Xie Li, I'm Leaving My Back to You

Jin Zhaoye didn't answer. Instead, she rummaged through the control room and quickly found what she was looking for in a cabinet.

She handed the device to Xie Li: 'Record an audio clip.'

Xie Li took the device and asked, 'Why do I have to record? Wouldn't Dr. Jin's voice sound better?'

Jin Zhaoye fiddled with the Drone, not looking up as she replied, 'Classmate Xie Li, your questions are getting more and more numerous.'

As if afraid that wasn't enough to win the argument, she added, 'Teaming up with you seems to have been a mistake.'

Xie Li immediately shut her mouth.

Record it, then. Her voice was nice too.

'Emergency notice, emergency notice...all survivors at Nancheng University, please proceed to the Top Floor of the Administrative Main Building as soon as possible. The military will be launching a rescue operation shortly...repeat...'

After recording, she handed the device back to Jin Zhaoye.

Jin Zhaoye took it, adjusted the connection, and soon had the Drone and amplification equipment ready.

She glanced up at Xie Li. Xie Li understood, went to the door, and carefully pulled it open.

The Drone hummed to life, slipped out through the doorway, and flew along the corridor toward the outside of the Auditorium.

Xie Li pulled her head back, shut the door, returned to Jin Zhaoye's side, and sat down, leaning in to stare at the small screen.

The Drone navigated through the dim corridor. The footage transmitted from the camera was a little shaky. The wandering Zombies heard the buzzing and lifted their heads one after another, their filthy, grotesque hands swiping at the air as if trying to swat down the noisy thing.

Xie Li watched those hideous hands pass through the frame on the screen, her heart rising to her throat.

This was way too intense—first-person perspective crossing through a Zombie Herd. Those hands felt like they were grabbing at her, each one just barely missing the Drone.

She couldn't help getting nervous, eyes unblinking as she watched the constantly shaking footage on the screen.

Jin Zhaoye's hands were very steady, her expression unchanged. She piloted the Drone through the Zombie Herd, dodging one swiping hand after another, and flew out of the Auditorium's main doors without incident.

Xie Li breathed a sigh of relief along with her, only then realizing her palms were drenched in sweat. She turned to glance at the calm-faced woman beside her and couldn't help marveling inwardly—what incredible composure. No contest, no contest at all.

Outside the Auditorium, the night was deep. The streetlights still dutifully glowed, but the campus no longer held its usual bustle.

It wasn't absolute silence, though. From the darkness, occasional low growls would drift out.

The Drone circled the campus, and Xie Li's voice sounded from the amplification equipment.

'Emergency notice...the military will be coming for rescue...'

Xie Li's voice drifted on the night wind, passing through building after building, through the dormitory area, past the Canteen and the library, slipping into every dark corner.

On the Top Floor of the Comprehensive Teaching Building, a tightly shut window was suddenly pushed open. A head poked out, waving desperately at the night sky: 'Help! We're here! There are people here! Come save us!'

Immediately, six or seven more heads crowded behind him, each pair of eyes wide as they looked toward the direction of the sound.

'Idiot, stop yelling!' Someone pulled the shouting boy back, cursing angrily, 'Are you a pig? Didn't you hear what they said? Screaming like a ghost in the middle of the night—you'll attract all the Zombies over here.'

'Sorry, sorry, I got too excited.' The man apologized in a hushed voice.

Similar scenes played out repeatedly across the campus.

In the Canteen, aunties in white work uniforms gripped their cleavers with excited faces, working through the night to pack up food, preparing to head to the Administrative Main Building at dawn.

The Drone kept circling overhead, repeating the broadcast over and over, until its battery died and it fell from the sky. Only then did the voice disappear.

The campus returned to silence—but this silence was different from before.

Those hiding in the shadows all had a new spark of hope in their eyes. They only had to wait for dawn, and everyone would run with all their might toward the place where hope lay.

...

Second floor of the Auditorium, inside the control room.

Jin Zhaoye stood up, flexed her stiffened wrists a little, and looked at Xie Li, who was squatting on the floor: 'How do you feel? If you're ready, we should get going.'

'I'm fine, let's go.' Xie Li stood up too, brushing the dust off her backside.

Neither of them had brought a backpack this time. They'd traveled light, carrying only essential lighting tools and weapons for self-defense.

Jin Zhaoye walked beneath the ventilation opening, half-crouched, and gestured for Xie Li to go up first.

Xie Li stepped on the human ladder she'd formed, gripped the edges of the vent with both hands, pushed up with effort, and climbed in smoothly.

The dust accumulated in the duct was truly considerable. The moment she got in, she was choked into a light cough.

She covered her nose, turned around, and reached down toward the person below. 'Come on.'

Jin Zhaoye stepped onto the chair, grabbed her hand to borrow strength, and smoothly climbed into the duct.

One in front, one behind, the two crawled forward through the dark duct.

The metal duct was cold and hard, their knees aching against it. After crawling for a while, Xie Li started losing her sense of direction.

Fortunately, Dr. Jin's intelligence was truly extraordinary. She'd only glanced at the layout in the monitoring room, and already had the air conditioning duct map memorized. Every so often, Jin Zhaoye's lowered voice would come from behind.

'Fork ahead, go right.'

'Next opening, turn left.'

'Careful, there's a vent ahead. Don't step wrong and fall through.'

Xie Li followed her instructions, stumbling forward all the way.

After a long while, Jin Zhaoye's voice sounded again: 'We're here. The rest room is just ahead.'

Xie Li's spirits lifted. She sped up, crawled to the vent, and looked down through the gaps in the grate. The sight made her heart sink halfway.

The rest room door was wide open, and several Zombies wandered inside, their bloodstained figures swaying right under her eyes.

'What do we do?' Xie Li whispered. 'There are Zombies down there. If we go down, we'll easily get surrounded.'

As she spoke, she turned her head back, wanting to see what Jin Zhaoye thought.

Instead, she saw that something was clearly wrong with Jin Zhaoye's complexion. Her face had flushed an unnatural red, fine beads of sweat seeping at her temples.

Xie Li twitched her nose. The duct was overflowing with the scent of white tea and cedar. No wonder—the person behind her had been breathing harder in the latter half. She'd assumed it was just from the exertion of crawling.

'Dr. Jin, are you okay?'

Jin Zhaoye closed her eyes briefly, exhaled softly, and when she opened them again, her gaze had grown much calmer.

'I'm fine.' Her voice was a few degrees hoarser than before. 'Crawl forward a bit. I'll go down first.'

Xie Li looked at her, her lips parting, wanting to say something.

'Xie Li.' Jin Zhaoye spoke softly. 'Crawl forward. Don't waste time.'

Xie Li swallowed the words of persuasion, crawled forward a few more steps, and cleared the vent opening.

The duct was narrow and hard to turn around in. It took every ounce of her strength to barely reverse her direction.

By the time she'd turned around, Jin Zhaoye had already removed the grate from the vent.

The two faced each other across the narrow opening, four eyes meeting.

Jin Zhaoye's face fell at the boundary between light and shadow. Xie Li could only see the half of her face exposed to the light.

Her face was streaked with dust, sweat at her temples, strands of hair disheveled and clinging to her cheeks. Compared to the composed elegance of their first meeting in daylight, she was now disheveled to the extreme.

It was precisely this dishevelment that made her all the more breathtakingly beautiful.

Xie Li stared at her, motionless. Everything around her seemed to have vanished. Her world contained only this person before her, and those calm eyes.

A buzzing filled her ears. Her chest felt tight and aching, and even breathing tugged at her heart with pain. The feeling was too strange.

Xie Li rubbed at her chest, suspecting the Zombies had scared her into developing heart problems.

Jin Zhaoye's gaze slowly swept over Xie Li's hand pressed against her chest, paused for a second, then shifted away, looking down at the rest room below.

She lowered her voice: 'Xie Li, wait for me here. Once I get the bag, pull me back up.'

Xie Li pulled herself out of that strange feeling and looked down at the Zombies wandering the rest room. She couldn't help but urge: 'You...you alone, it's too dangerous.'

As they spoke, the few Zombies wandering the rest room seemed to have noticed them and began moving toward the vent.

'Xie Li, I'm leaving my back to you.' Jin Zhaoye tossed out those words and leapt down.

A delivery from above instantly excited the few Zombies.

They snarled and lunged at Jin Zhaoye, black-red liquid continuously dripping from their open mouths.

When Jin Zhaoye landed, she bent her knees to absorb the impact, rolled with the momentum, and dodged the first Zombie to pounce at her.

Before she could rise, another Zombie was already snarling and bearing down on her. Jin Zhaoye rolled twice on the ground, swung the Fire Axe, and severed the ankle of the Zombie beside her.

Seizing the gap, she flipped to her feet and swung the axe backward, splitting the Zombie in front of her apart.

A third Zombie lunged from the side. Jin Zhaoye bent backward and twisted her torso, evading the grab. The instant her body returned to position, the axe fell again—on the Zombie's neck.

This whole sequence of moves was clean and fluid, executed in one breath. In the blink of an eye, she'd cut down the Zombies closing in on her.

Outside the corridor, chaotic footsteps surged in like a tide.

Jin Zhaoye's face changed. She rushed toward the door, trying to shut it, but she was still a step too late.

A pale white hand reached in through the crack of the door, gripping the doorframe tightly. Then a second, a third—countless hands crowded in, frantically clawing at the door panel.

Jin Zhaoye pressed her shoulder against the door, the axe in her hand swinging continuously, hacking at those hands.

One person's strength still couldn't match the Zombie Herd. The crack in the door was forced wider and wider, those pale faces squeezing through the gap, greedily staring at the person inside.

In the vent, Xie Li saw this scene. Her mind went blank with a buzz. Without thinking, she braced her hands on the edges of the opening and jumped down.

Her knees buckled on landing, and Xie Li dropped straight to her knees on the floor.

Ignoring the pain, she scrambled on hands and knees toward Jin Zhaoye, shouting: 'Dr. Jin, I'll hold the door! You grab the bag and go up first!'