Just as we were settling in to stay quiet inside the room, there was a loud bang from outside—the cabinet blocking the way had been forced aside by the walkers.
I pressed my ear tightly against the door, listening to the movement outside.
Amid the chaotic footsteps and the growls of the walkers, the once-quiet sixth floor was instantly filled with echoes and noise.
Something felt off… the number of walkers outside sounded like far more than just a dozen.
Realizing this, I got down on the floor, sticking my face close to the gap under the door, trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening outside.
Sure enough, shadows moved everywhere—figures shuffling about, footsteps in every direction.
I gestured to everyone to stay quiet.
The security guard came over and lay down as well, peeking outside through the gap.
Leaning back against the door, I let out a deep breath, helplessly curling my knees up and resting my head on them.
I really just wanted to sleep.
Everyone had given up on leaving the room for now and found corners to sit in.
Lili, Han Xue, and Taozi all looked tense, worried that Xuanxuan might cry again.
The door behind us was just an ordinary office door—honestly, it had no real strength.
If the walkers outside gathered and started pushing in, it probably wouldn’t last even half an hour.
We sat there on the floor, listening.
Aside from the walkers’ growls, there was nothing else.
At first, the tension kept us alert, but after a while, as our minds grew numb, the fear slowly faded.
I leaned to the side and closed my eyes for a brief rest.
Maybe it was because, deep down, I still feared the walkers.
In that short nap, I had several chaotic dreams—all about them.
In one of them, I was rotting, mixed in among the cold, lifeless crowd of walkers, growling with them, hunting with them, tearing apart and devouring bloody limbs.
At the end of the dream, Suo Tian appeared.
He stood atop the high wall of the base, quietly looking at me.
There was no expression on his face, no trace of warmth in his eyes.
With a flick of his wrist, a silver blade shot straight toward my forehead.
“No!” I screamed, jolting awake.
It took me a while to recover from the dream.
My whole body was drenched in sweat, as if I’d been soaked in water.
My head felt even heavier now—I slumped on the floor, feeling like even lifting my hand required effort.
“What’s wrong with you?” Xiao Rong had somehow come over and was now crouching beside me.
I licked my dry lips and waved weakly. “Nothing… just a nightmare.”
“You fell asleep?”
“Yeah.” I wiped the sweat from my forehead and tried to move a bit.
Then I bent down to look outside again—the shadows were still dense.
The walkers showed no sign of leaving.
Sitting upright again, the security guard frowned. “Why hasn’t Team D come yet?”
“It’s been so long. Haven’t they received the message?” Taozi also asked, frowning.
“Could it be they’re ignoring us… like what happened at the bar before? Locking us all in here, leaving us for a whole day, and then coming in to wipe everyone out once we’re all infected?”
“Han Xue!” Lili sharply cut her off.
We had learned about that incident later from Bruno.
That day, Team D’s inaction had been intentional.
When they determined there weren’t many people inside, they wouldn’t risk sending in a rescue team.
Instead, they chose the simplest method—wait.
Wait until all the survivors were bitten, infected, and turned… and only then send people in to clean everything up completely.
Simple, efficient, and thorough.
Han Xue’s careless remark clearly made everyone even more anxious.
Their faces all changed.
After a long pause, Chen Jiaojiao finally spoke in a trembling voice, “…Does that mean… we’re all going to die here today?”
Her voice broke into sobs at the end.
She was completely terrified.
If Zhang Ting hadn’t been supporting her beside her, I suspected she might’ve collapsed under the pressure.
“No, no, it won’t be like that. How could it be as extreme as she said? There are so many of us—how could they just ignore us?” Zhang Ting patted her shoulder and gave Han Xue a look.
Han Xue immediately caught on and added, “I just heard it from someone else—I was joking, trying to scare you. Why take it seriously?”
It was a ridiculous explanation, but for someone as frightened as Chen Jiaojiao, it worked.
Rubbing my temples, I glanced at Lili.
She was holding Xuanxuan, looking at me with worry in her eyes.
Even though Han Xue had spoken without thinking, there was a very real possibility that Team D would handle things the same way as before.
The elevator was shut down, the exits sealed.
They had said they’d send people in after an hour, yet there had been no movement.
And the number of people in the mall wasn’t large—everything matched the conditions for how they’d handled things last time.
The room fell silent again for another ten minutes.
Xuanxuan, surprisingly well-behaved, stopped crying.
Supported by Lili, she toddled around on her chubby little legs, grinning to herself, even drooling from excitement.
I watched her quietly for a moment, then clenched my fists hard.
If no one came in another hour, I’d take them out myself.
Those who dared to fight could come with me and live.
Those who didn’t… could stay here and die.
No matter what, we had struggled this hard to survive until now—everything had only just begun.
There was no way we could die here for nothing.
But only a few minutes later, another scream suddenly came from outside—a young girl’s voice.
The security guard, who had been sitting dazed on the floor, froze completely the moment he heard it, his eyes wide.
I let out a helpless sigh.
Judging by the voice, it was just a child—probably only a few years old.
She must have been bitten, or she wouldn’t be screaming like that.
The scream lasted less than a minute before stopping.
At least… her suffering hadn’t lasted long.
Being torn apart piece by piece, watching those creatures rip flesh from your own body—the pain must be far worse than being slowly executed.
At that moment, the security guard—who had stubbornly refused to leave the room—suddenly jumped to his feet and rushed toward me.
Before I could react, he shoved me hard to the ground, then flung the door open and sprinted out.
I lay there by the open doorway, watching as the wandering walkers outside instantly became agitated at his sudden appearance.
The man who had seemed so timid before now moved with surprising agility, shoving away the walkers near him and sprinting toward the elevator.
Within seconds, he disappeared from sight.
That girl’s scream… had come from the fifth floor.
Only a portion of the walkers followed after him.
The rest immediately turned their attention to us inside the room, letting out hoarse growls as they began shuffling toward us.
My brows tightened—this was bad!
I rolled on the spot back into the room.
As I got up, I slammed the door shut and threw my body against it, trying to hold it in place.
By then, the walkers had already reached the door.
They pressed against it from the outside, and for a moment the door was stuck in a deadlock—unable to fully close, leaving a narrow gap between us and them.
I had no strength left in my body.
I was practically using my entire weight to press against the door, keeping it from being forced open.
Taozi and Han Xue reacted quickly.
Seeing the situation, they rushed forward to help push the door from the inside.
But there were too many walkers outside—their combined force was overwhelming.
The three of us couldn’t hold it.
Xiao Rong snapped out of it and joined in, followed by Zhang Ting.
Lili quickly set Xuanxuan down and rushed over as well, along with Handsome Guy.
All of us pressed against the door together with everything we had.
At least we knew how to apply force properly—unlike the walkers, who only mindlessly shoved forward.
With everyone working together, we finally managed to shut the door.
After locking it, we staggered back, gasping for breath.
Once we pulled back from the door, no longer directly facing the walkers, people seemed a little less afraid.
But we all knew the door wouldn’t hold for long.
As soon as it was shut, Handsome Guy, Taozi, and Han Xue quickly dragged a desk over to block it.
In the end, though, it was just psychological comfort—it wouldn’t really hold them off.
If Team D didn’t arrive within half an hour, we’d have no choice but to face the horde outside.
When the security guard had run out earlier, I had taken a quick look—there were over twenty walkers wandering the sixth floor.
Aside from the few that chased after him downstairs, the rest had all gathered here.
If I wasn’t mistaken, they were now all outside the door, mouths open, desperate to tear through the barrier separating us.
I took a couple of deep breaths and pinched my thigh hard to snap myself back to focus.
Then I stood up and looked around the room, trying to find anything we could use for defense.
But after scanning everything, aside from a few thick books on the shelf, there was nothing usable.
After what had just happened, it was clear the mop was useless.
The decorative stone was sturdy, but far from practical.
Just as I was anxiously pacing around, driven to the edge by the walkers’ constant growling outside, the door—blocked by the desk—suddenly let out a sharp, cracking sound.
My face changed instantly.
I rushed to the door and saw that the hinges connecting it to the wall were starting to split.
Then—crack!—another sharp noise.
The upper hinge snapped free from the wall, and the top half of the door immediately burst open into a wide gap…
— The end of the Chapter–
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