They were only two or three meters away from the half-open fire door. Although Jack and White Ru were running with all their might, they still couldn't match the speed of the Hunter's pursuit. As the Hunter closed in on them, it was certain to tackle them before they could escape. Jack's eyes hardened, and with all his strength, he suddenly threw Ryan Li, who was in his arm, towards a pair of drinks outside the door. After throwing Ryan Li, he grabbed White Ru by the waistband in her terrified gaze and threw her out as well.
Unlike the foolish living corpses, the hunter clearly possesses a certain level of intelligence. It completely ignored the two women thrown out by Jack, focusing solely on Jack, the one who had harmed it. The hunter sprinted towards Jack on all fours, its arched back resembling a red humanoid hound. Its hard and sharp claws gouged deep scratches into the gray concrete floor. Just as it was only two or three meters away from Jack, the hunter leaped forward, its right claw viciously aimed at Jack's back.
Almost at the moment Bai Ru released her grip, Jack felt a foul wind rushing towards him from behind. Without thinking, he pushed off the ground with his right foot, leaping forward after Bai Ru, who was still in mid-air. However, even with his speed, he was still slower to take off than the hunter. Half a second later, the hunter's claws had already grazed his back.
"Bang…"
Miraculously, while in mid-air, Jack managed to twist his body. As he flew backward, he fired his gun at the hunter's throat. The hunter's sharp claws swept past Jack's brow, taking away a drop of sweat hanging on his forehead, but the tremendous power of the M1911A1 sent the hunter crashing backward.
Jack landed heavily on top of the two women who had fallen into the pile of drinks, not having time to feel the softness beneath him. The agile hunter, however, sprang up from the ground before him, like an angry pit bull, its mouth dripping with foul saliva, as it lunged at Thomas with claws bared.
"Bang…"
The steel fire door, barely closed, was dented by the hunter's impact. Three sharp claws penetrated through the steel door, just a few centimeters away from Jack's eyes. However, the claws quickly retracted, followed by a series of frenzied tearing and crashing sounds. The heavy steel door was immediately left battered and bruised, but fortunately, despite the force of the impact, it would not be breached anytime soon.
Jack locked the fire door with the key he had inserted into the lock, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and turned to pull up Bai Ru and the already awakened Ryan Li, quickly saying, "Hurry, this door won't hold for long!"
Bai Ru, with a pale face, nodded and pulled the equally pale Ryan Li to follow Jack as they quickly left the way they had come. Just as they reached the fire escape on the third floor, they saw a red figure rapidly climbing up from below. Bai Ru and Ryan Li were immediately startled and turned to run, but when they heard the red figure speak, Ryan Li let out a long sigh of relief, patting her trembling chest.
"Master, are you all right? What did you encounter?" The red figure came to a sudden stop in front of Jack, panting with its tongue out. It was none other than Michael, looking just like a human-dog hybrid.
"Get down! There's a living corpse hunter inside!" Jack continued to rush downstairs without looking back.
"What the hell, that skinless monster that can't even be bitten?" Michael shivered, watching Bai Ru and the others rush down. He let out a strange cry, panicking as he shouted, "Wait for me! I'm here to save you, don't be so heartless, okay?"
...
When they arrived at the first floor sales area, A Xue and Thomas were anxiously waiting at the entrance, while Hu Laoda, who had come down early, was loudly arguing with Cao Mei while holding a shotgun. As soon as they saw Jack and the others come down safely, all the girls let out a sigh of relief, and Cao Mei shot Hu Laoda a fierce glare before hurriedly gathering around Jack.
After Jack waited for Michael to come out from the corridor, he quickly turned back to close the fire door on the first floor and waved his hand to the girls, saying, "Don't say anything, leave here immediately!"
Cao Mei swallowed the question she was about to ask and leaned closer to Jack, asking, "Lin Ye, I saw that the living corpses in the square outside were led away by Michael yesterday. Should we pick a car and drive away?"
"Yes, yes, yes! I saw there's a Ferrari in the parking lot; let's take that Ferrari! I've never been in a Ferrari!" A little girl, who seemed oblivious to the situation, excitedly jumped out, her face filled with dreams of a bright future!
"Come on! Don't talk nonsense if you don't understand. The road is as bad as the Sichuan-Tibet Highway. Do you expect to drive a Ferrari to Tibet? Either you're crazy or the car is!" After seeing Jack and the others return safely, Hu Laoda's expression showed no embarrassment at all. He still walked over with his riot gun, looking imposing, and scoffed at the little girl's words.
"Hmph, you're just a cook, acting like you know so much about cars. What's with the attitude?" The little girl, who was quite feisty, rolled her eyes dismissively.
"Cook? What's wrong with being a cook? Can't a cook understand cars? Let me tell you, back in the day, I could have killed you with a stack of 'Automobile Friends'!"
Hu Laoda got angry, not expecting that a little girl would dare to challenge him. He felt his authority was being provoked, and he was so flustered that he even mentioned 'Automobile Friends.' However, his constant waving of the long gun was indeed a bit intimidating. If it weren't for Jack being there, he would have wanted to shoot this little brat who didn't know her place.
"Stop arguing! We're trying to escape, not buy a car. We'll take that armored vehicle!" Jack frowned and pointed to the white armored vehicle with its doors wide open, his tone leaving no room for doubt!
"Huh? Why choose that broken vehicle? I think the G55 on the left looks pretty good! It's big, has plenty of horsepower, and looks powerful!" Hu Laoda excitedly pointed to the dark green G55 outside.
"If you want to go, I won't stop you, but I have to remind you that we're getting close to Jiangcheng, and no one knows what might happen on the road. Do you think the glass of the G55 can withstand a few hits from the zombies?" Jack turned his head and looked expressionlessly at Boss Hu, then walked straight towards the armed escort vehicle.
"Well... if it's an escort vehicle, then so be it!" Boss Hu immediately looked dejected, watching Jack's back with flickering eyes, unsure of what he was pondering.
"What does it have to do with you? Didn't you say you came down to get reinforcements? Why does Bai Ru say you're just looking out for yourself?" Cao Mei picked up her bag and gun from the ground, casting a mocking glance at Boss Hu, whose face suddenly turned red. As she walked past him, she coldly snorted, "Hmph... piece of shit!"
"You..." Boss Hu glared angrily at Cao Mei's delicate back, his hands tightening and loosening around the shotgun, the dark gun almost being squeezed out of water by his grip!
...
The white escort vehicle in front of the door was essentially a modified Iveco Turin. Although it wasn't the most professional armed escort vehicle, at least the glass had been replaced with bulletproof glass, and the steel plates had been reinforced. In terms of body strength, it was much stronger than an ordinary sedan. The most crucial point was that the interior was spacious; after violently removing some unnecessary components, it wasn't too crowded even with more than a dozen people inside.
This vehicle had been filled with gas when Jack came down to scavenge the shotgun inside in the morning. However, he was somewhat disappointed that the three shotguns in the entire vehicle only had a total of a dozen rounds of ammunition. But he couldn't complain too much; most of the time, a gun was always more practical than a knife. Having one was better than not having one at all!
Under the urgent narration of Bai Ru and Ryan Li, the girls finally learned what kind of terrifying things were locked in the warehouse on the third floor. Bai Ru was very worried that if the monster couldn't break the door, it might come out from the hole above, which would put them in danger again. So soon, under Thomas Hong's loud reprimand, the girls finally discarded a pile of utterly useless luxuries and hurriedly stepped onto the escort vehicle in front of them.
With a loud crash, the white escort vehicle broke through a barbed wire fence and finally rushed out of the supermarket's range. It wasn't that Jack intentionally took a bad route; it was just that all the good roads were blocked by cars, stacked up like a car graveyard. They could only take a small road first and then slowly look for a way to the main road.