Surviving the apocalypse with a wife and a system! [GL]

Chapter 230: A loud thud.

The whole thing had been ugly enough to leave her stomach turning. But Fang Xiaofei did not have the luxury of standing there and trying to understand it. In the apocalypse, confusion could get you killed faster than fear. So even while her mind kept asking what had just happened, another part of her was already moving on. Survival was still the only thing that mattered. Zombies were still outside. The building was still full of threats. Hu Xuecheng was dead or dying or already beyond help, and none of that changed the fact that she still had to keep herself alive.

Down below, Bai Li had already started moving again.

She took a few deep breaths inside the supermarket, letting the sting on her cheek settle just enough so she could think clearly. The bullet cut had left a sharp burning line across her skin, and every time she touched the spot it reminded her just how close she had come to getting seriously hurt. She reached out and pulled a clean pack of tissues from one of the shelves, tore one out, and wiped the blood from her fingers first before pressing another tissue gently against the side of her face. The tissue came away with a faint smear of red on it. The wound was not deep, but it was enough to make her eyes narrow.

Bai Li glanced at her reflection in the small bathroom mirror attached to the back wall of the supermarket. The cut on her right cheek looked ugly, a little red line that would probably heal on its own if she left it alone. It did not look dangerous at first glance, but it was still enough to remind her that she had almost been killed by a gunshot from a coward hiding on a balcony. If she had been a little slower, the bullet might have gone straight through her cheekbone. If she had been a little less lucky, if her body had not already been strengthened by the gene enhancing drug, then she would not even have made it this far. The bullet had come too fast for a normal human body to react to cleanly. Her own speed had saved her life. Not fully, but enough.

Her face cooled little by little as the anger settled inside her chest.

She had not expected Hu Xuecheng to be that accurate. Maybe he had real skill. Maybe he had gotten lucky. Maybe his shot had been born from panic and spite and somehow still hit its mark. The reason did not matter much now. The result did. He had fired at her. He had nearly taken her face off. And in the apocalypse, that kind of mistake was not something she was going to forget in a hurry.

Bai Li looked at herself in the mirror for one more second and gave a cold little smile.

Life really could not be too comfortable. If it got too comfortable, people started lowering their guard. That was how they died.

She turned away from the mirror and swept her gaze across the small supermarket. Most of the useful bottled water had already been taken, and what was left was not nearly as important. She had also stuffed plenty of electrolyte water and other drinks into her storage space. Those would matter later, especially if the water supply stayed broken. After that, she had gone through the shelves with a practical eye and grabbed a bunch of seasoning packets, including hot pot seasoning and lamb spine seasoning, plus a few other things that could make plain food at least taste like food. In a world like this, flavor was not a luxury anymore. It was a small thing that helped people keep their spirits from breaking completely.

Her eyes moved over the counter next. Cigarettes. She thought about them for half a second, then swept the whole box into her backpack without hesitation. Even if she did not smoke, cigarettes could be used for trading later. After that she added a stack of wet wipes and tissues, because there was no telling when supplies like that would become impossible to replace. The bag was full now, heavy enough to pull at her shoulder, and the space in her storage had also been used up as much as it could be at the moment. Bai Li rolled her shoulder once, steadying herself, then reached for the supermarket entrance.

She did not want to stay in the open this time.

The earlier shot had made one thing very clear. There was a gun upstairs, and the person holding it was insane enough to fire at her in the middle of the apocalypse. That meant the next time she stepped into the open, she might not get the luxury of a warning. So instead of charging around and hunting zombies out in the courtyard like she had been doing before, Bai Li took a more careful route. She moved the corpses that were blocking the supermarket entrance just enough to make her passage possible, then slipped out quickly and ran toward the building entrance with her body low and alert.

That was when she heard it.

A loud thud.

It came from up ahead with such force that it seemed to shake the air for a moment. It was the kind of sound that made people pause without thinking. Heavy. Final. Wet and dull at the same time. A swarm of zombies nearby seemed to react to it too, all of them twitching and drifting in the same direction like cheap puppets drawn by the noise.

Bai Li stopped at once.

Her brows pulled together. Her first thought was that another zombie had dropped from somewhere. Her second thought was that the sound had felt wrong for that. It was too heavy. Too human. She stood behind a pillar and peered out toward the source, but before she could make sense of anything, her phone started vibrating in her pocket.

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TO BE CONTINUED.