The World Below Surface - Chapter 4

Damn it, what the hell is this?

Why were there zombies?

Initially, everyone had fled outside because fewer posters of women were outside the station. Now that the threat of the posters had subsided for the time being, He Lou simply led the crowd into the station once again.

Was this the only way to escape?

The effects of the blood mist still seemed to be there, and He Lou’s thoughts were a little confused. Then he looked at the sisters, Li Fang Yu and Lai Li Fang Zhi, who was doing the same, thinking only of escaping and evading the zombies.

In fact, they both knew that there was another way.

Just tear off a random poster of a woman and stick it on the zombie.

But no one did anything about it.

The proposal was almost as childish and ridiculous as a group of rats discussing how to hide from a cat. The answer was something like tying a bell around the cat’s neck.

Who was going to do it? Who would be happy to sacrifice themselves for someone else?

Everyone knows that touching such spooky things rashly was a sure way to die. Even if they return to their original world, the curse from the evil spirits may cross the barrier between the two worlds and then kill you without notice …….

“Everyone now …… look for another clue and be careful not to run into the poster.”

“Anything could be a clue, don’t hesitate if this is the time to just think about relying on others ……” He Lou caught his breath, dodged the zombie that came at him with a dodge and went around to kick the other man hard in the back. The latter’s stiff arm fell straight into the wooden table in front of the ticket counter as if there was no obstruction.

The hard wooden table was as soft as tofu in front of its nails.

It is not difficult to imagine if the human body ……

“At this time, still thinking of slacking off and relying on others, this is the time to wait for death!” He Lou roared low.

Sister Li Fang Yu sniffed and said, “Let’s see if we can find some information anywhere.”

Lu Yan was similarly glancing around.

Clues …… What exactly are clues? Where is it?

He brought up his mask and hat. His ragged breathing separated the fabric, and perhaps for that reason, the zombies didn’t chase him much.

The yellow-haired young man suggested, “Didn’t they say zombies are afraid of fire? And glutinous rice and sunlight and all that.” He looked up at the sky, and although the sunlight was not blinding, it was indeed daytime here, and he asked aloud instead, “Does anyone have a lighter with them?”

“How can a little lighter alone be enough? Get something to burn!” Another man answered him.

The yellow-haired young man was worried: “There’s nothing to burn here, there’s no firewood, and there are posters everywhere. Can I burn this?”

“Then the movie even says you can hold your breath; you hold one?”

“Brother Lou, you try!”

At that, He Lou really did as they said and closed his breath hard, yet the zombie still chased after him. He quickly took a deep breath, gasped for air, and replied, “Ineffective!”

The others had to continue to help find the clues. They had now agreed that every five minutes, another person would attract the zombie’s attention so that they could look for clues.

Lu Yan wanted to take the initiative and take over the burden. Still, He Lou asked another person to take his place.

In the current situation, no one could afford to let anything happen to Lu Yan. If they couldn’t get to Lu Yan’s residence …… then everyone would die! No one could escape!

The one who took over from He Lou was Li Fang Zhi, who was running with the latter, dodging left and right. Her long hours of exercise had made her no less potent than the able-bodied men, and she was even more agile than He Lou.

As Li Fang Yu helped her, her eyes glanced around, and then her gaze flickered.

She noticed the poster stuck to the glass window of the ticket hall.

She had noticed it before, but it was a square poster, unlike other posters with other fancy backgrounds, and at first glance, she thought a real person was sitting there ……

The eyes of the person who was sitting there were suddenly cold.

What is this, what is …… this?!!!

“Sis! Get out of the way!!!”

Li Fang Zhi’s scream came from afar.

In the next second, she was pulled aside by a strong force – Lu Yan pulled her away. He found an iron bar from somewhere and hooked the claw. At that moment, the zombie smoothly lunged at her while then brought the latter down with force, making the last lunge to the ground.

The wall and table could be poked through, but what about the ground?

Its arms plunged straight into the ground, and its entire shrunken and stiff body clung to the ground, making it challenging to rise upright for a while.

Li Fang Zhi looked gratefully at Lu Yan and darted, pulling Li Fang Yu away.

“Get out of the way!!!”

A bucket of petrol was poured over the zombie, who kept struggling and jumping.

“Quick!!! Lighter!!!”

The tiny lighter lit up a flame and threw it over.

In the next second, flames leapt up and burned, and the zombie released a violent hissing sound.

The sound was strange, sharp, and hoarse as if two pieces of rusty iron were rubbing together.

In the crowd, a young man named Feng Chu Chu (封楚楚) looked thankful: “Luckily, we found the petrol. The petrol in the station has been sitting for a bit too long, but it’s good that it still works.”

The yellow-haired young man breathed a sigh of relief, “Well done!”

The guys looked at each other with a rare sigh of relief.

The flames burned and crackled, emitting a rotting stench and burning extremely disgusting protein. The flame-covered zombie kept struggling and hissing, but it still couldn’t escape its bonds. Gradually, its struggle subsided, and a foul-smelling blood mist emanated from its body.

It was as if a balloon had leaked, and wisps of blood mist drifted away.

“Is it almost finished?” Huang Mao walked over to sister Li Fang Yu and turned his head to comfort her, “What happened to you just now? Why didn’t you move all of a sudden?”

Li Fang Yu’s face was pale, and she didn’t say anything. Instead, Li Fang Zhi glared at him, “What’s it to you? Get lost!”

“I’m just concerned about the pretty girl.” The yellow-haired youth was not angry and moved away, humming a little tune.

The next moment his tune was no longer humming.

After the stench gradually dissipated, the stiff corpse on the ground shook and suddenly jumped up nimbly, the man screaming miserably as he ran, “What are you doing? Why are you killing me?”

“Help me!!! Put out the fire!!! Help!!!”

“Help me!!!”

His voice – he was the tall, thin man from before he turned into a zombie – stung from the heat. After he stumbled and escaped from the small area where the petrol had puddled out, he rolled on the ground as best he could. He issued a plea for help in a voice that was already hoarse from the fire.

“Help me. ……”

To his despair, the big guys were too far away for anyone to save him. When they saw him struggling to roll his body to tumble over, the yellow-haired youth snatched the iron bar from Lu Yan’s hand and stabbed the other man further away.

With his hands still sweating, he subconsciously turned his head and said, “Brother Lou, he he is soft.”

The touch coming from the end of the iron rod was different from the cold, rigid, metallic feel of the zombie before.

He had really …… become human again.

Should we save him?

Everyone subconsciously avoided the question.

“How can he become human again when we’ve obviously watched him turn into a zombie? There must still be some curse on him.”

“Yeah, that’s right. He’s already turned into a zombie, so who knows if something tricked us?”

“Besides, even if we were to save him now, it’s too late. There’s no fire extinguisher here. How can we save him?”

They untutoredly found an excellent reason to keep an eye on their surroundings while keeping a close eye on the whole process of the zombie being burned. This experience might come in handy later.

Lu Yan spoke up, “Or else ……”

The other man stopped him, “Or else what? Are you going to save him? Who knows if it’s a human or a zombie now?”

So Lu Yan had to shrink back. He inclined his head and covered his nose. Several other people thought he had never seen it before and didn’t pay attention to him or care.

Under the brim of his hat, a hint of mockery darted across his eyes.

“Save …… me …….”

The struggling humanoid kept screaming miserably but at last ran out of struggle, gradually shrinking into a dark, unidentified mass, bubbling with grease, dripping down drop by drop, splashing into the flames.

The air smelled like charred meat.

You won’t save me?

Why didn’t you save me?

Why?!!!

If you want to die, let’s all die together!!!

The tall, thin man tried to recall the scene’s layout he had seen earlier. His eyeballs had been scalded, and he could not see. With the last bit of strength he used, he got up and rushed towards the nearest pole beside him, hugging it with his body full of flames.

Soon he was motionless, but the corpse was still clinging to the pole with flames.

No one knew that the last expression on this corpse’s face before it died was a smile.

The others didn’t care if he died or not.

The only thing they cared about was that – on the pole – were two flyers of that woman.

“Fucking crazy! Why drag us into your own death?!”

They were really going mad.

The flyers were smeared with a black, oily, unknown substance. The edges burned by fire and began to yellow and curl inwards ……

Not just one, but almost all of the flyers began to show signs of curling before the fire.

It’s over ……

This was the thought of almost everyone present.

“Run!!!”

The crowd scattered and fled.

Running was useless as the woman’s expression grew twisted and grim as she glared at everyone sternly. In the next instant, she opened her mouth, and her long, bright red tongue protruded from two rows of thin, white, sharp teeth. It looked soft but was so fast that it pierced the chest of the young man who had thrown the lighter before and then pulled back!

The young man didn’t even have time to scream before he was dragged into the woman’s open mouth.

There wasn’t even a chewing sound this time, and a man had disappeared.

Worse still, the blood mist became incomparably thicker in an instant.

Through the thick layer of blood mist, Lu Yan saw that the woman’s expression was not happy that she had eaten one person. Instead, her cold and gloomy gaze darted over the others as if she was wondering which one she should eat next.

The only redeeming feature was that the woman did not need to devour the others through the blood mist now. It preferred to use its own tongue to get a good taste. For this reason, Lu Yan felt no more than breathless in the smoke as he struggled to dispel the sticky, bloody fog and went carefully to find what he wanted.

This …… doesn’t seem to be entirely up to snuff.

But let’s try it first.

Lu Yan stepped away and walked in a particular direction, picking up whatever was on the ground.

Instead of fleeing as far as the others, he advanced inside the station, dragging a black mass in his hand through the heavy blood fog and straight to the ticket window.

Behind him, a man raised his knife ……

Lu Yan suddenly turned around.

The blood fog was utterly unable to affect him. As the two were separated by a close distance, Lu Yan quickly spotted who it was.

“What do you want?!” He let out a terrified shout.

If the man had been able to see his expression through the blood mist, or at least see his eyes clearly hidden under his hat, he would at least not have chosen to offend him.

The next second, the noise returned to silence in the blood mist.

“Cackle cackle ……” the sound of chewing rang out.

……

At the other end, the blood fog grew thicker and thicker.

Everyone ran apart, with only the scarlet hue so thick in their eyes that they could not see clearly around them. Their nostrils were equally filled with the heavy smell of blood as if, instantly, the place had become a blood prison on earth.

Behind the figure, a long, slippery tongue slowly emerged.

The tongue slowly rose up and was about to wrap itself around the figure’s neck. The next moment, it stopped as if making a difficult decision and gradually disappeared into the same place.

The blood mist came and went quickly, and in no time, the space returned to the original scene as if the blood red in front of them was an illusion.

“What’s going on here? Are we saved?”

The yellow-haired young man was in a state of shock and disbelief. He had just run far, far away, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself back in his original position, standing in front of the station. Not far in front of him was an electric pole with an unknown black substance, still giving off a burnt smell.

All the women’s posters regained their composure with gentle looks on their faces.

Lu Yan came out of the station. He seemed a little frail, greeted the yellow-haired young man when he saw him and asked him in a sad tone, “Are you all okay now? How many of you are still there?”

The yellow-haired young man sighed, “I don’t know, just wait. They’ll be here later.”

And who broke the game? How on earth did he find his way to life?

Was it Brother Lou? Or the Lai sisters?

He didn’t count out the rotten and timid youth in front of him.

“That’s strange. Where’s that guy’s ……?” The yellow-haired youth was scrupulous and didn’t say the word corpse out loud. He raised his chin, indicating that the charred mass of the corpse under the pole was gone.

Lu Yan was equally surprised and shook his head, “I don’t know, I didn’t see it when I came over just now either. Could it have been ……” he made a slight allusion to the poster on the pole.

“Didn’t expect that, and with a barbecue.” Yellow hair muttered.