Chapter 10: Escape from the Tower

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Taking a deep breath, Qin Zhong kicked open the bedroom door. A low growl came from behind it, like a sinister wind blowing out of hell. A female corpse burst forth, trailing a thick stench of decay.

Qin Zhong did not panic. He retreated a few steps and stopped in the middle of the living room, gripping his sharp Miao saber with both hands. Every inch of him was on guard as he stared fixedly at the approaching corpse.

“Ah!”

At the next moment, Qin Zhong seized his chance and shouted as he brought the blade down in a sweeping strike. The edge lodged in the corpse’s collarbone. Feeling the saber caught fast, Qin Zhong instinctively pulled backward, trying to wrench it free.

Unexpectedly, the female corpse was dragged forward by his motion as well. Its clawed hand shot out, and a foul stench swept past the tip of his nose. Had he not tilted his head back in time, his face would have been torn open.

There was no room for hesitation. Even as he leaned backward, Qin Zhong drove his foot into the corpse’s chest and used the momentum to pull out his saber. Then, reversing his grip, he plunged the blade down with all his might.

The strike was heavy and forceful, piercing straight into the female zombie’s skull. The zombie died instantly, utterly and completely.

Qin Zhong collapsed onto the sofa, sitting with his legs spread wide. Only then did he realize that his forehead and back were drenched in cold sweat. The apocalypse had lasted nearly half a year, yet this was the first time he had faced a zombie entirely on his own.

From the very beginning of the apocalypse, he had organized a shelter. Several close brothers had stayed by his side, and with their help, the shelter had developed smoothly.

Such success had naturally caused Qin Zhong’s arrogance to swell. He had begun to feel that there was nothing he could not do, and had consequently overlooked the strength of his own abilities.

After being betrayed this time, he had seen many of his shortcomings. In the past, he had always believed that leadership and organizational ability were more important in the apocalypse, while neglecting the improvement of his individual combat strength.

He had forgotten that in the apocalypse, only overwhelming force could truly make others submit and follow. A leader without personal strength would sooner or later be replaced by ambitious men.

After a while, Qin Zhong threw the female zombie’s corpse out through the window. He rose and surveyed the room, wiped the blood from his blade with a scrap of cloth, and packed every useful supply he could find into his backpack. Then he turned and opened the door.

The stairwell was deathly quiet. Qin Zhong climbed upward and, to his surprise, did not encounter a single zombie. When he reached the rooftop, the bleak, desolate city unfolded before his eyes.

He stood on the roof and looked around. He was certain that this place was not far from his former warehouse. After all, zombies were everywhere outside. Even if Yang Xin and the others had exiled him, they could not have abandoned him too far away.

Estimating the distance, Qin Zhong silently calculated that the warehouse shelter was probably five or six blocks away. By car, it would take no more than half an hour.

But half an hour before the apocalypse was one thing. Half an hour in the apocalypse was something else entirely.

In a city ravaged by the apocalypse, cars and other vehicles were basically unusable. The moment an engine started, zombies from half the city would probably come swarming in. Who could survive that?

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For one thing, there were too many abandoned cars and piles of debris along the city streets, leaving most roads impassable. At times, driving was actually slower than walking.

Back at the warehouse shelter, they had generally ridden bicycles whenever they went out. They were both fast and safe.

As Qin Zhong stood on the rooftop, looking around for a relatively safe route so that he could make his way to the shelter after nightfall, a blaze suddenly flared from a distant high-rise.

At the sight of that light, Qin Zhong’s heart stirred. There had to be people there. Zombies could not light fires, so the flames had clearly been made by human hands—most likely by surviving survivors.

After all, Magic City was one of the country’s top-tier megacities, with a permanent population of more than twenty million. Even if only ten percent had survived after half a year of apocalypse, there would still be over two million survivors.

“I should find a few companions first. Sticking together for warmth is far better than fighting alone.”

After observing for a while, Qin Zhong began calculating how he would navigate the streets and alleys to reach that building the following day.

With that in mind, he climbed down from the rooftop. He decided to search the building first and gather as many supplies as possible, which would help him get through the period until Sun Xiaoyan delivered the provisions she had prepared for him.

…

Qin Zhong reached an apartment on the thirtieth floor. Its door stood open. There was no point risking his life in a locked room—there might well be zombies inside.

At the entrance, Qin Zhong pushed the security door wide open and entered slowly, knife in hand. He left the door ajar so that, if there were more than three zombies inside, he could turn and flee with ease.

High on the thirtieth floor, the howls of corpses from the street below could not reach them. The apartment was sunk in a terrifying silence.

He quickly checked the rooms and confirmed that there was not a single “person” inside. Only then did he close the security door and enter the kitchen.

After half a year of apocalypse, the electricity had long since failed. There was still a small amount of gas left in the household cylinder. Qin Zhong did not know why, but ever since he had narrowly escaped death, he had grown much stronger—and much more prone to hunger.

Looking at the gas cylinder, Qin Zhong decided to cook another meal. Unfortunately, before a pot of water could boil, the gas ran out.

With no other choice, he found two books, chopped apart a pair of drawers, and built a fire in the living room. In the kitchen, he found noodles and several eggs that had not yet spoiled.

Amid the curling smoke, Qin Zhong squinted through his swollen, reddened eyes and cooked himself a bowl of egg noodles. Once his stomach was full, he lay contentedly on the sofa, picked up a pack of cigarettes from the coffee table, and smoked in comfort.

Squatting in another’s nest would have been an outright crime before the apocalypse. In the apocalypse, however, it was an ordinary occurrence.

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After satisfying his craving for cigarettes, Qin Zhong began rummaging through the apartment. He found a backpack, a flashlight, a pair of binoculars, and a coil of nylon rope as thick as his thumb.

Without bothering to distinguish between useful and useless, Qin Zhong stuffed everything he found into the backpack. As for food and water, he brought only a small reserve. He might encounter zombies later, and he needed to preserve enough strength for movement.

He left the apartment and descended the stairs toward the first floor. Along the way, he searched several residences whose doors had been left open, but found very few supplies.

Soon, Qin Zhong reached the ground floor. Through the gaps in the grille of the building’s entrance gate, he looked outside and saw at least thirty or forty zombies wandering across the open courtyard.

From the rooftop, Qin Zhong had already realized that reaching the high-rise six or seven streets away on foot was impossible. He would never make it through the zombies filling the streets. He needed a vehicle.

Although driving in the city was dangerous, timing mattered. When faced with only a small number of zombies, a car could be used like a bumper car to smash through the encirclement.

At that moment, beneath the southern wall of the courtyard, a row of seventeen or eighteen family cars of various types stood parked. But how was he supposed to find a key?

That was a genuinely troublesome problem.

Just then, several zombie howls rang out. Moments later, seven or eight zombies shuffled past the entrance gate. Qin Zhong’s eyes suddenly lit up. Hanging from the back of one zombie’s belt was a remote car key.

Seeing this, Qin Zhong quickly coughed twice. The zombies were drawn by the sound and abruptly turned around. White, ghastly teeth showed through their gaping mouths as they came toward him, gathering outside the gate.

The zombies’ hideous faces were now inches away. Although the iron gate kept him out of danger, Qin Zhong still felt the hairs on his body stand on end.

Steadying himself, he thrust the blade through the gaps in the grille. Pouring all his strength into both arms, he drove it fiercely into a zombie’s skull.

Suppressing his nausea, Qin Zhong repeated the process, killing the remaining six zombies one after another. Because he acted cleanly and efficiently, he made almost no noise. The other zombies in the courtyard continued wandering in the distance, unaware of what had happened here.

Qin Zhong quietly pushed open the entrance gate, tore the remote key from the back of the corpse, and hurried toward the southern wall. As he pressed the unlock button, two beeps sounded, and the headlights of a black SUV flashed twice.

The noise startled the wandering zombies. Before they could stagger over and surround him, Qin Zhong had already started the engine. He slammed down on the accelerator, and the SUV roared as it burst through the courtyard’s iron gate.

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