Ch 128: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

The assembly group plunged into chaos.

Zhao Tingting scrambled up from the ground, somehow finding strength from nowhere. She scooped up Maomao, who was still barking his head off, and ran after the flow in a daze. As she brushed past Song Rushuang, she suddenly stopped. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault for not keeping him under control…”

Song Rushuang was already in the fight. Even as she moved, she found a split second to shout back, “What are you apologizing for? He did a huge service!”

There were not many of the Believers, so they could not rely on numbers. Fu Qing was almost certain their first choice would be to blend into the shelter system and find a way to create chaos from inside.

This was not the first time they had used a method like this.

The students had mixed into the crowd for one reason: to find traces of the Believers.

But the people who had been trapped outside for a week looked little better than the pale, reeking zombies themselves. And to avoid being bitten, everyone had wrapped up heavily, covering every patch of exposed skin. From appearances alone, there was no way to tell.

They had even brought in police dogs, but the dogs stood out too much. After patrolling along the edge of the line with their handlers for ages, they found nothing.

Most likely the Believers had spotted them from afar and avoided them in advance.

They had been at a loss, and the crowd had already reached the assembly point. If Maomao had not scented that something was wrong, the farce would likely have played out right in front of the buses.

During the registration checks before boarding, staff would have verified identities strictly. The Believers would certainly have been exposed then, but the surroundings would have been even worse: tighter, more crowded, more dangerous.

No matter what, this Samoyed had earned real credit.

Song Rushuang kicked the man down. The two beside her, disguised as a married couple, stepped in immediately. They produced guns from nowhere and poured ammunition out without mercy.

The body on the ground jerked twice under the impact, then went still.

Song Rushuang, who had been about to draw her blade, quietly sheathed it again and could not help thinking: firearms really were convenient.

Zhao Tingting’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. She swallowed hard, hugged the dog with one arm, and hurried her parents away.

Pei Man, who had been shoved aside at the very start, finally snapped back to herself. Trembling, she lifted Zhaozhao into her arms. She cast one last glance at the young woman’s back, the one who had chatted with her all the way here, and finally realized that girl was probably not a fellow refugee at all.

She had approached them to protect them.

Pei Man etched Song Rushuang’s profile into her memory, then ran without looking back.

People shoved and jostled, scattering like headless flies. In the end, under the soldiers’ constant shouted commands to keep order, the crowd was gradually gathered up and driven in a single direction.

Their destination was a high school. Through a side gate, they could reach the gymnasium directly.

The school had been cleared in advance and staffed with guards, precisely so it could receive a surge of fleeing civilians at moments like this.

On other routes toward other shelters, several similar emergency refuge points had also been set up.

In the morning meeting, Fu Qing, Tian Xuejun, and the others had discussed in detail how the Believers might create chaos. When the air-raid siren sounded, it was the best time for civilians to assemble and move toward shelters. But without question, it was also the best time for the Believers to strike.

The gathering could not be halted, and there was no reliable way to pick Believers out of a crowd. So how could they protect civilians as much as possible?

In the end, the plan was to use public facilities along the way, schools and community centers, as transfer stations. Translated on Hololo novels. Checkpoints at the entrances would block Believers, funnel fleeing civilians inside, then manage them in smaller, separated groups.

The crowd flowed like a rushing river, naturally splitting around obstacles. And at the center of each “obstacle” was a knot of combat: Believers grappling with students and soldiers.

On rooftops along the street, several students with binoculars kept directing the battle.

“…Twelve o’clock, the woman in the gray long-sleeved hoodie.”

“Qi Chu, behind you at four o’clock. Man in a brown jacket, black baseball cap.”

“By the street corner at nine o’clock, next to that Mc’s sign…”

A three-dimensional map hovered in midair from a wristband projection. Blue dots representing students flickered constantly, while their collaborators, temporarily wearing ordinary wristbands, showed as gray dots.

These specially selected students had exceptional spatial awareness and command ability.

They combined the Believers’ positions in their line of sight with their teammates’ locations on the map. Based on distance, and on how each squad was faring, they continuously redirected forces across the field.

Amid the tangled noise, Liang Yi’s voice cut through the clearest, always anticipating danger a step ahead, even calling out each student by name.

The situation shifted by the second, yet under his command, it was like watching someone move pieces on a chessboard, calm and precise, one deliberate step after another.

“Help!”

In the crowd, a middle-aged woman was suddenly tackled by a Believer and cried out.

The half-zombified man bent over her, about to bite, when someone grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up. With that immense force, he went flying sideways and slammed into a trash can by the curb, knocking it over in a spill of rotting, stinking garbage.

A bullet met him next.

Qin Yufei turned back just in time to see the soldier responsible for finishing blows flash an OK sign. He nodded, bent down to pull the fallen middle-aged woman to her feet, and his expression suddenly changed as he looked up.

A runner-type Believer was scrambling up the exterior wall of a building using both hands and feet. Its movements were so agile it looked like it was running along the eaves. In the blink of an eye it had climbed four or five meters, already closing in on the window where Liang Yi and the others were hiding.

“Watch out!”

Qin Yufei saw the creature’s claws hook over the edge of the top window. Its back arched. One final movement and it would bare a savage grin at the people inside.

But before he finished shouting, glass shattered with an explosive crash. The Believer thrust its head inside the window and saw exactly what awaited it there.

A leather boot, gleaming coldly, slammed straight into its face and kicked it flying backward.

The kick carried full force. Translated on Hololo novels. From Qin Yufei’s angle, the Believer’s neck twisted violently under the impact. Its body still leaned forward while its head bent nearly two hundred seventy degrees backward, eyes wide with shock.

Even so, it did not die.

Realization flashed through its eyes, followed by vicious intent. It even managed to adjust its posture midair, preparing to spring again the moment it landed.

This time, it would not charge in blindly.

That was the difference between these Believers and ordinary zombies. They could learn, and that made them far harder to deal with.

Qin Yufei cursed inwardly and rushed toward where it would land, but then he saw Xue Ran, the one who had delivered the kick, crouch as she landed inside the room and immediately sidestep, yielding space.

Filling that space seamlessly was a submachine gun.

The soldier holding it wore a cold, focused expression. He aimed at the Believer, still suspended in midair with nowhere to escape, and pulled the trigger.

A torrent of fire erupted outward. Even the opposite building’s wall was riddled with dense bullet holes. The Believer, turned into a living target, did not even have time to make a sound before being shredded.

One magazine emptied. It exploded into a cloud of blood before hitting the ground.

Qin Yufei stared, stunned, suddenly understanding how ancient warriors must have felt when cold weapons first met firearms.

He looked down at the fire axe in his hands and felt it had suddenly lost its appeal.

The battle on the street continued.

To avoid drawing back the mindless zombies lured away by the siren, every soldier’s weapon was fitted with a suppressor. Still, aside from pistols, the gunfire from larger weapons remained thunderous even when muffled.

For many people, it was the first time in their lives hearing gunshots.

Yet as they ran amid the rolling bursts of fire, brushing past soldiers advancing in the opposite direction, watching zombies collapse wherever the muzzles pointed, an overwhelming sense of safety rose within them.

The sudden appearance of “zombies” hidden among the crowd was clearly something the authorities had anticipated. Realizing this, people’s fear eased, and order gradually returned. Guided by shouted instructions, the crowd hurried toward the school that marked their destination.

Inside another vehicle, Bai Xianglei lowered his radio and turned to Fu Qing.

“The Believers have appeared. Near Assembly Point One, on Donglin Avenue.”

“The evacuees are being redirected to Donglin High School according to plan.”

Fu Qing felt a faint tremor through the jeep’s chassis and heard distant unrest. “I hear it.”

Zhou Lingxi glanced at her in surprise.

Their waiting point was also near Assembly Point One. Donglin Avenue was not far away, but the sirens drowned everything out. She herself had heard nothing.

This principal was not only powerful, her senses were sharper than ordinary people’s.

Zhou Lingxi was strong through training, but Fu Qing’s extraordinary hearing, vision, and reflexes could only be called talent.

Something impossible to envy into existence.

After responding, Fu Qing fell silent again, her expression slightly dark as if deep in thought.

Since she did not speak, no one else interrupted. The chaos outside could be handled by the students and soldiers. Their only task was to stay with her.

Whatever happened, they would not leave.

“Any Believers at the other assembly points?” Fu Qing suddenly asked.

In truth, she already knew the answer.

The system panel before her displayed the status of every student wristband. Fangzhou had sent over a hundred students to each assembly point. The communication channels for Points Two through Eight were quiet, while the channel near Point One was bustling.

Bai Xianglei confirmed it. “No. There are eight assembly points in the city. Aside from Point One, Points Two through Eight have already fired orange signal flares. The buses should depart within ten minutes at most.”

From the front seat, Chu Hai muttered, “Eight assembly points, and they just happened to collide with ours. That’s too much of a coincidence.”

Fu Qing lowered her gaze, tapping the armrest lightly with her fingers, and said meaningfully, “Yes… quite a pleasant coincidence.”

The others did not immediately understand.

She turned to Chu Hai in the driver’s seat. “Head straight to Donglin Avenue. No need to wait anymore.”

Chu Hai obediently stepped on the accelerator. As the vehicle started moving, he asked, “We’re not waiting at the assembly point?”

They had stayed there because it held the largest crowd and was the most likely place for chaos.

“No need,” Fu Qing said coldly. “If I’m right… their real target was never the assembly point.”

₊˚.🎧📓✩