The Zombie I Flirted With After Losing My Memory, Who Was Pretending to be an Alpha, Is Actually My Ex - Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Mutation and Heat

It was just past five in the morning, and the sky was barely beginning to lighten. Sometime during the night, a light rain had started, pitter-pattering against the windowpanes—a sound that only added to the general irritability in the air.

“The monitoring room says He Qi’s group encountered a horde on the seventh floor, right in a surveillance blind spot. They’ve retreated back to the sixth, but their safe room there is made of ordinary glass. It won’t hold against that many zombies. In all likelihood, they’re heading back here.”

Yao Zhi quickly summarized the situation as she led Teng Xi toward Cheng Shi and the others.

In the office, Xie Jinbing gave the pregnant woman a reassuring look before getting up to close the window that was rattling in the wind. However, she froze as she looked outside, her eyes lighting up with pleasant surprise. She didn’t snap out of it until Teng Xi called her name several times.

“Sister Xie, it looks like we’re fighting side-by-side again.”

At the makeshift command post—a large table—Cheng Shi was issuing rapid orders.

“Dr. Nan, take a team to reinforce the barrier from the third floor down to the second to prevent the zombies below from surging up. Simultaneously, remove the barrier leading upstairs. Miss Si, set your traps at the intersection to slow them down as much as possible. Finally, I’ll need Miss Teng and Miss Feng to act as our primary combatants. I hope we can overcome this crisis together.” Cheng Shi looked at everyone with a gaze of rare, steely resolve.

“Why…” a doctor started, mouth half-open. Removing the barrier leading upstairs meant saving those men.

“They need our help, and we need theirs. Move!” Cheng Shi didn’t offer further explanation, and everyone sprang into action.

Teng Xi watched Cheng Shi’s busy back, thinking that if she weren’t a doctor, she’d be a brilliant strategist. Aside from her intermittent indecisiveness, she understood the pros and cons of saving them. If they didn’t, the third floor would lose its escape route from the seventh-floor rooftop. If they did, a partnership with He Qi would be guaranteed—especially with seven more Alphas joining the fray.

Teng Xi stood guard at the reading room door with Feng Sisi and Xie Jinbing, watching the doctors deftly reinforce and dismantle the barriers.

“That’s the little toy Si Qinghan made,” Feng Sisi said, pointing to an oval object a doctor was holding. “You’ll see how powerful it is in a moment.”

“Explosives?” Teng Xi raised an eyebrow.

“Of course not! We’re law-abiding citizens; we don’t use thermal weapons!” Feng Sisi waved her hands frantically, though her protest screamed “guilty.” Teng Xi was smart enough not to press further.

Ten minutes later, the roaring of zombies drew closer. The floor vibrated with the sound of desperate footsteps. Everyone capable of fighting raised their weapons.

Despite the expectation, a collective cold breath was drawn when the massive swarm finally came into view.

The men in suits came scrambling down the stairs, their faces masks of panic and terror.

Teng Xi did a quick count: only seven remained in He Qi’s group. Behind them, three suited zombies were snapping their fangs and letting out beastly roars.

Seeing the armed group at the reading room door, the seven men were visibly flooded with relief.

Cheng Shi timed their positions perfectly. As they cleared the trap zone, she commanded: “Release!”

“Whoosh—” With a muffled thud, a powerful blast of air erupted from the oval object, slamming He Qi and his men to the floor while hurling the trailing zombies backward. One zombie flew over the railing and plummeted toward the first floor.

Teng Xi: “…F*ck!”

She realized Si Qinghan had a habit of calling her inventions “little toys,” regardless of how much destruction they caused.

He Qi was dazed from the impact. Opening his eyes, he found himself staring directly into the face of a zombie. He screamed in terror.

“Useless!” A slender Miaodao pierced the zombie’s skull, splattering brain matter. Teng Xi spared He Qi a contemptuous glance before charging toward another zombie.

Thanks to Si Qinghan’s “toy,” the zombies were slowed, but only for a few seconds. Lacking pain, the creatures pushed themselves up with limbs bent at grotesque angles. One zombie mechanically snapped its neck back into place and fixed its pitch-black eyes on them, roaring as it lunged again.

“If you don’t want to die, get up and fight,” Teng Xi said coldly. She swung her blade at a zombie lunging for Xie Jinbing. Before the severed head could even hit the ground, the body was sent flying five meters by a kick from Xie Jinbing.

…Right. Perhaps Sister Xie didn’t need her help.

He Qi and his six men finally recovered, raising their weapons to join the fight. The immediate threat was neutralized quickly.

As the massive swarm at the stairwell began to pour in, Cheng Shi ordered a retreat. Teng Xi immediately grabbed Xie Jinbing’s wrist and bolted for the reading room, ducking inside just as zombie claws grazed their clothes.

The zombies, unable to slow down, slammed into the glass wall. The suicidal impact made the glass vibrate. As more piled on, cracks bloomed across the surface, reflecting the sunlight in a dangerous, beautiful mosaic.

“Fall back!”

Someone shouted, and the group scrambled back into the smaller reading room.

The moment the door shut, the large reading room glass finally gave way. With a thunderous crash, it shattered, and shards sliced through zombie skin, letting putrid blood flow.

He Qi and his men collapsed on the floor, gasping for air. The aftershock of survival left them trembling, hearts hammering against their ribs.

“None of you were bitten, right?” Teng Xi asked. The survivors who had been celebrating their rescue immediately scattered. The doctors watched He Qi’s group warily, and the suited men began eyeing each other with suspicion.

“Of course not! How could we be bitten?” He Qi blustered. A bang against the door behind him made him scramble further away in terror.

“What, are the zombies outside your relatives, Mr. He? They just decided to skip you? For everyone’s safety, be proactive,” Teng Xi noted. She sharply saw He Qi hide his right hand behind his back, her eyes narrowing with lethal intent.

The patients, already disgruntled with He Qi, began whispering loudly. ‘We should have kicked them out.’ ‘We shouldn’t have saved them.’ The scene mirrored a few days ago, except this time, the Alphas were the ones under suspicion.

“I wasn’t!”

“I wasn’t!”

His subordinates began stripping off their jackets to show their clean skin. Only He Qi remained still.

“Mr. He?” Cheng Shi said in an unquestionable tone.

“I wasn’t bitten!” He Qi yelled, his eyes bloodshot with rage.

But his resistance only confirmed the truth.

“Wait! His hand is bleeding!” one subordinate pointed at the right hand He Qi was hiding.

“No! You’re lying! Who the hell is your boss!” He Qi roared.

The subordinate, long exploited, clenched his fists. A curse sat on the tip of his tongue. If He Qi hadn’t promised him a spot in a secure underground bunker in the suburbs, no one would have stayed as his dog.

Xie Jinbing rubbed her temples, which were throbbing from He Qi’s shouting. Radiating a powerful aura, she walked toward him, kicked him to the ground, and wordlessly yanked up his sleeve.

Beneath the fabric was a bite mark so deep the bone was visible. The black blood had already dried, and the exposed flesh was a sickly grey-white, reeking of rot.

Everyone recoiled. Some patients began to sob in fear. Still pinned to the ground, He Qi continued to lie: “I’m not infected! Just like the pregnant woman! Yes! She was bitten too, and she’s fine! I won’t turn! I won’t die!”

“No, no, no! Kill him! He’s infected! Kill him!”

He Qi’s eyes bulged with fury. He hadn’t expected the first voice to call for his death to be one of his own men.

The suited man pointed at He Qi, repeating “kill him” like a mantra. His heavy dark circles spoke of how badly He Qi had worked them.

“We can do that,” Cheng Shi stepped forward. “We don’t have to kill you, but you must be tied up in the office just like the pregnant woman.”

“No! Why imprison me? I’m not infected, I’m still conscious!” He Qi could not endure such humiliation.

“That’s not up to you.”

Xie Jinbing pinned He Qi’s arms behind his back. No matter how he struggled, he couldn’t break free.

However, Xie Jinbing felt an uncontrollable shuddering from his body. She looked at Teng Xi and secretly signed a message with her free hand.

Sure enough, before she could lead him to the office, He Qi’s body began to mutate in her hands. His arms twisted at angles impossible for a human; his shoulder joints rotated 360 degrees. He physically spun around in Xie Jinbing’s grip. When he looked back, his eyes were entirely black. He was still mechanically muttering, “I can’t die.”

“Mutation!”

The crowd panicked. He Qi opened his maw, a wave of stench hitting Xie Jinbing. She frowned in disgust. The next second, she felt herself being pushed aside as a slender Miaodao was thrust into He Qi’s open mouth, impaling his skull.

“Thud—“

The body fell. The crowd screamed. Teng Xi stepped back to Xie Jinbing’s side, frowning at her blood-stained clothes.

With He Qi dead, everyone breathed a sigh of relief—one potential threat gone. But accidents come fast. Teng Xi felt Xie Jinbing’s body go rigid. It was Si Qinghan who spoke first.

“The smell of pheromones!”

Seconds later, Teng Xi smelled it too. A rich, mugwort-scented Omega pheromone exploded in the room. Instantly, it triggered the aggressive pheromones of countless Alphas, making the air in the room suffocating.

The zombies outside caught the scent of this “exquisite” aroma and began pounding on the door with renewed frenzy.

Inside, an Omega patient collapsed into someone’s arms like water. Her face was flushed, her eyes red as she clutched the other’s clothes, her body trembling violently under the pressure of the surrounding Alpha pheromones. Tears streamed down her face.

Teng Xi felt a surge of alarm. She had taken two doses of suppressants a few days ago, so she wasn’t overly sensitive to Omega pheromones, but the problem was the room full of other Alphas.

“Ah—stay away!” The patient holding the Omega screamed, looking in terror at the Alphas rushing toward them. She backed away with the Omega who had suddenly entered heat, as if fleeing a wild beast.

A silver flash cut through the air. Teng Xi threw a scalpel, pinning a man’s hand to the floor as he reached for the Omega. The pain brought a sliver of logic back, but desire soon pushed it aside as he reached out again.

Teng Xi frowned and ran over. Before his fingers could touch the Omega, she pulled out the scalpel and sliced off one of his fingers. The severed finger fell to the ground. This time, terror triumphed over lust.

“Yao Zhi, distribute suppressants!” Teng Xi threw her backpack; luckily, she had grabbed several doses before leaving the pharmacy.

A doctor quickly injected the Omega. On the other side, Yao Zhi handed out suppressants until she realized she had run out.

“Are there any left?” Yao Zhi asked Teng Xi.

Teng Xi pulled the needle out of Xie Jinbing’s smooth skin, leaving a small puncture mark. She could still feel Xie Jinbing trembling, even though she couldn’t smell any pheromones on her.

Xie Jinbing’s lips parted as if she wanted to speak. Teng Xi looked at Yao Zhi with a frown. “How many people are left without shots?”

“Cheng Shi and you.”

There was only one box of eight shots. Luckily, Yao Zhi and the others had taken theirs before the mission, or the scene would be even more uncontrollable.

Teng Xi: “I just took mine recently.”

Cheng Shi was frowning in pain, her skin flushing. She forced herself to a corner. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Director…”

The others couldn’t do much for Cheng Shi’s suffering, so they went to open the windows to let the scent dissipate faster.

“Look!” The doctor at the window gasped, eyes widening. A rare look of joy crossed her face.

Rain was pouring outside. Large droplets blown in by the wind stung against their skin.

The group gathered at the window and froze.

The dense horde of zombies that had surrounded the building was gone. The rain was washing the foul blood from the pavement. The outside was unnervingly quiet and peaceful. If not for the stray limbs and organs on the ground, they would have thought the outbreak was a dream.

“They’re hydrophobic.” Yao Zhi pointed to a small pavilion in the distance. It was packed with zombies, pushing and shoving to stay out of the rain.

The crowd cheered, delighted to have found a weakness—though that joy was quickly tempered by the fact that they still couldn’t deal with the zombies currently battering the reading room door.

All the windows in the reading room were open, but the mixed pheromones in the air remained thick and nauseating.

“Take her to the office,” Teng Xi suggested to Cheng Shi, pointing to the struggling Omega.

“But…”

Teng Xi interrupted: “The pregnant woman won’t turn. It’s been so many days, do you still not believe it?”

Cheng Shi frowned but eventually agreed.

However, the moment the office door opened, Teng Xi’s expression shifted drastically.

A pheromone scent so thick it was choking made her recoil. And beneath the pheromones was the overwhelming smell of blood.

“She… she gave birth…” Feng Sisi pointed at the woman inside, stammering.

“F*ck!”

Teng Xi was truly learning the meaning of “one disaster after another.”

The fresh pheromones and blood acted like a stimulant for the zombies outside. They began slamming the door with unprecedented force.

The room descended into chaos once more.

“W-w-what do we do?” Feng Sisi’s hand shook on her blade. She had spotted the continuous stream of blood from beneath the woman.

The woman looked toward the group at the door, but her appearance made them recoil in fear.

“Her eyes… she’s mutating!”

A faint black mist covered the woman’s eyes, yet her gaze remained human and clear. This familiar sight reminded Teng Xi of “Little Mushroom.” A theory began to form in her mind.

“Save my child, I beg you.”

“No! She’s a zombie!”

“I am not. Please, save my child.”

Teng Xi frowned. She briefly explained the situation of Little Mushroom to the group—especially the human eyes she had right before she died.

“No. What if she turns and bites someone during the delivery?” Cheng Shi said with cold logic.

The woman clutched her stomach in agony and played her trump card: “I have communication equipment. I can call for help for you, as long as you save my child.”

Teng Xi translated word-for-word, watching with satisfaction as Cheng Shi’s expression wavered.

Cheng Shi didn’t speak, but watched as the woman pulled a homemade communication device from her gown.

Si Qinghan spoke up: “I finally know why she looks familiar. She’s an expert in radio communications. So she’s been tinkering with this thing all these days.”

With Si Qinghan’s confirmation, the group hesitated further, finally looking to Cheng Shi in the corner.

But someone was faster.

“I will save them.”

Xie Jinbing, having finished her rapid sign language, grabbed Teng Xi and yanked her into the office. The door slammed shut behind them, pinning Teng Xi against it.

“Sister Xie?” The thick pheromones in the room made Teng Xi frown. Xie Jinbing, who had pulled her in, said nothing but buried her face into the crook of Teng Xi’s neck. Teng Xi could feel her body shaking; her forehead was burning hot.

“Xi…”

This time, Teng Xi finally heard Xie Jinbing’s voice. It was nothing like she imagined—not “Alpha-like” at all. It was incredibly soft and sweet, like a gummy bear melting with endless sugary warmth.

“Xie…”

Teng Xi’s words were drowned out by remarkably soft lips. Her teeth were parted, and an Omega pheromone that belonged solely to Xie Jinbing flooded her mouth.