Suzy could feel her heartbeat slowly settling back down.

Just as she thought they were about to avoid trouble safely...

"There are people over here!!"

A shrill scream suddenly rang out from behind them on the left.

The voice was sharp and piercing, twisted with malicious excitement as it echoed through the dead silence around them.

Suzy, Leonard, and Thomas all turned toward the source at nearly the same time.

A figure had appeared at the shattered window Leonard had been staring at earlier.

The person wore a tattered gray jacket and stood beside the broken window frame. His face couldn’t be seen clearly, but his voice carried a feverish excitement that bordered on insanity.

"Fuck, is this guy mentally ill?" Leonard cursed under his breath.

At a moment like this, shouting like that was obviously deliberate. No wonder he had felt someone watching him earlier. So it really wasn’t his imagination.

"People! There are people over here!!"

The man kept screaming at the top of his lungs, clearly trying to attract others.

Fury surged through Leonard instantly. He raised the nail gun and fired several shots toward the man.

Unfortunately, the nail gun’s range was limited. The building was too far away. The nails lost momentum halfway and dropped uselessly into the water.

"Thomas, give me the crossbow. I swear I’m going to kill this bastard."

Leonard was furious. They had almost avoided a conflict, only for some lunatic to deliberately ruin it. How could he not be pissed?

Thomas’s expression looked no better.

Without hesitation, he tossed the crossbow toward Leonard. Leonard caught it and immediately aimed at the figure by the window.

The man saw Leonard raise the weapon, but instead of showing fear, he pulled a grotesque face at him, overflowing with provocation.

"Fuck!"

Leonard’s eyes reddened with anger as he pressed his finger against the trigger, aiming directly at the filthy gray silhouette.

The man not only refused to hide, but he also leaned even farther out the window.

A disgusting grin spread across his face as he continued shouting.

"Come on! Shoot me! Shoot right here!"

Whoosh!

The bolt tore through the air, carrying all of Leonard’s rage with it. The man jerked backward at the last second.

The arrow scraped past his shoulder and embedded itself into the wall behind him.

The lunatic poked his head back out, glanced at his shoulder, then at the bolt lodged in the wall.

And then he burst into harsh, grating laughter.

"You missed! Hahaha! You can’t even hit someone this big? Useless!"

He laughed so hard he nearly doubled over, slapping the windowsill as tears formed in his eyes.

"Useless! Useless! Come on, try again!"

Leonard’s face flushed red with fury. He gritted his teeth and was about to fire again when Thomas grabbed his arm.

"Calm down. He’s doing it on purpose."

"I know he’s doing it on purpose!" Leonard roared. "I still want to kill this asshole!"

The man continued hopping around the window, shouting every insult he could think of.

When he saw the three of them stop responding, he screamed even louder.

"There are people over here!!!"

Suzy frowned deeply. "This guy’s already gone insane."

The apocalypse had turned some people into beasts. And others into lunatics.

This man clearly wasn’t trying to rob them or take revenge. He simply wanted to watch other people suffer.

He wanted to stir the stagnant water and drag everyone down with him.

Thanks to him, the distant engine noise had already changed pitch.

The boat that had been leaving was turning back.

"Fuck! Suzy, forget about him, let’s—"

Leonard didn’t even finish his sentence. Suzy suddenly snatched the crossbow from his hands. She raised it in one swift movement, aiming directly at the man.

The instant the bolt left the bowstring, the entire world seemed to fall silent.

The man’s voice stopped abruptly. He lowered his head blankly, staring at the arrow now buried in his chest.

The madness on his face slowly shifted into confusion. Then disbelief.

His fingers twitched weakly, trying to grab onto something, but finding nothing at all.

A second later, his body toppled from the window like a rag doll. He crashed into the water below, the splash quickly swallowed by the current.

Leonard’s jaw hung open for several seconds.

"Holy shit..."

Thomas stared at Suzy in stunned silence. Neither of them had expected her aim to be that terrifyingly accurate.

One shot, instant kill.

What shocked them even more was how decisive she had been. She had simply killed him without hesitation.

"Those people are coming," Suzy warned.

Her expression remained calm, but her fingers trembled faintly. She still wasn’t mentally prepared to kill someone, but that man had truly enraged her.

If they had allowed him to keep screaming, their situation would only have become even more dangerous.

Leonard and Thomas finally snapped out of their daze.

Thomas immediately slammed the throttle forward. The inflatable boat surged ahead violently across the water, but it was already too late.

The distant engine noise grew louder and louder. The other boat had already turned out from the side channel and was speeding straight toward them at full force.

As the distance closed, Suzy could finally make out the faces on board.

At the front stood a balding man with a smug, confident grin plastered across his face.

Beside him, a skinny man held up a homemade crossbow, already aiming in their direction.

At the rear of the boat stood two more men. One gripped a machete, while the other dragged a long metal hook through the water, its sharp tip carving a white trail across the surface.

Leonard’s expression shifted immediately.

These weren’t even the same people from before.

"Where the fuck did these ones come from now?!" Leonard exploded.

"Five people," Thomas said steadily. "More than the last group."

Leonard crouched low at the back of the boat and raised the nail gun toward them. His eyes were still red with anger, but his hands had steadied, his breathing controlled once more.

Suzy and Thomas remained fully alert as well. At this rate, the two boats were about to collide head-on. Thomas had no choice but to slow their boat down, letting it glide carefully across the water.

The distance between them shrank rapidly.

Thirty meters.

Twenty.

Fifteen.

At that moment, the men on the opposing boat noticed the weapons in their hands.

Their smiles stiffened slightly before quickly smoothing back into place.

"Easy now, easy!"

The balding man raised both hands in a placating gesture, his face overflowing with fake friendliness.

"We’re just passing through, fellas. Just passing through. You folks looked unfamiliar, so we thought we’d say hello."