Zombie Siege: The Road to Survival Begins at School - Chapter 3

After running back and forth between the first and fifth floors three times, Zhang Wei finally moved all the supplies into his dorm.

Checking the time, it had been over an hour since the exam started. There were less than 40 minutes left until it ended.

Zhang Wei ignored everything else and focused on setting up his defenses.

He had no intention of letting anyone else in.

Zhang Wei believed that in his previous life, he had fallen into a zombie swarm and died under mysterious circumstances… because someone had sabotaged him.

So this time, he decided to stay away from everyone—at least for now.

He locked the door from the inside, braced it with a mop handle, then decided that wasn’t secure enough and shoved his bed against it.

Still feeling like he missed something, Zhang Wei ran to the bathroom and filled a large bucket with water for backup.

His plan was to hold out in the dorm for at least seven days.

If he couldn’t escape, water would be essential. Even if it wasn’t clean, this bucket of tap water could be used for washing clothes or flushing the toilet.

There was no way to collect more now—it was already too late.

By the time he finished all of this, it was 4:XX PM.

Only five minutes left until the exam ended!

Drenched in sweat, Zhang Wei sat on the bed, unscrewed a bottle of mineral water, and took a small sip.

His limbs were starting to go numb—that creeping tension of the apocalypse was settling in.

He spent the last few minutes scanning for any weaknesses in his setup—a habit formed from the memories in his dreams.

“The biggest weakness is the door lock. The dorm doors are old and use outdated spring locks. A strong enough impact could break it.”

He imagined the worst-case scenario: “What if someone tries to break in by force?”

If he thought the dorm was one of the safest places on campus, others would definitely think the same.

His only real weapon was a watermelon knife… and a mostly useless mop handle.

Zhang Wei thought it through and decided to prepare for both possibilities.

He crushed the instant noodles and stuffed them into his pillow, tossing out the excess stuffing to make room. Then he hid the bread inside his winter comforter and locked it in the storage cabinet.

It was summer—no one would expect food to be hidden in a thick winter quilt.

Just seconds after he finished this, the bell suddenly rang…

Zhang Wei knew—the crisis had begun.

He heard cheers, footsteps, students chatting—and then screams, wails, sobbing, frantic running, and shouting…

In the previous timeline, survivors had come up with a bold theory: the zombie virus had already been dormant in the human body for some time. Aside from those bitten, people with weak immune systems were the first to fall victim.

Those people had an incubation period—their mutations were slower.

But those who were bitten or scratched by zombies could turn almost instantly.

That’s why Zhang Wei was being so cautious—he didn’t know who might be a carrier.

He was hiding in the dorm to wait out the most chaotic and dangerous first few days.

As he listened to the students screaming outside—some from other buildings, some from the schoolyard, and some from just downstairs—Zhang Wei gradually calmed down.

“It wasn’t just a dream. What I saw was a glimpse of what hadn’t happened yet.”

The mutations—the deaths—he had already seen them coming.

Soon, the screams reached the dorm building.

Students nearby were running back to the dorms in a panic.

But what they didn’t realize was that this zombie outbreak had no single point of origin.

It wasn’t just the school—it was a multi-city, multi-source outbreak.

The wounded invigilator had been the school’s initial source.

But one zombie teacher wouldn’t have caused a total collapse.

If that were the case, Zhang Wei could’ve dealt with it in the classroom.

What truly escalated the situation was that seemingly normal people began mutating without warning.

Through the window, Zhang Wei saw panicked students get tackled by zombies that appeared out of nowhere.

Some students suddenly collapsed mid-run, convulsed on the ground, and when they got back up—they had already changed.

That was the real reason he chose to hide.

He didn’t know who around him might suddenly turn.

When people panic, they instinctively run to higher ground.

Zhang Wei heard terrified students downstairs pounding on every dorm room door.

During the exam, everyone had left their bags at the front of the classroom. Most of the people running for their lives now didn’t even have their keys.

“All that noise is just going to attract more zombies!”

Zhang Wei knew they were dooming themselves.

He could hear chaotic footsteps growing louder from the stairwell—and the zombies’ growls followed.

Suddenly, a loud bang echoed through the room.

Someone had crashed into Zhang Wei’s door.

He also heard the sound of a key turning in the lock—someone was trying to get in!

But the door had already been locked from the inside.

It was one of his roommates—they had remembered this dorm too.

“I forgot—they used to keep the spare key under the fire extinguisher!”

Zhang Wei hadn’t expected any of them to survive.

If they hadn’t escaped right at the start of the outbreak, it would’ve been nearly impossible to make it out alive.

Almost a third of the students in the English exam room had mutated.

The first to change had been the female invigilator with an injured leg—she lost her mind the moment the exam bell rang.

“I was scared out of my mind back then… but I still ran with Zhou An.”

—

Bang! More loud hits followed. Zhang Wei knew—there was more than one person outside trying to break in.

He frowned. It was inevitable.

If he hadn’t pushed the bed against the door, they would’ve broken through already.

The dorm had its advantages—it could hold back zombies.

But its downside? It couldn’t stop desperate people.

Zhang Wei stayed silent. He went to the bathroom and grabbed a towel, pressing it against the doorknob to keep the lock from twisting.

With the door locked from inside, the key wouldn’t work. Zhang Wei felt no fear.

“As long as they can’t open the door, their panic will probably drive them to look for another dorm.”

That was the reason he had chosen this dorm—it was part of his plan.

“It’s locked! Someone’s inside!” a familiar voice called out.

It was his roommate, Xu Long—the guy who used to bully him in the bathroom.

Zhang Wei remembered him all too well.

Xu Long was the so-called “campus heartthrob” that girls secretly swooned over. A basketball star whose every shot made girls scream.

Rich family, student council member, even bought votes to become class president—he was the typical campus golden boy.

But he had treated Zhang Wei like garbage. Zhang Wei remembered everything.

Xu Long had spat on him in the bathroom, peed on him, slapped him with his filthy flip-flops, stuck used gum in his hair, and worst of all, extorted “protection money” despite not needing it.

Zhang Wei’s failing grades? All thanks to the bullying.

If the outbreak hadn’t happened, Zhang Wei would probably have been cornered in some bathroom or hidden spot at this very moment—forced to hand over the 800+ yuan he had.

But things had changed the moment he woke up from that dream.

That’s why he had deliberately provoked Xu Long in the exam room.

Still, he hadn’t expected Xu Long to survive, while Zhou An was nowhere to be seen.

Zhang Wei knew Xu Long’s bullying wasn’t random—it had to do with Zhang Ya, the class beauty.

But none of that mattered anymore.

“What matters now is not letting them in—no matter what!”

The dorm beds were made of heavy steel frames, easily 70 or 80 pounds.

Zhang Wei leaned all his weight against the bed and door.

“If I just wait a bit longer, the zombies downstairs will catch up. Xu Long and the others will either die or be forced to run.”

“The outbreak has begun. If they have any sense, they won’t waste time on a locked dorm.”

“Someone’s inside! Open up! Let us in! There are monsters out here!” a male voice shouted.

Zhang Wei frowned again.

That wasn’t one of his roommates—it was someone else.

There were a lot of them. Probably formed a group during their escape.

“Where are your keys? Go to another dorm!”

“Long-ge, we all forgot them. We were in the middle of the exam. Our backpacks were at the front. All we had was paper and pens!”

“Yeah, Long-ge, it was chaos out there. Who had time to grab a useless backpack?”

“Damn it!”

“Who’s in there? There are monsters outside! Let us in!” a girl shouted.

“A girl’s voice? In the boys’ dorm?”

Zhang Wei realized several guys were taking turns slamming into the door. The frame was starting to loosen.

He could hear them trying to peek through the door crack.

“It’s Zhang Wei!”

“That loser?”

“Wasn’t he in the bathroom?”

“Nope, it was empty when we got there…”

“I saw his face and uniform—it’s definitely him!”

Zhang Wei had been found out.

“If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve used ketchup or something to fake being a zombie…”

Xu Long exploded in anger. “Zhang Wei, are you insane?! Open the damn door!”

Zhang Wei’s brows tightened. If they hadn’t seen him, maybe they would’ve left.

But now that they had—they saw hope. And they weren’t going to leave.

Zombies were everywhere. Where else could they go?

That was human nature—the will to survive.

They assumed Zhang Wei was weak and spineless. No way he’d say no.

But Zhang Wei didn’t move. He was waiting for the zombies to arrive and end it.

“Let’s see who can wait the longest.”

But things didn’t go his way.

The zombies hadn’t come up yet. There were too many living people downstairs—crying, screaming, running. The zombies were drawn to them instead.

Compared to that chaos, the fifth-floor dorm was relatively quiet—and thus safer.

The group outside got more aggressive, slamming the door until the lock creaked and the frame shook.

Zhang Wei cursed under his breath. “This won’t work. If they break in, I’m screwed.”

He had to change tactics—fast.

“Stop! If you break the door, no one will have a safe place to hide!” Zhang Wei shouted.

“There’s a drawer in the third-floor hallway—by the dorm supervisor’s desk. All the dorm keys are in there. You can still make it if you go now!”

“I’ll go! I’m a track athlete—I’ll run fast!” a boy shouted. It was Zhang Cheng, another one of Zhang Wei’s roommates.

Xu Long stayed silent.

“That coward… He’s great at running too…”

He always placed first in school track events.

Zhang Wei thought they would finally leave—but then he heard another voice calling urgently from not far away.

“You’re all here? Is Zhang Wei inside?”

“Crap… Zhou An? Why now of all times?”