Chapter 203: Zombies and Outing.
In the beginning, it was easy to feel like there was plenty of time, but in a world like this, time had a way of slipping through your fingers. Every extra day of safety might become the difference between comfort and desperation later. Bai Li had already lived long enough to know that. She was not the kind of person who liked leaving things unfinished when she knew they would become a problem later. That was why she kept moving things around, making use of every bit of space she had, making sure nothing important got wasted.
She also knew there was another layer to it. The less obvious their storage looked, the better. If too many things appeared all at once, other people would start asking questions. The apartment was already tense enough without adding more suspicion into the mix. Bai Li did not want anyone peeking too closely at her abilities, not yet. Some things could be explained away, and some things could not. A person could carry a backpack and look normal. A person could bring home a few bags of food and claim they had been lucky. But if too many supplies kept appearing out of nowhere, even the dumbest neighbor would know something strange was going on. Bai Li did not need that kind of attention right now.
After another brief glance at the room, Bai Li turned around and left Lin Zhongsheng’s room. Yan Cijin was already waiting for her in the living room. She looked up as soon as Bai Li came out, her expression calm but a little alert, the way it always was when they were about to head out again. "Let’s go," she said.
"Okay." Bai Li nodded, and the two of them quickly left the apartment. Their steps were light, but neither of them was careless. The building was already different from before. Once there had been noise from neighbors, shouting, arguing, and the occasional sound of doors opening and closing, but now everything had settled into a tense kind of silence. That silence did not make things peaceful. It only made the danger feel sharper, because the quiet could be broken at any second by a scream, a crash, or the dragging footsteps of the dead.
They had only just reached the hallway when a male zombie appeared on the ninth floor. It was probably wandering down from upstairs. Its body swayed from side to side in an awkward, stiff motion, and the smell that followed it was already enough to make a normal person feel sick. Its head tilted in a strange angle as if it had heard something, and the empty stare of its eyes landed on the two of them. Bai Li did not even pause. The moment she saw it, she drew her knife and went straight at it.
Her movement was fast, so fast that Yan Cijin could only see a blur of motion before Bai Li had already closed the distance. The knife flashed in her hand, sharp and clean, and Bai Li swung her arms without any hesitation at all. The blade cut across the zombie’s neck with a precise horizontal slash. There was no wasted motion, no extra force, no panic. It was a clean kill, the kind that came from pure instinct and experience. The next second, the zombie’s body lost its balance and tumbled down the stairs, rolling heavily one step at a time before hitting the landing with a dull thud.
Bai Li stood still for a brief moment, her breathing steady, then she turned her head slightly and said to Yan Cijin behind her, "Let’s go."
"Okay." Yan Cijin immediately followed. By now, she had already seen Bai Li kill quite a few zombies, so she was not shocked by it anymore. What she felt instead was a strange sense of reassurance. No matter how bad things got, Bai Li always looked like she could handle it. That kind of calm made it easier for Yan Cijin to keep her own nerves under control. The stairwell had been dangerous before, but because Bai Li had cleaned out so many zombies last time, there were practically none left this time. The way down felt much safer than it had before, though neither of them let their guard down.
As they kept moving, the sounds of their footsteps echoed faintly against the walls. Bai Li occasionally glanced around, checking every corner, every stair landing, every shadow. Yan Cijin followed close behind, one hand on her bag strap, her posture tight but steady. Even though the path looked clear, neither of them assumed that meant they were safe. In a place like this, safety was always temporary. It was something you earned for the moment, not something you could count on. She had learned that the hard way, and Bai Li had no intention of letting her become careless now. If anything, Yan Cijin was already getting better at reading the situation for herself. She did not freeze the way she once might have. She watched, waited, and kept moving when Bai Li moved. That was enough for now.
It was not until they reached the second floor that Bai Li and Yan Cijin ran into another zombie again. The zombie was in a miserable state, and when he saw them, his face changed at once. Before he could even think about saying anything, Bai Li lifted her foot and kicked him straight to the ground again. The zombie stumbled, hit the floor hard, and let out a pained sound, but Bai Li did not even look down at him for long. She simply walked past him with Yan Cijin, as if he were nothing more than a piece of trash blocking the way. The two of them continued down to the first floor without slowing.
Including the zombie they had just killed, there should only be three zombies left in the building now. Bai Li had a good sense for this kind of count after dealing with them so many times.
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To be continued.
