Yan Hao glanced back. Si Nan’s madness and ruthlessness had passed, replaced by an unnaturally cold expression: “You can’t get out alone. Dr. Ning will send Zhou Rong to the helicopter, I’ll help you fight down to the ground floor, drive to find Spring Grass and Guo Weixiang. Chen Yajing should already be arranging the retreat. We’ll meet at the port after getting in the car.”
Yan Hao didn’t hesitate, grabbing Si Nan’s hand: “No!”
Ning Yu scolded: “The serum’s antitoxic properties don’t mean you won’t die. What if you’re torn apart by zombies?”
Yan Hao raised his hand and slapped the magazine: “No! You…”
The iron door was pounded, making a loud clanging sound. Si Nan pointed at Yan Hao: “Take care of yourself!”
A metallic scraping sound rose from the ground as the door bolt began to bend.
Yan Hao slammed the magazine, chambered a round, and just as the sound fell, the door bolt exploded in front of him.
Boom—the iron door finally gave way!
In the black night, the assault rifle muzzle burst with fire, shooting the zombies climbing to the rooftop in the head.
But quickly, more zombies climbed up, stepping on their companions’ corpses, rushing forward frantically.
Ning Yu pushed Zhou Rong onto the back seat, shouting a couple of times, “Captain Zhou!” Seeing no effect, he slapped him a few times but there was still no sign of awakening. Looking back at the zombie situation, he was immediately terrified: “Si Nan! Come back!”
His voice was drowned out by the assault rifle fire. Yan Hao was shooting while retreating, but the bullets could not deter the zombies.
After a short pause in gunfire, Yan Hao shouted, “Out of ammo!”
Si Nan drew out two triangular combat knives with both hands: “Protect Dr. Ning, fall back!”
As the last word fell, he had already leaped forward, the special forces-designed triangular blade silently piercing into two zombies’ skulls, like a hot knife through butter, easily pulling out amid spraying black blood lines.
The zombie horde surged forward, biting his right wrist. The next second, he stabbed its throat from below with the knife tip, instantly piercing the brain!
Although the likelihood was that nothing would happen, the moment blood was drawn, Yan Hao’s pupils involuntarily dilated.
“Get back here, damn it!” Ning Yu roared in fury.
But Yan Hao remained deaf to the call.
Seven or eight zombies staggered towards him from all directions. Yan Hao stopped breathing and struck hard with the unloaded assault rifle. The front zombie’s brains splattered, and before the others could open their mouths, Yan Hao grabbed their necks and twisted them with a snap!
Ning Yu’s ears buzzed, all the fighting and roaring transforming into grotesque shots from a horror movie. The zombies’ hideous mouths were sometimes far away, sometimes right in front of his eyes, tearing his consciousness into countless fragmented pieces.
He trembled all over, unable to grasp anything.
He wanted to rush down and grab Si Nan, drag him back to the helicopter, but that figure was quickly swallowed by the whirlpool of corpses, unable to even see where he was.
It’s over, a crystal-clear thought rose in Ning Yu’s mind.
This time, it was truly over.
In Ning Yu’s imagination, the best scenario was to immediately fly away with Si Nan, and as long as they found a suitable experimental environment, he could quickly cultivate a vaccine using the serum.
But if Si Nan died, hope would truly be cut off.
Ning Yu opened the cabin door, stumbling down from the aircraft. His legs were already weak, and he almost fell upon landing, coincidentally dodging a zombie lunging at him.
“Si Nan,” Ning Yu got up in a sorry state, tearing his throat with a desperate roar: “Si Nan—! Come back!”
Suddenly, a scream came from behind. Ning Yu whipped around to see Zhou Rong slam a zombie hard on the ground, crushing its skull.
“Are you trying to kill yourself, Doctor?!” Zhou Rong cursed hoarsely in the helicopter’s roar, shoving Ning Yu back into the cabin.
Ning Yu screamed frantically: “Bring your wife back! Get him back!!”
Zhou Rong briefly replied: “I know.”
Zhou Rong slammed the cabin door shut with a loud bang, cutting a zombie climbing nearby in half, then turned and walked towards the zombie horde without looking back.
The number of zombies on the rooftop grew, and Si Nan could no longer distinguish which sticky blood belonged to him and which was splattered from the zombies. Blood and rotting flesh mixed together, making his military boots sticky with each step. The only clean part left was his pair of triangular blades.
They emerged bloodied but still sharp, stabbing into skulls and easily pulling out, with countless zombies falling at his feet.
A familiar sharp pain came from his upper arm, with the sensation of blood loss only dully transmitting to his brain seconds later. Si Nan killed the zombie biting his arm without letting go, but before he could pull out the blade, his shoulder was bitten again.
There were just too many.
Si Nan gritted his teeth and struggled but couldn’t break free. Pain pierced his arm, side, and thigh, unable to distinguish how many zombies were grabbing him.
Exhaling bloody hot air from his nostrils, Si Nan thrust the triangular blade into a zombie’s temple, then grabbed its dirty hair and violently flipped it, using the body to sweep away the zombies biting him.
Bang! The zombie’s bones shattered, Si Nan pulled out the blade from its temple, wobbling and dropping to one knee, using the knife tip to stabilize his tilting body.
Zombies continued to surge like a tide from all directions.
He closed his eyes, then opened them, raising a face made exceptionally cold and stern by the blood streaks.
Just then, someone grabbed him from behind. Si Nan reflexively crossed his knife to stab, but stopped at the last critical moment, narrowing his eyes.
It was Zhou Rong!
In the darkness, they could barely recognize each other by intuition. Zhou Rong ruthlessly tore open the throat of the zombie behind Si Nan with his bare hands, threw away the corpse, and bent down to pick up Si Nan, breathing heavily as he ran backward.
“Let… ” Si Nan’s throat was choked with blood as soon as he spoke, each word carrying a bloody hoarseness: “Let me go!”
Zhou Rong shook his head without a word.
“Put me down!”
“Brother Rong will take you away,” Zhou Rong gasped amid the jostling, “We won’t… won’t care about anyone else, come on, Brother Rong will take you away, be good.”
Si Nan could no longer tolerate it: “Who are you fooling!
“
Zhou Rong laughed, this smile appearing on his handsome brow and resolute lips, with a hint of heartbreaking desolation.
Yan Hao’s roar erupted from nearby: “Brother Rong, be careful!!”
Zhou Rong suddenly stopped. In the night, heads surged before his eyes, ghostly shadows blocking their path to the helicopter.
“We’re surrounded,” Zhou Rong surveyed the area, “We’re done for, we’ll die here today.”
Si Nan tried to get down but was desperately held by Zhou Rong. This embrace eliminated their last possibility of struggling like a cornered beast. Si Nan shouted next to his ear: “What are you doing?”
Zhou Rong laughed in response: “When we’re about to be eaten, I’ll hold you like this, let them eat me first before eating you…”
Si Nan was about to yell at him, but the words died in his throat when he saw Zhou Rong’s gaze in the light of the distant helicopter.
“…Okay,” he said helplessly: “Then hold me tight, don’t drop me.”
Zhou Rong playfully raised an eyebrow at him.
The zombies approached step by step, their putrid breath now clearly audible. Finally, several undead in the front lowered their heads to bite, and at the moment of their teeth about to land, Zhou Rong suddenly put Si Nan down and pushed him behind.
