Chapter 8#

Leaving#

“You—” Before Yang Junfei could finish, a young woman beside him stepped forward indignantly. “How can you be so uncivilized? Professor Yang is being polite to you, but your attitude is just too rude!”

Zhao Wanzhi gave a light laugh. “Civility? Miss, since you’re so civilized, why aren’t you out there saving those people attacked in the gymnasium, instead of wasting time lecturing me here?”

“You!” The young woman was left speechless, momentarily unable to find a retort.

The reason she disliked Zhao Wanzhi was simple: Zhao Wanzhi was far too dazzling. Not just people like Feng Nanyun and Yang Junfei, but even the male students around her couldn’t help sneaking glances at Zhao Wanzhi.

Add to that the two companions at Zhao Wanzhi’s side—so outstanding that one look at them made others feel inferior.

Even in these chaotic times, the young woman’s jealousy still flared up now and then.

“Enough, Zhou Ming,” Yang Junfei called her back. “Don’t bother with such trivial matters at a time like this.” His demeanor remained gentle and refined, showing no sign of anger at Zhao Wanzhi’s rude attitude.

Zhao Wanzhi sneered. “Indeed. At a time like this, using such a clumsy pickup line—you must be quite free, Professor Yang.”

Yang Junfei: “…”

He could be certain that he must have offended this woman at some point without knowing it.

Gu Cheng cleared his throat. “What are you doing at the library?”

“Because—” Yang Junfei had just started when everyone heard a loud crash from the window. They all turned their heads, no longer interested in what Yang Junfei had to say.

“What’s that?” A startled voice nearly turned into a scream.

In the darkness, clusters of black shadows slammed against the glass. The crisp sound of cracking indicated the glass wouldn’t hold for long.

Everyone had night vision, but the shadows were small and fast, and they were standing quite far from the windows, so they couldn’t immediately identify them.

“Sparrows,” Gu Cheng said calmly.

Everyone looked at him in disbelief. Feng Nanyun frowned. “Sparrows?”

In peacetime, sparrows were nothing. Back in the day, even children could catch and eat them. But later, sparrows became rarer and were classified as national second-class protected animals.

However, the school had quite a lot of sparrows. With many students came plenty of food. Photos of the school’s sparrows had once gone viral online—round and cute, appearing in large flocks, often in groups of three or five.

Because of their large base population, even though many had died, quite a number of sparrows had evolved into mutant animals.

On a night like this, sparrows ferociously smashing against the glass could no longer be associated with the word “cute.”

Zhao Yanzhi glanced casually at the person behind Feng Nanyun. His sense of smell was naturally sharp, and the stench of blood was especially pungent. “You’ve been dripping blood all the way here. It’s not surprising you’ve attracted tails.”

Yang Junfei gave a faint smile. “As I said before, bringing him along like this won’t work. The smell of blood will invite trouble.”

The soldier hiding behind Feng Nanyun shrank back but said nothing.

One of his arms had been bitten by a devourer earlier. The wound was festering and bleeding profusely. Despite a hasty bandage, blood was still dripping from his fingers.

Devourers were especially excited by the smell of fresh blood—to them, it meant fresh food.

Gu Cheng had assumed that the people with Feng Nanyun were all new humans, but now it seemed uncertain. Devourers could eat anything, but their favorite was still old humans. In their minds, old humans probably meant tender, juicy, and delicious. By comparison, new humans were tougher to chew.

These sparrows were clearly drawn to the injured man. It was very likely that the wounded one was an ordinary person.

“Stop with all the nonsense. They’re just a bunch of sparrows.” Feng Nanyun, tall and sturdy, raised his gun. The dozen or so soldiers with him all held their weapons, looking quite fierce.

Yang Junfei’s group, being mostly students and ordinary people gathered in the gymnasium, couldn’t help feeling intimidated at the sight.

Zhao Wanzhi glanced at the timid young soldier. “What is he to you?”

Feng Nanyun’s attitude toward her was still decent. “The younger brother of a comrade-in-arms. He’s the only one left in his family,” he said.

Gu Cheng had a sudden realization and could guess how the enmity between Feng Nanyun and Yang Junfei had formed.

The last time he met Feng Nanyun, there was no such person by his side.

Yang Junfei had always been someone who prioritized his own interests. And beyond that, he sometimes set traps for people purely out of amusement, even without reason. In the current situation, it would be strange if he didn’t find a way to get rid of this burden.

Plus, Gu Cheng knew that Yang Junfei had a good opinion of Feng Nanyun and had once wanted to cooperate with him.

Such an obvious weakness—Yang Junfei wouldn’t tolerate it.

In just a few exchanges, the glass shattered with a crash, and the flock of sparrows lunged straight at them!

In this environment, with sparrows being so small, using guns was highly impractical.

Feng Nanyun grabbed the thin blanket that Zhou Ming had been holding and swung it open to cover the sparrows. Zhou Ming’s scream was still stuck in her throat when the sound of tearing fabric came. The claws and sharp beaks of the irradiated sparrows had become weapons.

“Captain!” One of the soldiers, equally fierce, reached for a diving sparrow. After it slashed a bloody gash in his tiger’s mouth, he managed to crush it to death.

Seeing this, everyone realized that no matter how strong the sparrows were, they were still just sparrows. Besides, most of those present had survived the radiation and were new humans, far from helpless. After the initial flurry of panic, they quickly wiped out the flock.

For a moment, everyone exchanged glances, thinking these “monsters” weren’t so scary after all.

Just as they were relaxing, Gu Cheng’s face suddenly turned grave. He stared into the pitch-black night and said in a low voice, “Let’s go. Now.”

Zhao Yanzhi didn’t ask questions. He trusted Gu Cheng absolutely and immediately followed his lead. Zhao Wanzhi had no choice but to hurry after them.

Yang Junfei raised an eyebrow, looking at the three. “What’s happening?”

“If you don’t want to die, leave immediately.” Gu Cheng only threw out that one sentence before quickly leading the others down the stairs.

Once they turned a corner, Zhao Wanzhi couldn’t help asking, “What’s wrong?”

“They’re coming.”

“Who?”

“The devourers.”

In that short time, the devourers in the gymnasium had devoured those they had caught. But that wasn’t enough. After their appetites had been fully whetted, they needed more food.

In the early stages of the apocalypse, devourers couldn’t yet consume metal, cement, or fiber products. So they craved living creatures even more.

This campus was no longer safe. In the later stages of the apocalypse, ten thousand devourers could gnaw through a small town in no time. Now, the concentrated group of devourers, having had their first feast, had not only grown stronger but also intensified their hunger for prey.

Darkness was dangerous, but nowhere near as dangerous as a school with a massive congregation of devourers.

The three moved quickly through the darkness, dodging the roots of evolved plants that tried to trip them, and reached the place where they had parked their vehicles.

Unsurprisingly, many people had already gathered there, trying to force the cars open. If they wanted to leave, driving was certainly more convenient.

Most of the vehicles were military trucks, but the off-road vehicle Gu Cheng’s group had driven looked more high-end, so quite a few people were surrounding their car. The doors were locked, so they had smashed the windows and climbed inside. Unfortunately, none of them knew how to start a keyless ignition, and they were frantically hopping around.

Behind them, devourers were closing in. In front of them, idiots were trying to steal their car. Zhao Yanzhi looked at the shattered glass and frowned. “We’ll have to leave here first and find another car.”

“Yeah.” Zhao Wanzhi responded, swinging her proud frost blade as she charged forward. “Get the hell out of my way!”

The people surrounding the car turned around and, seeing the cold gleam of her long blade in the darkness, involuntarily stepped back.

Zhao Wanzhi strode over to the car and said icily to the person inside, “Get the hell out of our car!”

“Don’t—don’t—” The man inside raised his hands and scrambled out shamefully. But the person next to him lifted his chin and said, “In times like these, humans should help each other. You have a car; you could squeeze us in and take us with you.”

Zhao Yanzhi walked over, disgusted by the messy footprints and bloodstains left in the car. He said lightly, “Idiot.”

Gu Cheng grabbed the arm of the young man who seemed to think it was Of course that they should take him along. He pulled him out directly. “In times like these, it’s not a good idea to act like a prince. No one’s going to indulge you.”

They got into the car. A girl in a light-colored dress rushed over. She was already looking quite disheveled, but her face was wiped clean. She was indeed pretty, pale, and delicate, with a touch of pitiful charm. “Please, take me with you. Just me. I can cook, and I’m from the agricultural university—I’m very useful.”

Everyone knew that staying behind likely meant death.

“Shen Zhenzhen!” The young man Gu Cheng had thrown out earlier was both shocked and furious.

This Shen Zhenzhen had been his girlfriend.

Usually, because his family was wealthy, he had been spoiled rotten. But no matter what, he had treated his girlfriend well.

Now, she wanted to abandon him and beg these people to take her.

Zhao Yanzhi’s gaze was cold. These people hadn’t yet adapted to the apocalypse.

It wasn’t just the world that was about to become barren; it was also human hearts.

In the distance, Gu Cheng saw that Feng Nanyun and Yang Junfei seemed to be coming too, so he said, “Look over there. That’s Captain Feng from the military and Professor Yang from this university. You can ask them for help.”

Everyone turned to look. In the distance, they saw a family of three being chased by devourers. The husband shoved his wife and child hard toward the man-eating monsters, ignoring the child’s sharp cries of “Dad!” as he fled for his own life.

For an ordinary family of three to all survive this far was already an incredible stroke of luck. But even luck couldn’t stand up to a twisted human heart.

A group of young people ran together. A girl tripped and fell. “Help—save me!”

No one stopped. They left her to be surrounded by devourers, her screams of terror piercing the night.

…

Gu Cheng turned his head away and stopped watching. In the apocalypse, there was plenty of deception, calculation, and betrayal. The evil hidden deep in people’s hearts had already begun to show.

Now, it was only the beginning.