A feeling of emptiness and coldness made Lin Jue snap back to his senses. He was standing in front of a building; the languages building.
The heart and the number nine had disappeared from the two glass doors, as if time had flowed back to when he had first stood there a few hours ago.
He took out his phone, 04:30.
So much time had already passed? Lin Jue frowned. Impossible! From when he had entered the maze to when he had left it, it would have taken at most two hours, so was the flow of time different there?
Since he had been returned to the outside of the languages building, Song Hanzhang would be by another building in the south plaza. They were walking in the opposite direction when they separated, so that would be… the medical department? Thank goodness it wasn’t the laboratory, Lin Jue thought.
Taking the wooden pole from his back and stuffing the gun into his pocket, Lin Jue strode towards the medical department.
There were now five survivors. The best ending was for Zhao Liangsheng to be Judas, as that would mean they would only have to deal with zombies from here on. If Judas was still alive…
The card game from a few minutes ago was still flashing across his eyes.
The supposedly peaceful game on the table and the merciless killings beneath it, the uncanny waves underneath that peace and calm, the suffocating air frozen in that dim room. That one strike from Lu Ren which slashed through the delicate string keeping up the fake peace, placing the bloody truth in front of everyone— see, there was no need for some peaceful game, nor any complex rules. All we needed was to kill.
The reason why Lu Ren and Song Hanzhang were so calm through the whole game, one smiling lazily, the other watching coldly, was because they both understood the true nature of the game. Losing and winning were both unnecessary. Surviving was the only real truth. Cut down another, and you could live.
Lin Jue suddenly thought that compared to zombies, he might be much more afraid of his own kind.
In a cruel and lawless world, just how much would mankind do to survive?
Lin Jue rubbed the clear antibody in his pocket, laughed lowly, and placed it in the front pocket of his shirt before zipping up his jacket.
Crossing the vast south plaza, there were only a few lone zombies wandering around. Lin Jue killed them as he passed, a little surprised. Was he delusional? He felt that their strength and speed had increased, but not as badly as he had expected. Further, he thought that the rate they rotted had also increased.
Perhaps it was because they weren’t exactly ‘staying’ in the area and as a result, the speed they evolved at hadn’t increased.
It seemed every cloud had its silver lining.
From afar, Lin Jue saw Song Hanzhang standing in front of the medical building. He was on top of a flowerbed looking into the distance, seemingly reactionless to Lin Jue moving towards him.
It was only when Lin Jue walked right up to him that Song Hanzhang spoke. “Did the zombies evolve?”
“A little, but the situation is a lot better than what I thought.”
“Is that so…” Song Hanzhang looked at the time and jumped down from the flowerbed. “It’s already 04:35. The day will break at around six. Don’t let down your guard.”
“Where are we going now?”
Song Hanzhang stared at the red crescent sinking down towards the west and finally said, “The gym.”
Lin Jue nodded. “Then let’s go… I wonder how the others are doing. Maybe we’ll meet up later.”
Song Hanzhang suddenly spun around and stared at him. Lin Jue was a little confused.
“W-what?”
“Sometimes I really can’t understand what you’re thinking. It’s been so long already, do you still have no sense of danger? The Judas is most likely still alive, and within us.” Song Hanzhang frowned. “If possible, I don’t want to meet with anyone in the remaining time!”
Saying that, he turned and left.
Lin Jue paused, frozen for a few seconds, before he chased after Song Hanzhang.
“Sorry, I…” Lin Jue began and was immediately stopped by Song Hanzhang. He looked at him, confused.
Song Hanzhang made a sign for him to be quiet. “Listen.”
The sound of footsteps. Many, many footsteps.
The tap of their shoes echoed ever so clearly in the vast night, clear enough that he could hear what type made each noise, dragging slowly across the ground. High heels, sport shoes, skating shoes, soccer shoes…
The sound of many different types of shoes scraping against concrete.
Across the wind came the sound of light whines and growls, along with a faint smell of rot, like an ominous omen coming from their front.
Ten, or twenty, or maybe even more zombies were gathering towards the medical building. The black night and bushes obscured their silhouettes as they flooded across the plaza like a wave of polluted water, rushing towards the steps of the building.
“Did we get surrounded?” Lin Jue asked, his face pale.
“Obviously.”
“Are we going to fight?” Lin Jue tightened his grip on the wooden pole, a little perturbed.
Song Hanzhang tightened his lips and shook his head. “Impossible. Follow me, this way!”
The two turned and ran into the building. Lin Jue felt a little hesitant but followed Song Hanzhang regardless.
They were being surrounded yet they ran inside; if they got cornered by zombies… Just what was Song Hanzhang thinking?!
——The Judas is most likely still alive, and within us.
Song Hanzhang’s words suddenly jumped into his mind, making him shiver.
From where he was now, Song Hanzhang’s side profile appeared unusually cold, his glasses reflecting the light in the corridor, hiding his eyes.
Lin Jue suddenly realized that he had always been afraid of Song Hanzhang. Even though his feelings towards Song Hanzhang were like that of a baby bird, making him trust Song Hanzhang more than anyone, he…
His calmness and deeply hidden cruelty almost immediately made him think of Lu Ren. That same disregard of human life, that subtle mutual understanding; it made it feel like deep underneath it all, the two were actually the same type of people.
But, even so…
He still trusted him.
The few zombies in the building blocked the way forward. Lin Jue jumped past Song Hanzhang, shielding him, the wooden pole slamming into the zombie’s eyeball, its metal nail digging deep into the socket, piercing through the weak brain. Another zombie lunged at him, only to be kicked downstairs as he shouted, “Run!”
Song Hanzhang stabbed his six-inch dagger straight into the zombie’s open mouth and twisted violently, pinning the struggling body of the zombie onto the wall until it finally stopped moving.
“Are you crazy?! What if you got bitten?” Lin Jue grabbed his hand and growled.
“I calculated it. Its fangs wouldn’t have been able to touch my hand.” Song Hanzhang let Lin Jue drag him upwards. “Turn right, get out of here, and run downstairs. There’s a sky bridge connecting to the art building.”
The four buildings surrounding the south plaza were all connected by sky bridges, but they were locked most of the time.
Song Hanzhang ran into a lab and took out two chairs, smashing them against the glass doors of the bridge.
The broken glass pieces left a bloody mark across his face but he didn’t seem to realize. Lin Jue was taken back by his recklessness and hurriedly picked up another chair to help.
The earth-shattering noise was able to summon almost all the zombies in the surrounding area. When they finally managed to break through the glass doors on the opposite side of the sky bridge, Lin Jue saw that where they used to be was now made up of countless zombies. A crowd of undead was rushing towards them across the bridge, pushing and shoving against each other.
“Come here.” Song Hanzhang led Lin Jue down the stairs as they prepared to leave the art block. It was far too dangerous to be surrounded by zombies in a building, especially since they didn’t have ropes to climb down on.
“Don’t go there!” A familiar voice called them to a stop. “There are zombies everywhere downstairs, don’t go!”
Vera & Luci Translations 