The Zombie I Flirted With After Losing My Memory, Who Was Pretending to be an Alpha, Is Actually My Ex - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Responsibility

The Miaodaos in the hands of Teng Xi and Feng Sisi moved like phantoms, forcefully slowing the zombies’ advance. The panicked crowd gradually regained a semblance of control.

“Teng Xi! Feng Sisi! Get in here, fast!” Yao Zhi’s anxious voice called out from behind the door.

Teng Xi decapitated a zombie with a single strike and looked back. There were still a few stragglers outside. The bitten pregnant woman was not far from her, looking around in a daze until her eyes locked with Teng Xi’s.

The woman opened her mouth, but no sound came out. As the zombies drew closer, her eyes flooded with terror, and her hands began to dance in a frantic, disjointed motion.

Teng Xi felt a pang of pity. She swung her blade again to cut down another zombie. Just as she was about to look away and retreat with Feng Sisi, she recognized the woman’s movements. It was sign language.

“Save my child, I beg of you.”

Something struck a chord deep within her. Teng Xi’s grip on the Miaodao tightened. Her stride toward the iron door veered sharply as she scooped up the pregnant woman and charged inside.

The heavy security door slammed shut a heartbeat before the zombies reached it. The muffled thud-thud-thud of bodies crashing against the metal sent the crowd recoiling in fear.

“Zom—Zombie!” A man in a suit pointed a trembling finger at the woman in Teng Xi’s arms. “She was bitten! She’s going to turn! Kill her! Kill her now!”

The word “kill” left his mouth with chilling ease. Once a disaster erupts, rules and order vanish; humans had unwittingly regressed to the law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak.

Yao Zhi and the other two quietly moved to Teng Xi’s side. Their positioning was subtle, shielding Xie Jinbing behind them. For the moment, the others didn’t notice they were harboring someone who had already turned into a zombie.

The crisis outside was over, but the air inside was thick with tension.

There were about thirty or forty survivors. Among them were a dozen men in suits occupying the narrow stairs, and four doctors. The rest were patients in hospital gowns, all of whom were being blocked by the suited men. Teng Xi’s group stood pressed against the iron door, separated from the others by a gap of a meter or two.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” One doctor finally snapped, releasing the rage built up over the day. She threw a punch directly at the lead man in a suit.

She used every ounce of her strength, knocking the man to the floor.

The fragile peace shattered instantly. The suited man glared at the crowd: “If it weren’t for us, you’d have been chewed to bits by those monsters outside!”

The doctor spat back: “If it weren’t for us leading the way, you bastards probably wouldn’t have even found a safe room!”

Furious, the man’s muscles bulged as he prepared to retaliate.

“Schwing—” The sound of a blade leaving its scabbard rang out sharply in the confined space, forcing everyone to turn.

Yao Zhi had already taken the pregnant woman into her arms. Teng Xi stood holding her Miaodao, her gaze unfriendly as she stared at the men on the steps. Though she was looking up from a lower position, no one felt she was at a disadvantage.

The crowd instinctively parted to create a path. Teng Xi walked toward the suited men one step at a time, her long blade dripping blood, leaving a trail on the floor.

In the eyes of the men in suits, this blood-stained woman looked more like a Reaper from hell than the zombies outside.

“Killing you lot is much easier than killing zombies.”

The subtext was clear: if they wanted the pregnant woman, they had to go through her first.

The glinting blade was held before them. The man was so terrified he scrambled back onto the steps; he hadn’t forgotten the ruthless efficiency with which she had carved through the horde.

“Useless piece of trash.” A leather shoe kicked the man in the back, sending him tumbling forward.

Teng Xi frowned as she saw the man falling toward her blade. The person who kicked him was clearly trying to use her to commit murder. She tilted the Miaodao an inch, merely slicing off a lock of the man’s hair as he fell.

“My apologies to everyone. I am He Qi, and these are my subordinates. We are all Alphas. It seems I haven’t educated them well enough; please accept my apology.” A man named He Qi stepped slowly from the crowd. He was the most “civilized” looking person there—no large bloodstains on his clothes, his hair slicked back perfectly, and his suit was clearly expensive. Only his tie was loose. Though he spoke of apologies, there was no remorse on his face.

The mention of “Alpha” was a calculated move—both a lure and a threat. In a chaotic world, most people would assume that relying on an Alpha would make survival easier.

But He Qi was wrong about one thing: this was a mental hospital. There weren’t many “normal” people here.

“Dressed like a human, acts like a dog,” Teng Xi heard someone mutter behind her.

He Qi adjusted his cuffs, still looking down at everyone: “I suggested earlier that we should leave these patients in the old wing while we regroup and find weapons. But you insisted on your own way, leading to patients being bitten. Truly a pity.”

He shook his head with feigned grief, his face devoid of actual sympathy.

“You’re full of shit! If it weren’t for you, would they have died? You ungrateful brat!” The doctor was clearly not one to take an insult lying down.

“And what are you? A bunch of doctors who’ve stayed with lunatics so long you’ve gone soft in the head? You were stupid enough to let a mental patient guard such an important passage,” He Qi sneered.

“Dr. Nan Nan, Sesame doesn’t like him! Sesame hates him!” The broadcaster patient, Sesame, shrunk behind the doctor, his eyes filled with blatant loathing for the man in the suit.

Teng Xi finally understood what that password meant…

The doctor snapped back: “Sometimes, mental patients are far more pure and honest than you ‘normal’ people.”

Seeing they were about to start bickering again, Teng Xi felt a headache coming on. She swung her Miaodao through the air, hitting the metal handrail with the back of the blade. A dull, threatening clang rang out.

The crowd went silent. Violence really is the only universal language, Teng Xi thought. She kept it simple: “Where is the safe room?”

The doctor’s tone softened significantly when addressing Teng Xi: “The reading room on the third floor. The stairwell is locked with chains. As long as we stay quiet, we’ll be safe.”

“Fine. Lead the way.”

“Wait a moment,” He Qi interrupted unpleasantly, pointing at the pregnant woman in Yao Zhi’s arms. “What about her? She was bitten. If she turns and bites us, who’s going to be responsible?”

Everyone looked at the woman. A chunk of flesh had been ripped from her shoulder; Xie Jinbing had bandaged it, but the cloth was already soaked through with blood. Her face was contorted in pain and terror. Seeing their gazes, her hands began to dance again.

“I won’t bite you. I can pull my teeth out. I just want my baby to live. Please.”

Teng Xi wanted to say that a bite didn’t guarantee a transformation—looking at Little Mushroom and Xie Jinbing—which was part of why she had risked the rescue. But she didn’t say it. In an environment where everyone was out for themselves, who would believe a stranger? Besides, how high were the odds? No one knew.

“I’ll be responsible,” Teng Xi said, resting her Miaodao on the handrail. She rolled her wrist, creating an ear-piercing scraping sound against the metal. “If she turns, I will kill her myself.”

“You? Can you take that responsibility?” a man in a suit yelled. He had seen his own brothers turn in seconds.

“Then you want to be responsible?” Teng Xi narrowed her eyes.

He Qi spoke up at the right moment: “Taking her isn’t impossible, but we must ensure our own safety. You must hand over your weapons to us for safekeeping. That way, if she turns, we can protect ourselves.”

“You!” At the mention of handing over the blade, Feng Sisi was the first to react. Still fuming from being shoved earlier, she stepped forward, only to be held back by Xie Jinbing.

“Oh? You want my sword?” A smile flickered across Teng Xi’s lips, but it was bone-chilling. “You clearly haven’t grasped the situation. I could kill you all and be done with it. But today, I’m feeling merciful; Buddha won’t let me kill the living—”

Before her voice had even faded, Teng Xi’s body coiled like a spring. She lunged toward the men in suits, Miaodao raised.

The crowd fell into chaos. The long blade whistled past faces. The Alphas realized with pathetic clarity that a group of them were being terrified by a single woman.

“Puchi—” The sound of metal piercing a skull made everyone gasp. A man in a suit—one who had already turned into a zombie unnoticed in the back of their group—fell to his knees at Teng Xi’s feet, the blade through his head.

“I only kill the living dead.”