Forty-five minutes at most

"Do it!"

Zhang Su said in a low voice to Old Wang.

"Okay, okay!"

Wang Guangjun clutched the wooden spear tightly, hesitating like a rookie fisherman who didn't know which fish to spear. It was enough to make anyone anxious.

Tripping the zombies was not a permanent solution. Although their movements were stiff, they would eventually manage to crawl back up, so they had to be dealt with quickly.

Seeing that Wang Guangjun couldn't bring himself to strike, Zhang Su secretly shook his head. After all, it was his first time, and difficulties were understandable, but this was by no means an excuse to cower.

"Watch closely!"

He took the crowbar from his waist, aimed it at the head of a zombie, and swung down hard. The heavy crowbar pierced the zombie's skull instantly.

Aah-aau...

The attacked zombie's skull cracked, its entire body convulsed a few times, and then it went limp, letting the other two zombies drag its body around.

"Ugh-hm!"

Wang Guangjun's nerves were stimulated by the scene before him. His face flushed, and he let out a strange, muffled grunt, exerting all his strength in his arms to thrust the spear down.

Thud!

Although the wooden spear was crude, combined with Wang Guangjun's strength, dealing with a flesh-and-blood zombie was still a breeze. Unfortunately, his accuracy was a bit off; instead of piercing the head, his thrust went straight through the neck.

"Finish it off!"

As he spoke, Zhang Su flew into the air and kicked the rising zombie toward the door, then brought the crowbar down on its head, knocking it flat onto the ground.

Seizing the opportunity, Zheng Xinhu stepped over the zombie at the doorway, rushed forward, and raised her baseball bat to smash down fiercely. She was gradually getting the hang of positioning techniques, allowing her to avoid getting blood splashed onto herself as much as possible.

"I told Old Wang to finish it off!"

Zhang Su was slightly speechless.

"It's fine, I'll take this one!"

The violent genes within Zheng Xinhu were fully activated. She swung her baseball bat repeatedly, pounding a large bloody hole right into the wound Zhang Su had made on the zombie.

Wang Guangjun lagged behind Zheng Xinhu. Watching the zombie with the wooden spear stuck in its neck "breaststroking" on the ground, he stood aside helplessly, his facial muscles twitching nonstop.

钟筱珊 (Zheng Xiaoshan) walked down from upstairs, intending to swing a wrench to finish off a zombie, but Zhang Su stopped her.

"Old Wang, you must finish off this zombie, otherwise you might as well run along behind the car, because I am definitely not taking you with us!"

Zhang Su said in an uncompromising tone.

Wang Guangjun pressed his lips tightly together, took a deep breath, stomped his foot, and stepped forward to grip the wooden spear. With a squelch, he pulled it out and then stabbed down fiercely once again.

Squelch.

The wooden spear pierced straight in through the zombie's ear. Judging by the length that went in, it probably hadn't penetrated completely, but the zombie on the ground slowly stopped moving like a machine running out of power, finally falling completely still.

"I finally suc—"

"Don't shout!"

Old Wang was about to cry out in excitement when Zhang Su gave him a sharp shove, making him quickly shut his mouth.

"I succeeded," Wang Guangjun whispered, an uncontrollable trace of madness carrying across his face. This was the joy experienced by everyone who killed their first zombie—the joy of metamorphosis.

"Not bad, I'll give you a forty-five."

Zhang Su poked the wooden spear stuck in the zombie's head and graded the performance.

"Forty, forty-five?" Wang Guangjun chuckled awkwardly. "Brother Zhang, surely it's not a failing grade?"

Zhang Su pointed at Zheng Xiaoshan. "First, she was the one who lured the zombies over. Second, the tripwire was set up by Xinhu. You were only responsible for the kill and you still dragged your feet for ages. Forty-five is only because of your age, otherwise it'd be thirty."

Wang Guangjun's face burned a little. For the first time in his life, he had been outperformed by a young girl. He smiled sheepishly and didn't argue back, as it was indeed indisputable.

He pulled the wooden spear out from the zombie. The spearhead, stained with dark red plasma, was already splintered and would be completely useless after killing one or two more zombies; its durability was extremely low.

Zhang Su handed the crowbar from his hand to Wang Guangjun and said, "You know how to use a hoe, right? A zombie's head is the earth—just treat the crowbar like a hoe!"

"Yes, yes, I used to work the plastic greenhouses in the countryside!"

Wang Guangjun eagerly took the crowbar, tested its weight in his hand, and found it a million times handier than that lousy wooden spear!

枢 "Test it later, go loot the gear first!"

Zhang Su told Wang Guangjun.

"Loot the gear?" Wang Guangjun looked at Zhang Su with extreme astonishment.

"Uncle, zombies were people before they died, too. They always carry a few things on them, don't waste it!"

Seeing Wang Guangjun looking dazed, Zheng Xinhu set an example by squatting down and starting to search the zombie's pockets.

A look of sudden realization dawned on Wang Guangjun's face. He quickly squatted down to start "looting gear," muttering under his breath, "Don't hold a grudge against me, spirits, don't hold a grudge against me."

Soon, the few of them finished looting. As time went on, usable items became scarcer and scarcer; aside from cell phones, only cigarettes held any real value. As for wallets and keys, they couldn't even be bothered to take them.

"Cell phones must be collected. We'll need them to lure zombies with sound later. They're basically disposable consumables, so the more, the better!"

Zhang Su stuffed a few cell phones into his bag and said to the others, "Just now, Xiaoshan took a risk to test the waters for us and obtained very important data. From what we just saw, the distance at which a zombie can sense a living creature is about four to five meters."

"It might also have something to do with my rapid breathing."

Zheng Xiaoshan added.

Zhang Su was slightly startled, then continued, "There needs to be a safety margin, let's say seven or eight meters. Without making noise, seven or eight meters is a safe distance where you won't alert the zombies. Of course, this is just preliminary data, everyone still needs to be extra careful!"

"If zombies mainly rely on their sense of smell and hearing to judge things, will certain special scents make them even more sensitive? Like fresh blood, for instance."

Zheng Xinhu raised a question.

Zhang Su nodded. "That's very likely, but we don't have any fresh blood right now, so we can't experiment. We'll try it another time when we have the chance. Pull yourselves together, get ready to move out!"

A moment later, the four of them arrived behind the iron door leading to the parking lot. As usual, Zhang Su pressed his ear against the door and listened intently. It was completely quiet, save for very faint frictional sounds that made it difficult to tell where any zombies might be wandering.

"They haven't left yet?"

Zhang Su pondered in his heart.

His plan was to let Qin Ya and his group drive the zombies away so that entering the underground garage would be much easier for them.

"Or could they have already left..."

Zhang Su frowned in surprise. Calculating by the time, he felt that Qin Ya's group couldn't have finished so quickly. Most importantly, if Qin Ya and the others had driven away, it surely would have created quite a bit of commotion. The current serenity didn't look like anyone had just left.

"Stick close to me in a moment, don't panic!"

Waiting another two or three minutes with still no movement, Zhang Su decided not to wait any longer. He reminded those around him once more and gently pulled open the iron door.

Whoosh.

A slight chill mixed with the stench of decay blew into the stairwell, and the group involuntarily shuddered.

According to conventional wisdom, so many people dying in an underground garage meant it definitely wasn't clean, but nobody cared about that right now.

Compared to legendary ghosts and deities, the zombies of the real world were far more lethal...

Light sources within the underground parking lot were limited, and the extremely faint light emanating from the stairwells of each apartment block was negligible. It mainly relied on the hazard lights of a few cars for illumination, though unfortunately, the alarm sounds had already stopped, so the batteries were probably close to running out.