Chu Yian clutched the weighty object in her hands.
A gun. A real one.
This wasn't just winning the lottery—this was hitting the jackpot twice.
She couldn't help it—she hugged the pistol and kissed it twice. Her confidence in survival instantly skyrocketed.
As soon as she took the gun out, the glowing treasure box faded into an empty container.
She immediately began packing it with supplies—food and water first, stuffing in as much as she could. And somehow, there was still space left.
She searched through the dorm again. In one of her roommate's drawers, she found some band-aids and a bottle of penicillin capsules.
Also, sanitary pads.
Would she need those?
She hesitated for a second—then tossed them in too.
Then came a roll of clear packing tape. The memory of how the zombies bit into people flashed across her mind. A thought struck her: maybe, just maybe, she could use it to pad herself.
She tore out some old textbooks, wrapped paper around her forearms, and fixed them with the tape. She brought her arm to her mouth and gave it a test bite.
Couldn't get through.
Not bad.
She tried wrapping her thighs and upper arms too, but that made her movements clumsy and slow. After some trial and error, she decided: only forearms. That gave protection without sacrificing agility.
She stowed the treasure box back into her palm and walked to the balcony, scanning the campus and planning a way out.
Zombies blocked the roads to both the academic buildings and the cafeteria. But most of them chased after people. By now, many were probably inside buildings. The streets themselves had fewer stragglers.
The biggest challenge?
Getting out of the dorm building.
Who knew how many zombies were inside? She had no idea what was waiting behind that door.
Jumping?
She glanced down at the patchy lawn and the zombies sticking out of balconies on the second and third floors.
Nope.
That wasn't happening.
Only one way out—through the stairs. She had to risk it. Half a minute. Just thirty seconds of running.
Everything ready.
She stowed the treasure box again, then began moving the barricade away from the door—slowly, quietly.
But when she finally stood before the handle—
She froze.
She couldn't do it.
The scuffing of zombie feet and their low, guttural growls just outside—it was like death whispering through the crack in the door.
One wrong move, and she could be face-to-face with them.
Opening the door required courage.
And the longer she hesitated… the more courage she lost.
She slumped into her chair, breath shallow, hands clammy. Her mind filled with flashes of the zombies tearing into people—flesh, bone, screaming.
After a long while, she opened her phone again and tuned the radio back to the emergency frequency.
The calm, robotic voice filled the room again. Listing symptoms. Explaining the infection rate. Repeating the location of the evacuation zone.
As she listened, her breathing steadied. Her thoughts began to clear.
Going out meant dying.
Staying meant dying in five days.
Was five extra days really worth it?
Maybe.
Because only by reaching the safe zone… did she stand a chance at living.
Her logic sharpened. Her instincts realigned.
She had to go.
The sooner she moved, the better the odds.
Chu Yian stood again, stretched her arms and rolled her ankles.
No more thinking. Just run.
She opened the door—
And bolted.
Sixth floor.
Fifth.
Fourth.
Third.
In seconds, she pushed herself to the limit—legs flying, heart hammering. It felt like she was flying.
But the pounding footsteps stirred the monsters.
The entire dorm building came alive with howls and shrieks. Zombies burst out from rooms above and below, converging on her from all directions.
She hit the second-floor landing.
Blocked.
Three zombies blocked the stairwell.
Now she had a horde coming from behind, a wall ahead, and more pouring in from the side hallway.
Blood-soaked fingers swiped past her face. A mouth full of yellow fangs snapped inches from her ear.
No time. No way out.
Chu Yian spun around and hurled the treasure box.
It obeyed her thought, instantly expanding mid-air into a solid golden cube—one meter wide, pure mass.
WHAM.
The thing crushed into the zombies like a wrecking ball—limbs cracked, skulls burst, blood and gore exploding on contact.
It was heavy. Way heavier than iron or alloy.
The stairwell cleared in a blink.
Chu Yian ran past the carnage, slapped her palm on the box to store it again, and sprinted toward the dorm exit.
Her bike was still there, lying on its side and stained with blood.
She rushed over.
Just as she grabbed the handlebar—
A shriek.
From the bushes, a figure lunged. Mouth open wide.
Bite.
Pain exploded in her forearm.
A zombie in a dorm warden's uniform had chomped down hard. The makeshift armor on her arm crumpled under the pressure—books crushed, tape shredded.
Chu Yian gritted her teeth, drew her pistol, and shoved it against the zombie's skull.
BANG!
Her hand went numb. The zombie's head caved in like a melon.
But the gunshot—
Echoed through the campus like a dinner bell.
Thump. Thump-thump.
From above, bodies started falling.
Zombies in the dorms had heard the noise—and jumped out the windows, landing with wet crunches.
All around her, the undead began converging.
Oh shit.
Chu Yian hauled the bike upright, jumped on, and took off.
The tires screeched. Sparks flew from the pedals. She raced down the school paths like her life depended on it.
And it did.
Zombies flooded toward her from all directions.
Even the faintest sound could rouse them.
The crowd thickened. Front, back, left, right—zombie walls closing in.
Chu Yian was shaking. Her nerves were on fire.
She swerved hard, ducking into an alley next to a building.
Still zombies.
One was circling a three-wheeled electric delivery vehicle marked with a courier company logo.
It spotted her—and lunged.
Chu Yian yanked her handlebars, skidding sideways and throwing the zombie off her trail.
In that instant—she saw something glint near the tricycle's cargo box.
Keys.
A motorized trike was faster than a bicycle any day.
Without hesitation, she ditched her bike and vaulted into the three-wheeler, slammed the doors shut, jammed the key into the ignition, and floored it.
The electric motor roared to life.
Steel frame. Acceleration. Protection.
It felt like going from slingshot to shotgun.
Chu Yian tore through the undead-infested campus like a bat out of hell.
Zombies flung themselves at the vehicle.
She dodged, rammed, ducked, skidded—zipping and weaving toward the back gate.
The back entrance was chaos.
Cars had crashed and piled up—blocking every lane. Corpses littered the ground.
A few zombies still roamed, chewing on leftovers.
They heard the trike and lunged.
Chu Yian gunned the engine and veered into the pedestrian lane.
She blasted through the gate—ripping down a tent that had been set up as a checkpoint. The tarp collapsed, trapping the zombies chasing her.
She heard them fall and get tangled behind her.
Glancing back, she saw the aftermath—
And something else.
A person.
In the middle of a pile-up, inside a black car, someone was still moving.
Alive.
Chu Yian's fingers twitched on the brake.
Should she stop?
Should she save them?
Her grip tightened.
One second of hesitation.