The sudden screams from the first floor clearly startled everyone.
Xuanxuan was jolted awake too, her sleepy eyes barely open before she started crying.
Lili's expression changed drastically, and she quickly joined Han Xue and Taozi in trying to soothe her.
But once a child starts crying, it's not easy to calm them down.
With no other choice, I waved at them and said, "Go upstairs first—don't worry about anything else. I'll go check what's happening below in a bit."
The girl who had fainted earlier slowly came to, sniffling as she clung to the girl beside her, crying softly.
We quickly moved up using the elevator to the fourth floor.
It was a large supermarket, but since it was still early, it hadn't opened yet.
That was probably why the mall wasn't very crowded.
Continuing upward, the fifth floor was just as Han Xue had described—packed full of household goods and bedding.
As we came up, two shop attendants peeked at us, then quickly shrank back and hid behind a stack of quilts.
We didn't stop and kept heading to the sixth floor.
It was also filled with household items, but at the far end there were several rooms lined up side by side, with signs reading "Office" on the doors.
We picked one at random and tried the handle.
It wasn't locked, so it opened easily.
The lights inside were on, but there was no one there.
Sister Hua said these managers only came occasionally—they belonged to the main office.
Once inside, being on the sixth floor and farther from the chaos below, the screams became faint, and Xuanxuan finally quieted down.
The girls briefly introduced themselves.
The one in the dress was named Zhang Ting, the delicate-looking one was Chen Jiaojiao, the girl who had ditched her cowardly boyfriend was Xiao Rong, and the security guard told us to call him Old Wang.
When he introduced himself, he said, "Just call me Old Wang…"
Taozi immediately followed up, "Call you Old Turtle?"
"Mm, sure," the guard nodded sincerely, clearly not realizing Taozi meant something entirely different.
That small moment lightened the mood a little.
After reminding them to stay alert, I stepped out again, planning to look for the group that had come down earlier.
If I heard correctly, they should have made it up to the sixth floor.
The moment I opened the door, the screams from the first floor carried all the way up, forming a stark contrast with the eerie silence upstairs.
The clash between chaos below and stillness above felt extremely unsettling.
The sixth floor was filled with piles of quilts, bedsheets, and some furniture stacked in the corners—probably leftover items from before.
Now no one bothered taking them, so they were just used to fill up space along the walls.
Walking down the silent corridor, I had to admit—it was genuinely unsettling.
A chill crept down my back.
Maybe because it was still early, the lights on the sixth floor were mostly off.
Sometimes, just catching sight of a messy pile of quilts in the corner of my eye would make me mistake it for some kind of monster, enough to break out in a cold sweat.
Some of the screams from below had already moved up to the second floor, mixed with the faint, disjointed growls of walkers.
I started to feel tense.
The sixth floor was directly connected to the lower floors by the elevator—despite being higher up, we didn't really have any actual protection.
After quickly checking the entire open area and finding no one, I turned my attention to the other office rooms. When my eyes swept toward the last one in the corner, I paused.
Among all the offices in that row, the lights inside the others were on—probably automatic—but only that corner room had no light seeping out from beneath the door.
Gripping the mop tightly, I approached that office step by step.
Overthinking things can backfire—those people were probably hiding in this room.
The illusion that hiding in the dark would keep them safe… they were naïve in a way that was almost endearing.
I tried the doorknob—it was locked from the inside.
Clearing my throat, I glanced back toward the stairwell before speaking softly, "Open the door. I'm not a walker, and I haven't been bitten."
There was no response for quite a while.
After waiting a bit longer, I added, "If you don't open up now, once there are more walkers downstairs, none of us will be able to get out."
This time, within two seconds, I heard faint whispers from inside.
I couldn't make out what they were saying, only the low murmur of discussion.
Soon after, footsteps approached, and the door opened.
The one who opened it was a slightly overweight man with acne.
He wasn't very tall.
After opening the door, he looked me over, frowning slightly—probably because I was holding a mop and didn't look particularly strong, so he assumed I was just someone seeking shelter.
After opening the door, he quickly glanced around to make sure there were no walkers nearby, then pulled me inside and switched on the light.
Only then did I see there were five people in total—three men and two women.
The two women were both middle-aged.
They were clearly terrified, huddled together, trembling with their heads lowered, their faces drained of all color.
I looked over the three men.
None of them were particularly strong, but at least they weren't frail.
After brief introductions, I couldn't remember their names, so I just gave them nicknames based on their appearances: the one who opened the door was "Beer Belly," the balding one was "Baldy," and the one who somewhat resembled Lu Yi I called "Handsome Guy."
As for the two women in the corner, they could practically be ignored—honestly, the fact that they hadn't wet themselves was probably the last bit of willpower holding them together.
For people with nerves like theirs to have survived this long, it had to be thanks to the protection of this place—and some luck on their part.
Once I explained why I was there, Baldy immediately gave me a look that clearly said are you kidding me? and said, "Those things out there are walkers! They kill people! Eat people! And there are a lot of them. You want the few of us to go down and deal with them? That's just suicide."
I waved my hand and explained, "That was the plan at first. But something serious seems to have happened downstairs just now. I don't know exactly what, but it's safe to assume a lot of people have been bitten. So we don't need to fight them head-on right now. What I need is someone to cover me while I go down and see what's going on."
"Isn't that unnecessary?" Beer Belly said. "We just need to hide here and wait for Team D to arrive."
"That's true," I replied, "but let me remind you—people from downstairs rushed up to the second floor quite a while ago. Even if some of them stay there, it'll only take a few minutes for them to reach this floor. There are kids next door. When the time comes, those people will definitely try to hide in these rooms. And once walkers follow them up and surround this place, we'll be completely trapped."
I looked around at them and before adding, "Let me put it this way—maybe before Team D arrives, we can do something to help ourselves."
In truth, I was saying all this just to persuade them to come with me.
While checking the hall earlier, I had already thought about what happened at that bar before.
Based on how Team D usually handled things, with the mall having relatively low foot traffic but now so many people bitten and turned, they would definitely seal off the exits.
As for whether they would send people in afterward—that was another matter.
We might not last until then.
Rather than trembling in a room waiting for rescue, it was better to take the initiative and find out what was going on.
Handsome Guy seemed convinced.
After thinking for a moment, he walked over to a bookshelf, rummaged around, picked up a decorative stone, weighed it in his hand, and nodded in satisfaction. "Alright. I'll go take a look with you."
Finally, someone was willing to help.
I let out a long breath of relief and couldn't help but give him a big thumbs-up.
Baldy and Beer Belly were still hesitating.
Seeing that there weren't any useful weapons around, I simply waved them off, telling them to go stay in the other room with Lili and the others.
After that, Handsome Guy and I headed out together and went down toward the fifth floor.
When we reached the elevator, I realized it had stopped at some point.
After pausing for a second, we just treated it like stairs and continued down.
The people who had been hiding on the fifth floor were nowhere to be seen now.
Most of the lights were off, with only the green emergency exit lights glowing faintly, making the place feel especially eerie.
Just as we were about to reach the fourth floor, a horrific shriek suddenly came from below, mixed with dense, low growls from walkers.
I immediately froze.
Handsome Guy was clearly getting nervous.
The hand gripping the stone began to tremble slightly.
I glanced at him, half-worried he might drop it and smash his own foot.
Listening carefully, I realized the sound wasn't coming from the fourth floor—it was from the third floor.
Suddenly, I thought of someone: Xiao Rong's boyfriend!
Right after that, a rapid clatter of footsteps came from below.
I quickly pulled Handsome Guy back, ducking behind a stack of quilts on the fifth floor.
I told him to watch behind us while I leaned out to observe the stairwell.
About ten seconds later, a middle-aged woman dragging a teenage child appeared, with two clearly older men and women following behind her as they hurried up the stairs.
Behind them trailed at least a dozen walkers, all covered in fresh blood—clearly having just fed.
A bunch of insatiable monsters!
Just as expected—what you fear always comes true.
As those people rushed toward the sixth floor, the walkers behind them were already climbing up toward the fifth.
I quickly looked around and suddenly spotted a wooden cargo cart used for transporting goods.
An idea struck me.
I motioned for Handsome Guy to stay close, then rushed forward, pushing the cart as fast as I could toward the stairwell.
Aiming straight at the walkers that had already climbed up, I charged forward.
The cart was just wide enough to jam across the stairwell entrance.
The walkers were instantly knocked off their feet and tumbled back down the stairs, taking the ones behind them down as well.
— The end of the Chapter–