"Run."
After his kick landed, Zhao Tianlei let out a low shout and started sprinting toward the first floor with Wu Bin. The dormitory building had five floors in total, and the two of them were on the third floor. Fortunately, their room was very close to the stairwell. After kicking down the zombie in the room opposite, Zhao Tianlei immediately rushed to the stairs. They made it there without encountering any zombies blocking their way. After all, most of the students were either in class or heading to the field to watch Shen Xinyu film on location. That was why Zhao Tianlei and Wu Bin were able to run down to the first floor so easily.
"Tianlei, look! The fire axe is right there."
"Uh..."
Just as Zhao Tianlei and Wu Bin were about to retrieve the fire axe, a nonhuman voice rang out. A staggering old man then walked out of the gatehouse. He was the attendant who had worked in the gatehouse of the male dormitory, but he had now become a terrifying zombie. Raising his seemingly limp arms, he lunged at Wu Bin. Wu Bin had already been frightened out of his wits by the sudden turn of events. He clutched two chair legs in his trembling hands, yet did not know how to swing them at the charging zombie.
"Wu Bin, watch out!"
Seeing that Wu Bin was about to die beneath the zombie's jaws, Zhao Tianlei shouted and swung the chair leg in his right hand with all his strength at the zombie's head.
With a loud bang, Zhao Tianlei's full-force strike knocked the zombie to the ground. However, a chair leg could hardly be considered a proper weapon. If that blow had landed on a person's head, it would have left them unconscious at the very least. But Zhao Tianlei was dealing with a zombie, which felt no pain. After being knocked down, it actually tried to stand up again.
"Tianlei, these zombies can't be killed!"
"Pfft." Perhaps in response to Wu Bin's words, Zhao Tianlei gripped the chair leg with both hands and forcefully stabbed it into the left eye socket of the zombie that had not yet fully risen. The blow pierced straight through, killing the zombie instantly. It lay there motionless.
"Ugh." The sight of such gore immediately made Wu Bin vomit violently.
With a bang, Zhao Tianlei did not blame Wu Bin for his reaction. Instead, he quickly pulled the chair leg from the zombie's eye and smashed the glass covering the fire axe, taking it into his hands.
Feeling the weight of the fire axe, Zhao Tianlei gained a little more confidence. Compared with the light, flimsy chair leg, the fire axe was definitely a powerful weapon for dealing with zombies.
"Let's go." After getting the fire axe, Zhao Tianlei did not dare to linger. The sound of smashing the glass had already attracted the attention of some zombies in the corridors. From their distinctive "uhh, uhh" sounds alone, he could hear their delight at discovering fresh prey.
Zhao Tianlei pulled Wu Bin to his feet, and the two of them ran out of the dormitory building one after the other. In the walkway directly in front of the building, quite a few zombies were hunched over the bodies of some victims, gulping down mouthfuls of flesh. The walkway was not very wide, and if those zombies suddenly lunged at them, it would be difficult to dodge. There were landscaped green belts on both sides of the walkway. Although there were some zombies there as well, the area was much more spacious, so Zhao Tianlei immediately led Wu Bin through the green belt on the left.
Along the way, the two maintained a steady pace and stayed one ahead of the other. Whenever a zombie spotted them and tried to pounce, they avoided it in advance. When they occasionally encountered a zombie that was closer, Zhao Tianlei simply stepped forward and kicked it to the ground instead of killing it with the axe.
Time was pressing, and saving even a little time was worthwhile, so Zhao Tianlei did not want to waste time on these zombies. The most important thing now was hoping that Shen Xinyu and his classmates were all right. Although that hope was faint, Zhao Tianlei continued praying inwardly that they would not all meet with misfortune. It would be good enough if even those few people who had treated him well could survive.
"Tianlei, look! There are so many zombies on the field!"
After rushing all the way, the two finally arrived at the school field, the place where Shen Xinyu had been filming. If they had been shooting a zombie horror movie, this would have been an excellent location. But Shen Xinyu had been filming a school youth drama. The scene before them could only be described as a living hell, with severed limbs and bloody flesh everywhere, accompanied by screams and sobs.
"Damn it, how are we supposed to find them? Where are our classmates? Where's Shen Xinyu?"
Even Zhao Tianlei, who had prepared himself mentally long ago, could not help panicking at the sight before him. Everything in front of him was just like the images the Virtual Main God had imprinted in his mind—it was simply too horrifying. Aside from the countless corpses, zombies were still tearing into people. Some of the bodies had already been bitten beyond recognition. Even if their own parents had come, they might not have been able to identify them.
"Tianlei, look over there! There are lots of students on that rostrum at the far end of the field. I don't know if any of them are from our class. But there are zombies all around below it, and those students don't have any weapons. They can't get down at all. If we don't save them, they'll definitely die."
Wu Bin suddenly pointed at a rostrum at the end of the field and spoke to Zhao Tianlei. Zhao Tianlei hurriedly looked in the direction Wu Bin was pointing. On the rostrum where school leaders or hosts usually stood during assemblies, at least a hundred students were gathered. Numerous zombies surrounded the rostrum below—more than there were surviving students. Clearly, they had seen so many potential human targets gathered there and had surrounded them.
The zombies had only just mutated, so their limbs were still stiff. Faced with a rostrum nearly as tall as a person, they could not climb up. They merely crowded around it, stretching out their hands and staring at the survivors with gray-white eyes as they roared. Even so, it was enough to leave the students onstage utterly helpless. Some of the more timid students had already begun wailing and crying.
If there had only been a few zombies, Zhao Tianlei might have charged forward in a surge of courage, used the fire axe in his hands to hack them to death, and rescued the students. But there were more than a hundred zombies surrounding the rostrum. Even with a fire axe, charging in would be nothing but suicide.
On the other hand, if there had only been one or two students on the rostrum, Zhao Tianlei would not have risked himself. But there were more than a hundred people up there, and some of them were definitely his classmates. Although some of his classmates usually bullied him and he held grudges against them, Zhao Tianlei could not bring himself to be so cold-blooded. Especially since Shen Xinyu might very well be up there too, he would never abandon her without trying to save her.
Suddenly, Zhao Tianlei noticed several vehicles parked beside the field. They were clearly the cars belonging to Shen Xinyu's film crew. Zhao Tianlei immediately said, "Wu Bin, I'll drive and lure those zombies away later. You take the students from the rostrum and escape while you can. Remember to rescue our classmates first. If Shen Xinyu is up there, take good care of her for me."
"No, Tianlei! You'll be drawing away so many zombies by yourself. That's no different from throwing your life away."
Before you continue