Wu Bin's words warmed Zhao Tianlei's heart somewhat. At the very least, Wu Bin was worried about him, which meant his painstaking efforts to save him hadn't been in vain. But time was pressing, and Zhao Tianlei had no time to explain further. He merely patted Wu Bin on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry. We didn't die when the apocalypse broke out, so we definitely won't die now. But if I don't make it back, remember to protect Shen Xinyu for me. Don't let anyone bully her. As your brother, this is the only thing I'm asking of you."
After saying that, Zhao Tianlei turned and dashed toward the car parked nearby. Wu Bin wanted to say something to dissuade him, but he was a step too slow. He could only watch Zhao Tianlei's back and pray silently. What Wu Bin found unbelievable was that quite a few students had habitually bullied Zhao Tianlei in the past. Yet now, at this critical moment, Zhao Tianlei not only held no grudge, but was even risking his life to rescue those students. That alone was enough to earn Wu Bin's admiration.
In truth, someone of Zhao Tianlei's background had never even touched a car, let alone driven one. When he was little, however, he had watched people drive tractors in the countryside and fiddled with them a few times. Recently, while they were out handling some business, they had taken a taxi. Wu Bin happened to watch the driver operate the car with great skill and couldn't help praising him. The driver had then gotten excited on a whim. When he learned that Zhao Tianlei didn't know how to drive, he immediately demonstrated the whole process for him: stepping on the brake, turning the key to start the engine, releasing the brake, changing gears, pressing the accelerator, and moving forward.
Zhao Tianlei rushed to the production crew's cars and pulled on the doors one after another, but the first three were all locked. Finally, when he tugged on the fourth car's door, it opened. Zhao Tianlei's heart leaped with joy, and he hurriedly opened the door, intending to climb inside. But the instant he opened it, a deep growl came straight at him. Zhao Tianlei's heart jolted, and he hurriedly tried to dodge. He hadn't expected that the seemingly slow-moving zombie would be so nimble when lunging at him from such close range.
Before Zhao Tianlei could evade it, the zombie hiding inside the car sprang out and knocked him to the ground. Caught completely off guard, Zhao Tianlei was sent sprawling, and the fire ax in his hand was flung aside. After knocking him down, the zombie opened its mouth and bit toward his face. Zhao Tianlei was horrified and hurriedly clamped a hand around the zombie's neck, narrowly avoiding being torn apart.
Although Zhao Tianlei had the zombie by the neck, the zombie could see a living prey right beneath it. As if it had taken stimulants, it pressed down with all its strength. Its bloody maw kept opening and closing in front of Zhao Tianlei's face, making his entire body go numb.
After this struggle, Zhao Tianlei realized that the zombie was about the same age as him and was on the skinny side, yet it possessed astonishing strength. Zhao Tianlei had to use every ounce of strength he had just to hold it back. If he relaxed even slightly, the zombie would definitely bite down. As he fought desperately, he suddenly heard another strange noise coming from the car. There was probably someone inside.
Zhao Tianlei was just about to call for help when a person who looked like a female student emerged from the car. But the instant she raised her head and looked toward him, every hair on Zhao Tianlei's body stood on end. Judging solely by her figure, the female student was definitely a beauty. What terrified Zhao Tianlei, however, was that half of her face was already gone. More precisely, it had been torn and bitten away by the male zombie beneath her.
One zombie was already more than Zhao Tianlei could handle. If this female zombie joined in, he would definitely be torn to pieces. Zhao Tianlei had escaped disaster during the first outbreak, so he absolutely refused to die here. In his panic, he hurriedly curled up his legs and braced them against the zombie's abdomen. One hand held the zombie by the neck while the other groped around for something.
This was a grassy area. Zhao Tianlei had originally hoped to find a stone he could use as a weapon to attack the zombie and survive. But after groping around, he touched something soft. When he picked it up, he found that it was a wallet. It was obviously a man's wallet, probably belonging to the male zombie on top of him and dropped when it leaped from the car. But Zhao Tianlei had no time to wait for another opportunity. He grabbed the wallet and shoved it straight into the zombie's mouth.
The zombie had been biting for quite a while without managing to reach Zhao Tianlei, growing increasingly frantic and excited. When something was suddenly stuffed into its mouth, it immediately began biting down excitedly, not caring what it was. This gave Zhao Tianlei a sliver of an opportunity to escape.
At that instant, Zhao Tianlei pushed with all his strength and shoved the male zombie aside. The female zombie was also nearly crawling over. Zhao Tianlei hurriedly picked up the fire ax that had fallen to the ground and, fueled by anger and the fear he had just felt, brought it down onto the female zombie's head.
The blow exploded the female zombie's head like a watermelon being cleaved open. Meanwhile, the male zombie Zhao Tianlei had shoved aside finally realized that the thing in its mouth wasn't tasty. After a few bites, it once again tried to pounce on Zhao Tianlei. But before it could stand, Zhao Tianlei seized the initiative, swung the fire ax in his hand, and chopped off the zombie's head. He then dashed straight into the car without even looking back. This time, however, he had learned his lesson. Only after checking through the windows and confirming that there were no zombies in either the front or back seats did he sit in the driver's seat and try to start the car.
Relying on his memory, Zhao Tianlei tried several times before finally starting the car. Fortunately, it had an automatic transmission, so he didn't need to shift a clutch. For someone who had never driven before, getting the car started was practically enough. Worried that driving too fast might cause him to overturn, Zhao Tianlei pressed the accelerator for the first time. The car shot forward, frightening him into releasing the pedal at once. After the car stopped, he began pressing it slowly and moved forward.
Keeping the car at a controllable speed, Zhao Tianlei drove straight toward the rostrum on the school field. The roar of the engine immediately attracted the zombies beneath the platform. In particular, the zombies on the outer edge abandoned the prey on the platform and turned to pounce on Zhao Tianlei.
The car was moving too quickly for the sluggish zombies to catch up. But there were simply too many of them, and Zhao Tianlei was a complete novice. Along the way, he knocked several over and brutally drove over their bodies.
To draw the zombies away completely, Zhao Tianlei slowed down and drove back and forth nearby. The roar of the car eventually attracted most of the zombies. No one knew what was going through their minds as they abandoned the prey on the platform and chased almost en masse after the car Zhao Tianlei was driving.
Just then, Wu Bin, who had come with Zhao Tianlei, suddenly appeared from the side and kicked down a zombie beside the rostrum. He urgently shouted at the students on the platform, "What are you waiting for? Get down and run!"
"Wu Bin, you came to save us!"
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