Chapter 18: Lucky!

If they failed tomorrow, the monsters would tear them apart. All their effort and endurance would come to nothing, and their lives would end. Even if rescue arrived, the rescuers might clear them out indiscriminately along with the monsters.

The thought kept Tong Xiangyu awake all night.

Song Ge heard her tossing and turning. “What’s wrong?”

Tong Xiangyu watched the slender candle on the table burn, its flame flickering softly. Melted wax slid down the side and pooled at the base. Then she said, “Song Ge, I’m a little scared.”

“What are you scared of?”

“Does it hurt when a monster bites you?”

Normally, Song Ge would have met a pointless question like that with silence. But tomorrow was different. She thought it over and answered matter-of-factly. “Probably not. From what I’ve seen, people change very quickly after they’re infected with the Monster Virus. They lose their minds and all sensation in an instant.”

Tong Xiangyu fell silent.

Song Ge waited a while. When Tong Xiangyu didn’t say anything else, she assumed the answer had put her at ease and was about to go to sleep. Then she heard the young miss ask in a small voice, “Song Ge, can I recite a passage for a while?”

“Go ahead.”

“The ninth month had come, in the third part of autumn. The floodwaters had receded, leaving the cold pools clear; evening mist gathered, and the dusk-veiled hills turned purple…” Tong Xiangyu closed her trembling eyes and softly recited a passage from the Preface to the Prince of Teng’s Pavilion. “We harnessed our horses and set out along the road, seeking the scenery among the high ridges. We came to the prince’s long island and the immortal’s old pavilion. Layer upon layer of green peaks rose into the clouds; vermilion galleries swept out above the abyss…”

Song Ge quickly fell asleep to the gentle, soothing sound of her voice.

She woke at around six.

The two candles on the table had burned down to little stubs, no bigger than her fingernail.

Song Ge looked at Tong Xiangyu, who was still fast asleep. She took a candle, used the last of its flame to light two more, and dripped wax onto the table to hold them in place. Then she opened the cabinet and pulled out a shoulder bag, checking everything they needed to take with them.

Four bottles of water, ten packets of ration biscuits and jerky, four pairs of underwear, two packs of day and overnight pads, two packs of tissues, a bag of masks, a bottle of disinfectant, a pair of pliers, the dead phone and its charger, and finally, two candles and a lighter.

They had to pack light. Anything more would slow her down.

Once they were outside, they’d have to adapt as they went.

But she needed to fill every spare inch of the bag with clothes so nothing would rattle as they ran.

Song Ge considered it, then added a few of the little drumsticks Tong Xiangyu liked to eat before packing the clothes around everything and zipping the bag shut.

She hoped they could get out of Kecheng safely. But judging by the state of the roads when they’d left school, the traffic nearby was bound to be awful. They needed an SUV. It could handle rough roads if they ran into them.

When Tong Xiangyu woke, Song Ge went over the rules for what to do once they got outside.

Afterward, Song Ge kept listening to the monsters and quietly calculating the time.

Sure enough, at around one in the afternoon, when the sun was at its fiercest, the monsters outside grew noticeably quieter.

Tong Xiangyu had finished stretching. Her features were delicate, her cheeks rosy. She’d twisted her usual cheerful ponytail into a neat bun and changed into Song Ge’s cheap black-and-white tracksuit. The pants had been too long, but Song Ge had cut off a few inches, and now they fit.

When Song Ge picked up the bag, Tong Xiangyu clenched her fists and took a deep breath, slowly letting it out.

“Watch my signals and follow my instructions,” Song Ge reminded her. The bag was already on her shoulder, and her voice sounded calm and steady. “Keep as quiet as you can. If we run into monsters, just run. If something goes wrong and you can’t handle it, pull down your mask and shout for me.”

Tong Xiangyu nodded hard. “Okay!”

Song Ge patted her shoulder. Tong Xiangyu felt completely tense. “Are you sure you warmed up properly? Don’t cramp up halfway through.”

Tong Xiangyu immediately rushed through the warm-up again.

While she was doing that, Song Ge went to the door and listened for anything on the stairs.

It was quiet.

Ever since Song Ge kicked the landlady and sent a whole string of monsters tumbling down the stairs like bowling balls, the stairwell had stayed silent.

Song Ge looked back and asked quietly, “Ready?”

Tong Xiangyu was breathing a little hard. She steadied her breathing, then nodded.

Song Ge put on her masks one after another—three in all—and pressed the metal strip above her nose until it fit snugly.

Tong Xiangyu followed her example.

Song Ge took two long strips of cloth she’d cut from a black T-shirt and handed one to Tong Xiangyu. Her voice sounded muffled behind the masks. “The sun will be brutal outside. We’ve been underground so long that our eyes will need time to adjust. Tie this over them first.”

Tong Xiangyu copied Song Ge and tied the cloth over her eyes. It was soft and sheer enough that she could still see clearly, though everything looked darker.

“Won’t this get in the way when we run?”

“Take it off once your eyes have adjusted.” Song Ge checked one last time. “What’s the first thing we do when we get outside?”

“Find a car that runs.”

“Right.”

Song Ge motioned for Tong Xiangyu to stay behind her, then cautiously opened the door.

With her masks on, she could hear every breath she took. Through the dark cloth, she scanned the stairs above and below. There were no monsters. She reached for the spear she’d left outside and raised her other hand, motioning Tong Xiangyu forward.

Tong Xiangyu followed at once, stepping as lightly as she could.

They crept up the stairs.

Soon, Tong Xiangyu could see outside.

The street signs had toppled, the plants were wrecked, and rotting corpses lay everywhere. Flies swarmed overhead. Huge rats and cockroaches covered the ground.

There wasn’t a single intact car in sight. Some had been crushed in pileups; others had skidded into the shops on either side of the road. Many had caught in explosions and burned until only their empty frames remained, along with charred bodies curled up inside.

Tong Xiangyu had never seen anything like it. Goosebumps rose all over her, and her heart pounded wildly. She was so frightened and nauseated that she hurriedly looked away. She couldn’t throw up now.

They needed a car.

There were a few parked farther off, but without the keys, they couldn’t use them.

Song Ge stayed behind a wall and watched carefully. Two monsters in suits, their necks broken and their heads lolling against their shoulders, wandered slowly in the shade outside the pharmacy. The shop window she’d seen from behind when she spotted the monster in the firefighter’s uniform had been smashed in. Glass glittered across the ground.

There didn’t seem to be any monsters inside the shop.

But at this time of day, they could be hiding in there to escape the heat, waiting for “food” to come to them.

Song Ge couldn’t see to the right. It was in her blind spot.

She signaled Tong Xiangyu to stay put, then carefully slipped out to check, keeping one eye on the two monsters in the distance.

Under the blazing sun, the air shimmered and warped.

The heat seemed strong enough to burn through their clothes and sear their skin.

Maybe it was because they’d been underground so long, but the temperature felt far higher than 105°F.

With several masks on in the blazing heat, Song Ge could barely breathe.

Huge drops of sweat ran down her neck. She didn’t wipe them away. Keeping watch on the two monsters and listening to her heart pound, she quickly and carefully surveyed the road to her right.

She looked far down the road and missed nothing.

Then, a hundred yards away, she spotted the vehicle she’d been hoping for in the middle of the road, beside the median.

An SUV!

Its front end had hit the strip of greenery. From this distance, it didn’t look badly damaged—and one of its doors seemed to be ajar.

A stroke of luck!

Song Ge’s eyes lit up, but she didn’t let herself get carried away. She steadied herself, removed the cloth from her eyes, and leaned out to check again.

She hadn’t been mistaken. It was a black SUV.

Song Ge hurried back to the foot of the stairs and quietly told Tong Xiangyu what she planned to do next.

Tong Xiangyu listened closely, alert and ready, nodding as Song Ge spoke.