"Ahhh!"

  At the st possible moment, Bai Ru let out a piercing scream, rolling away in panic onto the dusty floor. The zombie, confident in its attack, missed its mark, but its bckened cws tched onto Bai Ru's denim-cd leg.

  Zombies weren’t picky eaters. Feeling the firm, estic flesh of Bai Ru’s leg, the creature seemed almost excited. Its gaping mouth, already stretched to an unnatural width, snapped hungrily toward her thigh, where a juicy artery pulsed beneath the skin.

  "Die already!"

  With a sickening *thunk*, just as the zombie’s teeth were about to sink into her thigh, Bai Ru let out a desperate scream. She grabbed the long meat cleaver from the ground and plunged it into the zombie’s eye socket. Summoning courage she didn’t know she had, she no longer cared about the filth on the bde. Gripping the handle with both hands, she twisted the cleaver violently.

  "Ugh…"

  The zombie let out a low growl, as if filled with resentment. But then, its thrashing body suddenly froze, as if someone had yanked out its batteries. Its remaining eye stared bnkly at the woman who had delivered its death blow, its expression almost… confused.

  "Ahhh!"

  Bai Ru screamed again, using all her strength to break free from the zombie’s foul embrace. Even in death, the creature held her tightly, like a long-lost lover unwilling to let go, as if trying to pull her into its decaying body.

  Lin Tao, who had just finished his cigarette, walked over. He pced a foot on the zombie’s elbow and applied pressure. A sickening crack echoed as the joint shattered. Bai Ru, who had been struggling in vain, finally managed to free her legs and scrambled backward to the corner of the room. Tears streamed down her face like broken pearls.

  Curled up in the corner, Bai Ru gred at Lin Tao, who was calmly wiping the cleaver on the zombie’s clothes. Her voice trembled with anger and betrayal. "Why didn’t you save me? Why?"

  "Do I have an obligation to save you?" Lin Tao replied without turning around. He finished cleaning the bde and walked over to Bai Ru, crouching in front of her. He grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at the lifeless zombie on the floor. "Don’t think that just because you’re a beautiful woman, men should rush to your rescue. If that thing had so much as scratched you, within an hour or two, you’d have turned into something just as grotesque. What good would your pretty face be then?"

  He released her and stood up, looking down at her with a cold expression. "Don’t forget, the world isn’t what it used to be. There are plenty of men out there who’d push you into a horde of zombies just to save themselves. The only person who can save you is you. Never rely on others—not even me."

  With that, Lin Tao turned away, ignoring the complex emotions on Bai Ru’s face. He walked to the double fire doors at the end of the hallway, pressing his ear against the crack to listen. He tried the lock, frowned, and turned to Boss Hu, who was peeking around the corner. "Go find a crowbar or something. This door’s locked."

  "Mr. Lin… you don’t need to. That person probably has the keys," Li Li said timidly, pointing to a headless body nearby. "He’s wearing the uniform of the old warehouse manager. The keys might be on him."

  "Boss Hu, go check," Lin Tao said, nodding toward the body.

  "On it!" Boss Hu replied without hesitation. He’d rifled through plenty of corpses before and wasn’t fazed by the task. After a quick search of the female corpse in the dark red uniform, he found a rge set of keys hanging from her belt. He yanked them off and hurried back to Lin Tao, grinning. "This’ll save us a lot of trouble."

  Lin Tao took the keys and compared them to the lock on the door. There were six or seven keys with the same brand, but the third one had a bel that read "Main Warehouse." He inserted the key, turned it, and heard a soft *click*. Gripping the door handle, he turned to Boss Hu and said in a low voice, "Stand on the left. If more than two things come out, shoot immediately."

  "Got it… got it," Boss Hu nodded nervously, pressing himself against the left wall. He gnced at his shotgun and realized he hadn’t even chambered a round. Under Lin Tao’s disapproving gaze, he awkwardly worked the bolt.

  "Boss Hu, step back. I’ll take over."

  Seeing Boss Hu’s clumsy handling of the weapon, Bai Ru, who had wiped away her tears and stood up, walked over. Boss Hu didn’t argue, quickly stepping aside and positioning himself in front of Li Li, pretending to protect her.

  "I’m sorry for earlier. I lost control," Bai Ru said, her eyes still red as she took Boss Hu’s pce. Lin Tao didn’t respond, simply shaking his head. He held the cleaver in one hand and slowly pushed open the heavy fire door.

  *Creak…*

  The door, unused for so long, let out a grating sound. Surprisingly, no zombies rushed out. Instead, a faint light spilled from inside.

  Lin Tao opened the door just wide enough for a person to pass through and cautiously peered inside. The warehouse was enormous—easily over a thousand square meters, with towering shelves five levels high, each stacked with goods. Although none of the lights were on, a hole in the corrugated steel roof allowed sunlight to filter in, providing enough illumination to see the surroundings.

  "No zombies?" Lin Tao frowned, clearly puzzled by the absence of the undead.

  "Isn’t that a good thing?" Bai Ru said, standing behind him with a hint of excitement. "There’s enough food here to st us two years if we’re careful."

  Lin Tao ignored her, scanning the area for a while longer. After confirming there were no immediate threats, he stuck the cleaver into the door handle and drew his pistol. "Stay alert. Something feels off about this pce."

  "What’s wrong?" Bai Ru asked, tightening her grip on the shotgun. Lin Tao’s experience and composure had earned her respect, a far cry from the timid man she’d seen the night before.

  "This fire door can only be locked from the outside. If there were no zombies inside, why didn’t the warehouse manager stay in here, where it’s safer and there’s food, instead of risking the dangerous hallway?" Lin Tao gnced at Bai Ru, his instincts screaming that this pce was far from safe.

  "So… do we go in or not?" Bai Ru bit her lip, hesitating.

  "Cover the rear," Lin Tao said, stepping through the door without answering her directly.

  As Lin Tao moved deeper into the warehouse, his eyes darted across the neatly stacked shelves. There were vacuum-sealed foods, televisions, and other supplies. But the further he went, the more his unease grew. The boxes near the back were no longer neatly arranged, as if they’d been violently shoved aside. Dark stains and cw marks covered the cardboard, clear signs of zombie activity.

  Lin Tao’s brow furrowed deeply. The pce was undeniably strange. There had clearly been zombies here, but now they were gone. Where could they have disappeared to?

  As a survivor of the apocalypse, Lin Tao knew the rules of survival all too well. The first rule was to suppress your curiosity—the stranger a pce seemed, the more dangerous it likely was. This rule had saved his life more than once. And now, he felt the same instinct to retreat.