Chapter 21
It seemed like the zombie's howls were surrounding them. Two men and one woman were hiding under the checkout counter in the convenience store, breathing heavily. Everyone's bodies were sweaty.
Even though they managed to escape from the large group of zombies, the noise from the group attracted other zombies nearby. They were almost completely surrounded by the zombies.
Fortunately, they managed to cooperate well and fought their way out. Luckily, they spotted a convenience store with an open door and took temporary shelter inside, finding a moment of peace.
"It's over, it's really over this time."
Next to Jiang Hao, the man who had previously angrily demanded justice from Cheng Du had completely changed. He kept muttering that it was over, looking dazed and showing signs of madness.
The man's words were unsettling to those around him. Jiang Hao had never encountered such a large number of zombies before, but he knew that although they were currently safe in the convenience store, it wouldn't last long. Once the zombies pushed the door open, they would be doomed.
At a time when death was imminent, one should stay calm and think of strategies to survive. However, the people around Jiang Hao were no help. Their current state clearly showed that they were willing to drag everyone down with them.
"Calm down," he said impatiently to the person beside him, but it was evident that the person didn't listen to his words.
"Oh no, Jiang Hao, we shouldn't have come, shouldn't have come. We're in big trouble now."
He pulled Jiang Hao's arm as he regretted coming here, while the person he was pulling gradually clenched his fist.
For Jiang Hao, it would be a good thing if the person beside him could just stay quiet.
But the flat-headed man couldn't understand what Jiang Hao was thinking. He just kept expressing his fear until the woman beside him turned him around.
The woman looked at his deflated expression and slapped him right across the face.
"Smack!"
Suddenly, the man's face had a red handprint on it. His mind was buzzing, but it also became quiet.
Looking at the person who had hit him, the man's confused expression took over.
"Hu Hua is already dead. I don't want to become the second him. If you don't want to live, there's an axe right here," the woman said as she picked up the axe that had been thrown aside and placed it on the man's leg.
"Xiao Ling, me," Obviously, the woman's way of dealing with the flat-headed man was more effective. The flat-headed man looked down at the axe on his lap and seemed unsure how to face the woman.
"If you want to stay alive, don't act like you want to die."
After the woman's words, the flat-headed man noticeably became quieter. He even silently lowered his head. Although his body was still trembling, he no longer irritated others as before.
At this moment, the person who was originally annoyed by Hu Hua's disturbance also turned their gaze towards the woman.
Looking at the woman who was separated from him by Wu Zhaoan.
Liu Ling, Jiang Hao murmured the name of this woman in his heart. He remembered that when she came along, it was this woman who voluntarily requested to join. In order to avoid unnecessary conflicts, he agreed to bring her along.
He originally thought she would be a burden, but he didn't expect the woman to be calmer and more decisive than he thought. This made him realize that he didn't really understand some of the people around him.
But no matter how surprising the woman was to him, the most important thing now was to stay alive.
Taking his gaze away from the woman, he turned his head to look at the two people who were not far from the three of them, leaning against the shelves. He didn't know what they were thinking, but he could only see one of them standing up and walking towards the two, then sitting down beside them.
Watching Jiang Hao sit elsewhere, Liu Ling withdrew her gaze and glanced at the trembling flat-headed man beside her. Remembering Jiang Hao's previous attitude towards the man, a sense of unease crept over her.
As for Jiang Hao, though he sat beside them, he chose to maintain a certain distance between them.
"How is she?" he asked, showing his concern. He knew very well that the disoriented flat-headed man had given the zombies an opportunity to attack, breaking their coordinated front and exposing his own back. If it hadn't been for the short-haired woman's timely intervention, helping to kill those zombies, he wouldn't have been able to sit here unharmed.
"Don't pretend to be kind," Li Guaiguai said, looking at the man, her tone unfriendly. She found his appearance rather repulsive.
But she had no energy to pay attention to the man; Cheng Du's situation was the most important.
As for the medicine, during their evasion of zombies, the bag had been snagged and torn. She could only haphazardly pick up a few boxes of medicine from the ground. Luckily, she had taken the opportunity at the pharmacy to stuff a small box of fever-reducing medicine into her pocket. Otherwise, it would have been a wasted trip.
Standing up from her half-crouched position, she casually grabbed a bottle of purified water from the shelf, opened it, and handed the white pills squeezed out from their packaging along with the water to Cheng Du.
Watching Cheng Du swallow the pills, she reached out to touch Cheng Du's forehead. In response, the person being touched smiled and said, "I just took them; they can't work that quickly."
"I know, it's not because I'm worried about you. It's just that good people never get rewarded."
"Okay okay okay, I can't speak, I was wrong."
Listening to the playful banter between the two, Jiang Hao felt like he shouldn't be here. But now there are zombies pounding on the door outside, they are very dangerous, so he had to speak up and remind them.
"I believe neither of you wants to die, and we don't want to either. But if we fight alone, once this door is opened, it's certain death. So let's work together."
After saying that, he reached out his hand to the girl with short hair, symbolizing a friendly cooperation.
However, Cheng Du didn't reach out her hand. In response to the girl, the man simply smiled and said, "I know you are still mad at us for what happened before. But survival of the fittest, it's natural for us to be a little ruthless."
Listening silently to the man's words, Cheng Du didn't entirely agree, but there was one thing this man said that was right. She alone couldn't safely escape with Li Guaiguai, so she also needed to cooperate.
"With so many zombies, even if we cooperate, it's a dead end."
Listening to the words of the girl with short hair, Jiang Hao actually understood. With such a huge horde of corpses, the few of them couldn't eliminate them all.
"Do we really just have to wait to die?" he said, sounding a bit despairing. But mixed in his tone was also a clear unwillingness. He didn't want to die here, but who would willingly choose to die here?
"Maybe, when they come rushing in, we can escape," said Cheng Du, as she leaned back against the shelf, finding a bit of support.
Listening to Cheng Du, Jiang Hao clearly caught on to something, "What do you mean, do you have a plan?" he asked, with a hint of excitement in his voice.
Even the woman sitting under the counter turned her attention towards them when she heard Cheng Du's words.
"According to the supermarket layout, look at these shelves. When the supermarket door is smashed open, if we can arrange these shelves in a line to divide the supermarket into two spaces, we can hide in one of the spaces and get close to the entrance. While the zombies go through the other space and enter the supermarket, once they have gone far enough, we can leave from the other side. At the same time, we can use the shelves to block the door and buy ourselves some time for escape."
After Cheng Du's words, Jiang Hao saw a glimmer of hope.
"But don't get too excited. In order to lure the zombies in, you'll have to place something that can attract them. Maybe a computer, but we don't know if the computers here still work."
"They work!"
Not long after she said those words, the woman who had been sitting under the counter voluntarily turned on the computer. "There are videos in here," she added promptly.
"Also... this plan is very dangerous. If we make any noise and alert the zombies, we would end up trapping ourselves. Then we would all die together. So it's best if you can guarantee that your people will behave."
Although not mentioning names, everyone understood who Cheng Du was talking about.
Jiang Hao turned his head and looked at the man. He knew that this plan couldn't afford any mistakes, and this man was different, he had some mental problems now.
Seeing Jiang Hao looking at him, Wu Zhaoan thought of Juan's death. He worried that Jiang Hao would abandon him without hesitation in order to survive. He kept assuring Jiang Hao that he wouldn't make any mistakes or cause trouble for everyone.
But how credible were his words? They would have to see what his teammates thought.
"Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on him," Jiang Hao seemed to choose to trust his teammates.
After he said that, Cheng Du didn't say anything more.
With a plan to follow, the people in the room naturally became busy. They could tell that Cheng Du was not feeling well, and with her combat ability, they didn't want her to get hurt. They suggested she rest well, in case the mission failed, she could still contribute.
The door started shaking more vigorously, as if it would break any second. Seeing this, the people in the room couldn't help but quicken their movements.
They continued squatting next to the shelves, using snacks to cover themselves, until the store was completely divided into two worlds. One side filled with the noise of computers in the distance, and the other side, where they were, hiding their figures with the snacks.
The door was getting weaker and weaker. Jiang Hao looked at the man in front of him, who was trembling unusually. He made up his mind and hit the man on the back of his neck.
Everyone watched as he helped the unconscious man up, but no one said anything.
Finally, the door couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed.
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"Ah," Lu Jia exerted all her strength. She finally won the arm wrestling match against Su Mo, but before she could applaud herself, she heard a cracking sound from Su Mo's hand.
Looking at Su Mo's hand, she realized that she might have been too forceful. Could she have fractured it like this?
"Are you okay?"
Hearing her words, Su Mo raised her hand to signal that she was fine.
But she still looked a little worried, so she had to hold Su Mo's arm, looking left and right, until she realized that there didn't seem to be any major problem.
Luckily, she thought, while looking down at her own hand.
Looking at her hand, not sure if it was her imagination, she felt her grip getting stronger, or maybe Su Mo's strength weakened after becoming a zombie.
But... remembering how Su Mo's hands could easily crush two zombies, it didn't seem like her strength had weakened.
Could it be that Su Mo intentionally made her this way? This thought startled Lu Jia.
The person sitting in front of her had already obediently taken off their only pajamas, leaving only a white undershirt on their upper body, and the lower body...
Remembering to be respectful, Lu Jia quickly lifted her head up, silently took the clothes that Su Mo had thrown down, and helped the person put them on. "I was just joking, I didn't really mean to ask you to undress."
This was just too boring, so she wanted to have some fun and casually said the bet was to undress, but she didn't actually plan to carry out the bet.
Looking at Su Mo, who was questioning her with her eyes, Lu Jia felt embarrassed and rubbed her head.
Until she realized that she might not have told Su Mo what undressing meant, she just casually said it, but Su Mo understood the meaning, right?
"Do you know what 'undress' means?"
After she spoke, Su Mo tilted her head as if deep in thought, until her hand grabbed onto her clothes again, wanting to undress once more.
However, this time, Lu Jia stopped her just in time, thinking that Su Mo already knew the answer.
Seeing Su Mo's innocence, it seemed unlikely for her to pretend to lose. So she must have some understanding of this word, perhaps influenced by previous memories as a human.
But it's too naive to undress just because someone says so, and this made Lu Jia feel like she should teach Su Mo some things, otherwise Su Mo would easily be taken advantage of.
"Su Mo, listen, you must never play this kind of game. If someone tells you to undress, you should hit her, hit her hard, understand? It means making a fist and punching directly."
As she said this, she made a fist and demonstrated the action, punching forward forcefully.
"Uh~" Lu Jia touched her own shoulder, feeling both hurt and helpless. She knew that Su Mo finally understood, but this girl was too strong.
"Remember, I can do this, but others can't. I am the good one," the person rubbing her shoulder was forced to explain.
"Uh-uh," Su Mo nodded obediently when she saw it.
"Hmm, very good," the person reached out and touched Su Mo's head, smiling brightly, as if the shoulder wasn't hurting anymore.
Watching her expression, Su Mo even stretched her head forward.
But seeing her actions, Lu Jia's heart was screaming inside, the shoulder no longer hurt, how could there be such a cute zombie, it shouldn't be like this?
