In fact, it's not hard to understand why this group of survivors retreated into this building. The reasons are probably the same as why Ling Mo chose this place. First of all, this building is closest to the gate, and secondly, the location is the best. On one side is a man-made creek, on the other side is a fountain square, and there is a certain distance from the surrounding buildings. This way, they won't be trapped in a circle, and there are several escape routes.
It seems these people were planning to use this building to buy some time and then take the chance to escape from the other side.
However, just as this group of people had reached the second floor, a loud bang came from below, clearly indicating that the gate had been completely knocked open. This noise, along with their footsteps, immediately lured the zombies hiding inside the building. In no time, sounds of chopping and screaming were everywhere, and several times, the residential door where Ling Mo and the others were located also emitted thumping sounds, it was unclear whether it was zombies or people who had slammed into it.
Ling Mo quietly walked to the door, looked out through the peephole, and saw that these people had retreated into a residential unit diagonally across from them and quickly locked the door. A large group of zombies was densely packed in the corridor, crazily banging on the door. Hearing the sounds of tearing and chewing mixed in, Ling Mo guessed that these people must have suffered casualties, and the corridor must now be filled with bodies of zombies.
Retreating into the room would not stop the zombies; these people were probably planning to jump from the building to escape. This was actually a good method: lure the chasing zombies into the stairwell, then jump from the building to leave. Even if they couldn't completely shake off the zombies, they would have bought themselves some time to escape.
Jumping from the second floor was actually quite dangerous, but Ling Mo knew that the area outside the building was all grassland. As long as one wasn't particularly unlucky, they should not end up with broken legs. Moreover, in such an emergency situation, it wasn't easy to find a perfect solution; just the thought of using the building was already much better than just blindly panicking and fleeing.
"What do we do, Ling? Should we help?" Listening to the noise outside, Liu Yuhao approached Ling Mo with an ugly expression and asked quietly.
Ling Mo glanced sideways at him and said, "There are at least thirty zombies outside. The moment we open the door, we'll be trapped in here. How can we help?"
Liu Yuhao was at a loss for words, and Ling Mo secretly shook his head in his heart. His character, to put it nicely, was kind; to put it badly, it was recklessly meddling in other's affairs, and it probably couldn't be changed overnight...
However, as the number of zombies outside the door increased, and even some began to hit their own door, Ling Mo's expression suddenly became somewhat grim: "We can't stay here either, let's go."
The zombies hitting their door might not necessarily mean they had discovered Ling Mo and the others; it might be a reaction made in extreme frenzy due to temporarily losing their target but being stimulated by the smell of blood. Not just Ling Mo's room, other doors were also being hit.
Wang Cheng had already been frightened silly by the noise outside, and he subconsciously asked, "Which way should we go?"
"Jump from the building!"
Although that was said, Ling Mo would not recklessly jump from a building without assurance. Once injured, it would really mean waiting for death. Fortunately, he had barricaded the door with furniture the previous night; although the door was now being heavily pounded, it was temporarily not at imminent risk of being broken open. Nevertheless, the time left for Ling Mo and the others was running out.
Ling Mo quickly pulled out a climbing rope from his backpack, which he had collected from an outdoor store, originally intended for use in certain desperate situations, but he hadn't expected it to come into use so quickly.
After tying a loop knot and securing it, Ling Mo controlled Ye Lian and Xia Na to go down first by pulling on the rope. The second floor wasn't very high, and there was also an air conditioning unit outside the window to leverage. Additionally, with the agility of these two zombie girls being much better than ordinary people, they quickly landed on the ground and immediately began clearing nearby zombies for Ling Mo and the others.
Liu Yuhao, despite being scared witless, insisted not to go down first. Ling Mo urged him a couple of times, then grabbed the rope and jumped down to the air conditioning unit outside, then leveraged it to go further down. When he was just over a meter from the ground, he let go of the rope and jumped down.
Wang Cheng followed closely behind, and just as Liu Yuhao jumped down, the zombies had already broken through the door. Several zombies charged directly to the window and jumped down without hesitation.
However, zombies, not knowing how to use ropes, inevitably fell due to inertia. Ling Mo and Ye Lian didn't give them a chance to get up, and Xia Na's long knife was no trifle either; but seeing her eyes turn red as she fought caused Ling Mo's scalp to tingle, and he quickly enhanced his control over her to prevent her from continuing.
"Let's go."
In a blink of an eye, there were several more zombie corpses on the ground, which would soon attract more zombies swarming over. Thus, Ling Mo immediately led Ye Lian and the others and ran toward the side gate of the residential complex. They avoided the main gate because there were also many zombies there, attracted by that group of people.
To their surprise, as they ran along the back of this residential building to the driveway, they bumped into that group of survivors!
These people had jumped from the other side, aiming to escape through the side gate as well.
Upon seeing this group, Ling Mo was immensely frustrated, knowing such a large group would definitely draw the attention of the Corpse Group.
Yet in just this short moment, their numbers had reduced by three or four…
"You…" A young man was running at the forefront, likely scouting the path, thus he immediately spotted Ling Mo and the others and exclaimed in surprise. They had probably never imagined that there were still survivors in this complex, and encountering them "coincidentally".
Ling Mo rolled his eyes and seeing this group was lagging behind, he took the opportunity to make a dash for it. Somehow, the zombies hadn't appeared for a while. Ling Mo led Ye Lian and the others, sprinting out of the complex, only hearing zombie noises from afar.
"Hey!" The young man unexpectedly persisted and caught up, panting as he called out to Ling Mo and the others.
Forced to abandon their spot early in the morning, Ling Mo was visibly displeased, his tone somewhat irritable: "What?"
"That…" The young man wasn't foolish, and immediately started with an apology, "Sorry, we didn't know you were here and ended up dragging you into this. This isn't the place to talk. Do you want to come back to our camp with us?"
A camp? These people even had a camp?
Ling Mo showed a hint of surprise. He initially wanted to refuse, but then his gaze fell on Liu Yuhao.
Ling Mo certainly didn't want to go to any survivor camp, and he wasn't particularly concerned about Wang Cheng's wellbeing. But Liu Yuhao was someone Ling Mo had a good impression of. Yet his personality meant that Ling Mo couldn't keep him around much longer. The best outcome would be to find a good place for Liu Yuhao.