Jing Lan, without a backward glance, continued his ascent. “There’s no other way. He’ll just have to grit his teeth and climb with one hand.”
Having just endured the betrayal of his trusted subordinate, Leng Yu found Little Zhao, whom he had personally recruited, surprisingly dependable and was reluctant to abandon him.
However, with no time to spare for alternative solutions and grateful just to have found a ladder, Leng Yu gritted his teeth. He patted Little Zhao’s shoulder, saying, “You’ll have to climb the ladder with one hand. Don’t rush; once you’ve ascended a few rungs, those zombies won’t be able to reach you.”
Little Zhao tucked his pistol into his waistband. Though his face was grim, he gave a slight nod of his head. “Boss, you go on ahead. I’ll make it up.”
All three men were now on the ladder. Jing Lan, who had often scampered up trees with his sister in the woods during his childhood, ascended with remarkable speed. Leng Yu, being in good physical condition, was not far behind.
Little Zhao, however, could only inch upwards rung by rung. Each attempt to lift his left hand brought with it excruciating pain and the sensation of tearing muscles, rendering him unable to exert any strength. After struggling up a dozen rungs, his right hand, having borne the brunt of his weight, began to tremble uncontrollably.
Glancing down, Jing Lan saw Little Zhao gasping for breath, suspended precariously on the ladder. He called out, “If you’re tired, just cling to the ladder and rest for a moment.”
Leng Yu, now close to Jing Lan, inquired, “What if they send people to shoot at us?”
Jing Lan paused briefly, freeing a hand to check his equipment. “Don’t worry about that. They released the zombies to attack us, so they themselves probably can’t come out easily. Perhaps they didn’t notice the ladder on the grain silo, assuming we’d be chased around by the zombies in the yard. Still, I’m curious how they managed to store so many zombies.”
As Jing Lan spoke, a sudden, ominous flash of insight pierced his mind. His deductions seemed logical, yet something about them felt unsettling.
The source of his unease quickly became clear: he had assumed too many favorable possibilities.
For instance, that the grain silo intruders were unaware of the ladder’s existence.
Or that releasing zombies to bite people was a foolish move, one that would deter the gunmen in the office building from emerging, fearing zombie attacks themselves.
A simple counter-argument emerged: even if the zombie attack was effective, biting all three of them to death, wouldn’t those very zombies still roam the grain silo grounds? If the people in the office building wanted to come out, wouldn’t they still have to expend bullets to kill these zombies? No, worse yet, these zombies would then be joined by three new members.
This strategy was far less efficient than simply opening fire.
Unless…
Jing Lan furrowed his brow and called down, “Little Zhao, I retract what I just said. Push yourself, don’t stop, keep climbing.”
The ladder stretched a daunting seventy to eighty meters high. At its summit lay a metal framework platform encircling the top floor of the grain silo. A metal door on this platform stood open, and Jing Lan cautiously peered inside, revealing a veritable sea of gleaming white rice. Above this ocean of grain, intersecting metal frames held numerous birdcage-like devices, each faintly glowing with blue light—these were weevil traps.
Leng Yu soon reached the platform as well. Looking back, he saw Little Zhao still struggling, hopping his way up. Leng Yu was catching his breath and about to walk around when Jing Lan grabbed his arm. “Be careful not to expose yourself in the direction facing the office building.”
Leng Yu clenched his fists and pounded his leg. “If only I had a sniper rifle right now, I’d blow the brains out of that bastard in the building!”
Just then, Little Zhao’s frantic shout echoed from beneath the ladder leading to the platform. “Holy shit! Zombies are coming!”
The two rushed over to look, confirming that several zombies had indeed gathered at the base of the ladder.
Leng Yu turned to Jing Lan. “Doesn’t seem like a big deal. They can’t possibly climb ladders, can they?”
With a hint of unease, Jing Lan pulled out his submachine gun. “Don’t you find this strange?”
“Strange how?” Leng Yu asked.
“How did the zombies know we were here? Did they just come straight for us? Do they watch surveillance cameras?”
As Jing Lan spoke, he glanced back at the surveillance camera mounted beside the metal door leading into the grain silo, then raised his gun and shot the monitor, shattering it.
Turning back to look down, he met the gaze of a zombie. Dressed in a T-shirt and wearing a yellow hard hat, it appeared to be a worker.
The worker zombie suddenly bared its teeth at Jing Lan, then stepped forward and gripped a rung of the ladder.
Immediately, it began to climb, using both hands and feet.
Witnessing this, Leng Yu shrieked, “Oh my god, a variant zombie!”
This might well have been the inaugural appearance of the term “variant zombie,” a phrase that would become widely adopted in the decades-long war between humanity and the undead.
Little Zhao looked back and, seeing a zombie actually scrambling upwards, was so startled he nearly fell off the ladder.
“Boss! Help me!”
Despite his desperate plea, the two on the platform could do nothing; Little Zhao even obstructed their line of sight, preventing Leng Yu and Jing Lan from firing.
Now, Little Zhao’s only recourse was to climb faster.
But as the “variant zombie” ascended with alarming speed, closing the distance to merely three to five meters, Little Zhao, in a moment of quick thinking, hooked his chin over a rung. This freed his right hand, allowing him to draw his pistol from his waist. He fired two shots downwards. With a stroke of luck, a spray of black blood splattered onto the protective shield beside the ladder, and the worker zombie tumbled down with a gurgling sound, hitting the ground with a sickening thud.
Soon after, another zombie began to climb the ladder.
“This is endless!” Leng Yu exclaimed. “Do zombies evolve in intelligence?”
Fortunately, Little Zhao had already climbed quite high, ensuring that the newly arrived zombie couldn’t possibly catch up.
‘They’re coming up one by one, almost as if they’re considering that a swarm might be wiped out all at once…’
Jing Lan helped the recently arrived Little Zhao to sit down and rest. Turning back, he shot the climbing zombie, sending it plummeting. Below, yet another zombie began its ascent.
Owing to the semi-transparent plastic protective shield covering the outer layer of the ladder, falling bodies were contained and wouldn’t drift too far from the ladder. If a group of zombies were to climb simultaneously, the first one dispatched would easily knock the others down.
It seemed the three had temporarily secured their footing on the platform, but with zombies incessantly climbing from below, one person had no choice but to guard the ladder, shooting down any zombie that attempted to ascend.
“I’ll call the camp now!” Leng Yu announced to the other two.
Jing Lan, currently focused on sniping zombies, replied, “Yes, call immediately. Once these zombies are dealt with, the gunmen in the office building will likely emerge. This platform is merely a layer of wire mesh; if they shoot from below, each one of us will be pierced through.”
Leng Yu noticed the open door of the grain silo beside them. “How about we go inside and hide?”
“That’s an option, but let me go first.” Jing Lan swapped places with Little Zhao, approached the grain silo entrance, stepped inside, and with one hand, reached directly for a weevil trap.
At that very moment, the grain silo door suddenly began to close. Jing Lan, lifting the trap, spun around and slammed it onto the metal door’s track with a resounding clang. The closing metal door crashed against the trap, emitting a disgruntled hum, but finally ceased its operation.
“What kind of rice silo leaves its door wide open in broad daylight? It’s clearly an invitation for people to enter,” Jing Lan remarked, raising his gun and shooting out a surveillance camera hanging inside the silo.