Fuck!

  The next second, Calista’s vision went bck. A tearing pain ripped across her scalp as instinctive tears mixed with a trace of blood streamed down her face—

  Someone had grabbed her hair and smmed her head into the mirror.

  Cracks spread across the gss like a spiderweb, reflecting several twisted faces filled with malice.

  “Wait, don’t kill her yet. Let’s have some fun first!” The gold-toothed man wiped blood from his nose and roughly yanked open her colr.

  Calista drove her knee hard into his groin. As he doubled over with a cry of pain and loosened his grip, she whipped her head around and bit down on the hand still clutching her hair.

  “Damn it!”

  As both men let go, a gap opened in the blockade.

  Calista wiped the tears and blood from her eyes and rushed forward, trying to slip past the thug with the baseball bat and Billy.

  A third thug charged toward her, bat raised.

  Thanks to the intensive training she’d gone through recently, Calista ducked the swing with surprising agility. In that life-or-death moment, a burst of strength surged through her. She twisted around, snatched the bat from his hands, and swung it sideways.

  A sickening crack rang out as the thug’s ankle snapped.

  He screamed and colpsed, clutching his leg.

  “Bitch!” Billy’s face turned green with rage as he pulled a switchbde from his pocket and stabbed toward her.

  Calista lifted the bat and jammed it against his wrist. The switchbde was knocked from his hand and cttered to the floor.

  That brief dey was enough for the gold-toothed man and the other thug behind her to catch up.

  The thug she had bitten suddenly wrapped an arm around her neck from behind and snarled viciously, “You didn’t like it when we were being gentle? Then I’ll just leave you with your st breath!”

  Her vision swam as the choke tightened, her neck feeling like it might snap at any moment.

  Struggling, Calista reached up and felt the pearl hairpin in her hair.

  She ripped it out, tearing a strand of hair with it. Ignoring the pain, she drove the sharp metal tip backward, plunging it into the thug’s thigh.

  He screamed in agony.

  The pressure on her neck loosened, and Calista gasped for air.

  She bent down, grabbed the switchbde Billy had dropped, spun around, and stabbed.

  The bde plunged into the thug’s eye socket with a wet, sickening sound.

  The entire knife sank in, leaving only half the handle sticking out.

  The thug’s body swayed once before colpsing heavily to the floor.

  The sight froze the others where they stood.

  Seeing their companion drop with a knife buried in his eye, none of them dared to step forward for a moment.

  Even Billy, standing closest, looked stunned.

  The gold-toothed man was the first to snap out of it—but the thought of retreat had already crossed his mind.

  Thud!

  The next second, he froze.

  A knife tip protruded from the center of his forehead. Red and white matter spttered across Calista.

  It was Carver’s throwing knife.

  They were back.

  Billy’s pupils shrank as he turned and ran.

  Carver raised his hand and hurled another knife.

  It smmed straight through Billy’s throat.

  Mike rushed forward and finished off the thug who was limping away clutching his foot.

  Once the men were completely dead, Carver pulled his knives free from the bodies and wiped them off with visible disgust on the gold-toothed man’s clothes.

  He turned and pulled Calista up.

  “Can you walk?”

  Calista was still dizzy from being choked. Her forehead was split open, and her legs were so weak she could barely stand. Leaning against the wall, she gasped for breath.

  She shook her head.

  Clenching her fists, she looked at the corpses on the ground, and her stomach churned.

  This was the first time she had seen someone killed up close.

  Not to mention that she had just stabbed a thug straight through the eye herself.

  Killing walkers and killing living people felt completely different.

  That eyeball had practically burst.

  Calista gagged a few times. The toughness she’d forced herself to show during the fight vanished the moment she saw familiar faces again.

  She felt unbearably wronged.

  Even though she tried hard not to cry, tears kept falling, mixing with the blood from the wound on her forehead. She looked utterly pitiful.

  “Alright, alright,” Mike said awkwardly, holding Calista’s recovered knife and pistol, clearly unsure what to do with them.

  They probably didn’t deal with crying girls very often.

  “Here, take this!”

  Carver yanked her backpack off and tossed it to Mike without ceremony. Then he dropped to one knee, the muscles in his arm tensing.

  “Stop crying. You did great just now.”

  With a sudden motion, Carver lifted Calista securely into his arms.

  “That knife almost came out the back of his head. Looks like my teaching worked!”

  Calista suddenly found herself lifted into the air and instinctively grabbed the combat vest on his chest.

  Before she could even feel embarrassed, she heard what he said.

  She imagined the scene.

  Her stomach lurched again.

  But she clearly felt how tense Carver’s body was.

  Calista blinked in surprise.

  Was he… embarrassed?

  Yes.

  He definitely was.

  Carver moved quickly, trying to hide his embarrassment by walking faster.

  The warmth of her body seeped through their clothes. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he deliberately kept his face pointed straight ahead.

  Mike followed close behind, one hand gripping the bag and the other holding his gun.

  “Hold on tight.” Carver’s voice carried a hint of hoarseness. Feeling her trembling hands clutching him, he unconsciously slowed his pace.

  The air carried the scent of masculine sweat mixed with fresh mint cologne, making Calista’s heart beat a little faster.

  What’s wrong with me?

  Is this that suspension bridge effect people talk about?

  She was practically imagining things now.

  Only Mike, walking behind them, kept wrinkling his nose.

  Carver had grabbed a bottle of cologne from the perfume section earlier. Mike had wondered why.

  Turns out the guy was trying to show off like a peacock.

  Damn, bro.

  They had just reached the ground floor when sudden, piercing screams erupted upstairs, mixed with strange, guttural growls.

  “What’s that?” Mike paused, frowning as he listened.

  Calista’s heart sank instantly.

  She knew that sound all too well.

  Walkers.

  She didn’t know whether they had been hiding somewhere all along, or if the woman bitten in the restroom had already turned.

  “Move!” Carver’s expression changed as he ran toward the side exit. “To the cars!”

  Downstairs, the crowd had descended into chaos.

  People were screaming, crying, trampling each other.

  From Carver’s arms, Calista looked back.

  The crowd from the second floor had already reached the escator entrance, but piles of debris blocked the way, trapping the dense crowd.

  At the very front—

  was the Asian woman holding the baby.

  She had reacted quickly, but she didn’t have much strength. The pushing crowd knocked her over.

  With a sharp scream, she and the child fell from the second floor to the first.

  Their fate was unknown.

  Calista clenched her teeth and forced herself not to look.

  Carver carried her out of Macy’s. Several cars were already running. The three of them hurried into the nearest Porsche.

  Ethan was driving.

  When he saw Calista’s condition, he didn’t even have time to ask questions.

  “Hold on!”

  The Porsche shot forward, following the three vehicles ahead.

  At the intersection up ahead, those same young people from inside Macy’s were still livestreaming.

  Calista couldn’t believe how recklessly bold teenagers could be.

  Even now they were chasing views?

  Turns out those “people doing stupid things” scenes in horror movies really do come from real life.

  “Look! Military vehicles over there!” The white girl with pink hair ran toward the road, trying to knock on Leah’s window.

  She had mistaken the Humvees for military vehicles.

  “Guys, make sure you follow! We’re about to interview the military about this riot—”

  No one paid her any attention.

  Leah smmed the accelerator, and the convoy roared past, leaving the chaos behind.

  The setting sun dyed the sky in the rearview mirror blood red.

  Calista’s mind went bnk. Her heart pounded so hard it felt like it might burst out of her chest.

  Yesterday, the streets behind the news broadcasts had only occasional gunshots and a few burning storefronts.

  But everything they saw along the way today showed something far worse.

  Knoxville was colpsing.

  The real darkness had begun.