【A wound contaminated by the zombie virus, or a bite, will turn you into a zombie. Wound infection has an incubation period of seven days, a bite takes only one minute to turn.】
Lin Qiu touched the pimple on her face, freshly sprouted. If she truly couldn’t go on living, she’d just pick it open and dab a little zombie blood on it. She’d never had any grand ambitions, and she knew full well she could barely take a single step in an environment like this.
There was no telling whether her food would run out first or the zombies would arrive first, she could only be grateful that the water and power were still working normally.
Lin Qiu had worried on the first day, but by the second and third her nerves had settled. The clamor online never stopped. The shelters were open, but the road to them was full of the unknown, and no one dared set out lightly, everyone was waiting to see how things played out.
【Easy for them to tell us to go to the shelters. What do we do if we run into zombies? We can’t fight them.】
【Someone save me, my family’s infected, and I’m trapped inside the house.】
【Why does a virus like this even exist? Who’s going to guarantee our lives? Why was this virus allowed to spread? Will someone answer me?!】
【Useless. All they tell us is “go to the shelters.” Where’s the army? They didn’t even clear the floodwater properly, and now they feed us this crap.】
【My boyfriend’s been running a fever for a week, no wound, not infected, but his temperature’s hit over forty. He’s barely hanging on. What do I do?!】
【Fake, surely. Fever over forty? Even with how much human constitution has changed over the years, no one survives a week at forty-plus. You’d better go check, maybe he’s already burned dry.】
【The poster above you has a foul mouth. Someone in my house has a similar condition. You can give him nutrient solution to replenish his energy, from what I’ve observed, it isn’t the look of the mutation.】
【Word on the grapevine: the first zombie broke out in a hospital. The guy had gone in with a fever, then started biting people right there, and in the end the whole hospital was wiped out.】
【Damn it, we’re almost out of food and you lot are still mouthing off online. Anyone want to team up and grab food from Laili Supermarket? Five-person team, come quick.】
【When the zombies come, we beat them. I happened to buy a batch of machinery right before the apocalypse, I’ll join the team, good chance to test it out.】
【Easy for you to say. Those zombies were somebody’s parents, children, family too. They didn’t want to become like this. How can you bear to raise a hand against them?】
【For real, it’s the year 3150 and there’s still a world-class Saint Mary [1] internet slang for a sanctimonious bleeding-heart who preaches mercy even for the thing trying to eat you jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2658902_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2658902_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. It’s got the nerve to bite me and I’m not allowed to fight back? Forget the zombies, I’ll finish you off first.】
A fresh round of flame wars erupted online. For a moment it was hard to say which mattered more, survival or getting the first insult in. Lin Qiu watched the online brawl, then fixed her eyes on the man in the bed.
She took the nutrient solution out of the fridge. The stuff was concentrated essence taken to an extreme, and the taste defied description. She poured three pouches into him like that, the fact that he could even swallow it was something of a relief.
He’d stopped crying that he was cold or hot. Apart from a slight flush in his face, he was no different from a vegetable. If Lin Qiu had a medical pod he might have fared better, but she couldn’t afford one of those.
After turning his clothes over to keep them from sticking, she stepped out of the room to fix herself something to eat. The windows of the apartment were sealed shut and there was no sunlight, so the pajamas she’d changed out of had nowhere to dry, she had no choice but to borrow him, this fifty-degree furnace of a man.
She discovered that laying foil over him and putting the clothes on top of that worked as a dryer, quick, and surprisingly efficient.
Laili Supermarket was the biggest supermarket in Light City. The downpour had soaked it through, and with the city’s drainage system thrown into disorder by the rampaging zombies, most of the goods inside had been ruined by floodwater.
Bu Lai hauled a machine rifle on his shoulder, he’d taken it from the storeroom at home. When the apocalypse hit he’d been the only one in the house, his parents unreachable. As agreed, he was waiting at Laili Supermarket for the others to gather.
The day was still overcast and gloomy. The rain had stopped, but the temperature was visibly climbing. He crouched low, using the broken iron racks around him to hide his body.
The water in the street came up to his calves, murky and filthy. He could see corpses soaking in it, bloated and white, one glance was enough to make him gag.
The air carried the stench of rotting bodies, and the oppressive, sticky heat sat heavy in everyone’s chest. Not far off came snarls, screams, and the sound of running. Bu Lai gripped his rifle, his body trembling uncontrollably.
From somewhere nearby came the sound of chewing, a wet, grinding crunch that made his skin crawl. Street fixtures, knocked over, had been swept aside and heaped up, the cars were caked in mud, mixed with dried blood and torn-apart corpses.
“Damn it, why aren’t they here yet?” Bu Lai was nearly at his limit. The longer he waited, the more uneasy he grew, certain that some zombie was watching him from a spot he couldn’t see, just waiting for him to come out so it could tear him apart.
“Psst, psst.” A sound came from behind him. In a reflex he spun around, rifle raised, only to find four people crouched low, some holding boards up to shield themselves.
“You bastards finally showed. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting?” Half scared to death, Bu Lai could barely hold his gun steady, and couldn’t help cursing.
The one in front was a burly man wearing a tight athletic top, with knee-high rubber rain boots, who knew where he’d dug those up, covering his lower half. Everyone had wrapped themselves up as best they could, to avoid brushing against anything and getting infected.
His outfit was just too strange, though, a big man in tall rubber boots, a getup even a zombie would laugh at. Bu Lai and the others behind him clearly had trouble keeping straight faces, so they did their best not to look at him.
Zhang Bing was annoyed. He didn’t want to dress like this either, the rainstorm had washed his clothes away, and these were the only ones he could find.
“Laugh it up. In a bit, we stick together as much as we can. Each of you watches one direction. Grab as much nutrient solution as you can, take whatever you can carry.” The others nodded and, cautious, raised their boards and edged forward.
Zhang Bing glanced at Bu Lai, a little envious of the thing in his hands. The rest of them were holding iron bars and wooden sticks, next to no chance against a zombie. A gun was a different matter, technology might be advanced, but weapons were tightly controlled.
Bu Lai dug a mechanical pistol out of his pocket and tossed it to him. “Hold onto it. Only ten rounds, the rest got flooded and won’t fire.” Even these he’d scraped together over the past days.
Zhang Bing didn’t expect him to be so loyal, handing over a thing like that just like that. With an attitude like his, Zhang Bing would put his life on the line today, whatever it took.
“Move, move. Everyone keep it quiet. No telling where a zombie might pop out around here.”
The five of them stood and, each watching a different direction, moved into the supermarket in a loose ring. Just as expected, more than half the interior had been picked clean, the iron shelves toppled into the water, anything soaking in it was inedible now.
These past days plenty of people had braved the trip out, and they’d searched a long while without finding where the nutrient solution was. One of the men behind Zhang Bing bumped into him without watching where he was going, and Zhang Bing heard him stammer, “Zo, zombie.”
The man was pointing at a collapsed iron shelf ahead. A zombie crouched on the frame, standing on a corpse, its face unrecognizable, only the ragged clothes visible, the body torn open. The zombie was still tearing at it, blood sliding down the frame and trickling into the foul water.
It was a gory sight. The zombie’s purple-black sinews bulged, and its sharp fangs and claws scraped the iron with a sound that raised the hair on the back of your neck. Zhang Bing and the others froze where they stood. Someone, no one knew who, knocked into a shelf and made a noise, and the noise drew the zombie’s gaze.
A pair of blood-red eyes turned toward them, hollow and dull. It rose from the corpse, leaped down off the frame, and bolted at the five of them. Bu Lai yelled, “Run!”
They all panicked. A zombie had no reason left in it at all. Bu Lai remembered the rifle in his hands and fired in its direction, bang, a glancing hit that clipped its shoulder.
The zombie only stopped, stared at its own shoulder, then without hesitation gouged the chunk of flesh away and, a little slower now, started forward again. Bu Lai stared in disbelief. Zhang Bing shoved him. “The head, shoot the head!”
The five had already been scattered. Zhang Bing and Bu Lai were the closest together, both holding mechanical guns. Bu Lai ran, glancing back, and swore, “I can’t fucking aim, if you’re so good, you do it!”
Zhang Bing was only half-decent himself, and his rounds were limited, one fired, one fewer left. They ran through the water as the gunfire drew the surrounding zombies in.
“Help, there are zombies over here too!”
A zombie hidden among the goods shelves seized a man who’d run up in front of it, bared its teeth in a vicious grin, grabbed him, and bit straight into his neck. Blood sprayed everywhere.
“Liu Cheng!” Zhang Bing only had time to shout his name before, the next second, a bullet caught the zombie square between the brows. He wanted to rush forward and save his brother, but Bu Lai yanked him back. “Are you insane? He’s infected, look how black his hand’s already gone!”
One minute was all it took: his brother of old was now a man-eating zombie, and he’d become his brother’s food. Bu Lai simply fired, murmuring “I’m sorry” under his breath.
Watching the body fall, he dragged Zhang Bing off to find cover and hide. Not far away, one scream after another echoed in both their hearts. Five had come in, and now only two were left, how was anyone supposed to bear that?
Zhang Bing clenched his fists, his eyes blood-red, wishing he could charge out and kill every last one of these zombies. The water on the ground rippled in waves, zombies stirring it as they prowled without a care.
They hadn’t found a single thing, and now even getting out had become a problem. Bu Lai’s already fair face had gone deathly pale, the kind that could climb straight into a coffin the next second.
The spot they’d chosen wasn’t good, wedged between two fallen shelves, far too easy to be exposed. Before the zombies could spot them, a streak of fire shot past right in front of Bu Lai and Zhang Bing’s eyes, close enough to singe their lashes.
It was over in an instant. The zombie’s furious roar cut off, and it collapsed into the water like a heap of mud. Someone was wading through the water, footsteps steady, and a sneering laugh rang out.
“Hahaha, here I thought there’d be some real fearsome zombie, just two or three brainless ones, and people still managed to die.” The voice was grating, and a teasing voice followed right behind it.
“True. These useless types do nothing but scream all day, they still need us to protect them. Hey, come on out, the zombies are gone.”
Iron banged against iron, as if recklessly summoning every zombie nearby. Bu Lai shot up in alarm and hissed, “You’ll draw the zombies doing that, stop!”
He could see two figures standing ahead, crew cuts and faces like vicious gods, decked out in leather jackets and leather pants, planted brazenly in the middle of the supermarket.
When they spotted Bu Lai and Zhang Bing, they burst out laughing. “Didn’t think there’d really be two cowards hiding here.”
“We’re the ones who cleared the zombies out of this supermarket, so you’d better scram. The supplies here are ours.” The taller crew-cut man shouted at them without the slightest courtesy, while the shorter one opened a bag and stuffed in everything he could.
Zhang Bing had just lost his brother, and his temper was on a hair trigger, these two reeked of arrogance. “We got here first, if anyone’s leaving, it’s you!” Zhang Bing shot back, neck stiff with defiance.
“Zombie,” Bu Lai called out, and at the same moment the crew-cut man reached out a hand without even turning his head. Fire spread along the shelves and shot at the zombie as if gasoline had been splashed on it, the next second the zombie toppled, splashing water, and only then did the flames die out.
Bu Lai and Zhang Bing watched it all in disbelief. The whole thing was so unreasonable and yet so reasonable, horrifying, freakish zombies, and a human who could combust without fire. No, maybe he could no longer be called human.
The crew-cut man scoffed. Seeing them stunned speechless, his vanity flared again, and he drawled smugly out of the corner of his mouth, “No idea what you’re looking at, do you, you pack of dumb humans? Only the excellent get chosen by heaven, and people like you, naturally, are the ones to be weeded out.”
He picked up a packet of food beside him, and the next second it crumbled to ash in his hand. He scattered the ash over the water to drive the two of them off.
Bu Lai and Zhang Bing seethed. They hadn’t gotten any food, they’d lost people, and now they were being chased off. But the world was exactly this unreasonable, and they still had no idea how the man had done it.
“Those two, how laughable. They thought a gun would beat a zombie. Pathetic.”
“Didn’t they come in as a group of five? Down to two now, hahaha, so weak.” The mocking laughter drifted over faintly, and Zhang Bing’s grip on his gun grew tighter and tighter.
Lin Qiu had only stepped out to wash a few dishes, when she came back to the living room meaning to gather up the laundry, the man in the bed had already woken. Her hand, shaking off the water, went still. Standing in the doorway, she met the eyes of the man on the bed.
Asleep, he had radiated nothing but cold, awake, the chill was even stronger. Those silver-grey eyes were like a wolf’s, a wolf that had walked out of some frozen northern wilderness. His features had a sharp edge, and when his brows drew together his presence sharpened with them.
After holding his gaze a while, Lin Qiu quietly looked away and said softly, “Are you… wearing colored contacts?”
She regretted it the moment it was out. Light City was home to many human types, humanity had been multiplying for hundreds of millions of years, and the blending of these types had bred all sorts of different genes.
Changes in eye color and constitution were tied to that. Back when she still went out, Lin Qiu had often seen green eyes and blue eyes, but this silver-grey was a first.
Maybe he wasn’t from Light City after all.
“No.” A hoarse voice answered her question. Caught off guard, Lin Qiu looked up and met his eyes again, not knowing what to do with her hands or feet, until at last she gave up, turned, and said in a rush, “Wait here a moment, I’ll get you some water.”
Lin Qiu was afraid of dealing with people, it was why she’d stayed indoors for years. Handing the water to the man in front of her, she stood as far back as she could. In her field of view, a hand full of strength took the cup, the cup that looked a little big in Lin Qiu’s hands shrank to a mini version in his.
Would that be enough water? He looked like he could really put it away.
“Thanks.” His throat, soothed by the water, had a cool, clear quality to it. Once again Lin Qiu’s attention was drawn to that hand, its joints well-defined, the veins standing out. She took the cup back, thinking she ought to explain after all.
“This is my home. You collapsed at my door, so I just brought you in. You’d been running a fever for about five days, in that time all I did was give you some fever medicine and cool you with ice packs, nothing else.”
She quickly ran through everything that had happened over the past few days, then carried the cup back to the kitchen. The moment she turned around, the man who’d been sitting on the bed was already standing in the living room.
Lin Qiu’s gaze traveled up from his legs. Loose as the cargo pants were, you could still tell his legs were long, the black shell jacket hung in messy creases, Lin Qiu would be far too embarrassed to take a man’s clothes off. The zipper was pulled all the way to the top, exposing a small part of his Adam’s apple, and then the knife-cut jaw, the thin lips, the high bridge of his nose, and those cold, cold eyes.
He really was tall, Lin Qiu had to tip her head back to take all of him in.
References[+]