Zombie Siege: The Road to Survival Begins at School - Chapter 31

Zhang Wei knew this dorm was going to be tough.

He pulled a ragged towel from his pocket and wrapped it around his hand.

Whenever things got serious, he did this. It was a survival instinct—it meant he was going all in.

Zhang Wei had considered bringing Lu Renjia, Zhou An, and Zhao Zhenxiong down with him. Maybe it’d be good for them to face some real danger, give them a proper test.

But now wasn’t the time. He had no idea what the situation was like below the rooftop.

He could rely on terrain advantages to fight defensively, but he didn’t have the spare energy to protect anyone else.

After all, all he had was a single machete. That was way too basic.

In his past life, when dealing with zombies, he always used multiple weapons.

Zhang Wei didn’t charge straight into Dorm 410. Instead, he retreated to the stairs between the fourth and fifth floors—a blind spot in the zombies’ vision.

Using the spine of the machete, he lightly tapped the wall. The tapping got gradually louder until he heard a zombie’s guttural growl.

Yes—he had to be smart about this. A head-on fight wasn’t an option.

His plan was to lure the zombies out one by one and take them down.

One zombie, hearing the sound, crawled over the collapsed door. Its body was tilted, mouth twisted open, nostrils flaring as it shuffled in Zhang Wei’s direction.

The moment it turned the corner and was about to screech, Zhang Wei thrust his machete straight into its mouth. The howl faded into a choking gurgle, mixed with the whistle of air escaping.

Zhang Wei recognized that sound—it was the fresh bl00d of a newly turned zombie seeping into its windpipe.

Looking down, he confirmed it was one of the athletes—still wearing a training uniform.

After it dropped, Zhang Wei stabbed it once more in the back of the head. That first stab had only pierced its throat; he couldn’t be sure it was brain-dead yet.

After finishing off that one, Zhang Wei used the same trick again, drawing out more zombies and ambushing them at the stairwell turn, one by one.

Eventually, no more came.

Zhang Wei figured some zombies were slower to react, or maybe too far from the wall to hear his tapping.

So he tried something else—he tossed an empty plastic water bottle.

The bottle clattered across the floor, flipping several times.

That did it. The zombies inside finally heard the noise and charged out with wild howls.

Zhang Wei’s heart sank. This time, over a dozen zombies came at once.

He could handle three or five—but with just one machete, there was no way he could take on that many.

If even one of them bit or scratched him, it was game over.

It wasn’t winter—his skin was exposed. If it were cold, a thick coat and long pants would at least offer some protection.

As he thought about it, Zhang Wei instinctively backed away.

The stairway was narrow—barely enough for two or three people side by side. The seven or eight zombies he’d already taken out were still lying there, creating a crude barrier.

Using those bodies to slow them down, Zhang Wei stabbed a few more times, taking out three more zombies.

The rest were so eager to chase him that they tripped over each other, piling up and falling down together.

Zhang Wei seized the opportunity and jabbed the back of one zombie’s head.

But the zombie’s skull was no different from a human’s. Even with all his strength, the blade didn’t go in deep enough. Instead, it enraged the zombie even more.

It hadn’t even stood up yet but was already crawling toward him in a frenzy. Zhang Wei crouched down and kicked hard, sending it flying and sprawling on the floor.

The kick took down a few more zombies behind it as well.

Zhang Wei kept retreating toward the fifth floor. That was his plan—kill while retreating.

By his estimate, he’d thin them out enough before reaching the sixth floor.

Zombies weren’t much faster than him. Sometimes, Zhang Wei had to purposely slow down a little.

And every strike needed to be quiet. Any loud noise might attract zombies from the first floor.

He also had to watch his angles—he couldn’t be sure whether zombies on the lower floors had all lost their vision. From dozens of meters across the schoolyard, they might still see the stairwell between the fifth and sixth floors.

He hadn’t expected someone would smash open the locked gate on the first floor with a dumbbell. That threw everything into chaos.

And the screams of the living who’d died yesterday… those had drawn even more zombies.

As he ran, Zhang Wei instinctively thrust his machete behind him again.

It should’ve taken down another zombie.

But this time, he miscalculated.

The zombie went down—but the handle of his machete snapped.

Zhang Wei cursed in his head. Damn… I forgot this thing isn’t the custom-forged Tang sword I used in my past life. That one was made specifically for killing zombies.

This machete was just cast iron—very hard, but not forged or tempered. One bad hit and it broke.

Zhang Wei had been careful to aim for weak spots like the mouth or eyes. Without that, the blade would’ve snapped way earlier.

Now, without the handle, the machete was useless. Using it would only risk cutting his own hand—and getting infected by zombie bl00d.

Zhang Wei adapted fast.

When the zombies lunged at him, he grabbed one by the jaw and pressed his other hand against the top of its head.

Before its mouth or claws could reach him, he slammed its head into the wall—hard.

You didn’t necessarily need to stab a zombie’s brain to destroy it. Blunt force could do the job too.

After two or three violent smashes, the zombie was dazed, maybe not dead, but it collapsed and stopped moving.

Zhang Wei knew he’d messed up. No matter how much he planned, he hadn’t accounted for the machete breaking. He had no choice but to run into a dorm room on the fifth floor.

Because those loud wall smashes had already drawn zombies from the third floor—they were howling and coming up the stairwell.

The ones downstairs were getting restless too.

Zhang Wei realized he couldn’t keep smashing their heads on walls. The noise would bring in every zombie around.

Just as he was about to duck into Dorm 512 for cover, he spotted Zhao Zhenxiong, Lu Renjia, and Zhou An climbing down from the rooftop with weapons in hand, hugging the wall for safety.

“Run! Get to the roof!” Zhang Wei shouted. If all four of them tried hiding in Dorm 512, they’d be trapped and torn apart.

And if Hu Die, who hadn’t come down, was left alone on the rooftop, she’d become zombie food.

“Back to the rooftop! Lock the gate!” Zhao Zhenxiong glanced through the stair railings and nearly peed himself.

The swarm of zombies was growing fast.

This kind of zombie stampede was not something a screwdriver could stop.

Zhang Wei grabbed the mop stick from Lu Renjia and held the rear. Once everyone was back on the rooftop, he twisted the U-lock key and threw it aside without a second thought.

There was no time to pocket it. He was barely a second away from getting bitten.

He jabbed the mop stick at the heads of the zombies clawing at the iron gate.

The stick, sharpened earlier, turned out to be a perfect weapon—long enough to keep him safe while still doing damage.

The zombies whose brains were hit hard started slowing down and losing their aggression.

But more zombies were coming up behind them.

The iron gate had been installed later. One side was bolted into the wall, the other welded to the stair rail.

But under repeated impacts, the gate began to bend.

Dust fell from the cracks around the embedded screws.

Zhang Wei knew—it wouldn’t hold much longer.

He grabbed a bedsheet off the floor and hung it up again. It might help calm the zombies a little.

“Go! Forget the gate! Everyone get to the rooftop!” Zhang Wei shouted.