Chapter 24: Escape

Is it scarier to dream about running away and being chased by zombies, or to dream about being dead and turned into a zombie but unable to control yourself and hurting the person you love?

Zoe didn't want to choose either one. She hadn't had a dream for a long time. She hadn't dreamed since she could face those experimental subjects being corroded into pus without changing her expression. Zoe knew that she had become numb. She also felt terrible about herself, but later on, all the researchers who participated in this study were the same as her. If they were not mentally strong, they would be tortured to collapse.

Zoe felt that she was not afraid of anything anymore. After such a tragic study, what else could make Zoe afraid? Even when she saw the zombies stand up again, Zoe was afraid, but she didn't have a nightmare. However, she was so close to death before, and Zoe believed that she would probably suffocate to death at that time, so Zoe had a nightmare about her own death.

How did she die? Zoe didn't know. She didn't see any wounds on her body. Maybe the fatal wound was on the back and couldn't be seen, or maybe she died of tachycardia due to the excessive workload caused by endless work for several days and nights. In short, Zoe realized that she was dead and became a zombie. She heard her vocal cords trembling and making vague roars. There were zombies everywhere around her. All she saw were zombies. These zombies were endless, and she was just one of them. Zoe walked aimlessly for a long time and suddenly heard several gunshots. Zoe looked around and found that some zombies seemed to be moving towards a place with a purpose. Zoe couldn't help but follow them and then she saw Suwan.

Suwan stumbled back. She was alone with a group of zombies in front of her. She was so weak that she had no chance to draw her gun and shoot them in the head one by one. Even though Suwan was a student of Belster, her strength was too small when facing a group of zombies. The zombies were getting closer and closer. Suwan didn't even have time to shoot. She had to attack the zombies closest to her with punches and kicks. Zoe was blocked behind and saw Suwan being knocked down by a zombie, and then many zombies pounced on her, covering her completely.

Zoe heard Suwan's screams of pain, and her heart ached.

But the zombies' hearts weren't beating at all. This was simply a dream that was too real.

At that moment, Zoe, who was sleeping, began to cry.

No, no…Suwan!!

How can...Suwan!!

Zoe roared angrily, dragged her abnormal steps and ran over to tear apart the zombies that were greedily eating Suwan's flesh and blood. Suwan's body had been torn to pieces. She stared at the sky with wide eyes, her breathing becoming weaker and weaker.

Zoe knelt in front of her in despair, looking around helplessly for someone to save her, but there was no one, only zombies, and no one could save Suwan.

Then Zoe saw Suwan's eyes blink, and Zoe reached out to her in surprise, wanting to hug her, but she used her last bit of strength to raise the gun and pointed it at Zoe.

I am...Zoe...Zoe wanted to say, Zoe wanted Suwan to recognize her, but all the sounds she made were vague roars.

She's not Zoe, she's a zombie.

She stretched out her hands to Suwan to tear him apart, and opened her mouth to bite him. She couldn't control herself, and then Zoe seemed to have her soul separated from her body. She watched herself open her mouth and pounce on Suwan, watching it all in pain.

With a deafening gunshot, Zoe woke up from this long and painful dream. She slowly opened her eyes. The gunshot seemed to still echo in her ears, making Zoe dazed and unable to distinguish between dreams and reality.

Zoe stared blankly with her eyes wide open, tears streaming down her face silently. Her throat was dry and uncomfortable from crying. Then she heard Suwan's voice.

Zoe was about to collapse. The dream was so terrible that it frightened her.

So she lost her mind and said to Suwan desperately, Suwan, I like you.

Zoe regretted it right after she finished speaking. She was afraid of hearing Suwan's rejection. The nightmare just now completely made her lose all her rationality. Now that she was awake, she was trembling all over because of the fear of Suwan's rejection.

The person sitting by the window coughed awkwardly and wanted to speak, but was interrupted by Zoe: "Don't talk, do you, do you hate me..."

The other party coughed twice to clear his throat.

"I, I really like you."

The other party coughed heavily, and it sounded like she was answering Zoe, which gave Zoe hope. She looked at her excitedly: "You, you don't hate me that much, do you?"

The other party coughed heavily again, and said "NO" in between coughs.

Zoe was so happy that she quickly asked her, "Do you like me too?"

The other person coughed and said "hmm" again, and then the lights in the room suddenly came on.

Suwan, who was standing by the door turning on the light, raised an eyebrow at Angela, who was sitting by the window, with an unfriendly look on his face.

Angela felt guilty after seeing Suwan's look, and she was so scared that she choked and actually started coughing.

Zoe looked blankly at Angela by the window, then at Suwan by the door. She was embarrassed to find that Suwan was not the only one in the room, and that she had expressed the wrong feelings. Zoe sniffed pitifully, looked at Suwan with red eyes, and asked her with a desperate attitude: "Your friend answered me for you, does it count?"

"Of course not!!!!" Suwan stamped her feet and roared angrily. What does Angela's promise have to do with her? !

Zoe blinked her eyes, and took advantage of her weak mental state due to illness, and continued to sob without feeling ashamed, feeling extremely upset.

Angela quietly put her hand to cover her face, turned her head and whispered to Zoe: "It's a deal, I'll promise you on her behalf..." But this little trick couldn't fool Suwan at all. Suwan was really mad at Angela's nonsense regardless of the occasion. Before Angela finished her words, Suwan simply took out a dagger and threw it at Angela, simply and rudely telling Angela to shut up. The dagger brushed past Angela's ear, and then the dagger was thrown directly behind Angela, smashing the glass behind Angela and flying out of the room with a clang.

The dagger cut off some of Angela's hair on her ears. She realized that Suwan was really angry, so she pulled the corners of her mouth stiffly and gave Suwan a flattering smile.

However, Suwan, who was suddenly confessed and panicked and angry, and Zoe, who was pitiful and regretful, were staring at Angela, making Angela feel uncomfortable. Angela could only spread her hands innocently to the two people in the room: "It's really not my fault."

Later, Suwan simply ran away. When she returned to the dormitory, she saw the stingy instructor Will waiting in her dormitory with a serious face. Suwan immediately felt bad. Instructor Will was very vindictive. This time, she and Angela were in trouble. Suwan thought so, and Instructor Will saw her, walked up to her and looked her up and down. Seeing that Suwan was not injured, he was relieved. He scolded Suwan for not following the rules and left. Suwan couldn't believe that she escaped so easily. Suwan walked lightly and looked into the corridor, and saw Instructor Will going upstairs, probably to find Angela.

Suwan only remembered the dagger she had thrown out of the window after she returned to the dormitory. She was so angry that she didn't care that Zoe's room was on the third floor. She didn't know if there was anyone downstairs at that time who would be so unlucky as to be hit by the dagger and injured. In any case, it would be better to get the dagger back, so Suwan ran back to the building where the researchers lived to find her dagger. She searched for a long time in the flowers in front of the building, which was below Zoe's room, but couldn't find her dagger. Instead, Angela came. Angela went to her dormitory to look for her but didn't see anyone, so she knew that Suwan should have come back.

Hearing footsteps, Suwan turned around and saw that it was Angela, with an impatient look on his face. Because of Angela's antics, Suwan wanted to beat her up when he saw her face. Angela was also very guilty, so she pretended to look around, and then talked to Suwan: "Haven't you found it yet?"

"Nonsense," Suwan gritted his teeth and bent over to search the ground hard.

Angela also felt that her question was stupid. If she had found Suwan, would she have gone to such great lengths to find him? So Angela also bent down and looked around on the ground to help Suwan find the dagger. While searching, she asked her, "Do you think that dagger has become a murder weapon?"

"…"

"You used a lot of force at that time. If there was someone nearby when the dagger flew out of the window," Angela had a strong imagination and simulated the place where the dagger would land after being thrown. Then she pointed to the flower bed and said, "If he stood there, the dagger might have pierced his head."

Angela's mouth was so annoying that Suwan grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground and threw it towards Angela to tell her to shut up. Angela quickly dodged to the side, but she was quiet for a while and started gossiping again: "I thought Zoe didn't care about you before, but it turns out she likes you, so that explains it."

"Can you please not mention her?" Suwan said depressedly.

"Why not?" Angela was very excited: "I think she is very good, do you like her?"

Suwan gritted his teeth: "If you think it's good, just go and like her."

"What a joke, I do understand the principle of 'don't cheat on your friend's wife'," Angela blinked and looked serious.

"I have nothing to do with her!!!" Suwan roared, "And where did you learn all that nonsense from!"

Angela pouted: "So do you like her?"

"I don't like it," Suwan said helplessly. The students' lives were so boring. Now that Angela finally had something to gossip about, she didn't care that the other person was her good friend, and she was still in a bad mood, asking endless questions.

"Do you hate her?"

"Not that I hate it."

"Then she likes you, just accept it."

Suwan was almost furious. She hated it most when other people made decisions for her. "Why do you have so many things to do? Why should I accept them? Can't I choose my own affairs? I can choose not to accept them, but you still force me. Don't I have the right to choose not to accept them?"

"You can choose, you can choose," Angela hesitated and asked again: "But why did you run away at that time, were you shy?"

From the moment Angela asked this question, Suwan was yelling at her almost every word.

"You're the one who's shy!!"

"You're not shy," Angela quickly reassured her.

"Get out!!!!" Suwan was angry.

Suwan stomped her foot in anger and kicked something. She lowered her head to look and reached out to pull out the thing. It turned out to be the dagger she threw out of the window. However, the blade didn't sink into the soil, only a little bit of the handle was exposed. Suwan didn't see it in the dark night. Suwan felt relieved to see that the dagger just fell into the flower bed and didn't hurt anyone. She pulled out the dagger and wiped the dirt off the dagger with her sleeve. She held the dagger up and looked at it. The cold light of the dagger swayed on her face, which was terrifying and shocking. Suwan was unaware of it. Seeing that the dagger was not broken, she looked at Angela and planned to go back with Angela. As a result, Angela stared at her in fear as if Suwan wanted to kill her to silence her.

Suwan was speechless, while Angela stiffly stretched out a finger and pointed upwards: "You won't do anything violent to me in front of someone who likes you, right?"

Suwan looked up and saw Zoe looking down from behind the broken window. When her eyes met Suwan's, Zoe waved happily to Suwan: "Hi."

Suwan expressionlessly pulled the corners of her mouth and gave Zoe a reluctant smile. She didn't expect to see Zoe so soon. It was so embarrassing!

"It's really not my fault," Angela said sincerely.