Zombie Siege: The Road to Survival Begins at School - Chapter 28

Just as Zhang Wei remembered, the heavy rain lasted three full days and nights.

The survivors went from being unusually excited on the first day to completely numb afterward.

After all, they had been tormented by the lack of water for far too long.

Despite the thunder and lightning on the first day, several boys had still rushed to the rooftop, stripped down to their underwear, and enjoyed a natural shower in the rain.

Zhang Wei carried the water barrels from Dorm 511 and 512 up to the roof and filled them all to the brim.

After the athletes had finished filling their barrels and gone downstairs, Zhang Wei quietly carried more empty barrels from the sixth floor’s dorms up to the roof during the night—until all of those were filled too.

Knowing that water wouldn’t be a problem in the short term, he stopped collecting more. Summer rains were frequent, and the recent week of dry weather had been unusual.

Besides, water stored in barrels would become undrinkable after ten days or so—it would breed bacteria and other microorganisms.

After finishing all this,

The five of them moved into Zhao Zhenxiong’s dorm on the sixth floor.

Although summer nights were hotter, it was much easier to haul water up and down from there.

It was Zhang Wei’s suggestion. After all, people had died in the hallway and several dorms on the fifth floor. No matter how much they washed it down, there was still a lingering stench.

Only the sixth floor was clean—and far enough from those people on the fourth floor.

Zhang Wei was doing everything he could to avoid any conflict with them.

He had found a way to pass the time. During one of their stealthy supply runs on the fifth floor, the group had discovered a deck of poker cards, a Chinese checkers board, and a Chinese chess set missing one elephant piece.

Whenever they were bored, the four guys played cards while Hu Die watched from the side.

Sometimes the five of them played checkers, or took turns battling in chess matches.

Zhou An used a bottle cap from a mineral water bottle to replace the missing elephant. With both sides balanced, the matches were at least fair.

But none of them were particularly skilled—they were all amateurs, and their gameplay was, frankly, not impressive.

Games without stakes weren’t much fun, so they used a bag of raisins they found on the fifth floor as betting chips.

When playing cards, a winner could sometimes take over a dozen raisins in a single round.

With the spicy sticks all gone, raisins had become the best snack they had.

“The apocalypse really is lonely as snow,” Zhang Wei sighed.

“It’s not just lonely—it’s boring without a phone. If I had a phone, I’d at least be reading some novels to kill time,” Zhao Zhenxiong muttered.

Zhang Wei was relatively fine—he had no parents. But the others had families and loved ones they could no longer reach. That only made their anxiety worse.

Zhang Wei looked up and spotted a crow circling in the sky.

It must be drawn by the smell of rotting corpses.

Crows didn’t have to worry about food—they were lucky.

He wondered whether crows that ate rotting flesh would become zombie crows.

“Checkmate!” Zhang Wei moved a chess piece. Across from him, Lu Renjia thought for a long time before finally shaking his head in defeat.

Zhang Wei had more raisins than everyone else combined. He grabbed a handful and popped them into his mouth, closing his eyes in contentment.

“So luxurious,” Zhou An sighed beside him.

Yeah. Who would’ve thought that in the apocalypse, a bag of raisins—something few people even liked—would become a luxury treat?

If only they still had spicy sticks!

On the fourth day since the rain started, Zhang Wei found a pair of pants, removed the waistband’s elastic band, folded a clothes hanger, and fashioned a makeshift slingshot.

He picked up some shards of broken glass on the roof to use as ammo and lay flat on the rooftop to practice aiming. While he could hit zombies most of the time, the damage was minimal.

If only he had a sniper rifle.

Zhang Wei thought of the scenes from TV shows and movies—people in the apocalypse holding rifles on rooftops, sniping zombies from afar while waiting for rescue.

But rescue wasn’t coming.

In these ten-plus days, Zhang Wei had seen planes fly high in the sky many times—but never a helicopter.

Jets would leave white trails across the blue sky.

But Zhang Wei knew those weren’t rescue planes. Maybe they were heading for safer places.

Probably full of rich people.

Who would care about some survivors in an unknown school in a remote city?

He who helps himself, is helped by heaven.

Zhang Wei was alone on the rooftop, brushing his teeth.

Until Zhou An came up to shower.

“Scrub my back for me,” Zhou An said to Zhang Wei.

“You remind me of someone,” Zhang Wei said, watching him as he shampooed, brushed his teeth, and showered all at once.

“Who?”

“That guy in Kung Fu—Jelly.”

“How am I like him? My butt crack’s not even showing!”

“He did that too—washing his head, brushing his teeth, and showering at the same time…”

“And then?…”

“Then the water stopped. Remember his next line?”

Zhang Wei prompted Zhou An to recall.

“Pork Bun Lady, Pork Bun Lady! Why did the water suddenly stop again?”

“Hahaha! That’s the one!”

The two of them burst out laughing on the rooftop, ignoring the howls of zombies all around them.

“Water bills don’t pay themselves! You bastards still owe me two months’ rent!” A woman’s voice suddenly rang out from a nearby building.

“Uh…” Zhang Wei and Zhou An’s laughter froze instantly.

“There’s a survivor!”

Zhang Wei confirmed the direction—it came from the girls’ dorm.

He rushed to the edge of the roof and raised the monocular he always carried.

He scanned every part of the building opposite them—from the rooftop to the ground floor.

The roof, hallways, stairwell landings, dorm windows… He checked everything from top to bottom, left to right.

But he still didn’t see anything.

Maybe he was hallucinating?

“I heard it too! Definitely a survivor!” Zhou An leaned over and said.

He took Zhang Wei’s monocular and mimicked his scanning method, checking each area carefully.

But he didn’t find anything either.

“Forget it. Even if she is a survivor, there’s no way we can save her.”

They were all trapped in this building. They couldn’t get out.

Actually, Zhang Wei did have a backup plan—but he had to wait until the people in Room 410 turned.

Based on his calculations, if Xu Long had died, he should’ve turned by now.

As for Li Xiaoqian…

In the apocalypse, everyone is selfish. Zhang Wei had already decided not to care about her.

He’d only wanted to save her out of old classmate ties. After all, in a world like this, people you once knew and who were still alive were growing scarce.

Zhang Wei continued observing everything from the rooftop. The room directly below his location was Dorm 510, and beneath that was Dorm 410.

If anything happened in there, he would be the first to hear it.

On the fifth day after the rain began—also the twelfth day since the zombie outbreak—Zhang Wei heard someone trying to break a lock downstairs.

It was the metal gate at the main entrance on the first floor being tampered with. Zhang Wei thought someone was trying to get in and panicked.

The noise would attract all the nearby zombies.

To his surprise, a person came bursting out from inside, throwing a dumbbell ten meters to the side to lure the zombies away.

They were using a large trash can to shield their upper body, weaving through areas with fewer zombies.

Another person followed close behind but was tackled by a zombie. Their scream of terror was quickly drowned out by the swarm.

Zhang Wei recognized that girl’s figure.

And her voice.

It was Li Xiaoqian.