Searching for an Exit

I didn't agree. Instead, I took the dagger and asked her a question in return.

"When we get somewhere safe, I'll give you the food." Her answer made me frown, but there wasn't much I could say. It was only natural for her to be wary of me. If I took the supplies and ran, this mother and daughter might really starve to death here.

"I hope you're not planning to go back on your word." After warning her, I held out my hand. The woman looked down at it and froze for a moment.

"My name is Fang Yuxuan." I gave my name instinctively, then suddenly realized something was wrong! It was obviously a man's name. There was nothing I could do. I thought for a moment, then said, "Fang, as in the square sky and round earth. Yu, as in rain. Xuan, with the grass radical."

"Yuxuan? Hello... I'm Bai Xiaoxiao." The woman reached out and shook my hand. Whether she did it on purpose or not, she squeezed with some force. It didn't feel like much to me, but she kept gripping my hand harder and harder. Her face had gone red, yet she still gritted her teeth and squeezed.

After a while, once Bai Xiaoxiao finally gave up, I asked slowly, "Was... that really necessary?"

"Huff... I... I believe you now when you say you killed more than a dozen zombies. Huff..." The woman answered between gasps.

So she was still suspicious of me?

But I was puzzled, too... My strength seemed to have gradually increased since I woke up. It had become especially noticeable after I ate, drank the glucose, and had a sausage. I could clearly feel my body getting stronger, and now I almost felt as if I could jump up and reach the ceiling, more than three meters high.

Of course, reason told me it was only an illusion. Maybe I really had gotten stronger, but surely I hadn't suddenly surpassed the limits of human ability?

I was a little over 1.7 meters tall. With my arm stretched out, I could reach a little over two meters at most. How high would I have to jump to touch a three-meter ceiling?

Wait...

"Why not try?" I muttered, lowering my head.

"Hm? Big Sister, try what?" The little girl immediately piped up.

"Uh... nothing. I'll give it a try." I didn't tell her about my illusion, but I still took a couple of steps back. Without a running start, I bent my knees and sprang straight up!

"Smack!"

A sharp sound rang out. My palm had actually slapped the ceiling, three meters above!

I really had gotten stronger!

When I landed, I stared quietly at my palm. The layer of dust on it was clear proof that my body might already have surpassed the norm.

"Whoa! Big Sister jumped so high! Juan'er wants to try too!"

"Yu... Yuxuan? Have you studied martial arts?"

The voices of little Juan'er and Bai Xiaoxiao reached my ears, snapping me out of my thoughts.

Faced with their very different expressions, all I could do was give an awkward smile. "Mm... I've studied a little." Then I looked at the little girl and said, "You're still a long way from jumping that high. Grow as tall as me first."

Bai Xiaoxiao's gaze changed at once, while the little girl's friendly look turned to admiration. To be honest, I wasn't used to being looked at that way, but it felt nice.

"Yuxuan, shall we get going?" Bai Xiaoxiao urged me anxiously. Maybe my jump had given her more confidence that she'd be rescued.

But... when had she started shortening my name?

Never mind. None of that mattered. My body getting stronger had lifted my spirits. At least it gave me one more reason to keep living, didn't it?

I nodded, then looked the mother and daughter over. They were all right. At least they weren't like those idiotic women in novels or movies who clomped around the apocalypse in high heels. They were both wearing sneakers.

But...

"Before we go, you should tie something around your arms."

I thought for a moment, then said, "Find something like a quilt and wrap it around your arms. If zombies come, it might at least give you a little protection. Also..."

I turned to look at the man lying on the ground. "Take off his bulletproof vest. Miss Bai, you can wear it."

Bai Xiaoxiao froze. She lowered her head and thought for barely two seconds before nodding at me. Then she turned and walked down the corridor. A little while later, she came back with two quilts. She used my fruit knife to cut them into strips and tie them around her and her daughter's arms. Then she went to her husband's body and said a few things in a low voice.

My hearing had become sharper, too, so I heard her clearly.

"Honey... I gave away your favorite knife, and I'm taking your clothes, too... I'm sorry. But it's for our daughter. So Juan'er can grow up healthy and stay alive... I'm sorry..."

Her voice was choked with tears. I tactfully left her alone and, a little bored, put a piece of gum from my pocket in my mouth. Where had I gotten the gum?

Obviously, I'd picked it up! Of course I had! Ahem!

Chapter Fifteen: Finding an Exit

This woman... Bai Xiaoxiao, was it?

I decided to call her by her name. Calling her "that woman" all the time seemed a little disrespectful.

As I thought, I watched her struggle to take off the bulletproof vest, then laboriously put it on.

Seeing how much effort Bai Xiaoxiao was putting into it reminded me why I hadn't let the little girl wear it. Bulletproof vests were heavy. They weren't all that heavy for an adult—maybe ten or so pounds—but for a seven- or eight-year-old, that was enough weight to keep her from moving.

But... speaking of children and a few pounds, I suddenly remembered myself as a kid, lugging around a backpack full of books. All together, they must've weighed at least twenty or thirty pounds. Back then... it really had been exhausting.

I'd gotten a little sidetracked. In any case, I chewed my gum and waited until the woman had everything ready. She'd made sure to put two extra layers of clothing on her daughter, too. The weather wasn't very cold yet, but it wasn't warm, either. You could only call it comfortable.

"Why did you...?" I asked, looking at the two extra layers Juan'er was wearing.

"Just like you said, it might help protect her. Even if she can't wear a bulletproof vest." Bai Xiaoxiao patted Juan'er's head as she spoke.

I nodded and said nothing more. As for the extra clothes?

Tsk. This woman had probably never faced those things before. Forget the green monsters; even an ordinary zombie could tear through those two layers and rip out her heart.

Just as we were about to leave, I reminded the mother and daughter again, "No matter what happens, follow my orders without question!"

I didn't want anything going wrong if I ran into a situation I couldn't handle, so it was important to make sure they understood in advance.

Bai Xiaoxiao nodded without hesitation to show she understood. Little Juan'er nodded, too, though she looked confused.

Forget it. The woman was what she was. If something really went wrong, I could still run on my own.

But... could I really leave a child behind and run away by myself? Could I?

As I asked myself that, I started down the stairs.

The zombies in the stairwell had almost all been cleared out. But the farther down we went, the more bodies we saw. Relying on my own abilities, I stopped trying to keep quiet and asked naturally, "Miss Bai... what were the three of you doing at the hospital?"

"Looking for medicine for Juan'er."

"Was it urgent?"

"Yes. Juan'er had a high fever, and it was too late to get fever medicine. My husband made the decision and brought our daughter and me to the hospital, no matter what I said."

Bai Xiaoxiao's voice came from behind me. By then, we had reached the iron gate on the fifth floor.

"Your husband was a real man," I said sincerely.

"But... where did you live before?" I pressed my face to the iron gate, lowered my voice, and gestured for the mother and daughter behind me to stay quiet.

"We lived at the Armed Police Detachment. My husband was an armed police officer. There was food, water, and weapons there, but no medicine." Bai Xiaoxiao answered in a low voice from behind me.

"The Armed Police Detachment you mentioned—is it the one in... Wait!" I'd been about to ask if she meant the Armed Police Detachment in Tiexi, but then it hit me. Damn it, I didn't even know if this world had a place called Tiexi! Why was I asking?

My sudden exclamation made the mother and daughter behind me tense up. Bai Xiaoxiao thought I'd heard something and hurriedly whispered, "W-what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Don't be nervous. I'll open the door in a moment. The two of you, stay close behind me and follow slowly. This time, we're going straight ahead."

I didn't answer her question. I wasn't confident enough to tell her I'd just been thinking.

Bai Xiaoxiao nodded, a hint of unease in her eyes. Despite that, she held her daughter's hand tightly and pulled her behind her. She relaxed a little only when she saw I wasn't doing anything.

Listening to the footsteps outside, those irregular dragging sounds, I could tell there were at least a few zombies out there. They must have been drawn by the noise the bodies had made earlier. Hearing the dragging sounds, I couldn't help sucking in a breath.

Zombies were zombies, after all. Even though there were only some of them at the end of the fifth-floor corridor, there might already be more than before.

Unlike last time, there weren't any low-level green monsters among the bodies. There were dozens of ordinary zombies and more than ten high-level blue monsters—twice as many as before.

And besides them, two more zombies stood off to either side: one white monster and one high-level green monster...

"This is..."

I drew a deep breath. Seeing that, I couldn't help having second thoughts.

At the very least, I couldn't break through a lineup like this right now. But if I went around them... I thought it over. There weren't any other exits down the corridor, and I couldn't go back to the stairs we'd come from. How were we supposed to get through?

Wait... there might be another way...

Seeing those two zombies reminded me of the restroom in the other corridor, where I'd come out last time. The restroom at the end might be accessible, too. I didn't know if it was still the same as before.

"How is it?" Seeing me standing motionless, Bai Xiaoxiao asked in a low voice.

"There's danger up ahead. Maybe the zombies blocking the way have already moved on." I shook my head and spoke quietly.

"What? Then what should we do?" Bai Xiaoxiao asked again, sounding flustered.

"It's fine... wait for me!" I pushed against the fifth-floor iron gate again, but it was locked. I'd already unlocked it the last time I'd been here. Perhaps the police officer had locked it again to keep the zombies out.

It looked like we could only take another route. I started walking and pushed open a half-open door. It was the men's restroom. If nothing unexpected had happened, there would be plenty of things inside, too. None of us knew what had happened back then.

I was in front when I spotted four big characters on the restroom wall.

{No complaining!} (P.S. This is a filler gag. It's toxic. Don't hate on it.)

There was another line of foreign writing beneath it, but this time it was in English, not Japanese.

So they were foreigners this time?

The blood smeared across the wall was obvious. It wasn't zombie blood. It was human blood!

Then it must have belonged to a hospital employee... Not many people would leave such a conspicuous message to warn those who came after them when they saw zombies.

And there was a pile of internal organs and a leg scattered around the corner of the wall. It looked like they belonged to a doctor...

Those things must have gone mad!

At the same time, I listened closely. The sounds inside were getting clearer: strange thuds and all sorts of other noises. It was as if some creature inside was peering out through the crack in the door. Its green pupils stood out in the corridor lights.

"Ah... no...!"

Suddenly, someone shouted from deep inside the restroom. It was the man who'd been crawling farther and farther into the men's restroom.

Before his voice had even faded, I heard even louder pounding, followed by the sound of tearing. After that...