XG 14 - I fight better alone

 

"Move, Xue Guo!" Chen Yibo called as he smashed a zombie’s face rather mercilessly.

 

Wong Xue Guo forced her weak legs to stand up and then frantically urged her numb legs to run towards Chen Yibo. 

 

"Kim Sung-Ho! Follow me!" Wong Xue Guo called the boy that was fiercely beating up two zombies at the same time to the ground, reminding her of the whacking mole game. 

 

She did not forget that Kim Sung-Ho had used his body to push the zombie away from her, even if it was a dead zombie. If her mother had not delivered the death blow, Kim Sung-Ho would be bitten by the zombie after pushing the zombie away from her.

 

Kim Sung-Ho smashed the zombies’ heads until they resembled a smashed watermelon, more or less, before running to follow Wong Xue Guo. 

 

Chen Jiang An lends her a hand, pulling her still numb legs to run away, likely to their hideout while Chen Yibo covers their backs. 

 

With a calmness that does not fit a teenager that was facing the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, Chen Yibo aimed his bat at the zombies' faces with disturbing sounds. It took Wong Xue Guo a while to notice he had specifically aimed at a certain spot on their face. 

 

The zombies' mouths.

 

Chen Yibo must have thought that without teeth, they would not be able to bite people. It was not a failsafe method, but his bat could not stab and was only able to hit, hence he had no choice but to use such a crude method to stop them from infecting people. 

 

"Mr Vihaan." Suzie Yap intercepted Vihaan's fight and finished the zombies around him with formidable strength and speed. She was similar to a killing machine with standardized speed and strength from the start till now. "Follow the children to hide. I will deal with them."

 

Vihaan stared at Suzie Yap as if she had gone suicidal. "You should hide too. Fighting against them all is insane!" 

 

"They will destroy the hideout if left alone."

 

Vihaan’s eyes shook as he understood what she meant. He had seen from the monitoring screen how aggressive those monsters were when they discovered a human's hiding place. They kept on ramming their body onto the obstacles until they gave in, just to get their hands on the human.

 

The sports store will not hold up if a large wave of zombies surrounds it.

 

Vihaan watched Suzie Yap continue killing the zombies with a decisive mind. Her strength had allowed him some resting period, which was insane. "Can you alone deal with all these?"

 

They had killed quite a bit, and the number of monsters had reduced. But it was still a large number for a lone fighter.

 

"I fight better alone."

 

Her words would make one think she was arrogant and overestimate herself, yet he could hear truthfulness from her tone. Vihaan sucked in a deep breath and slowly released it as his gaze became sharper. He adjusted his glasses and moved his limbs into a position, preparing to run as fast as he could.

 

"Fight well and achieve victory. Your daughter needs you," Vihaan blessed Suzie Yap with a tinge of bitterness for being unmanly for leaving this woman to fight alone. He hardened his heart and charged to where the children had gone. 

 

The metal pole was originally tough, but after using it to hit and stab many times, it became bent. He does not know how long his weapon will last, but if he stays behind to fight along with Suzie Yap, the metal will likely break not long after. 

 

Then he would be a liability.

 

Vihaan could only bet that Suzie Yap was telling the truth that she fought better alone. Without needing to protect anyone, she could fight freely without restraint. 

 

That woman was not ordinary and he hoped that was the truth.

 

Suzie Yap's smile gradually formed into a sharp sneer as she listened to Vihaan's footsteps getting further away. Her eyes stared at the zombies as if they were the dirtiest bug that dared to crawl around the paradise known as Earth.

 

“This time, I would not let anyone stop me from keeping my daughter safe.”

 

Her words were an oath to herself as her movement became sharper, deadlier, and faster as bloodlust crawled out of her body like an invisible mist. 

 

The four teenagers hurriedly ran to the sports store and saw Low Lin Ya immediately open the metal door installed on the metal shutters. It might have been designed for convenience, but it allowed stealth and silence for the survivors when leaving or entering.

 

"Quick, quick, quick!" Low Lin Ya squealed intensely and went back to hide, unable to stay and watch if her friends were able to get in or not. 

 

Cheng Jiang An and Wong Xue Guo literally threw themselves into the shop and sprawled undignified on the floor. Next was the breathing hard Kim Sung-Ho, fully covered with blood and unmentionable liquid. 

 

Kim Sung-Ho turned to look out of the dark sports store, but the strong elder brother with the silver metal bat did not enter even after a long time. He was going to step out to look for the elder brother when Chen Jiang An quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him deeper into the store.

 

"Hide and keep quiet, 'kay?" Chen Jiang An mimicked the act of zipping his mouth and pushing him to stand deeper inside the store.

 

Chen Jiang An sneaked around the window to look at the situation outside and as he guessed, his cousin was fighting against the zombies that had followed them right to the store. Chen Yibo stayed behind because he needed to deal with them all to secure their hideout's safety.

 

"He will just be wasting energy if he does not kill them." Wong Xue Guo joined Chen Jiang An in spying out of the window. 

 

“Without their teeth, they won’t be able to infect us anymore.”

 

Wong Xue Guo stared at Chen Jian An in disbelief, as if he was being slow. “Their strength is like a human without a limiter. Their bare hands could easily rip our limbs apart. Then their nails would cut our flesh into slices so they could swallow us easier. Do you think we will still be safe even if they are without teeth?”

 

Cheng Jiang An flinched. Classmate Wong Xue Guo, you don't need to be that descriptive when it comes to gore!

 

"I will go help out… what's that?" Chen Jiang An stared at the items Wong Xue Guo had taken out of her bag.

 

"Stun guns. Let's test them out." Wong Xue Guo flipped the device around and had to randomly test the buttons to learn how to use it.

 

"Holy… Where did you get those babies?" Chen Jiang An joined to research the stun gun. 

 

With urgency, Wong Xue Guo and Chen Jiang An fiddled with the stun gun and finally discovered how it worked. But none of them could shoot well, especially when the target kept on moving. 

 

"Can I try it?"

 

Since she could not do it, she did not hog the stun gun and passed it to Kim Sung-Ho. She had already moved on to grab her worn-out broomstick to help out when she saw fine wires sail through the air and the probe sunk right onto a zombie's back.

 

From the beginning, Wong Xue Guo’s perception towards Kim Sung-Ho was rather biased because he was a skinny kid. She had already thought of him to be weaker than her, even if his gender was male. But reality smacked her face when he revealed his strength when he bashed those zombies, and then now when he accurately shoots the target with the stun gun. 

 

What regrets in having him as a teammate? There’s none!

 

However, the stun gun only made the zombie twitch around but it could still continue walking, unaffected by the stun gun at all. 

 

"He looks a bit like Michael Jackson…" Chen Jiang An complimented awkwardly. 

 

"... Useless." Wong Xue Guo quickly concluded, tossed the extra stun gun back into her bag, and picked up her broom again.

 

Chen Yibo had seen what they were doing and was speechless. "Just give me something that can be used to stab!"

 

He was lucky to fight against these agile zombies without much problem, but he also knew it was because they had strangely slowed down that he could survive without being bitten once.

 

"Like what?" Chen Jiang An and Wong Xue Guo could not think of anything that could be used as a stabbing weapon unless they went around to search.

 

But they do not have time to do so when Chen Yibo starts to falter from the zombies from exhaustion. In the end, Wong Xue Guo passed the two stun guns to Kim Sung-Ho to use while she followed Chen Jiang An to help out Chen Yibo.

 

The bad news was, now that she had taken a short break, she was all too aware of the soreness aching all over her body. She had to force herself to grab her broomstick with her bruised palms, ignoring the pain as much as she could. 

 

What happened to the idea of placing yourself first? It was eaten by the reality of the weak who need strong people to survive!

 

She would call herself an idiot if she sacrificed Chen Yibo, the young protégé in karate!

 

But Wong Xue Guo had to admit that Chen Yibo breaking these zombies' teeth had reduced her fear value and gave her a level-headed mind to achieve better accuracy in stabbing with much steadier hands.