Chapter 7: I'll Take On All Three of You

The pitch - black thick smoke shot straight up into the sky, adding a touch of color to this desolate doomsday scene. The smoke was beyond Zhang Xiaoqiang's line of sight. He knew something had happened there, and curiosity was scratching at his heart like a cat's paw. He looked at his watch. It was 3:40 p.m. There were at least two hours until dark, and there was enough time for him to go to the rooftop to find out.

Zhang Xiaoqiang picked up the high - imitation Huya military knife and tied it to his belt. The shoelace under the scabbard was firmly tied around his thigh. He took two steps and found that it didn't affect his flexibility. Then he picked up the shield, the iron spear, and the binoculars and went out.

He carefully climbed the stairs. Zhang Xiaoqiang lived on the second floor, and the rooftop was on the eighth floor. He carefully tiptoed and slowly walked up the stairs. When he reached the stairway on the third floor, he tried to open the anti - theft door of the resident on the third floor. As he expected, it was locked tightly. At least he didn't have to worry about a zombie pouncing out from inside.

Zhang Xiaoqiang slowly moved upward, trying the doorknobs in front of each floor. He did this all the way to the eighth floor. This made him relax a little. The unit he lived in was safe, and the zombies were all locked inside the houses. When he passed by each door, he could hear the sound of zombies scratching the iron doors inside. His smell intensified the zombies' efforts to scratch the doors. The sharp claws of the zombies scratched the iron doors, making an ear - piercing metallic screech that made his teeth feel sour.

The owner of the eighth floor had sealed off the entire stairway with iron railings, and an iron door for people to enter and exit was tightly locked. Zhang Xiaoqiang tried to pry it open with the tip of the iron spear, but he couldn't. He carefully examined the iron door. There was a lot of rust on the edge of the iron door, and it was locked tightly. Only a card as thick as an ID card could be inserted on the lock side.

Zhang Xiaoqiang was a little anxious and wondered if he should go downstairs to find some more tools. His eyes scanned the entire iron door. He knocked on it with his hand and found that the iron door was actually very thin. The owner, in an attempt to save materials, had welded a sheet of white iron onto a door frame made of angle iron with a welding machine. There weren't many welds. He heaved a sigh of relief. Now it would be easy!

He pulled out the Huya military knife and inserted it into the iron plate, then pried it outward. "Thud..."

The iron plate was pried open at one corner. He continued to use the Huya knife to pry until he had pried out an entrance large enough for him to crawl through.

Zhang Xiaoqiang walked towards the rooftop. The rooftop was filled with construction materials. Bricks, river sand, cement, various PPR water inlet pipes, and PVC wire pipes covered the entire rooftop. It seemed that the owner of the eighth floor was planning to build a private house on the rooftop. A row of red - brick walls at the end of the rooftop had been half - built.

Suddenly, three zombies emerged from behind the wall, one in front and two behind, coming towards Zhang Xiaoqiang. The one in front was still holding a trowel in its claw.

"Damn it," Zhang Xiaoqiang cursed. He must have forgotten to burn incense before going out. What bad luck!

He turned around and ran two steps, then stopped with his feet planted firmly.

"I can run now, but what about later? There are only three of them. What do I have to be afraid of!"

Blood rushed to his head, making Zhang Xiaoqiang excited. He turned around and trotted towards the first zombie. He held the shield in his left hand tightly and slightly raised the iron spear in his right hand. He panted heavily and stared intently at the figure of the zombie.

The zombie's emaciated cheeks and exaggerated big mouth came into his view. At the moment when the zombie and he made contact, the iron spear in his right hand, held tightly, swept through an arc in the air and suddenly smashed onto the zombie's right lower leg.

"Crunch..." The sound of bones breaking rang out.

"Plop..." The zombie fell to the ground.

Zhang Xiaoqiang ignored the fallen zombie and trotted towards the remaining two zombies. The two zombies were on the left and right, about five or six meters apart from each other. He charged towards the zombie on the left. His palm holding the iron spear was slightly sweaty, and his heart was pounding so hard that it was a bit difficult for him to breathe.

"Two meters, one meter, now!"

The left hand holding the iron pot lid was firmly pressed against his left chest, and he used his left shoulder to push the pot lid and rammed into the zombie fiercely. A huge force was transmitted from his shoulder to his left wrist bone. A burning sensation spread through his left hand. The iron pot lid became convex in the front and concave in the back and was barely recognizable!

There was no time to think. Taking advantage of the fact that this zombie had fallen to the ground, Zhang Xiaoqiang threw away the damaged iron pot lid, held the iron spear with both hands, and charged towards the remaining zombie. He got close, his left leg stepped forward in a bow shape. He aimed at the zombie's ugly head and stabbed the iron spear forward quickly.

"Pu..."

The triangular spearhead pierced the zombie's throat, then penetrated the cervical vertebrae and protruded from the back of the neck. Zhang Xiaoqiang rotated the spear body from left to right. The triangular file shredded the flesh, skin, and bones in the zombie's neck and was easily pulled out. A hole made of flesh and blood appeared in the zombie's neck. The zombie's head, still attached to the remaining skin and muscles, hung on its back, and it toppled to the ground.

"Hoo..." Zhang Xiaoqiang let out a breath. He had aimed for the head but hit the neck? His marksmanship was really poor!

The previous zombie had already climbed up from the ground. The previous impact hadn't caused it any harm. It lunged at Zhang Xiaoqiang again with its claws outstretched. He used his peripheral vision to glance at the first zombie he had knocked down. It was crawling towards him on the ground. One of its lower legs had been broken by him. For a zombie, the desire for flesh and blood was above all else. This was a desire deep in its bones, making it instinctively approach him, eager to chew him up, tear him apart, and swallow him into its throat!

Zhang Xiaoqiang dodged the zombie's pounce and ran behind the zombie with a broken leg. He stepped on its back with one foot, firmly holding it down so that it couldn't move. He exerted force with his arm, and the iron spear stabbed into the back of the zombie's head. He rotated the spear body and pulled out the spearhead. The zombie stopped moving, and the spearhead was covered with stinking yellow brain matter.

"One last one left."

Zhang Xiaoqiang looked up as the last zombie pounced towards him. He wanted to test an idea in his mind, to see if there were any vital parts of a zombie other than the head. He teased the zombie, running around it in circles, and then took the opportunity to break its two arms one after another.

The spearhead continuously stabbed in and out of the zombie's body. The zombie's clothes had been shredded into rags by the iron spear, and its emaciated, blackened body was covered with holes. Its heart, liver, and lungs had all been smashed to pieces. But the zombie didn't seem to notice at all. Like a mad dog, it swung its two broken arms and chased after him, trying to bite him. The experiment was over. The spearhead stabbed into the zombie's stinking mouth, shattered its sharp teeth, and was pulled out.

He took out a tissue from his pocket and wiped the sweat from his face. His heart was filled with a sense of calm.

"Taking on three at once, I actually did it. I really did it. Five days ago, I was so scared when facing a single zombie. Today, I killed a total of 10 zombies, three of which I took down head - on without any fancy moves!"

Zhang Xiaoqiang felt a sense of relief. "Who says homebodies are useless? I'm alive, I will continue to live, and I will live better," he said to himself.

After his excited mood calmed down, Zhang Xiaoqiang looked at his watch. It was 4:31 p.m. It had taken about ten minutes to climb the stairs and search, more than twenty minutes to pry open the iron door, and less than ten minutes to kill the zombies, conduct the experiment, and search for the so - called brain core (although there was nothing in the zombies' heads except brain matter).

Remembering the purpose of his coming upstairs today, he walked to the parapet of the rooftop, raised the ten - times binoculars, and looked towards the place where the smoke was coming from. More than half an hour had passed, and the smoke had become a little lighter. In the lens of the binoculars, a medium - sized van had overturned on the ground. Hundreds of zombies around the van were divided into several groups and gathered together. The front of the van had crashed into the flower bed on the side of the road, and there were faint flames on the vehicle body. In front of the van, a bus and a medium - sized truck had collided horizontally, and more cars had crashed into the back. The bodies of the two vehicles and the numerous cars had blocked the entire road tightly. Everything was clear. A van carrying survivors had rushed out from the city center and tried to get out of the city. When the road was blocked, due to excessive speed and inability to brake in time, it had overturned. Some survivors had been burned to death in the vehicle, while others had been thrown out of the carriage and become a meal for the zombies.

Seeing all this, Zhang Xiaoqiang felt a bit stuffy in his heart. Now, in this doomsday world, the zombies were in control. All the survivors were like hungry mice, struggling to earn a glimmer of hope for themselves under great pressure. At least he was lucky. The food at home was still enough for him to last for two months. As for what to do after two months?

"Just get through these two months first. We'll worry about the future later," Zhang Xiaoqiang comforted himself. He shook his head and walked downstairs. At the same time he was going downstairs, it started to rain in the sky!