A Sick World
Jiang Ziyao struggled with both hands and kicked out. It worked even better than he’d expected. The weight on his back lifted at once, followed by a loud crash.
“Ah!” Huo Chi groaned in pain as he crawled out from under the bed. “Brother Jiang! You’re awake? Why’d you kick me? And so hard!”
Jiang Ziyao was still a little dazed when he heard Huo Chi’s voice. He looked at Huo Chi’s hair, a wild mess like a bird’s nest, and felt rather bewildered.
Jiang Ziyao asked uncertainly, “Huo Chi?”
Huo Chi immediately grinned. “What, did you sleep yourself stupid? Though with a kick like that, I guess you’re not in too bad a shape.”
“I’m all right.”
This was the Huo Chi he knew.
The sense of danger was gone, and Jiang Ziyao breathed a sigh of relief. So it had been a dream. Light filled the room; it was already morning. Judging by the sun, it was around six. They were both early risers. Jiang Ziyao secretly pinched himself again. This was real.
Huo Chi called out, “Brother Jiang.”
He squeezed in close and eyed Jiang Ziyao suspiciously.
Seeing him hesitate, Jiang Ziyao reached out and gave him a pinch at the waist. “Is your back okay? Are you hurt?”
“What could be wrong with me? I’m strong as an ox. You think a kick like that could hurt me?”
Then Huo Chi patted Jiang Ziyao’s arm and said with certainty, “I can tell from your face. You’re the one who’s hurt! Come on, tell me!”
Jiang Ziyao looked away from his perfectly normal face. “It’s nothing. I just had a dream.”
Huo Chi pressed him. “What did you dream about?”
Jiang Ziyao didn’t particularly want to revisit it. He braced himself with both hands and lay back down, staring at the ceiling as if deep in thought. “That the heavens were raining down pies, and there were mountains of gold everywhere.”
“Gold’s worthless now.” Huo Chi yawned, then smiled. “Anyway, let’s put your weird nightmare aside for a minute. We should talk about something interesting.”
“What’s interesting?” Jiang Ziyao asked.
“You really haven’t noticed?”
“Noticed what?” Jiang Ziyao sighed at his mysterious expression. “The only thing I feel is that I just woke up.”
“Don’t get grumpy just because you’ve only just woken up.”
Huo Chi reached under the bed. “This is what I mean!”
Jiang Ziyao turned to look. A shovel over a meter long lay there. He’d thought it might be some strange new gadget, but it was just a shovel.
Huo Chi held it up, beaming. “It’s a boy! Father and son are both safe. From now on, it can call me Dad and you Papa. What do you think?”
Jiang Ziyao stared at him for a moment. “?”
“This thing was what made you feel awful. You kept holding your stomach, and then whoosh, it appeared out of nowhere. I saw it with my own eyes. It must’ve come right out of your belly. You gave birth to a shovel!”
“Get out of here.” Jiang Ziyao rolled his eyes, then took the shovel. It felt cool and smooth beneath his fingers. It was probably a handsome shovel, as shovels went. Its shaft had the sheen of silver, and it had a bit of weight when he hefted it.
A shovel… Damn it, it really was a shovel.
His ability was so lame… That was his first thought.
The text appeared again:[Huo Chi and I spent our first night after escaping the supermarket in a house somewhere in Nanpu District. The nights there were cold, so we went as far from the city as we could to avoid being hunted by mutants.
In the middle of the night, I awakened an ability. It was a shovel. I later learned that, in precise terms, this belonged to the item type. At first I was a little disappointed, but it helped me a lot later on. For me, it was both a blessing and a curse.]
[Gene level: Unknown]
[Gene sequence 0, New Life.]
[That was the name and number I gave it later. The awakened organization worked with research experts to number the possible gene combinations, but unfortunately, I wasn’t among them.]
Jiang Ziyao only half understood what he was reading. The good news was that his head didn’t hurt anymore. He rubbed the spot on his forehead that had throbbed before and stared at the thing in his hands.
He thought about putting it away, and the shovel promptly disappeared. That was novel.
“My Brother Jiang really is one of a kind. You didn’t turn into a walker, you turned into one in a million, someone with an ability. What’s it like? I’m so jealous.”
Jiang Ziyao pushed Huo Chi’s face away. “Don’t worry. You’ll get one too.”
He wasn’t just saying that to comfort him. The text had mentioned that they would rely on Huo Chi’s ability to deal with the mutants at the toll station. Jiang Ziyao still couldn’t be sure what that ability was, though.
Huo Chi fell silent. His gaze sharpened as he stared at Jiang Ziyao. “I knew you were keeping secrets, Brother Jiang.”
Jiang Ziyao wasn’t surprised. Huo Chi sounded certain. “But if you don’t want to tell me, I won’t pry. Brother Jiang, look… it’s still early…”
Huo Chi wrapped both arms around him and clung to him, pulling him down onto the bed.
Jiang Ziyao felt the weight settle on him. This guy was thinking with his dick and even had the wild idea of riding him. “Quit rubbing against me. If you get yourself worked up, take care of it yourself. I’m not helping.”
Huo Chi: …
“We weren’t like this before.”
“Special circumstances call for special treatment.”
Huo Chi gaped. “So I don’t get any morning or evening happiness from now on?”
Jiang Ziyao didn’t answer. He got to his feet. Someone was knocking at the door, and he gestured for Huo Chi to be quiet.
Liu Dong knocked hard and called from outside, “You awake? If not, get up and come work with me.”
Jiang Ziyao answered, “I’m awake. I’ll be right out.”
They had work to do. He glanced at Huo Chi, who wasn’t planning to slack off either and got out of bed at once.
“Wait.” But just as Jiang Ziyao opened the door, Huo Chi shoved it shut with a loud bang.
He looked meaningfully at Jiang Ziyao. “Did you forget something?”
Jiang Ziyao raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“There’s no way you forgot.” Huo Chi’s expression turned solemn. He lifted his sharp chin, looking rather stern, and gazed at Jiang Ziyao expectantly. He might as well have pointed at his own mouth and shouted, “Give me a kiss!”
Jiang Ziyao smiled. “You’re right. I didn’t forget.”
He hooked a finger in Huo Chi’s collar and tugged. He barely used any force, but Huo Chi tilted his head back and leaned in willingly, even closing his eyes as if for a grand occasion.
Jiang Ziyao kissed him on the lips. At 188 centimeters, the two of them were about the same height. He’d trained in boxing, and his lean, solid muscles were hidden beneath his clothes. With looks and a physique like theirs, even two men could make quite a handsome pair.
Jiang Ziyao ruffled his bird’s-nest hair. “All right, time to work. Don’t let the others catch us and laugh.”
Huo Chi licked his newly moistened lips, satisfied. “That’s more like it.”
Liu Dong carried a knife and handed Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi a dagger each. “No matter where you are, you need to keep a weapon on you for protection. Never let your guard down.”
His expression was grave. It was a heartfelt reminder that made Jiang Ziyao take another look at the world they were living in.
“You’ll only be issued ammunition when you go out, so use it sparingly. And sometimes, a knife is better than a gun,” Liu Dong said. “Those things follow the sound. A gun can get you killed.”
Liu Dong led the two of them to a stream. People in the camp went out in shifts, while those who stayed behind were responsible for guarding it.
Huo Chi asked, “Is this where we get all our water?”
“Where else did you think it came from?” Liu Dong said.
“I’m not complaining,” Huo Chi explained. “I just didn’t expect to be living so close to nature. The water looks even cleaner than bottled water. You can see right to the bottom. There’s nothing in it.”
The grass all around them was barren, but the water was clean. Jiang Ziyao asked, “Is there a reason for that?”
“Water’s the cleanest thing now,” Liu Dong said. “Cleaner than people, at least.”
No one knew exactly how the infection worked. The ocean, which had been the original source of contamination, was now the cleanest place. The creatures in the water had all died when the virus first broke out. If only humans could survive underwater, the ocean would be the best refuge there was.
Jiang Ziyao bent down and tested the weight of a bucket of water.
Bang!
A large stone suddenly hit the water right in front of him, splashing him. He’d heard footsteps approaching some time ago and stepped back in advance, so only the front of his hair got wet. A drop ran down from his brow to his neck.
The stone was quite large, and it had been aimed at his head. Jiang Ziyao’s expression darkened.
“What the hell?!” Huo Chi immediately dropped his bucket and rushed to Jiang Ziyao’s side. His gaze landed on the culprit. “Which idiot was that?!”
“Ignore him! Get back to work,” Liu Dong said at once. “That’s Li Zheng, Li Liang’s younger brother. He probably saw some new faces and wants to provoke you, show off his authority. Don’t get yourselves into trouble.”
He was a boy, not very old and rather stylish-looking, but much sturdier than Xiaobei and the others.
There were so few people left that, in the old world, they’d have been declared a protected species. The value of a safe camp was that you didn’t have to face the apocalypse alone.
The most powerful person in the safe camp was Li Liang. He had two obedient thugs by his side. The middle-aged man from before was one of them, Fu Bin. The other was Chen Yang. Liu Dong considered those three the people best avoided. It seemed he’d have to add one more to the list.
Li Zheng threw two more stones at them to taunt them.
“You get a brat, you get bratty parents,” Huo Chi muttered. “I bet his brother’s no good either. I’d love to beat him until his own mother wouldn’t recognize him.”
“Don’t stare at him,” Jiang Ziyao said. “He’s just a kid. If you ignore him, he’ll get bored. Go pick up your bucket. We’ll head back once we’ve filled it.”
Jiang Ziyao lowered his head, his brow still furrowed. The only thing he couldn’t understand was that, in the text, they’d only met two people at the toll station. None of the others from the camp had been there.
“Let’s go,” Liu Dong said.
The three of them left in silence. As expected, Li Zheng didn’t keep bothering them.
After putting the water away, they returned to the house and ran into Liu Xiaobei. He seemed to have been waiting by the door for quite a while.
“Dad!” Liu Xiaobei shouted, though his nervousness was plain to see.
Jiang Ziyao looked over and noticed a little boy standing behind him, even younger than Liu Xiaobei.
Liu Xiaobei spoke again. “His dad didn’t come back last night.”
Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi immediately understood what he meant. Liu Dong said nothing, but his expression made it clear he refused.
The little boy had been hiding behind Liu Xiaobei, looking timid, but he suddenly worked up the courage to step in front of Liu Dong. “Dad said if he didn’t come back, I should come find Uncle Liu.”
Liu Dong looked at the boy. “I can’t take care of you.”
The boy probably hadn’t expected that answer. He looked crestfallen.
Then Liu Dong told Liu Xiaobei, “Go inside.”
“Dad, this is Xiaoshan. He’s not a stranger.”
“Go inside!” Liu Dong’s expression had turned openly fierce. Startled by his coldness, Liu Xiaobei pressed his lips together and obediently went in.
Liu Dong left no room for negotiation.
“I’m sorry,” Wang Xiaoshan said. He took a step forward, then drew back and lowered his head before walking away alone.
Jiang Ziyao couldn’t help asking, “If someone doesn’t come back for a day, does that mean there’s no hope?”
“If he hasn’t come back, he’s trapped. Mutants and walkers prefer the night, especially mutants. They’re more likely to hunt at night. You won’t see dense groups of mutants in broad daylight, and at night their sense of smell is sharper than during the day. If he couldn’t make it back before dark, he’s probably been eaten by now. There’s no chance he survived. I’ve never seen anyone spend a night in the city and come back alive,” Liu Dong replied.
“His dad was experienced. Looks like we can’t go east,” Liu Dong warned. “And don’t go getting involved in other people’s business.”
The boy was too young to survive on his own. Without his father, he had no chance. But no one would take on another burden, and Jiang Ziyao thought the same way.
A while later, Liu Dong brought over some food. “Eat, then go patrol outside. If those things can’t find anything to eat in the city, they’ll spread out beyond it.”
They’d split the biscuits from the night before at noon. There were two bags of compressed rations left. In the evening, the two of them shared one. The camp had found the military rations in a city somewhere. They were enough to stave off hunger, but they didn’t taste very good.
When night fell, Liu Dong took the two of them to guard the back door. Wang Xiaoshan tried to approach again. This time, he went up to Jiang Ziyao. “Could I trade something for a little food? Just a little.”
His stomach was growling. He took the pendant from around his neck. “This is the most precious thing I have. Dad gave it to me.”
Jiang Ziyao’s face was expressionless, almost cold, but he didn’t look away from the boy.
He thought that if he hadn’t fired his gun, Liu Dong would be dead too. Liu Xiaobei would be like this boy, left without a father. Without anyone to rely on, he’d have no chance of surviving. No one in this camp would have shown him any mercy.
“Sure. Take it.” Huo Chi tossed him their last bag of rations.
Wang Xiaoshan’s eyes finally lit up. “Thank you. Thank you…”
He immediately wolfed it down. Tears kept streaming down his face as he gulped mouthful after mouthful. He didn’t make a sound as he cried, and tears ran down his cheeks into his throat. It was a miracle he didn’t choke, eating so fast.
“He’s so happy to eat that awful ration. He must’ve been starving,” Huo Chi said with a grin. “Don’t eat it all and then welch. Give me the thing around your neck.”
Wang Xiaoshan immediately handed him the pendant.
Jiang Ziyao waited until the boy had finished eating before he spoke. “We gave him the ration we were saving. If we don’t find anything tomorrow, we’ll be drinking nothing but air.”
Huo Chi hooked an arm around Jiang Ziyao’s. “I know you wanted to give it to him.”
He took the pendant and examined it. There was a small bag of seeds hanging from it. They looked all right. He handed it to Jiang Ziyao. “A gift for you.”
Jiang Ziyao took it and studied it for a while. “What kind of seeds are these?”
Wang Xiaoshan licked his lips clean and answered, “Daisies. They’re beautiful flowers.”
Liu Dong gave a cold snort. “You traded food for something useless. You might as well quit living and go find a temple to become a Buddha.”
“I wouldn’t call it useless,” Huo Chi said, rubbing his nose. “Maybe one day we’ll get to enjoy growing flowers and plants again. The world’s already painful enough. It’s good to have something to look forward to.”
Liu Dong gave a scornful laugh. “Seems I forgot to warn you.”
He stamped the ground. “There are no renewable resources left in this world. Nothing will grow in the soil beneath your feet.”
Jiang Ziyao was taken aback. “What do you mean?”
Liu Dong scoffed. “The virus has poisoned the whole earth. The soil is toxic. Once the resources we have now are used up, there won’t be any more. When there’s nothing left, humanity, the mutants, everything alive in this world will be finished.”
Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi fell silent.
That was terrible news. If the earth could no longer grow new shoots, humanity had no future. So the apocalypse was a countdown. At this rate, civilization was destined to perish in the river of time.