“In an Instant, the Soldier Became a Mummified Corpse…”
“Teacher, drive through them!”
Staring at the horrifying scene before him, Tong Yang froze, unable to react.
His limbs had gone weak.
Just then, a calm but forceful shout rang out beside him.
Like a drowning man grabbing onto a piece of driftwood, he instinctively followed that voice and slammed his foot on the accelerator.
Crunch.
Crunch.
The tires rolled over one body after another.
Amid the continuous jolting of the car came the unmistakable sound of flesh bursting beneath the tremendous force.
“Ugh…”
Yu Wan and Tong Yu both turned deathly pale at the gruesome sight and bent over, retching.
Wendy twisted around, her eyes fixed on the road behind them.
Although the speeding car had already broken through the encirclement and was rapidly pulling away, she could clearly see that the fish-scale patients they had just run over…
…were moving again.
And…
A few of them had already begun crawling in their direction.
“Teacher, don’t slow down!”
Following Wendy’s warning, Tong Yang glanced into the rearview mirror and spotted several rapidly approaching black figures.
It seemed they had fixated on the four of them.
They pursued the car relentlessly.
“They…” Tong Yu asked weakly, her face pale as paper. “They aren’t human anymore… are they?”
Their worst fear had come true.
“If Tong Yu and Wendy hadn’t come home today…” Yu Wan said with a trembling voice, “…I would probably still be at the hospital.”
She pulled Tong Yu tightly into her arms, unable to stop shaking.
“Teacher.”
Wendy leaned toward the driver’s seat.
“The shelter will close in less than three hours. From now on, no matter whether it’s a red light or the police trying to stop us—no matter what happens—don’t stop the car.”
“All right. I understand.”
Tong Yang took several deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down.
Through the rearview mirror, he noticed Wendy still watching the road behind them.
As if sensing his gaze, she turned around.
Their eyes met briefly in the mirror.
He smiled awkwardly before quickly looking away.
He had noticed this student’s extraordinary intelligence ever since he first began sponsoring her education.
As they spent more time together, he discovered that her learning ability, observational skills, judgment, and decisiveness were all exceptional.
But during what had just happened…
Even the two adults had been unable to remain calm enough to accurately assess the situation.
Yet Wendy—a girl who had only just reached adulthood—had remained so composed that she had guided them through the crisis instead.
It was as though…
The horrifying fish-scale patients had no effect on her whatsoever.
She wasn’t nervous.
She wasn’t worried.
She wasn’t afraid.
She didn’t panic.
Maybe I’m overthinking it.
Tong Yang shook his head and focused on driving.
Thanks to the car’s speed, the pursuing fish-scale patients gradually disappeared from sight.
But no one knew whether they were still following.
Not one of them dared stop.
Along the way, police cars and fire engines sped past with sirens blaring, their wails echoing across the city.
The streets of the western district still held a scattering of ordinary citizens.
Some had just finished dinner and were taking an evening walk.
Others carried grocery bags on their way home.
Completely unaware of what had happened, they simply looked curiously toward the eastern district.
“Will they die?”
Tong Yu stared out the window at the pedestrians.
“When those fish-scale patients crawl over here…”
Tong Yang and Yu Wan fell silent.
If they could, they wanted to warn everyone to run.
But at this moment…
They could barely save themselves.
How could they possibly save anyone else?
The car sped onward.
After an unknown amount of time, they finally left the urban center.
As man-made buildings gradually gave way to nature, the vehicle entered a lush avenue lined with towering plane trees on both sides.
Kangsong Road.
Once they reached Kangsong Road, they were one step closer to the shelter.
The tension everyone had been carrying finally eased a little.
Smiles of relief appeared on Tong Yang’s and Yu Wan’s faces.
Then…
The car’s interior warning light suddenly turned red.
A shrill alarm sounded.
Only 10% battery remaining.
The battery would soon be depleted.
The electric vehicle hadn’t been driven for years.
Something was likely wrong with the power battery, causing it to drain far faster than normal.
Everyone had been too tense to notice how quickly the charge had been dropping.
“We’re still fifteen kilometers from the shelter.”
Looking at the navigation on her phone, Yu Wan frowned deeply.
“The remaining battery won’t get us that far.”
“We have to stop and recharge.”
There was a charging station on Kangsong Road.
Unfortunately…
The nearest one was still several kilometers away.
Given their remaining battery…
They might not even make it.
And in the current situation…
Stopping to recharge carried unpredictable risks.
Time until shelter closure: 2 hours, 14 minutes, 23 seconds.
The steadily shrinking countdown…
Combined with the rapidly falling battery level…
Made it hard for everyone to breathe.
If they failed to reach the next charging station before the battery died…
They would lose their only means of transportation.
Fortunately…
After driving another two and a half kilometers…
Just before the battery was completely exhausted…
They finally reached the charging station.
Tong Yang pulled the car into one of the charging bays.
Tong Yu bit her lip uneasily.
“I…”
“I kind of need to use the restroom.”
She had drunk a large cup of black coffee before her morning class.
Coffee greatly increased metabolism.
Although she’d already gone before leaving home…
Her bladder was beginning to protest again.
She had endured it during the dangerous journey.
But now…
With the service area’s restroom only a short distance away…
She couldn’t hold it any longer.
At first, Yu Wan and Tong Yang didn’t think much of it.
But after hearing their daughter mention it, perhaps because of suggestion…
They also suddenly felt the urge.
Charging the car would take at least ten minutes.
Who knew how much longer they’d be delayed afterward?
After a brief discussion, everyone wrapped themselves up tightly once again, gripped their kitchen knives firmly, and got out of the car.
Wendy, Yu Wan, and Tong Yu entered the women’s restroom together.
None of them expected anyone else to be inside.
Likewise, the people inside hadn’t expected anyone to come in.
Both sides were startled.
Standing by the sinks was a mother and daughter.
The girl looked about thirteen or fourteen years old.
She appeared sickly.
One nostril was plugged with tissue, apparently to stop a nosebleed.
Beside her stood a woman in her forties, anxiously pressing a wet towel against the girl’s forehead.
Wendy caught a faint smell…
Of raw fish.
The mother looked as though she wanted to say something.
But Yu Wan quickly ushered Wendy and Tong Yu into the restroom stalls.
None of the three said a word.
They finished as quickly as possible before leaving.
As they walked out…
The young girl was still standing before the sink, covering her face.
Blood from her nose had filled nearly half the basin.
Back in the car, Tong Yang immediately started the engine.
Yu Wan quickly grabbed a bottle of disinfectant alcohol spray and thoroughly sprayed all four of them before finally letting out a long breath.
“Mom…”
Tong Yu asked cautiously.
“Was there something wrong with that girl?”
Yu Wan’s brow remained tightly furrowed.
“The earliest symptoms shown by the fish-scale patients admitted to the emergency department were high fever and persistent nosebleeds.”
“Many of them originally came to the ENT department because their fevers wouldn’t go down and their nosebleeds wouldn’t stop.”
“Then, while waiting for their number to be called…”
“They suddenly collapsed…”
“And fish scales began growing all over their bodies.”
“After that, they were immediately transferred to the emergency department and isolated.”
“You ran into fish-scale patients?”
Tong Yang finally realized what had happened.
His face changed dramatically as he looked anxiously between his wife and the two girls in the back seat.
“Were you properly protected?”
“Don’t worry.”
Yu Wan’s complexion remained pale, probably because she’d remembered the horror at the central roundabout.
“As far as we currently know, the only confirmed method of infection is eating the dead sea fish that washed ashore recently.”
“The hospital’s research before everything collapsed found no evidence of airborne transmission.”
“That girl’s symptoms looked similar…”
“But I don’t know if it was the same illness.”
Their protective measures had been thorough.
They hadn’t spoken to the mother or daughter.
They hadn’t made any physical contact.
They had disinfected themselves immediately afterward.
Every known risk had been eliminated.
Listening quietly from the back seat, Wendy lowered her long eyelashes, concealing the thoughts in her eyes.
If it isn’t airborne…
Then how did the hospital fall?
She couldn’t help recalling one of the zombie movies Tong Yu had once made her watch.
Was it transmitted through bites… through blood?
Compared to zombies, these fish-scale patients appeared to retain a tiny fragment of intelligence…
Not much.
Perhaps the level of a three-year-old child.
They crawled on all fours.
They moved surprisingly fast.
After being attacked, they locked onto their target and gave chase.
Fundamentally…
They were nothing more than mindless monsters.
If she wanted to kill them…
Would the same methods used against zombies work?
Just as she was lost in thought—
A deafening explosion ripped through the sky.
Even inside the car, the four of them felt the ground tremble three times.
Turning around…
They saw towering flames erupting from Linjiang City’s urban district in the distance.
The three members of the Tong family’s pupils contracted sharply.
They covered their mouths in disbelief.
Tong Yang’s and Yu Wan’s eyes widened.
Their bodies trembled.
Their hands and feet turned ice-cold.
It was the place they had lived for decades.
Their relatives…
Friends…
Colleagues…
Classmates…
Were all still in that city.
Only a few hours earlier…
They had prepared a table full of delicious food at home while waiting for the two girls to return.
Barely half an hour ago…
They had driven through those same streets, passing countless pedestrians enjoying what looked like an ordinary afternoon.
If any part of them still believed all this was unreal…
Still clung to some impossible hope…
That single explosion shattered every last illusion.
There was no going back.
The apocalypse came roaring like a monstrous beast.
It tore reality apart.
With irresistible force…
It drove them to the very edge of despair.
No one spoke for the rest of the journey.
More than twenty minutes later…
A vast winery came into view.
Several massive armored vehicles blocked the road ahead.
Seeing their car approach, over a dozen soldiers carrying rifles quickly ran toward them.
Tong Yang brought the car to a stop.
All four got out.
As they stepped out, Tong Yang and Yu Wan exchanged a glance.
Without a word, the two adults positioned themselves protectively around the girls.
“Hello.”
The officer in command saluted them.
“Congratulations on safely arriving at Evacuation Shelter No. 003.”
“Please line up over here for identity verification.”
Upon hearing the words “identity verification,” Tong Yang and Yu Wan both tensed.
Pretending to remain calm, they escorted the two girls into the security perimeter formed by the armored vehicles.
There were already more than a dozen people waiting in line inside.
Some had come alone, while others had arrived as entire families.
The winery’s iron gates were heavily guarded by fully armed soldiers carrying rifles.
The evacuees stood in four separate lines, moving forward one by one.
Wendy noticed that the soldiers were holding devices unlike anything she had ever seen.
After their identities were verified with the instruments, each person entered a capsule-like chamber for a full-body scan.
Only those who passed every inspection were allowed through the winery gates and escorted underground.
When the newcomers arrived, many of those waiting in line turned to look at them.
The four of them were wrapped up so thoroughly that only the fully armed soldiers were dressed more heavily.
On top of that, each of them carried a kitchen knife.
Their unusual appearance immediately attracted everyone’s attention.
“Hey, sis, are those both your daughters?”
A woman several years older than Yu Wan stepped over to strike up a conversation.
“You’ve wrapped yourselves up awfully tightly. Did you know in advance about those people growing fish scales? Have you run into them already?”
Not wanting to invite unnecessary trouble by talking too much, Yu Wan merely nodded politely without answering.
Seeing she couldn’t get any information out of her, the woman turned away in disappointment.
“Wendy, when it’s our turn, I’ll go first.”
Tong Yang gathered the four of them into a tight circle and typed a message on his phone before holding it up for Wendy to read.
“I’ll pretend something goes wrong and that I’m trapped inside the scanning chamber. Your teacher’s wife and Tong Yu will distract them. While everyone’s attention is elsewhere, quietly follow the two of them inside.”
Yu Wan immediately typed on her own phone.
“Do you really think that’ll work?”
Tong Yang paused before typing again.
“We’ll try first. If it doesn’t work…”
Several seconds later, another line appeared.
“If it really comes to that, I’ll throw away my pride and get on my knees to beg them. There are so few people here. Surely they can save one more young girl. They’ve already made it this far—how could they just stand by and watch someone die?”
Yu Wan added:
“We’ll beg them together. If money is what it takes, we’ll pay whatever they ask. As long as Wendy can come with us.”
Looking at the words on the screen, Wendy felt something unfamiliar stir deep inside her.
She had been emotionally detached since birth.
She had never felt a sense of belonging anywhere.
Nor had she ever invested much emotion in the people around her.
She hadn’t wanted to spend her entire life trapped in that tiny orphanage.
So she had deliberately attracted the attention of an educational inspection team that had visited the county middle school.
She became one of the students selected for sponsorship.
That allowed her to break through the barriers of her social class and continue high school in the provincial capital.
She wanted to stand above others.
She wanted to become someone in a position of leadership.
To achieve that, she needed good relationships and people who admired her.
So she had deliberately chosen Tong Yu—a girl from a wealthy family with a simple, trusting personality—as her best friend.
Ordinary people were expected to have close friends.
Tong Yu was her disguise.
She was also Wendy’s key to entering the school’s social circles.
The Tong family could provide her with opportunities and resources.
So Wendy had intentionally shown vulnerability to earn her teacher’s and his wife’s sympathy, securing a more stable source of support.
At the same time, her own outstanding achievements had enhanced Tong Yang’s professional reputation.
And through Wendy’s tutoring, Tong Yu had successfully been admitted to Huaijiang University.
She had always believed it was nothing more than an exchange of mutual benefit.
She had never imagined…
…that her teacher and his wife would be willing to go this far for her.
“…Okay.”
Nestled within the embrace of the three of them, Wendy answered softly.
For the first time in her life…
She cherished the warmth of that embrace without any ulterior motive.
At the same time, she quietly considered how she would leave later.
The Tong family couldn’t see it…
But she could clearly make out the extraordinarily tight security measures throughout the winery.
Since they genuinely cared for her…
She would never allow them to risk their lives for her.
The line slowly advanced.
As their turn drew near, Tong Yang, Yu Wan, and Tong Yu all grew increasingly nervous.
Just then—
A loud argument erupted outside the armored vehicle perimeter.
“Why not?! My daughter just has a fever! She’s not one of those fish-scale patients you people keep talking about!”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying! My daughter is fine! Let us in! We received an evacuation notice from the Ministry of National Security! Let us through!”
Hearing the commotion outside, people in line immediately began whispering among themselves.
Some craned their necks, trying to see what was happening.
The commanding officer gave a hand signal.
A squad of soldiers immediately jogged out beyond the defensive perimeter.
Daughter.
Fever.
Wendy tightened her grip on the knife in her hand.
She turned her head.
Yu Wan and Tong Yu had obviously realized the same thing.
Yu Wan leaned close to Tong Yang and quietly described the mother and daughter they had encountered at the charging station.
Wendy closed her eyes, concentrating on the sounds coming from beyond the defensive line.
The argument continued.
Someone opened a car door.
Low voices conducted an inspection.
Then—
A shrill scream erupted.
It was followed almost immediately by chaotic gunfire.
The scout stationed atop one of the armored vehicles had just lifted his radio to report the situation—
When a translucent tentacle-like appendage suddenly shot upward, wrapped around him, and yanked him off the vehicle.
A single agonized scream echoed through the air.
Then…
Silence.
“Defensive positions!”
The officer, already watching the situation outside the perimeter, immediately shouted the order.
The fully armed soldiers instantly surrounded the civilians waiting in line, raising their rifles and aiming beyond the armored vehicle barricade.
“I’m… so thirsty…”
“Still… so thirsty…”
In the deathly silence, a humanoid creature completely covered in fish scales leaped onto the roof of an armored vehicle.
Despite being drenched in blood, it was still possible to recognize it as a girl of about thirteen or fourteen years old.
The instant it landed—
A hail of bullets struck it simultaneously.
The tremendous impact blasted the creature off the vehicle.
Before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief…
The next second…
It was standing on the roof once more.
A bullet hole pierced straight through its head.
Slowly…
Its neck twisted.
Ninety degrees.
Its eyes locked onto the soldier standing at the far left.
“So thirsty…”
“…Need water…”
The words had barely left its mouth…
When an enormous, monstrous proboscis shot forward and plunged into the soldier’s body.
In the blink of an eye…
The soldier was reduced to a dried, mummified corpse.