Chapter 88: Don't cry
Chapter 88: Don't cry
Now that Hu Zhen and An Ran are not around, Chen Jiao kisses He Wen's little face until he almost wakes up from his deep sleep. He hums twice in anxiety, prompting her to stop and hold He Wen close while carrying a large bag of food as she prepares to head to the sewage passage to meet Hu Zhen and An Ran.
As she passes by the safety stairs, Chen Jiao hears a sound coming from the safety door, as if someone is scratching it with their nails. Startled, she quickens her pace toward the sewage passage. But after only two steps, He Wen in her arms wakes up and begins to cry.
Chen Jiao's eyes widen as she watches the safety door burst open with a loud "bang." Three or four zombies squeeze out, and in the safety passage behind them, she can vaguely see a few child zombies crawling down the stairs. These must be the zombies from the sixth floor. Somehow, they have opened the safety passage door on that floor and climbed down.
The leading zombie lets out a series of "ho ho" sounds directed at He Wen. The cries of the leading zombie draw the attention of the others, and they quickly zero in on Chen Jiao.
Screaming in fear, Chen Jiao clutches He Wen and the bag of food and runs desperately toward the sewage passage. He Wen cries all the while. When Chen Jiao reaches the sewage passage and gets to the second floor, she sees that four wandering zombies have also pushed open the door connecting the sewage passage to the lobby on the first floor.
These zombies are evolving rapidly. Not only is their hearing much sharper, but they also seem to have awakened the ability to summon their kind. Previously, zombies wouldn’t yell, but now some of them can call out, and that call seems to have the effect of one cry prompting a hundred responses.
Trapped between two groups of zombies, Chen Jiao has no choice but to run back up to the third floor while holding He Wen. There are no zombies on the third floor, but He Wen continues to cry and howl. Chen Jiao's anxiety mounts. If He Wen keeps crying like this, all the zombies in the sewage passage will come up to the third floor.
She is stuck now, with several zombies lurking in the sewage passage on the first floor.
Frantic, Chen Jiao looks around the expansive third floor, then back at He Wen in her arms. In a moment of desperation, she shakes He Wen and shouts, “Don’t cry! Crying will attract zombies! Don’t cry!!! We’ll all be eaten!”
But how can a child understand? He Wen wants to cry, and Chen Jiao, shaking him as if he were a sieve, only makes things worse. The more she shakes him, the louder he cries.
Meanwhile, Hu Zhen, who has been worried about He Wen, stands in the sewage passage of the basement, listening anxiously. Hearing He Wen’s cries, she quickly climbs up to the first floor.
Just then, she sees several zombies—about four of them—making their way to the second floor. The door connecting the sewage passage on the first floor to the lobby has been broken, and a steady stream of zombies continues to flood in, heading toward the sound of the crying upstairs.
Hu Zhen turns around and rushes out of the dirt passage in the basement. She knocks on An Ran's car window, catching An Ran's attention as she sits in the driver’s seat. Hu Zhen says anxiously, “Chen Jiao and He Wen seem to be trapped upstairs by zombies.”
An Ran is stunned. Hasn’t Chen Jiao just gone to pick up a child? She has already dealt with the zombies on the third, fourth, and fifth floors, as well as those in the dirt passage. How has Chen Jiao ended up trapped? An Ran asks, “Which floor? Didn’t she just go to pick up a child?”