Chapter 464: Mad dash

Chapter 464 -77 – Mad dash

The left tunnel narrowed almost immediately.

Chen kept Skyy close as they moved deeper inside, their wet clothes clinging uncomfortably to their bodies. The cold air Liang Wei had mentioned came in faint currents from somewhere ahead, brushing against their damp skin. It was enough to tell Chen that they were at least moving toward another opening.

That was about the only reassuring thing about the place.

The water behind them had grown quiet again, but Chen didn’t trust the silence. Every so often, he glanced over his shoulder, half expecting to see something crawling after them from the darkness. Their flashlights barely reached far enough to illuminate the curving walls, old electrical boxes, and rusted pipes running alongside the tracks.

Skyy hadn’t spoken much since they left Liang Wei behind. He walked beside Chen with the metal pipe resting against his shoulder, occasionally wiping water from his face. After a while, Chen noticed his steps beginning to slow. The swim had taken more out of him than Skyy wanted to admit, and his breathing had grown heavier.

Chen slowed with him.

Skyy noticed immediately. “Why are we stopping?”

“Because you’re exhausted.”

“I’m walking.”

“That wasn’t what I said.”

Skyy frowned at him but didn’t bother arguing.

Chen found a relatively dry section beside the wall and set Liang Wei’s pack down. They couldn’t afford a long rest, but pushing Skyy until his legs gave out would waste even more time.

He opened the pack and went through what Liang Wei had been carrying. There wasn’t much: two bottles of water, some old packaged food, ammunition that didn’t fit Chen’s rifle, a lighter, and a folded paper map sealed inside a plastic sleeve.

Chen paused when he saw it.

He pulled the map out, and Skyy crouched beside him.

It showed City S and the surrounding districts. Much of the ink had faded with age, but the railway line was still visible. Chen traced their route with one finger, working out where they had entered the tunnel before following the tracks until he found the western station.

They were closer than he’d expected.

“If this is accurate, the station shouldn’t be more than a few kilometers away.”

Skyy leaned closer to study the map. “That’s good.”

“It is.”

Neither of them mentioned the man who had carried that map this far.

Chen folded it carefully and slipped it into his own bag. When he looked up again, Skyy was still staring at Liang Wei’s pack.

“Was he going to turn?”

Chen understood what he meant. “Probably.”

“If he hadn’t lost so much blood?”

Chen looked at him.

Skyy’s fingers had tightened around the metal pipe. “I could have helped him.”

There was no confidence in the words. It sounded more like a question Skyy had been asking himself ever since they left Liang Wei’s body behind.

Chen reached over and wiped a lingering trail of water from Skyy’s cheek with his thumb.

“Maybe. There’s no way to know now.”

Skyy’s gaze dropped. “You saved him from those zombies. Even after he ran away from us.”

“He came back.”

That mattered to Chen.

Maybe Liang Wei had been a coward when the powered zombie attacked. Maybe Chen had wanted to punch him when he finally returned. But fear didn’t make someone worthless, and when they entered the tunnel, Liang Wei hadn’t abandoned them again. In the end, he’d died trying to get through the same nightmare they were.

Chen wasn’t going to pretend the man had been brave all along, but he wasn’t going to remember him only as a coward either.

He stood and offered Skyy his hand.

“We keep going.”

Skyy took it.

They walked for another twenty minutes before the railway gradually began to change. The tracks sloped upward, and old signs appeared along the walls. Soon the tunnel widened enough for Chen’s flashlight to reveal a narrow maintenance platform running beside the rails. The floodwater had disappeared completely here, leaving only muddy footprints behind their boots.

Then Chen’s flashlight passed over something dark on the ground.

He stopped.

Skyy nearly walked into his back. “What is it?”

Chen angled the light toward the platform.

Blood.

And it wasn’t old.

A dark smear crossed the concrete before disappearing through an open maintenance door several meters ahead.

Skyy’s expression tightened immediately.

They weren’t alone.

Chen pulled the rifle from his shoulder and checked it. The weapon had been soaked during the swim, and although he’d done what he could to protect it, he didn’t trust it completely. He kept his knife within easy reach as they approached the maintenance door.

Neither of them suggested looking inside.

Whatever had left that blood trail could stay in there.

They moved past it quietly, and a little farther ahead, Chen’s flashlight caught a crooked sign hanging from the ceiling.

WESTERN STATION — 1.2 KM

Skyy released a long breath. “We’re close.”

Chen nodded, although the relief didn’t last.

The station was supposed to be abandoned, yet the farther they walked, the more evidence they found that someone had been through here recently. Boot prints marked the dust. Discarded food packaging lay near the wall. A burned-out flare had been tossed beside the tracks.

Then they found the body.

A man lay beside the railway in dark military clothing. He couldn’t have been dead longer than a day. His throat had been torn open, and one hand still gripped a handgun.

Chen crouched beside him while Skyy remained close behind.

“Soldier?” Skyy asked.

“Looks like it.”

Chen searched the man’s pockets and found an identification card, a few rounds of ammunition, and a radio. The casing was damaged, but when he turned it on, a burst of static filled the tunnel.

Then a voice broke through.

“…western team, respond…”

Chen and Skyy looked at each other.

The transmission vanished beneath another wave of static before returning.

“Checkpoint Seven has fallen. Repeat, Checkpoint Seven has fallen. All remaining personnel are ordered to withdraw to the inner wall. Do not attempt civilian extraction from the eastern districts.”

Chen’s expression hardened.

Another voice came through, this one panicked and much closer to the radio.

“There are still people outside the wall!”

“Orders stand. Western gate closes at eighteen hundred.”

The transmission cut out.

Skyy stared at the radio. “What does that mean?”

Chen looked toward the darkness ahead. “It means City S is shutting itself.”

He checked the dead soldier’s watch. The glass was cracked, but the hands were still moving.

4:37 p.m.

They had less than an hour and a half.

Chen stood immediately. “We move.”

This time they ran.

Skyy struggled to keep pace after the first few minutes, but he didn’t complain. Chen adjusted his speed just enough to keep him beside him without making it obvious.

As they got closer to the station, the tunnel changed around them. Old tiled walls replaced bare concrete. Mold-covered advertisements appeared beside the tracks, followed by broken benches and hanging signs emerging from the darkness.

They were entering the station.

Then Chen heard gunfire.

He stopped so suddenly that Skyy nearly collided with him again.

The shots were distant, but unmistakable.

Skyy had heard them too.

Another burst followed.

Then screaming.

Chen grabbed Skyy’s arm and pulled him behind a concrete pillar. Ahead of them, faint light flickered across the platform, but it wasn’t electricity.

It was fire.

Chen cautiously leaned around the pillar.

The western station was enormous, with two platforms separated by several sets of tracks. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed, allowing weak afternoon light to spill through the broken concrete overhead.

People were fighting near the far entrance.

Soldiers.

At least a dozen of them.

They were retreating toward a staircase while firing at something Chen couldn’t immediately see.

Then the first zombie dropped from the ceiling.

Skyy flinched beside him as it landed directly on a soldier and tore into his shoulder before anyone could react. Another infected crawled down the wall. Then another appeared farther along the ceiling.

Chen’s stomach sank.

Now he understood why the railway tunnel had been abandoned.

The infected weren’t simply wandering through it.

They had nested here.

“Chen…”

“I see them.”

There were dozens.

Their gray bodies clung to the upper walls and ceiling, almost invisible against the filthy concrete until they moved. Some had wedged themselves into broken sections overhead while others crawled along pipes and support beams.

The gunfire had woken all of them.

The station erupted.

Zombies began dropping onto the platform as the soldiers opened fire. Several were ordinary infected and fell quickly under the bullets, but others moved far too fast, scrambling across walls and pillars before launching themselves into the retreating soldiers.

Chen pulled Skyy farther behind the pillar.

There was no way they could fight through that.

His gaze swept desperately across the station, searching for another route.

Skyy suddenly caught his arm. “There.”

Chen followed where he was pointing.

A maintenance walkway ran along the opposite side of the tracks and continued toward what looked like another station exit. If they could reach it, they might be able to avoid the worst of the fighting.

There was only one problem.

They had to cross the tracks.

Chen studied the distance. It was too far to jump directly from one platform to the other, but an old train sat abandoned between them.

That could work.

He grabbed Skyy’s hand.

“We’re going across the train.”

Skyy looked from the train to the zombies flooding the station. His face had gone pale, but after a second he nodded.

“Okay.”

Chen tightened his grip. “Don’t let go of me.”

They ran.

Chen jumped down onto the tracks first and immediately turned. Skyy came after him, and Chen caught him around the waist to steady him before setting him down.

They hurried toward the abandoned train as gunfire thundered through the station.

A zombie noticed them.

It dropped onto the tracks directly behind Skyy.

Chen spun and sent a wind blade through its neck before it could reach him. The infected collapsed, but another came scrambling in from the side.

Skyy reacted before Chen could.

He swung the pipe with both hands.

Metal cracked against the zombie’s temple, knocking its head sideways. It staggered but didn’t fall.

Skyy hit it again.

This time it dropped.

Chen stared at him for half a second.

Skyy was breathing hard, both hands still wrapped around the pipe.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Despite everything happening around them, Chen almost smiled.

They reached the train.

The doors were locked.

Chen raised one hand and drove a concentrated burst of wind into them. Metal screamed as the doors buckled and folded inward.

“Inside.”

Skyy climbed through first, and Chen followed immediately.

The carriage was dark.

For one terrible second, neither of them moved.

Their flashlights swept across rows of empty seats. Windows were cracked or completely shattered, old bags lay scattered across the floor, and dark blood stained the aisle.

Chen slowly raised his rifle.

Something shifted at the far end of the carriage.

He immediately aimed his flashlight toward it.

A little girl was hiding beneath one of the seats.

Human.

Alive.

She couldn’t have been very old. Her clothes and face were filthy, and both hands were clamped tightly over her mouth as though she’d been sitting there for hours, terrified that even the slightest sound would get her killed.

Skyy froze beside him.

The little girl stared back at them with enormous, frightened eyes.

Outside, gunfire continued tearing through the station. Soldiers were shouting. Zombies shrieked somewhere above the train, and the entire carriage trembled as something struck the roof.

Chen looked toward the doors on the opposite side.

Then he looked at the child.

He didn’t need to ask Skyy what he thought. The expression on Skyy’s face already told him everything.

They weren’t leaving her here.

Chen lowered his rifle and carefully approached before crouching a short distance away.

“We’re getting out.”

The girl didn’t move.

Chen held out his hand.

For a moment, she only stared at it.

Then one tiny, trembling hand slipped into his.

Chen had barely closed his fingers around hers when something heavy landed on the roof above them.

The metal buckled with a deafening crash.