"Shit. Shit. Feng Yuxi get them to the truck as fast as you can."
Qingran sent the last pair down, as she burnt the set of the zombies pouring out of the exit door.
[Warning: Using Azure Fla for long period of ti, will cause severe consequences.] Lingquan words rang in her ears.
"What the fuck do you want to do then. We’ve only managed to rescue 12 people. There’s still lots of students, teachers and staff in this place. I’ll die myself if I don’t use my flas. Log off, Lingquan. I’ll take care of it myself."
["..."]
[Very well. Suit yourself.]
Qingran felt her hands shake, but she had make sure she take care of the zombies here. Burning the last one, she grabbed a cable and slid down the line.
She would have worn gloves, she could feel her h palms burning as she got closer to the ground. Now it was a race to the car.
She shot as many zombies as she could, but more kept coming back.
"Shit! Shit! The hotel doors aren’t barricaded enough. I should have put barricaded doors ahead of ti. Shit!"
She managed to get to the car, the girl that had scread, looked down when she saw Qingran staring at her.
"Everyone buckled up and keep quiet. Any more screaming and I swear...I’ll throw you out of the car."
Qingran took a deep breath and started the girl.
"Lingquan log on, I’m sorry for telling you I can do it by myself but now I need your help."
There was a brief silence until Qingran heard a familiar chi in her head.
[I never logged off. I know you’ll still need my help so I’ve prepared so things ahead of you. First, automatic, barricaded doors for the hotel, I’ve registered your heat signature, so it would open automatically when it senses you. You might have to use your flas to create a path while they get to safety.]
Qingran gritted her teeth and jerked the wheel hard, weaving between the wreckage-strewn streets.
The city around them was collapsing, a gutted skeleton of what it once was, and every turn brought new dangers another overturned bus, another horde staggering from alleyways.
The survivors clung to their seats, they were all silent now. Fear hung thick inside the vehicle, almost choking, but Qingran welcod it.
Silence ant survival.
"Lingquan, how far?" she snapped.
[One kiloter remaining. Estimated arrival: three minutes, assuming no major obstructions.]
A flash of movent ahead, a mob of infected, hundreds of them, clogging the main road like a living wall.
Qingran’s eyes narrowed. "Detour?"
[Right alley, twenty ters ahead. Sharp turn, be careful.]
She didn’t hesitate. Tires screeching, she wrenched the wheel, the SUV barely making the turn into a narrow alley, scraping the side against the crumbling brick walls.
The path was barely wide enough for the vehicle, and she caught glimpses of pale, gaping faces leering from broken windows above.
They were everywhere. They could sll them.
"Faster!" Feng Yuxi barked from the back, shoving a hand against the ceiling as they hit a pothole.
Qingran pressed harder on the gas, feeling the engine strain beneath her. "I’m not planning to stay for tea, Yuxi!"
The alley opened up abruptly, spitting them out onto another road and there, in the distance, lood the hotel.
It looked almost untouched, tall, gray, with boarded windows and makeshift tal plating. A fortress among ruins.
The automatic doors were closed tight, invisible to the eye, but Qingran could feel the faint hum of the energy shield Lingquan had installed.
Only she could open it at this mont.
A heavy crash behind them, the alley they’d co through now flooding with the infected and zombies, hundreds pouring out, clawing and snarling.
"Get ready to run!" Qingran shouted.
She drove straight toward the door, fast as she dared, tires kicking up dust and gravel.
At the last second, she threw her hand out the window again, azure flas blasting forward.
The fire hit the door, and there was a hissing click as the barricades slid apart, her heat signature had been recognized.
"Go!" Qingran scread, slamming on the brakes.
Feng Yuxi was the first out, hauling the survivors from the backseat and shoving them toward the opening.
The kids, the few teachers, the wounded they stumbled forward, wide-eyed and shaking, into the relative safety of the building.
Qingran stayed last, covering the retreat with her pistol.
Three zombies broke from the main group, sprinting faster than the rest.
Bang!
Bang!!
Bang!!
Qingran dropped them all before they could get closer.
More poured after them, but the gap was closing the doors were already starting to hum shut again, on a tir.
Feng Yuxi grabbed her arm. "Move it!"
Together they sprinted, Qingran’s legs barely obeying her anymore.
The mont they crossed the threshold, the doors slamd shut with a tallic clang, the energy field locking tight.
The horde smashed into the doors a second later, bodies piling up, but the reinforced plates held.
Inside, the tension was high.
Panting heavily, Qingran stumbled to a halt, bracing herself on the wall.
Her hands were a ss, torn, blistered, bleeding and every muscle scread in protest.
But they were alive.
They had made it back.
The survivors huddled together, whispering, crying quietly. Feng Yuxi barked orders at a few older students, getting them organized, telling them where to go, what to do.
Qingran forced herself upright. There was no ti to collapse yet.
She staggered toward the elevator, dragging in ragged breaths.
"Lingquan" she rasped. "Survivor count?"
[New total survivors: 24. Twelve rescued from the initial raid, twelve from school extraction.]
It wasn’t enough. Not yet. But it was sothing.
She leaned her forehead against the cool tal of the elevator door, closing her eyes briefly.
The next wave of survivors would be harder to reach. Lingquan had already flagged their locations deeper into the crumbling city, farther from safety and she wasn’t even done with the school yet.
"Qingran."
She opened her eyes. Feng Yuxi was standing nearby, arms crossed, face grim.
"You can’t keep doing this alone" Feng said quietly. "You’re burning yourself out. Literally."
Qingran gave a small, tired smile. "What other choice do I have?"
Feng Yuxi didn’t answer. There wasn’t one.
The elevator chid. Slowly, they all began moving upstairs, the rescued students, the broken teachers, Feng Yuxi and Qingran herself.
"Let’s bring them to floor 39th"
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