At the very moment my body fell, the only thought in my head was "This is the end."
Right after, under the pull of gravity, my not-so-heavy body came crashing down onto the swarm of walkers beneath me.
Those idiots had no idea how to dodge and just let me slam into them.
Maybe my streak of bad luck was finally over, because as I tumbled through, not only did I knock a few of them flat on the ground, but I even managed to roll off to the side without a single scratch.
Not daring to hesitate, I thanked the heavens for sparing my life as I scrambled up, picked a random direction, and dashed off, half rolling, half crawling.
This forest had already been introduced before—the bushes here were ridiculously dense, making escape extremely difficult.
Even though the walkers I'd knocked over were slower to get back on their feet than I was, they still gradually began to chase after me again.
On top of that, I was now almost certain that walkers could be hiding anywhere in this forest.
My earlier courage to escape had all but disappeared.
Whenever I dove into a thicker patch of bushes, I would pause, afraid there might be a walker waiting inside for me to deliver myself to death.
In my desperate flight, I had completely lost the will to think of any plan—because there was none to think of.
I didn't know the terrain, couldn't tell directions, and neither my hands nor my surroundings had anything that could serve as a weapon.
Running was my only option.
It was in that moment that I truly understood the feeling behind that saying often heard in TV dramas—"carrying your head on your belt."
I don't know how long I had been darting aimlessly through the bushes, but when I finally burst out of one of the largest thickets, I found myself facing another patch of forest.
It looked almost identical to the one I'd been in before falling off the cliff—the trees were sparse, and my weary body and spirit suddenly surged with energy, like I'd been injected with pure adrenaline.
I quickened my pace and ran into the woods.
Just one glance told me the forest stretched far enough that I could probably shake off those annoying followers long before I reached the next set of bushes.
Truth be told, I've never been good at running—especially not under this kind of mental strain.
At first, I could still sprint and did manage to put some distance between me and the walkers.
But gradually, exhaustion caught up to me, to the point where even straightening my back felt difficult.
Watching those damned things closing in again, I could only grit my teeth and force myself to keep going.
Just when I was about to black out from fatigue, a thunderous crack suddenly exploded through the woods.
After getting used to the eerie silence, the sound nearly scared my soul out of my body.
I yelped in shock, but the very next second, I realized—the sound had been a sniper shot.
A sniper rifle… The meaning of that word made my heart leap.
Excitement burst through me as I bolted toward the general direction where I thought the sound had come from, twisting my neck constantly to scan my surroundings.
But after that single gunshot, no other sound followed.
I ran for quite a while, yet found nothing, and the forest returned to its dead silence—aside from the shrieks of those idiot walkers behind me.
I kept pushing forward, but the silence persisted.
My earlier excitement quickly collapsed into despair.
That's just how people are.
If you never have hope, it doesn't matter—you get used to it.
But the moment you have even the smallest sliver of hope, you cling to it desperately, staking everything on it.
And once that hope shatters, you collapse even faster.
That was exactly my state now.
I ran a few more steps, saw nothing, heard nothing, and my spirit plummeted.
I wanted nothing more than to just sit down right there and let the walkers tear me apart.
But just then, a voice I hadn't expected at all came from up in the trees ahead:
"Chen Yang!"
Suo Tian?! The voice had come from above.
I immediately tilted my head back—and there he was, standing on the high branches of a tree, sniper rifle in hand.
"Suo Tian, Suo Tian, I'm here."
Never in a million years did I expect to see him at such a desperate moment.
It felt like I'd leapt straight from hell to heaven in an instant.
I was so overjoyed that I didn't know what to do, frantically waving my arms and shouting his name at the top of my lungs, afraid he wouldn't see me.
But Suo Tian clearly wasn't as happy or excited as I was.
The moment he heard my voice, his expression changed drastically and he shouted, "Chen Yang, don't make a sound!"
Before I could even ask him why, a massive horde of walkers suddenly emerged from behind a thick patch of shrubs, scaring me stiff.
The dozen or so at the front had already noticed me, their mouths gaping wide as they staggered toward me.
Behind them, even more walkers poured out like an endless tide.
The growls of the ones behind me were also getting closer.
I stared dumbly from side to side—this was truly a case of wolves in front and tigers behind.
Suo Tian, up in the tree, had gone completely silent.
I didn't dare look up at him again.
Judging by the situation, he must have climbed the tree to hide from this massive horde.
And as for me—since I was already exposed, dragging him down with me would've been a disastrous mistake.
The walkers on both sides were closing in.
I quickly scanned to my left.
If I remembered correctly, running in that direction would lead me back to the cliff I'd seen earlier.
I gritted my teeth and steeled myself to bolt that way.
Worst case scenario—I'd just have to jump again!
Better to drown than be torn apart.
Just as I turned, I couldn't help but glance at where Suo Tian had been perched moments ago—only to find he was no longer there.
Panic surged through me as I frantically looked toward the nearby trees.
No one.
How could that be? Where had Suo Tian gone?
He was definitely there just a second ago!
I had no time to think, though—the walkers were nearly upon me.
I spun around and sprinted left, but before I could even finish my first step, a sudden gust of force rushed at me.
In the next instant, before I could react, a powerful grip wrapped around my waist.
Instinctively, I opened my mouth to scream, but the very next moment my entire body was yanked off the ground, soaring upward into the air.
The horde that had surged out of the bushes must have numbered at least a hundred.
Suspended in midair, I stared wide-eyed in shock at the mass of walkers below, their necks craned back as they shrieked up at me.
The sheer unreality of it all crashed into my mind.
Suo Tian held tightly to a rope that wasn't all that thick, one hand gripping it firmly, the other locked securely around my waist.
With the rope tied high to a sturdy tree trunk, the two of us swung back and forth through the air.
Once I processed what was happening, I immediately wrapped my arms around his neck, clinging tightly to him.
Suo Tian never loosened his grip.
Only after I held onto him did he speak, his tone calm and steady as always: "Don't be afraid. I'm here."
I buried my face against his shoulder and nodded hard.
All this time—if not for him—I'd probably already be wandering somewhere as a broken walker, hunting for human flesh.
Ever since that day on the road when we first crossed paths, ever since he chose to join the team that had only me and Yangyang back then, he had saved me again and again, saved all of us time after time.
Maybe sometimes his team's way of doing things was too ruthless, too cold, but I never cared about that.
In this apocalypse, everyone is selfish.
When I can, I try to show kindness, but at the same time, I too need someone's kindness and protection.
And Suo Tian—no matter how he treats others—has always been different with me.
I know it.
I can feel it.
Eventually, the swinging slowed and we stopped drifting back and forth.
Below us, the horde of walkers had fully gathered, forming a massive circle around us.
Their mouths hung open, their arms stretched upward, waiting for us to fall into the hell they had built beneath our feet.
"Hold on tight. We need to get up there." Suo Tian tilted his chin toward the tree trunk several meters above us where the rope was tied.
I understood he wanted to free an arm to climb up with me, so I quickly tightened my grip around him and nodded. "Okay."
That rope was far too thin for me to dare climbing with bare hands, so since Suo Tian was here, I simply played koala.
His movements were swift and agile, much steadier than back at Building No. 2.
Hand over hand, he wound the rope and climbed upward with practiced ease.
In less than a minute, we were already on the trunk.
Suo Tian didn't bother pulling the rope back up—instead, once seated on the trunk, he frowned and studied the scene below.
I was still shaken, but having Suo Tian beside me brought some measure of calm.
I followed his gaze downward—and immediately wished I hadn't.
Damn, it was so high!
Clutching the trunk beside me, I snapped my head back up and refused to look down again.
From below, it hadn't seemed that tall at all, but sitting up here was another story entirely.
My legs felt weak just from the glance.
Noticing my reaction, Suo Tian turned his head toward me.
After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Why did you come into the mountains?"
I froze at first, then let out a helpless sigh and shook my head.
"Accident. Accident. Just an accident."
Suo Tian raised an eyebrow at me, clearly wanting to hear what kind of accident that could be.
I exhaled again and told him the whole story in rough detail.
When I got to the part about the snake, I couldn't stop myself from shuddering violently several times.
After hearing me out, Suo Tian's expression stalled, then slowly turned strange.
He stared at me in silence for quite a while before finally speaking: "So… what you're saying is, you ended up in this mess just because you were looking for a dog?"
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