Chapter 62: The Fire in the Heart
With that thought, he flicked the filthy blood from his twin spears onto the ground and began a slow retreat.
After all, fighting didn’t mean he had to clash head-on. A fighting retreat could pull the dense zombie horde apart—a lesson Lin Fan had learned this time around.
Just as the dozen or so zombies were about to pounce on Lin Fan!
"CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!"
A series of sharp cracks suddenly echoed from a residential building to the left!
"Hey—"
"Ah—"
"Over here—"
Several shouts came from a first-floor balcony!
The dozen or so zombies charging at Lin Fan were distracted by the noise. Seven or eight of them, those closer to the back left, immediately changed direction and lunged straight for the first-floor balcony!
The people inside yelled, making a racket, while using tools like pipes and stools to beat back the zombies climbing the guardrails!
"Doctor Lin! Hurry! We can’t hold them for long!"
One of the middle-aged men shouted to Lin Fan!
...
Hearing the shouts from behind the first-floor balcony’s guardrails, Lin Fan couldn’t help but freeze for a moment...
When he had first entered the intersection, he’d seen the looks in the eyes of the surrounding residents. He had remained unfazed, but many thoughts had still crossed his mind.
’What if they all swarm me?’
’What if someone stops my vehicle to beg?’
’What if gangs of thugs try to shake me down?’
But he had never expected something like this to happen in the middle of a fierce battle...
’What do I do when someone risks their life to share my burden?’
Chu Zhaozhao was one thing; he could just pull her back.
But faced with these strangers...
A certain warmth left him at a loss for a moment...
This...
Although Lin Fan wasn’t in any real danger, he was obviously the only one who knew that.
In the eyes of these outsiders, he was at the brink of life and death.
For them to take the initiative to share his burden at a time like this, even if they had ulterior motives, was a righteous act!
Regardless, someone had drawn away nearly half the zombies, and the pressure on Lin Fan’s front immediately lessened.
Only seven remained!
He saw the eight zombies over there frantically tearing at the guardrails. Though the people inside were doing their best to knock the zombies’ arms down with various objects, the steel bolts holding the security bars to the wall were already twisting under the strain...
Before long, the entire iron grating would be torn down!
At that thought, Lin Fan’s eyes narrowed, his killing intent flaring. He darted to the right of the lunging zombies, his short spears a blur. A stab with his left, a smash with his right—in an instant, two were dead!
To end it quickly, Lin Fan abandoned his hit-and-run tactics. Mustering all his strength, he leaped behind the five remaining zombies before they could even turn around.
"PFFT! PFFT!"
He stabbed down with both hands!
One spear pierced the back of a head!
The other sank into an ear!
[-300]!
[-300]!
Two sprays of filthy blood erupted from the other side of their heads!
The remaining three zombies finally turned, but Lin Fan was unfazed. He brought his two short spears together and swung them horizontally at their heads!
[-300]!
[-189]!
[-56]!
The first zombie’s head shattered, splattering gray and white filth everywhere!
The spears’ force lessened as they swept across the second zombie’s face, merely caving in its cheek and knocking it off balance. It crashed into the third zombie on its right, sending both of them tumbling to the side of the street!
Lin Fan followed up in a single stride!
With another two dull thuds—
His twin spears pierced the skulls of the two fallen zombies, pinning them to the concrete below!
All seven, annihilated!
Without pausing to rest, Lin Fan took two ragged breaths, straightened his back, and charged straight for the other eight zombies tearing at the guardrails of the residential building!
...
"Brother Liu, the guardrails are giving way!"
A man holding a wooden stool frantically smashed at the zombie hands gripping the rails as he spoke.
He watched the guardrails sway back and forth, pulled by a dozen hands. The nails securing them from above groaned, "KRAK... KRAK..."
SCREEE—SNAP!
An expansion bolt finally gave out under the immense strain, bursting from the wall in a shower of red brick dust. The guardrail instantly tilted outward at an angle!
"Hold on a little longer! Didn’t you see how fast Doctor Lin was killing those things?!"
Liu Bin wiped the sweat from his forehead, tightened his grip on the iron pipe in his hand, and thrust it hard at a zombie’s head.
Unfortunately, the pipe had no point. The zombie’s facial flesh was mangled, but it was otherwise unaffected. With a roar, it pulled at the guardrails even more frantically!
"That Lin guy... he’s not just going to leave us, is he...?"
another man said through gritted teeth, his hands gripping a crowbar.
The other end of the crowbar was hooked tightly around a horizontal bar of the railing. The man was using all his strength to bend it inward, barely keeping the guardrail pressed against the wall.
...
In that moment, Liu Bin didn’t know if he had done the right thing.
It was true that Doctor Lin had released the zombies, but only because that stutterer had forced his hand.
In the past two days, the stutterer and his dozen-plus cronies had beaten at least three or four people to death over disputes at the supermarket. Getting bitten and killed by zombies was more than they deserved!
But after that, Doctor Lin hadn’t chosen to save his own skin. Instead, he had appeared in public to clear the zombies from the street all by himself!
Whether he was a hidden martial arts master or some kind of superhero didn’t matter. The ironclad fact was that he had just effortlessly killed over a dozen zombies!
Although his movements were swift, Liu Bin, with his military background, could still see that he was using hit-and-run tactics, never facing more than three or four zombies at a time.
In other words, even a master like him didn’t want to be surrounded.
So when that dozen-plus zombies had charged at him all at once, Liu Bin had immediately sensed the danger. After hesitating for only a second, he began banging on the guardrails and shouting!
Hiding here with him were a childhood friend who had served in the army with him, and two neighbors they knew.
The four of them had seen things were going bad and had ducked in here to hide at the first opportunity.
When he shouted, the others, though not yet knowing what was happening, had no choice but to fight back when they saw the zombies charging toward them.
It wasn’t until Liu Bin explained the situation that they understood the principle: if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold.
If the man outside could clear away the zombies, then the few of them would have a chance to survive!
That’s why they were all fighting so desperately, hoping only to buy enough time for that man to kill the enemy as quickly as possible!
However, in that brief moment of distraction, Liu Bin suddenly lost sight of Lin Fan in the distance. Only a few dead zombies lay on the ground.
"Where’d he go?"
He suddenly panicked.
’Don’t tell me he really ran off, just like Zhang Ziyi said...’
Just as his resolve began to waver,
a deafening roar, like a clap of thunder, erupted from behind the pack of zombies!
"Come on!"
In an instant, it drowned out the low growls of the zombies!
Liu Bin snapped his head up. He saw that the figure had, at some unknown point, already rushed close. He couldn’t even see the man’s movements clearly!
He only saw a flash of silver light!
The heads of three zombies reaching for the guardrails instantly exploded!
Filthy blood and bits of flesh splattered to the side, erupting in a bloody mist!
It was him!
He was here!