Jill

"Crazy! They've all gone crazy! I've never seen terrorists this suicidal!"

"Shit, he bit me! That son of a bitch!"

"This is terrifying! I'm calling the police!"

"You're the fucking police!"

In the parking lot, Jill and the others hurriedly searched for vehicles. Many still wore shaken expressions, cursing under their breath.

Just then, a large crowd rushed out of the police station and charged straight at Jill's group. Every one of them staggered as if they were drug addicts on a high, yet they were anything but slow.

Everyone in the parking lot immediately raised their guns and returned fire, bullets pouring into the crowd. After the chaos inside the station, no one who had made it out was feeling merciful.

The people at the front of the crowd fell at once, but those behind them surged forward one after another, as if they feared no death. Then the people who had been shot down got back up and rejoined the horde.

Unlike her panicked colleagues, Jill aimed calmly, every bullet striking someone squarely in the forehead.

The heads of those she hit burst like overinflated balloons. After twitching twice on the ground, they went completely still.

"I told you, aim for their heads! They're infected—they're zombies!" Jill shouted, warning her colleagues not to waste ammunition.

"Fuck, I know, but I can't hit them!" The fat officer beside Jill looked aggrieved.

He was already doing his best to aim for their heads, but if his bullets insisted on flying toward their thighs, what could he do?

He could eat twenty donuts in one go without breaking a sweat, but hitting the head of a moving target from that far away was simply beyond him.

Roar!

The conversation distracted them. Several zombies had silently circled behind them, only roaring a second before they pounced.

Caught off guard, two officers were knocked straight to the ground. The zombies bit into their necks, and blood sprayed everywhere.

"Ahhh!"

Jill wanted to help, but three zombies surrounded her. After barely dealing with the threats in front of her, she shot the zombie on top of her colleague, then crouched beside him to check his injuries.

Roar!

Her colleague suddenly snarled and sprang up, grabbing Jill by the shoulders and opening his mouth to bite her.

Jill had not expected her colleague to turn so quickly. Caught off guard, she was tackled to the ground, her arms trembling as she struggled to hold him back.

She might have been a tough woman, but her colleague clearly outweighed her by far. His sheer body weight made it hard for her to endure, and his gaping mouth drew closer and closer to Jill's pale neck.

The others wanted to help, but none dared approach. Jill cursed the useless idiots inwardly.

At the critical moment, an unfamiliar gunshot suddenly rang out.

Bang!

The bullet struck the fat officer in the head with perfect accuracy, entering through his temple and turning his brain tissue to mush.

The fat officer's body stiffened, all strength leaving him at once. Carried by the bullet's momentum, he toppled to one side.

Jill shoved him away, curled up and slipped out from beneath his body, then rolled to her feet and saw Xiao Miao standing there with smoke rising from his gun barrel.

And he was handsome, too!

"Thanks. I owe you one." Jill instinctively tucked her hair behind her ear, then her expression suddenly hardened as she raised her gun and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

A bullet grazed past Xiao Miao's ear. He could even feel the heat produced by it cutting through the air.

Behind him came the sound of a watermelon bursting. A zombie with its head blown apart staggered two steps before collapsing at Xiao Miao's feet.

Jill blew the smoke from her gun barrel. "Now you owe me one too."

Xiao Miao froze. "Doesn't that cancel out?"

"Favors don't cancel out. This isn't the time to chat—we need to get out of here!"

Jill fired as she pulled out her car keys. The zombie horde kept closing in, and Xiao Miao moved beside her, repeatedly pulling the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Saying every shot hit its mark and every bullet blew apart a head would have been an exaggeration, but Xiao Miao killed a zombie every two shots—far more efficiently than anyone else.

Jill pulled open the car door and shouted at Xiao Miao, "Get in!"

"Coming!"

Xiao Miao shoved aside a middle-aged officer trying to fight him for the front passenger seat and climbed into the car.

The displaced officer gritted his teeth but did not dare lash out. He had seen what Xiao Miao could do; this guy was clearly no ordinary man. He could only purse his lips and climb into the back seat.

Two more people squeezed into the car, filling all five seats. Jill floored the gas pedal, and the engine roared deafeningly as the police car knocked over several zombies and barreled out of the parking lot.

Then it got stuck in traffic...

At this moment, the first wave of infected people were gradually turning into zombies, then infecting more people through scratches and bites. As far as the eye could see, the order of human society had completely collapsed.

Crying, explosions, and snarls blended together, weaving a song of apocalyptic revelry.

"How did this happen?"

Everyone in the car fell into despair. Even Jill, a strong woman, felt a surge of helplessness in that instant.

Was humanity going extinct?

As Jill sat there dazed, she suddenly felt a warm, large hand cover hers. Looking down, she saw that it belonged to the handsome man in the passenger seat.

People were visual creatures, and Jill was no exception. If Xiao Miao had been a greasy, bald, middle-aged shut-in, touching her like this would have been like tugging a tiger's tail—Jill would have elbowed him without hesitation.

But handsome men were different. When it came to the same thing, women were always especially forgiving toward handsome men. Anyone who enjoyed reading novels probably understood that well.

"Drive through them and force a way out. We absolutely can't stay trapped here!" Xiao Miao said. At the same time, he opened the sunroof, leaned out, and shot the zombies approaching from both sides of the police car.

Jill nodded obediently, choosing to trust Xiao Miao's judgment. She pressed her high heel to the floor, and the police car slammed between two cars that had rear-ended each other.

Crash, reverse, crash again—after repeating the process three times, the police car finally forced open a path and drove out of the most congested stretch.

Xiao Miao finally let out a breath, clutching his lower back as he sat back down inside the car.

The impact had been too violent. His waist had collided hard with the edge of the sunroof, and it was probably bruised.

Jill noticed Xiao Miao's expression and the corner of her mouth curled upward slightly. "You okay?"

"It still works." Xiao Miao rubbed his waist, baring his teeth in pain. "Where are you driving?"

"Out of the city!" Jill answered succinctly. Freeing one hand, she held it out to Xiao Miao. "Jill. Jill Valentine."

"Xiao Miao Smith." That was the name the system had fabricated for him. It was rather perfunctory, sounding like the name of an immigrant who had slipped into the country illegally, but that was exactly what was printed on his press card.

Their hands clasped, Jill's grip firm. As she released him, her fingertips brushed across Xiao Miao's palm.

Xiao Miao: ???

What did that mean?

He had long heard that Western women were open-minded, but they were running for their lives right now. Was it because of that... that bridge effect?

Pushing aside the strange thoughts in his head, Xiao Miao said, "We can't get out now. The entire city has been surrounded by the Umbrella Corporation. I suggest we find somewhere to rest first—preferably a place where we can get a map and some guns."