Chapter 838: The Last Ditch Effort
"Main lobby hallway clear!"
"2nd Floor clear!"
As more and more SWAT officers filed down from the staircases, the senior SWAT officer finally let out a small sigh of relief.
"How’s the third floor looking?"
Beside the senior officer was a drone operator, whose eyes were laser-focused on the hand-held monitor in front of him.
"All the doors in the hallways are closed and the place looks empty... There’s apartment 305... Wait, the door is already broken—"
"All units withdraw effective immediately."
"What?"
The sudden radio transmission caught everyone off track. The entire SWAT team had been just a moment away from pushing up to the third floor.
"Chief Li, what do you mean by withdraw?" The senior officer questioned through the walkie-talkie in hand.
"The secret service is now taking over. Withdraw immediately."
All of the SWAT officers turned their eyes towards the senior SWAT officer, who turned around to the exit with his rifle strapped down.
"You all heard him. Fly the drone back. We’re leaving."
---
As the SWAT officer walked out of the building one by one, they all entered their armored car without saying a single word.
Only the police officers remained out in the street, keeping out the journalists as men in full black quickly took the SWAT team’s place.
"What’s inside the apartment?" Chief Li curiously asked as he pulled the senior officer aside before he could leave.
"How would I know? You told me to leave before I could take a look."
The senior officer joined in with the rest of his officers, jumping into the armored car before it drove past the security point.
"Yueyue, what is happening inside the building exactly?" Chief Li questioned as he looked over to the sunglasses woman next to him.
"It’s classified. All you need to do is keep these streets closed until further notice... Agent Nine, do not proceed to the third floor.
And Agent Snow, you may proceed with caution... Make sure you’re the only one going up yourself."
As Yueyue spoke through the walkie-talkie, Chief Li let out a small sigh before heading back to the police officers at the outer perimeter.
"Chief, how long do we block the streets for? There are a lot of people trying to cross this busy intersection."
A young officer questioned, pointing towards the crowd of people that was stuck on the other side of the sidewalk.
"You can open the intersection now. Just keep this side of the street closed until further notice."
---
"Fuck!"
As Xiaoyun groaned in constant pain, he was sitting on a toilet seat with a completely exposed left shoulder.
Blood had filled nearly the entire bathtub, with Houqin sitting right in the middle of it. She was tied down completely as ropes looped around her body.
The only part that was free from restraint was Houqin’s head, constantly growling like crazy as a piece of raw flesh blocked her mouth.
Having a up close, it was actually Xiaoyun’s left arm, which had already been disconnected from his body.
"Are you full now, Houqin?"
Xiaoyun questioned, his voice barely able to keep it together as the loss of blood was starting to make him dizzy.
"Woar!!"
As Houqin growled right back at him, Xiaoyun bit his lip until it bled as he slowly grabbed onto the bloody mechete with his right hand.
"I don’t fucking get it. Why are you still not full? How many more times do I have to feed you until you’re satisfied?"
Looking down at the floor, there were already stacks upon stacks of blood-stained bones that still had a bit of flesh remaining on the side.
"You know, if you’re not my girlfriend... I would have killed you long ago. Don’t get so greedy now."
While Xiaoyun spoke out loud, a bright light appeared in his left shoulder, followed by the bleeding coming to a complete stop.
His left arm was fully regenerated, the same replica that was being chewed down by Houqin’s mouth.
"Don’t leave me, you asshole. Come back to me, please. I need you for the logistics office, goddamn it——Fuck!"
Blood immediately splattered all over the place as he chopped down his left arm once again, fully exposing his left shoulder to the air.
"Here’s another one, you psycho."
As Xiaoyun threw his newly cut arm into the pool, Houqin immediately scrambled her entire body to bite onto the new flesh.
"I got more flesh than you can ever imagine... Give me back my girlfriend, you stupid fucking virus—"
The dizziness finally became a little too much as he almost collapsed onto the floor. He began to think of his left arm as a bright light appeared.
"Give me a minute, you’re not beating me."
Slowly, Xiaoyun got up from the toilet seat as his arm reappeared once again. He walked out of the bathroom before falling right onto the bed.
"Fuck! Why didn’t I just shoot her? Why am I going through all this trouble?"
Yelling out his frustration, Xiaoyun lay helplessly in bed. He had the pistol pointed at Houqin’s head earlier.
Right in that exact chair across from the bed. The trigger in his finger. The final step that required a single pull.
"I can’t lose. I won’t lose. I... Am I a coward?"
The thought suddenly popped into his head. The more he thought of it, the more it grew. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
No matter how much all of his attempts ended up fruitless, something deep inside his heart didn’t want to give up.
"There has to be a way."
As Xiaoyun sat up in bed, the rush of dizziness almost forced him to lean down. But he resisted the urge as he slowly supported himself.
Once up, he started looking around the room. He didn’t want to go back to the place that gave him despair.
"Houqin Houqin... Why do you have to do this to me?"
Walking around the room, there was barely anything. No computer, no books, no decoration of any sort.
Just an empty bedroom with a few spare clothes in the closet. The only notable thing was a phone in the drawer.
A picture of a tree on the screen and a bunch of missed calls from her parents and her friends, all possibly asking what happened to her.
"What could be the password?"
Noticing a red dot lighting up, Xiaoyun quickly took the phone over to the bathroom. To his surprise, the Face ID matches when he scans it over her face.
Within seconds, he was bombarded with a text notification. He started reading them one by one as he slowly sat down on the toilet seat again.
"Houqin, look at how many people are waiting for you. Think of your parent, your friends. Think of me waiting here right now."
The persuasion attempt was only met with an angry growl as Houqin didn’t seem to understand any of his words at all.
"Houqin, are you okay? We heard your apartment was closed off. Please give us a call when you can."
As Xiaoyun played out the voicemail her parents had left, she didn’t have any reaction to it at all once again.
"Look at the picture of us together. We were supposed to go on a date this week. Remember all the things you had planned?"
After showing a picture of them on the dinner date, he continued scrolling through the phone until he suddenly found something that made him freeze in place.
A unsend text to Xiaoyun.
I love you.
"Say it to my face, you coward."
Xiaoyun quickly swung his hand in frustration, only to come to a complete stop right before Houqin’s face.
However, Houqin herself quickly leaned forward, biting down on his hand with her sharp teeth as the pain barely made him flinch at all.
"Eat all you fucking want, you selfish asshole. You think you can turn me into a zombie?"
Just as she started ravenously biting through his left hand, Xiaoyun suddenly noticed her pupils changing color.
A shift away from the bloodshot eyes to a tint of brown. The same kind of shift he had witnessed in Tianci in the past.
Within milliseconds, a daring idea popped into his head. One that could either go disastrously wrong or be the miracle he needed.
"Hey Houqin. You want more flesh and blood, right? Come and bite me all you want, I’m not going to stop you any longer."
The moment Xiaoyun cut through the ropes with the machete, Houqin immediately lunged out of the bathtub.
A sharp pain tore right through his shoulder and chest, then down towards his abdomen as Houqin’s sharp claws pierced through the flesh.
Every part of his body was aching in pain, yet he didn’t resist as her sharp claws continued down towards his thighs.
"Is this all you wanted——"
Before Xiaoyun could finish his sentence, everything faded to black. The last thing he could feel was a sharp cut right through both of his arms.
