Apocalypse Star House Hoarding-Chapter 24

8:00 AM.
Today was another cloudy day, but the temperature hadn’t dropped. The air outside the building’s security door was humid and stuffy, and a strong smell of blood wafted in as the door opened.
The five quickly pulled on their masks. Two of them silently drove the electric scooters out first.
A few minutes earlier, the four men had put on long-sleeved clothes and pants from Chen Ya’s house, covering their exposed skin, and wrapped thick magazines around their wrists and elbows with tape. They each armed themselves with tools like hammers, stainless steel rods taken from clotheslines, and baseball bats.
They were at the westernmost unit of Building 3, with the door facing north. To the left front was the small park, and the main gate was to their left rear. The driveway wasn’t long; they could reach it with a short run.
There were about seven to eight zombies wandering around the neighborhood, not counting any newly mutated zombies that had entered last night.
These zombies were mostly concentrated near the small park. With five people against seven or more zombies, and being the early days of the apocalypse, they didn’t dare to go all out, making it quite troublesome to deal with them.
Their plan was to bind the zombies and lock them in the delivery room opposite the security room. That room had three walls, and its only window was fitted with iron bars, making it suitable.
However, they couldn’t subdue all seven zombies at once; they needed to separate them.
Bian An and Wu Di, the shorter security guard, rode the other electric scooter from Chen Ya’s house to lure some of the zombies away. After they went out, Bian An honked the scooter’s horn twice. The zombies roared and moved towards the sound.
Bian An steadied himself and, with Wu Di, turned right, driving east along the driveway in front of Building 3.
Their plan was to pass by Building 4, circle around Building 7, and return through the back of Building 10, meeting the others at the main gate.
Zombies couldn’t match the scooter’s speed. As long as they kept a safe distance and avoided dead ends, they should be fine.
Yu Xi, Gao Yun, and Chen Ya, the three with higher combat abilities, seized the moment and slipped out after the zombies had passed the driveway. Their presence and movement immediately attracted the trailing zombies; three of them turned and chased after them.
“Head to the main gate to avoid drawing the zombies at the front,” Yu Xi said, leading the run towards the gate.
The driveway from the small park to the gate wasn’t long. As she turned onto the driveway, she noticed a lone female zombie wandering near the electric gate. Upon seeing Yu Xi, it quickly charged at her.
This zombie’s jaw was missing, exposing bloody gums. Its gray eyes were cold and lifeless as it bared its teeth at her.
Yu Xi didn’t dodge. Instead, she sped up, charging at the zombie and striking its face with her baton.
With a heavy smack, the zombie spun around, and Yu Xi immediately kicked it in the back, knocking it down. She stepped on it and swiftly tied its arms with the nylon rope she had prepared, securing it tightly.
Then she took off the thick scarf wrapped around her neck, covering and tying up the zombie’s head completely.
In seconds, the zombie was rendered helpless, squirming and roaring on the ground like an insect, unable to stand.
Though zombies in this world mutated quickly after infection, their speed was slightly slower than normal humans. They didn’t gain extra strength, and their reactions were sluggish with stiff joints, making them not too difficult to handle.
This was why the system had labeled the zombies as “elementary” and the overall mission difficulty as medium-low.
From a distance, Chen Ya, who had seen the scene, exclaimed in surprise. Though he knew the girl had combat skills, what truly terrified ordinary people about zombies wasn’t their strength but their horrifying faces and bloodthirsty frenzy.
Having a human appearance but acting like a beast, and the frightening reality of immediate infection from bites, required strong mental resilience to face and subdue such monsters.
This girl’s calmness and quick subdual of the zombie showed her remarkable psychological strength!
After dealing with one zombie, Yu Xi immediately turned to help Gao Yun and Chen Ya.
Chen Ya, a fitness instructor, was tall and strong. He struck down the approaching zombie with a baseball bat, causing it to stagger and fall.
Yu Xi stepped on the zombie’s back, and Chen Ya swiftly tied its hands and wrapped its head.
As he had his back turned, he didn’t notice another zombie approaching. Yu Xi, seeing it from the corner of her eye, quickly kicked it away just as it was about to pounce on Chen Ya’s back.
Chen Ya turned around, breaking out in a cold sweat. The thing had approached silently, and it was only thanks to Yu Xi that he was saved. They quickly went forward, working together to subdue the third zombie, then went to help Gao Yun tie up the fourth struggling zombie.
The four zombies wriggled on the ground, shaking their heads, but their hands were bound, and their heads were wrapped in thick scarves, making them look somewhat comical. Yu Xi couldn’t help but think they resembled crabs before being cooked.
The ever-present Star House: 【…】
Yu Xi: Stop reading my thoughts without permission.
【Host, the thought-shielding function will be enabled after the Star House upgrades.】
Yu Xi: …
Was this a subtle way of mocking her for being low-level?
In the few seconds her thoughts wandered, Bian An and Wu Di had already led a string of zombies toward the main gate. Yu Xi roughly counted five zombies, indicating they had attracted more from other parts of the neighborhood.
Chen Ya and Gao Yun quickly pushed the bound zombies into the delivery room, while Yu Xi, holding her baton, advanced.
With five people against five zombies, Wu Di was a bit clumsy, but the others managed to subdue their zombies. Yu Xi tied up one zombie and then helped Wu Di with another.
At this moment, the security room door opened, and two men rushed out, kicking the bound zombies: “We’re here to help!”
Yu Xi: …???
Seeing Yu Xi’s look, one of the men awkwardly explained while kicking, “This monster killed my wife!”
“What are you doing!” someone shouted from the balcony of Building 2 across the street. “That’s my dad!”
The person quickly rushed downstairs with others. One group wanted to kill the zombies, while the other wanted to take the bound zombies home.
Yu Xi, without a word, stepped forward, kicked one person aside, picked up the zombie on the ground, and dragged it to the delivery room, throwing it in.
Both groups looked angry as they got back up.
“You’re too harsh, young lady! I didn’t offend you; I just want to take my dad home!”
“You saw it! He still considers that monster his dad! We need to deal with it immediately!” another man chimed in.
“Exactly! Keeping such monsters around endangers everyone’s safety. Who will be responsible if something happens? You?”
Yu Xi’s eyes, the only part visible above her mask, glanced at them coldly. “Where were you when we were fighting the zombies? Now that it’s safe, you dare to come out. Responsible? What, you think you can handle me but not the zombies?”
“…”
While the two groups argued, Chen Ya, Bian An, and Wu Di locked the delivery room. Gao Yun emerged from the security room, looking displeased: “If you really want the zombies, we don’t mind letting them all out for you to handle.”
“You… what do you mean?”
“We can unlock the door and untie them very easily,” Gao Yun pointed to the delivery room. Through the iron bars on the window, they could see the zombies inside, one of which had already rubbed off half of its scarf, revealing blood-stained teeth.
The sight of that terrifying half-face made the two men’s legs weak: “No, no need.”
Gao Yun then addressed the resident from Building 2: “You know very well that’s not your dad anymore, or it wouldn’t have wandered outside all night. We’re just locking them up for now. If you continue causing trouble and insisting on taking them home, the rest of the neighborhood will likely demand their immediate removal to eliminate the threat.”
Before taking action, the five of them had discussed whether to directly eliminate the zombies or temporarily bind and lock them up.
Yu Xi knew that this zombie outbreak was not just a temporary crisis but the beginning of the apocalypse in this world. Even though initially, due to various concerns and inability to adjust their mindset, most people wouldn’t dare to kill the zombies outright.
But as time passed and despair spread, and the situation worsened, everyone would soon choose to eliminate the zombies directly.
However, others didn’t realize this yet. They didn’t know it was the beginning of the apocalypse, nor did they understand that once humans were infected, they could never recover.
Yu Xi wouldn’t force others to kill the zombies at this point—especially since the current zombies in the neighborhood were once residents here. Time would eventually make this clear to them.
When Gao Yun came out, Chen Ya and the others immediately approached him, asking about the other security guard in the security room.
“No one inside,” Gao Yun had just said when a head peeked out from the exterior stairs of the property building.
“Brother Gao Yun!” An excited young man, about eighteen or nineteen, ran down. He was the third security guard from the security room.
Yesterday afternoon, when Gao Yun and Wu Di went to the car crash scene, he stayed behind. When chaos erupted in the neighborhood and outside, he shut the electric gate. As more people returned, he only dared to open the small gate, fearing the noise from the electric gate.
Later, when two men and a woman banged on the gate for help, he let them in. However, there were zombies lurking near the electric gate. In the chaos, the woman was bitten, and the two men, scared, ran back, banging on the security room door. Worried about attracting more zombies, he eventually let them in.
But seeing how these two abandoned their companion, the young guard didn’t dare stay with them. While they searched for water and food in the back room, he locked the electric gate control panel, took the key, and quickly ran up the exterior stairs to the property office, locking himself in for the night.
“Don’t talk nonsense! How could I abandon my wife!” one of the two men yelled.
“Exactly! You’re just a kid, spouting lies!”
“Who’s lying…” The young guard was bewildered by their shouting.
Gao Yun didn’t argue with them: “No problem, the security room has surveillance cameras. We’ll check and see.”
He then had Bian An and Chen Ya keep an eye on the men while he and Wu Di checked the footage. They found that not only did the man not save his wife, but he also pushed her towards the attacking zombies to save himself.
Cold-hearted, selfish, and cowardly, shirking responsibility.
Such people couldn’t stay in the neighborhood, but they also couldn’t be expelled. If they sought revenge and led a horde of zombies back, it would be disastrous.
In the end, Gao Yun and Chen Ya decided to temporarily bind them and lock them in the security room’s back room.
As the men cursed, Gao Yun gagged them with cloth and explained the situation to the other residents who had come down.
In extraordinary times, clear-headed individuals needed to make quick decisions to better handle all the troubles.
Yu Xi silently observed, thinking that Gao Yun and his group were neither overly compassionate nor excessively cold-blooded. They were calm, methodical, and capable, making them suitable as interim leaders during this crisis.
With them around, she didn’t need to worry about the neighborhood’s safety and could go back home and continue to lie low.
So, Yu Xi quietly took two steps back and discreetly exited the scene.