Undead

Chapter 18

Chun Cao, “The fuck is this, a gorilla can grow so big?”

Zhang Yingjie, “The zombies have caught up, Rong-ge, what to do?!”

Zhou Rong, “I don’t know! I’ve never been so unlucky on my missions before—!”

Si Nan, “... Stop talking, let’s run quickly.”

The gorilla zombie gave an ear-shattering roar, a pound from its fist crumbling the corner of the staircase above. The four people simultaneously scrambled to the next lower level, and came face to face with the swaying zombies coming up.

Chun Cao and Zhang Yingjie desperately cleared the zombies away, but the number of zombies were unceasing. Under the shower of bullets, they still continued inching towards them.

Zhou Rong shot at the gorilla as he tried to look for a way upstairs. However, in the chaos within the stairways, a regular bullet was completely ineffective towards a zombie beast. Instead, it got further enraged, and lunged for the group!

The cement platform was unable to withstand the weight of the zombie gorilla, immediately fragmenting into pieces, and the four people fell.

Chun Cao yelled in panic. “Rong-ge! Think of something!”

Zhou Rong’s shout shook the entire place, “Si Nan—”

Si Nan landed heavily. In the dark he raised the heavy machine gun, and shot a torrent of bullets at the wall of the stairway!

The close distance caused the bullets, shells and cement fragments to scatter about. If not for the bulletproof clothing the special force soldiers were wearing, they would have been covered with cuts and injuries already.

Even so, the other three were still forced back by the unceasing bullets, and could only protect their heads and faces.

When the bullets finally stopped, the concrete wall was now riddled with holes. Si Nan kicked a giant hole on the wall, and in there was actually a passage towards the interior section!

Zhou Rong turned and shot wildly at the sea of zombies, exclaiming, “You guys go first, quick! One by one!”

Si Nan, Chun Cao and Zhang Yingjie quickly made their way into the passage, and Zhou Rong took the end. Just as he was halfway through the hole, he felt a grip around his leg. It had been caught by a zombie, and only after he gave a few good hard kicks, could he finally escape and crawl through.

Bam—!

The zombie gorilla’s night vision was clearly not good. Suddenly losing its target, it was irritable, and it savagely ripped some zombies apart, then an even more terrifying crack to appear on the unsteady wall.

“The wall won’t hold up any longer!” Zhou Rong shouted, “Quick, let’s go!”

There were eleven floors in the shelter, but between every floor were cramped spaces for insulation, fireproofing and other things. Normally, only the personnel would check on them periodically, and no one else was allowed to enter — and this was where they were after breaking through the wall.

The four people flew through the empty passage. Suddenly, they suddenly felt the ground under their feet tremble. That wall had been destroyed by the zombie gorilla!

Chun Cao was gasping for breath as she ran. “The virus outbreak has now created a copy of King Kong, you sure everything’s going to work out?!”

“It’s coming! We have to quickly come up with something!” Zhang Yingjie’s bag hanging off one shoulder, clanging as he ran, and he was suffering. “Rong-ge, I think there’s still some armour-piercing bullets in your bag! We’ll provide cover as you look?”

Zhou Rong replied firmly, “There’s no time to look through it! The bullets are all the way at the bottom of the box, I had wanted to use them to blast the research lab!”

“Why are we so unlucky?!” Chun Cao was incredulous.

Si Nan, “... When running for our lives, don’t be so talkative!”

They had reached the end of the passage, and the four special force soldiers made a quick turn. Suddenly Zhou Rong saw something through his night vision goggles. “Hold on, this way!” In the moment, Zhou Rong could have shed tears of joy. “— A garbage truck!”

At the garbage collection point of the shelter, a compactor garbage truck was quietly sitting there, with a smell that no one could not ignore.

The heavens always left a way out.

With a fist, Zhang Yingjie shattered the window. From under the steering wheel he yanked out two red and two blue cables, his fingers trembling slightly, and touched them together.

A moment later, the engine came alive with a roar, and the other three people leapt up onto the truck. Just as the zombie gorilla appeared from the passage, the truck sped out!

Outside the truck compartment, Zhou Rong rapidly pulled out the armour-piercing bullets from his bag, and took over the Type-89 heavy machine gun. Si Nan leaned closer, and Zhou Rong used his shoulder as a support for the gun, squinting his eyes and aiming.

Si Nan was motionless like a rock, while Zhou Rong’s body could not stop jerking along with the truck. In his scope, he saw the zombie gorilla sprinting over, drawing closer and closer to the trunk.

On the other side of the compartment, Chun Cao was watching them closely, not daring to make a sound. Cold sweat slid down her face.

Bang! Bang! Bang—

Zombie King Kong flew up, and the wind carrying its putrid scent blew across them!

— If time stopped at that moment, that would have been an extremely terrifying scene.

The zombie gorilla’s body weighing several tons was like a mountain, casting its shadow on the three people. Blood and flesh could be seen clinging onto its sharp claws, and the body was less than a foot away from Si Nan’s eyeballs.

At this moment, the red dot from the scope lit up.

Zhou Rong pressed the trigger.

Bang!!

The enormous head of the zombie gorilla exploded, bits flying into the air!

Right when Zhou Rong released the trigger, he straightened, turned around, and wrapped himself over Si Nan, holding onto him tightly. A second later, the blood and juices from the gorilla spray across his back.

The truck sped up, the headless corpse of the zombie gorilla falling over, landing heavily behind it. Quickly, it disappeared from sight.

***

Five minutes later, on the garbage truck.

Gag...

Si Nan wearily sat up. Finally, he could no longer vomit out anything, and managed to drink a mouthful of water.

Zhou Rong was gloomy. “Does it smell that bad?”

Gag...

Chun Cao turned her head around, panting as she wiped at her nose, her answer resolute. “Yes it is, Rong-ge.”

In revenge, Zhou Rong shifted towards them, and the two of them immediately retreated. Chun Cao was furious. “Don’t come over! By keeping a distance, we can still remain father and daughter!”

Zhou Rong felt the disappointment of being scorned. From the top of the truck compartment, he bent down and knocked on the driver’s window. “Yingjie! Stop the truck and let me go in for a while!”

He did not get a response. The truck continued moving steadily forward, as though nothing had happened.

Resigned, Zhou Rong sat up, the vein in his forehead twitching. The back of his uniform was stained and half-dried with the fluids from the zombie gorilla. The smell of that mingled together with the smell from the untouched garbage from the truck, and it was simply overwhelming.

“Comrade Xiao-si,” Zhou Rong cleared his throat, preparing to convince him through persuasion. “Let’s come up with a scenario.”

“Just now, if I didn’t sacrifice myself and protect you with my body, then, who would be the one covered in zombie fluids now? Who would be the one outcasted by their teammates, scorned at, and suffer a blow to their heart? During such times of low morale...”

“Rong-ge, have a drink.” Comrade Xiao-Si hurriedly said.

Zhou Rong took the water bottle in dissatisfaction. Drinking from it, he nearly vomited from the smell his own body was emitting.

***

“We’ll traverse through the isolation section here, and twenty minutes later, we’ll hit the west B Zone. That’s above the emergency contact station. There’s a lift here that’s specifically for the use of the garbage disposal workers. 60 metres down we’ll be able to reach the destination, and proceed with blasting our way in.”

Zhou Rong’s finger stopped on the map shown on the tablet, and made a red mark.

Chun Cao raised her hand.

“Comrade Xiao-Cao, please speak.”

Chun Cao sat far away in the corner, and she shouted over, “If we meet more King Kongs — what should we do—!”

“What to do.” Zhou Rong’s voice was cold. “You really think we’re here on an outing?”

Chun Cao could not help grumbling. “Why does it feel like we keep having bad luck on recent missions? Should we go to Lama Temple and pray?”

Throughout this whole time, Si Nan was holding onto Zhou Rong’s baby, sitting by the side carefully checking over its scope. At this moment, he suddenly interrupted, “I’ve always wanted to ask, what are you guys talking about when you say King Kong?”

Zhou Rong studied him suspiciously, and Si Nan calmly returned his gaze with limpid eyes.

“King Kong is an ancient mutated gorilla. Comrade Xiao-Si, have you watched Skull Island before?”

Si Nan shook his head.

“What about Resident Evil?”

Si Nan shook his head again.

“... You should have at least played Counter-Strike before, right?”

“I don’t play games.”

Zhou Rong behaved as though he had just discovered the New World. “As a 21st century thriving youth, you don’t watch movies and you don’t play games? Comrade Xiao-Si, how did you spend your student years? Were there any pain or troubles that you’ll like to share with our group?”

Chun Cao replied lazily. “Rong-ge, this is something you’ll never know — With Si Xiao-Nan’s looks, he was busy dating as a student. He was either with a pure and innocent junior looking at the stars and moon, reciting poetry and writing songs, discussing philosophy, or with the prettiest girl in school watching movies, riding a bike, walking hand in hand with her to their classes. He’s completely different from you military school brats—”

Si Nan spoke up. “I’ve never dated before.”

Chun Cao, “...”

Zhou Rong, “...”

Silence descended upon them, and only the rhythmic bumping of the garbage truck could be heard.

A moment later, Zhou Rong said slowly, “Although not dating at a young age is a good thing... Comrade Xiao-Si, people do need some occasional pastimes, if not the immense pressure would cause them to have mental troubles... Say, when we’re out, you really don’t want to look for an empty place and share some intimacy with me? It’s very important to have a way to relax your body and mind.”

“I have a pastime.” Si Nan replied, “It’s sleeping.”

A while later, Chun Cao pinched her nose as she shifted over to Zhou Rong, speaking softly, “I think that when he said sleeping, it really means sleeping.”

Zhou Rong, “I feel the same way too.”

The garbage truck made a turn in the empty isolation section, making its way to the west. It turned around the electricity generator unit and transformer room in front, and in the corner was the lift used by the personnel that had been sealed with yellow and black warning tape.

The truck stopped, and the three people on top of the truck jumped down at the same time. Zhou Rong, carrying dozens of kilograms of gear, ran as he spoke, “Do you know? I finally remember what Comrade Xiao-Si reminds me of. The White Eagle team, the one who lost to us 19:8 during last year’s matches...”

Chun Cao, “Ah! Right!”

Zhang Yingjie, “These foreign bastards are always acting cool but their work is shoddy, it’s not working! Rong-ge, give me the wrench!”

Zhou Rong sighed, “Why do you need a wrench.” He gripped onto the edge of the doors, gritting his teeth and putting some strength into it. The muscles of his back and shoulders bulged, and he forced the doors to the lift open.

Darkness lay behind those doors. Zhou Rong swept the flashlight around, but the unending darkness swallowed up the light, and he could only vaguely see glimmers of light reflecting from the bottom.

“What’s going on?” Zhou Rong murmured, “Has the underground water flowed back up?”

Zhang Yingjie took out a small sensor from the pocket of his camouflage trousers, tossing it into the elevator shaft. A moment later, the tablet displayed the depth of the shaft — 57.6m.

Their targeted location was two metres below the surface of the water. They would need to dive down.

“Rong-ge, are we going down?”

Zhou Rong thrust his finger in the direction of the shaft. “Less nonsense, we’re going down!”

Chun Cao agilely set up the hooks and ropes, using eight suckers to fix the end of the ropes firmly on the walls of the elevator shaft. Zhang Yingjie pulled on a pair of insulating gloves, holding onto a rope, he jumped in.

This time, the order was first Zhang Yingjie, Zhou Rong, Si Nan, then Chun Cao. They each took a corner of the shaft, using the wall of the shaft as support, and rappelled down.

“The White Eagle team,” Zhou Rong sighed.

Zhou Rong’s long legs kicked off the wall, and slid two metres down. Under him, Zhang Yingjie laughed, “Before the exercise they were so cool, saying that they were all fighting machines, having no emotions to entangle themselves with. Every Alpha soldier had been trained to their best combat ability...”

“They really looked down on us, thinking that we were good-for-nothing special force soldiers. In the end, they still lost to us 19:8.” Zhang Yingjie descended further. “How embarrassing!”

Si Nan was expressionless. “So my image is actually so bad.”

Zhang Yingjie quickly smiled and denied it, and Zhou Rong exclaimed, “However, that sick trainer of theirs is really very impressive. After the end of the exercise, he made a personal challenge, and broke four bones of the main instructor of 118 — Although this action is only to uphold his dignity... We’re here. Yingjie, get ready to dive in. Si Xiao-Nan, did you just kick me?”

Si Nan stopped sliding down. His two hands gripped the rope tightly as his feet supported him against the wall. He focused on his own gloves, as though he had sunk deep into contemplation.

“You’re a textbook example of a pet that has been bred arrogant!” Zhou Rong scolded.

Zhou Rong shined the flashlight into the water. All he could see was the murkiness of the water, and not how deep it was. From his pocket he took out an electronic detonator and tossed it to Zhang Yingjie. “Be careful, this is our last one!”

Zhang Yingjie motioned that he understood. “I can hold my breath for five minutes, I’ll come up when I’m done.” He then released his grip and leapt into the water.

The doors to the corridor of the emergency communications office was two or three metres below the water surface. They would need to find the pivot point to fix the detonator, and set up the encoder. This work had to be done by Zhang Yingjie, who had the best results for diving.

Above the water, the three people quietly hung in the air, like three locusts on a rope.

A moment later, Locust Zhou could not resist.

“Comrade Xiao-Si.”

Comrade Xiao-Si blinked.

“Why haven’t you dated before?”

“Rong-ge, you won’t understand.” Chun Cao was right at the top, and she spoke solemnly down into the dark.

“This is like how after the exam, everyone would gather together. Those classmates who keep moaning about how they had never studied, they’re definitely the curve-wreckers who had secretly been revising till dawn everyday. If you believe them, the results ranking will teach you exactly what the reality is...”

“As for the curve-wreckers, when they see their names appear within the top five, they would say in embarrassment, ‘I really didn’t study!’ ‘My luck is really too good!’ Some might even go, ‘How come I’ve scored 0.5 points less than the last time!’ — Their objectives in saying all these is just to humiliate you, because you’re the only one who’s at the bottom of the ranking, and you’re the only one who was honest about having not studied...”

Zhou Rong could not help lifting his head and say, “Daughter, although your school life sounds miserable, in the military school, I’ve always been a curve-wrecker.”

Chun Cao, “...”

“I was the top scorer in the entire school for four years. When I graduated, I even got a medal. Someday I’ll show it to you.”

Chun Cao did not respond for a long time, her face as black as thunder.

Water sprayed around them. Zhang Yingjie’s head popped out from under the water, smiling. “It’s done! Rong-ge, pull me up! I’ll set the explosives off when I’m up.”

Zhou Rong adjusted his position, his two legs spread apart supporting himself. Bending down, he pulled at the half-submerged Zhang Yingjie — however, at this moment, bubbles appeared in the water. The rate of the appearance of the bubbles increased rapidly, as though something was swiftly ascending.

Zhou Rong’s eyebrow twitched, “Come up quickly!”

Zhang Yingjie too realised that something was wrong, and he swiftly caught hold of the rope. Just as he was about to pull himself up, a few swollen white hands burst out of the water, gripping onto him!

“Yingjie!”

“— Zombies!!”

Zhang Yingjie shot at them, but when the bullets entered the water, they were unable to hit the targets. In a panic, he was dragged under by the zombies!

Water splashed all around them. Without thinking, Zhou Rong had retrieved his assault rifle from his back, and jumped into the water.

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