Chapter 21 – The Time Bomb

Facing everyone’s suspicion, Xia Na slowly retracted her long knife, her eyes filled with sorrow. She said softly, “The longer we wait, the more suffering there will be.”

Having such awareness isn’t difficult, but having the resolve to act on it is something only a few can do.

“This one is clearly a mutation zombie, and you managed to take it down so quickly…” Xia Na turned her gaze to Ling Mo, her expression complicated.

Ling Mo wiped the blood from his nose and said with a wry smile, “Don’t look at me like that. I’m injured too, you know.”

“Is he okay?” Xia Na gave Ling Mo another deep look, then walked over to Liu Yuhao and Lu Xin to ask.

By this time, Liu Yuhao had almost finished tending to the wound. His skillful movements showed he was quite adept at this. From another perspective, he seemed like an all-around caretaker.

Seeing Ling Mo approach, Lu Xin bit his lip and lowered his head, trying to hide the venom in his eyes from Ling Mo.

“The bleeding has stopped…” Liu Yuhao said, but his face was clearly troubled. However, he didn’t want to say more in front of Lu Xin.

“Xia Na, come here for a moment.”

Liu Yuhao packed up the first aid kit, helped Lu Xin to sit against the wall, and then walked towards Xia Na, speaking in a low voice.

Ling Mo heard everything clearly. Before he could say anything, Xia Na pulled him over. “You come too.”

This small gesture effectively acknowledged Ling Mo’s leadership role in the group, a recognition of his strength. From the moment she saw the mutation zombie’s corpse, Xia Na had gained a profound understanding of Ling Mo.

Liu Yuhao led them behind a shelf and spoke in a low voice, “Lu Xin probably won’t make it…”

“I know,” Xia Na replied, pressing her lips together.

Ling Mo raised an eyebrow and instinctively glanced at Ye Lian beside him.

The virus is contagious. The initial large-scale outbreak might have been caused by airborne transmission. However, since the outbreak, no survivors have undergone mutation. This is understandable since the virus can mutate and evolve. Ye Lian’s changes are a clear testament to this. The current virus is likely transmitted through blood.

Moreover, very few people survive a zombie attack with injuries serious enough to escape. Hence, there are almost no zombies created from such survivors, and even if there were, no one would know.

Now, Liu Yuhao and the others faced a dilemma. Will Lu Xin mutate? Should they deal with him now or observe him for a while? If the injury was on a limb, cutting it off might save his life. But with a back injury, especially with the mutation zombie’s blood and virus-laden nails, there wasn’t enough time to treat it.

Ling Mo’s opinion was to simply finish him off. They still had to head to No. 3 High School, and they couldn’t afford to care for an injured person. Watching over him would be a burden and a ticking time bomb.

Ultimately, the decision lay with Xia Na and Liu Yuhao. But Ling Mo had already made up his mind. If they decided to keep Lu Xin, he wouldn’t stick around. No. 3 High School wasn’t far, and he and Ye Lian might reach it faster on their own. Finding more mutation zombies there could accelerate Ye Lian’s recovery process.

In the end, while he had built some rapport with Xia Na and Liu Yuhao, it wasn’t enough to cloud his judgment. Even his previous heroic act was a calculated decision made with confidence in his abilities.

Noticing the hostile look in Ling Mo’s eyes, Liu Yuhao nervously asked, “If we take him with us…”

“Don’t be foolish. How could we take him with us? Didn’t you see that no one wants to get close to him?” Xia Na, though a girl, was decisively firm. She sighed with a bitter smile, responding to Liu Yuhao.

Lu Xin had been groaning in pain, but other than Liu Yuhao, who was bandaging his wound, everyone else kept their distance, afraid to get close to him.

“So, what do we do… We can’t just kill him now, can we? He’s still a conscious, living person…”

“Give him some food and let him stay here. If we come back and he’s still alive and hasn’t mutated, then we’ll take him with us.”

Xia Na quickly made a decision, and it was indeed a compromise.

Sigh… Ling Mo sighed inwardly. You guys are going through all this trouble, and he might not even appreciate it. Plus, you’ll be wasting food…

But this was better than dragging along a burden, so when Xia Na looked at him, Ling Mo just nodded indifferently.

As expected, when Xia Na and Liu Yuhao told Lu Xin about the decision, his expression turned extremely grim. His eyes filled with deep despair and intense resentment!

Lu Xin, who had initially wanted to struggle, felt a chill from head to toe when he saw the expressions of those around him.

No one objected, and no one cared about his life or death!

“Fine… very well…” Lu Xin squeezed these words out of his throat with difficulty. He took the food Liu Yuhao handed him and then closed his mouth, refusing to speak further. Despite this, his body continued to tremble, and his lips quivered constantly.

Fear and hatred made Lu Xin’s gaze incredibly complex, and almost everyone avoided looking into his eyes.

“I’ll take you to that office over there. Don’t worry, we’ll come back for you,” Liu Yuhao said guiltily. Leaving him in the office would at least prevent him from being torn apart by zombies attracted by the scent of blood. This was the most they could do.

Lu Xin only nodded indifferently. After Liu Yuhao settled him in and closed the door, everyone remained silent.

Compared to ending the suffering of a gravely injured person, the feeling of abandoning a companion was probably harder to bear, even if it was only temporary…

To be honest, Ling Mo didn’t feel conflicted about this at all. On one hand, he already disliked Lu Xin, and on the other, he didn’t think Xia Na and the others were doing anything wrong. In fact, Lu Xin was the selfish one, expecting the whole group to sacrifice themselves for him!

However, for some reason, Ling Mo was somewhat curious. After being injured by zombies, especially by a mutation zombie, would Lu Xin mutate?

After this rest, they had lost two more companions. The casualty rate was shockingly high. No one wanted to stay here any longer, and everyone urged to leave quickly.

Fortunately, Wang Cheng had found some food. Even after Liu Yuhao gave some of his food to Lu Xin, there was enough for them to consume today. The main reason for this was that, besides Ling Mo and Ye Lian, as well as the temporarily abandoned Lu Xin, there were only five of them left.

Among them were a girl, the glasses man Wang Cheng, the boy who almost killed Wang Cheng, and of course, Xia Na and Liu Yuhao.

For some reason, Ling Mo felt that even though so many companions had died, Wang Cheng’s eyes seemed quite relaxed. Although his expression looked sad, it seemed very fake.

Whatever, Ling Mo thought. This wasn’t his concern. These people didn’t possess courage or combat ability. They were more concerned about their own lives, full of schemes and calculations.