Wu Dayong couldn’t sit still any longer. He immediately found two people to discuss it with, and early the next morning they set out.
It wasn’t raining today. Song Jinhe and the others carried a pile of firewood to the terrace. The collected rainwater was first filtered through clean cotton clothing to remove impurities, then boiled pot by pot.
The survivors in the bathhouse had been relying on rainwater for so long, which proved this method was safe. However, in the past few days, Song Jinhe had been drinking bottled mineral water she had stockpiled earlier; the rainwater was mainly used for washing.
Boiling all those buckets of water took quite some time. While the firewood was still burning, they also cooked a pot of noodles, adding a small portion of hotpot base they had saved from the previous night.
The spicy broth stimulated their taste buds, and everyone ate with great enjoyment. Peng Zhixue in particular, who hadn’t had anything this flavorful in a long time, was so excited he even drank half a bowl of soup.
“So fragrant! When you guys weren’t around, I could only eat bread and instant noodles made with lukewarm water, and even then, the worst flavor,” he said.
Song Jinhe used bamboo skewers taken from the hotpot restaurant to string up four sausages and grilled them over an unpainted piece of wood.
Behind the door, people who caught the aroma couldn’t help swallowing their saliva. Were they even human? Fine, cooking noodles was one thing, but they were actually grilling meat here and enjoying it alone!
Everyone was taking refuge in the bathhouse, practically neighbors. Even if they didn’t have to look after each other, they shouldn’t be behaving like this. If it weren’t for the rumors that the girl surnamed Song had a bad temper, someone would have gone out to say something.
The clouds thickened, and the cold wind picked up again.
A young man with a tattoo on his neck stepped forward and used the machete in his hand to slice open a severed limb on the ground. Soaked in rainwater overnight, the arm had turned soft and rotten; with just a light touch of the blade, the decayed fat beneath the skin burst out.
Despite the disgusting scene, the young man was still smiling. “Looks like it fell from above because of the weather the night before yesterday. Tsk, what a waste of that figure turning into a zombie.”
“Qiu Xiang, are you fucking okay? That’s a pretty unique taste you’ve got, being interested in zombies,” the man with the axe said, glancing at the rotten flesh on the ground in disgust.
“I haven’t seen a living woman in so long—I was just making a comment. If I’d known the apocalypse was coming, I should’ve had some even wilder fun. No matter what you did, you wouldn’t end up in jail anyway. That would’ve been a huge win.” Qiu Xiang seemed to be reminiscing about something, his eyes cold and disturbingly twisted.
“The hotels nearby were previously requisitioned as emergency shelters, housing people evacuated from severely flooded areas. They were packed full, but later they were completely overrun,” the leading burly man said, narrowing his eyes in warning. “There are signs that zombies from the flooded zones are moving toward this area. Stay alert, don’t let things go wrong at the last moment.”
“Got it, Brother Scar.”
The group entered the interior of the shopping mall through the F-zone fire escape and went up the stairs. Suddenly, a zombie corpse blocked their way.
“No other wounds visible. Clean kill.”
The axe man stepped over the corpse and continued forward. Their targets were warm clothing and food; only Qiu Hui cared about flashy branded goods.
“Quite a lot of items are missing from the shelves, and they’re all the same size,” Qiu Hui said while looking toward the underwear store, a trace of excitement appearing in his eyes. “Maybe… they’re still inside this mall.”
Hearing this, the expressions of several men in the group changed.
On the other side, on the 10th-floor restaurant:
Wu Dayong was stuffing food into a backpack when Ji suddenly lowered his voice in panic. “There seems to be some movement outside. Could it be zombies coming?”
“Alright,” the short man replied, “stop scaring yourself. Hurry up and pack the supplies. It’ll be dark soon, I don’t want to spend the night outside.”
The group zipped up their bags and left with their full loads of supplies. Just as they reached the entrance, they ran straight into another group.
Seeing the weapons in the other party’s hands, they were all shocked.
The gaze of a man who had lived a life on the edge was different from an ordinary person’s. The ruthless aura of someone who had killed before could be felt immediately.
“You all look pretty well off. Clean clothes, and so much stuff on you,” Brother Scar said as he walked forward with a forced smile. “Looks like you’ve got a decent place nearby.”
Wu Dayong and the others shrank back and said nothing.
The next second, Brother Scar pulled a handgun from his waist and shot the short man.
Thunder rolled across the sky. Wu Dayong stared wide-eyed at the person collapsing beside him. A living person had just died like that, and the killer was still smiling…
He had never seen anything like this before. His legs went weak, and he nearly collapsed.
Seeing the burly man turn the gun toward him, Wu Dayong hurriedly nodded and said “yes” twice in a panic.
“That’s more like it,” Brother Scar said with satisfaction, gesturing for his subordinates to go search them.
“The entrance to where we’re staying has already been sealed. The people inside will open the door when they hear us,” Wu Dayong said, trembling.
“Relax. As long as you cooperate, no one will get hurt. But if anyone tries anything funny… I’ll cut your hamstrings and throw you in front of the zombies,” Brother Scar said with a smile curling at his lips.
“First, tell me about your place, how many people are inside, how much supplies there are. Be detailed.”
“I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything!”
They didn’t dare refuse. The other side had guns, had already killed one person, and had even cruelly decapitated the body afterward. Who would dare resist?
Song Jinhe turned all the empty bottles in her space into Molotov cocktails and stored them separately for easy access when needed.
Then she took an unused steamer basket from the kitchen. Alone, she washed some of the sweet potatoes and potatoes stored in her space with boiled rainwater, then steamed and preserved them as supplies.
She couldn’t let anyone discover that she was able to take out so much food out of thin air. Acting like a thief the entire time and sneaking around was no easy task either.
The steamer basket took up too much space, so in the end she only took out the stainless-steel steaming rack and stored it in her space.
By evening, Song Jinhe started feeling dizzy. She barely ate anything for dinner, and when she lay down on the bed, her body had no strength at all and she began to feel cold.
Even though she was covered with a thick blanket she found in the cabinet, her feet still felt like blocks of ice. Her head was foggy and heavy, and her throat felt uncomfortable as well.
The noise outside had been going on for a long time. It seemed that the people who had gone out to search for supplies still hadn’t returned, so some people had gone to ask Cheng Yan and the others, and even knocked on her door, but Song Jinhe didn’t bother with it.
She took out a mercury thermometer from under her armpit and checked it under the flashlight. Damn—38.7°C.
She found some medicine and took it with cold water. After lying in bed in discomfort for several hours, she still couldn’t fall asleep by midnight, and her condition instead kept worsening. Her temperature even spiked to 39.4°C.
Tinnitus also started to appear. Her throat was dry and hoarse, her whole body felt like it was burning, and even with fever patches she only felt slightly better, but her temperature still wouldn’t go down, almost climbing to 40°C.
Ordinary colds or wind chills wouldn’t be this severe. It felt as if her brain had been burned dry, and even breathing was uncomfortable; she couldn’t lie flat to sleep.
In her memory, when she awakened her ability it hadn’t been this painful. These symptoms were more like those of the first wave of people infected with the zombie virus.