Chapter 16
"Are you crazy?!" Zheng Yangyang had a thousand things to say, but he swallowed them all. What mattered now was getting out of this damn hospital gate.
For the first time in his life, he felt that twenty-odd meters was too long a distance—that bright, open doorway was as far away as a chasm.
"Come back!" Lin Tu shouted suddenly.
Zheng Yangyang instinctively pulled his leg back just as he was about to bolt through the gate. The next second, a zombie crashed down from above, like a meteorite, slamming heavily onto the entrance passageway just outside.
Zheng Yangyang's scalp went numb, and goosebumps prickled across his skin. Just a little more... if Lin Tu hadn't warned him, he'd have been crushed by that damn zombie!
Zheng Yangyang looked up. A row of glass panels lined the top of the hospital entrance. With a series of shattering sounds, more zombies plummeted from the upper floors through the glass—like rain falling.
A rain of zombies.
One zombie grabbed onto the horizontal bar across the glass, slamming into it with a heavy thud. The sudden smear of brownish-red made Zheng Yangyang shudder all over.
"No time to get out—run back into the hospital!" Lin Tu's voice snapped Zheng Yangyang back to reality.
The zombies that had fallen from the heights didn't die. They staggered to their feet, stumbling toward the group, crowding together and completely blocking the path between the group and the gate.
Forcing their way out wasn't entirely impossible, but considering the even greater number gathering outside the hospital, if they couldn't win quickly, they'd likely be swallowed by the horde. Retreating back inside was actually the safer option.
"Shit!" Zheng Yangyang understood the logic perfectly well—it just pissed him off.
The group turned and sprinted back into the hospital. As they neared the corner they'd just passed, Dong Huadan called out, "Don't go to the emergency room!"
The emergency room was on the first floor, which meant that even before the disaster, it had collected the highest concentration of people likely carrying the zombie virus. Not to mention now.
To be precise, it wasn't just the emergency room—the entire first floor would become a hard-hit zone for zombie gatherings.
"Head for the emergency stairwell! We're going up!" Lin Tu realized this immediately, shouting as she ran. "Sister Huadan, do you remember where the emergency stairwell is? You lead the way, everyone else follows, and I'll take the rear to close doors!"
Dong Huadan's face went pale. She nodded hastily and sprinted off in one direction.
Lin Tu kept to the very back of the group. Since the zombies had already been stirred up, she pulled her gun from her Single-Use Backpack, chambered a round, and held it tightly in her hand.
The hospital's zoning was well designed—corridors were usually separated by heavy doors. After Dong Huadan led the group into what appeared to be the infusion room area, the path ahead suddenly grew dim.
Lin Tu had no time to worry about what was happening with the people in front. Behind her, about forty or fifty zombies had already gathered.
Their heads bobbed and weaved as they stumbled forward, occasionally one falling and being trampled underfoot, swallowed into the tide. But that barely put a dent in their numbers—these doors wouldn't hold them back. Lin Tu realized this and decided to do something about it.
She braced herself behind the medical door, raised her gun, and pulled the trigger.
A tearing pain shot through her palm, and the stock pressed hard against her collarbone from the brutal recoil. Lin Tu had never fired so recklessly before. Her ears were filled with nothing but gunfire, and it felt like a thin fog in her mind was being torn apart—she grew more and more excited.
At one point, she even thought about charging straight out the door and fighting these zombies to the death, even if it meant mutual destruction.
"Sister Lin! The emergency stairwell is here!" Zhang Zisheng's voice called her back from her dazed thoughts.
Lin Tu put away the gun, kicked the medical door shut, and slid her slightly sweaty hand over the lock. With a click, the door was sealed.
The hospital's power system had completely shut down. After entering the emergency stairwell, the group found pitch darkness. Once the stairwell door was locked, the chaotic howling seemed to be shut out as well.
But silence and darkness felt like even more terrifying beasts. No one dared to breathe, afraid that something would lunge out of the dark.
Fortunately, they were all players with the habit of carrying various vouchers and supplies on them. Several flashlights were raised in an instant, casting a bit of light into the dark stairwell.
As they climbed quietly, the sound of a creaking door came from above, followed by a clamor of voices.
Men and women, old and young—someone was crying, someone was talking, and someone was even screaming.
"Damn locals. Why do they have to be so loud in the emergency stairwell? Are they afraid the zombies won't realize we're in here?" Zheng Yangyang felt all his pent-up frustration boiling over.
"They're probably trapped in the hospital and trying to get out," Dong Huadan analyzed from experience. "Did you notice when we came in? The first floor was covered in dust. We might be the only people who've come to the hospital in weeks. That's why the moment they saw us, they wanted to join up with us."
"Well, they're going to be disappointed," Zheng Yangyang sneered. "The first floor is full of zombies now, and we've locked the emergency stairwell behind us. No matter how badly they want to leave, they'll have to go back up to the rooftop with us."
The group continued climbing. Inevitably, the two groups soon met.
The flashlight beams fell on the people ahead.
There were about a dozen of them. At the front stood a middle-aged man in a police uniform—the one holding the gun. Behind him were two girls in nurse uniforms, and then a mix of old and young, some in hospital gowns, others in street clothes—seemingly patients and their families.
They were indeed, as Dong Huadan had guessed, hoping to join up with Lin Tu's group. But after Dong Huadan patiently explained what had happened and the current situation, they all looked deeply disappointed.
Especially when Zheng Yangyang, exasperated, swept his flashlight beam over his fellow players. The group, who had been staring into the harsh light, finally got a close look at the players' appearance—
They were all young people in their twenties, and there was even a minor. Only Karen looked like she might have some strength, though in their eyes, she was still just a woman.
"Sorry! Sorry!" the middle-aged man, Officer Robert, quickly apologized. "We couldn't see clearly from upstairs. We only saw that you were all fully armed, and assumed you were at least some kind of militia or civilian organization. We never expected... that we'd end up dragging you into this."
His apology made the players feel a bit better. What was done was done, and there was nothing to be done about it now. Just as they were about to let the matter drop, a woman behind the officer rolled her eyes—
"And you still dared to wander out there. Now look. This hospital with nothing in it's got one more mouth to feed." The woman was in her thirties, pursing her lips as she spoke, with a mean look about her.
The man beside her hastily shrank his neck and nudged her with his elbow, whispering, "Don't talk nonsense. They're carrying guns!"
The woman's shrewd eyes flicked over Karen before moving away, then landed on the smaller Lin Tu, a glint of cunning flashing through them.
"Let's head back up to the rooftop for now," Officer Robert said hurriedly, stepping in front of the woman and giving the players an apologetic smile.
The fifth floor wasn't entirely free of zombies, but the key doors had all been locked by the group. They'd set up a makeshift shelter in the lobby, pushing the waiting chairs together as beds, and drying clothes stripped off zombies to use as mattresses and bedding.
Back in the lobby, they all listlessly returned to their own spots. Since they could hardly be called beds, everyone lay in strange, twisted postures—trying to get comfortable but failing miserably.
Lin Tu and the other players walked over to the window they'd been looking out of before.
"Oh my god..." They all said it almost in unison.
Down below, there were five or six hundred zombies. At a glance, they were so densely packed they were uncountable—it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that most of the zombies in the whole town had gathered here.
"Looks like we won't be leaving anytime soon." Dong Huadan turned to look at the survivors, a subtle edge in her voice. "Be careful, everyone."