Chapter 837: Running out of Time
"Why is she not picking up the phone?"
Xiaoyun sat in his car, parked outside Houqin’s apartment building, his phone pressed against his ears. He was calling Houqin for the fourth time.
"Please leave a message after the tone..."
The call went into voicemail again.
"Damn it."
He quickly shoved his phone back into his pocket and exited the car, hurrying to the apartment entrance before coming to an abrupt stop.
"Shit, keys."
Looking around, there were no windows to climb through. Fortunately, a middle-aged woman happened to be leaving and held the door for him.
"Thanks."
The moment he stepped into the main lobby, he sprinted towards the stairs, not stopping until he reached Apartment 305.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
No answer.
His heart sank.
Putting his ear to the door, he could hear a faint sound drifting inside. Something that made him freeze in place.
A familiar sound he hasn’t heard for months. A low, mournful growling that had no place in Luoping at all.
"Fuck... Fuck... Please don’t be what I think it is."
The door was locked. He quickly created a fire ax in his hand and swung. Metal ranged as the wood gets torn in half.
Behind it was a heavy steel security door. A metal door that wasn’t there the last time he came to Houqin’s place.
He started swinging at the steel door, having no regard for the noise echoing in the hall as metal clashed against metal.
"Stupid fucking door, just fucking break for once!"
As Xiaoyun swung his arm with full strength for the third time, the steel door finally cracked in two.
With a hard push through the shoulder, he finally made it inside the living room. Looking around, there was no one there.
Everything seemed to be normal, except for the closed bedroom that had the muffled growling noise coming out of it.
"Houqin, are you in there?"
His voice seemed only to be enraging, as the growling voice started to turn into a weirdly howling sound.
"What the fuck am I supposed to do?"
The more the noise came out of the bedroom, the more anxious Xiaoyun became. There was an obvious decision he needed to take.
A decision that he had made countless times on a rescue mission. The same decision that all the soldiers had made on the battlefield.
"I can’t fucking do this... There has to be something I can do."
Standing in the living room, his mind started running through hundreds of different answers that all led to dead ends after dead ends.
Until the only possible solution appeared.
He instantly reached into his pocket and took out his phone. Unlock it before dialing Tianci’s number.
"Please pick up, please pick up—"
"Hello?"
"Tianci, Houqin she..."
Xiaoyun fell into silence. His lips couldn’t say the words he was looking for. His mind just couldn’t bring itself to admit it.
"Hello? What about Houqin?" Tianci questioned.
"Houqin, she... she might have turned into a zombie."
"Turned into a zombie... You serious?"
As Tianci’s voice grew two-fold, Xiaoyun slowly put the phone up against the door for her to listen to it.
"You hear it?"
"I do. That is definitely a zombie growling sound if I ever heard one... What do you want me to do about it?"
"I was supposed to be the one asking that! Is there really no way for me to do anything about it?"
"What do you think?"
The phone call fell into silence. Neither side could speak up, as both sides knew the answer to the question.
"How about what I did in the past? Can my bodily fluid—"
"No. Once a person turns into a zombie. It is completely irreversible... Unless she happens to undergo some sort of mutation."
Tianci paused for a second, then continued.
"I know this is a hard decision for you. If you want, I can keep her in a freezer cell lab until we find a cure—"
"It’s okay. Thank you for answering the call."
Before Tianci could say anything back, the phone call had already ended. There was no more running from reality.
Xiaoyun pushed the door open with one hand on the pistol. No fighting confrontation or some sort of jumpscare at the doorway.
Only a chair at the end with an object covered by a ripped curtain. A word written with a black sharpie on a table that said—
"Sorry."
The howling sound immediately grew louder as Xiaoyun read the word out loud. Looking at the floor, there were zipties everywhere.
Flipping the curtain, it was no other than Houqin. Her eyes were bloodshot red as she tried to reach him with one arm.
Both of her legs were zip-tied to the chair, with her left arm zip-tied as well. Her teeth were sharp enough to cut through any flesh.
"Fuck!"
Xiaoyun’s heart sank as he watched Houqin become even more aggressive the moment she saw him with her eyes.
She even almost fell onto the floor from trying to reach him with her claws, only to be held back by the chair that had tied her down.
"Fuck fuck fuck! We’re suppose to go on a date this damn weekend. Why do you have to do this to me?"
As Xiaoyun punched his hand against the wall, it went right through the wall, leaving a small hole as small drops of blood came out of his hand.
Within seconds, Houqin became even more enraged from the noise. She was on the edge of her seat as the ziptie could barely held it together.
"I’m sorry."
---
"Move out the way!"
"Everyone out!"
People were running out of their apartments and nearby shops. Entire street was full of armored car as hundreds of police officer guided people out.
The entire street block was in lockdown, with twenty full armed SWAT officers standing behind one of the car looking at a map.
It was an apartment building map. If Xiaoyun was here, he would instantly reconganize it as Houqin’s apartment layout.
"Chief Li, isn’t this a little overkill?" A senior looking SWAT officer questioned as several of the nearby buildings were completely emptied out.
"We cannot afford any mistake. Not in the city center... Better safe than sorry."
"Chief! There’s no one in this building. We contacted everyone and they’re all out early for work currently."
As a police officer yelled out from the back, both the senior officer and Chief Li looked relieved upon the news.
"Even less risk." The senior officer murmured.
"If everyone is out, who’s making those reported zombie noises? You sure you called everyone?"
"Everyone in this building is a government worker. I had triple-confirmed it with the——Wait, they missed someone."
"That person must be where the growling noise is coming from." A young SWAT soldier in the group murmured.
"Shush."
All the police officers and SWAT teams waited as the main police officer operating the line was waiting for a response over the phone.
"Oh. Okay... Um, chief. T-There might be so bad news." The police officer quietly murmured, not wanting to say it out loud.
"What is it?" Chief Li inquired, leaning closer to him.
"The only person in the apartment building at 305 is Misses... Houqin."
Chief Li froze up completely. His eyes didn’t blink as he turned slowly turned his head to look towards the police officer.
"You are not joking? Miss Houqin from the logistic office?"
As the police officer nodded his head, a visible frown appeared on the chief’s face as he walked back to the SWAT officers.
"Who’s inside the building?" The senior SWAT officer questioned.
"Captain, it’s someone really important in 305. All you need to know is... Make it as painless for them as possible."
The answer confused the senior SWAT officer a little, but he didn’t question it as he took it as a GO signal.
"Everyone get ready!"
The entire SWAT team immediately readied up their rifle, giving it one last check before half of them turned on their goggles.
"Make sure no invisible mutant. And clear your corners."
All of the police officers watched as the SWAT team breached right through the front entrance, entering inside with the senior officer in the front.
"Chief! There are some journalist outside asking us what’s happening. Should we tell them about it?" A officer nearby questioned.
Looking in the distance, Chief Li could see a bunch of people with a whole camera crews and a microphone.
"Tell them to stay back and stay out... I’ll give them a public comment later." The chief answered.
"Yes sir."
As the police officer walked off into the distance, Chief Li turned his eyes back to the apartment building in front of him.
"Why does it have to be her out of all people..."
"Li Zhen! This situation is now ordered to be taken over by the Secret Service. Get all of your men out into the back."
The sudden female noise made police chief turn around, only to see Yueyue out of all people walking right through his police officers.
