The baby cried breathlessly in his arms.
Sinan, unsure how to comfort her, awkwardly rubbed her little belly with two fingers and strode toward the only passage to the roof and terrace – the skylight.
The skylight was covered with wooden boards. After lifting the boards, there was a wooden ladder. The worker’s dormitory facilities were old, and cleaners normally used this ladder to access the terrace.
Zombie hordes continuously poured into the building, now very close to their floor. The baby’s piercing cries were like a dinner bell, attracting more and more zombies rushing upstairs, bringing their rotting stench and bloodiness, stumbling toward the wooden ladder.
Before pulling the trigger, Sinan suddenly remembered something, tore a piece of his clothing into two small balls, and carefully inserted them into the baby’s ears, then shot to break the ladder.
“Roar roar—”
“Roar roar roar—!”
Zombie groups were hit by the two ladder sections, letting out unwilling roars, desperately waving their hands upward.
Sinan slammed the wooden board shut amid the zombies’ stares, sighing in relief.
It was already four-thirty in the morning, the darkest time before dawn. The moon had fallen in the western sky, the stars dim, and the earth like a bloody, gaping abyss.
Si Nan shivered from the cold, glancing at his multi-functional military wristwatch – negative six degrees.
The infant, without thick swaddling, had already turned blue-faced, with a weakened cry. He held the child, found a slightly wind-sheltered corner to sit down, curling his body as much as possible, pressing the tiny body against his chest and abdomen, arms wrapped around, desperately trying to maintain the fragile life with his body heat.
Thirty-two weeks old, with underdeveloped gastrointestinal and cardiopulmonary functions, having experienced so many hardships right after birth – it was hard to imagine if she could survive.
“You must live,” Si Nan murmured, “Your mother is watching us from heaven.”
He glanced at the child’s soft downy head, but didn’t dare to ask Dr. Zheng downstairs loudly, afraid of attracting zombies. After pondering for a while, he had no good solution. He could only lick his ring finger clean, roughly disinfecting it, and then used it as a makeshift nipple for the infant to suck.
The newborn had a strong survival instinct and actually sucked twice, but nothing came out. Feeling deceived, she cried out even louder: “Wah!”
“Oh my,” Si Nan thought, “This little girl is quite picky.”
He gritted his teeth, bit his index finger, squeezed out some blood, and brought it closer to the infant.
This time, at least there was warm liquid.
The baby’s small mouth moved, sucking twice, then started crying again: “Wah—” but the wailing seemed softer, not as heart-rending as before.
Si Nan had no other method, praying for the girl’s digestive function while continuously squeezing blood. Soon unable to extract more from his ring finger, he switched to his pinky, then to the ring finger of his other hand. The infant sucked on his fingertip, like nursing from a mother’s breast, gradually calming down, showing a hint of docility.
Blood at least had some nutrition and could temporarily stave off hunger, but continuous feeding was impossible. Si Nan feared the child might develop gastroenteritis from bacteria on his hands, so he carefully licked his fingers clean before each feeding.
Five-thirty in the morning.
The night slightly receded, the sky dim. Looking down from the top of the building, the zombie mountain and sea from last night became slightly clearer, the devastated factory area revealing a hazy outline.
Si Nan’s consciousness grew fuzzy. He shivered, pulling the infant closer to his body.
Would Zhou Rong come back?
Actually, he wasn’t very confident.
Zhou Rong’s motivation for returning was hardly convincing, but reasons not to return were plentiful.
He must deliver the anti-virus documents and serum to the South China Sea, lead his team to protect two vehicles of survivors, and as a special forces squadron leader, could save more civilians in the future.
But he was Zhou Rong.
He was that Zhou Rong who laughed and scolded, who moved forward with hope in this dark world, whom everyone in the team would follow with their lives.
Si Nan exhaled a long white breath, looking up and scanning the zombie ocean.
This was a motion he had repeated countless times in the past hour, but this time, his gaze suddenly stopped.
At the end of the distant highway, blindingly bright headlights suddenly appeared, approaching with a roaring engine. Zombies had no time to avoid being ground into the chassis, a road of rotting flesh and crushed bones stretching endlessly behind the vehicle.
The vehicle headed directly toward the isolated fertilizer factory surrounded by zombies, then the window lowered, revealing a shoulder-mounted mortar—
Boom!
Where the shell landed, the zombie horde exploded, countless undead torn and flung into the air!
The firelight was like a brilliant firework in the night, pushing forward against the overwhelming zombie tide. Gunsmoke and artillery fire, the headlights like a blade from the end of the long night, cutting through the sea of death and flesh, unstoppable between heaven and earth.
The transmitter’s other end was fixed on the car roof by Zhou Rong using a high-pressure magnetic base, with the rope connecting to the top of a ten-story building, creating a bridge of life under the vast sky. Si Nan rebounded the baby to his back with a cloth strip, asking Chun Cao: “You first or me first?”
Chun Cao was searching the room for rope to tie up Doctor Zheng: “You!”
Si Nan took a deep breath, patted the baby’s bottom, and whispered: “May your mother bless you, please don’t fall.” He then tightened his tactical gloves and leaped into the air, grabbing the rope.
The wind howled, lifting his sideburns, and his coat billowed, descending thirty meters at lightning speed. Zhou Rong knelt on one knee to stabilize his center of gravity and caught Si Nan in his arms!
Zhou Rong: “Good!”
The falling force made them both lie down on the car roof, with Si Nan pressing on Zhou Rong, their faces just centimeters apart.
The sea of zombies retreated like defeated soldiers, the remaining artillery fire slowly rising, gunpowder smoke spreading towards the distant sky, all reflected in Zhou Rong’s smiling eyes. At that moment, they gazed into each other’s eyes, and Si Nan lowered his head to touch Zhou Rong’s lips.
It was a kiss that lasted but an instant.
The vast, gloomy world froze at that moment, breaking into countless fragments, scattering in the wind.
Chun Cao trembled: “In broad daylight, under the clear sky, have they… have they forgotten about us?”
Doctor Zheng urged: “Quick, let’s leave while Zhou’s team hasn’t retrieved the rope!”
Chun Cao came to her senses, tightening the rope, afraid it wouldn’t support an adult’s weight. She signaled Doctor Zheng to hold onto her shoulders and back, not wanting him to fall from mid-air if the bedsheet fabric broke.
Doctor Zheng hesitated: “Maybe I should…”
“No nonsense, hold tight,” Chun Cao laughed.
Doctor Zheng wanted to say he would have a daughter of similar age, but in the critical moment, he could only gasp and grab Chun Cao’s shoulders – feeling the incredibly hard bones beneath, the girl’s thin muscle layer tenser than stone, seemingly containing infinite explosive power.
Chun Cao grabbed the rope, stood on the windowsill, and with a “hey,” leaped into the air!
- Boom!
A few seconds later, Chun Cao was face-down, solidly crashed on the car roof, nearly crushed by Doctor Zheng.
“Oh, daughter!” Zhou Rong put away the grappling gun, crouching nearby with false concern: “Let daddy see if you’re hurt, does it pain?”
