Chapter 234 - 222: Surrounded

When Flora Bloom heard the dog barking, she immediately thought, ’This is bad.’

A Labrador retriever came into view, its fur mangled. Its organs and intestines spilled from a gaping hole in its left side, hanging over its ribs and dragging on the ground as it ran toward them.

"Mr. Wallace, Old Lynch, it’s a zombie dog. I’d estimate it’s at the level of a Level 3 zombie. Shauna, be ready to heal at a moment’s notice."

At that moment, they had only three escape routes on the second floor. The first was the escalator they had just taken. The second was the emergency stairwell ahead and to their left, but a Middle Level zombie was lying in ambush on the third floor. The last path was the one the zombie dog was charging down, which led to the other end of the mall.

The zombie dog was incredibly fast, making a retreat down the escalator extremely dangerous. They would likely be forced to fight it before they even reached the first floor.

Suddenly, with a tiger’s roar, Xiao Bai leaped up from the ground floor, biting down on the zombie dog’s neck. At the same instant, a bolt of lightning struck the zombie dog’s head, causing its entire body to convulse.

Xiao Bai let out a triumphant roar, but to its surprise, the zombie dog recovered almost instantly. It sprang up and lunged for Xiao Bai’s neck.

"CRACKLE!" Another lightning bolt struck.

The zombie dog fell, twitched twice, but once again recovered with startling speed.

"What’s going on? Why isn’t this zombie dog affected by lightning?"

Flora Bloom extended her spiritual power but couldn’t sense any energy fluctuations from the zombie dog whatsoever.

"That’s not right. Zombie-type creatures are supposed to be extremely vulnerable to lightning!"

"Mr. Wallace, use fire." Flora Bloom and her group braced themselves, completely missing the fact that the pregnant woman, supported by Amos Rooney, had a bizarre smile playing on her lips even as she cried out in pain.

Neal Wallace launched a volley of Fireballs that encircled the zombie dog. But strangely, the dog charged headfirst into the fiery ring, and what little remained of its fur and flesh instantly ignited.

Wreathed in flames, the zombie dog charged the group, showing no sign of being affected by the Fire Element superpower that was incinerating it.

Although Neal Wallace had only just reached Level 3, both his spiritual power and his control over his superpower were formidable.

Flora Bloom gripped her axe, ready for close combat. But the zombie dog, engulfed by the Fire Element superpower, managed only a few steps before it let out a sudden YELP, collapsed, and was swiftly burned to a pile of ash.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief—except for Amos Rooney. His face pale, he glared at Neal Wallace. "You bastard! You killed my dog! Give me back my dog!"

Amos Rooney brandished a spiked Wolf Fang Club he had acquired from somewhere, roaring as he charged at Neal Wallace.

"Stop!" Sherman Lynch lunged forward. His hands took on a metallic sheen as he caught Amos Rooney’s weapon, wrenching the Wolf Fang Club from his attacker’s grip with a powerful tug.

"Your dog was a zombie dog! It wasn’t normal anymore! It wouldn’t have even recognized you as its owner!"

"Bullshit! He killed my dog! I’ll kill you!" he screamed. Even without his weapon, he rushed at Neal Wallace. Just as Flora Bloom was about to intervene, the pregnant woman suddenly cried out.

"Ah! It hurts so much! Help me, I think I’m going into labor!"

Strangely, the moment Amos Rooney heard the pregnant woman’s voice, all the anger on his face vanished. He immediately rushed back to her side and supported her.

As Flora Bloom watched this unfold, her sense of unease intensified.

"How far along are you?"

The pregnant woman was visibly startled by Flora Bloom’s sudden question. "Nine... nine months."

"Oh. Has your water broken?"

"N-no," she answered, clutching her stomach.

Flora Bloom stepped forward, extending her spiritual power to focus on the woman’s abdomen. The pregnant woman seemed to sense it and retreated behind Amos Rooney and Quinn. "Wh-what are you trying to do to me?"

Flora Bloom smiled. "Nothing, I’m just checking if the baby’s in distress. A friend of mine is an obstetrician and taught me a few things. Don’t be nervous."

The pregnant woman shook her head in terror, looking exceptionally flustered as she hid behind Quinn.

Flora Bloom saw that Quinn was watching her, on high alert, as if ready to attack the moment she made a move.

The Crown Prince and Li Mao were about to act, but Flora Bloom stopped them with a shake of her head. Saul Sterling came forward as well. "Flora, the Middle Level zombie on the third floor is just pacing at the top of the emergency stairwell. It seems to be afraid of something and won’t come down."

Flora Bloom looked at the pregnant woman again, observing her carefully from head to toe. She looked perfectly normal. Her features were all in the right place, and she could speak like a human. She didn’t look like there was anything wrong with her.

’But why do I still have this nagging sense of unease?’

"Flora, let’s head back to the base. I have a bad feeling about this place," Caleb Bloom said, approaching his daughter. "I’ve been out for a while. I don’t want your mother to worry."

Hearing her father mention her mother, Flora Bloom faltered. ’I’d better not tell him that Mom’s in a coma, at least not yet,’ she decided.

"Alright." Flora Bloom glanced at the ashes of the zombie dog on the floor. ’A Level 3 zombie dog, but it had no Crystal Core.’ That fact, combined with the bizarre behavior of Quinn, Amos Rooney, and even her own father, cast a dark shadow over her thoughts.

But just as they were about to get on the escalator heading down to the ground floor, a horrifying scene unfolded.

The zombie corpses that had been lying lifelessly on the ground were now slowly rising to their feet. All of them—even those whose Crystal Cores had been removed, and those who were nothing more than headless, mutilated torsos—stood up and turned to face the group on the escalator.

The mall’s atrium on the ground floor was now so packed with these standing corpses that there was no path through them.

One might describe the scene as a sea of people, but that would require the thousands of figures before them to actually be human. This bizarre swarm of reanimated corpses could hardly even be called zombies.

Furthermore, these strange reanimated corpses were mixed in with normal zombies, making them impossible to distinguish. The sheer number of them was enough to make your skin crawl.

Flora Bloom handed weapons to Neal Wallace, Saul Sterling, and Shauna Wallace. They were the same fire axes and fruit knives her father had reinforced back at the beginning.

"These zombies are strange. Everyone, be careful," Flora Bloom warned, then called out to Xiao Bai.

Xiao Bai leaped down to the ground floor, sending a dozen zombies flying with a few swipes of its paws. Then, Thunder Energy surged from its body, raining down in waves upon the horde.

The normal zombies in the crowd collapsed instantly, their bodies going still.

The pregnant woman, still leaning on Amos Rooney, lowered her head and clutched her stomach. That same bizarre smile spread across her face again, and this time, Flora Bloom saw it clearly.

"What are you smiling at?"

The words had barely left her mouth when the zombies that had just collapsed stood up yet again. They rejoined the others and swarmed toward the escalator where Flora Bloom and her group stood.

Thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands, of zombies packed the ground floor, leaving no way through. Several hundred at the front threw themselves at the base of the escalator, clawing at the machinery. With a loud CLANG, the horde destroyed the power system. The escalator shuddered to a halt amid a shower of sizzling sparks.

It all happened in a flash.

"We’re going up. Find another exit."

The mall had more than one entrance and exit. A typical shopping center would have a main entrance, plus smaller doors on the other three sides.

"Let’s go. To the other escalator on this floor."

Flora Bloom’s group of seven, plus Quinn’s group of three—which included Amos Rooney still supporting the pregnant woman who struck Flora as more and more suspicious—quickly scrambled back onto the second floor and hurried toward the other escalator.