Chapter 8 - Co-ed Accommodation

The so-called apocalypse is not just happening in the places I’ve witnessed.

FZ-HOPE City, Airport. A Boeing 747 is preparing for takeoff on a zombie-infested runway, but there are only two people on the plane: the pilot and the co-pilot.

“Checks completed, the passenger inspection is finished. None of them qualify, whether they’re dead, injured, or feverish.”

“Your family is in the capital, right?”

“The phones aren’t working anymore.”

“Main control tower, this is 074, ready for takeoff. Sorry, I forgot there are no ‘people’ in the main tower anymore.”

“Yes, I forgot too.”

Time rewinds to when Ling Qimeng and I got off the school bus.

As soon as Ling Qimeng and I got off, Feng Hai began his “inspiring” speech: “Rather than acting aimlessly, we should first find a safe base and prepare to operate as a disciplined group.”

Feng Hai’s long-winded speech stirred up most of the students, except for Xueqi and her group, who were far less moved. After driving for a dozen kilometers, Ye Ling stopped the bus because Feng Hai insisted on discussing a strategy, and the road ahead was blocked by a pile-up of over ten wrecked cars.

Shen Wei nudged the sleeping Liu Yonglin, who was sitting next to her with his mouth open and drooling, with her elbow. Liu Yonglin wiped the drool from his mouth and groggily said to Shen Wei, “Good morning.”

Shen Wei sighed, “You can really sleep through this, can’t you?”

“It’s because Feng Hai talks too much, I fell asleep without realizing it.”

“Look outside, a plane just flew over. There are actually many ways to escape, like CCL Airport, and there’s also the port. Places like PL Island near FZ-HOPE City that are more isolated should be safer, and there are regular military forces there.”

“Should we go there too?”

“It’s already too late!”

“Huh?”

“Fear is the root of chaos. It’s impossible to keep this a secret in the entire FZ-HOPE City. My intuition tells me that there are definitely other places experiencing the same thing as FZ-HOPE City. Once order collapses, even the military can’t stop the zombies. The spread of zombies is just like an outbreak of an infectious disease.”

“Infectious disease? Like the flu?”

“They say the avian flu outbreak was a variant of the flu from the 1918 Spanish pandemic, which killed 50 million people.” Without a clear plan, the school bus remained parked by the roadside, and Ye Ling, having nothing to do, was leaning on the steering wheel. Hearing Shen Wei and Liu Yonglin’s conversation, she chimed in, “Maybe it’s more similar to the Black Death of the 14th century, when Europe’s population decreased by a third.”

“So how can we stop the virus from spreading?” Xueqi also asked.

“Generally speaking, it stops with people’s deaths because there are no more people to infect. But this time it’s completely different; the dead are still moving around and even attacking the living.”

“Does that mean there’s no way to stop the large-scale spread?”

“If the weather gets hot, the dead will rot quickly. They shouldn’t move if they’re just bones, right? Usually, in summer, it takes only about twenty days, but now it’s December. In winter, it takes several months.”

Shen Wei interrupted, “And we don’t even know what virus it is, so whether they will rot is still a question.”

“What do you mean by that, Shen Wei?”

Shen Wei continued, “Moving corpses can’t be explained by regular medical theories. If we hastily draw conclusions, we’ll only find ourselves in more trouble.”

“Have you considered the issue of your families?”

As soon as Xueqi spoke, the atmosphere grew tense. It wasn’t that they hadn’t thought about it, but rather that they were deliberately avoiding it.

“We need to ensure our families’ safety, but if we want to survive, we can’t act recklessly. We must form a team, though I don’t want to team up with that guy.” Shen Wei gestured with her mouth towards Feng Hai, who was still wrapped up in his own speech.

“We’ve only escaped from school for a few hours, and he’s already like that, completely unaware of himself.” “Changed so much in a few hours?” “See for yourself.”

Feng Hai was gesticulating wildly, “If that’s the case, then kick him out! Precisely because of this, you must not forget the honor of being a member of TP High School! Therefore, Zhang Tiankuang and Ling Qimeng, who rushed out of the bus earlier, are not suitable to be your companions! We must unite to survive! Let’s work together to overcome this crisis!”

Shen Wei glanced at Feng Hai and said, “This is troublesome now.” Xueqi nodded, “Indeed, what he’s doing is practically cult indoctrination.”

Ye Xiang shrugged, “It’s not just ‘practically,’ it is one. He wants to create his own cult. Look at those who listened to him, they’re all in awe.”

Xueqi looked out the window, frowning, and said, “Never mind that for now. The road ahead is like this, so if we’re going to find Tiankuang and Qimeng, we’ll have to abandon the bus. Besides, I have a promise with Tiankuang.”

Shen Wei gave a mischievous smile and said, “Xueqi, why aren’t you worried about your family and only focused on your promise with Tiankuang?”

Xueqi replied with a helpless smile, “Though I’m worried, I only have my father at home, and he’s at a dojo abroad. Plus, my father taught me to keep a promise, even if it costs your life.”

“A dojo?”

“My father teaches swordsmanship, and I practice it myself.”

“Kendo?”

“That’s the island nation’s style. I practice the authentic swordsmanship of our Tian Chao.”

“By the way, Ye Xiang, what about your family?”

“My father is a gem merchant on a buying trip in the Netherlands, and my mother is a fashion designer in Paris.”

At this moment, Ye Ling joined in, “So, does that mean we should all go look for Tiankuang and Qimeng together?”

“Can we?”

“Yeah, I don’t have parents, and my relatives are far away. It might not sound good, but honestly, I dislike Mr. Feng Hai too.”

“Hey, Wang Yi, what about you?”

“I-I’ll stay on the bus.”

“Tch, suit yourself.”

Feng Hai noticed Ye Ling and the others whispering among themselves. “What’s going on with you all? Now’s the time for everyone to work together…”

But before he could finish, Shen Wei interrupted him. “No need to be polite, Mr. Feng Hai. We have our own agenda. This isn’t some social exercise, and we have no obligation to stay with you.”

Feng Hai didn’t seem surprised. “Oh, is that so? If that’s your decision, then so be it. After all, this is a free society, but…”

“But what?”

“But Ms. Ye, you’re a bit of a problem. Losing a doctor now would be too great a loss. Can you stay? There are students here who need you. Come on, Ms. Ye, make your stance clear. In times of difficulty…”

“Whoosh-!”

Feng Hai was interrupted once more, but this time by a nail whizzing through the air, scraping his cheek and embedding itself in the chair behind him. Without a doubt, had the nail hit Feng Hai’s face, his life would be at risk, and it was evident Liu Yonglin was the one who fired the shot.

“Liu Yonglin!”

“It wasn’t that I just missed; it was that I purposefully didn’t hit.”

Everyone around was completely stunned by Liu Yonglin’s shot. No one expected him to suddenly fire and then claim he purposefully missed.

Feng Hai tried to use the same tactics he used at school to deal with Liu Yonglin, but Liu Yonglin wasn’t having it at all. “Damn it, do you know how many people I’ve taken down at school?! Ever since you taught me, you’ve treated me like an idiot! Back then, I endured it, I held it in! I just wanted a normal life, but now there’s no need to hold back! I’ll kill even the living.”

Seeing the devilish expression on Liu Yonglin’s face, Feng Hai couldn’t help but swallow nervously. “Hey, calm down.”

Liu Yonglin raised the nail gun toward the students behind him, who were disoriented by Feng Hai’s manipulation. “Shen Wei, you guys go first, I’ll cover the rear!”

“Liu Yonglin is quite the man,” Xueqi said with a smile, waving her wooden sword. “But, how about you all go first, and I’ll cover the rear. It’s been a long time since I got into action.”

“Bang!”

The bus door slammed shut as Xueqi got off, while Feng Hai stood at the window, dabbing at the blood trickling from his wound with a handkerchief, coldly watching Ye Ling and the others outside.

“Teacher.”

“It’s fine. This was all within my expectations. Now, no one will hinder us.” Behind the glint of Feng Hai’s glasses, his gaze was filled with fervor.

“How do we move forward? I’m not familiar with this area.”

“No worries, we’re already close to the police station. Once we cross the bridge ahead, we’ll be there. I specifically drove towards the Western District Police Station.”

“So Ms. Ye had this planned all along.”

“Not at all.”

“Let’s save the chatting for later. Look at that,” Ye Xiang pointed out the large bridge ahead.

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Everyone looked towards the bridge and gasped in unison: a section of the bridge had collapsed! Though not lengthy, it was enough to make it impassable for people.

“It must have been deliberately blown up by someone retreating.”

“How do you know?”

“The break is small, just enough to prevent passage, and don’t you smell a faint scent of gunpowder in the air?”

“So what do we do now?”

“Let’s follow the riverbank; maybe there’s another bridge we can cross.”

Tiankuang encountered a similar situation.

Ling Qimeng anxiously pointed to the bridge ahead, saying, “Tiankuang, I didn’t expect this bridge to be out too.”

“Let’s keep going and see. If that’s the case, maybe Xueqi and the others are also stuck on this side of the bridge. We might run into them if we follow the riverbank.”

“Wait, Tiankuang, look over there!”

“That’s Ms. Ye and the others!”

Even though it had only been a couple of hours since they last saw each other, it felt like decades. Ling Qimeng warmly hung onto Ye Ling’s neck, unwilling to let go.

“Let’s save the reunions for later. All the bridges upstream have been blown up. Without a way to cross the river, we can’t reach the Armed Forces Department.”

“Have you checked downstream?”

“There was construction downstream a while back; I’m not sure of the situation now.”

Ye Ling chimed in, “Uh, I think we should find a place to rest first today. In about an hour, it’ll be completely dark, and running into those things at night would be troublesome.”

“But where should we spend the night until morning?”

“There’s a temple nearby; how about going there?”

“We don’t have enough people; it would be hard to defend.”

“I know of a usable house nearby. It’s a quick walk from here.”

“Is it your boyfriend’s house, Ms. Ye?”

“Not at all. It’s a female friend’s house. She’s often away for work, so she gave me the key to help air out the place sometimes. There’s even a car there that’s like a tank!”

“Yeah, we’re exhausted today, and after being stuck at school for three days, we’re covered in the smell of blood. I want to find a place to take a shower.”

“Yeah, let’s go quickly.”

“Ye Xiang, why do you look so excited? You pervert!” Xueqi kicked Ye Xiang over.

“He’s up to his usual antics. Just ignore him,” I said with embarrassment. “I’ll take Ms. Ye on the motorcycle to check out the place first. You all follow along at your pace. Ms. Ye, sit behind me and hold on tight. I’m going to start the bike.”

In the evening, as I rode the dirt bike down Riverside Avenue, the crisp air made my mind feel particularly clear. Although it was deep winter, I was extremely hot. Why? Because the dirt bike was too short, and Ye Ling was tightly hugging me, her large chest pressed against my back, though she seemed unaware, humming a tune as the wind blew.

“Uh, Ms. Ye.”

“What?”

“Is it really necessary to hold on this tightly?”

“Hmm? What did you say? I can’t hear you-”

“…”

“Tiankuang, stop here; this is the place.”

I pulled over to the side of the road and looked in the direction Ye Ling pointed. To my surprise, the house she mentioned was a standalone villa by the river. Ye Ling jumped off the bike, took a key from her bag, and opened the gate. Once inside, I was even more astonished to see a brand-new Hummer, just released a few days ago, parked in the villa’s garage.

“See, it looks like a tank!” Ye Ling said with a grin, while I couldn’t help but marvel. Damn, rich people are just different. An orphan like me, with no parents, might work my entire life and never afford something like this.

“Wow, Ms. Ye, your friend is really wealthy.”

“She works with our SAT program.” “SAT?”

“Oh, I forgot, that’s confidential.”

Just as we were chatting, Xueqi and the others arrived, each expressing awe at the Hummer. Shen Wei looked around and commented with satisfaction, “This place is nice.” Ling Qimeng smiled as she observed the tall iron fence surrounding the villa and said, “Those zombies won’t be able to climb over the fence, so we can finally get a good night’s sleep.”

But just as she finished speaking, a sudden clatter of footsteps erupted around the villa, and the sound of breaking glass came from the neighboring villa. Looking up, it was quite a sight – at least a dozen figures leapt down from the upper floors, and outside the villa gates, a crowd of at least thirty zombies, presumably the local residents, gathered.

“Do we have any good weapons?”

“There’s a Type 54 pistol, with 17 bullets left.”

“What?! A pistol!”

“Liu Yonglin, don’t get too excited. I’ll let you see it in a bit.”

Shen Wei spoke up, “It’s better not to use that pistol.”

“Why?”

“First of all, you don’t have a silencer, and the noise from the pistol is too loud. It would attract all the zombies around, making it impossible to get any sleep tonight. Save it for an emergency.”

So, I reluctantly gave up on practicing with the gun and instead picked up the steel spike I was already quite skilled with. As I took down the nearest zombie at the iron fence, I asked, “Are you ready?”

“No problem!”

With my signal, everyone charged toward the zombies with various weapons. Ye Xiang and I led the way as we attacked with steel spikes, while Qimeng and Xueqi followed closely behind, dealing with any zombies that came near. Liu Yonglin was perched on the wall, using a nail gun to shoot distant zombies and occasionally taking out a few attempting sneak attacks.

In hindsight, this marked an amazing transformation. At that time, we weren’t just trying to escape; we were surviving for the sake of survival. Now, for the first time in this zombie-infested world, we were on the offensive! And there was no doubt about it.

In just half a day since escaping the school, we had become this way. We watched as night quietly descended.