Zombie Siege: The Road to Survival Begins at School - Chapter 4
“Zhou An, come here for a second,” Xu Long’s voice called out.
“Run, Zhou An!!” Zhang Wei shouted from inside the dorm, yelling out toward the hallway.
Zhou An had picked the worst possible time to show up.
“It’s too late now. Open the door, Zhang Wei. Otherwise, we’ll toss Zhou An out the fifth-floor window. Open it, and I’ll let go of what happened in the exam room earlier.”
Zhang Wei knew Xu Long was just bluffing.
The outbreak had only just begun—human nature hadn’t completely collapsed yet.
Xu Long and his crew were just students, after all.
Zhang Wei had a watermelon knife for self-defense.
But there were over ten people outside. With his current physical condition, there was no way he could take them all on.
He and Zhou An had once tried to stand up to Xu Long before and almost got beaten to a pulp for it.
This time would be no different—unless he could take someone out in a single strike.
But there were clearly more people than just Xu Long out there. He probably wouldn’t even get the chance to attack first.
Zhang Wei knew he couldn’t open the door. He didn’t stand a chance in a fight.
And besides, a fight would waste energy, and his knife could be taken from him.
Worse, these people could turn into zombies at any moment. Zhang Wei wasn’t willing to take that risk.
He peered out through the peephole in the dorm door.
Zhou An had already been dragged over by the group, his collar gripped tightly. He struggled, but he couldn’t break free.
“Zhang Wei, open up! Aren’t you two supposed to be friends?” Xu Long said as he punched Zhou An in the face.
Zhou An’s face quickly swelled up, bl00d seeping from the corner of his mouth.
But Zhou An grit his teeth and stayed silent.
He had figured it out—Xu Long’s gang wanted to use him to force Zhang Wei into opening the door.
“You’re wrong! Zhou An and I aren’t that close.”
Zhang Wei knew that if he opened the door, both of them would be beaten and humiliated.
And more than likely, they’d be kicked out of the dorm.
Without a safe shelter and supplies, survival on campus was impossible.
If he showed too much concern, he’d only be putting Zhou An in greater danger.
This wasn’t cowardice.
Just now, Zhang Wei had counted through the peephole.
There were seven or eight boys and three to five girls outside.
Wait… was that Zhang Ya?
She was supposed to have been the first to be bitten to death by the female proctor—rumor had it she was the first class beauty to die in the outbreak.
“How did she survive? Did my early escape mess with the original timeline?”
“These supplies I’ve hoarded aren’t enough to support that many people.”
The boys took turns beating Zhou An half to death, still trying to force Zhang Wei to open up.
In a crisis like this, fear stripped people of reason.
Especially these guys, who were already bullies to begin with. Beating others was second nature to them.
Seeing that Zhang Wei still wouldn’t open, some of them started slamming against the door.
“Stop it! If you break the door, we’re all dead!” Zhang Wei shouted, unable to hold back. The frame was starting to loosen.
It was a fitted frame, filled only with foam glue and plaster—no steel or concrete.
If the door gave in, everything he’d worked for would go up in smoke.
Zhang Wei thought of a plan—he’d pretend to be weak.
“Check each other for wounds. Anyone injured, no matter how small, can’t come in!”
He made it sound like he was going to let them in.
He was only taking the risk because of Zhou An.
Zhou An had saved his life before. A life owed.
“But will stalling really help?”
Zhang Wei knew the door wouldn’t last forever. If it broke, his seven-day safehouse plan would be ruined.
The group outside stopped banging on the door, confused by the sudden demand to inspect wounds.
“Check each other. If you don’t want to die, do it properly! Especially Zhang Ya—check her carefully!” Zhang Wei added.
He still suspected Zhang Ya. How could she have survived?
“Didn’t the proctor turn into a zombie?”
Even if she hadn’t, she might’ve been bitten elsewhere.
Zhang Wei needed to know what had happened after he’d left the exam room.
The others were afraid of dying too, and with the zombies’ growls growing closer, they began inspecting each other, though half-heartedly.
The girls, however, didn’t want the boys touching them.
Zhang Wei warned them, “If someone’s scratched or bitten, they’ll turn into a zombie. Check carefully, or we’re all doomed!”
That jolted them back to seriousness.
“We’re all clean. We dodged the zombies!” one of the boys reported.
Then a girl hesitated. “But… the vice class rep’s foot is bleeding…”
That vice class rep—was Zhang Ya.
Zhang Wei went back to the peephole.
Zhang Ya quickly explained, “I scraped it on a rock while running. I even lost a shoe.”
She lifted her bare foot, showing a long red gash across the top. Her once-white stockings were stained red, and bl00d continued to seep out.
Zhang Wei didn’t buy it. The odds of a foot injury like that while running were low.
He needed a closer look to be sure.
“Zhang Ya stays out. The rest of you can come in.”
He made his decision instantly.
“What? Why are you targeting me?” Zhang Ya’s face twisted in disbelief, totally forgetting how she’d mocked him back in the exam room.
The others started pleading. “It’s just a cut from a rock, right? Come on, let us in!”
“No. If Zhang Ya’s here, I’m not opening the door—no way.”
Zhang Wei had never planned to open the door. He just wanted to buy time.
If the zombies showed up soon and the number wasn’t too large, he could use the watermelon knife to save Zhou An.
It wasn’t great for fighting people, but it’d do the job on zombies.
Just cut through their necks—sever the spinal cord.
“Go ahead, keep slamming the door. Break it, and we all die,” Zhang Wei warned.
He was actually hoping Zhang Ya would keep arguing—it would delay them more until the zombies arrived.
Zhang Ya was trembling with anger, tears welling up in her eyes, her expression pitiful yet bitter.
“Zhang Ya… maybe you should leave,” one of the boys suddenly said.
The peephole had a blind spot, so Zhang Wei couldn’t see where the boy was standing.
“Liu Feng, you…” Zhang Ya looked stunned.
Zhang Wei didn’t see it, but Liu Feng quietly winked at her. Zhou An noticed—and Xu Long quickly clamped a hand over his mouth.
Zhang Wei didn’t know exactly what was happening, but he could tell something was off from Zhou An’s reaction.
He’d heard of Liu Feng.
A guy from the next class over, a star player on the school’s basketball team.
Another boy, seeing Liu Feng’s lead, immediately dragged Zhang Ya away without another word.
Zhang Wei watched them go, recognizing the back of the second boy.
“Xu Long isn’t reacting at all to Zhang Ya leaving?”
“Wasn’t he chasing her?”
Zhang Wei felt something off. That other boy’s back looked really familiar.
“Who was that?”
The rest of the students pounded on the door, some gearing up to slam into it again.
“She’s gone! Zhang Wei, open up! The zombies are almost here!”
“If you still don’t open, we’ll die together! You won’t live either!” someone shouted, backing up to get a running start.
Zhang Wei wasn’t too worried about the door breaking anymore.
He kept thinking through the risks and benefits.
“Maybe letting some of them in isn’t such a bad idea. I might be able to find reliable teammates.”
He didn’t want to go solo.
One person with a knife couldn’t possibly carve a path through thousands of zombies.
Zhang Wei quietly gripped the watermelon knife he’d stolen from the convenience store.
It was his biggest trump card.
“As long as I can protect this safehouse and the food, I can survive!”
“If it really comes down to it, I’ll take the risk!”
Just as he was weighing his options, a powerful force slammed into the door.
An unknown hand shoved its way through the gap, pushing hard against the metal-framed bed.
Caught off guard, Zhang Wei was struck by the shifting bed and knocked to the ground, dizzy from the blow.
He quickly scrambled to his feet.
Without thinking, he swung the knife at that intruding hand—aiming to strike first.