Suo Tian must have noticed my ragged, heavy breathing that sounded like a bull gasping for air.
He glanced back at me, slowed his pace slightly to let me catch up, then grabbed my arm.
Instead of turning to head further up the stairs, he veered off and dashed straight into the eighth floor.
The moment we opened the stairwell door, several walkers that had been just about to rush out slammed right into us.
Suo Tian reacted instantly—he used all his strength to hurl me into a gap between the walkers, and at the same time, kicked one of them down.
I lost my balance and crashed into the wall, still dazed, but I noticed something: that kick of his was no coincidence.
It was calculated.
He must've gauged the angle in his head—because even though he only kicked one walker, it toppled the ones behind it as well like a stack of dominoes.
The real threat—the massive horde of walkers—had already caught up.
Suo Tian turned around and slammed the stairwell door shut behind him.
There wasn't time to find anything to barricade it with, and even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped.
So without hesitation, he kicked down another walker that had lunged at him and yanked me toward the corridor.
Building Two had exactly the same layout as Building Six.
As we ran down the hallway, I swept a glance around—and my scalp instantly tingled with dread: every single door was shut.
"All the doors are closed!" I shouted to Suo Tian in panic.
Right then, the loud bang of the stairwell door being smashed open echoed behind us.
I didn't even need to look back—I already knew the truth.
That massive swarm of starving corpses had burst in and were now flooding into the hallway, jaws wide open, ready to trap us in here and tear us apart alive.
This hallway wasn't long, and it was even narrower.
Seeing the only open window at the end sent a wave of horror crashing through me.
Judging by the sound of the walkers behind us, they weren't far at all.
Even if Suo Tian knew how to pick locks, there was absolutely no time to open any of the doors now.
Once we reached the end of the hall, the entire corridor behind us would definitely be completely flooded with walkers.
Unless we could sprout wings and fly out that window, then even if we had three heads and six arms, it wouldn't matter—facing that densely packed horde surging toward us, we'd still end up dead.
As we neared the end—just a short distance away—I felt a crushing wave of regret.
My gut twisted with it.
It was all my fault for being so useless.
I couldn't even handle climbing a few floors.
If I had just held out and kept going up to the rooftop, at least there might have been a door we could use to block the walkers.
We wouldn't be stuck in this dead-end, completely cut off, and now Suo Tian was about to die with me because of it.
When people panic and lose all options, they tend to think of all sorts of irrational, fantastical things.
Their thoughts scatter, wildly out of control—a result of the subconscious survival instinct grasping at anything, even the most unrealistic sliver of hope.
Like right now—for instance, I actually thought, what if Suo Tian and I jumped out the window… maybe we'd suddenly grow wings and fly instead of falling to our deaths.
As we neared the window, my thoughts gradually returned to reality.
I knew there would be no miracles.
I'd already started weighing my final choices—whether to jump out and end it quickly, or turn back and see if there was even a one-in-ten-thousand chance of cutting a bloody path through the horde.
Just as I was about to shed tears over my tragic fate, Suo Tian suddenly let go of my hand and dashed toward the door closest to the window.
I saw him pull a small bundle of something from his coat, swiftly loop it around the doorknob, then turn and run back toward the window.
A few faster walkers were already catching up behind us.
We didn't even have time to turn around and kick them away.
When Suo Tian reached the window, I finally saw what he had looped onto the door—a very thin rope.
Now he had the other end tightly gripped in his hand.
By the time I reached his side, he was quickly tying a strange knot around his hand.
As he worked, he said to me in a low, urgent voice, "Get on my back. Don't look down. Hold tight!"
I didn't fully understand what Suo Tian meant, but there was no time to hesitate—not even for a second.
The moment my brain processed the words "get on my back," my body was already moving.
I didn't know what Suo Tian had planned, but given the situation, we had nothing left to lose.
Death was the worst that could happen.
The fact that he had a plan at all meant there was still hope.
I quickly glanced at the rope—one end looped tightly around the doorknob, the other gripped in Suo Tian's hand.
I could only hope his plan didn't involve climbing down eight stories with a rope not even as thick as my pinky.
There was no way something that thin could support the weight of both of us.
After I clung tightly to Suo Tian, he repeated once more, "Don't look down."
Then he climbed out the window with me on his back.
The moment our bodies left the frame, I couldn't help but let out a sharp scream, my whole body trembling uncontrollably.
Honestly, even if Suo Tian hadn't warned me, there was no way I'd dare to look down right now—this was the eighth floor, for god's sake!
I was hanging in midair on Suo Tian's back, outside an eighth-floor window.
This was insane!
Once we were out, it seemed like Suo Tian stepped on some sort of foothold—at least, that's what it felt like.
I sensed his shoulders and arms suddenly tense up, probably from pulling on the rope with all his strength.
At the same time, he reached out and quickly shut the window behind us.
The very instant it closed, a few walkers slammed into it with loud bang bang bangs, crashing into the glass.
They couldn't open windows, thankfully.
I glanced at the glass with a trembling face, silently praying that it would hold—just for a little while longer, to buy us some time.
Maybe the walkers upstairs had hit the section of rope leading from the doorknob to the window, because even though Suo Tian was gripping the rope tightly, the two of us were still swaying back and forth in the air.
Hanging from the eighth floor—I didn't even want to describe how I felt in that moment.
After a couple of seconds, Suo Tian didn't seem interested in waiting for the rope above us to stabilize.
He glanced down, then turned to look at me—my face must've been pale green by now.
His voice was calm as he said, "Hold on tight. It's okay. Leave everything to me."
I didn't dare to look at that absurdly thin rope anymore.
All I could do was pray silently that it was strong enough—strong enough not to snap while the two of us were suspended in midair.
I stared at him for a couple of seconds, and that calm, unwavering gaze of his instantly gave me a surge of indescribable strength.
I nodded, then tightened my grip around his neck and arms, and squeezed my legs more firmly around his waist.
Judging by the look on Suo Tian's face, he was absolutely confident he could get us out of this.
If I were to let go now and fall—I'd die for nothing, like some kind of cruel joke!
Then Suo Tian glanced down, carefully assessing the surroundings, and began moving again.
His face remained expressionless, but with each careful step he took, my heart clenched tighter and tighter.
His shoulders, arms, and waist were all visibly taut—clear signs that carrying me down using such a thin rope was no easy task for him either.
When we were just about to reach the level of the seventh-floor window, the rope above us had almost run out.
From the way Suo Tian was adjusting his posture, it looked like he was planning to jump through the seventh-floor window with me.
The moment his feet found footing on the outer ledge of that window, the overwhelming tension in my chest finally loosened with a heavy release.
I had thought we were done for…
But it turns out, we just snatched our lives back from the jaws of death.
Looking at Suo Tian's sweat-covered face, I couldn't help myself—I leaned in and gave him a quick kiss.
But in that very instant, some strange force slammed into him, causing his body to jolt violently.
Since I had let my guard down and wasn't clinging to him as tightly as before, the sudden jolt made my legs slip from around his waist.
My arms, now bearing the full weight of my body, began to strain under the pressure.
It seemed Suo Tian was dodging something.
The moment he shifted again, my arms—already weak from earlier tension—suddenly gave out.
In the blink of an eye, my body was seized by that damned thing called gravity.
I lost my balance completely—
And fell.
My mind went completely blank in that instant.
This is it... it's over.
At that critical moment, just as I was about to close my eyes and pray for a quick death to spare me the pain, I caught a glimpse—Suo Tian suddenly pushed off from the windowsill with both legs and, in a flash, caught me tightly between them.
At the same time, I also saw several walkers inside the window—faces pressed against the glass, mouths wide open, arms stretched out—howling as they tried to grab me while I dangled back and forth in the air, swinging from the momentum of Suo Tian's catch.
The wide-open space below us made my heart, which had just paused from shock, suddenly pound wildly in my chest again.
I didn't dare move a muscle, swaying helplessly side to side along with Suo Tian's motion, my limbs stiff with fear.
I looked up at Suo Tian, whose brows were furrowed tightly.
As my blank mind slowly came back online, I began to feel every muscle in my body aching sharply from being clenched so hard.
Turns out… I'm really, truly terrified of dying.
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