Chapter 192: Zombies and outing.
Bai Li adjusted her grip and gave Yan Cijin a brief warning glance. Yan Cijin immediately mirrored her pace. There was no hesitation in her answer. That alone made Bai Li trust her more with every passing minute. In this kind of world, trust was not built from grand speeches. It came from who followed you into danger without freezing, who stayed quiet when you needed quiet, and who did not step back when the first ugly thing rushed at you. Yan Cijin had already done all of that.
The road to the supermarket was still not clear. More zombies might appear at any moment. But Bai Li had already gotten them this far, and she was not about to stop now. Her shoulders squared a little, and the blade in her hand tilted forward as she moved into the next stretch of open ground. The fight was not over yet. It had just shifted into a new phase.
Bai Li raised her knife and charged ahead, with Yan Cijin close behind.
What the survivors in Building 9 saw from their windows was only part of the story, but even that was enough to shake them. The people who had gathered behind curtains, peepholes, and half open windows were all different kinds of scared. Some were the type who stayed silent no matter what. Some had already been whispering to themselves for days. Some were just children or elderly people who had no idea what they were supposed to think anymore. Yet when they saw Bai Li moving that fast through the zombie group, even the people who had been trying hard to act calm could not completely hide their shock.
One woman on the sixth floor kept her hand over her mouth the whole time, her eyes fixed on Bai Li’s figure as if she was afraid blinking might make her miss something important. A man on the upper floor muttered that the girl below moved like she had been trained, but his voice sounded dry and uncertain, because the image in front of him was too far away from the kind of life he used to understand. Another survivor, crouched beside a half closed curtain, kept whispering that this could not be a normal person, not because Bai Li looked strange, but because the speed, timing, and confidence in her movements were too much for someone who was supposedly just another resident from the building next door. All of them knew the world had already become strange. Still, seeing someone cut through zombies with that level of control made them realize just how different strong people were from weak people now. In the old world, a person could hide their abilities behind a job, a title, or a quiet lifestyle. In this world, whatever you could do showed up the second you stepped outside.
Bai Li did not notice the full extent of those reactions, and if she had, she probably would not have cared much anyway. Right now, the only things in her field of view were the ground beneath her, the zombies ahead, Yan Cijin’s position behind her, and the likely route toward the supermarket. The sunlight was strong enough to make the open space feel harsh after the dimness of the stairwell, and the pavement gave off a weak heat from the long summer afternoon. Bai Li could feel sweat beginning to gather lightly near her hairline, but it did not bother her. In fact, the heat made the whole fight feel sharper. Her arms were loose, her shoulders were stable, and every breath stayed measured. This was the kind of state she liked in a fight. Not too tense, not too loose. Just enough pressure in the body to respond instantly when needed.
A zombie came from the side again, and Bai Li stepped into it before it could even build momentum. She did not let it test her distance. The knife line was short, fast, and direct. The body dropped almost immediately, and Bai Li kept moving without letting the impact interrupt her rhythm. Yan Cijin covered the angle behind her with the kukri, her face focused, her footing firm. There was no showiness in the way Yan Cijin fought, but there was practicality in it. She did not try to compete with Bai Li’s speed. Instead, she waited for the small openings Bai Li created and used them to keep their rear secure. That kind of teamwork mattered more than people usually admitted. A lot of fights were won because one person was strong. But survival over time usually depended on whether two people could actually support each other without tripping over each other’s style.
Bai Li spotted another zombie drifting near the edge of the path, and for a moment she slowed just enough to judge its angle. It was coming in from slightly behind a parked car, which meant it could easily become a blind spot problem if she ignored it. Bai Li shifted her body a little, took one step to the left, and then cut across it before it finished closing the distance. The knife stroke was not wide. It did not need to be. The target was already within range. A shorter, tighter strike was enough to send it down. Yan Cijin saw the movement and immediately moved to cover the side Bai Li had just left open. Their coordination was getting better by the minute, and Bai Li knew it.
There was also something else she noticed. Yan Cijin was becoming more and more natural at staying close to her. At first, when they had first started going out together, Yan Cijin’s eyes had been more cautious, her breathing a little tighter, her reactions more obviously deliberate. Now she still stayed cautious, but it was no longer the stiff caution of someone forcing herself to go along. It was the steady, quiet caution of someone who had started trusting the person in front of her. That subtle change made Bai Li’s chest feel oddly warm again.
.
.
.
To be continued.
