Chapter 77: Flight
Not two seconds passed.
"BANG BANG BANG!"
The sounds of the delivery zombie banging on the door came one after another.
"HSSSSS!"
"THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!"
The sound of breathing and the violent thumping in his chest hammered at Bull’s mind.
"It’s over! It’s over!"
He began to ramble incoherently.
Tilly Lane carefully opened the door, peeking her head out to look at the entryway.
When she saw it was Bull, her face filled with terror. "Have you been scratched or bitten?"
Bull’s face twisted. "No... no... but it’s about to happen."
The words had barely left his mouth when the banging stopped, followed immediately by bloodcurdling screams from the apartment opposite them.
The repeated screams, ironically, calmed Bull down.
"The zombie’s distracted! Let’s run for the roof!"
Hearing this, Tilly Lane clenched her teeth. She didn’t dare!
Ever since the apocalypse began, she had never faced a zombie. She was scared when people even raised their voices at her, so how could she possibly dare to run out this door!
Bull’s expression was grave, and he spoke rapidly.
"That was the sound of glass breaking! The monsters will be up here any second. If we go up and find that woman, we might have a slim chance of survival!"
"Hurry!"
With his sharp command, a tightly wound string in Tilly Lane’s mind finally snapped.
’It’s not just zombies, there are bugs, too.’ She had seen them when she looked out the window.
’Death if I go out, death if I stay here.’
Her legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor.
Bull hadn’t expected her to just give up. Without a second thought, he immediately opened the door and started dragging her up towards the roof.
Several zombies were getting closer to the top floor. The sound of their roars and the dense patter of cockroach feet on the tiles made the fleeing pair’s scalps tingle with fear.
"HURK HURK!"
"RAWR!"
"AARGH!"
Bull’s heart was in his throat. Amidst the screams of others from the apartment across the hall and the excited cries of the zombies, he quickly dragged Tilly Lane up the stairs.
Just then, from the apartment that had been overrun by zombies, Logan Sawyer burst out with Charlotte Caldwell, the tough old woman hot on their heels.
The group glanced downstairs and knew they couldn’t escape that way!
Logan Sawyer grabbed Charlotte Caldwell and bolted upstairs.
’The people on the roof have guns!’
’Maybe there’s a chance to survive!’
The old woman followed close behind them. As soon as she reached the rooftop, she saw Bull pulling Tilly Lane along, stepping on the parapet to climb onto the top of the stairwell enclosure.
Luna Dawson and her group were wielding flamethrowers, spewing massive tongues of fire in all directions!
The temperature on the roof was extremely high. The snow underfoot had already melted, and the water was gurgling towards the drains.
Fortunately, the stairwell exit was on the side, with a wall blocking the immense flames from Luna Dawson’s group.
Otherwise, the five people who had just run up to the roof would have all been caught in the fire.
At that moment, the old woman was at the back of the group, waiting for Logan Sawyer to help Charlotte Caldwell climb up.
Tilly Lane, who was already up top, grabbed Charlotte Caldwell’s hand, and a moment later, Charlotte was up.
Logan Sawyer was next.
The old woman glanced back at the stairwell entrance and saw a female zombie with its stomach gouged out running up, gradually getting closer to her.
The female zombie tilted its neck back, its grayish-black eyes locking onto the old woman’s gaze.
"AARGH!"
Its mouth, split open to its ears, was filled with rows of overlapping teeth, with faint shreds of flesh hanging from them.
"SCREE! SCRAPE!"
The female zombie’s long, black nails clawed at the wall as it scrambled up at an incredible speed!
The old woman was terrified out of her wits. Her back no longer ached, her legs no longer felt sore. She shoved Logan Sawyer’s butt hard with both hands and scrambled up herself.
Tilly Lane was at the edge helping people up. When she saw her mother-in-law, her eyes filled with a complex emotion. After a moment, she still extended her hand, wanting to pull her up.
The old woman didn’t give a damn about anything else. Besides Logan Sawyer, whom she didn’t dare to grab, she latched onto both Charlotte Caldwell and Tilly Lane, using them as leverage to pull herself up.
Just as her trembling body made it to the top of the stairwell enclosure, the female zombie viciously clawed at the concrete wall right by her feet.
The sound of nails scraping against the wall was sharp and ear-piercing. The old woman quickly scrambled into the middle of the crowd.
"Ah!"
"Hey!"
Tilly Lane and Charlotte Caldwell were yanked backward by her, and they both stumbled toward the edge.
"Damn old hag!"
Logan Sawyer quickly pulled Charlotte Caldwell back and glanced down.
The female zombie was leaping up, its long, black nails scratching at their sleeves.
The old woman, still shaken, said, "They didn’t have a good grip and fell on their own. It has nothing to do with me!"
Charlotte Caldwell’s brow furrowed. "We were kind enough to pull you up, but you yanked us behind you!"
As she spoke, she rubbed her wrist, which was burning with pain.
Bull couldn’t hold back anymore. "I saw the whole thing! Day in and day out, all you do is order your daughter-in-law around. She and Charlotte Caldwell were trying to help you, and you tried to throw them to the zombies! I’ve never seen a mother-in-law like you!"
Hearing them all accuse her, anger flared in the old woman’s eyes, which were half-hidden by her drooping eyelids.
’Every last one of them. A bunch of idiots who don’t know how to respect their elders and care for the young.’
Tilly Lane stared at her scraped pinky finger for a moment, stunned.
’It’s over!’
’I’ve been scratched!’
’I can’t believe this is how it ends, the first time I face a zombie!’
She raised her dagger and plunged it fiercely into the head of the female zombie still clawing at the edge of the wall.
It was as if she no longer feared getting hurt; her eyes held only the grim determination to tear the female zombie to pieces.
She hacked and slashed several times. The female zombie’s scalp was truly flying from her stabs. With a SQUELCH, the dagger sank into the zombie’s eye socket, and it fell back, rigid.
At the same time, Tilly Lane collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, sitting on the ground and staring blankly at her right hand, which was splattered with bits of flesh and black blood.
Bull and the others had always known Tilly Lane to be timid and cowardly. They never imagined she could be so ferocious in a crisis.
Luna Dawson’s group watched this little drama unfold through the flames of their flamethrowers, then returned their focus to clearing out the swarm of cockroaches.
A moment later, cockroaches also began to pour out of the stairwell entrance.
Kevin Keane shouted, "Sawyer! Seal the stairwell entrance!"
Luna Dawson understood, switched off her flamethrower, and walked to the entrance with Blake Blue.
With a wave of her hand, several abandoned toy cars and metal stools were piled in front of the exit.
Just as Blake Blue was about to activate his superpower and change the metal’s form to seal the entrance, Leonard Miller’s figure flashed by at extreme speed. He shot up, his head a bloody mess.
He had a huge backpack on, and after a quick scan of the area, he scrambled and climbed his way onto the top of the stairwell enclosure.
This series of actions took no more than two or three seconds. Watching his back as he scaled the wall, Luna Dawson raised an eyebrow. "A decent talent for a speed superpower."
Blake Blue ignored the newcomers and continued to use his superpower to seal the stairwell entrance, finishing the job in a matter of moments.
He spoke, "It’s done, Luna."
Luna Dawson nodded. The two of them returned to their family with the flamethrowers and continued to fight off the swarm of cockroaches.
"Quick! Bull! Pull me up!"
Leonard Miller desperately clung to the top of the wall, shouting.
His mangled hand was pressed against the edge of the wall. The ring and pinky fingers of his right hand were gone, and he fumbled around, trying to find a leverage point.
Logan Sawyer looked at the wound, which was clearly a bite mark, and the scratch on his forehead, both gushing blood.
Without a second thought, he lifted his foot and stomped down hard on the injured hand, grinding it for good measure.
In the flickering firelight, Logan Sawyer’s expression was savage and vicious, as fierce as a demon from hell.
"AHHH!"
Leonard Miller let out a shrill scream, his entire body trembling with pain.
Watching this, Charlotte Caldwell quickly pulled her hands into her sleeves and cried out in alarm, "Charleston! You..."
Leonard Miller looked up and stared intently at the people above, his eyes practically shooting fire with hatred.