Emma Harris no longer cried out, though she was still sobbing. From time to time, she lifted her half-collapsed false eyelashes, secretly glancing at the ferocious-looking David Thompson, her hands unconsciously tightening around Brian Cooper's waist.

Henry Sutton and Grace Sutton had already run over. He strode forward, standing between the two quarreling men, and roared, "Shut up, all of you. Do you want to die or do you want to live?"

David Thompson and Brian Cooper continued to glare at each other, but the slight trembling at the corners of their eyes showed that both were watching the approaching horde of corpses out of the corners of their eyes.

Exhausted, Grace Sutton propped herself up with one hand on her knee, bent over, gasping for breath, and asked intermittently, "What... should we... do now?"

Henry Sutton straightened his chest, staring like a wolf at the horde blocking their way ahead. The glint deep in his pupils shone especially bright in the dim environment.

"There’s no other way."

He shook his head, spat fiercely, picked up the bloodstained fire axe leaning against his leg, and said coldly and calmly, "We can only fight our way out."

After speaking, he glanced around at the people standing nearby, strode between David Thompson and Brian Cooper, and with a low growl, charged at the staggering zombies.

Grace Sutton still followed behind him. Though her strength had not fully recovered and her steps were a bit unsteady, she gripped her dagger tightly.

David Thompson's throat bobbed up and down. He glared angrily at Brian Cooper for a few seconds, then left a cold, menacing remark.

"I’ll settle this score with you later—"

With that, he stuck his hammer into his belt, picked up the wooden stick Emma Harris had thrown on the ground, and left without looking back.

Soon, fierce shouts and sounds of battle came from the front of the passage. Mixed in were the clearly audible cracks of breaking bones and the dull thuds of heavy objects striking bodies.

The fear gradually faded from Emma Harris's face. She clearly didn’t want to be held in such a manner. She struggled hard, breaking free from the very satisfied Brian Cooper's embrace, and looked at him with a gaze full of anticipation, tinged with a hint of scheming.

"You said you were willing to do anything for me?"

Brian Cooper clearly didn’t understand why Emma Harris was bringing this up, but he still nodded.

"I’ve read all those love letters you wrote. In them, you swore more than once—you’d die for me?"

The chubby boy looked at her in confusion, as if he had already guessed what was about to come out of those lips smeared with bright red lipstick.

"Protect me. I... I don’t want to die, I don’t want to be eaten by those monsters."

Emma Harris grabbed Brian Cooper's hand tightly, then quickly let go, speaking in an earnest yet irresistibly tempting tone: "As long as we get out of here alive, I promise to be your girlfriend."

She spoke quickly, clearly having already arranged her words in order. A burning light instantly flared in the fat boy’s eyes, and even his breathing grew rapid.

For some reason, Brian Cooper suddenly felt like crying.

The first time he saw Emma Harris, he had fallen madly in love with her. He had pursued her for two years, but she had never even let him touch her finger. Of course, that wasn’t surprising. Brian Cooper's family was very ordinary, and words like "handsome" or "tall" could never be associated with someone as short and chubby as him.

He never missed a chance to buy lottery tickets, and would use his spare time to work near the school. Chasing a girl wasn’t as simple as just talking. Flowers, meals, shopping, movies... all of these required money. Although he knew very well that Emma Harris's chances of choosing him among her many suitors were almost zero, he still did everything he was supposed to do. Because Brian Cooper believed: on the other side of the scale of love, among all the eye-catching factors like money and good looks, there was also a small, inconspicuous weight that countless stories had made classic.

That was sincerity.

Maybe feeling her previous words weren’t enough, Emma Harris grabbed the fat boy’s hand again, pressed it heavily to her chest, and said without hesitation, urgently, "As long as we get out of here, I’ll marry you."

Brian Cooper's expression instantly became brilliant, feeling the blood rush through his body. The intense excitement and indescribable exhilaration made him use all his strength to finally pull his hand away from Emma Harris's chest.

"What you said... is it true?"

He still had a trace of doubt in his heart. After all, he had been rejected countless times before.

Emma Harris's brows furrowed. She glanced at the terrifying horde not far away, bit her lip, suddenly cupped his chubby face, closed her eyes, and kissed him hard as if resigning herself to fate.

Their lips touched for less than two seconds, but the happiness that fell from the sky instantly shot through Brian Cooper's whole body. He no longer doubted, and as if injected with adrenaline, he grabbed the mop beside him and, howling like a dog in heat, charged bravely into the fight against the zombies.

He didn’t see—at the very moment he turned around, the tenderness on Emma Harris's face instantly turned to ice. She wiped her lips hard with the back of her hand, then took a tissue from her pocket and continued to wipe with utter disgust.

……

On the cold concrete floor lay six zombies whose heads had been severely damaged or simply smashed to a pulp.