Chapter 14 Jumping Off
As they moved forward, William swapped the empty magazine for a full one in the pistol.
It was a habit he had developed over his many years in the post-apocalyptic world.
The long-haired beauty behind him looked pale because the mutated willow branch she held constantly emitted a bloody smell, stimulating her fragile nerves.
The two bodies at the base of the willow tree, used as fertilizer, were dragged over after being killed by the willow branches. There were still some flesh and blood remnants on the branches.
After the mutation, the willow branches became flexible and strong, and the willow leaves were as sharp as knives. During the run, some willow leaves had even cut her delicate skin, but she dared not make a sound. She was afraid that the man in front of her would abandon her. If he did, besides becoming food for the zombies behind her, there was no other possibility.
William bypassed the cafeteria and slipped into an outdoor fitness equipment area from the side, easily evading the zombies' encirclement.
It was thanks to his accurate judgment brought by his rich experience and the excellent vision and hearing of a One-Star Evolver. If it were someone else, they would probably have been surrounded by the zombies attracted by the noise.
They hid in the dark corner of the building, and William determined the direction. He had only seen the key to the enclave falling from the sky in the community earlier, but some tall buildings blocked the bright light after descending to a certain height. Therefore, William could not accurately determine the landing point.
It made him somewhat anxious. After all, the key to the enclave was not a threat to humans like the zombies. If someone else got it first, he would feel extremely unwilling.
A commotion interrupted William's thinking. He noticed that on the fourth floor of the building opposite, someone was climbing out along the curtains tied together. However, the length of the curtain rope was a bit short, disappearing near the second floor, forcing those descending individuals to jump down from the second floor.
Initially, everything seemed fine. The students were proceeding smoothly, but when a student at the end of the curtain rope was about to jump down, the glass window on the second floor suddenly shattered. Several withered, gray-black arms of zombies reached out from inside, catching the student off guard and causing him to fall down and start screaming instinctively.
Undoubtedly, such a loud noise was like a beacon in the night for the zombies with heightened senses. The zombies in the area all converged toward that direction, their unique beast-like low growls echoing.
In the dimly lit night, the zombies' blood-red eyes and the sounds of death formed immense pressure, causing the students who were calm moments ago to panic completely. Some on the fourth floor wanted to retreat, while others wanted to escape the place of death, resulting in chaos quickly.
The students still on the curtain rope also panicked, jumping down one after another. However, most of these students were between the third and fourth floors. Falling from this height onto the concrete ground below would result in fractures if not death. Their cries of pain indicated they were among the most unfortunate.
The students who had already reached the ground exerted all their strength and ran toward William.
"Fuck!"
William cursed through gritted teeth. He couldn't understand why he kept encountering such situations despite things going relatively smoothly since his rebirth. The long-haired woman earlier, and now these students. He thought, ‘Does I have a halo of an angel on my head since my rebirth? Otherwise, why are they all coming toward me?’
He was certain that these students were targeting him because many had started waving and shouting in his direction, calling for help or assistance.
Instinctively, William wanted to leave. He had no sympathy for those who panicked and betrayed their companions in times of crisis.
However, as he looked at the window where the students had escaped and then correlated it with the angle at which the light had descended earlier, he changed the idea immediately.
If these people had stayed by the window, some of them might have seen where the key to the enclave landed!
"Wait here."
After instructing the long-haired woman, William walked over with his knife.
The six or seven students looked pleased when they saw someone approaching, but their expressions turned to confusion and pain when they realized it was just one person. Some even showed a hint of resentment.
Why was there only one? What can one do?
"Go to the corner of the building over there!"
Without even looking at the students, William passed by them and directed these words toward the approaching zombies.
Compared to a continuous horde of zombies, these sporadic ones posed little threat to William. What he feared most was a large group of zombies gathering at the same time.
Although the machete William carried was somewhat worn, after several rounds of killing, he wielded it with ease. However, since becoming a One-Star evolver, he felt the machete was light.
The zombies were excited and agitated at the sight of someone running toward them, but they met with the deadly gleam of the blade.
William's exceptional physical condition, six times that of an average person, came into play. His speed was so fast that the sparse group of zombies couldn't even touch him. His immense strength and precise strikes resulted in every zombie being killed with a single blow, albeit in different ways. Some were stabbed in the eye sockets, some had their necks severed, and some were pierced through the temples.
When the students reached the location William had mentioned and saw a somewhat familiar long-haired beauty, they turned back. It wasn't about caring for the person's safety. It was more about assessing the distance between the zombies and themselves.
However, what they witnessed left them stunned. The man who should have been eaten by the zombies not only survived but also charged into the midst of the zombie horde, dispatching the creatures that were the most terrifying things in their world as easily as slaughtering chickens and dogs. In just a moment, more than a dozen had fallen in his path!
"How is this possible!?"
A student, sweating profusely from running, whispered in disbelief, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.
Although the apocalypse had only just begun a few hours ago, these few hours felt like centuries for the vast majority of people. They had witnessed and experienced humanity's fall from grace, realizing the truth that humans had become food, and these transformed monsters had become hunters.
But now, this newly formed understanding was being overturned, and they found it hard to accept.
What was even more difficult to accept was that this reversal was happening to others, not to themselves.
After hitting the head of a zombie, William found that the nearest zombie was still over thirty feet away. He immediately turned back and ran, taking the opportunity to dig out the crystals from the foreheads of the zombies he had killed along the way.
He quickly returned to the group of people and eagerly asked, "A beam of light just descended from the sky. Who saw where it landed?"
