Chapter 26: The Zombie's Revenge

"I can barely survive myself, let alone worry about killing someone!"

On the second floor, a burly man was picking up a stool from the room to smash it against the woman beside him. The woman had a slender figure and long, shapely legs. However, on the right side of her face, a hideous scar stretched from her jawline all the way to her right forehead, with a portion of it crossing over her eye, which was covered by a cloth patch. It was hard to imagine what kind of horrific sight lay beneath that fabric. As her expression shifted, the scar writhed like a twisted worm.

The woman watched coldly as the man swung the stool toward her. A dull thud echoed through the room, yet she did not collapse to the floor as the man had expected; instead, she looked at him with even greater disdain.

"I must have been blind to ever fall for you."

Enraged by her gaze, the burly man swept everything off the small wooden table in front of him and stepped toward the woman, ready to strike her. A teddy bear was knocked to the floor, rolling to the feet of a little girl. The girl, who had been tied to a chair with rope, finally lost her composure and began to wail loudly.

"Daddy, where are you? Xue misses you..."

Rapid, chaotic footsteps echoed from the staircase. Listening closely, one could tell it wasn't just one person. Xiao Qi surged to the front, pushing the stunned, burly man aside to comfort the girl named Xue. Li Ye flicked his fingers, and the candlelight flickering on the second floor transformed into thin threads, binding the man and the woman. Xue Ning and her two companions seized the opportunity to rush forward, pinning them into a corner where they could not move.

This makeshift, unrefined team had, in the silence, already begun to show hints of coordination—though, for Li Ye, it was mostly unnecessary.

"Who are you? What are you doing?" the immobilized man warned in a low voice, though the panic in his eyes betrayed his weakness. The scarred woman, however, offered no resistance at all; seeing Li Ye and his group break in so abruptly, she actually let out a sigh of relief.

"Stop crying, Brother Xiao Qi is here. Be a good girl."

The girl’s limbs were bound by rope. Perhaps from shock, she began to twitch and shake slightly, causing the chair beneath her to sway. Xiao Qi held her in his arms to comfort her, but he could not stop the girl’s body from trembling. Suo Hao turned his head, hearing the creaking of the chair, and couldn't help but remark, "Are kids this energetic when they're upset?"

But soon, he noticed something wrong, his voice filled with doubt and disbelief. "Xiao Qi, why don't you... let her go first?"

Li Ye seemed to sense something as well. He turned his head toward them and suddenly said in a deep voice, "Xiao Qi, let go."

Having been eager to comfort her, Xiao Qi had initially assumed the girl in his arms was simply terrified. But now that he had calmed down, he realized that Xue's trembling and twitching had not ceased. Furthermore, this trembling did not look like the full-body shaking of an ordinary person in fear. Instead, her ten fingers, shoulders, arms, legs, head, and torso were all twitching at different amplitudes!

He instinctively looked down at the girl’s small face, and in an instant, he felt as if he had fallen into an icy abyss, collapsing backward onto the floor.

That was not a human face at all!

The girl, who had been wailing just moments ago, now wore a wide grin. Her plump apple cheeks split open along the corners of her mouth, and her eyeballs darted around erratically, shifting up and down. Li Ye pulled Xiao Qi behind him, staring at the girl—who could barely be called human—as if facing a formidable enemy.

An awkward, distorted voice emanated from her hollow mouth, sending a chill through everyone present.

"Peo... ple... die..."

...

Several hundred meters away, a middle-aged man was navigating the area with a flashlight, his steps hurried and anxious. Not far ahead, he happened to find a specialty shop from Jiangning. When his light hit the sign, his face brightened, and he paid no mind to the tightly closed rolling metal door.

Taking a deep breath, his right arm suddenly thickened, and he slammed it into the door, tearing through the metal as if it were fragile paper. The man stepped inside quickly, his flashlight beam revealing that most of the shelves were already empty.

But the rolling door had been closed?

The man pondered for a moment before shouting loudly, "Is anyone there? I'm just here for some food! I’ll leave as soon as I have it!"

The darkness remained silent and deep, save for the metallic clanging of the broken rolling door as it was buffeted by the wind.

"I live not far from here; I’ve frequented this place often."

"I beg you, it's not for me—it's for my little daughter. She’s starving to death. Please, I implore you to have mercy."

Yu Chen did not act rashly; he simply stated the facts calmly, his booming voice piercing through the red mist. Deep in the darkness of the specialty shop, whispers began to stir, quite some distance from Yu Chen. Under normal circumstances, an ordinary person wouldn't have heard them, but Yu Chen was no longer ordinary.

"Grandpa, should we give it to him? Judging by the voice, that's Uncle Chen."

In the shadows, a young boy hid in a corner, whispering to an old man beside him.

The old man struggled with the decision, his brows furrowed in distress, his already wrinkled face twisting even further. In the apocalypse, edible food was equivalent to life itself, and now, someone was trying to claim a piece of your lifespan. How could one not struggle?

Two minutes passed. Seeing that the grandfather and grandson had not replied, Yu Chen’s heart sank into turmoil. He stared in the direction where they were hiding and took a difficult step toward them.

Just then, two canned goods clattered out of the darkness and rolled to his feet. Yu Chen picked them up with delight. He stopped moving and called out in that direction:

"I cannot thank you enough. After tonight, I will find a way to get you to a safe place."

The two did not answer. Yu Chen didn't say anything more and turned to leave. Before he left, he even bent the torn metal door back into place, though it was still a bit drafty.

Yu Chen began to jog, murmuring, "Xue, wait for me."

The street by the Xiushui River was not wide. Before the apocalypse, it was meant only for pedestrians, roughly ten meters across—theoretically wide enough for at least ten adults to walk side-by-side. But because it was in the old district, Yu Chen had never seen this street crowded before the apocalypse.

But today, he did.

The ground beneath his feet began to vibrate inexplicably, and just a short distance ahead lay his old house. With his enhanced vision, he beheld a vision of hell he would never be able to forget for the rest of his life!

An uncountable number of zombies were rushing down the street in swarms, side-by-side, their movements agile and swift—nothing like the slow, clumsy creatures they had been just days ago. Among them were even a few bizarre, monstrous variants Yu Chen had never seen before. The entire horde of zombies stretched all the way to the entrance of the street, forming a terrifying, one-way tidal wave of the undead!

*Clatter...*

The cans Yu Chen had been clutching tightly in his hands dropped, rolling toward the tide of zombies. His legs felt as if they had been planted into the ground, unable to move another step. Yu Chen looked instinctively toward his old house, his mouth opening and closing unconsciously.

Finally, a blood-curdling cry of agony erupted from his throat:

"Xue! Run!"