The soldiers of the first and second teams turned toward Apartments 103 and 104.
Outside Apartment 103, just as Ethan Blake raised his hand to knock, an eerie sound of fingernails scraping against the security door suddenly came from inside.
The sound was sharp and grating, as though some evil spirit were desperately trying to claw its way out.
Ethan's heart skipped a beat. He instinctively backed up two steps, swiftly raised his rifle, and fired several rounds into the door without hesitation.
The bullets howled into the door. The seemingly sturdy security door proved utterly unable to withstand their impact, spraying metal fragments everywhere.
These security doors installed uniformly by the developer were decent enough against kicks and smashing, but expecting them to stop bullets was asking far too much.
Ethan quickly pressed up against the door and listened closely. The apartment instantly fell silent.
He gave Felix Monroe a look over his shoulder. Felix nodded in understanding and stepped forward to prepare to breach the door.
Once the door was opened, a pungent stench of blood struck them full in the face.
Sure enough, a zombie lay in the entryway. Aside from several bullet holes in its body, Ethan's rounds had blown its skull apart, splattering red-and-white brain matter and blood everywhere.
Ethan and Felix did not dare let their guard down. They carefully searched the apartment, only breathing a little easier after confirming there was nothing else inside.
Judging from the zombie's clothing and appearance, it had apparently been an elderly person living alone.
If Nathan Cole had come to see for himself at this moment, he would have recognized the body on the floor as the elderly person living alone whom he had intended to visit that day.
Fate could be so cruel. The old man had not lived to receive Nathan's visit and had instead become a terrifying zombie.
After Victor Hayes's team cleared the two zombies in Apartment 104, the soldiers came to the stairwell door, dragged out the three zombies Mason Turner and the others had killed, and cleared a path upstairs.
Ethan then led the soldiers cautiously up the stairs toward the second floor.
Their footsteps were light, for fear of alerting any zombies that might be present.
When they reached the fire door at the second-floor stairwell, Ethan signaled. Mason and Owen Price understood and continued upward, taking up positions at the landing between the second and third floors to stand guard.
Simon Young, the designated marksman at the rear of the formation, directly opened the stairwell window at the landing between the first and second floors, climbed out, and reached the rain shelter above the unit entrance.
It was an excellent position. He could observe the entire residential compound without having to worry about being attacked by zombies.
Victor took a deep breath and violently pulled open the closed fire door.
Rifle at the ready, Ethan flowed in behind it and swiftly swept his eyes over every corner of the second-floor corridor. Once he confirmed there were no zombies there, the two teams used the same procedure to clear all four apartments.
After the second floor was cleared, the soldiers followed their earlier tactics and continued upward toward the third floor.
As soon as they neared the third-floor fire door, Ethan noticed something was wrong.
The three zombies Mason and the others had killed earlier had left a trail of bloody footprints on the stairs.
Now, the marks on the ground clearly showed that the bloody footprints had come from the third floor.
Ethan's heart tightened. He knew the third floor might be dangerous.
Holding his rifle, he cautiously approached the open fire door. First, he turned sideways and carefully checked to the right. The dim corridor was silent, with nothing unusual in sight.
He relaxed slightly, then moved to the doorway to observe the left side.
The instant he poked his head out, a dark shadow flashed before his eyes. A zombie suddenly lunged at him.
At the very moment it pounced on Ethan, he reacted instinctively, jammed the muzzle of his rifle directly beneath the zombie's jaw, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
The bullet screamed out and blasted the zombie's head into pulp.
Even headless, the zombie's momentum still knocked Ethan to the ground.
Seeing this, Victor rushed over, forcefully hauled the zombie off Ethan, then pulled the still-shaken Ethan to his feet.
Because he had fired at such close range, the red-and-white mixture from the zombie's exploded head had drenched Ethan's head and face.
Fortunately, he had a face covering and goggles. Otherwise, some of that stuff might well have gotten into his mouth.
There was no time to clean himself up slowly. Ethan raised a hand and wiped himself off haphazardly several times, then removed his filthy goggles and put them into his utility pouch.
After that, he entered the third-floor corridor with his rifle raised.
Once inside, he found the entire corridor in a state of chaos. The wall opposite Apartment 302 in particular was covered with splattered bloodstains.
Moreover, the door to Apartment 301 stood wide open. The interior was pitch-black and unsettlingly ominous.
Creak. The door to Apartment 302 suddenly opened a crack. In the silent corridor, the sound was especially abrupt.
Ethan and the others jolted, instantly training their guns on the gap in the door. "Who's there? Come out!" Ethan barked.
At Ethan's voice, the door was abruptly shoved open, and a girl in a dress staggered out.
Her face was streaked with tears, her hair disheveled over her shoulders. As she ran, she cried out, "Soldiers, save me..."
Seeing the girl running toward them, Ethan and the others did not dare take her lightly. They hastily backed up several steps, all their guns pointed at her as they shouted, "Stop! Stop right there! Do not come any closer!"
The sudden rebuke startled the girl. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked at them in confusion, and her feet came to an involuntary stop.
Ethan studied the girl carefully. He did not dare be careless in the slightest; in this apocalypse, a single oversight could bring fatal danger.
After several seconds, Ethan asked, "Have you been infected with the virus? Have you been hurt by a zombie?"
The girl tried hard to shake her head. Her body continued trembling uncontrollably; she had clearly been terrified out of her wits.
Seeing nothing abnormal about her, Ethan and the others finally lowered their guns.
Since Ethan and the others had backed a few steps toward Apartments 303 and 304, the girl who had run out happened to be standing beside the fire door.
She turned her head slightly and saw the headless zombie lying in the stairwell. The bloody, horrifying sight caused the tears she had just managed to stop to burst forth like a breached flood.
Her body began shaking violently. She appeared to know the zombie on the ground and wanted to go closer to look, yet was too frightened to do so. Her feet seemed nailed to the floor, incapable of taking a step.
Watching the girl sob violently before him, Ethan was at a loss. After signaling Julian Shaw, the grenadier, to go down to the unit entrance on the first floor, he reported directly to Nathan, "Sir, we found a survivor on the third floor. Um... could you please come up and take a look?"
In Ethan's view, Nathan had previously been a local official here, so he should be better at dealing with civilians.
"A survivor? All right, I'll come up right away!" Nathan was delighted to hear they had found a survivor.
Before long, Nathan arrived in the third-floor corridor with Daniel Ward.
After gently offering a few words of comfort to the terrified girl, Nathan brought her into the apartment she had just emerged from and signaled for Ethan and the others to continue their clearing operation.
Inside Apartment 302, the girl sat on the sofa with her head lowered, crying. Her body kept convulsing, and her tears had long since soaked through her dress.
Nathan and Daniel stood in the living room. Daniel watched the girl with a wary expression, his finger resting inside the trigger guard.
As Nathan's bodyguard, he could not afford even the slightest lapse in vigilance.
Nathan did not speak rashly. He simply watched the girl cry in silence.
He knew that what she needed right now was an outlet, a chance to release all the fear and pain in her heart.
Just then, the sound of Ethan and the others firing to breach another door rang out in the corridor.
The thunderous blast of the shotgun echoed through the hallway, making the girl jolt. Her crying stopped abruptly as well.
Nathan seized the opportunity to speak. "Hello, I'm Nathan Cole. I'm leading a team to rescue survivors. Can you tell me what happened to you?"
The girl raised her head and examined Nathan and Daniel with swollen, reddened eyes.
She felt that the man addressed as sir was much gentler than the soldiers from before, and a warm current could not help rising in her heart.
So, through sobs, she said, "My name is Qi Ting. I'm... a student at Bowen College. My boyfriend and I rented this... apartment..."
At the mention of her boyfriend, Qi Ting began crying again.
Nathan did not urge her. He simply waited silently at her side.
After crying for a while, the girl continued, "A few dozen minutes ago, we heard a huge commotion from the apartment next door. There were even people screaming."
"I was scared, but my boyfriend insisted on going out to look. I never expected that as soon as he went outside, three people ran out of Apartment 301 and pinned him against the corridor wall..."
At this point, Qi Ting covered her mouth and could not continue. Her eyes were full of terror, and her body began trembling violently again.
After her boyfriend had been pinned against the wall opposite their door, she had wanted to go out and yell at them. But when she saw clearly that the three people were tearing into and biting her boyfriend, she had been so frightened that she retreated into the apartment.
Through the peephole in the security door, she had witnessed the entire process of her boyfriend being bitten to death alive by the monsters.
Moreover, the door could not block out either her boyfriend's agonized screams before he died or the monsters' excited roars.
Later, the monsters suddenly ran off, but she still did not dare leave. She could only hide in the apartment, trembling in fear.
It was not until she heard the gunshots just now that she gathered the courage to open the door and see what was happening.
After hearing Qi Ting's experience, Nathan felt a heavy weight settle in his heart. He did not know how to comfort this pitiful girl.
Watching someone close to you be eaten alive before your eyes—surely the psychological trauma from such a tragedy could never be erased for the rest of one's life.
The atmosphere in the apartment was oppressive. Nathan intended to leave with Daniel first and allow Qi Ting some time to calm down on her own.
But just as he turned to leave, Qi Ting suddenly threw herself at him, clutched his leg, and cried, "Soldiers, please don't go! Don't leave me behind! This place is far too terrifying!"
Qi Ting's sudden movement startled Daniel. On instinct, he pressed the muzzle of his gun directly against her head.
Coming to his senses, Nathan hurriedly told Daniel to move the gun away.
With a wry smile, Nathan said to Qi Ting, "Don't worry. We're here to rescue you. How could we possibly leave you behind? Stay here for a little while. Once we've cleared the zombies upstairs, we'll come back down to get you!"
Qi Ting looked up and asked through her tears, "You really won't leave me behind?"
Nathan hurriedly reassured her again. Only then did he help Qi Ting back to her feet before leaving Apartment 302 with Daniel.
At the stairwell entrance, Nathan looked at the headless zombie on the floor and listened to the muffled gunshots that periodically sounded from upstairs, his mood immensely heavy.
When the apocalypse came, it was ordinary people who suffered most.
Especially in a disaster like this biological crisis, people who had lived peacefully for so long simply had no way to cope.
When confronted with creatures like zombies, an ordinary person's first reaction would surely be fear. And fear would make their hands and feet go weak, leaving them unable even to run away.
Besides, Nathan had no idea whether these things would evolve as they did in movies.
If they did evolve, ordinary people would have even less chance of surviving.
After dwelling on these thoughts for a while, Nathan headed downstairs with Daniel. He was not comfortable leaving only one person at the unit entrance.
Upstairs, the soldiers continued their clearing operation with tension and discipline. They grew increasingly proficient, and their pace became faster and faster.
As time passed, the sky gradually darkened. At around seven-thirty in the evening, Unit One was completely cleared!
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