In Chen Yunhao’s life, too many “first times” happened on this rainy night.
This was the first time he had ever seen a Tibetan mastiff in real life—it looked like a black-maned lion.
By visual estimate, the dog stood about 70 cm at the shoulder, a little over one meter in body length. It was heavily overweight from overfeeding, weighing roughly 75 kilograms—about the same as him. It didn’t look very agile.
What should he do? Fight, or run?
Chen Yunhao nervously swallowed, not daring to make a sound. With trembling fingers, he wrote on Qin Liangyu’s body.
Their stopping point just happened to be under a large camphor tree with a strong smell. The rain continued, thunder faintly rolled, and both scent and sound were disrupted. The infected native dog and Tibetan mastiff were still sniffing and growling, not immediately detecting their target.
Before Qin Liangyu could respond, Zhang Fei, who was following on an electric bike, had already caught up.
From her angle, she couldn’t see the two large dogs. The electric bike made very little noise—unlike the motorcycle that had just alerted the infected animals—so she hadn’t noticed anything wrong and asked in confusion:
“Why aren’t we moving?”
The moment she spoke, both the native dog and the mastiff roared and charged!
Zhang Fei froze for a second, realizing she had been careless.
A native dog can sprint up to 60 km/h in a short burst, while a Tibetan mastiff at high altitude can reach 80 km/h!
Fortunately, the “zombie” native dog only had three legs, and the mastiff, not being on the plateau, would drop to around 50 km/h—
Still not good at all!!! Two hundred meters would be covered in just over ten seconds!!!
Qin Liangyu turned the motorcycle around and slammed the throttle, preparing to flee. Beside him, Zhang Fei narrowed her eyes, grabbed a sharp steel pipe, and charged forward like a bolt of lightning!
“Cousin, you’re Zhang Fei, not Zhang Fei the war general!”
Chen Yunhao and Qin Liangyu silently screamed in their minds. The “two unlucky brothers” had no choice but to charge as well.
They couldn’t just watch their underage cousin fight 1v2 against infected dogs.
Chen Yunhao tightened his grip on the riot fork, adrenaline surging again.
Zhang Fei rushed forward quickly, but Qin Liangyu’s motorcycle was faster than the electric bike. Chen Yunhao thrust his riot fork straight at the charging Tibetan mastiff.
Using the momentum of the head-on collision, the roar of the engine, Qin Liangyu’s precise control, and the infected dog’s lack of intelligence—plus the mastiff’s sluggishness from overfeeding—Chen Yunhao managed to drive the fork into its neck at the perfect angle.
At the peak of his life, he flipped over a Tibetan mastiff of equal weight.
The impact twisted his body, nearly throwing him off the bike. Luckily, Qin Liangyu turned the motorcycle and reached back in time to steady him.
Falling onto concrete would have been brutal—possibly even breaking bones.
At the same moment, Zhang Fei, riding her electric bike like a warhorse, gripped the handlebar with her right hand and a steel pipe with her left. Without hesitation, she drove the sharp end straight into the infected native dog, skewering it and slamming it to the ground.
Without pausing, she jumped off the bike, rushed forward, and stabbed the steel pipe into the fallen mastiff’s neck.
But the mastiff’s thick fat and skin prevented a clean kill. It twisted violently, dragging Zhang Fei around with it.
Chen Yunhao jumped off the motorcycle and rushed in with the fork. He suddenly wished he had his grandfather’s spear—the riot fork had too little killing power. A long, sharp spear would have been far better.
Now experienced from repeated desperate encounters, Chen Yunhao drove the fork forward with full strength.
Meanwhile, Qin Liangyu used the motorcycle as a weapon, carefully lifting his foot to avoid being bitten, and crushed the already-impaled dog’s neck with the wheels. A crack sounded—the native dog stopped moving.
He then reversed and rammed into the struggling mastiff, slamming it hard into the wall of a house.
When Deputy Township Chief Zhang arrived in an off-road vehicle, Chen Yunhao and Qin Liangyu were already working together to restrain the snarling infected mastiff using the roaring motorcycle and a bent riot fork.
Zhang Fei delivered another powerful stab, then pulled the steel pipe out—the tip was already slightly bent.
The reckless teenage trio stood panting in the rain, exhausted.
Deputy Township Chief Zhang rushed out of the car, face pale, pointing at Chen Yunhao, his hand trembling—but he couldn’t speak.
Chen Yunhao, confused, suddenly felt a strange numbness and instinctively looked toward the shadowed doorway ahead.
There were no dogs inside anymore.
In the doorway’s shadow stood a woman with long wet hair, completely soaked. Her eyes glowed a fluorescent red. Under the lightning, her strap dress showed layered blood stains, and her abdomen looked slightly swollen.
She was holding something in both hands, biting into it in a mutilated, fragmented way.
Alarm bells rang in Chen Yunhao’s mind. Somehow, she felt strangely familiar.
Deputy Township Chief Zhang followed his gaze and was shocked.
Inside the vehicles, three men got out with farm tools—pitchforks, shovels, wood-chopping knives. Aunt Qin carried her grandfather’s spear.
The woman’s red eyes narrowed slightly, then she retreated into the darkness.
Chen Yunhao frowned.
“This infected one… does it have intelligence? It can hide?”
Zhang Fei immediately said, “Capture her! For research!”
Deputy Township Chief Zhang gritted his teeth and called out first:
“Miss! Don’t be afraid, we’re from the township government! Are you injured? Do you need us to take you to the clinic?”
Zhang Fei was about to rush forward, but Qin Liangyu grabbed her quickly.
“Don’t go, she—”
Too strange.
In those few seconds, the woman had already climbed up the wall like a gecko, moving on all fours into the second floor.
That speed, that movement—no ordinary human could catch up.
Zhang Fei silently stepped back, as if shocked, and went to steady her electric bike.
Chen Yunhao suddenly realized something was wrong.
“Xiaoyu, didn’t you say there were over twenty dogs? We’ve been here so long—why haven’t any other infected dogs or people come out?”
Qin Liangyu blinked. “Uh… then, should we be more careful?”
Deputy Township Chief Zhang quickly gathered everyone together.
Zhang Fei pointed toward a three-story villa with orange-lit windows ahead—it was Dong Zhuo’s cousin’s house.
The group formed a defensive formation and moved forward together.
After what they had just seen, Zhang Fei was no longer reckless.
They reached the building. Qin Liangyu knocked on the door:
“Aunt! Uncle! Zhuo’er! Open the door! It’s me, Qin Liangyu!”
After a while, a window on the third floor finally opened.
A bright beam of light swept out. A tall, strong silhouette appeared.
Dong Zhuo used a high-powered flashlight to illuminate the road. After recognizing Qin Liangyu, she immediately turned it off.
Soon, they were allowed inside.
The ground floor was in complete disarray. Seven bodies lay on the floor.
Without hesitation, Zhang Fei used her steel pipe to inspect them. All were infected, and all had been finished off with head strikes.
She relaxed and ran upstairs.
Deputy Township Chief Zhang sighed silently. The villagers behind them were stunned.
“My god… did they kill people?”
“Those… might not even count as people anymore!”
“Is this self-defense?”
“It has to be! Otherwise you get bitten and turn into one of those monsters!”
“No choice then. Gotta go all out. No time for family ties.”
“I’d rather go to jail than end up buried.”
Aunt Qin followed them upstairs. Chen Yunhao stayed behind with Deputy Township Chief Zhang.
Despite everything he had seen tonight, the pile of bodies still shook him deeply.
“I’m a bit scared,” he said.
Deputy Township Chief Zhang also felt mentally overwhelmed, but he still patted him on the shoulder.
“I think you’ve been very brave.”
After all, just earlier, the three teenagers had killed a Tibetan mastiff.
Chen Yunhao felt a bit better, but then hesitantly said:
“But… I don’t dare kill people.”
Deputy Township Chief Zhang: “……”
Young people… that part isn’t actually required.
They hurried upstairs. Each floor had a separate security door, and they reached the third floor.
Inside, Aunt Qin was hugging her sister. Qin Liangyu and Zhang Fei were talking to a tall girl, while a muscular bearded man stood in the center holding a long metal clamp used for vaccinating dogs.
Deputy Township Chief Zhang finally reacted.
“Dr. Dong! This is your home!”
He turned to introduce her:
“This is Dong Jianhong, the veterinarian who works with our township’s animal husbandry station.”
Doctor Dong breathed a sigh of relief.
“Deputy Zhang! Thank goodness you’re here—are you here to rescue us? The phones aren’t working, we were terrified…”
“What about the bodies downstairs?” Deputy Zhang asked immediately.
Dr. Dong’s expression turned serious.
“It’s like this…”
In this small residential area, one household kept a large number of dogs—nearly thirty in total, all different breeds.
In the middle of the night, that family rushed over, saying their dogs had gone mad—breaking chains, smashing cages, attacking each other, and even injuring them.
Dr. Dong normally treated livestock and pets, but with so many large dogs and even a Tibetan mastiff, he didn’t dare go alone. He kept the family there, disinfected and treated their wounds first.
He also suspected rabies and knew he should report it to the township government, police station, clinic, and agriculture bureau—but the phones were not working.
The family demanded rabies vaccines.
Dr. Dong had them—but only for animals. Humans couldn’t use them.
“Dogs can use it, so humans can too! Just give me a shot!” the man insisted stubbornly.
Doctor Dong was getting a headache.
“No! You all must go to the clinic! Rabies—if you get vaccinated within 24 hours it’s still effective. If it’s confirmed to be a rabid dog bite, you can also go to the county hospital for human immunoglobulin.”
The female owner looked at the thunderstorm outside and felt it was unsafe to drive mountain roads at night, so she refused to leave immediately.
The male owner kept arguing for a long time. Doctor Dong still refused to give him animal vaccines, which finally made Dong Zhuo—Doctor Dong’s hot-tempered daughter—storm out with a dark face, carrying the family heirloom red-tasseled spear and kicking over a stool. Only then did the man reluctantly give up.
With no other choice, Doctor Dong took some ointment he had researched himself based on ancient medical texts—something of uncertain effectiveness—and applied it to the childless couple.
Then he arranged for them to stay in a room on the second floor.
After thinking it over, Doctor Dong grew uneasy about the safety of the surrounding neighbors. Wearing a raincoat and carrying dog-catching tools, he went out to check whether this was really a rabies outbreak.
Dong Zhuo followed him out with her red-tasseled spear.
It was fortunate that she went along. When Doctor Dong arrived at that couple’s yard, he didn’t see any living dogs—but when he came out, he ran into crazed people instead.
Several people chased after him. Neighbors who were once familiar now had ferocious, distorted faces, red eyes, bluish skin, and howled like demons.
Fortunately, Dong Zhuo’s spear was long enough to keep the first few of them at bay.
In this cluster of a dozen or so households, not every home had walls or gates. Most only had low fences or decorative courtyard gardens. Many people were awakened—some were bitten by dogs, some were bitten by people—and everything descended into chaos.
The father and daughter both had tools and fought while retreating…
……
“…It was chaotic. I can’t really remember clearly anymore…” Doctor Dong continued. “On the second floor of my house, nine injured villagers are being housed. On the third floor, more than ten uninjured women and children are staying. Deputy Zhang, what should we do now?”
Doctor Dong did not go into detail about what happened to the bodies downstairs. He only said it was dark, the power was out, they couldn’t see clearly, and everything was chaos—everyone was just trying to defend themselves.
In short, this was the situation.
Deputy Township Chief Zhang: “……”
Yes. It was too dark to see clearly, and he had neither the ability nor the means to figure out exactly what had happened. The priority right now was not that.
The urgent question was:
“How long has this been going on? What is the condition of the injured on the second floor? Have any of them mutated?”
Township Health Center
After the special police team left, support personnel from two nearby townships gradually arrived.
Although there weren’t many of them and they were a bit late, at least seven additional staff members were added, and the hospital director was moved to tears of relief.
He briefed everyone on the current situation and said that the makeshift quarantine facility was mostly ready. They needed to go observe the infected patients first and must be extremely careful.
Most of the medical staff from neighboring townships already knew each other. Seeing the deputy director and Dr. Xiao Tang, many of them felt a deep sense of distress.
Everyone immediately began reinforcing their protective gear as much as possible.
Just as they finished their briefing, the long-awaited county-level health emergency medical rescue team finally arrived.
Doctors and nurses poured out of the vehicles and immediately began unloading vaccines, medications, reagents, and equipment.
The deputy director of the Health Bureau and the director of the CDC naturally went to meet the hospital director first. The director had no choice but to repeat everything that had happened over the past two hours.
The county officials were shocked and immediately went to examine the infected deputy director—he was the most securely restrained and the least dangerous.
Ceng Meiling and Sister Xia worked alongside everyone. She saw Fan Xiaoqiu, and the two greeted each other briefly.
Fan Xiaoqiu matched her name—slender build, thin eyebrows, sharp chin—but she was not weak; nursing was physically demanding work.
Ceng Meiling was different: round eyes, square face, and a strong, muscular build developed from years of turning workplace frustration into gym training. Emergency medicine was not just a physical job.
The two had met in a medical system speech competition. Both confidently participated, both were eliminated, and they became friends while complaining backstage.
Unexpectedly reunited here, Fan Xiaoqiu quickly reminded her:
“In any case, don’t get scratched or bitten!”
Ceng Meiling nodded, then looked at the rain outside with a frown.
“Did you hear something?”
Fan Xiaoqiu, already emotionally exhausted and nearly at breaking point, widened her eyes in frustration:
“Don’t suddenly say things like that! I can’t take any more scares tonight! I’m a survivor who escaped the outbreak zone! If you scare me again, I’ll faint right here!”
But Ceng Meiling’s heartbeat was already speeding up. She grabbed Fan Xiaoqiu and asked urgently:
“If… then where can we still escape to?”
Fan Xiaoqiu blanked for a moment. Where did those special police officers who were handling the infected patients go again?
Right—was it… the township government?
Before she could finish the thought—
She also heard it.
A rapid “tat-tat-tat” sound.
She pulled out the small flashlight on her chest and shone it outside.
Dozens of red-eyed infected dogs were charging straight into the courtyard of the health center!