“Ahhh!”
“Don’t run, wait for me.”
“Mom, where are you…”
“Let go! Let go! Are you fucking crazy?!”
The chaos in the settlement was rapidly diffusing, with the crowd fleeing in all directions in panic; once someone fell, they would soon be heavily trampled several times.
The firelight pouring out from the tents flickered in the darkness, mixed with roars and screams, adding several degrees of unfounded panic.
“This way!”
In this situation, Tian Wang had no time to carefully discern the direction; as soon as he found a direction without zombies, he immediately called Wu Ya and Ke Jiangni to escape together.
Hearing Tian Wang’s voice, the two women also had no time to think too much and hurriedly followed.
And the more this kind of time, the more they needed to seek a sense of security.
Wu Ya instinctively thought of Lu Bai; following behind Tian Wang, she ran while coming up with an idea: “Let’s go to District 7.”
“Too far!” Ke Jiangni’s brain was still relatively clear; she looked back to confirm no zombies were chasing yet, then added: “Go to the barracks; the army is all over there.”
After running wildly for a distance, Tian Wang was forced to slow down, panting heavily: “Where… where the hell do we go?”
Ke Jiangni originally wanted to try saying something more, but suddenly noticed something wrong: “Why are so many people blocked here?”
At the passage between District Twenty-three and District Twenty-two, hundreds of people had gathered.
The barriers between districts in the settlement were not fences, but nearly three-meter-high color steel tile enclosures; whether this thickness could block zombies was uncertain, but blocking ordinary people was no problem.
“Back off! Back off!”
Fear, panic, anger…
The crowd pushed each other; it was obvious that everyone’s nerves were taut, like a pile of explosives barrels that could explode completely at any moment.
“Get out of the way, do you fucking not know what’s happening?!”
“Fuck! The monsters are catching up!”
“If you don’t move, I’ll fight you all!”
“Please, I don’t want to die yet.”
Several soldiers holding shields blocked the passage, ignoring whatever the survivors on site said.
A man dressed like administrative personnel stood behind the shields, speaking loudly to try to calm the restless crowd.
Unfortunately, one person’s voice was too small; it didn’t even make a ripple before being drowned in the waves of angry cursing.
In addition, behind the front-row soldiers, several soldiers equipped with assault rifles maintained shooting postures to prevent citizens from rushing the passage.
Of course, maintaining this situation was also due to no zombies running this way yet; once zombies really charged over, the situation would instantly lose control.
“Everyone! Everyone, please stay calm and listen to me! We won’t abandon you; please believe us.”
The man dressed like administrative personnel somehow got a loudspeaker and tried his best to control the situation: “I know everyone is very scared, but don’t worry; the army will arrive soon.
Now, I hope everyone gathers to my right side; any wounded who were bitten, step forward on your own, everyone mutually…”
Most of the time, this administrative personnel’s response couldn’t be considered wrong.
However, he clearly overlooked one point.
In front of the zombies’ overly developed hearing, using a loudspeaker was no different from sounding the assembly horn in the barracks.
In the corridors between tents, countless zombies suddenly turned their heads toward the direction of the loudspeaker sound, then charged wildly.
Seeing the hideous-faced zombies rushing over, the situation at the passage entrance, which had been barely controlled, instantly collapsed, with many people crying and frantically impacting the human wall.
Due to the large number of citizens blocking the front, the soldiers at the passage couldn’t find any gaps to shoot at the zombies.
“Go!”
Tian Wang’s complexion turned pale with fear, and he turned to squeeze into the crowd.
“Heh~ If your hand gropes around again, I’ll chop it off right now.” A tall woman with a cigarette in her mouth turned around and said in an indisputable tone.
In such a critical moment, this woman still exuded an elegant temperament, completely out of place with the panicked crowd around her.
Seeing the zombies getting closer, Tian Wang had no desire for further trouble, nodded perfunctorily, and planned to continue squeezing to the side.
Instead, Wu Ya leaned in to apologize for Tian Wang and even proactively asked: “Do you want to come with us? It’s too dangerous for a girl like you alone.”
Ke Jiangni’s small mouth opened slightly, wanting to warn Wu Ya there was no time for saintly compassion, but suddenly she seemed to realize something and didn’t speak again.
Guo Mi took the cigarette from her mouth and teased meaningfully: “Little sister, you still have time to worry about me?”
While they spoke, a large number of zombies had already rushed over.
The outermost dozen or so people were knocked down on the spot, emitting shrill screams.
“Don’t give up, come with us quickly.” Wu Ya’s voice trembled toward the end; her fear wasn’t feigned.
“Enough, take a look yourself—can you even get out of here?”
Guo Mi pulled Wu Ya and said to Ke Jiangni beside her: “Call that chubby guy and follow me.”
Ke Jiangni seemed to be waiting for those words and immediately dragged Tian Wang to follow.
The group bypassed the crowd gathered at the passage entrance and jogged along the color steel tile enclosure.
Many citizens, in their panic, also chose to escape along the enclosures on both sides of the passage entrance, so Wu Ya and the others blending in wasn’t conspicuous.
The downside was that with so many people, it would naturally attract some zombies over.
The zombies seemed to possess wisdom, each finding their own prey; even some zombies that charged too fiercely crashed headfirst into the enclosure, creating piercing rumbling sounds.
Guo Mi and the others were similarly blocked by a zombie with only half a face left; it was so close that Wu Ya could smell the oncoming stench, with no possibility of communication between them—the zombie roared and lunged straight at Wu Ya.
In this critical moment, Guo Mi didn’t try to interrupt the zombie’s charge; instead, she picked up Wu Ya, leaped lightly, touched down on the zombie’s head with her toes like a dragonfly skimming water, and ascended again.
Even holding someone in her bosom, she remained as light as if unaffected by gravity.
The half-faced zombie’s charge faced no obstruction, its momentum unabated as it crashed headfirst into the ground.
Seeing this, a “as expected” look flashed in Ke Jiangni’s eyes; when Guo Mi gracefully landed with Wu Ya, she didn’t ask a single question.
“So… so amazing.”
Wu Ya felt the sensation of her feet touching the ground, as if in a dream: “Sister, you’re one like classmate Lu too, right?”
Hearing this, Guo Mi raised an eyebrow: “Too?”