"Go there, go there, hurry up and go there…"
Gao Chujing, in a panic, pointed to a nearby open space that seemed calm and appeared to pose no danger. However, the several distinctly styled teaching buildings behind it clearly indicated their school identity. The living corpse virus had spread widely during the daytime on Wednesday, and looking at the numerous social vehicles parked in front of the school gate, one could easily deduce that when doomsday arrived, the students of this school were definitely still trapped on campus. The vehicles in front were those of parents coming to pick up their children after school.
Jack ignored Gao Chujing's frantic directions. He knew that if they rushed in, it would definitely be a death sentence, with no chance of luck. Jack didn't dare ease off the accelerator, continuing to drive at high speed on the riverside avenue. Luxury cars like Mercedes and BMWs brushed past him, but all he could do was watch helplessly as they kicked up dust, no longer able to see even a hint of the former swagger of Thomas!
"We can't go in any further; if we do, we'll be in the city…"
Gao Chujing shrank back in his seat, filled with terror, looking around in confusion. He had intended to urge Jack to find a place to take refuge quickly, but at that moment, Jack suddenly jerked the steering wheel and drove onto the non-motorized vehicle lane, heading straight for a luxury hotel.
The Hilton Hotel is world-renowned, and right in front of us is its branch in Jiangcheng, the "Tianyi Hilton," a joint venture with a local large group. This hotel stands thirty-six stories tall, designed in a light golden color, exuding an air of luxury and dominance. Just the temporary parking lot in front occupies an area of two to three thousand square meters, and a metal price sign standing at the entrance is entirely marked in US dollars. Even the cheapest king-size room costs over a thousand dollars a night when converted.
However, it seems that the Tianyi Hilton in front of us is either newly opened or the wealthy have a keen sense of danger, as they escape faster than ordinary people. The spacious parking lot surprisingly has very few vehicles and lacks any chaotic scenes, as if it has been sealed by time and remains untouched.
"How... how did we end up here? How many living corpses are in this big hotel?"
The warrior came to a screeching halt in front of the main entrance. Gao Chujing looked at Jack in confusion, while Thomas, with a horrified expression, scanned the surroundings. Jack quickly grabbed a bottle of mineral water, jumped out of the car, opened the back door, and poured the water over the heads of Thomas and Hu Laoda. Hu Laoda let out a startled scream and woke up, looking at Jack in extreme fear, while Thomas, who was pinned under him, seemed to have sustained significant injuries. He struggled to open his eyes and groggily asked, "Brother Lin... where are we?"
"How are you? Where are you hurt?" Jack lifted the ammunition box off Thomas and hurriedly pulled him up from under Hu Laoda. Hu Laoda, after wiping the water off his face, jumped up energetically, while Thomas weakly shook his head and said, "Damn it, I got hit on the head by the ammo box, but it should be fine!"
"Old Hu, carry Thomas. We need to get into the hotel quickly!" Jack glanced back; although they had shaken off a large portion of the pursuing horde, the undead were still relentlessly chasing them. Moreover, there were indeed a lot of living corpses around; within half a minute of stopping the car, dozens had surrounded them. Jack hurriedly opened the trunk, took out several rows of new magazines, and loaded them as quickly as possible, firing bullets almost instantly.
"Old Gao, take the fuel barrels from the car and throw them on the incomplete corpses!"
Jack quickly fired at the living corpses, the metal bullets exploding like dark blood flowers on the faces and heads of the undead. They fell like cut wheat, one after another. Hearing Jack's shout, Gao Chujing hurriedly grabbed a green metal fuel barrel from the car and, with both hands like throwing a shot put, struggled to throw the barrel onto the recently fallen incomplete corpse.
"Bang bang bang..."
Three shots made six holes in the fuel barrel, but ordinary bullets couldn't ignite the diesel. The brown diesel flowed out of the barrel like medicinal liquid. At this moment, Jack had emptied a magazine. He quickly pulled out a Zippo lighter from his pocket, which Bai Ru had found for him in the supermarket. There was nothing worth holding onto now. With a "ding," he opened it, struck the flame, and with a flick of his arm, the silver Zippo traced a beautiful arc in the air, landing in the diesel, igniting it with a loud "boom."
With a large amount of diesel mixed with the combustible corpse oil, not only did it burn fiercely, creating a fierce wall of fire, but it also emitted a horrifying green glow that made one's scalp tingle. However, Jack certainly didn't ignite this barrel of oil to block the zombies; rather, it was to eliminate the smell on them. Once the flames ignited, they immediately muddied the air here, causing some nearby zombies with poor vision to become confused and unable to determine their targets.
"Let's go." Jack turned around and ran towards the hotel door, but Gao Chujiang held him back with an embarrassed look on his face and asked anxiously, "How can I enter the hotel? Isn't this courting death?"
"Then you can choose to stay here." Jack frowned and threw away Gao Chujiang's arm angrily. He was not angry that Gao Chujiang doubted his judgment, but angry that Gao Chujiang was still nagging at this time and slowing down the entire team. He was a little too self-righteous.
After being yelled at by Jack, Gao Chujiang didn't dare to say anything, so he had to find a rifle and follow Jack bravely. Boss Hu was the old man beside Jack. He had never doubted Jack's judgment when it came to survival. He rushed to the hotel without hesitation, carrying the dizzy Thomas Xu on his back.
Arriving at the front door of the hotel, Gao Chujiang finally discovered that this hotel was different, because not only was the hotel's golden revolving door blocked with furniture from the inside, but even the glass doors and glass curtain walls on both sides were blocked with a lot of things. Not only could they not see the slightest bit of the hotel, it would be difficult for them to get in.
"Is... there is someone inside here?" Gao Chujiang finally realized something. If there were no survivors inside, the hotel would not be blocked at all. Such a large workload cannot be completed in one or two days. It can only mean that the survivors inside completed it in several days under relatively safe conditions.
Gao Chujiang stood on tiptoes and looked around. On a glass window on the second floor, a pair of pink women's underwear was hanging to dry. This further proved that there were humans inside, because it was impossible for a pre-apocalypse hotel to allow guests to hang their underwear in that place. Looking at the decoration on the second floor, it was obviously the location of the restaurant lobby.
"Splash..."
A figure flashed behind the glass door. Perhaps the movement was too big. The figure actually moved the furniture blocked inside, causing a soft "crash" sound, and the curtain blocking the door shook.
"There really is someone." Gao Chujiang's eyes lit up completely. He slapped the sensor glass door excitedly and shouted inside, "Open the door quickly and let us in. There are corpses chasing us behind..."
The golden sensor door made a "ding-dong" sound when Gao Chujiang slapped it, but no matter how he shouted, the people inside didn't react at all. Gao Chujiang had already slapped his hands red, and looked back hurriedly to see the surging corpses rolling in like dark clouds. Now even Boss Hu became anxious, kicked the door and shouted, "If you don't open the door, we will shoot, let us in."
"Go away, go somewhere else, you are not welcome here"
Finally, the milky white curtain was slightly lifted, revealing a pair of rather panicked eyes. The owner of the eyes quickly scanned Hu Laoda and the others, shouting anxiously, "You all hurry and leave, don't drag us down. We... we also have guns!"
It seems that the man inside, fearing that Jack and the others wouldn't believe him, lifted the cloth curtain slightly and extended an arm holding a black handgun. It was a Glock 17, a relatively rare handgun in the country, with a 9mm caliber, originally from Austria. While it is commonly equipped by the Hong Kong police, one can only see it in mainland China at certain security exhibitions or museums.
As soon as the gun appeared, Jack frowned slightly. The person shouting and the one holding the gun were clearly not the same person. The arm holding the gun was thick and pale, covered in dense body hair, which was characteristic of Caucasians. It was likely that there was a foreigner involved.