Living with My Aloof Ex-Wife After the Apocalypse - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: The Death of a Grandmother and a Desperate Escape

Chen Xia was visibly moved, standing there in a daze, unable to speak.

“You, little girl,” Grandma Wang continued softly, “your heart is too soft. You might suffer for it later, but no one can guarantee they’ll always do the right thing from the moment they’re born.”

“I was neighbors with Zhao Li for years; I knew her. From the moment we set out, we knew we were burdens. This road was never meant to be walked together until the end.”

“Zhao Li told me in private that she received so much care from you and Xiao Hua. She asked me that if the day came when she was gone, I should say thank you for her.”

Chen Xia snapped her head up, her eyes uncontrollably welling with tears.

“No one wanted Zhao Li to die, but maybe tomorrow this old woman will die too. At this stage, it’s only natural,” Grandma Wang said. “Don’t blame yourself for this, and don’t make things hard for yourself. You still have Xiao Hua. Don’t be like my unfilial son.”

Grandma Wang lovingly stroked Chen Xia’s face, smiling through her own tears. “Treat Xiao Hua well. Your life is still long.”

Though the words were meant for Chen Xia, Xing He leaned against the wall and listened in silence.

In her previous life, Xing He had put her uniform back on after retiring, fighting for the remnants of humanity until her final breath. In this life, she only wanted to protect her small, fragile home. To leap out of the destiny set in her past life required all her strength. She hadn’t put the uniform back on because she could neither stop the apocalypse nor shoulder the fate of all mankind.

But what is there to feel guilty about? she thought. When successful, help the world; when struggling, cultivate oneself. It wasn’t until she heard the words “your life is still long” that the knot of frustration that had troubled her for so long finally unraveled.

Having lived half their lives in a society governed by law, witnessing a murder scene for the first time left everyone with no desire to sleep. They sat in the conference hall, waiting for dawn.

Xing He was in the habit of reviewing unexpected events. As she recalled the night’s events frame by frame, she belatedly realized something was wrong. That gloomy, unsettling man was not among those they had thrown out of the room.

Where did he go?

As if in answer to her doubt, a frantic set of footsteps suddenly echoed in the corridor. A second later, there was a heavy thud something hitting the floor. Then came the sound of a door slamming shut in the room across the hall, which should have been empty.

Peng Peng and the others were unconscious. So who was running in the hallway? What was the heavy object that fell?

Everyone’s skin crawled. No one brings warmth in the middle of the night; something had clearly been sabotaged. Sitting and waiting for death was not Xing He’s style.

She locked eyes with Chen Xia, who immediately understood. Xing He cracked the door open to observe the hallway while Chen Xia stood guard with her rifle.

As the weak beam of the flashlight swept across the floor, a round object was slowly rolling near the doorway, something on it reflecting the light. Without warning, Xing He found herself staring into a pair of eyes—eyes streaming with blood, filled with shock and terror, as if pleading for help.

The thing rolling on the floor was the head of Li Xiaoyan, the woman who had snuck out!

At that moment, more footsteps erupted from the depths of the corridor shuffling, disorganized steps accompanied by the iconic howls of zombies. Across the hall, the gloomy man watched Xing He through a small window in his door, his eyes glinting with madness.

The silhouette of the approaching horde was already visible at the end of the hall. Xing He acted decisively; she lunged out, grabbed Li Xiaoyan’s head, threw it toward the room across the hall to divert the scent, and slammed their door shut.

Under the high pressure, the simple act of picking up the head felt like minutes to Xing He, though in reality, only seconds had passed.

Chen Xia’s expression was grim. “Someone lured the horde here.”

The conference hall had a solid wall and a wooden door facing the hallway, and a single window facing the outside. During the day, zombies generally wouldn’t attack an unknown object if they didn’t hear a sound. But at night, they were far more aggressive, especially when whipped into a frenzy by the scent of fresh blood.

Outside were bloodthirsty zombies; inside was the body of Zhao Li. Could a small wooden door hold them back? The answer was no. Even with the furniture piled against it, it was only a matter of time before they broke through.

Unless they stayed perfectly silent until dawn.

The feasibility of that was debatable, but Xing He’s quick reflex had bought them a chance. Because she had thrown the head toward the opposite room, the frenzied horde followed the thick scent of blood and swarmed the door across the hall. The sound of zombies rending flesh and the wood of the door groaning under the weight echoed through the hall.

A crisp crack followed. The door across the hall broke. Then came the man’s scream.

“Aaaah—!”

The corridor was wider than usual, and the zombies were currently distracted by moving prey. They hadn’t yet noticed the unconscious men lying like dead weights on the floor. But they would soon realize more fresh food was within reach.

The man Xing He had hit with the scalpel was the first to go; in less than a minute, he was devoured. Peng Peng, who had the best physique, hadn’t been fully unconscious. Unlike the others who were dismembered in their sleep, he had the misfortune of being awake. He was jerked into consciousness by the agonizing pain of a zombie tearing into his right arm.

He opened his eyes to a sea of zombies and looked down to see his own mangled torso. He closed his eyes, but his ears were filled with screams. Peng Peng’s mind snapped. Forgetting that he had betrayed Chen Xia only hours ago, he crawled frantically to their door.

Thud, thud, thud!

“Help! Save me!” “Officer Chen, I know you can hear me!” “It hurts! Please, save me…”

The man pounding on the door was a threat; his noise would surely bring the horde through their door next. Chen Xia stood up, her logic failing her for a moment. Xing He reached out, pressed her hand on Chen Xia’s shoulder, and shook her head silently.

Shouting in front of zombies was suicide. One way or another, Peng Peng was already a dead man. Sure enough, the zombies didn’t let him struggle for long. The hallway soon fell silent.

Then, some zombies, finished with their meal, turned their attention to the conference hall door.

Scritch, scratch…

Xing He remained calm. “Do you have rope?”

“Yes, in the backpack over there.”

Xing He made the call: “We’re going out the window. I’ll take Xiao Hua; you take Grandma Wang.”

“Right.”

Chen Xia handed the rope to Xing He and prepared for the descent. Fan Hua went to help Grandma Wang up from the corner. It was only when she reached her that she realized something everyone had overlooked for too long.

Grandma Wang was motionless. No matter how Fan Hua tapped or called her, she didn’t respond. Fan Hua didn’t dare check for a pulse, so Chen Xia tremblingly placed a hand under the woman’s nose.

The body was still warm, but the breath was gone.

When did it happen?

Perhaps just now, or perhaps right after she said, “Your life is still long,” Grandma Wang’s life had pressed a permanent pause button. She had left quietly, without disturbing anyone.

Fan Hua knelt, trying to see the old woman’s expression in the dim light. In the shadows of the night, she saw a satisfied smile on Grandma Wang’s lips—perhaps she had seen her son coming to fetch her. Fan Hua’s tears began to fall. She didn’t understand; they had escaped the gunfire and the zombies, so why was she just… gone?

“Xiao Xia… Grandma Wang is dead.”

Grandma Wang was the only person Xing He had met in years who felt like a real grandmother. As she was tying the knot in the rope, a single tear traced a path down her cheek. But there was no time for grief. The zombies in the hallway could burst in at any moment.

Xing He wiped her eyes with her sleeve and continued to fight for the lives of the three survivors.

Chen Xia stood frozen. To her, Fan Hua’s words felt less like a statement of fact and more like a judgment on her own cowardly heart. If she could do it over, she would have cast aside her pity and finished every enemy with a final shot.

If I could do it over…

Fan Hua stood helplessly. Chen Xia gripped her hand tight, whispered more to herself than to the girl: “It’ll be okay.”

Outside, the zombies were crowded around the remains of the men. The wooden door was beginning to buckle inward. It wouldn’t last much longer.

Fortunately, Xing He had finished the escape line. She secured it to the window frame and tested its strength. “The rope is ready. Officer Chen, you go first.”

There was no response.

Xing He turned. Chen Xia and Fan Hua were still standing there, looks of utter desolation on their faces. For the first time in a long while, a surge of anger rose in Xing He. Are these two wasting their lives?

“Grandma Wang didn’t die! She’s old! She’s gone to reunite with her family!” Xing He’s voice trembled with suppressed emotion, born of both anger and grief. “You two are only in your twenties! Are you in a hurry to be a pair of martyred lovers?”

Chen Xia looked up and saw that Xing He’s eyes were bloodshot and red.

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