Chapter 80: My face is available for you to sit on

Screaming in sheer panic, May threw herself sideways out of instinct, her arms clamping around Theo’s waist in a desperate death grip.

Theo didn’t even break his stride.

With a slick flick of his right wrist, a flash of cold silver sliced through the air. The infected creature’s head detached instantly, hurtling through the darkness and slamming hard against a concrete support pillar, painting the wall with a splatter of foul, dark blood.

Buried against the side of his waist through his thin white shirt, May could feel the tight, defined muscle beneath. A sharp scent of sterile disinfectant blended with cool balsam wood filled her lungs.

Sheathing his blade effortlessly, Theo didn’t push her away. Instead, he lifted his free left hand and pressed it against the back of her head, drawing her face firm against his chest.

"Don’t look," his voice echoed above her, as calm and clinical as if he were reading off a patient’s medical chart. "The blood splatters will ruin your coat."

May’s heart skipped a beat. Well now... he slays monsters with terrifying speed, but protecting someone comes completely naturally to him. Playing the submissive role perfectly, she let out a soft, muffled hum of agreement.

"Theo certainly knows how to pamper a girl," Ace’s voice drifted over from behind them, light and airy, carrying a subtle echo across the vacant underground parking floor.

May turned her head slightly.

Standing three paces away, Ace was idly looping a strand of steel wire around his hand. The warm smile remained plastered on his face, but the gentle warmth in his almond eyes had vanished entirely, replaced by a glint of pure, arctic coldness.

Theo shot him a brief glance from the side, the lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses catching a reflection of the dim light. "Move out."

The trio slipped past the deserted garage and entered the emergency staircase.

Upon reaching the third-floor landing, a sickeningly potent stench of decay slammed directly into their senses. The stairwell turn was choked with a mountain of piled corpses—some wearing hospital gowns, others in shredded lab coats—stacked high enough to block the route.

"We can’t go up this way," Ace nudged the topmost body with the toe of his boot. "It’s piled up like a meat market in here."

Theo adjusted his glasses, turning his attention to the adjacent elevator doors. "The elevator shaft," he pointed out. "The cabin is jammed on the twelfth floor. The shaft itself is completely clear, so we can scale it directly."

Unsheathing a tactical climbing rope from his pack, Ace expertly tied a secure knot and tested the tension along the steel guide cable.

"Are you afraid of heights?" Ace glanced back with a pleasant smile, his tone reverting to its gentle smoothness.

"Not at all," May swallowed hard, peering up into the pitch-black void of the shaft. "It’s just a little dark."

"You take the middle position. Theo will cover the rear, and I’ll take the lead," Ace clipped a carabiner securely onto May’s waist belt.

The three began their upward ascent.

No ambient light reached inside the shaft, save for the bright beam of Theo’s tactical headlamp sweeping across the concrete walls. Cold air drafts rushed up from the basement level, snapping the hem of May’s heavy coat back and forth.

Wearing the anti-slip tactical gloves Ace had handed her, May pulled herself upward along the cable. By the time they reached the seventh or eighth level, her arms began to ache with fatigue.

"Theo... can we take a brief breather?" May gasped for air.

Halting his climb above her, Theo instructed flatly, "Hold tight."

Right at that second, May’s left glove grazed a slick, sticky patch along the cable—likely a streak of dried infected blood. Her grip slipped instantly, her strength completely failing her.

"AH—!"

Her body plummeted, the sudden weightless sensation clutching violently at her heart. She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the bone-shattering impact.

Before she could drop even half a meter, an arm reached out from the darkness, grabbing her waist belt in a vice grip.

It was Theo.

Holding the cable with a single hand, he hauled May upward with immense strength. Launched airborne from the upward momentum, May lost her balance mid-air and tumbled straight toward Theo.

Leaning against the shaft wall, the sudden impact threw Theo off balance as well, sinking his body downward.

May felt her vision turn dark as her lower half slammed directly into something solid.

The ambient air froze into dead silence.

Opening her eyes, May found herself sitting squarely...

Though the shaft was dark, the tactical headlamp atop Theo’s forehead reflected off the concrete wall, casting a soft glow across the scene. Looking down, May found her gaze resting directly on Theo’s hands, realizing her exact position.

Starting from the tips of his ears, a deep, burning crimson spread across his skin. His face remained pressed right beneath her, his warm breath fanning directly against her coat.

May’s brain short-circuited. Holy crap! What kind of maneuver is this?!

Her initial panic was that this refined psychopath would fly into a rage. He possessed a severe germaphobia—having felt disgusted by stray blood droplets moments ago—so having her dust-covered rear pressed flat against his face ought to drive him to kick her down the shaft.

"I... I’m so sorry, Theo!" May scrambled frantically against the shaft wall to pull herself up. "My hand slipped, I swear I didn’t mean to!"

Theo didn’t budge. He neither pushed her away nor uttered a word.

May could feel that the face pinned beneath her made no effort to dodge—if anything, it pressed closer. She could even feel his fingers clamped around her waist belt tightening violently, his fingertips digging firmly into her flesh.

Was he... actually...?

"So nice..." a faint, heavily suppressed whisper escaped from beneath her.

May froze solid on the spot. Instead of throwing me off, this man is actually enjoying it?!

While she maintained a harmless, innocent facade on the outside, her inner thoughts were in utter turmoil. Having her body held in such a position, she nearly lost her grip on the cable entirely.

"The... Theo..." May’s voice trembled uncontrollably, carrying an unintended, delicate sweetness. "Please... don’t... it tickles."

Only then did Theo seem to snap back to reality.

Releasing his hold, he steadied himself against the shaft wall, his eyes darting away for a split second before he cleared his throat. "Hold firm."

May hurriedly scrambled up two paces, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs. Yet she had to admit, the tactical rope harness provided by the men was exceptionally efficient—allowing even a delicate girl like her to leverage her momentum effortlessly.

She glanced back over her shoulder.

Theo remained still at his spot, tilting his head upward as his dark gaze locked onto the concrete wall, his Adam’s apple bobbing twice down his throat. Reaching up, he straightened his skewed glasses, pressing his fingers against his nose bridge as if savoring the lingering sensation.

"Theo certainly knows how to seize an opportunity," a voice echoed down from above.

May looked up.

Hanging two levels higher, Ace held his steel wire, looking down at them from above. The dim shaft light illuminated his face—his expression pleasant as a spring breeze, yet the steel wire in his grip had been pulled so taut it bent into a sharp, rigid kink.

"If you ever get tired, Ace isn’t above being shameless either—actually, my face is available for you to sit on whenever you like."

Theo scoffed coldly, "Mind your own climb."

Ace offered no further reply, turning to resume his upward climb, though his back appeared noticeably rigid.

Climbing along the high-tech ropes, the trio reached the twelfth floor at last.

Just as May tumbled out from the elevator shaft onto the floor, before she could even regain her footing, she spotted Ray, Mitch, Jack, and Alex covered in soot and blood, creeping up from the lower emergency stairwell exit.

Theo switched off his tactical headlamp, adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses. "Why did you come up from this side? Wasn’t the plan to execute a frontal assault through the main entrance?"

Wiping dark blood off his cheek, Ray let out a sharp grunt. "Frontal assault? Fuck, the corpses in the ground-floor lobby were stacked as tight as sardines! The stairwell entrance was completely choked solid by those freaks without a millimeter of space left, so we had to scale the shaft too."

Dodging a puddle of dark blood on the floor, May’s gaze swept across the men.

Mitch walked at the rear of the pack, his spine held stiffly straight and his legs tense, walking with an awkward, rigid stride like a muscular man trying high heels for the first time.

What’s wrong with this wild dog Mitch? Did he take the wrong medication or pull a muscle? Did that bump in the vehicle earlier leave him with lasting damage? Sheesh, why is his face as black as the bottom of a pan?

May pouted innocently, slipping behind Theo’s back to hide.

"Jack, you have the most strength, so take the lead up top. Alex, follow closely, then Mitch, and Ray will cover the rear," Ace coordinated.

Without a second word, Jack scrambled up the shaft like a massive ape, his seven-foot frame wedging securely onto the structural crossbeam as his huge hands clamped tight onto the main line.