Finding Helpers

"Shh, keep your voice down!"

Qin Ya made a silencing gesture toward Liu Xuanyu, then continued, "Now, Xuanyu needs to eat his noodles like a good boy. Uncle Qin is going out for a while, and when I get back, I expect to see that you've finished every last bite. Understand?"

"Uncle, where are you going?"

Liu Xuanyu grabbed Qin Ya's sleeve with a look of intense anxiety.

Wearing a gentle smile, Qin Ya patted Liu Xuanyu on the head and said with a chuckle, "I'm going to rescue the big brother and auntie you mentioned who ran up to the rooftop."

"Oh, Brother Tian Fan and Auntie Yu!"

Liu Xuanyu's eyes lit up. He immediately picked up his chopsticks and said, "Then go ahead, Uncle! I'll eat my noodles right now so I can play with Brother Tian Fan later, right?"

"Right."

Qin Ya nodded, said nothing more, and his figure slowly vanished into the darkness.

Qin Ya gently closed the front door. The numbers on the elevator display had long since gone dark, leaving only the emergency lights glowing with an eerie, sickly green hue that cast a ghost-like and deeply unsettling pallor over the hallway.

Several days had passed, and even though the temperature was gradually dropping, it could not stop the corpses from decaying. A faint, sickening, and nauseating odor hung heavy in the air everywhere.

Qin Ya took a slow, deep breath, touched the pistol at his waist, tightened his grip on the firefighter's axe in his hand, and stepped cautiously toward the fire escape door.

He knew very well that walking out there might not lead to survival, but staying any longer in Shengqin Homeland—where water, electricity, and gas had all been cut off—was a certain death sentence.

For Qin Ya, who had a background as a SWAT officer, escaping from Shengqin Homeland would not have been too difficult. But burdened with an eight-year-old child, he knew the chances were practically zero.

Qin Ya needed help. The first people who came to mind were the two individuals in Building Number Three across the way who had drawn the zombies away for him, but since contacting them was inconvenient, he had to temporarily abandon that idea. Next were the two people on the rooftop!

The night was pitch black, and the fierce rooftop wind ruthlessly stripped away body heat.

Sitting huddled against the smoke vent to block the wind, both Tian Fan and Yu Nuo remained silent. The dwindling energy as time wore on filled their hearts with panic, and the complete lack of long-term sustenance only deepened their despair.

A swift death was not terrifying; continuous torture was what truly terrified them.

"Tian Fan..."

In the night wind, Yu Nuo spoke with great difficulty. Her voice was slightly hoarse, and her lips, which should have been rosy, were parched and cracked. "I don't think I'll make it to tomorrow. Can I ask you for a favor?"

Tian Fan buried his head between his knees. Hearing Yu Nuo's words, he gathered a breath, looked up at her, and forced a bitter smile at the corners of his mouth. "Sister Yu, look at the state I'm in. What could I possibly do to help you now..."

Yu Nuo managed a desolate smile, brushed back her disheveled hair, and looked up at the moon half-hidden in the night sky. "The old folks in the village used to say that people who die at midnight turn into malevolent ghosts. When it gets close to twelve o'clock, would you do me the favor of pushing me off?"

"I want to become a ghost, and then see why this world ended up looking like this!"

Tian Fan stared at Yu Nuo as if she had seen a ghost, shaking his head frantically. "Sister Yu, that's asking way too much. You want me to be a murderer? I'm not doing that! Besides, ghost or no ghost, stop being so superstitious, will you!"

A sudden look of release spread across Yu Nuo's face.

"In this day and age, who cares about being a murderer? Didn't you see an entire squad of SWAT officers get wiped out? Sigh... If you aren't superstitious, what is there even left to believe in? Buddha, God, or Shiva—is anyone coming to save us?"

Tian Fan pressed his lips tightly together, a trace of stubborn resilience still lingering on his face. "I still think... Sister Yu, do you remember those three people in the building across the way today? They were all carrying weapons. Don't you think we might have grossly overestimated the zombies' abilities? If we make a desperate counterattack, maybe we can carve a path out!"

Yu Nuo frowned. At the thought of the horrifying appearance of the zombies and the stench they emitted, she couldn't help trembling. Perhaps only by becoming a ghost would she truly cease to fear them.

Whoosh!

Tian Fan suddenly stood up. While stretching his limbs, he said, "Sister Yu, we can't just sit here and wait to die. I've decided that even if I die, I'm going out in a blaze of glory. So what if a few zombies are blocking the door? Let's fight our way out together!"

"We'll fight our way out! As long as we get back downstairs, back to our home, there will be food and water, and we won't die!"

Energized, Tian Fan picked up a thumb-thick hollow stainless steel pipe, swung it around, and resolved to make a desperate gamble.

Yu Nuo tried to stand up as well, but just as she was steadying herself against the wall with great difficulty, a low growl from not too far away frightened her so badly that her legs went weak and she slumped back down.

Awooo!

"Tian, Tian, Tian Fan, did you hear that? It sounded like a zombie growling over by Building Unit One. Oh god, did it hear our voices? It's not going to charge up here, is it?"

Overwhelmed with tension and lacking strength in her legs, Yu Nuo desperately crawled backward behind the smoke vent to hide.

"Don't—don't be scared. Zombies don't know how to open doors, they can't come up. If—if they come up, I'll deal with them!"

Tian Fan swallowed hard. Most of the bravado he had shown a moment before evaporated, but he didn't retreat, still gripping the steel pipe. Unfortunately, the hollow stainless steel pipe was of such poor quality that it deformed slightly just from his tight grip...

To call a steel pipe like this useful against zombies was a stretch; it would barely suffice against a fierce dog.

The low, bloodthirsty howling didn't last long, fading into silence after about ten seconds, followed immediately by the sound of a door being pushed open—a sound that made their hearts flutter with even greater terror.

"Oh god, they're really coming up, we—"

Bang!

Before Yu Nuo could finish her sentence, the sound of a heavy chop rang out, and the door was abruptly yanked open.

Crouched behind the smoke vent, Yu Nuo trembled like a fledgling chick, while Tian Fan gripped his stainless steel pipe so tightly in sheer tension that he bit his lip until it bled.

"Ah!"

With a roar, Tian Fan charged toward the doorway, brandishing the steel pipe. He refused to die in silence; he had chosen to erupt in it.

"Ah, my eyes!"

However, before he could even register the situation, a blinding glare flashed, instantly rendering him temporarily sightless.

"What are you yelling for? You're a college student, can't you keep your composure?"

A slightly reproachful voice rang out.

Though the tone was less than friendly, to the ears of Tian Fan and Yu Nuo, it sounded like the sweetest music in the world.

"Are you... living people? Living people..."

Unable to contain her disbelief, Yu Nuo poked her head out to look at the man holding the high-powered flashlight, bursting into tears of joy in an instant.

"Who... Who are you, big brother? Are you here to rescue us? Are you the big brother from Building Number Three?"

Tian Fan's heart settled slightly. Since he couldn't see, he waved his hands wildly and spun around in place, frantic with anxiety.

Qin Ya sighed, frowning as he said, "Stand still and don't move! Let me ask you, are your surnames Tian and Yu?"

"Yes, yes! I'm Yu Nuo. Oh god, are you... Comrade SWAT officer? Thank goodness, we're saved."

As Yu Nuo's vision cleared enough for her to see the newcomer, the "SWAT" characters printed on the back of his jacket seemed to shine with a sacred radiance, lighting up her bleak future.

"SWAT?"

Tian Fan's vision was slowly returning. Hearing Yu Nuo's words, a wave of joy washed over him, and he hurriedly asked, "Big Brother SWAT, my surname is Tian. How did you know we were here?"