The Zombie I Flirted With After Losing My Memory, Who Was Pretending to be an Alpha, Is Actually My Ex - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Rescue

On the fourth day after waking up, Teng Xi finally learned about the situation outside from the mouth of a “human” with a functioning memory.

The zombie crisis broke out four days ago. It started when a patient from Area A escaped and bit a patient who was walking in the courtyard. That patient bit another, one became two, two became four, and by the time the police arrived, the scene was nearly uncontrollable. The panicked crowds scattered in all directions; the virus was transmitted through any exchange of bodily fluids, turning victims into zombies.

When she turned into a zombie, Xie Jinbing thought she was finished. However, she was surprised to find that her consciousness remained. She spent the following days wandering and searching for survivors, but she hadn’t seen a single living soul until now.

What Xie Jinbing didn’t say at the end was that it was lucky she heard Teng Xi’s shout right before she was about to jump out of a window to end her life.

Teng Xi also gathered an important piece of information from their conversation: Doctor Shi Yun, whom Little Mushroom had mentioned, was Xie Jinbing’s colleague. Her office was located in Area A—the epicenter of the initial outbreak. However, when Teng Xi asked about Shi Yun’s whereabouts, Xie Jinbing’s gaze noticeably chilled.

For the next three days, the two occupied separate corners of the kitchen, living in a state of mutual non-interference. It had been a week since the outbreak began, yet miraculously, the electricity and gas had not been cut. There was a cold storage room behind the kitchen, and the two would occasionally take ingredients out to cook.

After Teng Xi tried her hand at cooking twice—only to produce a pot of something indescribable—Xie Jinbing forbade her from wasting precious food. She hadn’t expected that even with a “new love,” Teng Xi’s only skill remained “the witch brewing poison.”

But they both knew these peaceful days would eventually come to an end.

On the second day, the phone Xie Jinbing had “reclaimed” from Teng Xi had only 20% battery left. She decided to power it down, and their only tool of communication was officially retired.

On the third day, after a full meal, the two of them pulled chairs to the windows to bask in the sun. Teng Xi looked at Xie Jinbing, who sat at the window furthest from her. It seemed the “doctor sister” was still angry about her phone being stolen. Teng Xi shook her head and closed her eyes to rest. Since she wasn’t under the other’s watchful eye, she stopped pretending to be a “good girl.”

Suddenly, a scream startled Teng Xi out of her sleep.

“Ah—Holy sh*t!”

“F*ck!” Teng Xi cursed instinctively as her chair tipped over. Sensing Xie Jinbing’s gaze, she immediately flashed a submissive smile.

She turned to look down. The zombie horde that had been wandering aimlessly for the past few days seemed to have found a common goal. They were relentlessly chasing a single person, while another group was howling beneath a small, wooden garden shed.

“Survivors?”

Teng Xi propped herself up on the windowsill, leaning half her body out. Her tone was one of obvious pleasant surprise.

The map that had fallen off Little Mushroom mostly detailed the building they were currently in; the map of the entire Red House Psychiatric Hospital was only a small section in the top right corner. Teng Xi had studied it out of boredom.

The Red House was distributed in a triangle with three areas. Each area had three wards, along with a conference building, a lake, a garden, and a library. They were currently in Area C at one vertex of the triangle, while Shi Yun’s Area A was at another vertex. Area C had three buildings oriented north-to-south. Teng Xi and her companion were on the third floor of Building 1 at the southernmost end. The library was roughly two or three hundred meters further south.

The woman being chased by zombies below was attempting to run from the northern end of Building 2 toward the library in the south. As she ran, she wailed, “Help! I don’t want to die here! I haven’t even touched a girl’s hand yet—”

Additionally, several people were trapped atop the small wooden shed to the northwest of Building 2. Due to the angle, Teng Xi couldn’t see exactly how many there were, but their constant shouting and cursing served as a reminder that there were living people there, drawing wave after wave of zombies toward them. It was thanks to the people on the shed acting as a distraction that the woman below hadn’t been swallowed by the horde before reaching the library.

Looking at the woman’s escape route, Teng Xi frowned. Thanks to the kitchen’s excellent vantage point, she could clearly see the entire library. At the library entrance stood a large group of zombies wearing hospital gowns and little red vests, wandering leisurely. The woman’s line of sight was blocked by the two buildings; if she ran out from between Building 1 and Building 2, she would be caught in a pincer attack!

Teng Xi and Xie Jinbing locked eyes and quickly understood each other’s intent.

Save her!

Without a word, Teng Xi grabbed a bag of supplies from the kitchen table, slung the pink backpack over her shoulders, and nimbly vaulted over the windowsill, sliding down the gas pipes.

The paint chips on the pipe mercilessly scraped her palms. The stinging sensation of blood mixed with the foul smell of rust, but as she descended rapidly, the scent was soon overwhelmed by the stench of rotting zombies.

Teng Xi leaped lightly onto a guardrail, feeling the metal tremble beneath her feet due to years of neglect. She glanced at the woman who was less than a hundred meters away from crossing the boundary.

Next, she reached out to grab the gas pipe, arching her body. Her muscles bulged with effort. With a loud shout—and under Xie Jinbing’s horrified gaze—she actually tore a section of the guardrail straight off the wall.

With a powerful swing of her arm, she hurled the guardrail over ten meters away. It hit the ground with a massive clang, finally catching the attention of the woman who had been running blindly.

“Run this way! Don’t go over there!” Teng Xi shouted at her. Xie Jinbing, catching on instantly, had already slid down the gas pipe to the level above her.

A small portion of the zombies was drawn toward the sound of the guardrail hitting the ground. The woman immediately changed direction and sprinted toward them.

Teng Xi nimbly leaped to another section of the guardrail, sprinting along the metal toward the approaching woman. In Xie Jinbing’s eyes, Teng Xi was like a tiger retracting its claws to become a sleek cat jumping across the rails. Xie Jinbing quickly withdrew her gaze and vaulted into the window where the guardrail had just been removed; she had to clear the zombies out of that room to secure a safe point before the other two returned.

Xie Jinbing frowned with slight displeasure. Such a radical move was exactly the kind of thing Teng Xi would do. If either of them made a single mistake, all three of them would be finished.

Teng Xi continued her sprint along the guardrail. In a few short seconds, she reached the point just as the woman passed her horizontally. She stopped, holding an object she had already retrieved from the pink backpack.

The zombies were very close to the woman—less than twenty meters away. One slip-up would mean death.

Teng Xi watched the woman without blinking. When the survivor was only ten meters from the gas pipe, Teng Xi yelled: “Get ready to climb!”

The woman looked ready to cry: “For f*ck’s sake, I don’t know how to climb trees!” Let alone a gas pipe that was much thinner than a tree.

The architecture of the Red House was strange. The “first floor” wasn’t actually at ground level; beneath it was a “raised basement” about two meters high with only a few palm-sized windows and no guardrails. The windowsill of the first floor where Teng Xi stood was about 2.8 meters off the ground. No matter how the woman jumped, she wouldn’t be able to reach it.