Chenghai lifted his wrist into the moonlight, the faint glow of his watch face just bright enough to read without drawing attention.
His eyes flicked over the numbers once before he lowered his arm again, his jaw tightening almost imperceptibly. "Eleven hours. Give or take."
The words settled over the rooftop like a weight.
Yuche didn’t respond right away, just slouched forward in a position that would have scread ’defeat’ for anyone else. Then he shook his head and pulled back his shoulders. With one hand, he checked on the unconscious Lingyun, making sure that he was okay, while his brain when through different scenarios.
Behind them, there ca the sound of a gentle tapping started again on the heavy steel door. It was so controlled that it border lined on creepy.
It was not striking blindly, but was placing each point of contact with intent. A soft tap near the lower hinge. A second, higher up along the fra. A faint scraping motion that didn’t drag aimlessly, but traced along the edge as if searching for a weakness instead of trying to force one.
Yuche felt his shoulders tense, but he didn’t look at what used to feel like a good sized barrier between them.
Not yet.
Instead, he pushed himself upright and crossed the rooftop toward the edge, his steps slower now, more deliberate. The last thing he needed was to trip and fall over the edge. But the closer he got to it, the more he saw. There was a three-foot concrete barrier that really did nothing to make the drop feel less imdiate, but it gave just enough cover to lean forward without exposing his full body.
The city below ca into view.
And it wasn’t empty.
"They’re still here," Yuche murmured, his voice low enough that it barely carried past the edge.
Chenghai shifted slightly behind him. "How many?"
Yuche leaned forward a fraction more, his eyes adjusting to the silver wash of moonlight stretching across the street below. It didn’t take long to understand what he was looking at.
"There has to be hundreds."
The words had barely left his mouth when it happened.
Every head below snapped up.
Not gradually.
Not one after another.
All at once.
The movent was so sudden, so perfectly synchronized, that it made sothing in Yuche’s chest tighten. Dozens—no, hundreds—of faces turned in the exact sa instant, their attention locking onto the point where he stood.
He stepped back imdiately, his movent sharp and instinctive, his breath catching as his pulse spiked.
Behind him, the tapping stopped.
Not faded.
Stopped.
The silence that followed felt heavier than the noise had been.
Chenghai broke it first, his voice lower now, edged with sothing that hadn’t been there before. "It’s like we’re trapped in ’A Quiet Place.’ I’m pretty sure that Rouxi would be screaming at us for going up when being chased by killers and not down."
Yuche snorted at that. "This is more like ’Don’t Breathe’ than ’A Quiet Place. And I’m sure that Rouxi would have an opinion no matter what direction we went in.’" Yuche muttered, his gaze still fixed on the edge. "This is fucked up on a whole new level."
There was a brief, subtle movent from Zhenlan—a small gesture toward Chenghai that didn’t need words to be understood.
Be quiet.
The ssage landed and Yuche took a slow breath, forcing it to stay controlled before stepping forward again.
This ti, he moved carefully, placing each step with intention, controlling even the sound of his boots against the concrete. He reached the edge again and leaned forward just enough to see.
The street hadn’t emptied as the zombies realized that they were no longer getting an easy al. Instead, it had completely shifted.
The zombies were not wandering anymore. They were waiting for sothing to happen.
Then one moved. It didn’t break away randomly. It shifted with purpose, its hands finding the wall of the building as it began to climb.
Another followed.
Then another.
So lost their grip and fell, their bodies hitting the ground below with heavy impacts that echoed faintly upward. The ones behind them didn’t hesitate. They filled the space imdiately, fingers finding cracks, edges, anything that would support their weight as they pulled themselves higher.
Yuche stared, his expression flattening. "They’re climbing the fucking wall."
He didn’t say it like a question. He said it like a fact he didn’t have ti to argue with.
Chenghai didn’t co closer this ti. He didn’t need to. The tone alone was enough.
"How long?" he asked, letting out a long sigh of his own. Would tonight never end?
Yuche tracked the movent for a few seconds, watching the speed, the spacing, the way they adjusted when one fell, the way another imdiately took its place.
"Not long enough. Or too long... depending if we are talking about zombies or the sun."
One of the closer zombies reached higher than the rest, its hand catching on a narrow ledge just below the second story. There was still about twelve stories between them and the creatures, but that didn’t seem to be nearly enough space for Yuche’s peace of mind.
Yuche’s lip curled slightly.
Not fear.
Not panic.
Rage. Pure rage.
He raised his hand without thinking, his fingers forming the shape before he could question it. Thumb up, his index and middle finger extended.
A finger gun.
It was stupid.
Pointless.
A threat that worked better for humans than it did for zombies, but it was a reflex more than a decision. It was his warning to his enemies that he could kill them at any ti.
Needing the stress relief of an old ritual, he lined his fingers up anyway, his eyes narrowing slightly as he focused on the climbing figure.
He exhaled and his thumb pressed down.
The zombie’s head snapped back and a clean hole appeared in its skull.
For a mont, it didn’t fall. Its grip held, fingers locked in place as if the body hadn’t caught up to what had just happened.
Then it let go.
The body dropped.
It hit the ground and didn’t move again.
Yuche froze.
Behind him, Chenghai hadn’t moved.
There had been no gunshot.
No recoil.
No sound at all.
Yuche lowered his hand slowly, his eyes flicking over his shoulder toward Chenghai.
The gun was still at his side, completely untouched.
Chenghai hadn’t fired the bullet that killed the zombie.
Yuche looked back at his hand.
Turned it slightly and flexed his fingers once.
He didn’t understand it, but he also didn’t try to.
This was not the ti to questions things when they went their way.
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