Chapter 8: Scared

The rumor people brought up most often was that Song Ge’s parents were both dead and she was an orphan.

Had she really been living alone in a place like this?

A stuffy basement with half a window that let in light but couldn’t be opened. A tiny single bed. An old table holding a thermos and an upside-down bowl and chopsticks, along with a charging cable, pliers, tape, and other odds and ends.

Tong Xiangyu felt a tangle of emotions. She thought, Without parents, a girl of seventeen or eighteen had managed to support herself in a big city and even rent a basement like this. That couldn’t have been easy.

They both drank their water, and the room fell quiet.

Tong Xiangyu was good at getting along with people, but Song Ge didn’t count. Conversation was easier when the other person gave something back, and Song Ge clearly wasn’t the sort to indulge her.

Every time Tong Xiangyu spoke, Song Ge gave her a look that said, You’re such a pain.

Tong Xiangyu held her glass, wishing she could drink from it forever and never have to speak.

Song Ge had no idea what was going through her mind.

She went to the window. Even though it was only half a window, she could still see most of what was happening outside.

The basement walls did little to muffle the noise. Every so often, she heard cars crash or explode. People screamed and ran through the streets. Some were still trying to make phone calls when monsters pounced on them.

Song Ge assessed the situation. The outbreak had started at almost the same time in different places, which meant the “virus” had already spread before anyone knew about it.

It had infected a lot of people while they were still in the incubation period. No one had noticed.

Then it had erupted. The monsters were almost impossible to kill, and the infection spread rapidly. The situation was looking grim.

And no one had been prepared…

The most important thing now was to find the source of the virus.

If they could contain it, there might still be a chance to turn things around.

Song Ge thought calmly, The country will send help. It has to.

She turned from the window and saw Tong Xiangyu standing there, still holding her glass. Song Ge blinked. She’d been so deep in thought that she’d forgotten the pampered young lady was there.

“Sit wherever you like,” she said. “The stool or the bed. Don’t worry about it being dirty. Even if help is on the way, it won’t get here right away—unless you’re planning to stand there all day.”

Tong Xiangyu thought, This person really doesn’t know how to talk to people.

She was about to say the room wasn’t dirty when Song Ge looked away.

Song Ge picked up her phone and checked the trending topics.

Sure enough, four or five trending topics about Kecheng were near the top, each marked with a red “Breaking” tag.

One included a video claiming that large numbers of people infected with a rabies-like virus had suddenly appeared in Kecheng. They were biting people indiscriminately in the streets. The police couldn’t stop them; the monsters bit them, too. They looked completely insane. Even more alarming, bullets couldn’t kill them.

Many people in the comments said, Isn’t this just a zombie virus?!

That’s how it always happens in the movies!

Song Ge backed out and opened the second topic. Someone claiming to have inside information said that, half a month earlier, their hospital had admitted several patients with rabies-like symptoms to Kecheng Central Hospital for treatment and study. At first, the patients had only been irritable and aggressive. But before long, they’d become vacant-eyed and started biting things. Their teeth had gradually changed, too, growing into fangs.

Song Ge tried to view the post from the person who’d shared the information, but the account had already been deleted.

When she went back, the entire trending topic had vanished.

She refreshed the page. It was as if the several “Breaking” topics she’d just seen had been a hallucination. The trending list was full of discussions about TV dramas, celebrities, and idols.

Tong Xiangyu carefully gathered her uniform skirt and sat on the little stool. Seeing that Song Ge was busy, she finally dared to look around.

The room was small enough to take in at a glance.

Soon she noticed the boxes stacked in one corner: instant noodles, bottled water, compressed biscuits, dried meat, sausages, and more.

There was an extraordinary amount of food.

Song Ge lived alone. There was a supermarket less than a hundred yards away, so why had she stocked up on so much?

Just as Tong Xiangyu was wondering, she felt Song Ge look over. She quickly turned her eyes away and pretended to be lost in thought, making no effort to hide the fact that she’d been caught staring.

Song Ge didn’t call out her bad acting. She just asked, “Did you bring your phone?”

Tong Xiangyu snapped back to attention. “Yes.”

“Check the trending topics.”

“Okay.” Tong Xiangyu reached into her pocket, but came up empty. Her face went white. She jumped to her feet and turned both uniform pockets inside out. Then she looked at Song Ge in alarm.

“Did you drop it?” Song Ge asked.

Tong Xiangyu’s voice wavered. “How could I? I called my driver from the classroom!”

“If you dropped it, you dropped it.” Song Ge thought for a moment, then held out her phone. “Do you remember your family’s number? Try calling again.”

Tong Xiangyu said nothing.

Song Ge looked at her. “You don’t remember?”

Tong Xiangyu heard the mockery in her voice and felt embarrassed. She tried to explain softly, “You can open the map app and search for my dad’s company. The company’s front desk number is listed there.”

“I don’t have a map app.”

“Download one.”

“I don’t have data.”

“…”

Tong Xiangyu mumbled something under her breath.

Song Ge had good hearing, but still didn’t catch it. “What did you say?”

Tong Xiangyu gathered her courage and repeated herself. “You have data to check the trending topics…”

Song Ge nearly laughed. As if that was the same thing.

She put her phone away for the moment and sat on the bed. Looking at the young lady, whose pretty face had flushed red, she asked, “Weren’t you going to stay behind and save them?”

At the reminder, the color drained from Tong Xiangyu’s face.

Her stomach lurched. She backed up two steps and hit the wall.

Along with her panic came confusion. She’d seen something horrifying with her own eyes. She’d been through something terrifying. She should have been frightened and despairing. So why had she forgotten all about it whenever she talked to Song Ge?

Tong Xiangyu looked at her. “You… Why aren’t you scared at all?”

“Of course I’m scared.”

“…You don’t look it.”

Song Ge gave a derisive laugh. “Being scared doesn’t mean you have to show it. And showing it only makes you more scared. You’d be better off using that time to figure out a way out.”

Tong Xiangyu hesitated.

“Say what you want to say,” Song Ge told her.

“You… You ran away.”

“I did.” Song Ge sat on the bed, leaning back against the wall. She looked at the young lady—her Miss Tong, all sweetness and gold. “What, was I not allowed to?”

“But you could’ve saved them…”

“I already did.”

Tong Xiangyu couldn’t help arguing. “No, you didn’t!”

You ran off without a second thought!

“I made an escape route, then asked if you wanted to jump.”

Tong Xiangyu remembered.

She had heard Song Ge ask. But Chu Qiao had said Song Ge was crazy. Their classroom was on the third floor. They’d die if they jumped.

Song Ge looked at Tong Xiangyu’s pale face and red eyes, at the wounded, pitiful expression she wore. She remembered finding the young lady alone later, hiding behind a tree and trembling with fear. Something worse must have happened after that.

Song Ge didn’t say anything more. She just stood up. “Come over and sit here. I’m going to wash my hands.”