"Xiao Yan, Xiao Yan, save me!" Xiao Lan looked at the large wound on her body in disbelief, her voice tinged with desperation.
"You... you let go of me first..." Xu Lingyan was terrified, watching Xiao Lan grip her arm.
Her survival instinct made her wildly shake off Xiao Lan's hand.
"You... don't blame me..." Xu Lingyan's voice also broke into sobs, "You've been bitten!"
With that, she violently broke free from Xiao Lan's final struggle, pushed her back, and ran forward with all her might.
Only Xiao Lan's desperate struggle in the horde of zombies remained...
...
"Team... Luo Xiao Le, hurry! Xiao Le... Xiao...?" The fleeing companions could no longer see who was beside them.
Luo Shu ran, panting, for a long time. He finally spotted Zhu Hui's silhouette, only to realize Luo Xiao Le was gone!
His heart sank. It was over. Had Luo Xiao Le triggered the stiffening?
Their poor little captain!
He turned his head abruptly. His companions had already been scattered by the scattered zombie hordes, and Luo Xiao Le was nowhere to be seen.
Behind him, a zombie lunged from the side, its rotten maw open, saliva dripping, about to bite him!
Luo Shu instinctively blocked with his reinforced weapon!
He barely managed to deflect the zombie's attack.
A large gash was instantly opened across the zombie's face.
Another zombie, unnoticed, crept up behind him and bit down hard!
Luo Shu tried to resist, but it was too late!
"Swish~ Ding!" A familiar whistling sound cut through the air.
Luo Shu heard something heavy land behind him.
He quickly turned his head.
Only then did he realize he had almost met his end by the zombie's jaws!
He was startled, then immediately began to search for Luo Xiao Le.
He saw Luo Xiao Le, who had somehow climbed onto a hidden small balcony. Her small body was curled up in the gap of the balcony, her left hand gripping the edge, her right hand in the posture of having just thrown a nail.
Well done, worthy of being Luo Xiao Le!
She had saved his life again!
This was truly a heaven-moving, earth-shattering, good Chinese captain!
Although Luo Xiao Le had been roughly pushed into the flowerbed earlier, she had accidentally stumbled into a position that allowed her to evade a wave of pursuing zombies.
After recovering from her stiffening, she immediately surveyed her surroundings and saw a maintenance ladder above the flowerbed.
She took off her strawberry bear costume.
Using the ladder, she quickly climbed onto the small balcony, which wasn't high but was hidden from the zombies.
From there, she witnessed Luo Shu and the others' predicament and intervened.
It was a pity her aim wasn't great, and she had to waste many nails to hit her target.
"Xiao Le!" Luo Shu shouted at her.
Mo Chen, who was in another direction, heard the shout and instinctively looked towards the sound.
He looked up and saw Luo Xiao Le huddled on the balcony.
Luo Xiao Le waved, signaling she was alright, then made a forward gesture with one hand, urging Luo Shu and the others to keep running.
Then, from her backpack, she took out a useful item she had found the night before.
It was a long and wide... string of firecrackers?
And a lighter she had picked up that morning at the door of a convenience store.
She hoped it still worked!
This was her last resort. While firecrackers would attract more zombies, they would at least alleviate the immediate crisis.
Luo Xiao Le took a deep breath and found the fuse of the firecrackers.
It took several clicks before the lighter sparked.
She aimed at the direction opposite to everyone's escape route and, with some nervousness, lit the fuse.
The moment it caught fire, she took a deep breath, swung her arm wide, and with all her strength, hurled the firecrackers in the opposite direction.
The firecrackers began to crackle in mid-air.
Then, with a loud bang, they arced through the sky and landed directly in a stairwell on the other side.
"Crackling!" The entire stairwell was filled with the atmosphere of a New Year's celebration!
The sound instantly attracted the attention of the zombies ahead, who all turned their heads, brandishing their claws, and lunged towards the sound like hungry tigers.
"Holy crap, that's awesome!" Zhou Xiao Jun, running ahead, heard the firecrackers and turned to see what had happened.
He blurted out a compliment to Luo Xiao Le.
Why hadn't they thought of this method?
Oh right, they didn't have firecrackers.
Luo Xiao Le watched as most of the zombies were drawn back by the firecrackers, some even charging into the pile and blowing off their hands.
She finally let out a long sigh and wiped the sweat from her brow.
Wait...
Just as she was about to climb down the ladder, she suddenly noticed that the zombies that had swarmed over had knocked over her small ladder!
Unexpectedly.
She was anxiously trapped on the small balcony, at a loss for what to do.
The balcony wasn't high.
But with her small arms and legs, jumping down would surely result in a fracture.
However, judging by the sound, the firecrackers were almost spent.
Once the firecrackers stopped, the zombies would refocus their attention on the living people ahead.
She wouldn't be able to get down then.
"Come down," a clear yet powerful voice, like an ice spring, pierced through the small balcony.
Luo Xiao Le peeked out and saw Mo Chen, who had somehow arrived below the balcony.
With broad shoulders and long legs, he looked up at her.
"I'll catch you," he paused for a second, then added, "Don't be scared."
Luo Xiao Le: "!!!"
Was this still the Mo Chen who, apart from fighting zombies when necessary, didn't care about anything else!
The urgent situation left no room for her to think.
Seeing Mo Chen's determined gaze, Luo Xiao Le thought, "I have to risk it! If I stay here, I'll be finished!"
She silently counted to three and then jumped down with her eyes closed!
The moment she jumped, Mo Chen, with incredible coordination, pushed off the wall and leaped upwards.
He caught Luo Xiao Le in mid-air.
This little sprout really didn't weigh much, incredibly light.
He landed instantly and rolled on the ground with her in his arms.
The cushioning at the start and end of their fall allowed both of them to land safely.
Apart from some unavoidable scrapes on their bodies, they were otherwise unharmed!
Luo Xiao Le marveled at his skill.
The others breathed a sigh of relief when they saw them land safely.
But the sound of the firecrackers had stopped at some point.
"Xiao Le, run!" Luo Shu warned anxiously.
The zombies behind them let out a growl and turned to chase.
Mo Chen helped Luo Xiao Le up.
After a moment of silence, he firmly grasped her... sleeve.
He then pulled her and bolted forward!
"Is there anywhere to take shelter ahead?" Luo Xiao Le, finally catching up to the main group and panting as she ran, asked.
"Yes... there's an indoor gymnasium," Li Wen, who had come from the convenience store, said anxiously.
"The main doors of that basketball gym are usually very heavy! A couple of days ago, when we still had a signal, we saw someone in the group say they hid in there, and the zombies couldn't get in," he explained.
"Lead the way, lead the way!" Zhou Xiao Jun urged impatiently.
Fortunately, the indoor gymnasium wasn't far from their current location.
Within a few minutes, everyone arrived in front of the basketball gym and saw the very sturdy-looking main door.
Hope surged through them.
They rushed forward and began to bang on the door with desperate survival instincts.
"Classmates inside, please open the door! SOS! SOS!" Zhou Xiao Jun shouted at the people inside the gymnasium.
It had only been two days since the signal went out, so the people who had hidden inside should still be there.
However, there was no response from within.
"What's going on? Have they all perished inside?" Luo Shu asked, looking confused.
Luo Xiao Le had an idea and crawled down to look through the gap at the bottom of the door.
She could clearly see figures moving inside, indistinctly.
"There are people!" she quickly stood up.
After rolling around and then crawling on the ground, she was now covered in dust, like a mole digging underground.
"Why don't you try opening the door, Xiao Le? That idiot is hiding inside and not making a sound. Let's just break in!" Zhou Xiao Jun said indignantly.
They had only gained a short distance, and the zombies behind them were already closing in.
"No, if we damage the door, even if we get inside, this door won't be able to hold them back!" Luo Xiao Le shook her head frantically.
"Perhaps we can trade with them for supplies to get them to open the door?" Zhu Hui timidly suggested from behind.
There was no other option.
"We have food, open the door, open the door! We'll trade our food for it!" Zhou Xiao Jun shouted anxiously into the building.
"How much?" A voice behind the door finally broke the silence.