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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter Seventy-Four: The Bloody Street of Flesh
In that moment when the shockwave rolled through, Chao Yifan thought he was truly going to meet Little Gold. The dizziness lasted for a few seconds, and Bald Guy was astonished to find that he seemed to still be alive.
Chao Yifan tried to move his body, relieved that he wasn't crushed by the collapsed reinforced concrete. The two wooden screens that had been in front of him had saved his life. Light filtered in from above, and he could hear the sound of dust and debris sliding down through the cracks. Chao Tianwang reached out to the gap and dug around a bit, dislodging two pieces of broken bricks that revealed a hole the size of a basin.
"That's brutal..." Chao Yifan couldn't help but click his tongue. He was in a position that was neither lying down nor sitting up, with his shoulder propped against the wall as he slumped on the ground. The screens had been lifted by the shockwave and were now precariously resting on him, wedged into a corner, leaving him a space that was difficult to turn in but not so tight that he would suffocate under the weight.
Through the hole he had created, he could see the situation above. The ceiling was missing more than half of its structure, while the load-bearing wall at the back remained standing. Three meters above him hung a half-detached concrete slab, one side having fallen while the other dangled precariously from some rebar, looking ready to drop at any moment.
Chao Yifan pushed himself up with both hands, trying to squeeze through the basin-sized hole. Just as he poked his head out, a bloodied and disfigured face suddenly lunged toward him!
Bald Guy broke out in a cold sweat and quickly pulled his head back like a whack-a-mole. The grotesque face followed closely behind, peering into the opening.
"Damn." Chao Yifan felt something hard beneath his feet—likely debris from the collapsed wall—and realized that his hiding space was limited. Being tall, he could only contort himself into an awkward position to keep some distance from the face intruding into the hole.
The owner of that grotesque face was a female Zombie. Her once-flowing hair had been singed into a matted mess by the explosion's flames, and she had been cleaved in half by shattering tempered glass. Her head remained intact, so this resilient Female Zombie was still "alive," having noticed a brick fall nearby that exposed a hole with living breath emanating from it.
Chao Yifan knew only that he was being targeted by this Zombie in such a confined space. He could faintly smell burnt hair wafting from her scorched scalp, and her shriveled face was covered in darkened and decaying flesh. The Zombie strained her neck to peer down into the hole but found her shoulders stuck on either side of it, unable to advance even an inch.
Chao Yifan's face was just a palm's length away from hers; this was as flexible as he could get. He had intended to shrink entirely beneath the screens, but the space was far smaller than he had imagined. His legs barely bent before they were blocked, forcing him to adopt this twisted posture to avoid being kissed by the Zombie.
Chao Tianwang felt an intense hatred welling up inside him! One hand groped around his side for something—anything—but there was nothing; not even a decent-sized rock could be found. He covered his mouth and nose with one hand to prevent any drool from dripping down from the Zombie's mouth while raising two fingers with the other hand, contemplating whether to poke her eyes out. But then he remembered that Zombies had no sensation; who knew what strange substances might splatter if he actually did?
The sound of falling debris grew faster beside him as if the weight of the Zombie was about to crush his last refuge. Chao Yifan gritted his teeth and steeled himself to twist off this dead woman's head when suddenly there was a flash of light before his eyes—the Zombie was dragged away! With a sound of metal piercing flesh, Jiang He appeared at the opening with a radiant smile despite being covered in dust.
"He's here! Not dead!" Jiang He shouted back over his shoulder before turning to ask, "Are you trapped?"
"No, pull me up quickly!" Chao Yifan sighed in relief and hurriedly poked his head out. Looking at the ruins around him, Chao Tianwang's expression turned astonished: "Did you cause all this?"
"Unexpected, unexpected." Seeing that Chao Yifan was mostly unharmed, Jiang He felt a significant weight lift from his heart. He had been worried that his gas canister bomb might have killed a few people.
"Where are Girl and the Pillar?" Jiang He used a steel rebar to pry up a section of the Brick Wall that was pressing down on Chao Yifan, clearing away some of the sand and pulling Chao Yifan up by his arms.
"They're behind us. Just now, Girl was at the skylight. You didn't blow her down, did you?" Chao Yifan suddenly realized, ignoring the dust covering his face, and hurriedly looked toward the skylight.
Some surviving Zombies were struggling beneath the rubble, while a few flaming Zombies staggered toward them, only to be smashed into a puddle of mush by Jiang He's steel rebar.
"Why are you the only one?" Chao Yifan climbed onto the exposed Cash Register and leaped up to the skylight.
"Ming the Great Hero is outside, and Yao Yao went back first. We need to hurry and leave," Jiang He said, noticing Ming Junwei in the driver's seat signaling him. Following Ming's direction, he saw another batch of Zombies attracted by the explosion's roar approaching.
"Pillar!!" Chao Yifan shouted without waiting for a response, leaning out of the window.
The Pillar, who was running toward the yard's main gate with Pan Luo in his arms, turned around in surprise upon hearing the shout.
"What happened to Girl?" Chao Yifan's sharp eyes immediately spotted the little girl limply hanging in the Pillar's embrace.
"She's fine; just stunned. How about you?" The Pillar glanced around, unsure whether to go back or keep running.
"Run! Back to the building!!" Hearing Jiang He's urging, Chao Yifan shouted at the Pillar and let go of his grip.
The sound of a bulldozer's horn echoed down the street as Ming Junwei urged them again.
"Hurry up." Jiang He signaled to Ming Junwei, indicating that he understood.
Chao Yifan responded and glanced down, noticing a handle sticking out beside the Cash Register. He reached out and pulled it free, revealing a buried broadsword.
"What the hell? Sword in the Stone?" Jiang He exclaimed in shock as he saw Chao Yifan pull such a magical longsword from the ruins, wondering if he had been hallucinating from the explosion.
"Settle down, we haven't found anything yet," Chao Yifan said, not bothering to explain as he followed Jiang He out of the ruins. "Did you find any supplies?"
"We did, but I don't know if Xiao Wei and the others managed to fix the vehicle," Jiang He replied as they rushed out of the half-destroyed storefront. Turning back, they saw a swarm of Zombies surging toward them from both ends of the street!
"This is bad," Jiang He said, his mouth suddenly dry. Where could they run?
A loudspeaker blared twice, and the bulldozer roared back to life. The massive metal blade gleamed in the light as its tracks crushed the asphalt, sending countless stones flying.
"Get on!" Ming Junwei shouted from the driver's cabin, his voice cutting through the chaos.
The two young men understood immediately and hurried to either side of the bulldozer, glancing around in confusion about where to climb.
This bulldozer was far from being as massive as a Caterpillar D11; it was more of a mid-sized construction vehicle, taller than an SUV but with only one driver's seat. The steps on either side looked flimsy, and below them were the sharp metal tracks that could easily turn anyone who fell into a pancake.
"Blade!" Ming Junwei yelled again, his face flushed with urgency. The mechanical sounds buzzed around them as he lowered the raised blade. The two men silently prayed for protection and scrambled onto the enormous blade, gripping the mechanical arms on either side.
"Hold on tight!" The driver secured a hard hat on his head and fixed his gaze on the approaching horde of Zombies a hundred meters ahead, determination etched on his face as he pulled down the control lever.
The two clinging to the blade braced themselves, expecting an explosive collision between metal and flesh. However, after holding their breath for what felt like an eternity, they realized that aside from the bulldozer's roar still echoing in their ears, it was moving at a snail's pace.
"Can you go any faster?"
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