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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter Sixty-Three: Turbulence
The living room was suddenly plunged into darkness, and several women were startled by the abrupt noise, holding their breath in tension.
Song Yao felt her scalp tingle; in the darkness, she could only see the outlines of Luci and An Zheng, both standing still without moving. Luci's Tabby Cat, frightened, leaped away and disappeared into the unknown.
The wild wind outside howled fiercely as it swept in, and the sounds from the kitchen gradually faded.
Song Yao stared at the curtains billowing in the wind and cautiously approached them.
"Yao Yao..." Luci involuntarily whispered.
"Shh!" Song Yao made a gesture for silence, then remembered that it was pitch black, so Luci probably couldn't see her.
She took a few steps to the window, carefully peering through a gap in the curtains. Outside was a dirt wall from the neighboring house; the two rooms were not far apart, and the narrow path in between showed nothing unusual. Song Yao crouched down and felt around, discovering a half brick among a pile of glass shards.
A sharp 'clang' echoed from the kitchen as a metal object fell to the ground.
Song Yao quickly pulled Luci and An Zheng closer and whispered, "You two go upstairs and call Brother Cao down."
"Be careful," An Zheng nodded, tugging at Luci's sleeve. The two women tiptoed across the living room and hurried up the stairs.
The window glass shattered, and the wind roared in her ears, making it difficult to hear any subtle sounds from the kitchen. Song Yao guessed that a Zombie must have fallen back there; some furniture was blocking the door, so it seemed unlikely that the Zombie could break through anytime soon. The short-haired girl crouched next to the sofa, using the dim light from outside to get a better look at the half brick.
"Strange," Song Yao couldn't help but mutter to herself. Although the Yellow Wind outside was strong, it shouldn't be able to carry a brick like a bullet. Moreover, the houses on one side of the courtyard were all made of dirt walls; logically speaking, there shouldn't be any bricks on top of those earthen platforms.
Song Yao suddenly pulled back the gun's bolt, aiming the dark muzzle at the kitchen's sliding door. The short-haired girl calculated for a moment, suspecting that it was the group from Power Station that had come after them. This thought filled her with a primal fear; if Bai Yudong and the others couldn't stop them, what could she do? At that moment, the only people in the building were women and children, and the sole man, Cao Liang, didn’t even know how to use a gun. Song Yao swallowed hard, hoping that Jiang He and the others would return soon.
“Xiao Song!” came Cao Liang's low voice from the stairs.
Song Yao felt a wave of relief wash over her as she whispered back, “Over here.”
The darkness was so thick that even though they were only about ten meters apart—one by the window and the other on the stairs—they could only see each other’s shadowy outlines.
Cao Liang took two steps down but suddenly halted, then retreated slightly, revealing only half of himself around the corner of the stairs. From his silhouette, it seemed he was doing something.
Song Yao was puzzled; she squinted for a long time but couldn’t figure out what Cao Liang meant. The curtains beside her fluttered in the wind, and dust swirled around her face as she crouched behind the sofa by the window.
Listening intently for a moment, it seemed there was no sound coming from the kitchen. Song Yao secretly sighed in relief, wondering if she had been overthinking it. If it really were that group of people, they would have likely wiped them out with just a few rounds of gunfire.
“Cao Liang, come down!” Song Yao moved forward a few steps, lowering her voice to call him. She still couldn’t see what Cao Liang was doing.
The figure on the stairs paused for a moment before peering out further. Suddenly, he dashed down two steps and grabbed Song Yao, pulling her toward the second floor.
“What are you doing?” Song Yao exclaimed in surprise at Cao Liang's sudden action and quickly shook off his grip.
“Shh!” Cao Liang’s face was hidden in the shadows, his eyes filled with seriousness and alertness. He scanned their surroundings nervously while pulling Song Yao upstairs and whispered urgently, “There’s someone outside!”
“What?” Song Yao felt dazed for a moment as she turned to glance at the window where the curtains were flapping wildly—there was no one there.
Cao Liang did not explain further and pulled her up to the second floor. An Zheng and Luci were at the staircase, each holding a stick, clearly showing signs of tension.
"What happened?" Song Yao asked anxiously.
"I went down to look for you, and halfway up the stairs, I glanced up and saw someone standing outside the window. I thought I was seeing things; damn, it was really creepy!" Cao Liang whispered, panting heavily. "I waved at you, telling you not to move. Did you see me?"
"I couldn't see clearly, just a dark shadow... You said someone was standing outside? Was it a Zombie?" Song Yao felt a chill run down her spine. If what Cao Liang said was true, then she had been exposed to the enemy's eyes all this time.
Cao Liang shook his head. "No, it seemed like he noticed I was looking at him and 'whoosh'—he ran away."
Wheat shrank between Luci and An Zheng, trembling slightly. "That feels so scary. Was it a ghost?"
"Alive." Cao Liang patted the little girl's head and turned to Dr. An. "You, Qianqian, and Wheat go to the bedroom and don't come out."
"What about you guys?" An Zheng asked with concern, running back to the bedroom to grab a handgun from under the pillow and handed it to Cao Liang.
"I don't want it; you keep it. If anything happens, shoot... but I doubt it will. There's only this one staircase to the second floor; I don't believe that person can fly up here!" At this moment, Cao Liang also sensed that something was off. He picked up a white wax stick and quietly asked, "Is Little Pan still outside?"
Song Yao felt uneasy and nodded, ready to go down, but was stopped by Cao Liang grabbing her arm.
"I'll go first; if you see anyone, shoot."
The tension in the room escalated as everyone held their breath; outside, the two were equally distressed—at least one of them had already scared themselves silly.
A sudden gust of wind swept through, and the two inside the car heard the sound of shattering glass. Without a word, Pan Luo flung open the car door and ran toward the source of the noise. The graduate student hadn’t even processed what was happening when the girl had already vanished from sight.
Outside was nothing like inside; at least indoors there were people and limited space, but outside was shrouded in darkness, so thick that without goggles, one couldn't even open their eyes. As the graduate student watched his companion rush out, he intended to go back inside to alert others. However, just as he opened the car door, a heavy blow struck him from behind.
The graduate student felt as if he were dying. Dazed, he sensed himself being dragged along the ground. A wave of warmth flowed through his aching head, quickly replaced by a chilling sensation that slid down into his neck. When he finally regained consciousness and opened his eyes, he found himself in an unfamiliar place. He tried to move but realized his hands and feet were bound with rope, and a piece of cloth stuffed in his mouth emitted a foul odor. Struggling to get up, he bumped his head against something hard, causing a painful lump to form. The sound of wind rushed past his ears, and his nostrils were filled with a putrid stench. His hands, tied behind his back, groped around until they grasped something sticky.
"Help me..." The graduate student lay helplessly on the ground, despair washing over him.
As Cao Liang and Song Yao opened the door to the room, Pan Luo burst in with urgency.
The sudden encounter caught everyone off guard; if it weren't for Cao Liang's quick reaction to shout out, those two fierce women might have already fired off a volley of bullets.
"Sister Yao, the graduate student is missing!" Pan Luo exclaimed as she rushed inside. "I just heard glass breaking and ran over to check; when I came back, he was gone!"
"You just went to the window?" Song Yao asked in shock.
"Yeah! Didn't you see anything?" Pan Luo replied, puzzled.
Cao Liang rubbed her temples in frustration and asked, "Was that you I saw? What were you doing at the window?"
"I wasn't!"
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