Everyone in the room understood what Xu Shu meant: people here suddenly collapsed and died one after another with identical symptoms — no one would believe there wasn't something seriously wrong.
And whether the three people in front of us were infected or not, nobody could be sure.
So for now the safest thing was to keep them away from us.
Putting aside whether we could save them, there was barely any guarantee we could keep ourselves safe.
Yangyang and Han Xue tried shouting loudly at the door to get someone to open it, but all that did was draw more walkers toward us — there was no response from outside, as if no one were there.
Seeing we were resolute and the walkers were closing in, the three begged into the corner.
The boy who had begged us earlier even stooped to pick up a small stool and held it in his hands.
By now the walkers nearest us had almost encircled us.
Pressed hard into the corner with nowhere else to go, Shen Feng and Xu Shu glanced at me, then together kicked two walkers over.
I took the chance to drive my dagger into one walker's skull; as I stood up I kicked another one; when it fell, Xu Shu was already on it, cutting its head clean off.
The severed head, still gaping and twitching, tumbled next to Shen Feng and he drove his dagger into it.
I knew if we stayed huddled in the corner the walkers would eventually swarm us to death.
My eyes swept to the small bamboo bed where Brother Qian had been lying — and I had an idea.
I called to Uncle Gazi and Yangyang, "Quick, pull that bed out! Put it in front of us!"
No sooner had I said that than Sister Qian — who had been lying on the other side of the bamboo bed — suddenly staggered to her feet.
She was now standing at the far end of the bed, right in front of those three people.
The three who had been pleading went even paler, trembling and bunching together.
After Xu Shu and I managed to hack another walker down, I shouted at the boy clutching the stool, "Smash her skull! Now!!! Use the stool and smash her head!"
Whether he was too scared or hopelessly naive, the boy — already drained of color — still managed to answer, "A human skull… it's so hard… how could a stool break it?"
I was speechless. Xu Shu fixed her eyes on the walker about to lunge and barked at him sharply: "Stop talking! If I tell you to smash her, then smash her. Standing there is just waiting to die."
Without pausing after shouting, she charged forward again.
In just that short moment, nearly all the corpses on the ground began to stir.
After we cut down two, the rest staggered to their feet one by one.
At a glance, it looked like: one soldier falls, and countless brothers rise in his place.
I shook my head to clear away those strange thoughts, bit down hard on my lip, and forced myself to stay sharp.
The house wasn't big — only about twenty or thirty small rooms.
Now, aside from the space right next to us, the front was crammed full of walkers.
I knew there was no time to drag the bed over anymore, so I shouted, "Yangyang! Shen Feng! Xu Shu! The four of us will shield Uncle Gazi and Han Xue in the back — we'll fight these bastards in rotation with everything we've got!"
We'd always fought together with good coordination, and the moment I gave the order, Yangyang, Xu Shu, and Shen Feng shifted positions.
The four of us formed a human wall, pushing Uncle Gazi and Han Xue behind us.
Meanwhile, I noticed the boy holding the stool had no choice but to swing it hard at Sister Qian, who had turned.
Her fat head burst open with blood under the blow.
Seeing him fight back made me secretly let out a sigh of relief.
The stool's legs were iron — as long as he dared to use it, with most of the walkers coming at us, the rest could probably be held off by him.
Whether he lived or died — that would depend on himself now!
Watching the line of walkers pressing closer, my nerves tightened.
I have to make it out of this house alive today!
After struggling so hard and fighting so long, there's no way I can die here.
The house was small, and once the walkers swarmed, it would be a full-on rush.
This was the situation we had always dreaded.
Before, even Suo Tian would avoid it at all costs.
But now, we had no choice at all.
Clutching my dagger tightly, I warned everyone not to break formation, then kicked the nearest walker rushing us.
But with the press of bodies behind it, even though my kick sent it staggering backward, it couldn't fall — the walkers behind propped it up.
Xu Shu reacted instantly.
Without a pause, she lunged forward while the walker was off-balance and drove her blade straight into its skull.
She yanked the dagger out and slipped back into formation.
Just as she withdrew, Yangyang darted forward and kicked another walker.
Shen Feng, copying what we'd just done, immediately followed up and stabbed the staggering walker to the ground.
The walker line was slowed by those two we'd toppled, but the situation was still extremely dangerous for us — we couldn't afford to pause for a second.
We kept kicking forward, then rushing in to slash down the walker that was staggered by the kick.
Gradually we all fell into a rhythm we were familiar with: after cutting one walker down, immediately kick another one over, so the person below can step in and cut that one's head, then have space to step up and cut the previous one that was kicked down.
While we were giving our all to slash through the advancing walkers, a sudden scream came from the other corner of the room, followed by the sickening sound of flesh being torn — my heart dropped… someone had been bitten.
I forced my mouth shut.
I wanted to shout and ask what happened, but realized the question was pointless.
I tightened my brow and forced myself to stay focused on the walkers at our front that were threatening our lives.
Uncle Gazi and Han Xue were standing behind us and didn't need to come forward, so the screaming on the other side caught their attention.
Then, as I finished cutting down the walker Shen Feng had kicked over, Uncle Gazi suddenly shouted toward that corner, "Kids, kids — come over here, run from the bed and get to us!"
We were all taken aback.
Yangyang, who had just returned to his position, immediately called back, "Uncle Gazi, what are you doing?"
"I can't stand watching kids get ripped apart like that anymore — what's the difference from torturing someone to death?" Uncle Gazi answered quickly, and then yelled again, "Kids, hurry, run — get over here!"
Xu Shu had pulled back to her post.
Because some of the walkers were still gnawing on those who'd been bitten earlier, after our frantic attacks we'd finally cleared enough space that we could spare attention for that side.
Still alert, Xu Shu warned Uncle Gazi, "They might be infected — don't let them come near us."
I kicked another walker down; Shen Feng followed up with a chop that smashed a skull, then returned to position and said to Uncle Gazi, "There are too many of them. Uncle Gazi, now is not the time for sympathy."
In truth, I felt the same as Yangyang, Xu Shu and Shen Feng: if those people could save themselves, great — lucky them.
But if they couldn't, I'd rather they be bitten over there than let them come close to us.
Shen Feng was right: with this many of us, we can't take risks.
Think back to SARS — you wouldn't want two people who might be infected standing next to you.
Now that things at the front had eased a little, we could spare the effort to look over and assess the situation on the other side.
I saw that corner was also ringed by several walkers, greedily devouring the man who had just fallen — his abdomen had been completely gutted.
He kept screaming in unbearable agony, as if trying to use his cries to vent all the pain he was feeling.
After a short while his intestines were gone and his screams finally stopped.
The two others remained — the boy with the stool and another youth about his age — huddled by the bed.
After Uncle Gazi's shout they trembled and tried to climb up onto the bed to get closer to us.
I watched them for a long moment and realized they were already half-paralyzed with fear; they had tried several times and still couldn't pull themselves up.
I clenched my hand so hard my mind went blank.
For some reason I slid my dagger across the bed toward them and said, "Take it. With a dagger, you can only rely on yourselves. We can't help you."
No sooner had I spoken than Shen Feng roared, "Chen Yang! What are you doing?!"
His shout snapped me back.
I stared at the two youths, trembling, cradling the dagger I'd pushed to them.
For once I didn't regret what I'd done.
I'm no saint — in a crisis I only want to protect myself and those I care about.
I can't protect everyone.
We don't know their situation, but at least they're still alive; they didn't collapse like the others.
The only thing I could give them was a dagger and the chance to decide their own fate.
"Human nature is basically good," I told myself to justify my reflexive action.
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