Just after Zhao Tianlei dealt with one of the zombies, another zombie standing nearby heard the unusual noise and turned around as well. It saw a living person standing right in front of it. The zombie's originally half-open mouth immediately split into an excited grin, and it raised its arms, preparing to pounce on Zhao Tianlei. Before it could make a sound, however, Zhao Tianlei swung his axe straight at it, cleaving into its head. The zombie's entire body convulsed, and it collapsed to the ground.
Zhao Tianlei hurriedly pulled out the axe, but because he had used too much force, the fire axe had actually become stuck in the zombie's head. He had no choice but to plant one foot on the zombie's head. Only then, by pulling with both hands, did he manage to yank the fire axe free.
After seeing that killing two zombies had not attracted the attention of the others, Zhao Tianlei quickly crouched down and grabbed the backpack. Only after pulling on it did he realize how heavy it was. Delighted, Zhao Tianlei opened it, only to find an Alien laptop inside. He was immediately disappointed.
If this had happened before, Zhao Tianlei—who could not afford a computer—would have been overjoyed to find such a high-end laptop. But in the apocalypse, something like this was completely useless. At times, it was not even worth as much as a fifty-cent pack of spicy strips.
He casually took out the laptop, data cable, and other items from the backpack, then stuffed all the snacks scattered nearby inside. Besides a few ordinary snacks, there were also preserved plums, potato chips, bread, and ham sausages. As for drinks, there was quite a bit of cola, Sprite, and bottled water. Zhao Tianlei did not choose the Sprite or cola, however. Those drinks would only make him thirstier, and were far inferior to bottled water for quenching thirst.
Only after filling the backpack completely, until nothing else would fit, did Zhao Tianlei stop. At first, he had thought these supplies might last two or three days. After seeing the bread, ham sausages, and water, Zhao Tianlei believed that the three of them—himself, Wu Bin, and Ye Sitong—could easily last three to five days.
With the backpack on his back, Zhao Tianlei casually picked up the fire axe beside him and prepared to leave. The moment he stood up, he was nearly scared out of his wits. It turned out that while Zhao Tianlei had been crouching down and packing the supplies, a group of zombies had somehow appeared behind him.
The reason Zhao Tianlei called it a group was that these zombies were not just three or five. There were at least a dozen of them. The dozen-plus zombies gathered together and practically advanced toward Zhao Tianlei as a pack. No matter how strong his nerves were, he did not dare rush forward and show off.
"Uh..."
At first, Zhao Tianlei had been crouching, and for some reason, the zombies had discovered him and slowly converged on him. Now, when those zombies saw Zhao Tianlei stand up, they clearly recognized him as a living person, and more than a dozen of them began making noises together. Their cries merged into one sound that was rather piercing to Zhao Tianlei. Even worse, the cries attracted the attention of other nearby zombies, and even more zombies began joining them.
"Fuck, I've really screwed up this time." Seeing zombies constantly staggering toward him from all directions, Zhao Tianlei was stunned. A trace of fear burst forth in his heart.
The route back to the rear entrance of the library was now blocked by countless zombies. Zhao Tianlei was unwilling to risk charging through the horde, so his only option was to find another way out. After securing the backpack and gripping the fire axe tightly, Zhao Tianlei hurriedly looked toward the buildings behind him. Not far behind him stood the school cafeteria. Zhao Tianlei's heart leaped with joy, and he immediately dashed toward it.
The zombies had originally rushed after Zhao Tianlei, but when they saw their living prey escape, they all began shouting and chased after him together. Although zombies moved slowly, their senses of smell and hearing remained fairly sharp. There was another thing as well: once they discovered prey, they would continue pursuing it even if it fled, until they completely lost sight of their target.
There were zombies in every direction around Zhao Tianlei. He could only rely on his instincts to charge toward the area with fewer zombies. More importantly, he had to break out before the zombies surrounded him. After choosing the first zombie as his breakthrough point, Zhao Tianlei accelerated toward it. When he drew close, he launched a flying kick straight into the zombie's chest. What Zhao Tianlei had not expected was that the zombie happened to reach out with both hands and lunge at him as he kicked.
The zombie caught Zhao Tianlei's flying kick, but his kick had used the force of his entire body as he leaped. With a body that could barely remain standing, the zombie had no way to withstand Zhao Tianlei's strength. Zhao Tianlei kicked it directly to the ground, but because the zombie had grabbed his leg, it dragged Zhao Tianlei down as it fell.
"Damn, this is bad."
Although his kick had knocked the zombie down, it had also been dragged to the ground, and Zhao Tianlei cried out in alarm. The instant he fell, he stamped his other foot onto the zombie's head and shoved off with all his strength, pulling his leg free.
Of course, after losing the stability of both feet, Zhao Tianlei also fell flat on the ground. Before he had time to worry about the pain, a zombie on his left let out a howl and pounced at him. Zhao Tianlei was startled and quickly rolled aside. He crawled to his feet without a thought for anything else, knocked over a zombie, and dashed desperately toward the cafeteria in the distance.
After sprinting all the way to the cafeteria's main entrance, Zhao Tianlei discovered that more than a dozen zombies had gathered outside it as well. Fortunately, they had not noticed him. Zhao Tianlei slowly lowered his body and moved toward a side door. Through the glass, he clearly saw that although there were traces of blood inside the cafeteria, there was not a single zombie. Overjoyed, Zhao Tianlei gently opened the door and slipped inside sideways.
The school had ten thousand students, so its cafeteria was naturally quite large. This was only one of the school's cafeterias; there were three in total, and they were all roughly the same size. As for why the entire cafeteria was empty, Zhao Tianlei knew without thinking. When the apocalypse broke out, it had been class time, so no one had come to eat. If the apocalypse had broken out at lunchtime, the horrific state of this cafeteria could easily be imagined.
Although Zhao Tianlei saw no one at a glance, he still carried the fire axe cautiously and walked slowly along the wall. Caution was the key to survival. In those memories, quite a few survivors who went out searching for supplies had been careless and were bitten by zombies hiding beneath cars or tables, ultimately losing their lives. When Zhao Tianlei quietly reached the serving windows, he discovered quite a lot of food inside, clearly prepared for lunch.
Zhao Tianlei was especially delighted when he saw the huge pot of steamed rice. Rice was his favorite staple food, but because set meals with rice were relatively expensive, he usually could not bear to buy them. At most, he would occasionally get a rice set with one vegetable and one soup. As for the meat dishes, Zhao Tianlei could not bring himself to pay for them. It was not that he was simply too stingy. Zhao Tianlei earned money through odd jobs, and most of his wages went toward tuition or basic necessities.
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