Apocalypse Invasion: Survival on the Infinite Train
Ming Chu almost choked on her breath. She pointed at the zombie, then pointed at herself. "Me? Just me alone? Are you serious?"
Brother Wang didn't have a bad impression of Ming Chu, nor was he tight-fisted with his words; instead, he explained earnestly, "My abilities can't fully protect two people while we're moving. You need to have self-preservation skills and basic counter-attack capabilities."
"Didn't you learn how to kill people from me yesterday? Go try it out now."
Ming Chu took a deep breath and calmed herself down.
Brother Wang wasn't sending her to her death. Yesterday, he had analyzed for her that zombies weren't fast, and their fatal spot was the brain. Everything Brother Wang taught her yesterday focused on vulnerabilities on the head.
Including the eyes, the temples, and the soft cartilage at the back of the skull.
She could give it a try.
"Fine. Are you sure there isn't a second zombie downstairs?"
"If there's a second one, I'll take care of it in time," Brother Wang promised. "If you truly can't handle it, I'll help you out as well. But if it comes to that, going outside will become even more dangerous."
Ming Chu pumped herself up.
If there was only one zombie, she had nothing to fear. She also had skill three of her suitcase; in a one-on-one fight, she held the advantage.
She did need to adapt. Rather than being protected behind someone else, she preferred having formidable abilities of her own. This time Lin Meng and Brother Wang were reliable, but in the next world, who knew what kind of people she might run into?
Ming Chu didn't want to become fish on a cutting board.
Zombies had poor eyesight but acute hearing. When Ming Chu walked downstairs, she tried her best to lighten her footsteps.
At this moment, she was grateful she was wearing sneakers instead of leather shoes or high heels, as at least they wouldn't hinder her running speed.
After reaching the ground floor, Ming Chu looked around and spotted a coffee table nearby. She walked over quickly and let out a soft shout: "Hey! Zombie!"
At those three words, the zombie's head snapped violently toward her, baring its teeth in a roar as it charged right at her.
Looking at that grayish, saliva-dripping face, Ming Chu gripped the kitchen knife in her hand with a deathly white-knuckled grasp. Reaching the peak of nervousness, she instead grew calm.
Estimating the zombie's speed, she nimbly dashed to its side, dodging its flailing arms, and slashed fiercely at its neck from the flank.
Because she miscalculated her distance and due to her height, she missed the gap in the bones. Furthermore, because she was too close, the zombie caught the scent of a living human on Ming Chu, roaring with even greater excitement as it spun around to lunge at her again!
Ming Chu decisively withdrew her knife and bolted.
She circled the sofa twice while the zombie chased her, purposely creating a slight commotion to make the zombie turn the wrong way, and then chopped savagely at its neck again!
This time, the wound almost overlapped with the previous one. Not getting greedy, Ming Chu struck and ran. After circling around a few times and landing four or five blows, she managed to hack the zombie's head clean off.
Even knowing it was a zombie and not a human, having a head severed by her own hands produced such an eerie sensation that Ming Chu, who had never even killed a chicken from childhood to adulthood, threw up with a loud retch.
She had been nervous while the zombie was alive, but now that it was dead, all the lingering fear and nausea washed over her at once.
She was almost crying from vomiting. Over on the other side, Brother Wang looked surprised, but was even more satisfied with Ming Chu's reaction.
At least during a moment of danger, she could display transcendent calmness.
This was an exceptionally good trait that could save one's life.
It was just that he seemed to have overlooked something...
Just as Brother Wang walked over, he saw Ming Chu, whose eyes were red from retching, holding the blood-stained kitchen knife and walking over to the spot where the zombie's head had fallen. She gave the head a kick, flipping the face-down zombie head over.
Even though only a head remained, the zombie's mouth kept opening and closing, still trying to bite people.
Still dry-heaving, Ming Chu attacked its head with the kitchen knife, quickly destroying the residual nerves and brain matter inside until it finally stopped moving.
Brother Wang appreciated Ming Chu even more now.
Showing zero disgust toward the zombie gore on her body, he patted her shoulder and said with gratification, "Very good. By killing your first zombie, you've acquired the basic ability to survive."
"Come on, wipe your hands, drink some water to calm down. Rest for ten minutes, and then we'll move out."
"Thank you." Ming Chu took the tissue paper to wipe her hands, unscrewed the bottle cap, and took several large gulps of water to suppress the wave of nausea.
She didn't even wait the full ten minutes. After five minutes, she stretched her body—especially her tense wrists—and told Brother Wang, "Brother Wang, I'm ready."
"Good. When we go outside later, try your best to avoid the zombies. Your strength isn't enough, so unless it's an absolute last resort, don't fight them to the death."
The rookie Ming Chu obediently acknowledged this, promising she would make a fine little pendant clinging to a powerhouse's thigh.
They maintained the same formation with Brother Wang in front and Ming Chu in the back.
Despite his bulky size, Brother Wang ran almost silently.
Although Ming Chu lacked Brother Wang's body control, the sound of her running wasn't loud either, and for the time being, she didn't attract any zombies.
This was only because Brother Wang had chosen a slightly detoured route, trying his best to steer clear of the main road.
Whenever they encountered zombies that were truly unavoidable, Brother Wang would decapitate them with a single stroke and skewer the brain with a thrust.
Two strikes settled it, and he would even steady the zombie's corpse so it wouldn't crash heavily to the ground and make a loud noise.
Seven or eight minutes later, Brother Wang slowed his pace and whispered a reminder to Ming Chu: "We're about to reach the main road. There are a lot of zombies on the main road, so try to stay close behind me. I'll carve a path through."
"Got it." Ming Chu regulated her breathing, feeling as though her physical endurance had improved quite a bit.
In the past, she would huff and puff after running 800 meters, but now she felt she had run well over two 800-meter stretches and still felt her stamina was quite adequate.
Was it because she had awakened her innate talent?
This thought flashed through Ming Chu's mind, but she kept her legs moving, closely tailing Brother Wang as they arrived at the intersection leading to the main road.
Peering out for a look, she counted at least forty or fifty zombies within her field of vision.
If they were blocked and surrounded by so many zombies...
Cold sweat threatened to break out on Ming Chu.
Right at that moment, she heard Brother Wang give a low bark: "Run!"
Before her brain could even process it, Ming Chu's legs instinctively broke into a sprint.
Brother Wang hadn't forgotten that Ming Chu was behind him. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her, thinking that if she couldn't even keep up with his pace, he would have to find a way to lure those zombies away.
Fortunately, Ming Chu had also accelerated. He set his mind at ease. This time when encountering zombies, he unleashed ferocious strikes, lopping off heads and bypassing any need for follow-up stabs.
As for certain zombies, he simply kicked them flying without even killing them.
With Brother Wang violently paving the way, Ming Chu dodged the fallen zombie heads on the ground and charged forward with her head down.
When focus was placed on speed, details had to be neglected.
The zombies that were kicked away or decapitated crashed onto the ground and cars, and their excited roars close by caused even more distant zombies to turn their heads as well.
What does it feel like to be eyed hungrily as food by a dense, swarming mass of excited zombies?
Goosebumps instantly erupted all over Ming Chu's body. She pinched herself hard, using the pain to force herself to stay calm. Sticking close behind Brother Wang, whenever a zombie approached from a tricky angle, she widened her eyes and hacked at its arm.
Though she didn't sever it, knocking that arm off-course still managed to alleviate some of the pressure on Brother Wang.
Those final three hundred meters felt to Ming Chu like the hardest three hundred meters she had ever walked.
When she finally caught sight of the police station, she mustered her last ounce of strength and rushed inside following Brother Wang.
The police station's doors could be closed. Brother Wang grabbed the sliding door, the muscles in his arms bulging as he forced it shut. A waist-high security gate blocked the zombies outside.
Brother Wang didn't take a moment to rest either; he spun around and immediately started killing the zombies inside the police station.
When the outbreak hit, the police station had been operational, but due to car accidents and other emergencies, a portion of the officers had been dispatched on calls at the time.
Consequently, there weren't many people left at the station, nor were there many zombies.
More importantly... there were living people.
Ming Chu could see a second-floor window being quietly slid open, and a hand waved frantically at them, signaling them to come upstairs.
"B-Brother Wang, should we go?"
Panting heavily, Ming Chu asked Brother Wang while trying her best to assist him.
"Go."
Brother Wang gave an affirmative answer.
There were four zombies downstairs in total. Once they were all slain, Brother Wang led Ming Chu deeper into the building.
The person who opened the window was on the third floor. Upon entering, there was one zombie on the first floor, none on the second, but two on the third.
While Brother Wang was dispatching the zombies on the third floor, the room on that floor opened up as well, and a female police officer emerged, wielding a steel pipe and joining in the zombie-killing.
Once the zombies were cleared, the three of them tacitly avoided making a loud commotion and stepped inside the room first.
It was only then that Ming Chu noticed a fourth person here.
Yet this fourth person was completely flushed red, looking as though they might spike a high fever at any second!