The Cabin

The Sabretooth was driven back to the farmhouse restaurant.

Only Huang Zhong disembarked.

He walked to the main gate, his hands behind his back, concealing the submachine gun tucked there.

Wu Sheng felt a growing unease, a sense of something amiss rising from the depths of his heart.

“Hey, your leader’s injured. She’s in the back seat. Hurry up and help carry her out.”

Wu Sheng was startled, surprised. What could have injured Ping Chengcheng and the others?

He slung his rifle over his shoulder and hurried past Huang Zhong, catching a glimpse of Huang Zhong’s sneer from the corner of his eye.

!!!

“Bang!”

“Ugh! Ah!”

Blood blossomed from his calf.

Huang Zhong, quick as a flash, stepped forward, kicked him to the ground, pulled a rope from his pocket, bound him, and snatched the submachine gun from his body.

‘Cold, so cold…’
“Roar…” Song Ning woke up.

Not far off, the low growl of a zombie echoed, and the stench of blood lingered around her nose.

Still dazed, she reached up and wiped her face, feeling greasy flesh ‘splat’ onto the ground.

No, wait, why are there zombie sounds?

“Roar!”

The nearby door was clumsily knocked open by a zombie, and a sudden rush of cold air poured in, a howling wind blowing through that made Song Ning unable to open her eyes.

Only then did she recall everything that had happened.

‘Huang Zhong betrayed us!’

Fury blazed within her. Suppressing the rage in her heart, she peered around in the darkness.

‘Where’s Ping Chengcheng? The girl… she seemed to have blocked the bullets for me.’

‘What happened to her? Is she still alive?’

Song Ning’s heart pounded in panic. She fumbled around in the pitch black until her hand finally brushed against a small, girl’s hand.

The touch was somewhat icy, chilling her heart halfway.

‘No, she can’t be hurt! Who exactly was in the granary?! Soldiers? It’s normal for a strategic granary to have soldiers guarding it, but to open fire without a word, that’s truly strange… It can’t have been soldiers.’

“Ough-hoo-hoo…” A low, hoarse growl echoed as a rotting foot stepped into the granary. Its filthy trouser leg was riddled with holes, its knees a decaying gray, and it walked with an inward-pointing, waddling gait.

Song Ning quietly straightened up. Her entire body ached now; she couldn’t muster any strength.

She wasn’t confident she could handle this zombie.

At such close range, and with the air thick with the scent of blood, the zombie quickly locked onto its target.

“Roar, roar, roar!!”

The zombie roared, rushing forward madly. Song Ning’s face was pale. Waves of pain shot through her chest—her ribs were definitely broken—but she still stood up.

Ping Chengcheng was behind her; she couldn’t retreat!

In the pitch black, she could barely see anything, only hearing a ‘whoosh’ of air being displaced. Instinctively, she reached out.

She succeeded; she grabbed one of its arms!

“Whoosh—!” A sudden gust of wind brushed past her ear, and Song Ning’s pupils constricted.

The zombie’s other claw missed, but it took a long strand of her black hair with it.

‘Almost! She was almost scratched!’

Quickly calming herself, she trapped the zombie’s other arm, the one it hadn’t pulled back, firmly with her own. She yanked it towards her, then, with a high kick, found the precise angle and struck the zombie’s lower jaw with heavy force.

“Crunch!—”

It was dead.

Song Ning sank down, panting. But this was no place to rest.

The gnawing, agonizing pain in her chest urged her to rest, but Song Ning dared not linger.

She knelt, the severe pain in her chest forcing a muffled groan from her lips. Her vision swam, and she almost fainted.

Biting the tip of her tongue to clear her head for a moment, she hoisted the motionless girl onto her back.

The door groaned, creaking in the cold wind. Song Ning felt cold all over, her head spinning, yet strangely, she also felt a feverish heat in her brain.

Trembling, she staggered out of the military granary. Outside, it was deep night.

The sky was misty, and a light rain was falling.

Congealed blood made the ground slick and extremely slippery, so she walked with painstaking care.

The occasional rustle from the nearby woods made Song Ning stop, her heart pounding in fear.

At this moment, even a single common zombie could threaten their lives!

Returning to the base from here was an unrealistic idea; the distance was at least forty to fifty kilometers. In their current state, it was hard to say if they would even survive.

Fortunately, this was a mountainous area, so zombie numbers were not high. Eventually, she spotted a wooden house by the roadside and stopped her numb steps.

Shifting the girl further up her back, she went forward to investigate.

“Forestry…” Was it a forest ranger’s cabin?

Pushing open the wooden door, its grating, unpleasant sound made Song Ning’s nerves taut.

Thankfully, there were no zombies inside.

The interior was simply furnished, with only a bed and a table.

Song Ning gently laid Ping Chengcheng, who was still unconscious, onto the bed, then her entire body gave out, and she collapsed completely by the bedside, falling asleep.

The heavy rain poured down.

This might have been a good thing for the two of them.

The rainwater washed away the scent of blood they emitted, preventing any zombies from discovering the two immobile girls in the wooden cabin.

Ping Chengcheng’s heartbeat was faint. The injuries on her back were severe; although bones and internal organs were no longer visible, there were several fist-sized craters of flesh that were slowly regenerating, writhing strangely.

Song Ning woke up.

She gasped for air, panting heavily. In her dream, she and the girl had been trapped in the wooden cabin by dozens of zombies and starved to death.

Weakly, she stood up from the bedside. Only now did she have time to examine the girl’s injuries.

It was only upon seeing them that she realized how bizarre they were.

The girl’s back had several large, flesh-craters, as if someone had scooped out chunks of meat with a spoon.

What’s more, they weren’t bleeding…

She gently touched them; they felt slick and wet… like freshly grazed wounds. At the same time, the girl’s body trembled a few times, as if in extreme pain.

‘This?’

The bulletproof vest was shredded beyond recognition, hanging on the girl like a camouflage-patterned apron.

Song Ning helped Ping Chengcheng remove the bulletproof vest. She glanced around and noticed a clean military greatcoat hanging on the wall.

She quickly draped the military greatcoat over Ping Chengcheng.

She checked the girl’s breathing; her breath was very faint.

Song Ning frowned. She sensed something unusual.

She remembered clearly: in the granary, Ping Chengcheng had blocked at least five or six shots for her.

Even with a bulletproof vest, the injuries were incredibly strange.

Looking at Ping Chengcheng, there were no dark blue veins appearing all over her body, nor did it look like a so-called zombie virus infection.

‘Could it be…?’

‘She recalled novels she had once read. Perhaps… this was an evolved new human?’

‘Only this possibility remained.’

‘She herself had almost died from two bullet wounds, and Ping Chengcheng was just a girl with a more fragile body than hers.’

‘If she hadn’t evolved into one of those new humans or something, she would have died long ago.’

Song Ning felt a pang of relief. ‘As long as she’s alive, that’s all that matters.’

She took a chocolate bar from the ammunition pouch on her bulletproof vest; it was emergency food she always carried.

“Chengcheng, Chengcheng…” She gently shook the girl, but Ping Chengcheng showed no reaction whatsoever.

‘She can’t go without food, this won’t do.’

Song Ning hesitated for a moment. She put the chocolate into her own mouth, chewed it, let it melt, then leaned down, pressing her lips against the girl’s…

Recalling how the girl had stood in front of her to save her, enduring all the bullets, her heart trembled.

‘What a fool…’

Her tender pink tongue with gentle force pried open the girl’s teeth. The tip of her tongue grazed her teeth, breaking the skin, and a faint taste of blood spread.

The girl let out a confused, soft hum and began to suckle unconsciously.