Zombie Siege: The Road to Survival Begins at School - Chapter 2

Zhang Wei knew he couldn’t save Zhang Ya, and he didn’t want to cause unnecessary trouble either.

He also knew that the zombie virus outbreak would happen soon. In the Old Town District, traffic would be completely jammed. The only reason he escaped in his previous life was thanks to his experience of sneaking out to the internet café by climbing over the school wall.

He became one of the few lucky survivors who managed to flee the sea of corpses in the school.

“I can’t run around like a headless chicken again. And… if I leave now, Zhou An is as good as dead!”

There was one more person Zhang Wei wanted to save—his friend from the dorm next door, Zhou An.

Zhou An was the one who had lent him 50 yuan without hesitation when Zhang Wei sneaked out without any money to get online. He had also stood up for him when he was being bullied, ending up beaten to a pulp himself.

In his previous life, Zhou An died saving Zhang Wei—he accidentally fell from the rooftop of the school building and was eventually torn apart by zombies.

“But right now, I don’t think I can convince Zhou An to leave the exam room before the test ends.”

“Because the listening section has already started!”

“If I’d just woken up a few minutes earlier!”

“If it weren’t for my vague memories—and how everything happening now is exactly like what I remember—I wouldn’t even believe the zombie outbreak is just two hours away.”

“If I try to drag Zhou An away by force, I’ll just cause chaos and make everyone suspicious.”

“But if Zhou An doesn’t die early on, then in this life, there’s a good chance he’ll survive. I have to take that chance—and focus on preparing myself!”

While pretending to listen to the English audio, Zhang Wei furrowed his brows in concentration, planning his next steps.

“Supplies and a hiding place—these are the only two things I can focus on. I’m running out of time.”

He’d considered leaving the school, but with less than two hours to spare, the outside world was full of unknowns. Without food, he wouldn’t last three days.

“I’ll have to scavenge supplies and find a place to hide—within the school grounds.”

Wasting no time, Zhang Wei handed in his paper as soon as the listening section ended. He walked up to the podium and said, “Teacher, I’m handing in my exam early. I guessed everything anyway—sooner or later, it’s all the same.”

The students nearby turned to look at him, frowning in annoyance.

His loud interruption disrupted their focus—though, to be fair, many of them hadn’t had any to begin with.

Zhang Wei ignored them, dropped his exam paper, and dashed toward the front of the classroom, where a temporary desk held his backpack.

He had to get out before the proctor could stop him.

“Stop right there! What do you think you’re doing?” The injured female proctor hobbled over and glanced at his paper.

She saw that Zhang Wei had only filled in the multiple-choice section—everything else, the essay, the translation, was blank.

She sighed in frustration. “At least write something for the essay and translation before you go. Surely you can’t be completely clueless?”

Zhang Wei had no intention of stopping.

And she was right—he really didn’t know how to answer the rest.

If she dragged him in for a “friendly chat” or something, he’d lose even more precious time. Worse, he might run into Xu Long.

Grabbing his backpack from the front row, Zhang Wei sprinted out the door.

The proctor shouted in frustration and hobbled after him.

The room fell into a low uproar—several students seized the opportunity to whisper and pass notes.

Zhang Ya, who sat in the front row, scowled and scolded, “Everyone shut up and focus on your own papers! Zhang Wei’s a total loser—his grades are always at the bottom. Ignore that idiot!”

Xu Long just chuckled. “He can run all he wants. The school’s only so big. Once the exam’s over, I’ll pin him in the toilet again.”

As he spoke, Xu Long gave a subtle signal to the two boys on either side of him.

They quickly filled in the rest of their answers and followed suit.

Xu Long and his two lackeys also handed in their papers early.

The proctor seemed to know what kind of students they were and didn’t even try to stop them.

Zhang Wei leapt down the stairs, shouting as he went, “Teacher, I’ve got a stomachache—if I crap my pants and stink up the place, I’ll mess up the exam for everyone. I’m heading to the restroom on the first floor!”

Laughter erupted from the classroom.

“You wait right there! There’s a restroom on the third floor too—why the first floor?” the proctor shouted after him.

But she couldn’t run—her injured leg made it hard enough just to walk. Frustrated, she turned back and hobbled to her post.

Zhang Wei glanced over his shoulder and noticed a few shadowy figures sneaking after him.

He rushed into the first-floor restroom, slipped into a stall, and closed the door, pretending to sit down and do his business.

Then, he climbed out the back window, emerging onto a narrow path behind the restroom. He took a side route that led toward the school cafeteria.

Since the entire student body was still taking exams, the school grounds were eerily quiet. Aside from a group of athletes practicing on the track in the distance, the place felt completely deserted.

“No one would guess that this place is about to become a living hell,” Zhang Wei muttered to himself.

He rushed to the campus convenience store, pulled out his wallet and school ID card, and shouted, “Boss! I need a few boxes of bottled water!”

He remembered that not long after the outbreak, the school would lose its water supply. Power would follow shortly after.

He had to prepare in advance.

The shopkeeper, in the middle of playing a mobile game called Sheep a Sheep, was caught off guard by Zhang Wei’s sudden entrance.

“Where did you come from? Aren’t all students supposed to be taking exams right now?”

“I didn’t know a single answer, so I turned in my paper early. I’m buying snacks to treat my classmates. Help me grab a few cases of water.”

As he spoke, Zhang Wei grabbed a shopping basket and began loading up supplies.

The boss scanned his items while Zhang Wei stuffed them into his backpack.

Zhang Wei had about 600 yuan left on his school card and over 800 in cash—everything he owned.

The shop wasn’t big and didn’t have much junk food—likely because summer break was coming and the owner hadn’t restocked much.

Zhang Wei grabbed sausages, biscuits, chocolate, beef jerky—anything easy to store, carry, and that could fill him up.

The shopkeeper, kindly enough, helped him carry two crates of bottled water and joked, “You must be something else—handed in your exam early. How are you going to explain that to your parents?”

“No worries, my family’s loaded. I don’t need to work in the future—exams don’t matter,” Zhang Wei replied casually.

In truth, he was an orphan. His grandmother had passed away a few years ago. The tuition he used came from the savings she had left behind after a lifetime of hard work.

As for his living expenses, he earned them doing summer jobs and cleaning internet cafés.

He spent everything he had on food and supplies.

The shopkeeper brought over some cardboard boxes. Zhang Wei estimated he had over a hundred sausages, thirty packs of biscuits, and more than a hundred other food items in total.

The total bill came to less than 1,000 yuan.

Next, Zhang Wei added first aid supplies—bandages, disinfectant, rope, a small knife, candles, scissors.

With his last few hundred yuan, he bought instant noodles, bread, and even picked up the last two bags of salt in the store.

Then he noticed a watermelon knife sitting on the counter—half a meter long.

“How much for that?” he asked.

The shopkeeper was startled. “I can’t sell you that—it’s a restricted weapon, you know? Could kill someone! We just use it to cut fruit in the store, I can’t sell it to you…” he trailed off as he handed Zhang Wei a slice of chilled watermelon.

Zhang Wei accepted it with a smile of thanks.

The shopkeeper, curious, asked, “Why are you buying all this stuff?”

“I’m heading back to my hometown for the summer. My grandma asked me to bring some things.”

That answer seemed to satisfy him. “Want me to help you carry it?”

“No need. I’ll just make a few trips. You go ahead and mind your shop—keep playing your Sheep game.”

The shopkeeper didn’t insist.

Zhang Wei figured the guy was kind-hearted, so he gave him a friendly warning: “If anything weird happens soon, lock your doors and run to the back. Hide—and don’t come out for at least a week.”

But the man was glued to his phone, not taking him seriously at all.

Zhang Wei gave up. There was no way he’d believe a zombie outbreak was coming in an hour anyway.

He hefted the box of food, and while the shopkeeper wasn’t looking, slipped the watermelon knife into the bottom of the box.

Then he stacked four or five boxes together and made a run for the dorm.

The dorm wasn’t far from the shop, but Zhang Wei’s room was on the fifth floor.

And with two boxes of water weighing him down, he had to make three trips back and forth.

Meanwhile, Xu Long and his cronies were already waiting outside the first-floor restroom.

“Boss, are we gonna be in trouble for turning in our exams early?” one of them asked.

“I copied Zhang Ya’s listening section during the commotion. Shouldn’t be a zero. You guys saw him go into this restroom, right?”

“Yeah, I followed right after him and saw his back going in. Should we just go grab him?”

“We wait. If he screams, it might be too loud and attract attention.”

“So we’re just gonna stink it up here? It’s summer, this place reeks.”

“Idiot. If we don’t keep an eye on him and he runs off—maybe even back to his hometown—who’s gonna pay our protection fees?”