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"Upstairs!" While she was gathering medicine, Zhang Yi and Nan Shao had not been idle either. They had torn down plastic bags in the pharmacy to hold medicine while discussing their escape route. At her words, they put all the medicine they had collected into one large plastic bag, told her where they were going, and ran upstairs ahead of her, one after the other.
As Li Muran reached the turn in the stairs, the main doors below gave way with a crash, unable to withstand the battering of so many zombies. She glanced at the horde pouring in and sped up to the second floor. Zhang Yi poked his head out of the intensive care unit at the end of the corridor on the right and called to her. By the time she reached him, a zombie with both legs in casts and a urinary catheter dangling between its legs was already lying on the floor. Nan Shao was fighting a zombie in a pink nurse's uniform, while Zhang Yi gathered the sheets and duvet covers from the unit's beds in front of him and tied them together.
Li Muran turned and shut the door firmly behind her, feeling rather fortunate as she locked it. Luckily, Zhang Yi was not in the habit of kicking doors open, which gave them a little more breathing room. Neither man needed her help, so she simply picked up her pickaxe, walked over, cracked open the dead zombie's head, and dug out its Corpse Crystal. They had not had time to extract the crystals from the ones they had killed earlier. Just thinking about it felt like such a waste.
Nan Shao dodged the zombie's swinging claws and struck her left temporal bone by the ear with his pickaxe. It took another two blows to finish her off. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he turned and saw what Li Muran was doing, so he picked aside the broken skull fragments near the ear of the zombie at his feet and reached his fingers straight inside to rummage around. He had just pinched out the Corpse Crystal and had not yet wiped it clean when he heard Zhang Yi say, "Done."
He gave it a couple of careless wipes on the zombie's clothes, then walked over and looked out the window. There was no perimeter wall along this side of the building. Below lay a narrow concrete path, leading uphill toward where they had come from and downhill to the street. Since the zombies had all gone to the hospital's main entrance, the surrounding area was very quiet.
Dense, dragging footsteps sounded outside the door, along with the excited howls zombies made when pursuing food. Zhang Yi tied the joined sheets to the railing of a bed beside the window and tested how securely they were fastened, then looked at Nan Shao. "You first."
Like cats catching the scent of fish, the zombies found the room unerringly and resumed battering the door. There was no time for Nan Shao to offer to let someone else go first. He grabbed the sheets, climbed onto the windowsill, and swung himself outside. Zhang Yi kept hold of the sheets until Nan Shao reached the ground safely and signaled to them. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and gesture for Li Muran to go down.
The window was only about four or five meters above the ground, not particularly high, but Li Muran had never done anything like this before and could not help feeling a little afraid. Still, she knew there was no turning back. She raised her hand and threw her bag out first, then was just bracing herself to step onto the windowsill.
"Wait." Noticing something off in her expression, Zhang Yi quickly stopped her. He pulled up the hanging sheets, wrapped them twice around her waist, and tied them securely. "Go on down. Don't be afraid. I'll hold on from up here."
She had not expected him to be so considerate. A warmth she had not felt in a long time rose in Li Muran's heart. She gave him a slight nod, climbed onto the windowsill, and briefly closed her eyes. Then she turned her back to the outside, braced her feet against the wall, and began slowly lowering herself.
"Hurry up. You won't fall. I'm down here to catch you." Watching her inch downward, Nan Shao grew a little anxious. He had no idea how long the door would hold, and could not help urging her on in a low voice.
Li Muran also knew that the longer she took, the greater the danger Zhang Yi faced. Gritting her teeth, she loosened her grip and let her feet leave the wall. She immediately slid rapidly downward. Just as the speed made her heart feel ready to leap out of her throat, she felt something support her back, and her body steadied.
"There, you're down. What was there to be afraid of?" Nan Shao's amused voice sounded beside her ear. Then the pressure around her waist eased as he pulled the tied sheets loose.
Li Muran glanced at him without speaking, though inwardly she felt that even killing zombies was not this nerve-racking. Only when her feet touched solid ground did she let out a deep breath. She picked up her bag, brushed off the dust, and put it on her back. Since almost everything inside was oral medication in boxes or plastic bottles, she was not worried about anything breaking from the fall.
With a large bag of medicine on his back and another bag in his hand, Zhang Yi gripped the sheets one-handed and quickly slid down as well. In the end, the three abandoned the idea of finding a vehicle to get around. Relying on Zhang Yi's familiarity with the terrain, they avoided the groups of zombies and quickly left the county town. Since all of it was urgently needed, they made no attempt to conceal their haul this time. With their backpacks stuffed full and another large bag in hand, they reached the pickup point, where quite a few people were already aboard. As they paid their Corpse Crystals, the driver gave their bags a meaningful glance and smiled. "Quite a haul."
Zhang Yi had come prepared. As he paid the Corpse Crystals, he also handed over the plastic bag he was carrying. "A buddy of ours is seriously ill, so we went to the hospital for some medicine. Just doing what we can. Take these, driver. They might come in handy." While Li Muran was collecting medicine in the pharmacy, he and Nan Shao had torn off several bags themselves and filled them with assorted medicines for precisely this sort of situation. The driver would have to share the medicine with the ability users guarding the vehicle. It was not a great deal, but neither was it a small amount.
He offered it naturally, without a trace of flattery, prompting the driver to give them another couple of looks. The smile on his face grew more genuine. "You've got some skills, daring to go to the hospital. In that case, I won't stand on ceremony." As he spoke, he put the bag of medicine away.
"It's only right. We'll be troubling you often in the future," Zhang Yi replied with a smile. Only then did he join Nan Shao and Li Muran to find seats.
The passengers had watched the entire exchange, and envy and greed could not help showing in the looks they cast over. Had they not heard Zhang Yi say himself that they had gone to the hospital, and seen that they seemed to have come back unscathed, some would probably already have set their sights on them.
The three chose seats at the very back. Li Muran sat furthest in, with Nan Shao and Zhang Yi beside her in that order. They stuffed their backpacks under the seats, except for the bag full of bottles, which Li Muran held in her arms to keep them from breaking. Only after sitting down did Zhang Yi feel exhaustion wash over him, leaving him barely able to hold on. Two straight days of rushing about under intense mental strain, without even closing his eyes all night, would have been too much even for a man made of iron. So, not long after the vehicle set off, Nan Shao heard faint snoring beside him. He turned to look and found Zhang Yi already asleep, his head tipped back against the seat. Nan Shao smiled, folded his arms across his chest, and closed his eyes to rest as well.