Stowing the sodium fluorescein and portable UV lights into the briefcase at his chest, Su Jin walked out of the laboratory carrying the cage.
Fu Hu and Cheng Du immediately came forward with grim expressions.
Cheng Du spoke first. "Director, there were survivors in there. Did you kill them?"
Thick as the laboratory door was, three gunshots were hard to muffle completely.
Su Jin fell silent for a moment, then gave a nod of acknowledgment.
At a glance, there had been nothing wrong with the three of them; he had even judged them to be essentially safe.
Yet a laboratory should never have contained that much food, meaning the trio had taken refuge inside only after the disaster broke out.
There was no way to verify what had happened in the interim.
They were all medical students; even if someone had been splashed by rainwater or suffered minor injuries... they would never admit it if it meant risking their survival.
And infection and mutation had a lag time.
Besides, even if they were truly uninfected, he had no means of rescuing them anyway.
Because there was another major problem...
The vehicle only had seats for three, and every other inch was crammed with supplies and clutter—there was no room for three more people.
They could force themselves in, of course, but that would severely restrict Cheng Du's mobility in the back seat.
Securing another vehicle would multiply the risks, and strapping them to the roof might cause them to scream in terror.
He, Fu Hu, and Cheng Du could not afford to take on the slightest added risk on their way home.
If denied rescue, the survival instinct could drive people to do anything... Such an obvious uncontrollable factor had to be eliminated in advance.
This was the best help he could offer them: at least they had died full of hope and free of pain.
"One of the three was injured, so I had no choice but to eliminate them. Besides, I told you both: until we get back home, kill any living thing on sight! If you don't have the stomach for it up close, do it gently—assassinate them from behind.
"Just take what I did as an example. Do as I do, and don't let softheartedness get in the way again.
"The three of us carry the lives of over a hundred people from the residential complex on our shoulders. Let's move."
With that, Su Jin glanced down at the mice in the cage.
Holding more than eighty mice, the cage was fairly large... If their movements jostled it too much and the mice made noise, it could attract zombies.
Still, they had to push through. Once they cleared the teaching building, ninety percent of the mission would be accomplished!
They took the stairs back down to the ground floor, retracing their steps.
Su Jin cast frequent glances at the mice in the cage.
Fortunately, malnourished as they were, the mice huddled quietly in a tight clump.
Halfway to the exit, a dull thud followed by a clattering racket echoed down from the central staircase facing the main entrance.
All three froze in their tracks, fixing their gazes ahead.
Before their eyes, a guitar-wielding zombie that had slipped upstairs came tumbling head over heels down the steps...
With a final crunch, the guitar was crushed under its weight, the sharp noise instantly triggering a reaction from the surrounding zombies.
Su Jin whipped his head toward the window; zombies inside the adjacent classroom were already lunging toward the door and slamming into it.
The racket of doors being battered set off a chain reaction, rousing even more zombies.
In an instant, the entire corridor erupted into cacophony.
"Out the window!"
Gritting his teeth, Su Jin shattered the window beside him with an elbow and leaped straight out!
Fu Hu and Cheng Du followed right behind, vaulting through the window into a sprint.
The sharp crashes of shattering glass rang out in rapid succession.
Running at the lead, Su Jin spared a backward glance, and his heart sank.
Dozens of zombies on the upper floors had actually smashed straight through the windows, dropping down to the ground.
Several clad in uniforms moved at breakneck speed, their agility unnervingly abnormal.
One glance was enough to tell they were evolved special zombies.
From a rough estimate, the three of them might not even be able to outrun these mutated zombies!
"Holy shit, student-council zombies! They're way too fast!" Cheng Du cursed in a panicked yell as he sprinted, drawing a trip cord from his waist and hurling it backward.
Yet running at full tilt under such urgent circumstances gave him no time to stop and aim properly, so all three trip cords he cast failed to hit their marks.
"Damn it! Still such a pain in the ass even after dying!" Anxiety flared in Su Jin's chest.
There were still dozens of meters left to the car; while they had a slight lead, they could very well be overtaken.
Their vehicle needed time to accelerate. If zombies pinned them down during that window, they would be in serious trouble—they had to buy enough breathing room for the car to get up to speed.
With that thought, Su Jin made a snap decision and tossed the mouse cage to Cheng Du.
He roared at Fu Hu, "Lao Fu! Get in front of me—I'm launching you forward!"
"What?!"
Before Fu Hu could process the words, Su Jin threw himself forward into a roll, planting his hands over his shoulders against the ground.
Engaging his core, he curled his back and hips into the air, legs coiled and primed to spring.
Fu Hu caught on in an instant. He leaped into the air, bending his knees to drop toward the soles of Su Jin's feet.
Both men of exceptional strength exerted themselves in unison, feet pushing off against feet.
Fu Hu was catapulted forward, crashing onto the ground and rolling until he skidded right in front of the vehicle.
Without a split second of hesitation, he drew his bow and arrows and fired at the zombies!
Back when they bought the bow and arrows, Su Jin had instructed him to purchase various accessories as well.
This compound bow came equipped with a magazine loader that held seven arrows at once!
Seven arrows shot out; while not a single zombie was killed, the lead two were knocked flat to the ground.
By now, Su Jin had bounded back to his feet, sprinting shoulder to shoulder with Cheng Du.
"Cheng Du, turn around!"
Cheng Du took the hint and spun backward. Su Jin seized him by the collar and flung him toward the car!
At that exact moment, Cheng Du activated his ability!
The sight that followed completely shattered Su Jin's expectations.
Although Cheng Du was indeed gliding backward low to the ground, the expected boost of fire spewing from his mouth never materialized.
Instead, he struck an exquisitely flamboyant pose—soaring backward on a slant, one leg extended straight, the other bent elegantly behind him.
He looked just like a wuxia martial artist flying backward with qinggong.
"Director! I'll hold them off for you—no big deal!"
Even while gliding, Cheng Du kept a firm grip on the mouse cage with one arm, using his free hand to draw another trip cord from his waist and whip it toward the zombies.
Facing them head-on vastly improved his accuracy: two trip cords brought down another two zombies.
Seeing the two closing in, Fu Hu swiftly stowed his bow and slid into the driver's seat.
An instant later, Su Jin and Cheng Du scrambled inside, and the engine roared to life, leaving the zombies far behind.
Inside the vehicle, all three men panted heavily, eyes blank with exhaustion.
After catching his breath for a bit, Cheng Du turned to look at Su Jin. "Director, was that cool or what?! Wasn't that move incredible? I never told you, but I practiced that in secret!"
"Cool... It would've been even cooler if you hadn't snorted fire out of your nostrils. You blew boogers right out..."
"No way! I cleaned them out before we left."
"Why don't you wipe your chin and see?"
"Holy crap! Why is it half-slimy and half-crusty? Shouldn't it have been baked dry?"
"Cut the crap and check on the mice." Su Jin snatched the cage to inspect it. Seeing that the mice were all still alive, he breathed a full sigh of relief.
"This outing yielded huge gains, but the situation in the city is far worse than we anticipated." Su Jin took a sip of water, his expression turning solemn. "The zombies are evolving faster than anyone could have imagined, and the odds of running into them are far too high.
"We really can't stay in the city for long. Once we're back, we need to pick up the pace and aim to organize a convoy to head for the military district within a week.
"Lao Fu, be extra careful when we drive past the campus area on the way back. I have a feeling that might be our final hurdle."
Chapter 52