Chapter 87 p2: Goodbye Again
The higher they climbed, the more zombies there were in the living area, even more than before. It was impossible to sneak in quietly.
They had no choice but to give up their cold weapons and fight a bloody path through the horde of zombies. Soon, the bullets they had brought with them were all used up. Li Mi could only take the submachine gun from a dead soldier on the ground, pull the trigger, and pour out all the bullets. The zombies fell one after another, and blood splattered on the ceiling.
The moment the gunshot echoed in the survivor base, it was as if a stone had been thrown into a calm lake.
The storm that the butterfly had flapped its wings with was enough to ignite everything.
If the horde of zombies that had been chasing them just now was just a small part, then the real tsunami was about to begin.
The two of them fought all the way. The stairs soon became a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. The zombies behind them were climbing up on the bodies of their companions.
The sound of heavy footsteps was also coming from the front.
A zombie jumped straight down from the stairs. Jiang Zao raised her hand, and a bullet was shot into its forehead.
Looking at the fourth-floor fire door, which was so close, she did not go in and just kept pulling the trigger.
“Little Mi, you go in first! Go and see if the elevator still works!”
“Big sister!”
“Be good!”
Although Li Mi was anxious, she quickly understood her intention. She was going to stay here and attract as many zombies as possible to buy them time to find an elevator they could take.
She gritted her teeth. “Kele, you stay here with big sister!”
With that, she turned and ran.
Jiang Zao was leaning against the fire door. After she had fired the last bullet, she looked at the horde of zombies that was surging from upstairs and downstairs, took out a grenade from her shoulder strap, and bit off the pin.
It was the one she had taken from A-Zhao’s body. She had taken it out of the armory but had not had time to use it.
Perhaps because the gunshot on her side was too loud, all the zombies below the fourth floor were attracted over. The corridor was surprisingly clean. Li Mi dealt with a few scattered zombies, ran to the elevator door, and raised the muzzle of her gun as she pressed the open button.
The elevator car slowly opened before her.
Li Mi swallowed nervously.
Fortunately, her luck was not bad. Besides the blood in the car and some scattered human tissue fragments, it was empty. She was just about to pick up the walkie-talkie on her shoulder to call Jiang Zao.
A violent explosion came from behind.
Li Mi suddenly turned her head, her eyes gradually turning red.
“Big sister…”
A figure slowly walked out of the smoke and dust.
Li Mi slowly raised the muzzle of her gun, but when she saw a small dog running out from her feet, she burst into tears of joy and pounced over.
“Big sister! I thought… I thought you…”
Jiang Zao looked at the little girl who was hugging her waist. Her height had grown a lot and was almost at her chest.
Jiang Zao struggled to raise her hand and gently patted her head. “Let’s go. We still have to… still have to go up.”
“Big sister, where’s your ice axe?”
“It’s stuck in the door.”
The moment the grenade was about to explode in the horde of zombies, Jiang Zao had flashed and opened the fire door and fell in.
Without caring to dodge the shockwave from the explosion, she was afraid that there were still surviving zombies that would rush in, so she gritted her teeth, got up from the ground, and inserted the ice axe into the door to block their footsteps.
After doing all this, she held onto the wall and walked out step by step with Kele.
With every step, there was a piercing pain in her heart.
Thinking of A-Zhao, who was lying on the bed on the verge of life and death, she bit her tongue, and her vision cleared again.
As soon as she entered the elevator, Jiang Zao leaned against the car and slid down to sit. Under the pale light in the elevator, Li Mi finally saw clearly that blood was slowly flowing down from her right fingertips.
It dripped on the floor, drop by drop.
And the dark clothes on her chest were already soaked.
“Big sister!”
Li Mi cried out and pounced on her. It must be that the already stitched wound had opened up. She pressed her hand on it, wanting to find some gauze from her backpack.
The elevator door opened with a ding.
“Eighth floor, we’re here.”
“Be careful!”
Jiang Zao’s eyes sharpened. She held her and quickly rolled over, dodging the zombie’s pouncing claws, and kicked it out.
“Big sister!”
“I’m fine! Let’s go out first!”
She glanced out of the corner of her eye and saw the figures of zombies that were constantly pouncing on them after hearing the noise. Jiang Zao ignored the pain in her body, gritted her teeth, and got up from the ground, getting into a fighting stance.
Kele had already pounced out like a bolt of lightning, bit a zombie’s neck, and pinned it to the ground.
Jiang Zao used her arm to choke the zombie that had rushed into the car, and with a fierce force with her left hand, she twisted its cervical spine.
She didn’t know where she had gotten the strength. She actually held the zombie horizontally, blocked the elevator entrance, and formed a defensive line with her body, preventing them from continuing to squeeze in.
The zombies were roaring in front of her, stretching out their arms, wanting to eat her flesh and blood. Jiang Zao turned her face away.
“Now!”
Li Mi squeezed out from the gap on her side, and with a few bangs, Jiang Zao’s pressure was suddenly reduced. She let out a loud shout, gritted her teeth, and pushed the zombie forward a few steps, shoving it into the horde of zombies.
A large group of zombies fell in front of her.
She also fell to the ground from exhaustion.
Li Mi had already seen that the mechanical door of the research institute was close at hand. She rolled and crawled in that direction.
Just then, a zombie sprang up from the horde of zombies and grabbed her from behind.
It was a mutated zombie, and its speed was surprisingly fast.
“No!”
Jiang Zao ignored the sharp pain from her chest, gritted her teeth, and got up from the ground again, rushing over in a single bound.
At the last moment, she leaped and pounced on it. Little Mi turned her head, and the zombie had already pinned Jiang Zao down. She roared hysterically, “Big sister!”
At the same time, she raised the muzzle of her gun and pulled the trigger. Another mutated zombie rushed towards her. The gun in Little Mi’s hand was knocked away, flew far away, and fell to the ground.
The bullet shot towards the ceiling.
But a yellow and black shadow shot out like lightning.
It knocked away the zombie that was pouncing on Little Mi with its head, pounced on it, and Li Mi took the opportunity to get up, crawling on all fours to pick up the gun on the ground.
She was just about to open fire on the horde of zombies when she saw a familiar figure in the surging tide of zombies. She was suddenly stunned on the spot, and her eyes instantly turned red. “Grandma…”
Jiang Zao had fallen beside the body of a dead soldier and was wrestling with a mutated zombie. When she suddenly heard her words, she also turned her head in disbelief.
Like a slow-motion replay of a movie, a person she hadn’t seen in a long time suddenly appeared before her eyes.
She was still wearing the clothes she had been wearing when she left home, a blue floral long-sleeved jacket, plain black long pants, and a pair of old Beijing cloth shoes.
Jiang Zao vaguely remembered that she had bought them for her for fifty yuan when they had gone to the market in the town one year. Jiang Wuni had been happy for a long time but had been reluctant to wear them, only saying that she would wear them when she went on a long trip.
But she didn’t expect that she would never be able to come back from this long trip.
The moment she saw her, Jiang Zao’s tears flowed out without any warning.
She opened her mouth in vain, watching as she was squeezed in the horde of zombies, stumbling forward. Her teeth were almost all gone, but she was still roaring, and there was not a trace of emotion in her eyes.
She was old, after all. Even if she had turned into a zombie, she was still an old and weak, useless zombie.
She was soon pushed to the ground by the shoulder-to-shoulder tide of zombies.
The horde of zombies stepped on her body and moved forward. Jiang Wuni could only stretch out her arm in vain, and a “he he” sound came from her mouth as she looked in their direction, as if she wanted to say something to them.
Jiang Zao closed her eyes, and tears slid down the corners of her eyes. She raised her head and let out a heart-wrenching roar from deep within her throat.
It echoed in the base for a long time.
Unfortunately, the zombies would not give them a chance to recall the past. The zombie that had just been chased away by Kele was pouncing on Little Mi again.
Seeing that the zombie was already close at hand, Li Mi hurriedly pulled the trigger but missed. She looked at the submachine gun in her hand in disbelief. The magazine was out of bullets.
In that flash of lightning, another familiar figure leaped into the air.
Along the way, Kele’s body was also covered in wounds. Its fur was soaked with blood and sweat, and it was panting heavily. But when it saw that its master was in danger, it still pounced on it without any hesitation and fought with it.
“Kele!”
Jiang Zao gritted her teeth. Even though she was resisting with all her might, she was still a little out of strength and was gradually being bent over by the mutated zombie.
“Big Sister Jiang!”
Seeing that Kele still had some strength left, Li Mi stood up, took out her dagger, and pounced on Jiang Zao. Perhaps canines were not on the zombies’ food chain. The zombie gave up on chasing it and pounced on Li Mi on all fours.
Kele barked and also chased after it. Even though it only had three legs, its speed did not decrease at all. It was as if it had returned to the days when it was in Yuanxi Village, when it was running freely on the mountain and chasing and playing with its white wolf. It bit the zombie’s leg, and the fur on its back stood on end. It held on to its footsteps.
“Little Mi! Be careful!”
When she rushed to Jiang Zao’s side, the main force of the zombies had also arrived. Li Mi raised her dagger to block.
The zombie on Jiang Zao let out a long howl, and another sharp ringing in her ears made her head split.
Jiang Zao roared. Her fingers hooked the corner of a dead soldier’s clothes beside her, took out a dagger from his waist, raised it, and stabbed it hard into the zombie’s temple. Then she pulled it out with force, again and again, until the gushing blood splattered all over her face.
Another zombie rushed at her from the side. Jiang Zao’s pupils shrank. Before she could get up, a small figure stood in front of her. She was slightly stunned. “Little Mi…”
The small shadow in Jiang Zao’s pupils grew larger and larger, until a warmth came from her back.
But Li Mi did not feel any pain. She turned her head and instantly burst into tears. “Kele!”
Kele’s body was pierced by the zombie’s sharp nails. Fresh blood seeped from its fur and dripped on the ground.
Tears welled up in Li Mi’s eyes.
More and more zombies were pouring over.
Among them were those in military uniforms, those in white coats, and even a mutated zombie that had leaped up high.
Jiang Zao’s eyes were also filled with tears, but she knew that she could not delay any longer. She pushed over the zombie that was pressing on her body, got up, and put her arm around Little Mi’s shoulder.
“Go! Go… go quickly!”
The zombie pulled out its arm, and Kele fell heavily to the ground, panting, and dark red blood seeped from the side of its mouth.
“No… no… Kele… don’t!”
Li Mi turned her head. Kele had stubbornly stood up from the ground, shook its fur, and stood behind them.
Jiang Zao pounced on the door. With a trembling hand, she took out Yan Zhen’s name tag from her pocket and pressed it on the electronic screen next to the mechanical door.
A blue light lit up on the electronic screen, and a line of small words appeared.
“Junior Researcher Yan Zhen, your permission has been granted. You are allowed to enter.”
With a beep, the main door of the research institute slowly opened before them.
Jiang Zao rushed in with Little Mi. Sensing that someone had entered, the automatic door slowly closed again.
She turned her head to look at Kele. “Kele, come in quickly!”
The blood that was seeping from under Kele had already formed a pool of blood. The fur on its chest was almost all soaked with blood.
The hole in its stomach was causing its life to constantly drain away, but it just turned its head and looked at its master with a lingering gaze for the last time, deeply engraving their appearance in its mind.
Before the automatic door could close, another zombie rushed over. Kele stood up shakily from the ground, threw its head back and howled, as if it were calling out to something, and once again pounced on it without any hesitation.
But this time, there was no white wolf to answer its call.
Its small figure twisted and turned in the horde of zombies, dodging left and right, using all the combat skills that Wen Zhao had taught it, and its own innate instincts. Any enemy that dared to break through its defense line would have its throat bitten and torn to pieces.
It used its small but great body of flesh and blood to delay the advance of the hordes of zombies. This was the last thing it could do for its masters. Li Mi watched as its movements became slower and slower, and its body was scratched with countless cuts by the zombies’ sharp claws. Just as the automatic door was about to close.
Kele was finally caught by a mutated zombie, fell from the air, and the zombies swarmed over.
Tears burst from Li Mi’s eyes. She let out a hysterical shout and pounced on it.
“Kele! No!!!”
“Don’t go over… Little Mi… don’t go over…”
Li Mi reached out her hand. The automatic door closed in front of her. Jiang Zao held her waist tightly and pulled her back, her face covered in tears.
