V1C27

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——“Starting from 05:25, go out the east door of the language building and strike the lamp posts near the field like we did in the dormitories. If you’re lucky, you can probably draw away around half of the zombies, but you might also attract the others nearby, so keep an eye on the situation.”

With the sound of wood on metal, the zombies loitering around stopped their wanderings. Liu Shan’s body had been devoured until all that remained were bloody bones. The never-satisfied zombies started walking towards Lin Jue in small groups.

It was currently the coldest time of the day. Lin Jue stood beneath the lamp post, his expression determined as he watched the undead flow towards him like a flood. Their heads were lowered and they growled like beasts as they dragged their rotten bodies towards him, lit by dim lamplight.

It was a horrid struggle. Primal fear told him to run but he forced himself to stay by reason.

Lin Jue looked up at the open-air balcony. Song Hanzhang stood there like an outsider watching a drama.

In the face of his calmness, Lin Jue felt his heart slow a little as well.

But he couldn’t understand. It was to do with their very lives, how could he be so calm?

No, it wasn’t always complete calm. At least, when Lin Jue had expressed his willingness to take this risk, he could see in those cool, sable eyes emotions like a cracked glacier slowly sliding into the ocean.

Song Hanzhang made a ‘proceed as told’ gesture before leaving the balcony, going downstairs.

It had been over thirty minutes since he was infected and he could feel his body become significantly colder and weaker. If Lin Jue failed this time, then what faced him was an irreversible mutation.

——“Afterwards, take the zombies, lead them to the west door of the language building, and stop attracting them. Leave the language building and run towards the administration building to the north. Cross it and keep running until you reach the man-made rivers near the Green Lake. Don’t stop. If the timing is right, it’ll be around five-thirty.”

The zombies weren’t fast and Lin Jue was able to get rid of them easily. As he ran across the hall of the administration building, a few slow moving zombies turned to face him, but they were easily dealt with.

The cold wind slashed across his cheeks. Lin Jue stood next to the man-made river and looked at the bank inlaid with pebbles before turning back at the zombies rushing after him. He took a deep breath and jumped.

——“It’s impossible to win by facing them straight on, so you can only win through trickery. Tonight, the wind blows towards the north-west and the wind force increased after the second half of the night. With how thick the smell of blood is on the field, hopefully by going through the water, you can temporarily conceal yourself from them. Start swimming from the man-made river until you reach the upper shore of where the antibody is- this way, you might be able to get to around twenty to thirty meters of the antibody without the zombies noticing. However, that will most likely be the limit. After that, it’s up to your fighting ability. The timing is tight- if you can’t get the antibody back by 5:40, the operation has failed.”

Cold water enveloped him as Lin Jue swam like a fish through water. A deep, numbing chill seeped into his limbs; he never knew that the water in this season was so cold that it froze the nerves.

In the previous half hour, Song Hanzhang had sketched out the floor plans of the buildings and water systems in the south plaza area. He went through every possible route and its obstacles, from the wind direction to the evolution of zombies, down to every tiny detail. He even dragged his wounded leg along to capture a zombie with Lin Jue to test how much the zombies had evolved within the past ten hours. Luckily, the zombies in the south plaza weren’t as evolved as the zombies in the library five hours ago.

Lin Jue soundlessly poked his head out of the water.

Not far from him was the field where the zombies had gathered, the antibody hidden in the grass. He was able to see it from upstairs but from where he was right now, he was unable to pinpoint its location.

There was still a despairing amount of zombies.

The greedy undead were still patrolling next to the cold and broken remnants of the feast, refusing to leave.

Lin Jue bent down and exited the water soundlessly. The cold wind took away the last remaining warmth in his skin. He felt his hands shaking because of the cold.

His body was shaking too, but out of fear and excitement.

He couldn’t retreat, could fail even less, because he was carrying the life of his companion.

Yes, his companion. Even if the other person didn’t think the same way, he still stubbornly defined their relationship as a companionship in which they could give up their lives for each other.

He needed to get the antibody back! He wouldn’t lose!

He had almost reached the limit; the zombies turned around and growled before lunging at him one after another. Lin Jue held his wooden pole and rushed forwards, his hands struggling to sweep away every incoming zombie. Time was tight, every second a race against life and death- he didn’t have time to kill the zombies, only to force them away as far as he could.

——Antibody, where was the antibody?

The scent of rot and lingering blood surrounded him, making him want to run, but he couldn’t retreat.

The zombies were close, so close. Even his worst nightmares didn’t have such violence and gore.

Their bulging eyes and grotesque fangs were right next to him, their rotten and mutated faces pushing closer and closer, every one of them wanting to rip open his body, to tear out his innards, to feast. Faced with the most original and disgusting desire, Lin Jue was pushed to the very limits of his skill.

He shoved away a zombie with his wooden pole and kicked away another. He lowered his body and with a roll, dodged the attack of a third. More and more zombies crowded near him, yet he was still looking for the antibody. It should be here, next to a shrub.

There!

Lin Jue ran towards it but was pushed down by a zombie. A violent pain came from his shoulder as a piece of flesh was almost ripped off.

It was impossible to land a hit on it with the wooden pole in that position. As he fell, he saw that the crowd had almost surrounded him!

——“Here take this.” Right before he had left, Song Hanzhang had passed the dagger he received from the plaza to Lin Jue.

——“This… I don’t think I’ll need it? You should keep it for self-defense,” Lin Jue said, scratching his head.

——”If you fail, then I’m as good as dead. You should take it. It’s easier to use at close range. It’s a lot sharper than a normal weapon.”

Lin Jue forced down the pain from his shoulder, pulled out the dagger from his waist, and struck behind his shoulder. A critical hit from fury; the sharp dagger pierced through the head of the zombie. Lin Jue threw it off and stepped on its chest. The zombies reached out its rotten arms, flailing them about. Murderous intent shone hideously in Lin Jue’s eyes as he aimed the nails of the wooden pole at where the dagger had broken its skin and pierced it through. The zombie gave out a final wail and stopped struggling.

More and more zombies rushed towards him. Lin Jue pushed down the pain, held the antibody with his teeth, and started running.

The wound on his left shoulder kept bleeding, exciting the zombies to greater and greater violence. A huge mob of them howled as they rushed at him, countless numbers of sharp hands and ferocious mouths begging to capture him, shred him.

The riverbank was close at hand.

In the final moment of his race between life and death, Lin Jue gave it everything he had. He sweeped down low with his pole, pushing the first group of zombies onto the ground, his feet not stopping as he kept running towards the bank.

The zombies were like a pack of wolves, starved to the limit in the cold winter night, lunging at him in the mad desire for food. He could no longer remember how many times he had been scratched by them, nor how many times he had fallen, almost unable to get up. Lin Jue held onto his breath and stepped over another zombie, using strength that was burning his very life.

This method of fighting that completely disregarded both their bites and his life was somehow able to let him to cut a bloody path through the zombies. As he jumped into the water, Lin Jue fell, completely exhausted.

His body floated in the water. He twitched a little. Apart from his jaws, still clinging onto the antibody refusing to let go, all the strength had been sapped from his body.

——“The virus is reversible within forty-five minutes of infection, but once you exceed the time limit…”

Lin Jue widened his eyes, Song Hanzhang was still waiting for the antibody!

With a strength that came from nowhere, he started swimming again, but his arms could no longer summon any force, leaving only his feet to peddle him down slowly.

As he got closer and closer to the promised place, he could see Song Hanzhang’s figure by the riverbank.

Under the weak light, his straight silhouette felt quiet, like a tree, or a sign, or maybe a lighthouse.

Lin Jue didn’t know how to explain this feeling.

It was just that the moment he saw him, he suddenly felt that everything he did was worth it.

Dragging up his frozen and spent feet, he slowly walked up the layers of small pebbles on the bank. He shakily took the antibody from his mouth and laid it in his palm in front of Song Hanzhang. His smile was weak but his eyes were bright.

“Xuezhang, I didn’t fail.”

Vera’s Notes:

Oh no, oh no, I’m late, I’m late! I sincerely apologize everyone! Your editor has failed in their duties, distracted as they were by life’s many matters, but here it is, around half a day late. Find it within yourselves to forgive me of my transgressions please

Luci: to make the flow better I went back and changed every ‘senior’ into Xuezhang, which is just a polite term when referring to people in higher grades. Also, Vera’s notes are so cute ^^

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