Cheng Zhiwei and patted Mo Zhao on the shoulder. "Hey, you shrewd businessman, still calculating even at a time like this! How much can a kid eat? If we don't leave soon, the zombies will bite your butt!"
Lu Ci sheathed his knife and glanced back at the gray figures gradually gathering outside the door. "Stop talking nonsense, the zombie horde is coming soon, we need to find Patient Zero as soon as possible."
Qu Lingzhou, supporting himself on the medicine cabinet, stood up. Cheng Zhiwei looked up at him as he slowly rose, her gaze shifting from looking down to looking at him at eye level and then back up. "Brother Lu, is this the kid you were talking about? He's almost taller than you when he's standing up..."
Lu Ci hadn't expected this "kid" to be so tall. He'd looked like a stray cat when he was curled up in the corner. He rubbed his nose and changed the subject. "Is this the time for teasing? Let's leave."
The group slipped out of the clinic's back door. The streets of the Plague Town were shrouded in a thick, gray-green fog, with visibility less than ten meters.
Cheng Zhiwei led the way, holding an electronic map she had taken from the previous safe house. The screen marked several possible areas where Patient Zero might have been active.
"Based on the infection route, the index case should have initially appeared near the church in the town center, but was transferred to the city hospital's isolation ward after the virus spread."
Cheng Zhiwei in on the thermal imaging map on the screen. Red dots representing the zombie horde densely covered the entire block. "The problem now is that the church and the hospital are three blocks apart, and there are at least two waves of zombies on each street."
Lu Ci glanced at the map. "Let's split up and look for clues. Mo Zhao and Zhiwei, go to the church to look through the records. The rest of us will go to the hospital to scout ahead."
Qu Lingzhou stood quietly to the side, holding the medical kit; no one noticed which group he was supposed to be with.
Mo Zhao glanced at him. "Who's he with?"
"I'll follow you."
Mo Zhao's lips twitched slightly, but he didn't say anything more and turned to walk towards the church.
The church's iron gate was ajar, and the interior was a mess. Pews were overturned on the floor, and most of the stained glass windows were shattered. Moonlight leaked in through the holes, cutting crooked spots of light on the floor.
Cheng Zhiwei squatted in front of the filing cabinet, searching through baptismal records and death certificates, while Mo Zhao checked the hidden basement entrance near the altar.
Qu Lingzhou, holding a medical resource package, stood in the corner, unable to offer any real help.
A low growl came from the side door, and three zombies sprang out from behind the confessional. Their grayish-green skin was covered with festering blisters, their eyes were cloudy and white, and their mouths were dripping with sticky saliva.
They locked onto the scent of a living person and pounced towards Cheng Zhiwei.
Cheng Zhiwei reacted extremely quickly, swinging a baseball bat backhand to send the first one flying, but the second one had already pounced from the side.
Before she could turn around, just as the zombie's claws were about to grab her shoulder, Qu Lingzhou grabbed the medical kit and ran two steps to the side, narrowly avoiding the zombie's attack.
Taking advantage of the opening, Cheng Zhiwei swung her bat a second time, taking down the remaining two, and then glanced back, panting.
Qu Lingzhou huddled behind the overturned bench, clutching the medical kit tightly to her chest, her whole body trembling.
Cheng Zhiwei didn't take it seriously, simply attributing it to good luck.
Mo Zhao poked his head out from the basement entrance. "Found it! There's a morgue in the church's basement. The earliest patient files are all here. Patient Zero's name is Shen Du, male, thirty-seven years old. His last activity before infection was at the city hospital."
The zombie density at the city hospital is several times higher than in other parts of the town.
The building's exterior walls were covered in mutated vines, the lobby on the first floor was crammed with wandering zombies, and even the elevator shaft was filled with several.
Lu Ci and his team had cleared a passageway for a side staircase, but zombies were still pouring in.
"Charge straight to the ninth floor psychiatric ward, don't get scattered!" Lu Ci slashed down two zombies blocking the stairwell with a single stroke and led the charge up the stairs.
The corridor was narrow, Mo Zhao ran in front, Cheng Zhiwei and Lu Ci brought up the rear, Qu Lingzhou stumbled along in the middle.
When he reached the sixth floor, a new wave of zombies suddenly surged into the stairwell. Mo Zhao was trapped at the corner, and a zombie lunged at his neck from the side.
He reached out and grabbed Qu Lingzhou beside him, then shoved him forward with a sudden movement.
Qu Lingzhou was pushed and slammed against the wall, his shoulder hitting the iron door of the fire hydrant with a dull thud.
The zombies were distracted by the living person who suddenly bumped into them, Mo Zhao took the opportunity to slip into the stairwell and continue running upstairs.
Lu Ci and Cheng Zhiwei were blocked by the zombie horde and couldn't care less about what was happening behind them. They could only grit their teeth and fight their way up. The group disappeared into the corridor, leaving only Qu Lingzhou to face the zombie horde.
Qu Lingzhou leaned against the fire hydrant, with zombies from half the corridor closing in on him.
The one running in front was only a step away from him, its gray-green claws reaching for his throat.
The claw hovered in mid-air, its rotting fingertip less than ten centimeters from his neck.
The horde of zombies behind them also stopped, as if someone had pressed the pause button, freezing the moment they pounced.
Water droplets dripping from the ceiling hit the floor tiles, their sound exceptionally crisp in the absolute silence.
Qu Lingzhou lowered his head, his wisps of hair obscuring his expression. After a long while, he slowly smiled.
In the end, she abandoned him...
Mo Zhao couldn't understand why these zombies were chasing and biting him the most.
He fled from the sixth floor to the seventh floor, but the horde of zombies behind him chased after him relentlessly, as if they had been fitted with a GPS tracker. They didn't slow down when turning corners, and they climbed the stairs faster than he, a living person.
He nearly got bitten in the face by a zombie crouching behind a fire door when he kicked it open, and continued scrambling up to the ninth floor.
Lu Ci cleaved through the zombies blocking his path with a single slash, gritting his teeth and roaring, " Mo Zhao! Is there something on you attracting them?! Wherever you go, they follow! What does that mean?!"
Mo Zhao shouted back as he frantically fled for his life, "Damn it! How should I know!"
He reached into his pocket and found only half a pack of compressed biscuits and a crucifix he had taken from the church.
Cheng Zhiwei looked at the electronic map in her hand; the red dots representing zombies on the screen were redistributing in a strange way.
The zombie horde, which had initially been evenly surrounding each stairwell, is now mostly moving towards Mo Zhao's direction.
She frowned, but there was no time to think about it now; the location of the psychiatric ward was already marked on the map. "Now is not the time to argue! Patient Zero is on the ninth floor of the psychiatric ward!"
The group dispersed and headed towards the ninth floor through various entrances. Mo Zhao clung to Cheng Zhiwei's arm, refusing to let go. "I'll go with you!"
Cheng Zhiwei shook him off. "We'll split up to find people now. I still need to get the medicine and collect pathogen samples." After saying that, she ran off in the other direction.
Mo Zhao had no choice but to grit his teeth and rush towards the ninth floor. The zombies seemed to sense his presence automatically, frantically changing direction and heading in his direction.
The zombies that had been following Cheng Zhiwei also left, turning around in unison to chase after Mo Zhao.
Cheng Zhiwei suddenly realized that it was quiet behind her. She stopped, propped herself up on her knees, and gasped for breath. When she looked up, she saw Qu Lingzhou had just been pushed into the horde of zombies, walking towards her from the other end of the corridor.
She was so startled she almost threw the baseball bat away. "You're alive! Are you alright?!"
Qu Lingzhou shook his head and said softly, "It's nothing, I just hid in the ward."