The woman that suddenly emerged was deathly pale, her eyes vacant and glazed due to their rolled-back whites, and her hair was disheveled, strewn about her shoulders, stained with a thick, black liquid, much akin to a chicken's crest. However, what truly horrified Arno was her mouth: her lower lip had rotted away, disappearing to an unknown location. The teeth that were revealed had several missing, and with Arno's keen vision, he could clearly see a few bloated worms wriggling in and out of her gum line. With her appearance, countless other individuals with decaying bodies emerged behind her, extending as far as the eye could see.
"Is the Resident Evil crew filming here?" The question barely formulated in Arno's mind before a rustling noise echoed from the bank behind him. In the once spacious bank lobby, two security guards had appeared, advancing towards Arno. Their uniforms were soaked in darkness, and their bellies oozed black, rotted intestines that left long, dark trails across the floor.
Arno immediately comprehended the nature of the drag marks he had previously noticed. But he had no time for pondering the mystery; whether real or not, the guards were now right in front of him, their mouths full of blackened teeth baring down on him.
Instinctively, Arno dodged the lunge of the two security personnel, feeling a palpable threat of death looming over him. He was unwilling to believe this was a mere film set. Even though he was merely a regular civil servant, Arno trusted his own intelligence; if this was a movie, any director would have yelled "cut" at his unplanned appearance. And the props could not possibly create such visceral creatures that moved autonomously.
Arno didn't understand how he had suddenly gained extraordinary strength and agility. He was merely an ordinary man living in an unthreatened world, yet these creatures, once confined to the realm of movies, were now vividly alive before him. His face turned ashen, and his entire body trembled uncontrollably.
As he watched the two relentless security guards advancing once more, their mouths leaking a black liquid, a sudden realization struck Arno. Turning his gaze to the streets, he saw a swarm of zombies now flooding the area. The number was beyond counting. As a mere office worker in the statistical bureau for two years, Arno knew a town that spanned seven or eight streets would have at least thirty thousand permanent residents.
The figure "thirty thousand" nearly made Arno's legs buckle beneath him. Struggling, he watched as the two guards lunged again and sprinted haphazardly towards the other cross street devoid of zombies. The undead moved slowly and were swiftly left behind by Arno. However, Arno knew he must keep running, keep moving away; otherwise, they'd soon catch up.
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Arno had seen the Resident Evil movies; he knew all too well the danger these zombies posed. With no weapon, any contact with them was impossible. Even the smallest scratch could turn him into one of them within a few hours. He didn't know how he got here, or how the world had turned into this state, but at the very least, he knew if he got infected, he would surely become one of them.
In a state of profound alarm, Arno remained oblivious to the chilling fact that he had exceeded the terrifying speed of 20 metres per second. When he arrived at another intersection at the end of this street, more than a dozen abandoned vehicles were stationed in the middle of the road, indicative of a sudden upheaval that had plunged the traffic into chaos, prompting their owners to flee.
The primary cause for Arno's abrupt halt, however, was not these vehicles, but the horde of zombies swirling amid them. The scent of fresh flesh was irresistible to the zombies, whose senses of smell and hearing had become incredibly sharp. Every living human was a target, and thus, as Arno paused, the zombies swarmed towards him.
A cold sweat trickled down Arno's spine. Pursued from behind and facing imminent danger ahead, despair threatened to envelop him. The image of being torn apart by the voracious undead seemed all too real. How could he perish here, suddenly thrust into this situation without understanding why, without confessing his love to his long-admired senior at school?
Overwhelmed by a powerful sense of indignation, Arno felt a surge of energy course through his body. He fixed his gaze beyond the approaching zombies, fervently whispering to himself, "Once I leap over them, the path ahead will be clear. I can escape this damned place." Now, his obstacles weren't just the zombies but also the haphazardly parked vehicles.
As the undead grew closer, Arno could almost sense the stench of death emanating from them. He inhaled sharply, his mind racing through scenes from martial arts films he'd seen. In the blink of an eye, he made his move. The sight of fresh prey charging straight at them only fueled the zombies' frenzy.
Behind the sprinting Arno, a colossal horde of zombies was gaining on him. The roadside vehicles were easily toppled by their relentless pursuit, converging on him like a swarm of locusts. His breaths were heavy and ragged. He gritted his teeth and leapt just over a meter in front of the oncoming zombies, tumbling in the air and landing with a thud on top of a car. The sheer force of his landing left faint footprints on the vehicle's roof. Disregarding his legs which felt as though they'd snapped, Arno took another leap from the roof of the car, landing atop another vehicle.
The bypassed zombies, not willing to let their meal escape, chased him again. However, with no zombies obstructing him ahead, Arno wouldn't give them another opportunity. He sprinted with all his might, finally breaking free from the horrifying town.
