Volume One, Chapter 18: Escape Under the Nightfall

She needed to find an absolutely sturdy load-bearing structure at home to secure the rope.
Finally, her gaze fixed on the thick support pillar in the living room!
Swiftly, she wrapped the flat strap and main lock several times around the base of the pillar, creating an extremely secure anchor point. She firmly tied the fixed end of the main rope to it, making a double figure-eight knot with an additional backup knot to prevent slipping!
She pulled hard to test it—it didn’t budge an inch!
Then, carefully, she drew back a corner of the floor-to-ceiling window curtain to inspect the exterior wall structure.
She searched for balconies, air conditioning units, window sills, or other potential intermediate footholds or buffer points.
Fortunately, the floors below each had protruding bay window sills.
Everything was ready!
The darkness of night was the perfect cover.
Mu Qing slung her heavy climbing backpack over her shoulders and walked to the window.
She cast one last look at this home that had once been warm but now felt like a prison. Taking a deep breath, her eyes hardened with unwavering resolve.
She carefully opened the window; the night breeze rushed in, carrying a faint chill and a briny scent.
She first tossed the descending end of the main rope outside in an orderly manner, avoiding tangles.
Then, she nimbly climbed out the window, her feet steady on the narrow window ledge, her body pressed close to the cold wall.
At the eighteenth floor, the wind was stronger, tossing her hair wildly.
Below was a dizzying abyss of darkness; any ordinary person would likely falter at the sight.
But after an initial pounding, Mu Qing’s heartbeat settled into a highly focused calm.
Years of mountaineering experience had taught her how to maintain composure on sheer cliffs.
She quickly checked her harness, descender, and rope connections to confirm everything was secure.
Gloving her hands, she gripped the main rope tightly.
“Start!”
Leaning back slightly, lowering her center of gravity, she used the friction of the descender to begin a steady, controlled descent.
Her movements were professional, clean, and efficient.
Yet the descent was not without obstacles:
At the fifteenth floor, the rope snagged briefly on a protruding air conditioning bracket; she calmly used her ice axe to gently dislodge it.
At the twelfth floor, a sudden crash of breaking glass and a roar erupted from a nearby apartment below, causing her heart to stop momentarily. She froze against the wall, holding her breath.
Thankfully, the noise quickly subsided—it seemed something was happening inside.
At the ninth floor, a massive outdoor billboard blocked part of her route; she carefully shifted laterally to circumvent the obstacle.
Every pause and detour drained her precious strength and time, increasing the risk of being discovered.
She had to move swiftly!

Finally, before exhaustion overtook her, her feet touched the relatively wide canopy above a first-floor shop!
Less than five meters from the ground!
She quickly disengaged the descender, packed up the rope (leaving only the anchor end unrecoverable), coiled the main rope neatly, and stowed it back in her backpack.
Then, she surveyed the ground below.
No one was there—only a few vague shadowy figures swaying under distant streetlights (zombies).
Now was the moment!
Grasping the edge of the canopy, she swung lightly, landing firmly on the ground!
Her movements were as graceful as a cat’s, barely making a sound.
She swiftly slipped into the shadows of a nearby greenbelt, gasping heavily, her heart pounding wildly.
She’d done it! She had really escaped from the eighteenth floor!
Without a moment’s pause, she oriented herself, adjusted her backpack, lowered her posture, and silently slipped away toward the Cloud Villa District about a kilometer to the east of the city outskirts.

Meanwhile, on the other side,
The blood-soaked battlefield outside the Cloud Villas had just endured a brief massacre.
The Snow Leopard Assault Team had torn apart a new wave of over a hundred zombies with overwhelming firepower.
“Clear the field!” Chen Feng’s cold voice issued commands through his earpiece, also reaching the guards at the underground garage entrance.
The heavy alloy garage door slid open again, and nine survivors—including Li Hua, the crew-cut man, Cai Xukun, and Liu Ying—filed out in single file.
After that hellish “warm-up” earlier in the afternoon, they still looked pale and terrified, but their movements had become much more efficient.
They skillfully found tools piled in a corner—iron hooks, sacks, shovels—and silently headed toward the chaotic battlefield.
“Hurry up! Half an hour!” The guard’s voice lashed at their backs like a whip.
Li Hua gritted his teeth and swung an iron hook, dragging a half-torn zombie carcass toward the pile.
Perhaps numbness or survival instinct had overridden his disgust; he even had an absurd thought:
“Damn, maybe... maybe moving corpses isn’t so hard?
Once you get the hang of it, it’s... not bad?”
He was working with a kind of reckless abandon when he tried to drag an especially heavy zombie stuck in the wreckage of an abandoned vehicle...
“Shh... shhh...”
A faint sound, like dry leaves brushing the ground, came from the shadow behind him!
In the dead silence surrounding the battlefield’s edge, Li Hua’s nerves snapped—the sound was like thunder!
“Help! There’s a zombie! A zombie!!!” Like a cat with its tail stepped on, Li Hua dropped his iron hook and scrambled backward, screaming in a high-pitched, distorted shriek!
His shout shattered the grim atmosphere of the cleanup! Everyone’s hair stood on end!
The quickest to react was the crew-cut man!
His eyes sharpened; almost instinctively, he grabbed the fire axe nearby and lunged like a cheetah toward the shadow Li Hua had pointed out!

His movements were swift and silent!
But when he charged into the shadowed corner formed by a collapsed billboard and abandoned vehicles, axe raised to strike, there was no one there!
Only the slight rustle of torn plastic sheets fluttering in the wind.
The crew-cut man frowned, keeping his guard high.
His sharp gaze swept every dark corner; his ears strained for any subtle noise.
Something was wrong! There was definitely a sound just now!
At that moment, steady, powerful footsteps approached.
Chen Feng arrived swiftly with two Snow Leopard team members, their QBZ-191 rifles lowered but safety off, ready to fire at any moment.
“What’s going on?” Chen Feng’s cold voice swept over the terrified Li Hua and the on-edge crew-cut man.
“Sir! Just now... just now there were footsteps! I really heard them!” Li Hua trembled as he pointed toward the area the crew-cut man was guarding, his voice cracking with fear.
Chen Feng wasted no words and signaled the crew-cut man to fall back.
Taking a step forward, Chen Feng raised his rifle instantly, the black muzzle precisely aimed at a heap of discarded tires lurking in the shadows.
“Rat-a-tat-tat—!”
Three short bursts! Hot bullets tore through the air, ripping into the gaps of the tire pile! The sharp gunfire echoed shockingly in the quiet dusk!
“Come out now, or don’t blame me for shooting you.”
In Chen Feng’s night-vision helmet, the white silhouette was exposed without refuge in the darkness.
“Ahhh—!!”
“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! I’m human! I’m not a zombie!!”
A sharp, terrified female voice with sobs suddenly rang out from behind the tire pile!
Then, a figure stumbled out from the shadows—Mu Qing!
Her face was pale as death, chest heaving violently. One hand clutched her chest tightly, while the other gripped an ice axe stained with dark red blood.
Clearly, the three shots had whizzed dangerously close to her hiding spot, nearly frightening her soul away.
The dusk light outlined her slender form, taut with tension, her hair slightly disheveled.
But her face, smudged with grime yet still breathtakingly beautiful, stood out strikingly against the chaotic, bloody backdrop.
“Shh...” The crew-cut man inhaled sharply, his eyes filled with surprise and caution.
What a stunning woman!
But what caught his attention even more was the bloodied ice axe in her hand!
Was that blood from zombies? Or... something else?
Li Hua was completely dumbfounded, mouth agape wide enough to fit an egg, drooling almost:
“W-what the hell... is the goddess... descended among us?”