Though the faint sound of someone falling was swallowed by the surrounding clamor, it still caught Zheng Wuyou's attention. She knew she couldn't turn around to see what had happened.
I'm sorry... I have to make it out alive...
The pained groans behind her mingled with the sounds of things rushing in from all directions to bite and tear at their victims, leaving her with a jumble of conflicting emotions.
"Fuck you! You bastards!"
Suddenly, several furious roars rang out like muffled thunder that had been building for millennia. A moment later, the sounds of fighting burst from within the melee that had briefly subdued the crowd.
Then they, too, faded into silence amid the chaos.
She steeled herself and squeezed her eyes shut, suppressing the tremble of anger that ran through her as she ran even harder toward the light.
She knew she hadn't imagined it. As she ran, she'd glimpsed a blurred, sturdy figure out of the corner of her eye, rushing past in the opposite direction...
It was the old man...
The old woman on Ben Yu's back, at the very front of the group, stared ahead with a worried expression, seemingly unaware of everything that had happened behind them.
The light ahead drew closer, the distance shrinking until everyone could finally make out a white square in the distance.
And someone hanging upside down there.
At last, just as he was nearing the limit of his strength, Ben Yu carried the old grandmother into the sunlit area.
He approached the white opening carefully, moving quickly yet with extraordinary lightness, as if afraid that the slightest sound might attract something terrifying.
The man in the checkered shirt, who had been hanging upside down the whole time, twisted his body from side to side. The foot caught in