Suo Tian wasn't walking very fast along the way, his eyes fixed straight ahead, lost in thought about something.
I kept replaying the earlier scene in my mind, a creeping sense of dread slowly engulfing me.
During that brief moment facing the walker, it was as if my thoughts had broken free from the normal control of my brain.
In an unguarded instant, I had fallen into some dark abyss—where cruelty and bloodshed strangely gave me a sense of pleasure.
But once Suo Tian appeared, that feeling vanished without a trace.
It was like my thoughts instantly leapt out of the abyss and returned to their rightful place.
I kept trying to reassure myself that it was just a momentary outburst from long-term mental repression.
But when I glanced at Suo Tian walking ahead, I couldn't help but sigh—am I on the verge of going insane too?
Just as I was trapped in this inner turmoil, questioning whether I was still normal or losing my mind, Suo Tian suddenly came to a sharp stop.
With a hiss, he tightened his grip on my hand and abruptly pulled me backward.
Confused, I followed his gaze—and in that moment, my scalp went numb.
The lobby of Building One was packed, wall to wall, with a huge swarm of walkers that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
The glass doors of the lobby were wide open, and a large horde of walkers was pouring out, mouths open and snarling as they surged forward.
Suo Tian dragged me to the side as we retreated, my eyes fixed on the swarm of walkers that looked like a stirred-up ant nest.
My mind stalled at the worst possible moment—so many walkers...
Had they all been locked up in Building One this whole time?
Why would anyone keep that many walkers in there?
In the blink of an eye, the entire neighborhood erupted with the deafening roars of the walkers.
Suo Tian and I had originally been walking along the main road where Building One and Building Two intersect.
Now, as the horde surged out of Building One, more and more of them noticed us and lunged in our direction.
With no other option, we were forced to retreat toward Building Two.
Suo Tian kept glancing back at Building Two, as if trying to assess the situation inside.
Meanwhile, I focused all my attention on watching what lay ahead.
Building One now looked like a natural ant nest—I had no idea how many walkers were crammed in there.
All I knew was that even now, they were still pouring out in a never-ending stream, mouths wide open, snarling with hunger.
I couldn't even begin to estimate how many walkers there were.
All I could tell was that in just this short span of time, they'd already filled the open space in front of the building and most of the main road.
Staring at the endless tide of walkers swarming toward Suo Tian and me, I suddenly remembered watching the news every year during Spring Festival with my younger brother—the scenes of crowded train stations packed wall to wall with people.
What was happening now... probably wasn't much different from that.
Back then, everyone was desperately trying to get home for the New Year, or to reunite with someone they missed.
But now, the things in front of us were simply desperate to tear Suo Tian and me apart and devour us completely.
I'd already been through quite a few encounters with hordes of walkers, so even though the dense formation in front of us was shocking, strange, and admittedly a bit nerve-wracking and frightening, compared to before, I could more or less suppress those feelings.
Maybe it was because the area was small but the number of walkers was huge, but just glancing over now, it looked like there were even more of them than the group that chased us across the fields last time.
Their howls rose and fell in a continuous wave, making my ears buzz faintly and my mind slowly grow restless and irritated.
They screamed without pause, without the need to breathe or rest—just constant noise, constant noise...
The only thing that could shut those filthy, greedy mouths was human flesh.
I stared wide-eyed at those filthy, disgusting faces, a surge of disgust rising in me over and over again.
It was all their fault!
If not for them, how could the world have ended up like this?
If not for them, why would we have to struggle so hard just to survive?
If not for them—how could Xiao Xue have died?
It would be better if they were all dead!
Suo Tian probably didn't want to rush blindly into Building Two, so he slowed down at the entrance, practically coming to a stop, scanning the interior carefully for a long time.
It wasn't until the massive wave of walkers caught up and had nearly cut off all our escape routes that he finally dragged my unraveling self into Building Two.
One of the glass doors in the lobby of Building Two had already been shattered at some point—we had no idea when.
Suo Tian and I didn't waste time or energy trying to close it.
The walkers were already right on our heels, so we had no choice but to run toward the stairwell.
A deep sense of helplessness surged in my chest.
So what if I hated them to death?
So what if I had a million urges to slaughter them all?
In the end, weren't we still being chased like stray dogs?
There was a door to the stairwell.
Suo Tian pulled me inside, quickly scanning the area to make sure there was no immediate danger.
Then he shut the door as fast as he could.
But unfortunately, the door had no latch or lock.
All he could do was drag over some of the piled-up junk nearby and stack it against the door as a makeshift barricade.
After that, he turned around and pulled me, and we sprinted up the stairs.
The walkers behind us were fast.
We had barely climbed a few steps when their vanguard had already caught up.
The stairwell and lobby were instantly filled with deafening howls and echoing noise.
I heard a loud bang bang bang as walkers began slamming into the stairwell door.
I knew that the junk Suo Tian had piled up wouldn't last more than a few seconds.
Suo Tian's steps were swift, and I was starting to struggle to keep up.
He must have noticed that I was falling behind because he glanced back at me and slightly slowed down.
But the moment his gaze swept down the stairs behind me, his eyes narrowed sharply.
In the next instant, he gripped my hand even tighter and pulled me to climb faster.
I didn't need to ask.
Just from the noise behind us, I could tell—the walkers had already broken through the door and were charging up the stairs.
I didn't know if it was just my imagination, but it felt like these walkers were faster than the ones we'd seen before.
At the very least, they didn't seem the slightest bit slow when climbing stairs.
The two of us quickly made it to the fourth floor.
I was already starting to pant slightly and had just wanted to suggest to Suo Tian that we hide in a room here for now, then figure out a plan to escape later.
But before I could even say a word, we suddenly heard movement coming from the fourth floor.
Before I could react, the stairwell door on the fourth floor was slammed open from the inside with a loud bang.
In an instant, over a dozen walkers came charging out from behind the door, mouths wide open, snarling as they lunged straight at Suo Tian and me, who had just reached the top of the stairs.
Suo Tian hissed under his breath, quickly shoved a dagger back into my hand, then released his grip on mine and said urgently, "Stay close!"
Without hesitation, he stepped forward and plunged his blade into a walker that had almost pounced on him, taking it down with one swift move.
Gripping the dagger tightly, I heard the commotion behind me, turned back quickly, and kicked down the lead few walkers that had already caught up from behind.
The first two tumbled down the stairs, knocking into several others and causing a brief collapse.
Taking advantage of that moment, I spun back around and rushed forward to join Suo Tian in taking down the walkers blocking our path.
The walkers chasing us were too close.
Even though I had knocked a few down, the horde behind them kept pressing forward relentlessly.
Suo Tian and I had no time to properly deal with the ones in our way—we just slashed wildly, doing whatever we could.
After a frantic flurry of attacks, we barely managed to force a path through.
This time, Suo Tian didn't need to pull me—I followed right behind him, dagger in hand, not daring to pause for even a second.
The walkers were only about ten steps behind us now—dangerously close.
I glanced back quickly and saw that the staircase behind us was already packed with walkers surging upward, completely blocking the way.
My heart sank.
My mind instantly turned to chaos.
What do we do now?
What do we do?!
Fear and dread gradually began to rise in my chest.
The deafening howls of the horde behind us made my hands tremble slightly.
If it were just a single walker facing me head-on, I wouldn't even consider it a threat anymore.
Maybe it was the inflated sense of confidence that came from having killed so many of them—it made me feel like they were weak, easy to deal with.
But right now… the massive swarm behind us felt like a heavy slap to the face, brutally reminding me that they were the ones who now ruled this world.
We, the survivors, were nothing more than ants desperately struggling to stay alive.
On the way up to the fifth and sixth floors, a few walkers still rushed out from the stairwell.
Suo Tian blocked them from the front.
Although it slowed our pace, at least it kept the walkers behind from catching up to us.
By the time we reached the eighth floor, I was already gasping for breath, my mouth wide open as I sucked in huge gulps of air.
A burning pain stabbed through my chest with every breath, and the intense exertion made my head start to throb.
Every signal from my body was screaming the same thing—
I couldn't hold out much longer.
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