Chu Yian glanced at the driver. "Where are all these ambulances going?"
"Think it's the high-speed rail station," he replied casually.
They'd only driven a few blocks when traffic came to a halt at a red-light intersection.
"Damn, traffic's a nightmare today."
Chu Yian noticed the driver open a chat group on his phone.
"Even Shigang Road is jammed. What's it like near the mall?"
"What a coincidence, I'm stuck near the mall too."
"They just locked down the high-speed rail and long-distance bus stations. Heard there were stabbings… and people biting each other. Don't go near."
"There was a fight in the mall too. Might've spread from the station. Shit, I just saw someone's intestines hanging out. It's messed up. Y'all better stay away…"
The group chat went silent.
"Wait—there's a fight in the mall?" one of the girls in the back murmured.
Everyone instantly pulled out their phones, scrolling social media for updates. Meanwhile, police motorcycles started weaving through the gaps between cars, heading toward the scene with urgency.
"Maybe we shouldn't go after all…" the chubby girl in the backseat mumbled. But the road was blocked in every direction. There was nowhere to go.
HOOOOONK.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEEEEP!
Horns blared ahead. A wave of people sprinted toward them, screaming in panic. Faces twisted in fear. No police in sight.
"What the hell is happening?!"
The driver unbuckled and stepped out to look. Chu Yian leaned out the window.
The crowd was running away from the mall.
Whatever it was, it was coming from the direction they were headed.
A riot? Terrorists?
"Come on," Chu Yian said sharply, flinging open the door. "Let's go."
Her three roommates didn't move. Their faces were filled with hesitation, still thinking it might be safer to stay in the car.
"We're maybe two or three kilometers from campus. We can make it on foot—and it'll be safer than being trapped in here."
She bent down to tighten her shoelaces as she spoke.
If they didn't follow, she'd run alone.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion roared up the street. A car flipped in the air, lifted by the blast. More people came pouring around the corner—some of them attacking others in pure violence, some leaping onto moving vehicles.
"What are you waiting for? RUN!"
A stranger shouted at Chu Yian as he bolted past.
That was all she needed.
She ran.
The others still hesitated, but she didn't look back. She chased after the man. But he didn't get far. He tripped and slammed into a parked car.
Chu Yian almost ran to help—but a couple beat her to it.
She saw it—his arm had been bitten. A chunk of flesh torn clean off. Blood soaked his sleeve.
"Oh god…"
The woman gasped. "He needs a hospital!"
But before they could dial emergency services, the man began to convulse.
Then he lunged—right at the woman's husband—tearing into him with his teeth.
Biting. Gnawing.
He'd just warned her to run. Now he was… no longer human.
"Y-Yian!"
Her roommates had followed after all.
"Run. Now!"
Chu Yian's voice trembled, her lips pale. She forced herself not to turn back. She bolted past the struggling figures on the ground.
Behind them, the driver had returned to the vehicle. He barely shut the door before a monstrous figure burst out of the fleeing crowd, slamming headfirst into the windshield—drooling, snarling.
Then—WEEEOOOO!—the city-wide emergency alarm blared across the sky.
The bitten couple rose from the pavement with twisted postures and launched themselves at the nearest bystanders.
The crowd exploded into panic.
Cars swerved, crashed, flipped. People screamed. The city had gone mad.
Chu Yian narrowly dodged a car and vaulted over the hood, running as hard as she could.
CRASH!
Behind her, metal crunched. "Yian!"
One of her roommates had been hit—pinned between a car and the wall. Blood gushed from the back of her head.
Inside the red sedan, a monstrous figure pounded the shattered glass. His neck was shredded, his mouth gnashing wildly. His gums and jawbone gleamed through torn flesh. His eyes—tiny pinpricks of green—were locked on his prey.
The glass broke.
The thing dove for her roommate. The girl across the car screamed in paralyzed horror.
There was no saving her.
Chu Yian grabbed the only roommate within reach and ran.
Mad people everywhere—front and back. She didn't dare glance around. She kept her eyes locked on the school gate, 500 meters away.
Security guards were stationed there, shouting into radios. The electronic gate was slowly closing.
Just before it shut completely, Chu Yian and the roommate burst through, yelling—
"We're students! Let us in!"
The guards pulled them through.
Chu Yian collapsed, gasping for air, staring toward the gate.
The guards were armed with riot shields and iron forks, holding back the flood of people outside.
She saw one of them get bitten.
Madness. Chaos. Outside, infected and uninfected were indistinguishable. People were scaling the fences, crawling over into campus grounds. The perimeter was a joke.
Not safe. Not anymore.
She grabbed her remaining roommate and sprinted toward the dorms. Dozens of students were still standing around watching.
"Run! Don't just stand there—RUN!"
Chu Yian didn't dare look back. The dorm was still ten minutes away on foot. Why the hell was the campus built so damn big?
It was the first time she'd ever cursed her school's layout.
Behind them, more screams, sirens, glass shattering. The front gates had collapsed. Dozens of twisted figures rushed inside, tearing through anyone in their path.
From the top floors of the teaching building, students watched through the windows as hell spilled into the campus.
Chu Yian glanced back—just once—and saw the metal gate fall. The crowd of infected surged through. People who ran too slowly were dragged down and devoured.
As the city's sirens howled, the school's emergency broadcast began to play…