Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Almost bitten, the attacker paused motionless. Ji Yanqing froze for a moment before quickly regaining his senses and stepping back.

He didn't have time to understand what had just happened. Swinging the axe in his hand, he struck the creature, caving in its chest and sending it flying.

Without looking back, Ji Yanqing sprinted, vaulted over a wall, grabbed Ji'an who was still on the ground, and ran far away in an instant.

Seeing this, the others hurriedly followed.

The wind howled, their hearts pounded deafeningly, and their blood raced as if their hearts were about to explode. The group's heavy breathing made their nostrils sting from the sharp cold.

They ran out of the village, through the small forest a li outside, and straight towards the distant fields.

The forest consisted of only about a hundred trees, providing no real cover.

The crops in the fields were unmanaged; some had died while others grew wildly. From a distance, they appeared overrun with weeds.

Rushing into the right side of the field, the group crouched down to find places to hide.

Once hidden, they suppressed their rapid heartbeats and heavy breathing, watching the direction of the village.

On the road outside the village, a figure approached at great speed. Crawling forward, the emaciated and spindly limbs moved awkwardly yet swiftly, creating an eerie sight in the darkness.

As the creature drew closer, everyone covered their mouths and noses, striving not to make any sound.

After passing the forest and reaching near the fields, the figure gradually slowed down, eventually stopping about two to three hundred meters away from them.

Losing her target, she let out a beast-like roar and dove into the waist-high vegetable patch on the left.

The night was pitch black, without a sliver of moonlight, quickly swallowing her silhouette. Ji Yanqing could almost only determine her position by sound.

The sounds grew lighter and eventually faded into the distance.

Confirming that the sounds had vanished, Ji Yanqing and the others exchanged glances in the darkness. They had been holding their breaths until their chests ached painfully.

Just as they were about to release their hands from their mouths and noses, an excited and malicious laugh suddenly echoed behind them, "Haha..."

In that instant, those lying on the ground felt their limbs turn icy cold, as if trapped in an ice cellar. Their hearts felt tightly gripped, causing a painful sensation.

The voice came from less than three meters behind them.

Ji Yanqing instinctively swung his axe.

Having learned from previous encounters, the woman retreated before Ji Yanqing could act. She stared at him with eyes filled with chilling excitement and malice.

"Run!"

Scrambling up from the ground in panic, everyone turned and fled once more.

As they ran, they looked back.

Ji Yanqing didn't immediately run away. His muscles tensed as he held the axe and faced the woman. He only turned to catch up after the others had run nearly a hundred meters.

After running a certain distance, Ji Yanqing glanced back. The woman merely watched them intently, showing no intention of pursuing.

A chill surged within Ji Yanqing's heart.

Running for another ten minutes, they finally reached the foot of a mountain range beyond the village. They found another place to hide.

Inside a hollow in the woods, the darkness was filled with panting breaths. If they were jogging, they could go for hours, but under extreme conditions, twenty minutes was already their limit.

"She did it on purpose," said Ji Yanqing.

"What...?"

"She enjoys the thrill of the hunt," Ji Yanqing explained.

No one spoke, and even their breathing seemed to pause in the darkness.

Awakened zombies were virtually impervious to blades and bullets. If what Ji Yanqing said was true, their fate was sealed.

Despair spread among them.

A muffled sound echoed from the mountains behind them, drawing everyone's attention.

The sound was very distant, almost inaudible.

"Don't shoot, are you crazy?" A wounded man with a grim expression stopped the person beside him. In this situation, firing a gun would clearly reveal their location to the beast?

Interrupted, the other man regained his senses. His face, pale from excessive blood loss.

"Tsk..." The injured man surveyed their surroundings. "Let's go, we can't stay here."

In the darkness, a group of over twenty people quickly headed further up the mountain, away from the city.

After running for another ten minutes and reaching the middle of the mountain, the man who had fired earlier looked back. Not seeing the massive beast behind them, he panted heavily and said, "Do you think that monster is looking for those two kids who died earlier..."

The injured man flashed images of two terrified faces in his mind. His eye twitched violently, feeling momentarily uneasy. "How could that be?"

"But that beast took all the kids in the group—"

"Stop spreading nonsense. It's just a monster. What would a monster want with two human kids?" The injured man cursed, "Damn, bad luck!"

Without waiting for the other person to respond, he turned and headed up the mountain, intending to cross it and get away from the city.

In the darkness, Xia Shenshu remarked, "Was that gunfire?"

No one responded, as the sound was too indistinct, far less noticeable than the pounding of their hearts, which thundered deafeningly in their ears.

"Now how—" The bald man's question was cut off by a snapping sound in the darkness. Everyone's hearts leapt to their throats as they turned towards the source of the noise, which sounded like someone stepping on a twig. After holding their breaths for a moment and not hearing the excited, cruel laughter emerge from the darkness, they all breathed a sigh of relief, though their foreheads were drenched in cold sweat. "She—" The bald man tried to speak again. "Go... first... go..." A weak, anguished cry echoed faintly through the forest behind them. "Ha... go..." The voice came again, now filled with excitement and cruelty, as if she relished the thought of devouring them piece by piece. "...Gu... first..." "Gu Xian..." Everyone turned to look at Zhang Guxian in the group, their nerves already stretched to the limit. They had assumed the woman was telling them to go over, but as the voice in the darkness drew closer, they finally understood what she was saying. She wasn't telling anyone to come over; she was calling Zhang Guxian's name. A zombie, an awakened zombie, was calling Zhang Guxian's name! Xia Shenshu was the first to react. He grabbed Zhang Guxian, who was standing next to him, and pushed him to the ground. He pressed the barrel of his gun hard against Zhang Guxian's chin. "You'd better explain what's going on!" The others also reacted and stared at Zhang Guxian in disbelief. "What is happening?" Lan Zi's voice trembled as goosebumps rose on her skin for what felt like the hundredth time. "You knew there was something wrong with this village? Why didn't you tell us earlier? Are you trying to get us killed!" The bald man rushed forward and grabbed Zhang Guxian, ready to strike. Under everyone's glare, with Xia Shenshu's gun at his chin and the bald man's grip on his clothes, Zhang Guxian lay on the ground in silence, seemingly resigned to his fate. In the darkness, no one could see the expression on his face. "Playing dead, huh?" The bald man swung a punch at Zhang Guxian's stomach. If he wanted to die so badly, the bald man would grant him that wish. "Ugh..." Zhang Guxian grunted in pain but made no move to resist. "You—" The bald man felt murderous rage. "There's no escaping." Ji Yanqing's deliberately low but still slightly sweet voice rang out in the darkness. Everyone turned to look at Ji Yanqing. He took off his backpack and threw it to the ground. Kneeling down, he looked at Ji'an and Ji Le beside him. The two boys were terrified, sobbing and clinging tightly to the hem of his shirt. After patting the boys' heads, Ji Yanqing looked at the others and spat out two words coldly: "Kill her." His voice still carried a hint of sweetness, but his words sent a chill through everyone's hearts. The enraged bald man, Xia Shenshu, and the others suddenly calmed down. Even their wildly beating hearts seemed to quieten. They had always followed Ji Yanqing's lead, not because of his feigned aloofness, but because the face beneath his goggles was undeniably beautiful and adorable. However, the soul beneath that exterior was never cowardly or easily intimidated. The bald man swallowed. "You're crazy... That's an awakened..." "She won't let us run away," said Ji Yanqing, his eyes, which should have been obscured by the darkness, radiating a bone-chilling coldness. "We either run until we're exhausted and then get killed, or we take a gamble." No one spoke in the darkness. Silence reigned. "Ha ha..." The faint laughter grew closer, slowly extinguishing any hope in their hearts. She loved seeing the despair in her prey's last moments of struggle; it thrilled and drove her mad. She reveled in that exhilarating madness. "Ha ha... Gu... Gu Xian..." "How do we kill her?" Xia Shenshu released Zhang Guxian and tightened his grip on his gun. "You're crazy too..." The bald man looked at Xia Shenshu. "Do you have a better idea?" Xia Shenshu asked. The bald man's expression changed several times before he fell silent. "You need to distract her," Ji Yanqing said, looking straight into Xia Shenshu's eyes. It was almost impossible for just the few of them to kill the woman. Asking Xia Shenshu to distract her was essentially sending him to his death. But they needed someone to draw her attention. Xia Shenshu took a deep breath and agreed readily. "Okay." Hearing that resolute "okay," Ji Yanqing's heart swelled with warmth, and he exhaled deeply. "What do I do?" Lan Zi's voice still trembled, but her grip on her knife was firm. Though she might not be as strong as Ji Yanqing or Xia Shenshu, she didn't want to be a coward who could only scream helplessly behind others. Hearing this, the bald man, Qian Guoyun, and the others also gritted their teeth and threw their backpacks into the pit. They had no other choice. Ji Yanqing looked at Ji'an and Ji Le and gently pried their anxious hands off his shirt. "Stay here. Later, I'll cover you with our bags... If we haven't returned by morning, you need to find a way to leave on your own." "No..." Ji Le clung to Ji Yanqing's hand. He was sobbing uncontrollably, trying his best to suppress his tears, but his sobs still filled the air around them, conveying his unease and sorrow. Ji'an was the same. Just a few months older than Ji Le, he gripped Ji Yanqing's hand so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He was afraid that if he let go, Ji Yanqing would vanish. Though they were young, they had already witnessed the brutality of the apocalypse and knew what an awakened zombie meant.