"Something is blocking it?" Wang Zhi asked.
"Yes."
"Are you sure this is the place?" Wang Zhi turned back and asked the male student.
"Positive! I've been here many times!" the male student replied.
"Fatty, you and Old He go watch the corridor entrance. If any Zombies are alerted, deal with them first," Wang Zhi instructed.
*Thump, thump, thump...*
Wang Zhi first knocked a few times on the door to see if there were any living people inside.
After several knocks, he found that no sound came from within.
"Is anyone inside?" Wang Zhi said toward the gap in the door.
"I'm here to rescue you, please open the door," Wang Zhi tried calling out again.
"Rescue us? I think you're here to steal our food! I advise you to find somewhere else! We've already claimed this spot. This building is full of Zombies; if you dare to break down the door, they'll be attracted here! You'll all be bitten to death by them!"
At this moment, a man's voice came from inside.
"We really are here to save people. There is a shelter outside. As long as you cooperate well, I will take you back," Wang Zhi persuaded again.
"I still advise you to drop this idea and don't come back. Stealing doesn't need such a sanctimonious excuse these days!" the voice from inside sounded again.
Seeing that the other party showed no sign of being moved, Wang Zhi decided to use brute force to break down the door; he absolutely had to secure this batch of food!
"Fatty, go ram the door open!" Wang Zhi turned and said to Fatty.
"No problem!"
"Old He, Sister Ying, you two hold the line! Don't let any Zombies get through."
After Wang Zhi finished speaking, the three of them stood at the corner of the corridor and gestured for Fatty to act. Fatty backed up a short distance, took a running start, and—BANG!
With a loud crash, the door burst open!
Following the loud noise, the entire building began to tremble slightly. Zombies started rioting upstairs, all rushing down toward the ground floor.
"They're coming!" Wang Zhi warned.
Before long, more than ten Zombies had charged down, immediately crowding the narrow corridor.
"Fire!" Old He shouted, pulling the trigger without hesitation.
Meanwhile, just as Fatty broke through the door, he was confronted by three young men, each holding a kitchen knife, intending to kill Fatty and shut the door again.
However, just as they prepared to lunge, they realized Fatty was holding a handgun! No matter how fast a kitchen knife was, it couldn't match a bullet. The three immediately lost their nerve, and Fatty kicked each one aside.
After dealing with the people inside, Fatty turned to go out and help Wang Zhi and the others fight the Zombies, telling the three male students to hide in the room first.
As soon as Fatty stepped out, he was startled. The corridor was densely packed with corpses, and more Zombies were still squeezing in from behind.
However, these corpses also obstructed some of the Zombies' movement, directly tripping them up, which gave Wang Zhi and the others a moment to breathe. In the end, the few of them killed about twenty or so Zombies in the corridor before things quieted down.
"That's finally over! Is anyone hurt?" Wang Zhi's heart was pounding. In this dim basement, the sight of Zombie blood splattering made him so nervous that he had started to tremble.
"Let's go inside," Old He said, putting away his gun.
"Okay."
The four of them walked into the room and looked at the three boys on the ground. Each was clutching his arm and groaning painfully, and the room was filled with the stench of metabolic waste.
Wang Zhi glanced around the room: there was bread, spicy strips, instant noodles, ham sausage, and some bottled water and drinks.
Seeing this amount, it was enough for those twenty-plus students to eat for a week!
Regarding the behavior of the three boys in the room, Wang Zhi could also understand; in the Apocalypse, there was only infinitely vast darkness, selfishness, and suspicion.
"Take all of this stuff!" Wang Zhi ordered the three male students.
"Captain Wang, how should we deal with these three?" Fatty asked, coming over.
"Big brothers, please spare us! Didn't you say you were coming to save us? Why are you dealing with us now?"
Wang Zhi looked at the three people crying and begging for mercy. He had originally intended to leave these three to fend for themselves, but then he thought about the Survival Points reward for bringing them back.
"The three of you will come with us. Don't make any noise on the way, or the gun in my hand might make a sound," Wang Zhi said, gesturing with the pistol he held.
"Thank you, big brothers! We absolutely won't make a sound!"
At this moment, the three classmates they brought had each taken a large cardboard box and packed all the miscellaneous food and water into them.
When everyone came out of the room, the six boys following behind were startled to see the bodies strewn all over the corridor. Fortunately, they managed not to cry out.
Just as Wang Zhi was about to pass through the hallway, an unfully dead Zombie on the floor grabbed hold of his leg with one hand.
"Damn it! Watch your footing!" Wang Zhi exclaimed, raising his hand to fire another shot at the head of the unfully dead Zombie.
As soon as the words left his mouth, they heard a scream from one of the boys behind him!
"Ah!"
"Quick, everyone get out fast!" Wang Zhi shouted and ran outside.
"Who was that just now!"
"It was... it was me, I was just grabbed by a hand."
The speaker was one of the boys from inside the room earlier; there was now a tear in the fabric of his trouser leg.
Wang Zhi walked over, squatted down, and carefully examined the leg of the boy. The wound was already gradually turning black, and the blood was changing to a dark red color.
"Is anyone else injured?" Wang Zhi asked again.
Seeing that no one responded, Wang Zhi walked over to the group of three survivors.
"That person has been infected; it's only a matter of time before he mutates. Should we...?" Wang Zhi inquired.
"Let's keep him. It's hard to find a test subject, so of course, we must observe him," Ying said.
"Alright!"
After a brief discussion, the group started heading back the way they came.
On the way back, the boy who had been scratched suddenly fell to the ground!
The four rushed forward. The fallen boy was already losing consciousness, his face gradually turning purple, and dark red blood was constantly flowing from his mouth.
Wang Zhi calculated that less than ten minutes had passed since the scratch. Could it be fatal in just ten minutes?
"Put him out of his misery," Wang Zhi said to Ying over his shoulder.
Ying nodded, took the Dagger, and slit the boy's throat. The boy, who had just been struggling and convulsing, immediately went still.
After killing the boy, Ying's expression didn't change at all, as if she felt no guilt whatsoever.
"Sigh, let's hurry back," Wang Zhi sighed, turning around to retrace their steps.
This could be considered retribution for that boy. If he had opened the door back then, the Zombie naturally wouldn't have rushed down, and he wouldn't have been scratched, nor would he have died.
Since they had cleared out most of the Zombies on this route when they arrived, the return journey was much easier.
Soon, they saw students on the Rooftop of the Sports Building waving at them.
Once the group reached the Rooftop, seeing the three full boxes of food, the students immediately treated Wang Zhi and his team as saviors, casting looks of worshipful faith upon them.
It was only ten in the morning; this entire trip had taken less than half a morning, yet they had secured a week's worth of food. So far, things were proceeding very smoothly for the few of them.
"Fatty, go ahead and share some food with them first," Wang Zhi said.
Wang Zhi took out the notebook from his bag and began recording the events, especially the characteristics of those Zombies and their reactions after being Infected.
They were the first team to venture out; bringing the intelligence from outside back would surely be extremely valuable! However, this was just his speculation; he wasn't certain how Dawn Tower would handle it.