Chapter 82: Chapter 82: Heart-Pounding Escape (Part 2)
Four people stood silently against the wall, taking extreme care to lower their sounds, but even so, they still inevitably drew the attention of the surrounding zombies.
"Wu Chao, retreat!" Tang Xiaoquan’s urgent voice rang out before he even settled himself, as at the very moment he climbed up the wall, he saw dozens of zombies dragging their mighty steps swiftly towards them.
Wu Chao’s eyes were like torches, and his hands gripping the stick firmly pressed against the table. He had no intention of retreating, and a few words squeezed out with difficulty between his clenched teeth:
"Hu, Brother Hu! You, you go first, I’ll, I’ll hold them off!"
What a preposterous thought, Hu Xiaodong frowned slightly. He had never been one to relish melodrama, nor did he ever consider himself particularly noble.
But as the eldest man in the team, it was his responsibility and duty to lead these family members to survive.
"Stop talking nonsense, Chao, you get out quickly!"
"Yeah! Wu Chao! This isn’t the time for courteous exchanges, the zombies on the street are coming too!"
As if to validate Tang Xiaoquan’s words, a wave of feral howls came from outside the window instantly, echoing with the roars inside, genuinely causing goosebumps to scatter all over the ground.
At this point, even though Wu Chao’s heart was filled with reluctance, he could only unwillingly comply with the order.
"Fine, Brother Hu, you..." His voice abruptly halted, and the words he intended to say, "you have to come out alive," were forcibly swallowed back down.
Wu Chao gave Hu Xiaodong a forceful pat on the shoulder, the brotherhood unspoken.
"Phew~" Subconsciously, he let out a breath. To be honest, Tang Xiaoquan really worried that Wu Chao would insist on his own ideas.
Because, through observations over the past few days, he characterized the former as enthusiastic and impetuous, prone to impulsiveness.
But after today’s skirmish, Tang Xiaoquan’s view of the other had significantly changed.
Indeed, Wu Chao could act overly emotional at times, but it all stemmed from his genuine affection for his brothers, akin in some ways to Wang Qiang.
However, unlike the latter, Wu Chao understood the bigger picture far better than the single-minded Wang Qiang.
For instance, today’s incident, if Wang Qiang had been in the same position, Tang Xiaoquan was sure that unless they knocked him unconscious and carried him away, no one could persuade him otherwise.
Using both hands and feet, propelled by the momentum of his leap, Wu Chao climbed up the wall.
After landing, he naturally glanced at the situation outside the wall.
It only took one glance to truly scare him.
Beneath the wall stretched two rows of ragged zombies, who raised their arms, waving and howling like a group of frenzied, mindless fans vying for a chance to be close to the "idol" on the "stage."
Cold sweat instantly soaked his face, and Wu Chao thanked his luck that he hadn’t acted foolishly earlier, or the consequences would have been unimaginable.
"Brother Hu, it’s your turn, you can retreat!" Without waiting for Tang Xiaoquan’s prompt, Wen Quanxin shouted out first.
As soon as his stern shout echoed, it stirred another uproar among the zombies inside and outside.
Taking the cue from Wang Qiang’s hands, Wu Chao remained vigilant, focusing on the restless horde below the wall.
Clearly, he was the only survivor capable of reaching out with a weapon to the zombies.
So, his mission was simple: to prevent zombies like "Yao Ming," whose physique differed from the norm, from appearing.
With one last force push, Hu Xiaodong steadied the hairdressing table from the impact. Although he knew this move was pointless, he hoped the two wooden tables could buy him a little extra time to escape.
Placing his cleaver back on his shoulder, Hu Xiaodong took a deep breath, knowing it was time to leave. Since the brothers had safely ascended the wall, he naturally did not want to linger in this damned place.
"One, two..." Silently counting down the action in his mind, as soon as he said "three," Hu Xiaodong sprang out.
He was racing against time, wagering his life in the process.
With Hu Xiaodong’s departure, the final defenses of the wooden door ended as well. The two hairdressing tables didn’t even hold for a second before being violently blown away with a resounding crash.
The wooden door cracked open, revealing a massive, meter-long gap through which a black shadow emerged.
The black shadow had barely shown half of its body when it swiftly fell, the sharp wooden spikes beneath piercing directly through its abdomen.
"Brother Hu!"
Tang Xiaoquan had been closely watching the inside and immediately cried out upon seeing the state of the wooden door.
The zombies, with no sense of awareness for their fallen companions, surged forward one after another. After several more comrades fell, one "lucky one" finally managed to break free from the mass of corpses and "stand out."
"Brother Hu! Quick! Quick!" Tang Xiaoquan shouted urgently because this "lucky one" crawled as fast as Hu Xiaodong.
Everything happened in a flash, with no one able to predict what would happen next—whether Hu Xiaodong would reach the top of the wall before the horde or be stopped and devoured remained unknown. The uncertainty brought everyone’s hearts to their throats.
"Brother Hu! Hang in there!"
"Roar! Roar! Roar!"
The mingling sounds of human and zombie voices intertwined, ringing like a symphony of fate in Hu Xiaodong’s ears.
At that moment, the person couldn’t help but be extremely tense, and even the ill-fated Hu Xiaodong couldn’t escape it.
His heart raced, adrenaline rising exponentially.
Fear and dread seeped through every fiber of his being, stiffening his movements.
Kicking hard on the shampoo chair, Hu Xiaodong intended to use the recoil to propel himself onto the windowsill, but...
Exhaustion and tension, the combined psychological and physical stress, caused him to stumble as he climbed up to the window ledge, and with that misstep, his just-leaped figure again fell back to the ground.
Without a doubt, it was a critical mistake, especially in such a perilous situation, where seconds could mean the difference between life and death.
Cold sweat quickly seeped over his face, but Hu Xiaodong didn’t bother to wipe it away. He raised his foot for another attempt, but the zombies crawling towards him wouldn’t give him another chance.
Wen Quanxin’s eyes contracted sharply, narrowing into slits in the blink of an eye.
His half-opened mouth wanted to say something, but the sudden horror left him paralyzed with shock.
The zombie’s hand had already gripped Hu Xiaodong’s ankle as its languid body gradually rose from the glaring ground.
Hu Xiaodong was at a crucial moment of life and death...