Everyone gradually gathered together, and then they slowly sat down.
That included the children they had brought up from underground. Although they were still very young, every one of them displayed a maturity far beyond their years. They seemed to know what was about to happen, and accepted it even more calmly than the adults.
Xiao Ziran also sat cross-legged on the ground at the very front of the group, still holding the unconscious Quan Xiaoyu in his arms.
It was unclear whether he was murmuring to himself or speaking to everyone: “I’m sorry. I couldn’t lead everyone to the moment when we could finally see the light.”
Ever since the apocalypse began, everything he had done had ultimately been for the sake of reaching that goal. Yet perhaps this was where their journey would end today.
No one knew whether anyone had heard his quiet words. Everyone remained silent until the zombies in front drew closer and closer—
100 meters, 50 meters, 10 meters, 5 meters, 2 meters…
Everyone closed their eyes, waiting to be bitten, waiting to be torn apart. They warned themselves that they absolutely could not scream miserably without any dignity. If they were going to die, they had to die with some backbone.
However, all the zombies suddenly stopped when they were still two meters away from the group.
Their movements were perfectly synchronized. It was obvious that they were being commanded.
The sudden stillness made everyone open their eyes. The scene before them was incredibly strange, and they could not help but remember what had happened when Yu Ning had first appeared.
Tens of thousands of zombies densely surrounded them, forming a semicircle. Yet they had completely stopped moving at a distance of about two meters from the group.
Sure enough, after the zombies in the front stopped, they gradually parted, opening up a passage. A zombie riding a zombie dog slowly made its way through them and came to the very front.
It was clearly the leader of the zombies. It leaped down from the back of the zombie dog and slowly walked toward Xiao Ziran.
It was obviously different from the other zombies. Most of the zombies’ clothes had long since been worn down to strips of cloth, or they simply had no clothes at all. This one, however, was still dressed. Though dirty, its clothes were relatively neat.
The area from its chin down to its neck had clearly been chewed apart by zombies while it was still alive. Yet now, its skin was slowly healing, unlike the bloody, rotting wounds on the other zombies.
Xiao Ziran simply watched as it walked toward him. Then he watched as its hand reached toward Quan Xiaoyu in his arms.
Xiao Ziran hurriedly raised a hand to block it.
He had thought it had come to take his head. He had never expected its target to be Quan Xiaoyu.
The obstructed zombie immediately bared its teeth at Xiao Ziran, revealing a ferocious expression. The zombies behind it also became restless because of this, but it still made no move to attack.
“Lawyer Xie?!”
Zuo Li was still the sharpest-eyed among them. He had felt from the beginning that the zombie looked strangely familiar. After carefully examining it for quite some time, he actually recognized it.
Xiao Ziran froze for a moment, but he quickly realized who this “Lawyer Xie” was as well.
Xie Mingxuan—the unbelievably kind pushover whom practically everyone on the team had refused to let join them.
He—really had died after all!
But no one could possibly have expected to encounter him here, in this form and appearance.
The zombie showed no particular reaction to the words “Lawyer Xie.” Instead, it once again reached toward Quan Xiaoyu.
“Xie Mingxuan, what are you trying to do?”
Xiao Ziran blocked its hand again and tried to communicate with it. Of course, he couldn’t possibly hand Quan Xiaoyu over just because this zombie was Xie Mingxuan! Give him a break—it was a zombie!
When Xiao Ziran called out “Xie Mingxuan,” the zombie did show a slight reaction. Its eyes, almost entirely white except for a single black point for a pupil, lifted slightly and stared at Xiao Ziran for quite some time.
It stared until Xiao Ziran’s skin crawled. Only then did it force a few hoarse sounds from its throat, broken and halting:
“Pro… protect him… must… duty…”
That broken sentence left everyone stunned!
This was the first time they had ever encountered a zombie that could speak. Even Xiao Ziran was stunned.
Trying to communicate with it had merely been an act of desperation, a last-ditch attempt with little hope. He had never expected that the thing could actually speak human language.
All along, in Xiao Ziran’s mind, zombies were no longer human. They were nothing more than walking corpses controlled by a virus. Yet now, had they actually evolved to the point of possessing thought?
This accidental conclusion forced Xiao Ziran to reconsider the nature of zombies and the direction in which they were evolving.
He had originally thought that the zombies were evolving toward something like the Crawlers or Xenomorphs from movies. He had never expected them to evolve intelligence instead.
Then, in the future, would they become a new species capable of matching human intelligence—or even surpassing it?
Just thinking about it sent a chill down his spine.
While Xiao Ziran was lost in thought, the zombie once again reached toward Quan Xiaoyu.
This time, before Xiao Ziran could refuse, the monster horde behind them had already arrived. From twenty meters away, a two-headed spider spat webs toward the group.
This action instantly enraged Xie Mingxuan.
It was no longer the good-natured pushover he had once been in the church.
With a roar, he pounced toward the monsters behind the group. He was so fast that in the blink of an eye, he was already in front of them—and began killing.
The sharp claws on Xie Mingxuan’s hands sliced off the head of the two-headed spider almost instantly.
The previously motionless zombie horde also began to run. They passed straight through the crowd and charged directly at the monster horde behind them.
Very soon, the zombies and monsters were locked in battle.
Everyone watched as countless zombies rushed past them, yet not a single one made any attempt to harm them. They completely ignored the “food” right beside them.
Everything felt like a dream.
Xiao Ziran was the first to react. He shouted at everyone:
“Run!”
Everyone snapped back to reality as well. They were like people who had suddenly been injected with adrenaline. After experiencing despair, they had once again seen a glimmer of hope, and it seemed as though their strength had returned.
Everyone immediately stood up and ran forward, in the opposite direction from the zombies’ advance.
They ran for a full fifteen minutes before finally making it out of the zombie horde.
It was absolutely insane!
Just think about it. Running through a horde of tens of thousands of zombies, while those zombies—obviously already at Level Three—brushed past you hand-to-hand, flesh-to-flesh, shoulder-to-shoulder.
How could that not be thrilling?
After such an experience, everyone couldn’t help turning around for a look once they had officially escaped the zombie horde.
And with that single glance, Xie Mingxuan appeared before them once again.
He stood in front of Xiao Ziran, looking somewhat agitated and unfriendly this time.
Xiao Ziran immediately understood.
He lowered Quan Xiaoyu from his back and, just as before, sat down cross-legged. He once again held Quan Xiaoyu in his arms.
He wasn’t going anywhere.
This action, as expected, calmed the somewhat agitated Xie Mingxuan.
“Go. Get out of the city first. This guy’s target is Xiaoyu. He won’t stop you.”
Xiao Ziran sat there and shouted at the others.
“What about you?”
Ouyang Jing asked. Was he really supposed to abandon them and run?
“Don’t worry! He doesn’t intend to hurt us. If he did, we’d all be dead already. Xiaoyu is unconscious right now, so I can’t hand him over. I’ll find a way to get away later. You guys go. Don’t waste any more time.”
Ouyang Jing looked back at the few remaining team members and the children. He gritted his teeth.
“We’ll go out of the city first and wait for you. If you haven’t come back by dawn, I’ll come looking for you.”
He said “I,” not “we.”
Xiao Ziran didn’t have the energy to argue with him at this point. He merely nodded distractedly.
“Okay, okay. Go. Hurry.”
Ouyang Jing finally led everyone away. Some people looked back several times, but Ouyang Jing immediately shouted at them to stop.
All they could do now was believe that the zombie named Xie Mingxuan would not hurt the two people who had stayed behind.
Only after everyone had gone far away did Xiao Ziran finally let out a deep breath.
Xie Mingxuan didn’t leave this time either, nor did he reach out for Quan Xiaoyu again. He simply stared fixedly at Xiao Ziran and Quan Xiaoyu.
Behind them, the battle between the zombies and monsters continued.
Although the monsters were powerful, there were only a little over a hundred of them. Faced with tens of thousands of zombies, even ants could devour an elephant.
Not to mention, the Level Three zombies were far from weak.
Ten minutes passed.
Xie Mingxuan still hadn’t moved, continuing to stare at the two of them. Xiao Ziran’s body had begun to stiffen from the tension.
The battle behind them had already ended. The sounds of fighting had turned into the sounds of eating.
So zombies ate monsters too.
Xiao Ziran thought about this silently.
His promise to find a chance to escape had merely been something he said to reassure Ouyang Jing and the others.
Judging from the difference between Xie Mingxuan and the Level Three zombies, Xiao Ziran estimated that Xie Mingxuan was definitely already Level Five, or perhaps even higher.
In his current state, completely drained of strength, how could he possibly escape?
His only hope was that Quan Xiaoyu would wake up.
Maybe—just maybe—Quan Xiaoyu would be able to communicate with this zombie.
Just as Xiao Ziran was thinking this, he suddenly felt the person in his arms move.
Xiao Ziran was overjoyed. He hurriedly and gently shook Quan Xiaoyu.
Sure enough, he saw Quan Xiaoyu slowly open his eyes.