"In that case, let's start by clearing the primary section school today. Once we go in, you stay in the security office and come over when I call you," Anthony thought for a moment and said.
Among the over five thousand zombies, there might indeed be a few mutants. The zombies in the primary section are children who were infected and transformed, so their strength is much weaker compared to ordinary adult zombies.
"Are you really going? We can start by clearing the nearby streets," Cheryl expressed her concern.
Anthony shook his head and said, "Clearing the streets would take too long. Let's do it this way for now." Without waiting for Cheryl's response, Anthony stood up and walked forward, with Cheryl reluctantly following behind.
Yanghe School is a private school located on Yanghe North Road. It was established in 2000, and at that time, Anthony's father was also involved in its founding. It is backed by the residential area of the old shipyard workers, adjacent to the shipyard and the river embankment, with a dense population.
After his father started working there, his mother opened a small supermarket at the school gate. Anthony spent his entire childhood here and had a deep emotional attachment to the school. In less than two minutes, they arrived at the Sunshine Supermarket at the intersection. Looking at the familiar street in front of him and the several supermarkets on both sides of the street, Anthony seemed lost in thought.
"What's wrong?" Cheryl noticed Anthony's strange mood and couldn't help but ask.
Snapping back to reality, Anthony shook his head and said, "Nothing, just remembered some things."
"Is it about your family?" Cheryl couldn't help but ask. In fact, she had been curious since entering the base. How could Anthony be the only one living in such a big house? According to reason, with Anthony's strength, his parents should be safe. Anthony hesitated for a moment and nodded.
"Can I ask what happened to your family?" Cheryl asked again.
"It's actually nothing," Anthony took a deep breath and said, "When I was in my third year of college, they took my sister out of the province for business, and they never came back, nor did we talk on the phone."
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked," Cheryl apologized, sensing Anthony's low spirits.
Anthony smiled and said, "It's okay that they didn't come back. At least I can still hope they're alive."
Speaking of which, Anthony pointed to a nearby supermarket at the entrance of the school, "Look at that supermarket. My family used to own it. I used to sneakily eat ice cream from our home and there's a couple across the street who always quarreled. I used to play with their daughter. It's a pity that the couple moved away later; I heard the wife ran away with someone. And that school, my father co-founded it with someone else. I used to live inside the school. Let me tell you, the school's clinic was haunted. I used to have nightmares in there." Anthony rambled on for over a minute.
Finally, he took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry for talking so much today. I hope you don't mind."
"I find it quite interesting," Cheryl smiled.
"Alright, let's continue with today's plan," Anthony brushed off his complex emotions. This alleyway held too many memories for him. Since transferring to the neighboring Dachuan City in middle school, he rarely came here. Every time he did, he would just glance briefly and immediately run away because he couldn't bear to look. The two of them made their way to the school gate.
The old stainless steel gate had been replaced with an automatic sliding electronic gate. What remained unchanged were the stone pillars erected next to it, with the words "Yanghe School" engraved on the marble tiles. Next to the stone pillars was the security office. "Wait here," Anthony instructed and kicked open the office door with his machete.
The wooden door broke open, and the screams of three zombies echoed from inside. Without a word, Anthony swung his machete and, within half a second, relocated the zombies' heads. "Stay inside, I'll be right back."
"Okay."...
After leaving the security office, the finance office and teachers' dormitory were on the left. Perhaps because of the commotion in the security office, the zombies in the dormitory started fighting and gathered around. With a quick glance, there were over thirty of them, and more zombies kept coming out. These zombies were mostly young people, and Anthony didn't recognize any of them.
Tightening his grip on the machete, Anthony rushed in. Vertical chops! Horizontal slashes! Diagonal strikes! The rusty-colored blade constantly flashed among the horde of zombies. In the span of three minutes, Anthony stood steadily, having collected over sixty zombie heads at his feet.
"Cheryl, collect the crystals," not far away, Anthony called out lightly. He hadn't expected there to be so many zombies right at the entrance. It was truly unexpected.
"I'm coming!" Cheryl hurriedly came out of the security office. When she saw the floor covered in zombie heads, her eyes sparkled with excitement. Over sixty heads, resolved in three minutes, he had become even more powerful than yesterday. However, Cheryl's own strength had also greatly increased.
When Cheryl extracted the zombie crystals, it was remarkably easy to split open their heads. With a single downward stroke and a gentle twist, the zombie skulls were split in half. Judging by the weight, they had gained over a hundred pounds. In less than ten minutes, Cheryl collected a total of 65 crystals. After handing crystals over to Anthony, she voluntarily retreated back into the security office.
Next, Anthony walked through the teachers' dormitory. Occasionally, he encountered solitary zombies, all of which he dispatched with a single blow. Passing through the corridor, a medical room and public restroom, and then through a narrow path enclosed by a fence and student dormitories, a teaching building appeared before his eyes, with the words "Primary Section" written on it.
"It's still the same as before, not much has changed," Anthony scanned his surroundings. The walls of the primary section were painted with murals depicting animals playing games. The student dormitories and teaching building stood facing each other, with a spacious courtyard in between. In the middle of the courtyard stood six ping pong tables made of bricks. However, due to being submerged in floodwater for a long time, they were covered in moss.
In front of the ping pong tables were six Chinese parasol trees that an adult couldn't wrap their arms around. The leaves on them had turned yellow and fallen off completely due to the trees being soaked in floodwater for three days. In what should have been a lush summer, they now looked like bald branches. Looking at these familiar sights from his memories, Anthony suddenly felt that something was amiss.
"Why aren't there any zombies here?" Anthony frowned. According to reason, there should be at least a few hundred people in the primary section school. How is it possible that there isn't a single zombie, and everything around is unnaturally quiet? Something felt eerie.
Anthony squinted his eyes, pressed his back against the wall, and slowly moved forward along the wall. It wasn't until he reached the entrance of the teaching building that he cautiously leaned forward to peek into the classrooms.
When he saw zombies sitting on the desks, shaking their heads back and forth, he finally realized what was wrong. These zombies were different from the ones outside.
Continuing to gaze towards the teacher's desk, he noticed a peculiar female zombie standing in front of all the shorter zombies. Her whole body was pale gray, with ink-black eyes, and she held a teaching cane that she swung incessantly. Whenever a zombie stopped shaking its head below, she forcefully struck the desk with the cane, causing the zombie to resume the head-shaking.
"Let's probe first." He couldn't gauge the strength of these zombies, so he picked up a stone and retreated more than ten meters away from the classroom. Then he viciously threw the stone at the glass. Bang! The window was shattered, leaving a large hole, and glass shards fell to the ground.
Amidst the commotion, all the zombies in the classroom turned their heads simultaneously. The female teacher zombie walked to the window in confusion, glanced at the glass, then looked at the stone that hit a small zombie's head. Suddenly, she let out a roar. With a push of her feet, she leaped out through the broken window and swept across the open space.
When she saw Anthony, she let out another howl to the sky, then charged towards him like a human. Anthony watched as a question arose in his mind. What exactly was this thing?