Chapter 132

Chapter 132: The Encounter in the Apocalypse

Gu Ning leaped up, grabbing the vines above her. With a light tap of her toes, she soared into the air, her legs clamping around a zombie’s head and twisting it with force. The zombie crumpled to the ground. Gu Ning yanked the vines backward, kicking two zombies that lunged at her from behind. As her feet touched the ground, she used the momentum to swing forward again, her legs delivering a series of rapid kicks in mid-air. The row of zombies charging at her were all sent reeling backward. Gu Ning landed, her knife slashing through the air in icy arcs.

Wherever the blade passed, zombies fell like wheat being harvested.

Gu Ning stomped on the head of a still-twitching zombie, her expression cold. Her heaving chest betrayed the immense physical toll she was under. In just over ten minutes, she had lost count of how many zombies she had killed. The rooftop was now littered with zombie corpses, and she had no time to clear them. Her feet sank into a sticky mixture of blood and brain matter, her body covered in filth. Her golden hair clung to her forehead, damp with sweat, and her pale face made her look frail. Yet, her grip on the knife remained firm.

Third Brother and the others should have regrouped and headed back to the base by now. They had cleared most of the zombies on their way here, so the return journey should be easier. The absence of gunfire suggested they were making good progress. By her estimate, they should be nearing the river by now.

There had been enough time for them to return to the base.

Gu Ning looked at the zombies still climbing up from the front, a faint smile of relief crossing her pale face. But the smile froze as her pupils contracted, her heart nearly stopping.

What was going on?

Why was she still here?

She closed her eyes, trying to will herself back into her space, but when she opened them again, she was still on the rooftop, with zombies still approaching.

A wave of icy dread washed over her, chilling her to the bone. For the first time, she felt a deep, overwhelming fear.

Her space, the one thing she had always relied on, was closed.

Terror gripped Gu Ning as the zombies’ growls grew closer. She took a deep breath and tried to summon her special ability, but nothing happened. She couldn’t even sense the presence of her ability. In that moment, she was just an ordinary person, powerless.

Gu Ning’s fear intensified. With her space closed and her abilities gone, despair began to creep in. But she quickly suppressed it, gripping her knife tightly and continuing to fight. Yet, the fear lingered.

She swung her knife mechanically, driven by instinct. Her mind was blank from the shock, and if it weren’t for the zombies surrounding her, she might not have been able to lift the knife at all.

The eleventh zombie fell under her blade, but more kept climbing up from the edges. The zombies below continued to growl excitedly, waiting for her to tire and fall, eager to tear her apart. Gu Ning’s knife flew from her hand, piercing a zombie’s skull. She dashed forward, driving another knife into another zombie’s head, then pulled the first knife free and stabbed it into the belly of a zombie lunging from behind.

She yanked the knife out and stepped back, her feet sinking into the sea of zombie corpses. The rooftop was momentarily clear of new zombies. She glanced down at the horde still surrounding her, and a strong will to survive began to overpower her fear. “I won’t die here,” she muttered to herself. “If I die, it’ll be in a soft bed, not torn to pieces by these things.” She had been trapped on the rooftop for over half an hour, and more than an hour had passed since she left the base. Her stamina, though extraordinary, was nearly spent. Her chest heaved, and swallowing became difficult. If one looked closely, they could see her hands trembling slightly.

She needed to find a way out, or her strength would give out, and she would be left here for good.

Suddenly, a zombie lunged at her from behind, its arms locking around her like a vice. It was a strength-type zombie, its grip unbreakable. Its mouth opened wide, aiming for her neck. Gu Ning jerked her head to the side and then slammed it forward, smashing into the zombie’s head. The impact left her dizzy, but the zombie’s head was knocked aside. With a shout, Gu Ning pushed back with all her might, slamming the zombie into the wall behind her.

Bang! Bang! Bang! She rammed the zombie into the wall repeatedly until she heard the crack of its skull. But the zombie wasn’t dead yet, still clinging to her. At the same time, more zombies were closing in from the front. Using the zombie’s grip to her advantage, Gu Ning kicked out at the approaching zombies, sending them flying. The recoil from the kick allowed her to slam the zombie behind her into the wall once more. This time, its skull shattered, brain matter oozing out.

Gu Ning pried its arms off and quickly drew her gun, firing several shots at the zombies closing in.

Leaning against the wall, Gu Ning took deep breaths. The headbutt had taken its toll, and she needed a moment to recover. Once she caught her breath, she raised her gun again, aiming at the zombies trying to climb up.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Though she hadn’t practiced in a while, her shooting was still precise. Her eyes were her scope, and one by one, the zombies fell. Soon, the rooftop was clear.

Gu Ning quickly scanned her surroundings. The vine Third Brother had used was broken by a mutated zombie. Fortunately, Gu Ning’s cautious nature had led her to set up multiple escape routes. The other vines were higher up. A zombie stumbled onto the rooftop, and Gu Ning eyed it, then the vines above, and finally the wall. She slung her gun over her shoulder and slowly backed away, luring the zombie toward her. Once it was in position, she dashed forward, leaped off the wall, and landed on the zombie’s shoulders. The force drove the zombie down, and Gu Ning used the momentum to grab the vine above. Without hesitation, she swung herself onto the vine and began climbing like a koala, heading toward the other end.

The zombies on the rooftop stumbled after her, only to fall off the edge.

Gu Ning didn’t look back at the horde following her. She clenched her teeth and climbed with all her might. The vine led to a large tree, which was connected to a three-story building.

Gu Ning rested briefly in the shade of the tree, then quickly climbed another vine toward the building. She flipped over the balcony railing, her legs trembling. After calming herself, she gripped the doorknob with her left hand and her knife with her right, slowly pushing the door open. A zombie inside lunged at her, but she drove her knife into its skull without hesitation. After confirming the room was clear, she hurried inside, planning to escape through the bedroom and down the stairs before the zombies caught up.

But as she cracked the bedroom door open, a powerful force slammed into it. A hand reached through the gap, clawing at her. Gu Ning chopped off the hand and slammed the door shut, locking it. Through the crack, she saw the living room was packed with zombies.

The zombies pounded on the door, forcing Gu Ning to retreat to the balcony and back to the tree.

The zombies in the living room broke into the bedroom and spilled onto the balcony. One even tried to climb the vine but fell, splattering on the ground below.

There were three vines on the tree. One led back to the rooftop, another to the three-story building she had just left, and the last one. This vine stretched about thirty to forty meters, leading away from the base. But she had no other choice. Gu Ning took a deep breath and climbed onto the last vine.

If the next building was as infested as this one, she would have to fight her way through.

If this was Gu Ning’s unluckiest day, then this moment was her luckiest. Not only was the room free of zombies, but the living room beyond was also clear. The house’s owner must have fled in a hurry, leaving the place in disarray. Gu Ning held her knife tightly and crept downstairs. She opened the front door to find only one zombie wandering outside. She quickly dispatched it and prepared to head toward the direction where Cheng Ming and the others were supposed to be. She needed to confirm if they had made it out safely.

Just then, a hand grabbed her wrist, pulling her into a dark corner. Gu Ning was startled and instinctively raised her knife, but she stopped mid-swing as she recognized the face in the dim light. Her eyes widened in shock as she was pulled into someone’s arms, and a hand covered her mouth.

A low, familiar voice whispered in her ear, “Shh, don’t make a sound.”

Gu Ning’s heart raced. She couldn’t believe it, but the face she had glimpsed and the cold, detached voice were unmistakable. It was Ji Jiuzhe.