Notley pressed his hand against his blood-soaked head and staggered back, collapsing to the ground.
"Son of a bitch!" Li Long cursed, about to walk over and kick the unconscious Notley, but his leg gave out and he fell down instead.
Shao Ming quickly helped Li Long up, glancing down to see blood pouring from Li Long's thigh. The adrenaline rush had caused Li Long to not even notice that he had been shot.
"You've been shot! You've been shot!" Shao Ming shouted in panic, helping Li Long sit on the nearby sofa. The blood had already soaked through Li Long's pants.
"Goddamn, how could he hit me..." Li Long muttered as the pain surged, realizing that his left leg felt as though it no longer belonged to him.
"Don't talk, just lie down," Shao Ming urged, quickly searching through the cabinets for medical supplies. Thankfully, he had organized the supplies earlier, and the first aid kit was neatly arranged.
Shao Ming grabbed a roll of bandages, a bottle of alcohol, and some painkillers. In the current situation, it was all he could do for now to stabilize the wound.
"Take your pants off," Shao Ming told Li Long. Realizing the situation, Shao Ming had no choice but to do it himself.
"It hurts, it hurts..." Li Long winced.
"Just bear with it..." Shao Ming replied as he carefully pulled Li Long's pants down, revealing a deep wound.
"Hang in there, I need to disinfect it," Shao Ming said, noticing the sweat pouring down Li Long's face. He quickly grabbed a pillow from the sofa and handed it to Li Long. "Bite down if it hurts. It'll be over soon."
Shao Ming sprayed alcohol directly onto the wound. The pain was intense, almost causing Li Long to pass out, but it only lasted a few seconds.
Shao Ming then used alcohol-soaked tissue to clean the area around the wound.
"You're lucky, it didn't hit the artery," Shao Ming said, observing the heavy bleeding. It was clear that the injury hadn't hit any vital arteries, but the blood loss was still considerable.
Shao Ming took the bandages and wrapped them tightly around Li Long's wound. Blood was still seeping through, but it seemed to have slowed down.
"Don't I need to take the bullet out?" Li Long asked weakly.
"I can't do that," Shao Ming sighed, placing the bandages aside. "If the bullet's lodged deep in the tissue, pulling it out could cause more damage. It might hit another blood vessel, and we don't want that."
"Yeah... I'm afraid of some kind of rejection," Li Long murmured.
"Taking the bullet out is mostly for cleaning the wound, not to 'retrieve the bullet.' Don't worry, I'll get you better medical care later," Shao Ming reassured him.
"Stay still and watch the wound closely," Shao Ming said, before turning toward the window to check on the situation downstairs.
He peered out and saw that more mutated creatures had gathered, no doubt drawn by the gunshots Notley fired. The door downstairs might not hold for much longer.
Turning back, Shao Ming noticed that Notley was still lying at the doorway, unconscious from the blow to the head.
"Almost forgot about you," Shao Ming muttered, walking over to Notley's body and picking up the gun.
Li Long's gunshot wound had distracted them both, but now Shao Ming was focused on the unconscious drunkard. Notley had caused them a lot of trouble, but Shao Ming knew they couldn't waste this chance.
The gun was a Sig Sauer P320, a 9mm handgun with a 15-round magazine. Shao Ming wasn't an expert with firearms, but he could tell the weapon was heavy and felt solid in his hand. It was certainly illegal in the UK.
He deactivated the safety, tucked the gun into his waistband, and dragged Notley into his own room.
After laying the heavy body down, Shao Ming took a quick look around Notley's room. It was messy, with clothes and empty bottles scattered everywhere. The most eye-catching thing in the room was a photo in the center.
In the photo, a younger Notley was smiling as he embraced a black woman, with a young black child standing between them.
"Looks like your ex-wife really left a mark on you," Shao Ming muttered to the unconscious Notley.
He stared at the man lying on the floor, his anger rising. Outside, the sounds of mutated creatures continued to echo. Shao Ming had a fleeting urge to throw Notley out the window, but he quickly suppressed it. If it weren't for this madman, they might have had more chances to survive, and Li Long wouldn't have been hurt.
"Damn," Shao Ming cursed, kicking Notley's body. However, despite his anger, he still couldn't bring himself to throw a living person to the mutated creatures outside.
The struggle to move an unconscious body was harder than Shao Ming had anticipated. He finally managed to drag Notley to the bed and tied his hands to the bedpost with a piece of rope.
Looking around the room, Shao Ming's eyes landed on two magazines and a box of bullets on the nightstand.
"Alright, thanks. I'll take this as a thank-you gift," Shao Ming muttered as he stuffed the magazines and bullets into his pockets.
Before leaving, he locked the door to Notley's apartment, grabbed the handgun, and carefully descended the stairs.
The front door wasn't fully sealed; the upper half was designed with gaps. The mutated creatures outside became more excited as they saw someone alive nearby. Luckily, the old building's door was still sturdy, and it didn't bend under the pressure from the mutated creatures.
Shao Ming piled some trash in front of the door to fortify it, then returned home and locked his door behind him.
"Where did you go?" Li Long asked.
"I brought back some presents," Shao Ming said, tossing the magazines and bullets onto the table. "You should lie down on the bed."
Shao Ming helped Li Long to the bedroom and laid him down. Li Long wiped the sweat off his forehead and asked, "Do you think I'm not far from death?"
Shao Ming sat beside Li Long and took the handgun from his waistband, saying, "Why are you so negative? It didn't hit any of your vital organs."
Shao Ming pulled the slide back on the gun and removed the magazine.
"In this situation... don't worry about whether I'll turn into one of those things outside. What matters is that my leg is useless now, and I'm stuck here. I don't even know if I'll die from this."
"Just a little injury," Shao Ming laughed, "Are you doubting my bandaging skills or doubting yourself?"
Li Long chuckled weakly but didn't respond.
Shao Ming pulled the covers back and checked. The bleeding seemed to have stopped.
"I've realized I can't let you stay idle. Every time you have nothing to do, you start overthinking."
Li Long laughed a couple of times and said, "Isn't that how people are? Too much time on their hands."
Shao Ming shook his head and began loading bullets into the magazine.
"I want to call home..." Li Long said.
Shao Ming glanced at Li Long's pale face and suggested, "I think you should wait a bit before calling. Or do you want me to call for you?"
Li Long shook his head. Even though he hadn't seen his own face, he could tell he probably looked terrible. He didn't want to worry his family too much. "No, I'll call later."
Shao Ming nodded. "The bullet is still in your leg. We need to get it out."