Having made up his mind, Kael Voss stepped down from the stairs, took out a bottle of water, and gently fed a few sips to the woman. He then checked her wounds—she was clearly hanging on by a thread, and her injuries were far beyond help.
After a brief hesitation, Kael asked curiously, "How long have you two been hiding out here?"
The woman's spirits lifted slightly after drinking some water. She licked her dry lips and said slowly, "I came here alone at first. I only ran into her later... She was already..."
Kael thought to himself, Another unlucky soul. You barely managed to escape here alive, only to end up dying anyway.
The woman continued, "When I found her, she'd already gone rabid. I'm like this because she attacked me. I've been lying here for two days and two nights…"
Kael raised an eyebrow and glanced at the other woman. He couldn't help but feel some respect for the survivor. Facing a zombie and still managing to kill it, even at such a high cost—that was no small feat.
After a short rest, the woman murmured again, "To be honest, I know I'm not going to make it."
Kael fell silent. He sighed and asked, "You've been here all this time and haven't run into a single zombie?"
"Zombie?" the woman echoed, eyes showing confusion. "Is that what you call them? I thought it was some kind of mutated rabies… they just went crazy and started biting people. God, my body hurts…"
Kael didn't respond. He fed her another sip of water, then asked, "Where did you come from? Were there other survivors?"
"Henglong Tower…"
As she spoke, pain flashed across her face. "The building where someone lit a fire on the rooftop a few days ago."
Kael was momentarily surprised, then brightened. "I saw the flames too. I was planning to head that way—so there are survivors there?"
But his voice quickly lowered again. A troubling thought crept into his mind—if there were survivors, why did this woman flee?
Had something gone wrong over there?
The woman suddenly grew anxious. "Don't go there! It's not safe anymore…"
Kael frowned. "Why? What happened?"
"I'm not entirely sure myself…" she said, voice trembling. "There were around a dozen of us hiding out in the tower. We lit the fire to signal for help and slowly, other survivors found their way to us. Things were getting better… but then…"
Her face twisted in pain. Her breathing quickened. Kael quickly offered her another sip of water. After a moment, she calmed down enough to continue.
"A few days ago, something strange appeared—a glowing pentagram, just floating in midair inside the building. People tried to touch it, but they couldn't—it was like a hologram or a mirage, completely intangible. At first, it didn't do anything, but then... weird things started happening."
"Mutated zombies and animals began showing up in the building. Whenever they encountered each other, they fought viciously, almost like they were all trying to claim the pentagram. We survivors got caught in the crossfire. A lot of people died. The rest scattered. I barely managed to escape."
Kael listened intently, increasingly intrigued by the pentagram. He had a feeling—if the infected and mutated creatures were drawn to it, then it had to be more than just some strange illusion.
"You don't know what the pentagram actually is, do you?" he asked.
The woman gave a faint shake of her head. "Some tried to touch it, but it was useless. Like I said… it was like a projection. You could see it, but not interact with it."
Kael fell into deep thought. He didn't believe the pentagram was truly untouchable. There had to be some special method—one they simply hadn't discovered yet.
Just then, the woman suddenly gasped for air, her body struggling. "You… you mustn't…"
But she didn't finish her sentence. Her voice faded, her eyes rolled back, and her head slumped to the side. She was gone.
Kael stared at her lifeless body for a moment, then sighed. He turned and continued up the stairs. He didn't encounter a single zombie or survivor along the way.
At the rooftop, he gently pushed open the fire escape door. Just as he expected, there were very few zombies up here. The spacious terrace and circular corridor had only seven or eight undead figures in staff uniforms, wandering aimlessly.
He still didn't know how many zombies lurked inside the shopping center, but judging by how quiet it was, it couldn't be too many.
…
Outside the fire door, there was a floor map mounted on the wall. Kael glanced over it and realized the building was called Tianwang Mall, a massive nine-story shopping complex offering everything from dining and entertainment to luxury retail.
According to the layout, there was even an aquarium on the first floor.
Before the apocalypse, Kael mused, you could've lived your entire life in a place like this—if you had enough money. Food, clothes, shelter, transportation—everything was here.
Now that he was injured, this place seemed like a good spot to rest and recover. Hopefully, during the next thunderstorm, he could re-establish contact with Lyra Solis. If so, supplies wouldn't be a problem.
He sat down and checked his wounds. His frown deepened. While not life-threatening, the injuries were still dangerous in the apocalypse.
To this day, no one knew why people had suddenly turned into zombies overnight. If the infection wasn't airborne, how had it spread so quickly?
Leaving open wounds exposed in the current environment could be a death sentence. He forced himself to his feet and limped over to study the map again. A pharmacy had to be somewhere in the mall.
As expected, just as he hoped, there was a shop labeled "Dayang Pharmacy" not far down the corridor on the right side of the fire door.
At the moment, the terrace and corridor only had those same seven or eight zombies, all of them about a hundred meters away. Kael figured, at that distance, they probably couldn't tell whether he was human or one of them.
As long as he stayed quiet and didn't do anything obvious, he should be able to sneak by.
Taking a deep breath, Kael mimicked a zombie's slow, stiff gait, dragging his feet as he moved in the direction of the pharmacy.
Even as he shuffled forward, he kept glancing sideways at the undead. As expected, they didn't notice him. But by the time he reached the pharmacy door, he was already breathing hard and trembling slightly from tension.