Chapter 114: Silent Land of the Living Dead (3)
"I'll go help him." Xing Ye moved as if to jump down.
"I'll go too!" Ji Ning looked at the Living Dead around the bus, clawing and scrambling to climb up, and didn't want Xing Ye and Song Weiyang to take the risk of coming back for her later.
Hearing that Ji Ning wanted to come along, Xing Ye reconsidered—if they went together now, once they found a hiding place they could all three stay together, avoiding any mishaps. So he agreed.
He bent down, wrapped an arm around her waist, and scooped Ji Ning into his arms; just like before, he used the roof of the sedan as a stepping stone and jumped down in stages.
When she only watched Xing Ye jump, it looked effortless; being carried together with him, Ji Ning felt how jarring it actually was.
Especially when their combined weight hit the car, making it lurch and jolting them violently.
But Xing Ye was steady; without pausing, he stepped off and landed, then set Ji Ning down. He immediately picked a direction, took her hand, and ran forward.
This street was a riverside entertainment strip, lined with shops for eating, drinking, and amusement; the glass doors offered negligible resistance.
Xing Ye led Ji Ning to a hotel with a revolving door. Once inside, Xing Ye grabbed a cushion from the waiting area, then stood by the door and waved to Song Weiyang: "Over here."
Now, not just the Living Dead behind Song Weiyang, but others from nearby were approaching as well.
Hearing this, Song Weiyang picked up even more speed, racing toward the two of them.
Once he slipped through the revolving door, Xing Ye immediately jammed the cushion into it, locking it in place. The Living Dead could only claw uselessly at the outside.
Song Weiyang let out a soft breath, gave Ji Ning a brilliant smile, and patted Xing Ye on the shoulder in thanks.
At that moment, the Living Dead inside the hotel were drawn by the commotion—a female zombie dressed as a front desk clerk and a male zombie dressed as a security guard.
Xing Ye and Song Weiyang each grabbed a weapon—one a large vase, the other an ashtray—and charged, smashing directly into the Living Dead's temples.
After knocking them to the ground, both men struck again and again, shattering skulls, and the Living Dead gradually fell still.
This was Ji Ning's first time witnessing such gore, but she clenched her fists, held back her nausea, and kept looking, forcing herself to adapt.
"Good girl, check if there's a hardware store nearby." Xing Ye cracked the vase against the front desk with a deft strike to create a sharp edge. "Without weapons, we can barely move."
"Okay!" Ji Ning agreed immediately, searched for a hardware store on a map app, and handed it to Xing Ye to see.
Navigation showed it was 1,300 meters away, in an alley behind an old residential building on the diagonal street.
"That's a bit troublesome." Song Weiyang leaned in to look and let out a hiss.
With Living Dead roaming everywhere outside, and no idea what the diagonal street was like, it really wasn't going to be easy.
Ji Ning thought for a moment and said, "Why don't we first look around the hotel for any weapons we can use right now—kitchen knives, shovels, iron bars, that sort of thing. Then we can go upstairs, get a view from higher up, and come up with a plan."
"Good. Let's do that." Xing Ye agreed in a low voice.
Song Weiyang draped an arm around Ji Ning's shoulders, raised an eyebrow, and grinned. "So what's our squad's name, my dear Captain?"
"Huh?" Ji Ning laughed, caught off guard by the question.
Song Weiyang glanced at Xing Ye and joked, "How about the Ning-Yang Squad?"
"Ning-Ye Squad." Xing Ye's face darkened, and taking Ji Ning's hand, he led her further inside, adding coldly, "I'll take point; Song Weiyang, you guard the rear."
The three dealt with a few more Living Dead and reached the hotel's back kitchen. It had already been ransacked—no kitchen knives or spatulas to be found. Fortunately, there was a shovel; Xing Ye thought it was too ugly and didn't take it, but Song Weiyang claimed it.
Xing Ye then found a small hammer in a utility room, replacing the cumbersome vase he was holding.
Looking at a pile of assorted small hardware fittings, Ji Ning suddenly had an idea.
She picked out a handful of long nails and held them up to Xing Ye: "Brother Xing Ye, could you break off a table leg for me? I want to make a spiked club."
"The captain's so smart." Song Weiyang took the nails. "I'll help you make it."
Xing Ye also praised, "The captain is clever and quick-witted, truly the brain of the squad."
With the two of them playing off each other, Ji Ning laughed herself silly, her heart warm.
A four-star instance—as long as you were with people you liked and trusted, it didn't seem so scary anymore.
Xing Ye selected a slender but sturdy table leg, and together with Song Weiyang, they quickly nailed together a simple yet practical spiked club.
Ji Ning weighed it in her hand—light and sharp. She declared she liked it very much.
Following the squad's plan, after arming themselves, the three took the fire escape up to the hotel's fourth floor. They found an open room and looked through the window to survey the diagonal street.
Song Weiyang, standing on the other side, looked for a moment and suddenly called out, "Hey, look—isn't that Sheng Churan?"
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