Chapter 11: Shit!

What was going on?

Were all the monsters dead?

Had the “zombie virus” inside them simply disappeared after one day?

Or… were they just “sleeping”?

The second possibility sent a chill down Song Ge’s spine.

She didn’t dare waste any more time. She quickened her pace, glancing repeatedly behind her to check for anything following. As she walked, she wondered: if the monsters really were dead, could she go back to the school and retrieve the phone Tong Xiangyu had lost in the classroom?

Then she could hand the precious, hard-to-please troublemaker back to her parents as soon as possible.

That way, she wouldn’t have to go looking for food or medicine. She could just wait in the basement.

Once the government sent rescue workers to clear away the corpses and disinfect everything, the city would soon be back to normal.

The rest of the world would never know how close the people of Kecheng had come to a terrifying catastrophe.

By then, Song Ge had reached the supermarket.

She hadn’t heard a sound, but she remembered what she’d glimpsed the day before and braced herself. She approached carefully and saw that the supermarket’s glass doors had been smashed. The floor was scattered with shards of glass and streaked with blood.

The store was utterly silent.

Song Ge went in with the javelin in her hand. Inside, shelves had been knocked askew. Blood was spattered everywhere. Human remains were scattered across the floor and left smeared on the walls. Song Ge’s face tightened. She didn’t look too closely. At the checkout, she grabbed two large bags.

She knew what she wanted. She had no idea what a delicate stomach like Miss Tong’s could handle, so she figured she might as well pick the expensive stuff. Avoiding the bloodstains, she gathered chocolate, wafer cookies, chicken feet, duck necks, beef jerky, bread, and potato chips.

She still needed medicine, so she didn’t waste much time in the supermarket.

If the streets were in this condition, she could come back later. With that in mind, she took the other bag to the feminine hygiene aisle. She didn’t care whether the pads had cotton or mesh tops. She just picked the expensive brands and grabbed both day and overnight pads. She also snatched a few packs of women’s underwear hanging nearby.

That done, Song Ge left the supermarket quickly and quietly.

The neighborhood pharmacy was across the road, about a hundred steps away. Several decomposing bodies lay in the middle of the street.

Song Ge tied off the bags and checked the easiest route forward and back. She hadn’t planned to take the groceries into the pharmacy. But just as she finished tying the knots, her ear twitched. She heard something strange.

She stood at once, gripping the long javelin and taking a defensive stance. Then she crept to the roadside and looked toward the sound.

When she realized what it was, goose bumps broke out all over her body. She sucked in a sharp breath.

The sky was brightening fast.

At the far end of the road, a wave of rescuers in firefighter uniforms was surging toward her.

They moved in a strange, unsteady way. They’d all turned into monsters.

Song Ge wasn’t the only one who had heard the commotion.

The street, empty and silent a moment earlier, suddenly erupted into noise. A shop not far from the supermarket let out a heavy Bang! Song Ge jumped, turned around, and saw several blood-soaked monsters with rolled-back eyes throwing themselves against the storefront window.

Damn it!

Song Ge cursed under her breath, grabbed both bags, and ran.

As she ran, she noticed that the bodies lying on the ground hadn’t come back to life.

But the monster virus hadn’t died, either!

Good thing she hadn’t gone back to the school.

Song Ge sprinted back to the narrow, crowded passageway.

But when luck turned against you, even a glass of water could choke you.

She’d barely started down the stairs when she came face-to-face with a bloated female monster lumbering up from below. Song Ge slammed on the brakes.

The monster’s eyes had rolled back, and her face had been torn apart by bites. She stood there with her mouth open, moaning. Even so, Song Ge recognized her. It was her landlady.

Damn! All that work on the hangers for nothing!

Then Song Ge had another thought. Did this mean she didn’t have to pay rent anymore?

The monster spotted a living person and let out a hoarse, eager wheeze. The next instant, she lunged toward Song Ge as if an invisible spring had launched her forward.

Song Ge had never fought a monster head-on, but she’d watched the boys in her class fight them closely.

The monsters were strong, mindless, and impossible to kill—they were already dead. Their only attacks were to lunge and bite. Their movements were mechanical and sluggish, and most importantly, they weren’t fast.

That was why she’d dared to come out.

The road nearby was straight, with a clear view. Even if she ran into a monster, she was confident she could outrun it.

But the creatures were highly infectious. The virus might even be on their fingernails.

Song Ge didn’t let the landlady get close. She gripped the sharpened javelin and drove it straight through her.

The monster didn’t die. She didn’t even seem to notice she’d been skewered. With her bloody mouth hanging open, she kept howling and charging.

The sight was horrifying.

Song Ge’s scalp prickled, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. But she couldn’t retreat. There was a much larger group of monsters behind her. She gauged the landlady’s speed. She had the higher ground and was strong enough to handle this. When the monster lunged, Song Ge clenched both hands around the javelin, gritted her teeth, and kicked her hard in the chest.

The heavy landlady slid off the javelin and toppled backward, then rolled down the steep steps.

The rolling didn’t stop there. It sounded like a bowling ball hitting pins, sending one monster after another tumbling down the stairs.

There must have been a whole crowd of them below.

Song Ge fought off another wave of goose bumps, didn’t waste a moment, and left the javelin outside. She took out her key, ran into the basement, and locked the door behind her.

She set both bags on the floor.

Then she washed her hands with soap. She realized she was drenched in sweat, so she took off her clothes and had a shower.

When she came out, Tong Xiangyu was still asleep.

Song Ge let out a quiet breath of relief. She picked up the scrap of paper she’d left beside Tong Xiangyu’s pillow, tossed it away, and went back to sit on the little stool.

Leaning against the wall, she thought, The rescue line in Kecheng must have fallen. If firefighters with bodies that strong couldn’t resist the monsters, then what would happen if the government sent in elite rescue teams? Would they be rescuing people, or just adding fuel to the fire?

How long the virus survived must have depended a lot on a person’s physical condition. Those in poor health might only be controlled by the virus for a while after infection. But in stronger people, the virus could survive for a very long time—or even never die. If the outbreak happened in different places at around the same time, then these rescuers must have turned at about the same time as the students at school.

Once again, the question came down to the basics.

Where had the virus come from?

The sound of a group of monsters wandering outside grew louder.

Song Ge stopped thinking and went to the window to adjust her view.

The infected firefighters trampled over bodies in the street, wandering around without purpose. Some went into shops with their doors hanging open and never came out.

If the monsters didn’t move on, it would be hard to get medicine.

Song Ge could handle monsters who’d been ordinary people and didn’t exercise, but firefighters were another matter. She probably couldn’t take them on.

She looked away from the window and toward Tong Xiangyu, still sleeping soundly on the bed.

She’d assumed a refined young lady would sleep in a perfectly proper pose. Instead, Tong Xiangyu was sprawled out on her side, clutching the quilt. One straight, pale leg was bent up beneath her short uniform skirt. Her pretty brows were furrowed, and her eyes moved beneath her lids. Her pale lips parted and closed as she murmured softly.

What was she saying?

Song Ge had just walked over to listen when Tong Xiangyu’s eyes flew open.

“Don’t!”