AFTCKCTCKATD - Chapter 7

 

Chapter 7

“It Couldn’t Be That He Got Lost On His Way To Kill Us, Right?”

As the sky gradually turned brighter, the sweltering heat in the air became more evident. Within half an hour, the temperature had climbed by at least a dozen degrees, making the very air scorchingly hot.

Most of the zombies around the apartment complex were drawn over to the gate. Everyplace else was relatively safe. They walked forward on the one-way street for quite a while and only saw two or three zombies. It was easy for the cautious group to avoid them.

As they left the residential area, the number of zombies on the road gradually increased, causing the group to slow their pace.

Following the general direction that had been long ago determined, the group advanced in silence, intending to reach the city outskirts before ten in the morning.

By six o’clock, the sun was already visible on the horizon, and the temperature had reached the 30s.

As the temperature increased, the crowd had no choice but to begin re-hydrating, but even as they did so, their throats remained parched and sore, their bodies screaming out for more moisture. When the body had been deprived of water for so long, a sip or two was meaningless.

After sharing the last bit of water with Ji An, Ji Yanqing put him down and let him follow behind. He took turns with Xia Shen Shu and the others to lead the way.

Ji An was very sensible, neither making a fuss nor dawdling, and following closely without needing to be worried about at all. It was clear that he had often followed along by himself before.

As they continued their journey, by around 8:00 PM, the temperature outside had reached a sweltering forty degrees Celsius when they noticed something peculiar: the number of zombies around them was dwindling.

After moving forward for a while and still not seeing any zombies, Ji Yan couldn’t help but become increasingly cautious. He also turned his head back to offer a word of caution.

Everyone else also discovered the abnormality. If it were happening outside the city, they might have been happy, but this was the middle of the city.

The surrounding buildings weren’t so old. The first floors of these buildings were lined with shops. There were car wash and repair shops, as well as ones that sold chemical fertilizers and pesticides. While the area wasn’t bustling with activity, it definitely shouldn’t be a deserted wasteland.

About ten minutes of walking later, the straight road ahead opened up at an intersection.

Ji Yanqing, who was leading the way, skillfully paused at the corner and slowly poked his head out to take a look. The others stayed vigilant while being ready to follow him at any time.

Sticking his head out, Ji Yanqing saw what was around the corner, and his scalp went numb. At the same time, he instantly understood why there were no zombies around.

He swiftly gestured for them to retreat.

The team members were perplexed, but still immediately retreated.

After retreating three hundred meters, the group hid behind a safe corner that they had previously passed and looked at Ji Yanqing.

“School.” explained Ji Yanqing, not waiting for the question to be asked.

Upon hearing that one word, everyone’s faces turned grim.

In a city filled with humans and overrun with flesh-eating monsters, there’s no shortage of danger. However, the most dangerous locales are unsurprisingly the densely populated areas, such as schools, train stations, hospitals, and tourist attractions.

The city’s primary schools have at least four to five thousand students when added up. If you add in the middle schools and high schools, the number easily exceeds ten thousand. A few dozen or a hundred zombies is a completely different scenario than several thousand zombies.

The reason why there were no zombies around was that they were all drawn to the school. The school bell had been programmed to play automatically, and after the outbreak of the virus- until whatever power source it used ran out- it had continued to ring regularly.

Under the sun, a thin layer of sweat appeared on everyone’s foreheads. They were already on edge, and now they didn’t even dare to breathe loudly.

Xia Shen Shu pointed without making a sound toward the direction they came from, “Shall we go back the same way?”

Ji Yanqing shook his head lightly, pointing in the direction of the reservoir, choosing to go around directly.

They must find water by noon tomorrow at the latest; they had no more time to waste.

When reminded, everyone’s already parched throats grew even drier and itchier. Most of them no longer had any water.

Everyone hurriedly mustered their energy and followed, not daring to make the slightest mistake.

If possible, they would rather not take this risk, but now, they truly had no other choice.

It was almost 9 AM, and soon the hottest part of the day – between 10 and 11 AM, would be upon them. Without any water, they would only survive a day under the 60-70 degree temperatures. There’s no way they could survive until midday tomorrow.

Everyone was in motion when suddenly, the sound of shattering glass erupted from five to six hundred meters behind them, breaking the silence.

In that split second, everyone, including Ji Yanqing, was stunned.

Then, everyone’s faces turned as dark as charcoal.

As expected, in the next moment, rustling sounds mixed with low growls came from their right. The zombies in the school were alerted.

“Go upstairs!” The first thing Ji Yanqing did was run towards the nearby staircase[ e/n: he’s like a lil squirrel, always seeking safety in the trees ].

The house here is a four-legged courtyard-styled rental property, with an open-air corridor leading to a row of small apartment units. There were no iron gates underneath the stairwell, and there was no way anyone could hide within the corridor.

Taking three steps at a time, Ji Yanqing lightly ascended to the second floor and tried to look for a room he could enter.

Walking upstairs, Ji Yanqing’s line of sight barely glanced forward before meeting a strange face. There was someone on the other end of the hall’s staircase.

The man opposite also paused for a while, never expecting to encounter a human here.

The next moment, Xia Shen Shu and the others rushed up to the second floor.

Simultaneously, Ji Yanzhen rapidly rushed at the opposite person. The axe in his hand was swung out, severing the neck of a zombie that had snuck up behind the stranger.

Across from them, there were two people being attacked by two zombies. One of them had already been bitten and was trying to get up from the ground.

Ji Yanqing wasn’t attacking for the sake of being a hero; it’s just that he had no other choice. The zombies in the school had been completely alerted, and the sounds of growling and shuffling feet were getting closer. It was likely that the creatures were already downstairs at the residential building. Their only route was through this group.

If they made any noise at this point, the zombies would immediately find them.

Seeing Ji Yanqing rushing up without saying a word to just start hacking, the man who had not been bitten instinctively raised his dagger, only to discover in the next moment that Ji Yanqing’s target was not him, so he quickly moved out of the way.

Ji Yanqing chopped off the head of one of the zombies with a single stroke of his axe, then used the momentum to swing the axe at the head of another who was trying to get up off the ground. The bitten man had completely turned at this point.

“Over here!” Lan Zi confirmed that there were no zombies in one of the open rooms on the second floor and took the lead to enter.

The others filed in, and the stranger glanced at Ji Yanqing before following suit.

Ji Yanqing swung the axe with ease onto the head of the animated corpse on the ground. His strength was great, and coupled with the destructive power of the axe itself, the person’s head was completely caved in.

Xia Shen Shu rushed towards the corpse on the ground.

In the courtyard downstairs, zombies could already be seen. Those young figures clad in school uniforms [ e/n: cough... has anyone watched ‘All of Us are Dead’? great Korean zombie drama set in a school. Prolly best zombie content I’ve ever watched. Train to busan is pretty dope too. I watched Train to Busan after watching Brad Pitt’s ‘Bullet Train’, also pretty good... anyway.. https://asianwiki.com/All_of_Us_Are_Dead] did not evoke pity, but rather a creepy sensation. This was because their numbers were simply too great.

Xia Shen-Shu grabbed the deceased man’s backpack on the ground and picked up something else from the side before rushing to Lan Zi. Ji Yan-qing finished off the last zombie before quickly following behind.

When they entered the door, Lan Zi, who had been waiting at the door while gripping the door handle, quickly shut the door.

Her movements were small, afraid of making any noise.

The moment she closed the door without a word, everyone’s hearts in the room ached with anticipation.

“Clang!” Noises echoed in the stairwell. The zombies downstairs were drawn to the smell of blood in the corridor and charged up the stairs.

Inside the house, everyone couldn’t help but get goosebumps from the sounds that seemed to urge them towards their deaths. They all tried their best to breathe as quietly as they could, not even daring to move a single muscle.

The person who had been infected by the virus earlier had his head smashed in by Ji Yanqing. There was no way he could get back up from the ground, but the fresh, bloody scent of his yet-to-be fully mutated body still attracted a crowd of zombies, who were gnawing on him like they had come across a gourmet meal.

The whole encounter went on for a considerable amount of time, with other zombies showing up to fight for the scraps.

After the flesh was gnawed clean, those zombies seemed to descend the stairs, heading towards the back. There seemed to be something in that direction, where occasional noises could still be heard.

When it was confirmed that they were temporarily safe, everyone’s foreheads were already drenched in sweat.

Ji Yanqing glanced at Ji An, who was right next to him, and patted his head. Ji An was very obedient. His little face had long since turned pale with fright, but he had not made a sound from beginning to end.

When his head was touched, Ji An’s ears turned slightly red.

Ji Yanqing looked at Xia Shen Shu.

After verifying its safety, Xia Shen Shu removed the object he had just daringly picked up; it was a pistol. He removed the magazine to examine it and tried loading it; it was still usable.

Recognizing what it was, everyone’s eyes in the room lit up.

The pistol would create a large amount of noise when fired, but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages in such an extreme environment. After all, just having one is equivalent to having more bargaining chips to save one’s life.

Ji Yanqing’s attention was not on the pistol, but on Xia Shen Shu.

Xia Shen Shu’s series of clean and neat actions did not seem like the movements of one who was unfamiliar with firearms. But before the virus outbreak, an ordinary person could not come into contact with firearms casually, so who exactly was Xia Shen Shu?

After confirming that the gun was still usable, Xia Shen Shu then emptied out the backpack he had picked up.

The backpack contained mostly useless items, no food or water, but it did have a magazine and a small bag of loose bullets.

Xia Shen Shu counted the number of bullets; including the ones in the gun, there were twenty-seven in total. It wasn’t a lot, but it wasn’t too few either.

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Just as Xia Shen Shu was rejoicing, he suddenly seemed to remember something and looked up at Ji Yanqing.

His gaze met Ji Yanqing’s dark eyes, and he hesitated for a moment before handing him the gun.

Ji Yanqing is the Captain.

“No, keep it.” Ji Yanqing lightly refused.

For a moment, Xia Shen Shu’s expression turned a little strange. Then, he began to chuckle. He didn’t say anything, only put the gun away carefully.

Everyone who watched the interaction couldn’t help but feel envious.

Ji Yanqing looked at the stranger sitting alone in one corner of the room. The man was in his thirties, male, with a kind face. However, in this kind of environment, it was hard to say for sure.

Seeing Ji Yanqing looking at him, he chuckled.

When the others noticed, they also looked at him.

“We escaped from the city next-door and just got here late last night. Our team encountered a Corpse King in the city next-door, and in less than a few minutes, a team of hundreds was killed until only half remained alive... That thing took pleasure in torturing us and chased us all the way here. We originally intended to bring him to this city so that he could fight with the Corpse King here; however, as you can see, that didn’t happen.”

The other party’s words contained so much information that Ji Yanqing and the others were stunned for a moment.

Ji Yanqing quickly caught the main point, “There’s a corpse king in this city?”

“You guys didn’t know?” The man was very surprised.

Ji Yanqing looked at the others, and everyone’s face was paper white.

If what the other party said was true, then them being alive and well till now was nothing short of a heaven-sent miracle.

When he saw the astonishment in Ji Yanqing’s eyes, the stranger was even more incredulous. “The Corpse King in this city can be said to be the strongest and most ferocious among the known Corpse Kings. He has killed more than a dozen of his own kind, and all the search and rescue teams are avoiding him. I thought everyone knew of him.”

“I’ve heard about him...” Lan Zi said, “It’s said that after he kills another corpse king, he would wander in the city where that corpse king resided, lingering inexplicably, until he moved on to a new city.”

“That’s right, that’s him. He arrived in this city not too long ago,” the person said. “Have you really not encountered him?”

Ji Yanqing shook his head lightly.

The stranger’s complexion was not good. His team had lured the Corpse King here, risking their lives with a desperate gamble. If there wasn’t Corpse King in this city…

Xia Shen Shu and his companions’ faces grew ugly. No one could be happy knowing there was a Corpse King in their city.

“Are you sure there’s not one here?” The man was unwilling to accept their words.

“Fortunately, we didn’t run into him, or we would’ve died long ago.” Xia Shen Shu then remarked lightly, “Maybe he got lost on his way to kill us.”

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Author’s Note:

Feng Yimo: Very busy, do not cue[e/n: ‘cue’ here was in english].

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