Chapter 3 (1/2)
Chapter 03
“I'm surnamed Zhou, with Rong from military weapon, not Rong from meimei Huang Rong.[1]“
“We have been squatting in this unfortunate T City for more than half a month, we haven't even touched a penny of our working subsidy, our bullets and forage are almost depleted as well. In this chaostic situation, even refueling cars were done sneakily as though we were thieves.”
“How do you think this virus broke out, is it a variant of rabies virus, or was this some kind of genetic attack by U.S. imperialists and those western super powers? I watched the news broadcast a few days ago, but last night even TV's signal and radio's shortwave were gone, it's unfortunate because I've been following the “People's City Management Team” and “People’s Broadcasting Office” for most of the year without break. But the most unfortunate thing is…”
. Zhou Rong lit his cigarrattes, took a deep breath of smoke, and looked back only to see nervous looks on his members's faces. The car's side windows were open and the wind came whistling inside.
“Go… Gone,” one of the younger members said: ”He just jumped out of the window …
“When did he leave?”
“When you talked about news broadcast. ”
Zhou Rong fell silent for a moment, before saying in regret: “That's unfortunate, I want to show him the eight season of People’s Development and Reform Commission.”
The zombie tide was lured to the southeast so now there were only about 10 living-deads wandering the streets. The young man rolled over on the ground, stood up, walked a few steps to the corner of the street, then dodged into a messy, big pharmacy.
The incandescent lamp flashed over his head. The walls were full of spattered blood, and several mutilated, crushed bodies laid across the gla.s.s counter, showing just how scary the situation was when the virus first broke out.
With the growing appeal of ethnic and gender equality, the ban for Omega's inhibitors had been lifted in many countries, but it was still a tightly controlled prescription drugs. The young man positioned the carbine in front of his body, bypa.s.sed the corpse on the counter, then used the b.u.t.t of the carbine to smash the gla.s.s cabinet. He let out a relieved breath when he saw the familiar injection, he quickly dismantled the packaging and administered the content into his arm's veins.
The pharmacy was probably had been hijacked several times, but it still has some remnants of supplies, protein powder, nuts, energy drinks and so on. He picked up a b.l.o.o.d.y saincloth knapsack from one of the bodies and swept all that remnants into it, at the same time noticing that he had also gained two containers of purified water.
After finis.h.i.+ng, he looked up and saw himself through the broken mirror at the counter.
He was wearing the motorcycle helmet, with a jacket full of rust, jeans which had long lost its original color, and a pair of high-top ankle boots full of dried rotten meat.
Suddenly he noticed something; he pulled his jacket's zipper a little, and took out a pendant from under his collar.
It was an ordinary pocket-watch sized round bra.s.s case. He opened it and found an old picture inside, pressed under a flake of crystal.
A young couple were smiling at their five or six-year-old son. The wife was Caucasian, with linen-like hair and amber colored eyes, her beauty was visible even through the limited photographic technique from many years ago. The husband on the other hand was a completely oriental person, his appearance was clear and elegant if not a little bookish, with an extremely familiar face.
–his own face.
The young man closed his eyes and gasped for breath. A few broken images flashed in his mind: a rapidly shaking cabin, people screaming, corpses, a burst of flying ammunition cases, and a very brief image of a silver suitcase.
Then the focus of those images changed, becoming those of a cold, grey-skied early morning. Military boots treading across gra.s.s roots and dew, and a scolding voice sounded in each soldier’s eardrum:
”…… there is no tomorrow, no hope. Never wait for a rescue, any mistakes and you are doomed...”
“You will be the last if the few living men on this earth, the last hope to fight against the dead!…..”
The young man subconsciously shook his head, he wanted to rub the eyebrows, but his hands were met with the hard surface of the helmet.
”Be careful! ”
A huge force suddenly hit the young man on his side, making him fell to the ground with a resounding crash. The young man instinctively took hold of his attacker’s neck just as the sound of deafening gunshots filled the room a moment later!
A rain of fast bullets. .h.i.t the warehouse's door at the corner, and soon after, a few living-deads fell out of the door to the ground, their bodies twitched for a short moment before finally turning into a pile of unmoving flesh and blood.
Zhou Rong put down his gun, pulled out the cigarette in his mouth, and stepped on it: “Are you two okay?”
The young man pushed away his “sneak attacker” and turned to sit, holding two fingers between his eyebrows to quench his spliting headache.
“h.e.l.lo, we saw the zombies pus.h.i.+ng on the warehouse's door when we came in…” Yan Hao got up and spread out his palm to the young man sitting on the ground. The latter accepted his hand, leveraging on him to stand up, then took off his motorcycle's helmet: “Thank you.”
Yan Hao: “…”
Yan Hao stared at his handsome face; despite his instinct to conceal his feelings, the flush on his white face made it very obvious. He coughed awkwardly: “Nothing … It’s okay. ”
Zhou Rong found this quite interesting. He stroked his chin, smiled and asked: “Xiao Ge[1], come eat with us?”
– If there was a top ten worst pick-up line list at the end of the world, this must be the top one.
The young man did not answer and instead went to pick up his backpack and slung it over his right shoulder. He also carried the carbine he had previously stolen from Yan Hao, and walked past the two other men to head towards the door.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Rong grabbed his shoulder: “This …”
“Are you following me?”
The two men looked at each other froma very close distance- an invisible string of tension seemed to be tightening inside the messy pharmacy. After a long while, Zhou Rong finally smiled modestly: “What are you saying, my feelings are hurt…”
”…… clearly I am someone who is responsible for the safety of people’s life and property.”
The young man took another careful look at Zhou Rong and felt that he may have made a mistake. This person should not be a member of the local army, but a former soldier who now resorted to stealing after being expelled from the military.
“Don’t look at me like that, come with us, no one’s going to hit you for those two packs of cookies.” Zhou Rong said, flicking a piece of minced meat off the young man's shoulder without the slightest disgust, he continued: “We have to go to the downtown's shelter to meet with my other teammates, After combining the groups, we'll launch a positioning signal to notify the local government to send helicopters to pick us up– T City will be cleaned with nuclear tomorrow. Here, this is my ID.”
With his blood-stained finger gloves, Zhou Rong gingerly took out a cowhide envelope from under his vest. The young man opened it and indeed, there was really a red colored seal of the army introduction letter inside.
Zhou Rong looked smugly at the young man while carefully putting the official letter back inside vest, he said: “You can't go anywhere. Choose, dying because of your own heroism act or accepting the organization's arrangement… What was your name again?”
After a moment of silence, the young man’s eyes fell to the ground, catching the sight of a spilled medicine box with “XX Sinan Chinese Herbal Pieces Co., Ltd. (Guangdong 2011x.x.xx)” written on it.
”…… Sinan,” The young man answered hoa.r.s.ely.
”Nan from South-North.[3]”