Zombie Siege: The Road to Survival Begins at School - Chapter 25

Zhang Wei’s instinct to dodge Li Xiaoqian was purely a reflex.

But right after he kicked her aside, Xu Long came charging over.

Hearing the metallic clang of a knife hitting the floor, Xu Long didn’t hesitate—he immediately snatched it up and began stabbing at Zhang Wei in a frenzy.

Li Xiaoqian, regaining her senses, reflexively threw herself between the two of them.

Exactly what Xu Long had hoped for.

Her sudden move blocked Zhang Wei’s line of sight, buying Xu Long precious seconds.

He managed to press the watermelon knife right against Zhang Wei’s chest.

Zhang Wei knew how sharp the knife was. He instinctively leaned back, but Xu Long pushed him to the ground.

Driven by survival instinct, Zhang Wei grabbed Xu Long’s wrist with all his strength, holding the knife in place right at his chest.

He knew this couldn’t last—eventually, his strength would give out. When that happened, the knife would plunge straight into his chest.

And whether his heart was on the left or the right wouldn’t matter—he’d die either way.

Li Xiaoqian rushed over again, trying to intervene, but Xu Long struck her hard across the face, sending her sprawling to the ground.

That one free-handed slap weakened Xu Long’s pressure on the knife—giving Zhang Wei a sliver of hope.

He shifted the blade slightly away from the center of his chest, aimed for a specific spot, and pretended to be at the end of his strength.

The knife tore through Zhang Wei’s shirt and pierced his chest—but seemed unable to go any deeper.

“Did it hit his ribs?” Xu Long muttered crazily, then drove all his strength into the next thrust.

Zhang Wei smiled. He hadn’t expected that one greedy move of his earlier would end up saving his life.

He had deliberately guided the knife toward that specific spot.

Then Zhang Wei suddenly let go, allowing the blade to embed in his chest.

With one hand, he reached into a side pocket behind his back and pulled out a can of hairspray.

Without hesitation, he sprayed it directly into Xu Long’s face.

Xu Long instinctively closed his eyes.

Exactly what Zhang Wei was counting on.

He had borrowed a lighter from Zhao Zhenxiong earlier just for this moment—for this secret weapon.

Grinning, Zhang Wei held down the spray and flicked the lighter on. A stream of fire burst toward Xu Long.

Xu Long’s head and upper body were instantly engulfed in flames.

“Yes,” Zhang Wei murmured, “hairspray is the perfect fuel—just like gasoline, it ignites instantly.”

Originally, he had intended to use this makeshift weapon in a group fight, or for emergency self-defense—but he never thought he’d need it in such a desperate moment.

Zhang Wei didn’t hold back. He continued to spew flames, setting Xu Long’s hair and upper body ablaze.

Xu Long screamed in agony, rolling on the floor. The sock that had been stuffed in his mouth flew out, and he let out a bl00d-curdling howl.

“This guy had a high pain tolerance. Even with a sock in his mouth, he didn’t spit it out while trying to kill me…”

Downstairs, the zombies heard the commotion. They howled in unison and began slamming against the barred entrance.

To silence Xu Long, Zhang Wei had no choice but to cover his mouth and stop spraying fire.

But Xu Long had already gone quiet.

Everyone in the room was stunned as they watched Xu Long go from thrashing wildly to lying completely still.

“Did he get burned to death?”

Two people had just died right in front of them.

When Zhang Wei stopped spraying, the flames on Xu Long’s head and face gradually died down due to lack of fuel.

His hair was completely gone, leaving him looking like a bald monk.

His face was charred and mangled, a mess of bloody flesh.

The smell of roasted meat filled the room.

Zhang Wei crouched down and checked Xu Long’s breathing.

He was still alive—just unconscious from the pain.

But with burns this severe, especially on his head, and without any medicine or emergency care, Xu Long was as good as dead.

“Someone like him isn’t worth your devotion,” Zhang Wei said to Li Xiaoqian.

As far as Zhang Wei was concerned, he had already gone above and beyond for her.

Aside from Zhou An, he had no other close friends. Li Xiaoqian was just a classmate who once went easy on him when he recited a passage, which had left him with a favorable impression.

Xu Long’s chest still moved slightly—he wasn’t completely dead.

But Zhang Wei didn’t finish him off.

He wanted Xu Long to turn into a zombie and wipe out the entire dorm full of PE students.

He couldn’t take on all nine of them alone.

But a newly turned zombie suddenly going berserk in the night? That could work.

Clutching his chest with one hand and picking up the knife with the other, Zhang Wei staggered toward the door.

Bl00d was seeping through his fingers.

Yes—he had been wounded in the fight.

But it wasn’t his ribs that stopped the knife.

It was beef jerky. The bag of vacuum-sealed beef jerky he had stashed in his inner jacket pocket.

Beef jerky is extremely tough—even chewing it takes effort.

Xu Long thought he had stabbed Zhang Wei, but he had only pierced the jerky.

Still, the blade had later shifted and grazed his skin.

Zhang Wei inspected the wound—though bleeding, it was only a surface cut. No bl00d vessels had been hit.

Good thing he hadn’t taken off his jacket earlier.

He opened the door. Outside, the three others were listening closely for any sounds inside.

They had no idea what had just happened.

All they had heard was Xu Long screaming like a dying pig.

“I’m fine. Let’s go,” Zhang Wei said. He had started to recognize their loyalty.

After all, they had risked staying behind, even with the zombies going wild downstairs after hearing the noise.

Seeing Zhang Wei injured, the three rushed forward to support him.

Then Zhang Wei seemed to remember something and turned back toward Dorm 410.

To the others inside, he said, “I’ve got no personal grudge with any of you. That PE student brought this on himself. Everything was started by Xu Long. Now that he’s nearly dead, you can figure out the rest yourselves…”

This was Zhang Wei giving them one last chance.

Someone in the group had tried to pull Li Xiaoqian back earlier—so clearly, not all of them were completely brainless.

There were thousands of zombies in the school. Four or five people with one watermelon knife weren’t enough to fight their way out.

If two or three of these guys made it out alive, that’d be something.

But Zhang Wei had already killed one of their roommates.

Even though they were scared and didn’t make a move now, the grudge was already formed.

“Let Xu Long turn and deal with them once and for all.”

Zhang Wei weighed the pros and cons again and again.

Some of the PE students hesitated after hearing him.

Zhang Wei remembered that one of them had said earlier that if a teammate got infected, they would kill them early—just like Xu Long had done with Liu Feng.

But now that it was Xu Long, they were unsure what to do.

Zhang Wei didn’t bother with Li Xiaoqian, who was still sobbing on the floor.

This girl—when Xu Long had tried to kill him, she rushed over and got slapped unconscious. She still hadn’t recovered.

Maybe she still couldn’t accept that Xu Long was dead.

“Did you think about the consequences when you opened the door for him? The only reason I gave food to Xu Long, Qin Shaofeng, and Liu Feng and let them leave was for your sake…”

With that vague statement, Zhang Wei turned and walked away, supported by the others.

Giving them food had been a way to win over Lu Renjia, Hu Die, and the others.

Truthfully, Zhang Wei hadn’t gained much from this whole fight.

He had overestimated his current physical strength.

Right now, his body wasn’t even as fit as it had been in his past life when he only had one arm.

Back on the fifth floor, the door to Dorm 512 was still open. Zhang Wei walked straight in and took off his jacket and undershirt.

A one-inch gash was visible on his chest. The bleeding had stopped, but the skin was split open, revealing pale flesh underneath.

He rummaged through his backpack, pulled out some bandages, unraveled a few cotton threads, then took out a sewing needle.

After hastily disinfecting it with a lighter, he began stitching the wound himself.

“Holy crap! You’re tougher than Guan Yu getting his bone scraped!” Zhou An exclaimed in shock.

“It’s not that bad—I didn’t hit the bone.”

“If it helps, I’d like to play a game of chess with you. Maybe take your mind off the pain,” Zhao Zhenxiong said, closing the door and sitting beside him.

“That won’t do much. You think I’m Stephen Chow in From Beijing with Love?”

Lu Renjia blinked. “What’s that?”

“In the movie, Stephen Chow distracts himself during surgery by watching action films,” Zhao Zhenxiong explained.

“You just know everything, huh.” Hu Die rolled her eyes at him.

…

After stitching up the wound, Zhang Wei drank half a bottle of water.

He also took some anti-inflammatory pills and a few vitamin tablets to help with healing.

“Now,” Zhang Wei said to the three beside him, “I need you to help me with something.”

“What is it?”

“Tie me up.”