Chapter 333: The golden fruit 44.

"Leave."

The archer lowered her bow.

One of the men whispered, "She is one of them."

Bai Li heard him.

"One of who?"

The man did not answer.

Yan Cijin looked amused.

"Probably trying to decide what kind of monster you are."

"That is rude."

"You did catch an arrow."

"Still rude."

The gang broke.

Two ran down.

Three rushed upward.

One pulled a knife.

Bai Li stepped forward.

She moved so fast that the knife never finished coming up.

A strike to the wrist.

A knee to the stomach.

A twist.

The attacker hit the ground gasping.

Yan Cijin caught another man by the collar and threw him down the stairs without even looking back.

He rolled past his companions.

The rest finally understood.

These two were not survivors who had gotten lucky.

They were the danger.

The creature behind the door growled again.

Bai Li looked at it.

"We should probably deal with that before more people come."

Yan Cijin nodded.

"Agreed."

Bai Li drove her palm into the steel.

The door ripped off its upper hinge.

The gang stared.

The door fell inward.

Something huge was waiting in the darkness.

Its pale head rose above a collapsed pile of shelves.

Its body was twisted, swollen, and covered in dark veins.

Its arms were too long.

Its fingers dragged along the floor.

The thing opened its mouth.

A second jaw unfolded inside the first.

One of the gang members screamed.

Bai Li smiled.

"That is definitely not a human."

The creature lunged.

Yan Cijin stepped forward.

She punched it once.

The impact broke the creature’s momentum completely.

Its body folded around her fist.

The monster slammed into the far wall.

Concrete cracked.

Bai Li followed.

Her foot struck the creature’s knee.

The leg bent the wrong way.

Before it could scream, she spun and struck the side of its head.

The entire upper half of its body turned with the blow.

It hit the floor.

Bai Li looked down.

The monster tried to rise.

Yan Cijin stepped beside her.

"Again?"

"Again."

They moved together.

Bai Li kicked the creature upward.

Yan Cijin met it in the air.

Her palm strike sent it through the doorway and into the abandoned food court beyond.

The thing crashed across tables, chairs, and broken signs.

Then it stopped moving.

Silence returned.

Bai Li brushed dust from her sleeve.

Yan Cijin looked at her.

"You tore the door off."

"It was in the way."

"The door did not do anything to you."

"It was still in the way."

Yan Cijin laughed softly.

Behind them, the remaining gang members were trying to retreat.

Bai Li turned.

"Wait."

They froze.

"You said this floor belongs to you."

No one answered.

Bai Li looked at the scattered weapons.

"Then you probably know this place well."

The archer swallowed.

"What do you want?"

"Information."

"About what?"

"The golden fruit."

The reaction was immediate.

Every face changed.

Fear.

Greed.

Recognition.

Yan Cijin noticed it too.

"So you really know."

The archer lowered her eyes.

"Everybody knows."

"How many groups?" Bai Li asked.

The woman hesitated.

"On the lower levels? Three main groups. More smaller groups."

"And higher?"

"The higher you go, the fewer humans survive."

Bai Li nodded.

"Good."

She looked up the stairwell.

"That means we are going the right way."

The gang stared at her.

One of the wounded men laughed bitterly.

"You think you can just walk up there?"

Bai Li looked at him.

"Yes."

He stopped laughing.

Yan Cijin folded her arms.

"She tends to do what she says."

Bai Li nodded.

"Usually."

The two women continued upward.

The gang watched them disappear.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Then the archer whispered, "We should leave."

The man with the pipe stared at the dark doorway.

"Now."

They ran.

Bai Li and Yan Cijin did not bother looking back.

The stairwell narrowed as they climbed.

The air became warmer.

There was a smell of blood.

Not fresh blood.

Old blood.

A lot of it.

Yan Cijin touched the railing.

"This mall has had problems."

Bai Li looked at the dark stains on the wall.

"The people downstairs were not the first."

"No."

They reached the next level.

The door had been reinforced with shopping carts, metal shelves, and furniture.

Bai Li pushed it once.

The barricade slid away.

Inside was a department store.

Clothes were scattered across the floor.

Plastic mannequins stood between shelves.

Some had been smashed.

Some had been dressed in armor made from road signs, cooking pots, and pieces of furniture.

Bai Li looked at one.

"Creative."

Yan Cijin looked at another.

"Desperate."

A movement flashed between the racks.

Bai Li stopped.

Three figures emerged.

They were zombies.

Thin.

Fast.

Their skin was gray, but the muscles around their legs had swollen unnaturally.

They crouched low like animals.

One sprinted forward.

Bai Li did not move until it was almost within reach.

Then she stepped aside.

The zombie passed her.

She caught the back of its neck and redirected its momentum.

It hit the floor.

Yan Cijin caught the second by the jaw.

The zombie twisted.

She slammed it into a display column.

The third jumped from above.

Bai Li raised one hand.

The creature stopped in midair.

It clawed toward her face.

Bai Li sighed.

"Ugly."

She released the restraint only long enough to swing it sideways.

It crashed through a glass display.

The first zombie attacked again.

Yan Cijin kicked it into a clothing rack.

Bai Li walked over and ended it with one precise strike.

The entire fight lasted seconds.

Yan Cijin looked around.

"We are still not getting tired."

"That is because this is not difficult yet."

"You sound disappointed."

"A little."

They continued.

The next hallway was blocked by overturned cars.

Bai Li stopped.

"Why are there cars inside a mall?"

Yan Cijin pointed at the shattered glass ceiling above.

"Flooding."

Bai Li understood.

The parking structure on the upper side had collapsed during the first wave of destruction.

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TO BE CONTINUED.