Chapter 17: Volume One and Two: Chapter 17: The Survivor Who Loved Scaring People

In short, for a lot of reasons, Linglan was running away.

At least she had managed to lure the zombies away from the bridge entrance, hadn’t she?

┐(´∇｀)┌

Zombies looked dumb, but the moment they realized they might get to eat flesh, they could burst into terrifying bursts of speed.

Linglan had gone too far in. To avoid dragging Fuling into danger, she led the zombies on a chase until Fuling came out to meet her.

“Ling! Over here!”

They had found an apartment building with reinforced walls. Survivors had once lived there.

Fuling shot out the glass in the front entrance. Thanks to her petite build, she was able to squeeze through the glass panel in the door. Then she moved the barricade aside and waved urgently at Linglan.

A band of gravity swept through the zombies behind her, knocking them down. Linglan stumbled into the building. Together, she and Fuling piled the barricade back into place.

The zombies were still too mindless to work together and push as one. Once the barricade was back in place, the two of them slid down against the wall.

Hearing the zombies thump against the door, Fuling looked puzzled.

“That’s strange. I’ve only ever seen Mutants hunt zombies. I’ve never seen zombies deliberately chase a Mutant.”

Baby, don’t say that. You’re going to make me the most pathetic Mutant of all.

Linglan covered her face with both hands. After a moment’s thought, she pulled the eyepatch over her good left eye and sank into despair.

“Ling, don’t worry. If we wait a day, they’ll go back on their own. Then we can come up with another way to deal with them, okay?”

Fuling moved closer, put both hands on Linglan’s shoulders, and gently stroked them as she whispered into her ear.

Having a dependable partner was wonderful. Comforted by that tender voice, Linglan quickly pulled herself together.

Damn it. I’ll remember this!

She tugged the eyepatch back into place and stood, leaning on her spear.

While they waited, they might as well search the apartment.

“Don’t rush, Ling. We should check all the places zombies could get in first. Once we know it’s safe, then we can go upstairs.”

Fuling said this as she took out her entrenching tool.

The apartment building was new, about six stories tall. After circling the first floor, they confirmed the building was secure.

The first-floor windows had sturdy security bars. The zombies could ram into them all they wanted; there was no way they were climbing inside.

As they checked the building, they noticed clear signs that someone had scavenged it. On the first-floor balcony, they could also see a ladder hanging down from above.

Creak, creak, creak…

The front door opened slightly, its rusty hinges scraping together with a sound that made their skin crawl.

They were on the second floor. Every apartment door had been forced open. Judging by the dust piled in the hallway, this floor had been abandoned, too.

The two of them emerged from apartments across the hall from each other and silently gave one another the OK sign.

On the third floor, Linglan was about to enter one of the apartments when she heard Fuling call out.

“Ling, there’s a key in this door.”

“Be careful. There might be a trap on the other side. The zombies set traps everywhere back when they still had some sense.”

Linglan drew Fuling back several steps. Using gravity to turn the key, she opened the apartment door. The gears of some mechanism began to turn, followed by a very loud bang!

It really was a trap.

The two of them exchanged a look and nodded. Linglan went first.

She shone her flashlight inside and used a mirror to check the room’s reflection. A wooden board had dropped across the entrance. Someone had drawn a large, simple smiley face on it in red marker.

OVO

Beneath the smiley were two lines of writing.

“Did I scare you? Hahaha! Whatever you do, be careful~”

“If I didn’t, then congratulations—you found my treasure!”

Linglan froze. Then, cautiously, she leaned out to shine her flashlight into the apartment.

The lifeless interior was full of dust and signs of decay. This had once been a survivor’s base.

After checking all the rooms, Linglan was sure the prank-loving survivor had only set one ‘trap.’

“There’s so much stuff here that hasn’t been used,” Fuling said, opening a box full of instant noodles. When she tore open one packet, she found that the noodles inside had gone rotten. “Why would he leave all of a sudden?”

Without a military supply crate to preserve it, very little food could survive four years in Xuzhou City’s harsh summers and winters.

She opened a bottle of body wash and held it beneath her nose. Her face immediately scrunched up. She waved a hand in front of her nose again and again.

The apartment was neatly organized. The supplies inside would have been enough to last four months.

Something must have happened to the funny survivor.

Temperatures here could reach 100°F in summer. The apartment had no open windows, turning it into an oven. Even the lighters had cracked from the heat.

The only things of value were two drums of gasoline.

The supplies might have been useful once, but to the two women, who had already scavenged the museum, they were a box of odds and ends: too useful to leave behind, but too useless to bother carrying.

They continued searching upstairs. The third floor seemed to have been the survivor’s base; the other floors had been picked clean.

At the top of the stairs, they found a large message written in red marker beside the shut rooftop door.

“Hey, stand back when you open this. I don’t want to kill you.”

“This…”

Fuling shone her flashlight on the writing, then gave Linglan a wry look. She carefully pushed the door open.

Pop~

Something triggered, but nothing happened despite Fuling’s hopeful stare.

They stepped onto the rooftop. Looking at the big SOS sign faded by years of wind and sun, Fuling gazed around in confusion.

There was nothing here…

Suddenly, she looked up toward the top of the stairwell.

A zombie sat quietly in a chair amid a contraption of levers and springs. The white stockings on her legs were ruined and moldy. She wore a pretty short skirt and blouse, and her long brown hair fell to her waist. A drawing board was strapped over her face.

She sat at the top of the stairwell, an umbrella propped open beside her. She looked remarkably relaxed, except for the iron shackles around her legs and right hand. She could no longer move freely.

Fuling’s heart clenched. She tugged at Linglan’s sleeve. The two of them climbed up beside the zombie and saw a rope tied to her legs.

If they had guessed right, the moment the mechanism was triggered, the chair beneath her would have launched her from the top, leaving her hanging upside down in front of the door to scare whoever opened it.

Unfortunately, the mechanism had rusted and jammed…

There was writing on the board, but they had to take it down and turn it upside down to read it.

She had even accounted for what the words would look like when she was hanging upside down.

Linglan almost laughed. But when she removed the board and saw the zombie’s eyes roll toward her, her mood plummeted.

I’ll put on a show for you first~

Hey, brothers and sisters, I’ll trade my supplies for a Revival Coin, okay~

If you don’t have one, please don’t kill me. If you find a Revival Coin, help a girl out~

Please, I really don’t want to die~

Uuuh…

As the zombie whimpered, the two of them silently stared at the wild, sprawling handwriting on the board.

Without a word, they reached for each other’s hands and held on tight.