Seeing Wang Zhi raise the weapon, the students were stunned, unable to comprehend what was happening.
"Quiet down! Move over there and stay put. Fatty, keep an eye on them," Wang Zhi directed, pointing to a corner of the Rooftop.
"Yes, Captain! Ahem, you all better behave yourselves. The consequences of making me angry are quite severe!" Fatty started to put on a stern face and barked at the students.
Wang Zhi turned and walked over to the girl's side, checking if she was injured.
"Why did you all come here?" the girl asked in a small voice.
"To save people, of course," Wang Zhi replied.
"But with these monsters everywhere, where can we even go?" the girl said, her expression gloomy.
"There are shelters. That's where we came from. You'll know once you get there."
"Mmm..."
The girl didn't look particularly happy, as she knew there was still a very perilous journey ahead of them to complete.
"Right, what's your name?" Wang Zhi asked.
"Jia Liuli."
"Jia Liuli... strange name," Wang Zhi murmured, then smiled at her.
Looking at the girl covered in bloodstains before him, an idea suddenly struck him: to have her become the fifth member of their team!
"My name is Wang Zhi, that older sister is Ying, this gentleman here is Brother He, and the fat guy over there is Li Feihong," Wang Zhi introduced to the girl.
"Hello, Sister Ying, Brother He," Jia Liuli greeted the two beside them.
"Speaking of the zombies downstairs, did you kill them all by yourself?" Wang Zhi asked, looking at Jia Liuli's now-blunted blade.
"Yes, I come from a martial arts family, so I've been exposed to it since I was young. I only know a few moves," Jia Liuli said softly, lowering her head upon hearing Wang Zhi's praise.
Wang Zhi could tell that when Jia Liuli first came downstairs, she must have seen them being chased by hordes of zombies and intended to come down to support them.
If they hadn't managed to lure the zombies to the sports field and wipe them out in one go, she surely would have been walking to her death on that trip down.
At that moment, when he saw the resolute look in Jia Liuli's eyes, he admitted he had been moved.
"Thank you for coming down to meet us!" Wang Zhi said gratefully, patting Jia Liuli's shoulder.
"N-No, I should be thanking you... We are out of food."
"How did you all survive after the Cataclysm began?" Wang Zhi inquired.
"Before the Cataclysm, there was a heavy fog globally for over a week. There was all sorts of talk online, but it didn't affect our normal lives. I was here as usual, holding a club activity, teaching them martial arts in the facility below."
"Afterward, all of our Cell Phones received various messages, mostly telling us to find a safe place to hide, so we've been hiding here ever since," Jia Liuli recounted the process.
"Why weren't you infected when most people became infected?" Old He asked from the side, perplexed.
"Some people online said it was the fog. After inhaling excessive amounts of fog, the initial symptoms were dizziness and vomiting. We stayed indoors, avoided inhaling too much fog, and luckily escaped this ordeal. However, a large portion of people were infected after being injured by those monsters. Several classmates of mine already..." At this point, Jia Liuli stopped speaking.
"Mm, I understand. You just said you were out of food? How long has it been since you ate anything?" Wang Zhi asked.
"Counting today, it's been two days..." Jia Liuli finished, then opened her mouth as if to say something more, but ultimately held back.
He knew Jia Liuli wanted him to share some food with those classmates, but then he considered that there were many of them, making it genuinely difficult for her to bring up.
...
The sky was slowly darkening; the night seemed to swallow everything. The Zombies thrived in the darkness, becoming even more active!
"We'll rest here tonight. After daybreak, let's go near the cafeteria to find some food for them, shall we? Otherwise, they'll starve to death," Wang Zhi asked, turning around.
"Don't go! That place is full of monsters, it's very dangerous!" Jia Liuli said anxiously.
"It's fine, we'll be careful," Wang Zhi said with a slight smile.
Some of the students who hadn't eaten for two days were wailing on the ground, while others no longer had the strength to make a sound.
"How about we give them half of our food first?" Old He looked at the students sprawled weakly on the ground, feeling a pang of sympathy.
Wang Zhi glanced at Ying, who looked reluctant but said nothing; this was unavoidable. They couldn't just let these students starve to death; otherwise, there would have been no point in rescuing them.
"Fine, let's give them some first, but we should keep more of our water."
As Wang Zhi spoke, he took out some food from the four backpacks and reluctantly distributed it to the waiting students nearby.
The students who had been collapsed on the ground scrambled up as soon as they saw Wang Zhi distributing food, eagerly rushing forward to grab it.
After the food was distributed, Wang Zhi called the other three over, spread a map on the ground, and began studying their plan for the next day.
The closest location to them was the Western Restaurant, situated just north of the West Athletic Field they had visited that afternoon. The four tentatively decided that the Western Restaurant would be their primary objective for the following day!
After reviewing the map, the four prepared to rest.
"Ying and I will take the first half of the night watch; Fatty and Old He, you two rest first."
After the discussion, he decided that he and Ying would take the first watch, while Old He and Fatty would take the second half.
Regarding the watch assignments, Wang Zhi had considered it carefully: if he put Old He and Ying together, the two—one water and one fire—were incompatible.
If he paired Fatty and Ying, Fatty couldn't quite manage the situation, and in the end, it would still fall to him.
That night, the moonlight was obscured by dark clouds, and the familiar city lights were long gone. Intermittently, a crunching sound would echo from the surroundings, seemingly the noise of a Zombie stepping on broken glass fragments.
Captain Wang looked at the surrounding students, who were sprawled haphazardly on the ground, enduring the agony of hunger, his heart filled with profound sorrow.
If he hadn't joined the Dawn Tower, would his fate have been the same as theirs? Or would he already have turned into a Zombie?
Captain Wang leaned against the railing of the Rooftop, thinking as he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his bag, drawing out two and giving one to Ying beside him.
"Sister Ying, do you think we can make it back alive?" Captain Wang asked after lighting his cigarette, turning his head.
"Doing our best is all that matters. The World is already like this; there's nothing left to yearn for. Living one more day is earning one more day," Sister Ying said, exhaling a plume of smoke.
At this moment, Ying lacked her usual flippancy, having become quite melancholic.
"Earning each day we live is true, but it's not reason to give up on life entirely. Since we were fortunate enough to survive, it must be Heaven's arrangement. Since we met, it must be fate. The future is still full of infinite possibilities—we could find a deserted place to settle down, we could establish ourselves as kings, completely unbound. Aren't these the things you seek?" Wang Zhi spoke as he imagined the future.
"Oh? Does my little brother want to find a quiet place to settle down with me?" Just then, Ying put on that same flirtatious expression again.
Wang Zhi was momentarily speechless; this person truly couldn't stay serious for more than three seconds.
"In any case, we must still hold onto hope, expectation, and fantasy for the future," Wang Zhi said earnestly.
"Actually, before the Apocalypse, I had no interest in the future, hope, or fantasies you mentioned. This current World is quite good!" Ying said, looking blankly into the distance.