Chapter 325: The golden fruit 36.

It had been abandoned in a hurry.

There were three sleeping mats, a small cooking stove and a pile of canned food. Blood covered one wall. Several footprints led toward a service corridor.

Yan Cijin examined the floor.

"Five people. Maybe six."

Bai Li crouched beside a footprint.

"No. Seven."

"You counted the child?"

"No. There is a smaller boot print here."

Yan Cijin’s expression became serious.

"So there are still civilians inside."

Bai Li stood.

"Likely."

A voice called from the corridor.

"Help!"

Yan Cijin immediately moved.

Bai Li caught her wrist.

"Wait."

Yan Cijin looked at her.

"You think it is a trap."

"It is too convenient."

Another cry came.

"Please! They are coming!"

The voice sounded terrified.

Bai Li did not move.

She closed her eyes for one second.

"Three people."

Yan Cijin understood.

"Alive?"

"Yes."

"Then we help them."

Bai Li released her wrist.

They entered the corridor together.

A woman and two teenagers were trapped behind an overturned metal display. Three zombies were closing in from the other end.

Bai Li crossed the distance before the survivors could even react.

One zombie reached the barrier.

Bai Li’s weapon flashed.

The second lunged.

Yan Cijin intercepted it.

The third tried to climb over the wall.

Bai Li kicked it back into the corridor and ended it.

The survivors stared at them.

The older woman was shaking.

"Thank you."

Yan Cijin helped move the barrier.

"Can you walk?"

The woman nodded.

"Do you have somewhere safe?"

"We were with a group."

Bai Li looked toward the corridor.

"Where?"

The woman pointed upward.

"Fourth floor. We were trying to reach the others when they attacked us."

Bai Li said, "Do not go up that way."

"Why?"

"There are more creatures."

The woman swallowed.

"Then where should we go?"

Bai Li pointed back toward the coffee shop.

"Second floor. There is a reinforced room. A boy is there. Stay with him."

The woman looked surprised.

"You know about the boy?"

"Yes."

"Who are you?"

Yan Cijin smiled faintly.

"Just people passing through."

The three survivors left.

Bai Li watched until they disappeared down the stairwell.

Yan Cijin turned toward her.

"You know that means we now have a small group of civilians depending on us."

"Only until they reach safety."

"And if they wait for us?"

"Then we come back."

Yan Cijin looked at her for a moment.

"You always say that so easily."

Bai Li looked confused.

"Say what?"

"That you will come back."

Bai Li shrugged.

"I mean it."

Yan Cijin looked away before Bai Li could notice the softness in her expression.

They climbed again.

The fourth floor was warmer.

There was a reason.

An entire section of the ceiling had collapsed, exposing the ventilation shafts. Hot air rose from the lower service tunnels. The floor smelled of mold and old smoke.

The number of zombies increased.

So did their mutations.

One had developed a hard shell across its back. Another moved on all fours with jointed legs. A third could spit a stream of dark fluid that burned through metal.

The fights became more interesting.

Bai Li had to start using the environment.

She kicked a metal sign from the wall and sent it sliding across the floor. It struck a charging zombie in the knees, causing it to fall. She used the opening to finish it.

Yan Cijin fought three at once in a narrow hallway. She let the first attack, stepped aside, used its body as a shield against the second, and then turned the third attack back into the second. By the time the first zombie realized it had hit nothing, Yan Cijin was already behind it.

The creature collapsed.

"Still easy?" Yan Cijin asked.

Bai Li looked at the dead bodies.

"A little better."

"That sounded almost like praise."

"Do not get used to it."

The fifth floor was worse.

The mall’s central atrium opened wider here, and the sound of movement carried from every direction. There were dozens of zombies somewhere in the darkness. Bai Li and Yan Cijin could hear them moving, but none approached directly.

That bothered Yan Cijin more than an attack would have.

"They are avoiding us."

"Some of them are intelligent."

"Because of the fruit?"

"Probably."

A shadow moved across the far balcony.

Yan Cijin’s hand tightened around her weapon.

"Did you see that?"

"Yes."

Another shadow moved.

Then another.

Three figures appeared at the opposite side of the atrium.

They were human.

For a moment neither side spoke.

The strangers carried rifles and machetes. One raised a weapon slightly.

Bai Li did not.

Yan Cijin did not.

The strangers disappeared again.

Yan Cijin frowned.

"They are watching us."

"Let them."

"You do not want to know why?"

"I already know why."

"Because of the fruit."

"Yes."

The road had prepared them for this.

The mall was not an abandoned building anymore.

It was a battlefield.

Every floor closer to the roof meant more danger, more monsters, and more survivors desperate enough to do anything for the promise of power.

And neither woman had any intention of letting that slow them down.

They reached the next stairwell.

Before Bai Li opened the door, she looked back at the fifth floor.

There were no footsteps.

No voices.

Nothing moved.

Yet she could feel eyes on them.

"They will follow," Yan Cijin said.

"Probably."

"Should we stop them now?"

Bai Li shook her head.

"Not unless they interfere."

Yan Cijin raised an eyebrow.

"You are being unusually patient."

"I do not want to waste time."

"That is a much better answer."

They opened the stairwell.

The sixth floor waited above them.

A low roar rolled down the stairs.

This one was different.

It did not sound like a weak zombie.

It sounded like something large.

Something awake.

Bai Li smiled faintly.

Yan Cijin noticed.

"That look means trouble."

"Maybe."

"And you are smiling."

"Maybe it is interesting trouble."

They climbed toward the roar.

The sixth floor would be the first place where the mall’s true guardians showed themselves

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To be continued.