Chapter 122: Your Doomsday Has Been Delivered (5)

"Miss Xu, are you not coming?" Fang Sanqian, seeing Ling Qiong still standing by the window, called out with a hint of urgency.

Ling Qiong did not reply, but she turned and began walking toward them.

The people tied up nearby had no idea what was happening, only that this group had suddenly become panicked and were scrambling to flee.

"Let me go, please let me go! I was forced into this..."

Although the woman was bound, Fang Sanqian's group had not gagged her. She had remained quiet until now, trying to make herself invisible. Seeing them in such a panic, she finally spoke up, begging for release.

Ling Qiong happened to pass by the woman. Hearing her voice, she paused. The moment she stopped, the woman felt an inexplicable chill. Among this group, this young girl gave her a truly eerie feeling. She appeared to be the least threatening, the weakest girl in the team, yet the others seemed to treat her with a strange sense of respect. Now, as she stood before her, the shadow she cast felt heavy with pressure, making it difficult for the woman to even breathe.

"Please, let me go, I don't want to die..." the woman pleaded, trying her best to look pitiful.

Ling Qiong bent down, picked up a piece of rags from the floor, stuffed it into the woman's mouth, and raised a fair finger to her lips. "Shh."

The girl smiled, her eyes curving into crescents. Her heels clicked against the floor as she walked over to the sofa, picked up a backpack, and gradually moved away.

Cold sweat trickled down the woman's forehead, dripping onto her skin. It took several seconds before she could catch her breath, gasping heavily.

"Someone's here!"
"They're tied up—it's clear!"
"People are running away!"
"Chase after them!"

Disordered footsteps echoed from downstairs, followed by a group of men appearing before them. The woman saw their uniforms and felt a momentary sense of relief. They were official personnel...

Unfortunately, the relief didn't last. Warm, bright red liquid splashed across her face.

The woman froze. She turned her neck stiffly to see the man tied next to her, his eyes wide open, as if he couldn't believe he had just died like that.

...

The mall's direct elevators were out of service, and the escalators were the route the pursuers were using to climb up, so they had no choice but to take the emergency stairwell.

The stairwell was pitch black, filled only with the sound of their hurried footsteps. Faint sounds of pursuit echoed from behind, along with muffled voices.

"They're ahead."
"Hurry, chase them!"
"How many are there?"
"Not sure, don't let them get away!"

Fang Sanqian's back was soaked in sweat—not from the exertion of running, but because of the people behind them. Who were they? Why were they wearing official uniforms, and why were they killing survivors? A thousand questions swirled in his mind.

Reaching the third floor, the group in front stopped. Two people tugged at the door handle, shouting, "Brother Qian, the door is locked!"

*Whoosh—*

A bullet struck the floor. Fang Sanqian immediately pushed open a side door. "This way! Quick!"

"Where's Miss Xu?"
"She was behind me a moment ago..."

Fang Sanqian poked his head out to look. The coast was clear, but he could see people chasing down the stairs. He quickly slammed the door shut and jammed it with something nearby. "Keep moving."

This floor was pitch black, likely the grocery section of the mall's basement level. They didn't dare stop, sprinting forward blindly.

"Where did Miss Xu go?" someone asked while running. No one could answer. Nobody had noticed when Ling Qiong had disappeared; it was as silent and seamless as if she had never existed at all.

*Whoosh—*
*Bang!*
*Crash!*

Glass shattered nearby. A girl, startled, tripped over something and fell. The people behind were blocked, and the entire team halted.

*Bang!*

Fang Sanqian lowered his voice. "Get down! Get down!"

...

Two tall figures approached with weapons, their flashlights sweeping the area, the light refracting off the shattered glass on the floor. One of them signaled for his companion to come over. In the broken glass, trails of blood were visible, leading toward the back.

The two exchanged a look and split up. One turned off his flashlight; he was wearing night-vision goggles, moving through the obstacles with ease as he closed in on a shelf.

Two people were hiding behind the shelf, covering their mouths, not daring to draw a full breath. Outside, there was no sound; the silence was excruciating.

"Ah!"

A companion nearby suddenly let out a scream. He had been grabbed by the collar and hauled up.

*Bang!*

The dark figure standing nearby stiffened, then collapsed limply to the ground. The companion who had been grabbed also tumbled to the floor.

Fang Sanqian's voice echoed, "Come over here, quick!"

Fang Sanqian's weapon didn't have a silencer. The noise drew another pursuer who was heading their way. The three of them tried to leave quickly, but they ran straight into the enemy. Fang Sanqian soon realized there weren't just two of them—there were four.

They had split into two groups upon entering. Fang Sanqian's gunshot had drawn the other group, surrounding them. His heart sank. Were they going to die here?

"We aren't infected! Why are you killing us?" Fang Sanqian shouted, trying to stall for time.

The men opposite them raised their weapons without a word. Their intent was clear: they meant to kill them all.

Negotiations failed.

Fang Sanqian took a deep breath and told his companions, "I'll hold them off. You guys run."
"Brother Qian, no."
"Don't give me that crap!"

Fang Sanqian grabbed whatever was nearby, threw it at the men in front, and fired a shot to the left. "Run!"

He couldn't see well, so he just fired wildly. When his last bullet was spent, he reached for his spare ammo, but his hand found nothing. He must have dropped it somewhere while running.

*It's truly over,* he thought. He hid behind a shelf, listening to the heavy footsteps approaching, his blood running cold. They hadn't died at the hands of the zombies, but at the hands of their own kind.

A thousand thoughts raced through Fang Sanqian's mind, but as he finished, he realized something was off.

The footsteps had vanished.

As he hesitated, wondering if it was a trap, he heard someone call his name from outside.

"Fang Sanqian."

Miss Xu?

Fang Sanqian immediately emerged from behind the shelf. Ling Qiong was holding a fluorescent glow stick, a bulging shoulder bag hanging at her side. A large man lay at her feet, unconscious or dead.

"Miss Xu, what about the other two?"

Ling Qiong swung the glow stick. As the light passed, Fang Sanqian saw the dark shapes lying on the ground over there. How had Miss Xu taken them down? Their height and weight were completely mismatched... and he hadn't heard a sound.

"Didn't you have weapons?" Ling Qiong asked, genuinely puzzled. Fang Sanqian had distributed the weapons they’d taken from the previous group to everyone; why hadn't they used them?

"It was noisy, and we didn't dare use them recklessly," Fang Sanqian said, wiping cold sweat from his brow. "Besides, we didn't know how many of them there were."

The biggest problem was that they only had one weapon in their team before, and with limited ammunition, they never dared to practice. In reality, none of them actually knew how to use them.