C43 (1/2)

”Let's go!” ”Hurry up and leave!” Lv urged them in a row from behind. I pulled Yang Yufan up from the ground and chased after him as he rolled and crawled. I tried my best to cover us from behind and stabbed two Zombie's who were in front to death.

The rolling gate had only been opened up to a height of about half a meter. After running up to the third step, I took a sliding step and rolled in close to the ground, entering into the gate. Then San Mao and Energetic Strength also rolled in.

”Don't close the door!” Just as Lv was about to pull the roller shutter door, he heard someone shout from outside. Then, a hand reached in to support the roller shutter door, and a few people rolled in just like us, I looked, and saw that it was Ren and his family. I immediately went to drag the people in from the bottom of the door, but only three of them were dragged in. Then, we heard the Zombie rush over and hit the rolling gate, causing it to shake violently, and the hand that was holding onto the door withdrew as well. Through the crack under the door, we saw that the Ren had been pushed to the ground, and a Zombie was currently pulling a piece of flesh out of his neck. ”Close the door!” The Ren opened his mouth silently towards us.

Lv pressed hard on the rolling gate and with a whoosh, we immediately fell into darkness.

The rolling gate continued to emit banging noises, and the sound was soon transformed into a violent shoving noise. The rolling gate let out an unbearably heavy sound, and it started to bulge outwards.

”Quick, use something to block the door!” San Mao shouted at us.

By this time my eyes had adjusted to the gloom, and I was looking around me to see that we were in a large hall with long corridors on either side. A spiral staircase wound up behind us, and on one side of the wall were painted the words ACRICRIS LETTERS — ”HARLOT'S GHOST 237” — and in front of it was the long front desk.

”Drag that over!” I shouted, pointing to the front desk.

The five of us, plus the three new arrivals, rushed forward to start the huge front desk. Fortunately, it was not made of marble as it appeared, but had a layer of imitation marble panels, with only a layer of artificial stone on the surface, so it was much lighter than we had imagined, and the eight of us would be able to move it.

After a screech of friction, we finally pushed the poor quality wooden front desk into front of the rolling gate. We went to a nearby conference room and brought out a conference table and a number of chairs, which we piled up in front of the door. They looked like a barricade built with furniture by the inhabitants of Paris during the French Revolution, and the weak rolling gate was no longer in danger.

It was only then that I smelled the pungent smell of mildew. The hall was thick with dust, as if it had been years since anyone had come in, and there were no windows in the hall, just a faint glow from the spiral staircase, and the dust we had stirred up flying up and down in the beam.

”Let's go upstairs!” San Mao said.

I nodded, and they all started to walk up the stairs at the same time. But when I reached the middle of the stairs, I realised that Lv was still at the door, staring blankly at the rolling gate that was rumbling loudly.

”Lv...” I called to him, but he didn't respond. ” Lv! ” I shouted again with a more serious tone, only then did he seem to wake up from his stupor and look towards me. I was shocked, Lv's face turned ashen, as if he had seen something terrifying, and fear filled his eyes.