat.” Jiang Xinghuai said in return.
Zhu Gaofei: “…………”
“Ahhhhh!” A shrill scream came from the bathroom.
“What are you screaming about now!” Zhu Gaofei recognized it was the same man as before. He was thoroughly annoyed. “Da Chun, go check it out!”
Da Chun grabbed a rope, ready to tie up the man.
But when he entered the bathroom, all he saw was the trash can overturned on the floor. There was no sign of anyone.
Except—
The night wind whistling in.
Da Chun spun around sharply, looking at the broken window.
“Ahhh—Fei Ge!”
Da Chun’s voice carried through the hall.
Zhu Gaofei rushed into the bathroom, only managing to grab Da Chun’s lower leg, which was being dragged out the window.
“Ahhh—” Da Chun struggled violently.
“Someone! Grab a gun!!” Zhu Gaofei gritted his teeth and shouted, leaning back with his entire body, feet braced against the wall, using his weight to pull with all his strength.
Lei Pengtao steadied the panicked crowd in the hall, then rushed into the bathroom and quickly locked the door from the inside.
“Godfather!!” Jiang Xinghuai lunged toward the door, his heart instantly freezing as if it had dropped into a chasm.
Everything had happened too suddenly.
After a few gunshots, the struggling and shouting in the bathroom stopped.
“Godfather! Godfather!” Jiang Xinghuai couldn’t stand the sudden silence and pounded on the door with all his strength.
The next second.
The bathroom door was flung open by Lei Pengtao. Jiang Xinghuai rushed in, but Lei Pengtao held him back.
Zhu Gaofei was leaning against the bathroom floor. Hearing Jiang Xinghuai’s voice, he looked up and smiled faintly, just like usual, then said, “Go out, Xing Xing.”
Jiang Xinghuai froze for a moment, seeing three scratches on Zhu Gaofei’s wrist, clawed by nails, still bleeding.
“Mutant,” Lei Pengtao said, his face grim. “It ran away.”
Blood rushed to Jiang Xinghuai’s head, and his entire body went numb. As he fell to his knees, Fu Yan caught him.
“Bre… breathe…” Jiang Xinghuai opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
“Breathe!” Fu Yan slapped his face hard. “Breathe! Jiang Xinghuai!”
Finally, Jiang Xinghuai reacted, taking a deep, sharp breath. He raised his trembling hands and grabbed Fu Yan: “Take my blood, take my blood!”
“Step aside.” Zheng Yi came running over, carrying a refrigerated medical kit.
By now, Zhu Gaofei’s mind was no longer very clear. He looked toward Jiang Xinghuai, a veil of darkness slowly covering his vision. He raised his hand, then let it fall again.
Zheng Yi took out a vial of temporary suppressant, quickly injected it directly into an artery.
Zhu Gaofei gasped sharply, eyes wide, the veins on his neck bulging one by one.
“It might work… or it might kill him faster,” Zheng Yi said, holding Zhu Gaofei in place while calling to others, “Tie him up.”
The crowd in the hall completely erupted when they saw Zhu Gaofei being carried in, bound.
Everyone was terrified.
Fear brings not only timidity, but also anger.
“How can he stay with us after being bitten!”
“Throw him out!”
“He has the virus! We’ll all get infected!”
When the crowd erupted in chaos, no explanation could be heard.
Zhu Gaofei’s more than ten brothers aimed their guns at the people they had once protected.
Some began to calm down and started inciting the rest.
“This location is already exposed. We can’t stay here. They have weapons. We should get them, drive, and break through!”
“Right, we run ourselves! Those monsters aren’t faster than a car, are they?”
Some of the men began to agree.
The whole situation lasted only half a minute. Then six or seven men rushed forward and grabbed four guns.
None of them could really fire at their own people.
Then they watched as those six or seven men opened the heavy doors and went out.
From outside the thick doors came the sound of a car starting, but immediately followed by—
“Ahhhhh—”
“Shoot! Shoot!”
“Help! Monsters! Help!”
“Ahhhhh!”
Amidst a few chaotic gunshots, the screams didn’t stop.
After all the sounds ceased, chewing noises began at the doorway—meat being torn, bones being gnawed, clear and brutal.
Some of the women couldn’t handle the horror and fainted on the spot.
Every door in the house was blocked with heavy objects, and all the windows had been reinforced. But this was a mutant.
It had already found them.
The wood and metal mesh used to reinforce the windows could not stop it.
“How many weapons do we have left?” Lei Pengtao looked in the direction of several windows.
“Not many,” Binzi, standing next to Zhu Gaofei, said. “We don’t have much ammo left.”
“Each person takes a position. We have to hold them,” Lei Pengtao began assigning positions.
Zhu Gaofei wasn’t in good shape. He kept breathing, but nothing seemed to get in.
Jiang Xinghuai could even hear the dry, wheezing sounds coming from his chest, yet there was nothing he could do.
Outside, the mutant began its probing attack.
The windows started to shatter, and the front door rattled.
Jiang Xinghuai gripped his pistol tightly, standing in front of Zhu Gaofei, gasping for air, teeth clenched, eyes fixed on the pane of glass directly ahead that was about to break.
“Crack—”
The glass began to splinter from a central point. In that instant, through the slowly widening crack, Jiang Xinghuai saw the skull opening its mouth.
He pulled the trigger.
The bullet, wrapped in blazing fire, flew straight into the mutant’s mouth.
“Bang!” A sharp, inhuman scream pierced the air.
“Well done.” Lei Pengtao turned from his post and gave Jiang Xinghuai a thumbs-up.
Jiang Xinghuai forced a smile, then looked back at Zhu Gaofei, who was breathing in pain. Fu Yan was holding a silver needle near Zhu Gaofei’s convulsing throat.
Soon, Zhu Gaofei could breathe normally again.
But Jiang Xinghuai’s expression didn’t soften at all.
A black mist was spreading outward from Zhu Gaofei’s dark pupils.
That was a symptom of the infection.
Suddenly, a red light reflected in Zhu Gaofei’s eyes.
Jiang Xinghuai froze for a moment and quickly turned his head.
Outside the broken window, a dazzling red light streaked across the distant darkness of the long night.
It almost illuminated half the night sky.
“That’s the captain’s signal flare! They’re coming back.” Lei Pengtao shouted in excitement. “They’ve contacted headquarters!”
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